Liv Sanders came to Istanbul on 14 December 1913 as the head of the German Reform Committee, which was sent to Turkey at the request of Grand Vizier Mahmut Şevket Pasha, in order to improve the extremely bad situation of the Turkish army after the defeat of the Balkan War.
Liman Von Sanders 17 July 1855-22 August 1929: Otto Liman, born in 1855 in Stolp/Pomeranyan as the son of a large farm owner, joined the army after graduating from the Friedrich-Wilhelm High School in Berlin in 1874. He is assigned to the Essen guard unit. He studied at the Military Academy in 1878-1881. He serves in the light cavalry regiment, General Staff, and cavalry brigade. He became a colonel in 1904, a brigadier general in 1908, a major general in 1911, and was appointed to the 22nd Division Command in Kassel.
Otto Viktor Karl Liman von Sanders (17 February 1855 – 22 August 1929) was an Imperial German Army general who served as a military adviser to the Ottoman Army during the First World War. In 1918 he commanded an Ottoman army during the Sinai and Palestine Campaign. On the whole Sanders provided only limited help to the Ottoman forces.
On July 16, 1913, on the 25th anniversary of Wilhelm II's accession to the throne, he was elevated to the title of nobility, and out of devotion to his wife Amalie von Sanders, who died in 1906, he placed the nobility name von Sanders next to his middle-class name Liman.
Liman von Sanders; He is a soldier whose name is frequently mentioned in the Turkish history of the First World War, who worked under Atatürk both in Çanakkale and on the Sinai-Palestine front, who was made a Turkish Marshal while he was a German Major General, and who had a heavy cost to Turkey.
Liv Sanders came to Istanbul on 14 December 1913 as the head of the German Reform Committee, which was sent to Turkey at the request of Grand Vizier Mahmut Şevket Pasha, in order to improve the extremely bad situation of the Turkish army after the defeat of the Balkan War. According to the agreement, the head of the delegation would have broad powers, the delegation members would be promoted to a higher rank, and Liman Pasha would become a lieutenant general and the Commander of the 1st Corps, headquartered in Istanbul. However, Russia, England, and France object to this. They argue that ambassadors living in the capital of the empire will have to serve in a city dominated by a German and that this is unacceptable.
In order to get rid of the pressures, the Ottoman administration offers Liman Pasha the 2nd Corps Command in Edirne. Liman Pasha does not accept. As a way out, Germany raises his rank from German major general to lieutenant general, whereupon the Ottoman administration is forced to make him a Marshal. Liman Pasha, whose rank has now become too large to be a corps commander, begins his duty as Inspector General of the Ottoman Armies with his new rank.
He was appointed as the head of the 1st Army, headquartered in Istanbul, which was formed with the mobilization regulation announced after the outbreak of the First World War. After the naval battle and victory in the Dardanelles on March 18, 1915, when it was understood that the British and French would launch a land operation in Çanakkale, it was decided to establish the 5th Army in Çanakkale, with the wishes of Liman Pasha and other Germans, and Liman Pasha was appointed as its commander. Liman Pasha immediately said "Yes" to this command and did not accept the 3rd Army Command on the Caucasus front, which had been offered to him twice before. He came to Gallipoli with his new duty on 26 March 1915. The first thing he did was to change the defense style of the troops tasked with defending the Çanakkale coast. While an order had previously been taken to prevent landing, Army Commander Liman Pasha withdrew the troops on the shore and made an order that allowed the British-French forces to land.
The Çanakkale land wars, which started on April 25, 1915, lasted 8.5 months because of this order, and the Turkish soldier paid the price. In return, 500,000 British and French soldiers, who would provide relief to Germany on the Western European front, were withdrawn to the Gallipoli Peninsula and kept there. The only good thing Liman Pasha did for the Turks in the Gallipoli War was when he did not fulfill his order on 8 August 1915. He appointed Colonel Mustafa Kemal to replace the Anafartalar Group Commander whom he had dismissed for this reason.
With this new duty, Mustafa Kemal gained the fame he deserved, entered the hearts of the Turkish nation as "Anafartalar Hero Mustafa Kemal", "The Hero Who Saved the Capital", and became the national hero that the nation had been waiting for for years. This later provided salvation to the Turkish nation. However, Liman Pasha is also the reason why Atatürk left the Çanakkale front on December 10, 1915, while the war was still ongoing. On October 31, 1915, Deputy Commander-in-Chief Enver Pasha came to Anafartalar Group Headquarters. Liman Pasha asks Mustafa Kemal to tell Enver Pasha that it would be appropriate for the 2nd Turkish Army in Thrace to march to Thessaloniki. M Kemal does not say this because this move will only serve German interests. Liman Pasha begins to put pressure on M Kemal. There are tense days in November. He tries every way to get him away from Çanakkale. M Kemal, on the other hand, has to leave with a change of weather in order not to respond in other ways to the pressure and provocations of Liman Pasha.
On 27 February 1918, Liman Pasha was appointed Commander of the Yıldırım Army Group on the Sinai-Palestine front, replacing Falkanhayn Pasha. He has three armies under his command. Of these, Mustafa Kemal Pasha was appointed commander of the 7th Army in August 1918. While examining the reports in September 1918, Atatürk understood from the statement of a British prisoner that a major attack would be launched on the evening of September 19. He makes his army take the necessary precautions. He sends a copy of his order to Liman Pasha as information. However, Liman Pasha did not take Atatürk's conclusion from the reports seriously, welcomed it with a smile, and did not feel the need to warn the other two armies. The British army began a major attack on the evening of September 19, as Atatürk predicted. The army on Ataturk's right, caught unprepared, cannot defend itself, its front is split, and it is taken prisoner. British cavalry even raided von Sanders' headquarters in the background. The situation is very serious, three armies are in danger of extinction.
In a miserable situation, Atatürk tried to gather the withdrawing troops and create a new defense line. He orders all troops to retreat north to Aleppo, outside his authority, thus using Liman Pasha's authority. Afterward, he explains to Liman Pasha that the decision to be made in this situation can only consist of the order he gave. Liman Pasha said, “This is the decision; "But I am finally a foreigner, I cannot make this decision, only the owners of the country can make this," he says and continues to implement Atatürk's order, and the troops withdraw from Palestine to Aleppo. Thanks to this order; By gathering the scattered troops, it was ensured that the soldiers and weapons that could be used in the War of Independence were kept, as well as the British advance was stopped in the north of Aleppo.
The attitude Atatürk showed with this order is similar to his spontaneous attack against the enemy who landed at Arıburnu with the 19th Division in Çanakkale. With that action, he prevented defeat in Çanakkale and saved Istanbul. With this action, the last remaining forces in Syria were saved from extinction and Turkey's border with Syria was drawn with them. As an interesting coincidence, in both cases, the commander he was subordinate to was Liman Pasha. If Liman Pasha had taken Atatürk's warning seriously and given the necessary order to the other two armies, this great defeat would not have occurred, the region with five countries at a depth of 400 km would not have been abandoned in a month, and the transition to the Armistice of Mudros would not have been rapid and under harsh conditions.
On October 30, 1918, the Ottoman Empire signed the Armistice of Mudros. On the same day, Grand Vizier Izzet Pasha handed over the command to Liman Pasha to Mustafa Kemal Pasha and asked him to return to Istanbul. The handover takes place on October 31 and Liman Pasha moves to Istanbul. Since the German Government had given him the responsibility of returning all German officers and men to Turkey, he remained in Istanbul until the end of January 1919.
On January 29, 1919, he left Istanbul by ferry with a group of Germans. The ship stopped at Malta Island on February 3, and the British there detained him, saying that he was a prisoner of war. He stays on the island for 6.5 months, and in the meantime, he starts writing his memoirs. He was released on August 21, on the grounds that it was understood that he had no responsibility for the Armenian events, and returned to Germany. His memoirs were published under the name "5 Years in Turkey" in Germany in 1920 and in Turkey in 1921. He died in 1929.