On November 21, 1914, Ahmed Cemal Pasha departed Istanbul's Haydarpaşa railway station for Damascus. A few weeks prior to his departure—after the Ottoman Empire entered World War I on the side of Germany and Austria-Hungary on October 29—Enver Pasha, the minister of war, invited Cemal Pasha to his mansion. At this meeting, Enver Pasha requested that Cemal Pasha, who was then minister of the navy, take up the post of governor-general of the Greater Syrian provinces and assume command of the Fourth Army. Cemal Pasha enthusiastically accepted Enver Pasha's offer to, in his words, “prepare for and carry out an attack on the (Suez) Canal, and also to maintain security and internal order in (Greater) Syria.”1 He secured his existing ministerial post in addition to gaining full authority as the commander of the Fourth Army and governor of the Greater Syrian provinces. Before his train departed from Haydarpaşa, Cemal Pasha addressed the crowd who had gathered there to see him, describing his mission as the “divine but extraordinarily difficult” duty of “saving Egypt from British invaders.”2

1914 年 11 月 21 日，艾哈迈德·杰马尔帕夏离开伊斯坦布尔的海达尔帕夏火车站前往大马士革。 10 月 29 日，奥斯曼帝国站在德国和奥匈帝国一边加入第一次世界大战，在他出发前几周，战争部长恩维尔帕夏邀请杰马尔帕夏到他的官邸。在这次会议上，恩维尔帕夏请求时任海军部长的杰马尔帕夏出任大叙利亚省份总督，并指挥第四集团军。杰马尔帕夏热情地接受了恩维尔帕夏的提议，用他的话说，“准备并实施对（苏伊士）运河的攻击，并维护（大）叙利亚的安全和内部秩序。” 1除了获得第四集团军司令和大叙利亚省长的全部权力外，他还保住了现有的部长职位。在他的火车从海达尔帕夏出发之前，杰马尔帕夏向聚集在那里看他的人群发表讲话，将他的使命描述为“从英国侵略者手中拯救埃及”的“神圣但异常艰巨”的职责。2