The Arab Revolt which began in 1916 turned the tide against the Ottomans on the Middle Eastern front , where they initially seemed to have the upper hand during the first two years of the war . The Armistice of Mudros was signed on 30 October 1918 , and set the partition of the Ottoman Empire under the terms of the Treaty of Sèvres . This treaty , as designed in the conference of London , allowed the Sultan to retain his position and title . The occupation of Constantinople and İzmir led to the establishment of a Turkish national movement , which won the Turkish War of Independence ( 1919 – 23 ) under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal ( later given the surname " Atatürk " ) . The sultanate was abolished on 1 November 1922 , and the last sultan , Mehmed VI ( reigned 1918 – 22 ) , left the country on 17 November 1922 . The caliphate was abolished on 3 March 1924 . The Armenian Genocide was the deliberate decision of Ottoman officials to remove Armenians from Easter Turkey , in a way that killed upwards of a million or more fleeing civilians . In 1915 , as the Russian Caucasus Army continued to advance into its eastern provinces the Ottoman government started the deportation of its ethnic Armenian population . The genocide was implemented in two phases : the wholesale killing of the able-bodied male population through massacre and subjection of army conscripts to forced labour , followed by the deportation of women , children , the elderly , and the infirm on death marches to the Syrian desert . Driven forward by military escorts , the deportees were deprived of food and water and subjected to periodic robbery , rape , and massacre . The diplomatic dimension considered here was the diplomatic response of Allied powers . Ottoman officials denied any massacre , and their German allies helped cover for them . Allied governments tried diplomacy to stop the genocide but were ignored
Armenian Genocide
Armenian Genocide
Diplomatic history of World War I