The British preparations for involvement in the Balkan war began with the invasion of Libya by Italy the possibility that Ottoman forces could relive Libya through Egypt led to the United Kingdom ordering forces to the Suez Canal. Most of the forces arrived after the treaty of Cairo was signed but were ordered to stay in case the war or refuges spilled over into British territory. As the war raged in the Balkans and the last of the Ottoman navy was hunted down in the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean the British looked on with a calculating view of the possible gains and the destruction of the balance of power.

-Extract from Dan Snows book The Lion strikes: Britain in the Balkan war

As the forces of the Balkan league swept through the Balkan territory of the Ottoman Empire the many people of the Ottoman Empire began to agitate and radicals within the minorities began to look for allies in their hope for freedom. The Arabs were led by Hussein ibn Ali al-Hashimi of the House of Hashemite whose son had been serving in the Ottoman parliament before being executed for holding Arab nationalist views. The death of his son racialized his father and he began to look for allies in his new aim to free his people from the oppression of the Ottomans. He would find luck with the British, French and Germans agreeing to support him in his quest for independence in return for several economic concessions and leasing of strategic ports to the European powers for ninety-nine years.

The actions of the Kurdish and Assyrian peoples in the early months of the Balkan war while not as notable as the Arabs were militaristic in a hope for an independent state for their people. The leader of the Kurdish nationalist groups Qadir Barzanji began to gather militias and nationalist Kurdish armed forces together to prepare for the upcoming revolution against their Ottoman oppressors. The Assyrians were not as aggressive as either the Arabs or the Kurds were still militaristic in a hope for an independent nation, they formed several alliances contacting Armenian, Kurdish and Arab nationalists with a general goal to revolt against the Ottoman Empire as one weakening their response to the Arab revolts further south and the already tenuous Balkan front. Little did these planners know that their goal would bring an end to an ancient empire once and for all.

-Extract from Arab documentary the Nationalist combatants of the War of liberation

The largest battle of the Ottoman forces against the Greeks in both Thessaly and Epirus was the siege of Thessaloniki. The entire bloody affair came about when the last of the Ottoman navy and civilian ships managed to evacuate the Ottoman garrisons of the few Aegean islands still under their control to Thessaloniki. At the time they had set out Thessaloniki was reasonably far from the front and there was a hope that they could hold the Greeks off and perhaps establish a defensive line. When the fleet reached Thessaloniki, they found that it had become little more then a desperate army camp as the forces that had been routed by the Balkan league to the West and North had fled to the city in an attempt to hold them off.

The defenders dug in for two days before the Royal Hellenic Navy secured the Greek blockade of the remaining Ottoman territory in the Aegean region and the Hellenic Army drew close. The defenders prepared for battle not only against the Greeks but against the people of the city as the overwhelmingly Greek population was proving heavily uncooperative to the defensive arrangements. The battle began with the Ottoman Navy attempting a breakout with a hope to possibly relive the Bosporus passage from the ravages of both the Bulgarians and the Royal Hellenic Navy on the vital shipping that connected both parts of the divided Empire. The Hellenic Army reached Thessaloniki on the 10th of May and the siege of Thessaloniki began, the city fell after three days. The Ottomans had been running low on supplies and the population were acting out against their oppressors. The fall of Thessaloniki represented the fall of Thessaly to Greece and the beginning of the Thrace line as a concept beyond merely the frontline against the Bulgarians.

-Extract from Harrold Turtledove's book the return of Alexander: Greece in the Balkan War

The Bosporus strait was the true lynchpin of the Ottoman Empire and the First Byzantine Empire that preceded it as it connected the European half of their empires with Anatolia and the Fertile Crescent. The Royal Hellenic Navy and the few ships that flew the Bulgarian flag preyed upon the vital shipping within the strait, within three weeks of the war beginning the only captains that sailed the route where either insane or suicidal. The Balkan League declared that any shipping that was headed to Constantinople or any other ports till under Ottoman control would be considered aggressors and could either withdraw form their route or be fired upon. The British and Russian empire made a joint declaration that they supported the embargo and that any trade ships that bore their flag was illegitimate after three days of the declaration.

-Extract from Arthur Marder's book Hold the line: A study of naval blockades

Following the battle of the Gulf of Sidra the last remnants of the Ottoman navy scattered while some that had not participated in the battle began to evacuate the garrisons of the Aegean islands, those that had fought in the battle and survived fled. Two ships fled towards Benghazi and were captured by the new Italian garrison of the city while the other ships that survived the battle fled to Cyprus. The five ships that survived the battle were hunted by a squadron of the Royal Hellenic Navy with a single goal to sink those ships. One by one the Royal Hellenic Navy managed to sink the ships until one was left the Turgut Reis fleeing desperately towards Cyprus and perhaps protection by the Royal Navy. The Royal Navy answered the Ottomans prayers when HMS Lionheart ordered that the Royal Hellenic Navy withdraw from Cyprus the Greeks wisely agreed and set a course for the newly captured Rhodes.

The Turgut Reis was ordered to remain in Nicosia Harbour and ant attempt to leave would result in the Royal Navy opening fire on the vessel. As the Ottoman sailors settled themselves down for a lengthy stay on the British controlled island, they began to realise how badly their empire was going in the Balkan war. After three weeks it seemed that the Ottoman sailors would be staying on the island for the rest of their lives and a few started to court the population of Nicosia and Cyprus. Then the Turgut Reis followed by the HMS Acorn were destroyed by an explosion that devastated the harbour no crew member of the Turgut Reis survived the blast and so began the Nicosia affair.

-Extract from Egyptian documentary the founding of the Kingdom.

The British reaction to the Nicosia affair was at first shock and then anger as evidence was secured that the attack had been undertaken by Ottoman nationals on the island to attack their British oppressors as their announcement stated. With this revelation the United Kingdom officially annexed Cyprus and began to increase the military presence on the island while making diplomatic inroads to the Greeks. Another announcement was that the Khedivate of Egypt officially declared independence as the Kingdom of Egypt under British military protection it was immediately recognised by the European powers and the United States. The Ottoman reaction to these events was to officially announce that the Kingdom of Egypt was an illegitimate puppet state of the United Kingdom and that their sovereignty over Cyprus and Egypt was revoked.

With the Ottoman Empires declaration that the British control over Cyprus was illegitimate, the United Kingdom already supporting the rebels that were preparing to revolt against the Ottomans and increasing their military presence in Egypt delivered an ultimatum to the Ottomans demanding that the Ottoman Empire recognized the Kingdom of Egypt and the annexation of Cyprus. It is believed that the ultimatum never got to Constantinople and thus the deadline passed on the ultimatum was considered rejected and so the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland alongside her dominions officially declared war on the Ottoman Empire on the 24th of July 1912.

-Extract from Dan Snows book The Lion strikes: Britain in the Balkan war