Ottoman BMUN LXVII

Hey delegates! Conference is in less than a week and I hope you all are as excited as I am about it! I wanted to take these final days to talk about the three Pashas, as they were extremely important figures in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. The Three Pashas, known as the “the triumvirate,” was composed of Mehmed Talaat Pasha (the Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire and Minister of the Interior), Ismail Enver Pasha (the Minister of War), and Ahmed Djemal Pasha (the Minister of the Navy). Together, these three men ruled the Ottoman Empire from a few years before World War I up until the beginning of committee.   Talaat Pasha was born in 1874 as the son of a minor Ottoman official. At the age of 19, Talaat was arrested and sentenced to two years in prison for “subversive political activity.” Afterward, he worked with the post and telegraph service in the empire as chief secretary. Nonetheless, it did not take him long to be dismissed due to his heavy involvement with th

Hey delegates, BMUN is almost upon us and we hope everyone is as excited as we are! Crisis committees, especially Historical Crisis, can be very intimidating and overwhelming so we wanted to give you some tips on navigating committee and making the most of the time you will spend at BMUN this weekend. 1. First thing is to know your role. Knowing your character, your relationships, your beliefs, and your history can only aid you in committee. Furthermore, this knowledge will allow you to maximize your portfolio powers when needed and help you in making decisions that are logical for your given character. 2. During conference, keep in mind the quality of the directives you make. Well thought-out directives are likely to be more effective in getting you what you want and will help keep the return time on directives relatively quick. Sending in lots of directives will not make you look good. Sending in high quality directives will. 3. Cooperation: Cooperation in this commit

Hey delegates, We released the graded position papers with feedback on Huxley last night. Make sure to look through and work on our comments and feel free to email us if you have any questions/trouble accessing your graded paper! On the whole, we were impressed with the quality and depth of preparation everyone seems to be putting in for BMUN and we can't wait to see how it all unfolds this weekend! Having said that, we did notice some common misconceptions while grading your papers and I'd like to clarify them in this blog post: 1. Many of you extensively referenced events that occurred after the beginning of committee (31st October, 1918). While this is useful in terms of understanding the factors behind these events and can definitely be used to guide your actions during the crises you will face in committee, we wanted to clarify that every event in real life after 31st October, 1918 may or may not occur in committee. If you would like an event that occurre

We want to take this blog post to discuss Zionism in the Ottoman Empire. Zionism, within its historical context, generally refers to people who support the creation of a Jewish state of what is now known as Israel. The term in the modern era has become affiliated with being for or against Jewish individuals; however, from a historical and practical aspect, we will only be discussing the debate surrounding the creation of a Jewish state. We want delegates to have an understanding of how critical this issue was, why it was a critical issue, and how it might manifest in the committee. Delegates should first consider that the Ottoman Empire encompassed most of the area with which is now Israel and Palestine, so when actions such as the Balfour Declaration are discussed, understand that this means the British wanted to take land away from the Ottoman Empire and redistribute it to the Jewish population. Further, delegates should have an understanding of the demographics within t