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====== 1914 ======
Kekaisaran Ottoman menyadari bahwa mereka kekurangan tenaga terampil untuk menjalankan kapal secanggih ''Yavuz (Goeben).'' Oleh karena itu mereka kemudian meminta Jerman untuk melatih dan memimpin angkatan lautnya. Wilhem Schoucon kemudian ditunjuk sebagai komandan angkatan laut Ottoman dan kemudian mengerahkan armada laut Ottoman bersama ''Yavuz'' didalamnya untuk membombardir Sevastopol dalam operasi pertamanya melawan Kekaisaran Rusia. Hal ini kemudian mengakibatkan Kekaisaran Rusia pada tanggal 2 November 1914, diikuti oleh , menyatakan perang terhadap Kekaisaran Ottoman. Hal ini sekaligus menandai terlibatnya Kekaisaran Ottoman secara resmi di Perang Dunia I. Saat bertempur di Sevastopol, cerobong pembuangan Yavuz terkena proyektil berkaliber 25.4cm, tetapi proyektil ini gagal meledak. Pertempuran ini kemudian membuat Rusia meminta bantuan sekutunya dan semakin menguatkan pertahannanya di laut tengah. Inggris dan Perancis kemudian secara resmi menyatakan perang pada pada 5 November 1914. Namun, dua hari sebelumnya Inggris dan Perancis telah melakukan penyerangan terhadap pertahanan Ottoman di Dardanelles.
Pada taanggal 29 Oktober
''Yavuz'' yang dikawal oleh ''Midili'' melakukan aksi militernya kembali pada 18 November terhadap armada laut Rusia denga 3 kapal tempur yang saat itu berada 31 km dari garis pantai Krimea. Saat terjadi kontak senjata, angkatan laut Rusia berhasil menembak amunisi yang akan digunakan oleh kru Yavuz. Akibatnya 13 orang kru Yavuz meninggal dunia dan 3 lainnya terluka. Salah satu kapal Rusia yang terlibat kontak senjata juga mengalami kerusakan akibat terkena tembakan dari Yavuz sebanyak 4 kali. Tembakan ini menewaskan 34 angkatan laut Rusia dan melukai 24 lainnya.
On 29 October ''Yavuz'' bombarded Sevastopol in her first operation against Imperial Russia, though the Ottoman Empire was not yet at war with the Entente; Souchon conducted the operation to force Turkey into the war on the side of Germany. A 25.4 cm (10 in) shell struck the ship in the after funnel, but it failed to detonate and did negligible damage. Two other hits inflicted minor damage. The ship and her escorts passed through an inactive Russian minefield during the bombardment. As she returned to Turkish waters, ''Yavuz'' came across the Russian minelayer ''Prut'' which scuttled herself with 700 mines on board. During the engagement the escorting Russian destroyer ''Lieutenant Pushkin'' was damaged by two of ''Yavuz''<nowiki/>'s secondary battery 15 cm (5.9 in) shells. In response to the bombardment, Russia declared war on 1 November, thus forcing the Ottomans into the wider world war. France and Great Britain bombarded the Turkish fortresses guarding the Dardanelles on 3 November and formally declared war two days later. From this engagement, the Russians drew the conclusion that the entire Black Sea Fleet would have to remain consolidated so it could not be defeated in detail (one ship at a time) by ''Yavuz''.
Di bulang berikutnya, pada tanggal 5-6 Desember, Yavuz dan Midilli ditugaskan untuk mengawal kapal transportasi yang mengangkut pasukan Ottoman. Pada 10 November, Yavuz terlibat penyerangan kota Batum. Pada 23 Desember, Yavuz bersama kapal Ottoman lainnya ditugaskan kembali untuk mengawal tiga buah kapal transportasi menuju Trebizond. Sekembalinya dari misi pengawalan lainnya, pada tanggal 26 Desember, Yavuz mengalami kerusakan cukup parah akibat menabrak ranjau. Proses perbaikan kapal ini mengalami kendala dikarenakan Kekaisaran Ottoman tidak memiliki galangan yang cukup besar untuk menampung Yavuz. Perbaikan kemudian berhasil dilakukan dan beberapa lubang pada kapal yang diakibatkan ledakan ranjau ditutupi menggunakan beton.
''Yavuz'', escorted by ''Midilli'', intercepted the Russian Black Sea Fleet 17 nautical miles (31 km; 20 mi) off the Crimean coastline on 18 November as it returned from a bombardment of Trebizond. Despite the noon hour the conditions were foggy and none of the capital ships were spotted initially. The Black Sea Fleet had experimented with concentrating fire from several ships under the control of one "master" ship before the war, and ''Evstafi'' held her fire until ''Ioann Zlatoust'', the master ship, could see ''Yavuz''. When the gunnery commands were finally received they showed a range over 4,000 yards (3,700 m) in excess of ''Evstafi''<nowiki/>'s own estimate of 7,700 yards (7,000 m), so ''Evstafi'' opened fire using her own data before ''Yavuz'' turned to fire its broadside. She scored a hit with her first salvo as a 12-inch shell partially penetrated the armor casemate protecting one of ''Yavuz''<nowiki/>'s 15-centimeter (5.9 in) secondary guns. It detonated some of the ready-use ammunition, starting a fire that filled the casemate and killed the entire gun crew. A total of thirteen men were killed and three were wounded.
''Yavuz'' returned fire and hit ''Evstafi'' in the middle funnel; the shell detonated after it passed through the funnel and destroyed the antennae for the fire-control radio, so that ''Evstafi''could not correct ''Ioann Zlatoust''<nowiki/>'s inaccurate range data. The other Russian ships either used ''Ioann Zlatoust''<nowiki/>'s incorrect data or never saw ''Yavuz'' and failed to register any hits. ''Yavuz'' hit ''Evstafi'' four more times, although one shell failed to detonate, before Rear Admiral Wilhelm Souchon decided to break contact after 14 minutes of combat. The four hits out of nineteen 28 cm (11 in) shells fired killed 34 men and wounded 24.
The following month, on 5–6 December, ''Yavuz'' and ''Midilli'' provided protection for troop transports, and on 10 December, ''Yavuz'' bombarded Batum. On 23 December, ''Yavuz'' and ''Hamidiye'' escorted three transports to Trebizond. While returning from another transport escort operation on 26 December, ''Yavuz'' struck a mine that exploded beneath the conning tower, on the starboard side, about one nautical mile outside the Bosphorus. The explosion tore a 50-square-meter (540 sq ft) hole in the ship's hull, but the torpedo bulkhead held. Two minutes later, ''Yavuz'' struck a second mine on the port side, just forward of the main battery wing barbette; this tore open a 64-square-meter (690 sq ft) hole. The bulkhead bowed in 30 cm (12 in) but retained watertight protection of the ship's interior. However, some 600 tons of water flooded the ship. There was no dock in the Ottoman Empire large enough to service ''Yavuz'', so temporary repairs were effected inside steel cofferdams, which were pumped out to create a dry work area around the damaged hull. The holes were patched with concrete, which held for several years before more permanent work was necessary.
Still damaged, ''Yavuz'' sortied from the Bosphorus on 28 January and again on 7 February 1915 to help ''Midilli'' escape the Russian fleet; she also covered the return of the protected cruiser ''Hamidiye''. ''Yavuz'' then underwent repair work to the mine damage until May. On 1 April, with repairs incomplete, ''Yavuz'' left the Bosphorus in company with ''Midilli'' to cover the withdrawal of ''Hamidiye'' and the protected cruiser ''Mecidiye'', which had been sent to bombard Odessa. Strong currents, however, forced the cruisers 15 miles (24 km) east to the approaches of the Dnieper-Bug Liman (bay) that led to Nikolayev. As they sailed west after a course correction, ''Mecidiye'' struck a mine and sank, so this attack had to be aborted.After ''Yavuz'' and ''Midilli'' appeared off Sevastopol and sank two cargo steamers, the Russian fleet chased them all day, and detached several destroyers after dusk to attempt a torpedo attack. Only one destroyer, ''Gnevny'', was able to close the distance and launch an attack, which missed. ''Yavuz'' and ''Midilli'' returned to the Bosphorus unharmed.
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