 As Turkey was still officially neutral, they and their crews were transferred to the Ottoman navy.By the time Mallet reached his post, three weeks after the outbreak of war, the question of Turkey's affiliation was practically decided, although the Allied powers continued to negotiate with the Porte until the Ottomans joined the war on the side of the Central Powers, when Mallet and other Allied ambassadors had to leave Constantinople.Mallet was criticised at the time and afterwards for failing to keep the Ottoman Empire out of the war, but Germany's influence was aided by Turkey's long-running enmity with Russia, one of the Allies.