"تاريخ الحرب الكبرى استنادًا إلى وثائق رسمية. الحملة في بلاد الرافدين ١٩١٤-١٩١٨. المجلد IV". [ظ‎‎١‎٥‎٤] (٥٤٠/٣١٣)

254 HISTORY OF THE WAR : MESOPOTAMIA
I
replace Sir Charles Marling as British Minister at Tehran on
the latter’s departure to Europe on sick leave :*
“ The complete destruction of the whole Turkish army
in Palestine leaves Syria open to invasion. Every anti-
Turkish element in the country will support the advancing
British. The communications of the Turkish force in
Mesopotamia are thus seriously threatened and in all
probability it will be forced to abandon Mesopotamia
altogether. Arabia is completely lost to them and the
fall of Medina is now imminent. Turkey, in addition to
being faced with the loss of three-quarters of her Asiatic
territory, is gravely threatened in Europe by the Allied
advance in the Balkans, which, since 15th September,
has continued uninterruptedly. The Bulgarian army is
in a critical situation and a slight further advance by the
Allies will sever it in two. To meet all these dangers on
so many fronts the Turks have only one army left, which
is now in the Caucasus and Persia. General Allenby’s
victory has already compelled them to transfer to Con
stantinople a division which was destined for Tabriz ; and
the situation in the Balkans and Palestine will completely
paralyse Turkish operations in the Middle East, and in all
probability will lead very soon to the evacuation of Persia.
Thus the whole situation has been transformed in the last
few days and the Turks must now think only of protecting
their own territory and not of further aggression.”
On the 27th September, Bulgaria asked for an armistice;
and it was reported that the Germans intended to withdraw
their troops from the Caucasus and that the Turkish Govern
ment wished to do the same. As it turned out, however,
both German and Turkish troops remained there for some weeks
longer ; though danger of a further Turkish advance into Persia
became almost negligible. Colonel von der Goltz saysf that
he was sent to represent German interests at Baku and set out
for that place by railway from Tiflis with a large escort on the
2nd October. His party was stopped by armed Tartars
before he reached Elizabetopol, but Nuri Pasha invited him
four days later to Baku, where he soon afterwards arrived, and
* Sir Percy Cox would have preferred to remain at his post in Mesopotamia
till the end of the war, and only responded to the call to Tehran at the express
wish of the Viceroy of India and of General Marshall, who felt that his intimate
knowledge of the personnel and problems of the Mesopotamia Force would
make his presence in H.M. Legation helpful to them at that juncture,
t “ Meine Entsendung nach Baku.”