BBC - The First World War (2003) Part 4 Jihad

Ten-part series based on the book by Hew Strachan, Professor of the History of War at Oxford which tells the story as never before, dispelling the myths and offering new and provocative answers to core questions about the war's causes, conduct and legacy. It features hundreds of eyewitness accounts from frontline soldiers, generals, statesmen, children and women from all sides in the conflict. The First World War shaped the twentieth century. It sparked the Russian Revolution and launched America as a world power. The fault-line from its failed peace settlement led to a second terrible world war barely twenty years later. We live with its unresolved consequences; in the Middle East, the Balkans and Ireland.

Part 4: Jihad

The Ottoman Empire, Germany's ally, summoned all Muslims to Jihad - holy war - to overthrow Allied power in the Middle East. Turkey's search for scapegoats after defeat by the Russians at Sarakamish led to the mass-deportation of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire. Perhaps 800,000 Armenians died in all. The Allies initially thought Turkey - the 'sick man of Europe' - would be a pushover, but Turkey tied up Allied troops across the Middle East for four years, winning triumphantly at Gallipoli with terrible losses on both sides, and then at Kut, south of Baghdad, forcing the British into humiliating surrender.

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