As the title says how important was the British seizing the two battleships Reshadieh and Osman I at the start of the Great War in regards to influencing the Ottoman into the Central Powers camp and also for the British fleet? Considering that the Germans were pressing the Ottomans to enter the war and that they controlled the access to Russia's only warm water ports it seems crazy in hindsight to antagonise them by seizing their warships. Sure that was allowed under the contracts and they were offered compensation of £1,000 a day until the end of hostilities and they were returned but it just seems an awful blunder. Looking at their service during the war they don't seem to have done much in the way of note so other than keeping them out of the hands of the Ottomans it doesn't appear to of achieved much other than the unfortunate unintended consequences.
If the British were to of delivered them on completion rather than seizing them and the Goeben and Breslau still make it to Istanbul would the Ottomans have declared war anyway? How about if they were delivered and the Goeben and Breslau were sunk? And does the loss of the two ships from the British fleet change anything that I'm not seeing?
I'm considering some ideas for a timeline on how to keep the Ottomans neutral whilst also getting the best possible deal for them. One train of thought I had was that the British realise what just seizing the ships is likely to cause so go much more softly. Both sides negotiate a deal whereby the two ships are taken into British service with a pair of new Queen Elizabeth class battleships being paid in compensation after the end of hostilities, the straits to remain open, the British guarantee the Ottoman's territorial integrity against outside aggressors, and they agree to back them when they unilaterally announce the abolition of the Capitulations regarding things like taxes, tariffs, automatic most favoured nation status etc. whilst everyone else is occupied with the war. They don't get their ships but they have the promise of better ones in a little while and get to publicly trumpet the abolition of the very unpopular capitulations which should buy a fair amount of good will.