Erkân-ı Harbiye-i Umûmiye Matbaası

Erkân-ı Harbiye-i Umûmiye Matbaası was the Ottoman Ministry of General Staff Press, which was active from around 1899 through Turkey’s early Republican period under Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.

The Erkân-ı Harbiye-i Umûmiye (Ministry of General Staff) was the Ottoman Empire’s central military planning and intelligence organ. Initially, a modest department handling recruitment, reserves, and the printing of orders and maps, it gained importance after the 1908 Young Turk Revolution, when Sultan Abdülhamit II’s personal command structure was dismantled. In January 1914, Ismail Enver Pasha assumed leadership, initiating a sweeping professionalization that included purging underperforming or corrupt officers, adopting German staffing methods, and significantly expanding its cartographic and propaganda capacities.

Affiliated with this body was the Erkân-ı Harbiye-i Umûmiye Matbaası, which produced detailed wall maps, strategic plans, and military manuals for the Ottoman military. During World War I, the Ministry of General Staff directed operational planning from the Balkans to the Sinai, making it both the Empire’s intellectual engine and primary cartographic authority.