February 25, 1915

Labour battalions (Ottoman Empire)

Ottoman General Staff issues Directive No. 8682 targeting Armenian servicemen

The measure carried a bloodless bureaucratic title — "Increased Security Precautions" — and a number: 8682.

Order No. 8682

On 25 February 1915 the Ottoman General Staff released İsmail Enver Pasha's Directive No. 8682, titled "Increased Security Precautions."

It called for ethnic Armenian soldiers and officers to be removed from command posts and headquarters staffs. The order was justified as a security measure against alleged Armenian disloyalty and possible defection to Russia.

The immediate military context was the Ottoman defeat at Sarıkamış, a campaign Enver had commanded and then publicly blamed on Armenian treachery.

A directive, not a completed transfer

The listing says that on this date the Ottoman Empire transferred Armenians from its armed forces to unarmed labour battalions. The document was issued on 25 February; the broad disarmament and physical transfer of servicemen unfolded from late February onward.

Scholarly summaries vary on the directive's exact reach. Some emphasise removal from command and headquarters positions, while broader exclusion from armed service characterised how it was implemented.

Ottoman labour battalions already existed before the directive, and some non-Muslim conscripts were already performing rear-area labour.

What disarmament meant for the men

Armenian servicemen were not simply discharged. Many remained under military control but without arms, doing exhausting logistics work — the same army that depended on labour battalions for roads, railways and moving ammunition imposed conditions that killed many of its own labourers.

The measure stripped the men of weapons and military protection, and deprived Armenian communities of potential defenders. By late March, sources record sporadic murders of Armenian labour-battalion conscripts.

Scholarship finds that Armenian soldiers' actual loyalty or conduct did not determine how the measure was applied.

Sources

Researched 24 Aug 2026 5 sources not yet audited

How this was checked

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What the sources leave uncertain

The date of Directive No. 8682 is well supported. The uncertainty is in the listed event’s scope: the document was issued on 25 February, while the broad disarmament and physical transfer of servicemen unfolded from late February onward.
Scholarly summaries vary in describing the directive’s exact reach—some emphasize removal from command and headquarters positions, while broader exclusion from armed service characterized its implementation.