Abstract:
Algeria, the largest country in Africa, is the gateway to Central Africa by its 1200 km coast in the Mediterranean Sea. Due to its geographical location, Maghreb Region has played an important role in the commercial and political domination of the Ottoman Empire in the Mediterranean in the past. On the other hand, Algeria was of great importance in the success of Ottoman politics in the Western Mediterranean and North Africa. Despite the loss of Maghreb in the 19th-20th centuries, Algeria, Tunisia and Tripoli played an important role in the Mediterranean and jihad policies of the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman proclamation of the Great Jihad (Cihad-ı Ekber) in World War I in 1914 sets an example of the relation between religion and politics. The Ottoman leaders and its allied Germany act in union in the aim of proclaiming this jihad to all Muslim living outside Anatolia. During the war in Europe and the entry of the Ottoman Empire into the war, the Ottoman press adopted an Islamic rhetoric and explained to public the necessity of jihad to save the Islam and Muslims around the World. Therefore, the Ottoman press was used in order to prepare the psychology of the masses for the war bypublications. The one of these publications, the “Donanma Mecmuası (Navy Journal)” was issued by the Navy Association in 1910-1919. In this journal, there were articles about the maritime, naval and foreign policy of the Ottoman Empire, whose authors were navy officers, bureaucrats and intellectuals. In this study, an attempt has been made to explain examples of the Donanma Mecmuası reflecting the view of the Ottoman Navy towards the Maghreb politics at the beginning of the 20thcentury.
