[6][7] The campaign was triggered by the 1550–1552 Safavid attacks in eastern Anatolia which devastated Van and Erzurum, and left many Sunnis dead.

[7] In a letter dated July 1554, the Ottomans invited the Safavids to battle, then repeated the famous fatwa of Ibn Kemal.

[5] The Balkan forces were stationed at Tokat and spent the winter of 1553–1554 there, then in June 1554 joined up with the Sultan's Army coming from Aleppo in Suşehri.

[9] Ebussuud, the Ottoman chief jurisconsult (şeyhülislâm), issued a fatwa in 1554 that endorsed the enslavement of Safavid captives, and contrary to previous practice, they could be sold like non-Muslims.

[8] Regarding territory, a Safavid recognition of Ottoman rule in Iraq and eastern Anatolia would return Yerevan, Karabakh and Nakhchivan.