The call for Holy Jihad in German Military Strategy during World War I " A Historical Study on the Means of the German Penetration in the Ottoman Empire "

The Ottoman Empire before 1871 was of little importance in the German perspective except as a market for the disposal of German products and the operation of German capital. For this reason, the modest efforts made by Russia in the field of promoting its interests in the Ottoman Empire were simple and consistent with the foreign orientations of the Chancellor Bismarck. In 1871, the Ottoman Empire and the Eastern Question took an important place in German military and economic strategy. The eastern issue was no longer included within the German understanding of the East and the Ottoman state, but rather the concept entered as a basic component of German national security, especially in terms of economic and military terms. With the arrival of William II to power, the Ottoman Empire became an important vital area for German foreign policy, and in order not to provoke the Ottoman Sultan from the intentions of the German infiltration in his country, he adopted an approach contrary to his predecessors from other European countries based on violence and the deduction of parts from the properties of the Ottoman Empire. As he decided to rely on the principle of peaceful penetration of major economic projects that aim to control the vital joints of this country, especially the railways, the financial and military sector, and this new approach may require a different type of foreign policy based on rapprochement, prayer of friendship, and the pursuit of building a future ally in light of intense competition from France, Britain and Russia. As for the tool used to implement this policy, it was: Islam and Muslim friendship. Which formed the other face of the First World War and which took a doctrinal character represented in the conflict between Islam and Christianity and between infidels and Muslims, the beginning of this aspect clearly appears after the Ottoman Empire joined the First World War alongside the middle countries led by Germany in November 1914 and the Ottoman Sultan declared jihad The holy war against the Christian concord states.