The First World War’s 1915 Gallipoli campaign marked the beginning of the end for the Ottoman Empire. The bold, but spectacularly unsuccessful assault on Constantinople by sea and land signaled the Allied goal; although in the months following the April 25 landing on the ‘Gelibolu’ Peninsula, this looked all but unachievable. The Allied forces infamously failed to advance on the city and Ottoman defense won the campaign. Britain, however, went on to win the war and came to occupy Constantinople in 1918 – the city’s first occupation since 1453. With the collapse of the last Ottoman government in 1922, the Empire, so long in decline, was at last over. As Australia commemorates the centenary of its role in the landing at ANZAC Cove, it is timely for us to remember what these events heralded and how current events continue to reshape the Middle East in preparation for “the way of the kings of the east” (Rev 16:12).
The foundations of the modern Middle East were laid in the aftermath of the First World War. This conflict set in motion the final acts of the long, slow drying up the “great river Euphrates” (Rev 16:12). While the well-known 1917 Balfour Declaration led to the eventual creation of the state of …
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