Description
Book SynopsisThe end of the Great War in the Near East began with the Turkish Armistice but was not complete until the final peace treaty in 1923. During that five-year period the British Navy dealt with the overspill from the Russian Revolution in the Caucasus, the Caspian Sea and Central Asia as well, and then in the Aegean Sea and the Straits confronting the resurgent Turkish forces under Mustafa Kemal. The British in India were very concerned about Bolshevik activities in Central Asia and had sent two battalions of Indian troops under a British general to attempt to cope with it. They were successful in battle against larger forces, but politically they were unable to reach any sort of settlement. They were withdrawn when an Afghan war broke out. A second expedition was sent early in 1918 from Iraq through Persia to gain control of the oil fields at Baku in Azerbaijan. The object here was to prevent the oil falling into German or Turkish hands. This was an expedition at the limit of militar
