The Power of Geography by Tim Marshall

Author:Tim Marshall [Marshall, Tim]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Elliott & Thompson
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

At the height of its power the Ottoman Empire extended through large parts of Europe, Asia and North Africa.

The Balkan Wars of 1912–13 showed just how ill the ‘Sick Man of Europe’ was when the Bulgarians almost captured Constantinople. And when it then chose the wrong side in the First World War it signed its own death warrant. The defeat of the British at the Battle of Gallipoli is part of the Turkish founding story, but it was not enough to prevent losing a war and an empire. Under the terms of the 1918 Armistice the capital was occupied by British, Italian and French troops, the empire was broken up and the Sultanate was abolished. Some Turkish-speaking people were left outside the new borders, notably in Greece and the island of Cyprus, and more than a million Greeks found themselves inside Turkey.

The Greco-Turkish War (1919–22) resulted in a decisive win for the Turkish forces led by General Kemal Atatürk. A population swap followed, but there were still Greek and Turkish minorities living in the two countries, a fact which has resulted in tensions over the past century. The Turks did not, and still do not, accept the treaty which then left Greece in control of most of the islands off the Turkish coast, and the loss of Kurdish and Arab territory in Syria still rankles with some.

Atatürk was the first president of the newly proclaimed Republic of Turkey, established in 1923. Ankara was chosen as the capital and Constantinople’s name was officially changed to Istanbul (it’s thought that the name comes from Greek speakers referring to visits as eis ten polin – ‘into the city’ – which transmuted into Istanbul).

Atatürk (‘Father of the Turks’) ruled for fifteen years during which he transformed his country, introducing a series of radical reforms to modernize Turkey after concluding that modernization meant Westernization. Some decrees appear superficial but were serious statements of intent, signalling a break with the past that would include separating the state from religion. For men, wearing the fez was outlawed, while women were discouraged from wearing veils, the Western (Gregorian) calendar was introduced, and reading and writing were switched from Arabic to the Latin alphabet.

Atatürk understood that language is culture. He was in the business of forming a new culture based not on the multi-ethnic and multilinguistic Ottoman Empire, but on Turkishness. Ottoman Turkish, used by the educated classes, was a mixture of Turkish, Arabic and Persian, while Turkish was for the poorer, mostly illiterate, classes, which caused a language gap emphasizing social division. The president led the way in bridging the divide, touring the country and showing up in village squares and schools armed with a portable blackboard on which he chalked the new alphabet. It was a smart move, helping to create a cult of personality and also freeing ordinary people from relying on religious scholars to tell them what was what.

Part of this ‘Turkification’ of Turkey was the denial of the annihilation of the Christian Armenian communities between 1915 and 1923.

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