Armistice of Mudros

The Armistice of Moudros (Mondros Ateşkes Antlaşması), concluded on 30 October 1918, ended the hostilities in the Middle Eastern theatre between the Ottoman Empire and the Allies of World War I. It was signed by the Ottoman Minister of Marine Affairs Rauf Bey and the British Admiral Somerset Arthur Gough-Calthorpe, on board HMS Agamemnon in Moudros harbor on the Greek island of Lemnos.

As part of several conditions to the armistice, the Ottomans surrendered their remaining garrisons outside Anatolia, as well as granted the Allies the right to occupy forts controlling the Straits of the Dardanelles and the Bosporus; and the right to occupy "in case of disorder" any Ottoman territory in case of a threat to security. The Ottoman army was demobilized, and all ports, railways, and other strategic points were made available for use by the Allies. In the Caucasus, the Ottomans had to retreat to within the pre-war borders between the Ottoman and the Russian Empires.

The armistice was followed with occupation of Constantinople and subsequent partitioning of the Ottoman Empire. The Treaty of Sèvres (10 August 1920) followed the armistice, but this treaty was not enacted due to the outbreak of the Turkish War of Independence.

Literature

 * Laura M. Adkisson Great Britain and the Kemalist Movement for Turkish Independence, 1919-1923, Michigan 1958
 * Paul C. Helmreich From Paris to Sèvres. The Partition of the Ottoman Empire at the Peace Conference of 1919-1920, Ohio 1974, S. 3-5, der gesamte Vereinbarungstext befindet sich auf S. 341f.
 * Patrick Balfour Kinross Atatürk : a biography of Mustafa Kemal, father of modern Turkey, New York 1965
 * Sir Frederick B. Maurice The Armistices of 1918, London 1943
 * The text of the Armistice of Mudros, Türk Tarih Kurumu