The Third Army was originally established in Skopje and later defended the northeastern provinces of the Ottoman Empire.

Its initial headquarters was at Salonica, where it formed the core of the military forces that supported the Young Turk Revolution of 1908.

Many of its officers who participated in the Revolution, including Enver Pasha and Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, rose to fame and power.

After the Young Turk Revolution and the establishment of the Second Constitutional Era on July 3, 1908, the new government initiated a major military reform.

Its operational area was Western Rumelia, and it had units in Europe (Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia) and Minor Asia (Aydın).

[6][8] The acting commander Hafiz Hakki Pasha (January 12 – February 1915) died of typhus in Erzerum in 1915.

Later in the year the losses the Ottomans took at Gallipoli diverted manpower away from the 3rd Army, and it would never again reach its normal strength, and numbered 60,000 in the fall of 1915.

When the Russians launched their surprise offensive in January 1916, culminating in the Battle of Koprukoy the army numbered 65,000 men and 100 guns.

[12] The army was also short machine guns and needed more artillery to properly defend the city.