[IMMUNE OR SOFT TARGET? THE BOMBING OF OTTOMAN HOSPITALS].

World War I was one of the worst wars in terms of human rights violations. The then valid Geneva and La Haye Conventions were ignored by most of the involved states, and serious war crimes were committed. The most serious human rights violations included the following: confiscating, bombing or impeding in their function the hospitals of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, as well as their hospital ships, healthcare workers, vehicles and supplies; mistreating prisoners of war; using prohibited weapons or poison gas; and directly or indirectly killing or violating the right to life of uninvolved civilians. Throughout the entire war, Red Cross and Red Crescent hospitals were bombed in an attempt to prevent the healthcare workers' activities, even though both the Geneva and La Haye Conventions had granted them "immunity" and accepted them as "neutral." The motivation behind these actions was to damage and destroy the enemy's logistic channels and to inflict psychological harm. The enemy wanted to create the worst possible shock and fear by bombing hospitals and clinics considered "soft targets"; by doing so, it attempted to break the other army's morale and break its determination to continue the war. These crimes-which today are openly accepted as war crimes-were greatly assisted by the facts that the conventions lacked any binding statutes concerning breaches and that their enforcement remained very limited. Although at the end of the war a commission was brought to life with the aim to punish was crimes, Germany was held responsible for the war, leading to war crime convictions being limited to this state only. No international court was established to adjudicate and punish war crimes in general. This article examines the correspondence between the Ottoman state and the Red Crescent concerning the Entente Powers' attacks on Ottoman hospitals during World War I and the ensuing human rights violations, in the light of records from the Prime Ministry's Ottoman Archives and Red Crescent Archive.

[ATTACKS ON OTTOMAN HOSPITAL SHIPS IN WORLD WAR I].

During World War I, hospital ships were used in order to efficiently treat wounded and sick soldiers and to transport them to hospitals on land. With the La Haye Conventions of 1899 and 1907, hospital ships were accepted as immune, and on an international level it was guaranteed that they could serve wounded and sick soldiers throughout the entire war. Although most of the involved states had signed the conventions before the war, after the battles began the -conventions were repeatedly violated and thus rendered ineffectual. Regardless of being painted in the colors specified by the convention and/or carrying the Red Cross or Red Crescent emblem and flag, many ships were bombed, confiscated or damaged with the intent to harass, or they were misused for military purposes that did n6t conform to their actual mission. This article discusses the Entente Powers' attacks on Ottoman hospital ships, examining the protests and warnings of the Ottoman state against them, as recorded in documents kept in the Prime Ministry's Ottoman Archives and the Turkish Red Crescent Archive. The relevant sources show that accusations concerning the attacks on or misuse of hospital ships were mutual. However, both sides generally either dismissed these accusations, or claimed that the incident could not be verified, or indirectly admitted to the attacks being made by mistake. The Ottoman state generally sent its correspondence about the Entente Powers' attacks on its hospital ships with the International Red Cross Committee and the neutral US embassy. The documents under study are particularly important for understanding the reasons behind the breaches to the convention, as well as for investigating the diplomatic language used in.this context. When examining from a human rights perspective the violations concerning the hospital ships and the terminology used in the protests and warning against these violations, these sources carry even greater significance.