"تاريخ الحرب الكبرى استنادًا إلى وثائق رسمية. الحملة في بلاد الرافدين ١٩١٤-١٩١٨. مجلد I" [ظ‎‎٢‎٢] (٤٥٤/٤٩)

24
HISTORY OF THE WAR : MESOPOTAMIA
British refusal to participate or not, was fortunate for us,
as the two serious gaps in the line between Haidar Pasha and
Baghdad were a grave hindrance to Turkish plans throughout
the operations. The gap in the Taurus-Amanus section
meant five days’ journey by motor lorry ; the distance by
road from Ras al Ain to Mosul was about 200 miles ; and
from Mosul to Samarra about 165 miles by road or 190 miles
by river : the latter route, which was the one generally used
by Turkish reinforcements, took anything from two to ten
days, according to the state of the river, wind, etc., for the
journey was carried out on rafts {keleks) which could each
transport about one hundred men.
The relations of the Turks in Mesopotamia with their neigh
bours were generally discordant and have to be borne in mind
as affecting more or less directly the general situation there.
In consequence of a series of frontier incidents and other
disputes, relations between Turkey and Persia became so
strained in 1842 that war appeared imminent. The frontier
itself presented an extraordinarily difficult problem as it
passed through unmapped territories frequented by nomadic
and semi-independent- tribes, where tradition, racial and
religious prejudices, the conflicts and ambitions of rival chiefs
and their shifty allegiance all combined to delay and obstruct
any attempts at settlement; protection for Persian pilgrims
to the Shiah shrines in Mesopotamia w T as hard to ensure, and
there were serious difficulties over the civil and judicial rights
of Persians residing in Turkish territory ; and there were
urgent counter-claims by both nations for the possession of
Mohammerah. Under British and Russian mediation a
settlement was apparently arrived at in the Treaty of Erzerum
signed in 1847 ; but, when attempts were made to carry out
in practice the settlement arrived at, no agreement was found
possible. Negotiations were delayed and in 1876 delegates
of the four powers again met in Constantinople, but with no
more satisfactory results. After that, matters remained
relatively quiescent till 1905, when Turkish aggression in the
Urmia region revived the question in an acute form and
occasioned fresh disputes, which were not settled finally till
1913. Theoretically, therefore, when war broke out there
seemed no reason why Persia should be likely to have any
great sympathy with Turkey. It rapidly became apparent,
however, that the Persians’ hatred of Russia was such as to
ead them to regard the latter’s adversaries with considerable
avour and the public attitude was definitely pro-German, if