Rare photos mark 100th anniversary of WWI

ANKARA - Anadolu Agency

The historical photos, released by the Turkish Historical Society, show rare footages from the World War I.

The Turkish Historical Society has released historical photographs from World War I to mark the 100th anniversary of the war, which show Ottoman troops fighting in seven different battlefields including Gallipoli, Iraq and Yemen.    

The photographs show places from the Sinai Desert in Egypt to Gallipoli and from Galicia to Jerusalem. Figures from Turkish history seen in the images include Enver Paşa, an Ottoman military officer seen inspecting Ottoman troops, Refet Bele (Paşa) an officer of the Ottoman Army and then the Turkish army, Ali Fuat Cebesoy, another Turkish officer and politician, and Corporal Seyit, a gunner in the Ottoman Army.  

İbrahim Ethem Atnur, a member of the Science Board at the Turkish Historical Society, said that the world is still experiencing the effects of the Great War, which was the reason for the ongoing troubles and pain in the Middle East.

Imperial struggle

Taha Niyazi Karaca, a professor from Turkey’s Bozok University, said that imperial struggle was the main reason for World War I. 

“About 30 new states were formed as a result of the war,” said Karaca, adding it that also resulted in an increase in nationalism around the world.

The assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his pregnant wife Sophie by Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip on June 28, 1914, was the main catalyst for the global conflict.
As a result, tens of millions of people died during the war which ended on Nov. 11, 1918.