Eugene Rogan: "The Fall of the Ottomans – The Great War in the Middle East, 1914–1920"

Efraim Karsh

A century after the catastrophic blunder that led to the destruction of the then longest-surviving empire on earth, culpability is still ascribed to the European powers. Rather than view the Ottoman entry into the First World War on the losing side for what it was – a failed imperialist bid for territorial aggrandizement and reassertion of lost glory – the Muslim empire has been portrayed as the hapless victim of European machinations, driven into the world conflict by overbearing powers eager to expedite its demise and gobble up its lands.

Erdoğan’s Condolences: Too Little, Too Late within a Steadily Changing Context

Ara Sanjian

 

After the Islamist Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi or AKP) started governing Turkey in 2002, a number of Turkey watchers privately told their Armenian friends to expect a different approach from this new political elite regarding Ankara’s official position on the Armenian Genocide of 1915. They argued that the Young Turks, who executed the genocide, were positivists, nationalists, and social-Darwinists, not Islamists. Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk), the founder of the Turkish Republic, which replaced the Ottoman Empire, had himself been a Young Turk. When, in 1919, he embarked upon his nationalist struggle against the victorious World War I Allies, Greeks and Armenians, many former Young Turks joined him because remaining loyal to the Ottoman sultan could have led to their arrest, trial, and conviction for involvement in the genocide. The modern Turkish nation-state, which Atatürk built, could not have been achieved had Armenians and Greeks continued to live in large numbers in eastern Turkey. For Young Turks-cum-Kemalists, recognizing Ottoman Turkish government responsibility in effecting the Armenian Genocide would be tantamount to accepting that many of the founders of their cherished republic were implicated in one of the twentieth century’s bloodiest episodes. The ideological predecessors of the Islamists, conversely, were not in power in 1915. The Islamists do not idealize Atatürk’s republic. It would be easier for them to come to terms with this painful chapter and thus end the ongoing antagonism with Armenians.

Western Leaders Cannot Face a ‘Looming’ War

Robert Fisk



For some reason, our last century’s two world wars started rather far from home. I bet that most people in January 1914 couldn’t find Sarajevo on a map. But then again, how many of us – really, I mean – could have found Simferopol on a map a year ago? Or three weeks ago, for that matter? The Second World War started because Britons simply wouldn’t take another crooked deal like Czechoslovakia – “a faraway country between people of whom we know nothing”, in which our Neville at least put distance in front of ignorance. So Poland it was, which, by awful mischance, shares a border with modern-day Ukraine.

Plans for "Turkish Plot" Put on Hold

Heather Ibbotson

A proposal to erect a plaque at Mount Hope cemetery is in limbo after it unleashed a storm of unexpected international controversy, says Mayor Chris Friel.

"There are so many aggressive and very angry groups, and accusations and absolute misunderstandings of the situation," that the plan is now "officially on hold," Friel said Thursday.

"We're backing away" until a response is received from the federal government and city council has an opportunity to review and discuss it, he said.

Friel said the plan had stirred up negative commentary "on an international level, far beyond what a municipality can handle."

For the Benefit of the Turkish Ambassador: An Exchange

Marsha Skrypuch's Interest in the Topic
 

(June 16, 2013)

Marsha Skrypuch here, author of three novels set during the Armenian Genocide (The Hunger, Nobody's Child, Daughter of War), two chapter books about the Georgetown Boys (Aram's Choice and Call Me Aram) as well as author of two books set during the internment of Ukrainians in WWI (Silver Threads, Prisoners in the Promised Land).

My own Ukrainian grandfather was interned as an enemy alien in WWI and this topic is of deep interest to me.

For the Benefit of the Turkish Ambassador (Public Service Announcement)

"Keghart" (editorial)

 

On a cold night in late November 1914 police rounded up 100 Turkish immigrants living in Brantford, Ontario (56 miles west of Toronto). Most of the arrested were laborers in a local foundry. A few days later the 100 men were shipped off to a concentration camp in Kapuskasing (then called MacPherson), 520 miles north of Toronto. The Turkish immigrants spent most of the First World War in the Canadian gulag (average winter temperature -25C).

What was their crime?