Dominic Sandbrook

Yeah, I have.

Yes.

Next to the Turkish consulate.

It's very good.

Yeah, I actually really like Thessaloniki.

I think it's great.

I mean, a lot of it is very modern because of earthquakes and fires and things.

But yeah, it's a tremendous place.

Yeah, it's great.

Anyway, war breaks out in 1914.

And the Ottoman Empire at first, rather like Italy, doesn't get involved, but it is keen to shop around for the best offer.

And the young Turk leadership, in particular their war minister, who's called Enver, are basically putting out feelers to various parties saying, what can you offer us?

But it's always most likely that they will get into bed with the central powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary.

And the reason is that before the First World War, the Germans had worked really hard to win influence in the Ottoman Empire.

They'd put loads of money into a very controversial railway link, which was going to go all the way from Berlin to Baghdad.

And they had sent a Prussian general, who was called Otto Lehmann von Sanders, to modernize the Ottoman Empire along kind of German lines.

Well, interestingly, Enver does actually shop around a fair bit.

So they do offer a deal to the Russians and had the Russians taken it, who knows?

It's not absolutely decided in 1914, 15, the Ottomans will jump the way they do.

And in fact, there are a lot of people in Constantinople who don't want to get involved at all.