POSITION IN ASIA MINOR.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 8, Issue 123, 25 May 1916, Page 5

POSITION IN ASIA MINOR.

TURKS DISCONCERTED OVER RECENT EVENTS. AUSTRIANS AND GERMANS EN ROUTE TO BAGDAD. LONDON, May 23. The “Times” correspondent at Bucharest saws the Turks are hurrying all possible reinforcements into the interior of Asia Minor, leaving only 150,000 to defend Constantinople, Gallipoli, and the Asia Minor coast from Aivali to Eregfi, on the Black Sea. German officers are emphasising the danger of leaving the European front practically undefended. Twelve thousand Austrians have gone to Bagdad, and four thousand Germans are going. The Turks are heavily concentrating at the north-west front where the Bagdad line crosses the Euphrates, fearing the Allies will attack from Alexandretta.

The Daily Mail’s Athens correspondent give s the number and disposition of the Turkish forces as follows: Van Sanders’ command, Dardanelles to Adalia, 180,000, including 50,000 at the Dardanelles. Von Trommer, in Thrace, with 55,000 troops.

In Constantinople there are 35,000 including many Austrians.

Djemal Pasha, in Syria, has 70,000, while in the Caucasus there are 400,000 and in Mesopotamia 120,000. Total, 860,000. There are probably many ineffectives.

RUSSIANS PUSHING ON. PETROGRAD. May 24. (We occupied Serdisht, in the direction of Mosul, on the Persian side of the frontier.