ABSTRACT

The Ottoman Empire entered the First World War upon the bombardment of Russian ports by Goeben and Breslau, the ships under the command of German Admiral Souchon. The Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria, which were still fighting against each other shortly before the war, were involved in the same block and the armies of these states battled together on the fronts of Galicia, Romania and Macedonia.

Deputy Supreme Commander of the Ottoman Empire, Enver Pasha, made a trip to the Balkans in order to observe the situation of the Turkish armies located in these fronts. Bulgarian military and intelligence units followed closely the trip covering the dates of 10-23 December 1916 and aimed to learn the purpose of Enver Pasha. Therefore, Bulgarian military attaches serving at the Embassy of Bulgaria in Istanbul participated in the delegation and later wrote a detailed report about the subject. Bulgarian deputy commander of military inspection zone in Skopje prepared a second report about the places Enver Pasha visited and people he met during his trip to Dobruja, Romania, Bulgaria and Macedonia. Both reports pointed out that Enver Pasha had military and political aims. According to these reports, Enver Pasha tried to determine Turkish armies’ ability to fight, success and necessities militarily as well as their relations with the armies of other countries. As a political aim, he wanted to prove that the Ottoman Empire sided with the Muslim Turks and Albanians living in Macedonia, Albania and Bulgaria and he took care of their material and moral needs and gave moral support to them.