The Armistice of Mudros ends Ottoman participation in the war
A wartime foreign minister who avoided the Armenian deportations signs the surrender aboard a British battleship at Lemnos.
Quick facts
- Signed
- 30 October 1918, aboard HMS Agamemnon
- Location
- Port of Mudros, island of Lemnos
- Ottoman signatory
- Rauf Bey, Minister of Marine Affairs
- British signatory
- Admiral Somerset Gough-Calthorpe
What happened
As the Central Powers collapsed on multiple fronts in autumn 1918, the Ottoman government sued for peace. On 30 October 1918, Ottoman Minister of Marine Affairs Rauf Bey signed the Armistice of Mudros with British Admiral Somerset Gough-Calthorpe aboard HMS Agamemnon, anchored off the Aegean island of Lemnos. The armistice ended Ottoman military participation in the war and opened the empire's remaining territory, including Constantinople itself, to Allied occupation. Rauf Bey had been chosen partly because he had not been involved in the deportation and mass killing of the empire's Armenian population and maintained relations with figures across the political spectrum, making him an acceptable Ottoman signatory to the Allies.
Why it matters
The armistice effectively ended the Ottoman Empire's independent existence even before any peace treaty was signed, since Allied occupation of Constantinople and other Ottoman territory began immediately afterward under its terms. It set up the far harsher Treaty of Sevres two years later and the resistance movement that treaty provoked in Anatolia.
How we know
The International Encyclopedia of the First World War documents the signing location, the Allied delegation, and the specific reasoning behind the choice of Rauf Bey as the Ottoman signatory, drawing on the postwar historical record of the negotiations.
Sources
- International Encyclopedia of the First World War (1914-1918-online), Freie Universitat Berlin. Mudros, Armistice of · General sourceencyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net · Cited as a "reference" source (no stronger domain match). · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
- SUNY, Lumen Learning World History. Ataturk and Turkish Independence · General sourcecourses.lumenlearning.com · Cited as a "reference" source (no stronger domain match). · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
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