Kuropatkin was relieved of command on July 22, 1916, and reassigned to Turkestan, where the Russian involvement in World War I, especially against the Ottoman Empire was extremely unpopular among the indigenous peoples and which had led to the Central Asian revolt of 1916. Kuropatkin served as Governor-General of the Turkestan Military District as well as ataman of the Semirechye Cossacks and led the brutal suppression of the revolt.