Abdul Hadi Pasha said:
That's not true. The battle of Megiddo accounted for an insignificant portion of Ottoman fighting strength and resulted in the loss of territory that was not considered vital or even very important. What followed was actually Mustafa Kemal's most brilliant campaign, a fighting retreat into Anatolia to preserve as much of the Turkish part of the Syrian army as possible to defend Anatolia.
It was the Bulgarian collapse due to the Salonika front that prompted the Ottomans to seek an armistice - they were not afraid of a British invasion of Anatolia from Syria - they expected to win. But the collapse of Bulgaria left Istanbul indefensible, as there were no strategic reserves availalble to mount a defense.
As far as Galicia and Rumania are concerned, the Ottomans sent three divisions to join Mackensen's invading army (Rumania), and two divisions to shore up the Austro-Hungarians after the Brusilov offensive - Falkenhayn called them "unusually useful". In addition, two divisions were sent to the CP lines at Salonika.
Some of this I can agree with, especially in regards to Ottoman troop deployments to Galicia, Rumania & the Salonika front, but I can't at all go along with what you've said about the Megiddo campaign. Megiddo is the final battle in a series of defeats for the Ottomans which had pushed them back from, at one point, threatening the Suez Canal. Megiddo, however, was the last straw. And with the Allied breakthrough, the Turkish army group, including the Austro-German "Asia Corps", disintegrated in the process.
Now the Ottoman Order of Battle is as following:
Fourth Army
3rd Cav Division,
II Corps,
VIII Corps.
Seventh Army
III Corps
XX Corps
Eighth Army
46 Div
XXII Corps
Asia Korps
16th Div
19th Div
Now, although on paper this looks impressive, by the time of Megiddo on 19 September, this "army group" had be reduced, like everyone's armies had by 1918, to about 40 000 troops. But that doesn't mean the Allies had a huge superiority in numbers. Furthermore, it doesn't, by the standards of the region, make it a minor engagement.
But the important aspect to Megiddo is, whilst leaving earlier campaigns aside, the Allies were able to smash their way through the Ottoman defences in less than a day. The defence then turned into a rout which never stopped. Only the Asia Korps slowed the Allied advance & that wasn't for long. In fact by 21 September Seventh Army more or less ceased to exist (more about that later).
More interesting is how fast various locations were taken indicating the rout for what it was. Damascus was taken on 1 October. Beirut was taken a week later. Tripoli was taken on 13 October. But the Allied advance didn't stop there. On 26 October, the Allies had advanced as far north as Aleppo. The only thing the Ottoman's could do was Mustafa Kemal's refusal to surrender. Five days later, with the situtation completely hopeless, an armistice was, however, granted to the Ottoman's on 30/31 October.
Now, in 1 period of about 5 weeks, the Allies were able to destroy an entire army group, take thousands of prisoners & push the Ottoman's back a distance of some 290 miles, & there was nothing to stop the Allies continuing on into Turkey. Now you mention Mustafa great defence. I don't know how he could offer a "brilliant" defence, as you claim, when his command (Seventh Army) was more or less destroyed two days after the battle began.
Yet as for the reason why the Ottoman's surrendered is, I admit, varied & indeed the defeat of Bulgaria was of deep concern. But if the annihilation of their armed forces in Palistine & Syria isn't a good reason to surrender, with no chance of stopping an Allied invasion of Turkey from Syria, well we must just have to agree to disagree.
