[a_Turk]

All I know is they found oil in Arabia in 1906, 8 years later Turkey was in a losing war, and 13 years later had lost all the sand land. Only then did Ataturk come into the picture, and it never was his intention to go back to the gulf.

Too smooth to be coincidental, but keeps lingering in my mind as a suspicion that we were suckered into joining the Germans. We had some real doozies, let me tell you. Thank God for Ataturk, or else we'd be a runt paying Greek taxes right now.

[ingeborg]

I think they were suckered in because most of the Turkish war machine of pre-1914 was Mausers, Krupp cannons, and other German-made stuff. Once you buy into the parts plan, it's hard to break free.

[George W. Bush]

Too smooth to be coincidental, but keeps lingering in my mind as a suspicion that we were suckered into joining the Germans.

Not really. Germany had aspirations to found a neocolonial empire but was a late starter compared to other European powers. Germany went to some considerable lengths to attempt to build railroads and other improvements throughout Arabia. They committed vast sums of money and made many diplomatic deals with other European powers to do this. World War I Germany was truly a friend to Turkey. There is some interesting economic history of this in Carrol Quigley's history text, Tragedy and Hope.

Let's be careful to distinguish WW I Germany from Nazi Germany. The two were very different creatures in their means and aspirations. And you need to understand that WW I Europe, outside of Germany, were all enemies of Turkey and worked to prevent anyone from helping Turkey to develop economically. WW I Germany was Turkey's only friend and benefactor, although not entirely disinterested of course. But Germany never made any real money off their assistance to Turkey.

If you're interested in the matter, I could perhaps type in some of Quigley's text. Quigley's focus on economic history is very valuable in understanding the era and the intrigues of the European colonial powers.