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Modernizmin Yansimalar: 40'li yillarda Turkiye, 2022
The year 1946 must rank as one of the key turning points in modern Turkish history. Internal and ... more The year 1946 must rank as one of the key turning points in modern Turkish history. Internal and external pressures combined to induce the Turkish government to allow the transition to a multi-party system. Internationally, the aggressive position taken up by the Soviet government, with territorial demands and demands for joint defence of the Dardanelles and Bosphorus made it imperative to seek
Muhafazakar Düşünce Dergisi, Jun 15, 2008
Middle Eastern Studies, 2020
Abstract The national resistance movement that emerged in Anatolia and Thrace immediately after t... more Abstract The national resistance movement that emerged in Anatolia and Thrace immediately after the end of World War I and that was eventually successful in overturning the peace settlement imposed on the Ottoman Empire by the victorious Entente, has become such an important part of the history of the emergence of the Turkish nation state, that it is studied almost exclusively in that context: as republican prehistory. As a result almost no effort has been made to locate it within the major global developments of the era. This article tries to remedy this by analysing statements coming out of the resistance leadership over the years 1918-1921 to establish where it fits the ideological currents of the day. It concludes that four major inputs can be discerned: loyalty to the Ottoman monarchy and state; Muslim nationalism; Wilsonian self-determination, and Boslevik-inspired anti-imperialism. These influences were not mutually exclusive. Apart from being influenced by contemporary ideological currents, the National Movement was also an influencer: as a movement to preserve an existing state (and not to create or carve out a new one) it was also a pioneer of the revisionist movements of the interbellum that aimed to undo the Paris peace arrangements. Supplemental data for this article is available online at https://doi.org/10.1080/00263206.2020.1858061.
The Late Ottoman Empire as Laboratory of Demographic Engineering, 2009
... This process was reinforced by the Crimean war of 1853-54, which was lost by the Rus-sians ..... more ... This process was reinforced by the Crimean war of 1853-54, which was lost by the Rus-sians ... as their new homeland, which was to replace the lost provinces.9 The first effects of this ... When the great War broke out, the Young Turk leadership opted to take part as a belligerent on ...
The Young Turk Legacy and Nation Building, 2010
Late Ottoman Society, 2013
Donated by Klaus Kreise
The Young Turk Legacy and Nation Building, 2010
The Young Turk Legacy and Nation Building, 2010
The development of secularism has been a, perhaps even the, dominant theme in the history of the ... more The development of secularism has been a, perhaps even the, dominant theme in the history of the Ottoman Empire and the Turkish Republic from the early Nineteenth Century onwards. Before the mid-Nineteen Twenties, when the Republican government under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal (later: Atatürk) (1881-1938) expressly sought to end the political, social and cultural influence of Islamic institutions and to achieve a total dominance of the secular State over those institutions, this secularisation was not a primary aim of the policy makers, but a side effect of the policies formulated, which were aimed at strengthening the Ottoman State through the adoption of European methods. These policies, which prevailed during most of the Nineteenth and early Twentieth Century, especially during the period of the Tanzimat, or "reforms" (18391878), were motivated primarily by two factors: Firstly, the realisation by a number of leading statesmen and bureaucrats that the only way for ...
Ottoman Past and Today's Turkey, 2000
Publikationsansicht. 20750411. Young Turks, Ottoman Muslims and Turkish Nationalists: IdentityPol... more Publikationsansicht. 20750411. Young Turks, Ottoman Muslims and Turkish Nationalists: IdentityPolitics 1908-1938 (2000). Zürcher, EJ. Details der Publikation. Download, http://hdl.handle.net/ 1887/2518. Archiv, DSpace at University Leiden (Netherlands). Typ, Article. ...
Arming the State, 1999
Modernisering en secularisering van Turkij
VENTUNESIMO SECOLO, 2018
In contrast with most European countries, in Turkey historiography of the First World War remaine... more In contrast with most European countries, in Turkey historiography of the First World War remained underdeveloped for a very long time. The war of 14-18 was overshadowed by the national independence struggle and the establishment of the new republic that followed it. It was only in the 2000s that interest in the Ottoman part in World War I really took off. It is now a flourishing field, in which - due to the increasing use of Ottoman archival resources - the recently appeared studies share one important characteristic: they hand back agency to the Ottomans themselves, who are no longer seen as puppets of the Great Powers.
New Perspectives on Turkey, 2009
Page 1. 1 LECTURES Atatürk as a Young Turk Erik-Jan Zürcher * In the historiography of modern T... more Page 1. 1 LECTURES Atatürk as a Young Turk Erik-Jan Zürcher * In the historiography of modern Turkey, the relationship of Mustafa Kemal [Atatürk] with the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) is depicted as very contentious. ...
International Review of Social History, 1998
The introduction of conscription in the Ottoman Empire of course was closely linked to the introd... more The introduction of conscription in the Ottoman Empire of course was closely linked to the introduction of a European-style army, but it did not coincide with it.As is well known, the first attempt to create an army which was trained, equipped and dressed in the contemporary European fashion, was made by Sultan Selim III in 1792. His Nizam-i Cedid (New Order) army by all accounts was quite an impressive achievement in itself. Starting from a strength of about 2,500, the corps had 22,685 men and 1,590 officers in 1806, half of them stationed in the capital, the rest in provincial centres in Anatolia. When pressure against him and his new army on the part of the old army establishment, primarily the Janissaries, mounted, however, the Sultan succumbed without any attempt to use the considerable strength of his new army and disbanded the corps in 1808.The Nizam troops constituted a professional army. They were not recruited on the basis of universal conscription, but rather in a fashion...
Modernizmin Yansimalar: 40'li yillarda Turkiye, 2022
The year 1946 must rank as one of the key turning points in modern Turkish history. Internal and ... more The year 1946 must rank as one of the key turning points in modern Turkish history. Internal and external pressures combined to induce the Turkish government to allow the transition to a multi-party system. Internationally, the aggressive position taken up by the Soviet government, with territorial demands and demands for joint defence of the Dardanelles and Bosphorus made it imperative to seek
Muhafazakar Düşünce Dergisi, Jun 15, 2008
Middle Eastern Studies, 2020
Abstract The national resistance movement that emerged in Anatolia and Thrace immediately after t... more Abstract The national resistance movement that emerged in Anatolia and Thrace immediately after the end of World War I and that was eventually successful in overturning the peace settlement imposed on the Ottoman Empire by the victorious Entente, has become such an important part of the history of the emergence of the Turkish nation state, that it is studied almost exclusively in that context: as republican prehistory. As a result almost no effort has been made to locate it within the major global developments of the era. This article tries to remedy this by analysing statements coming out of the resistance leadership over the years 1918-1921 to establish where it fits the ideological currents of the day. It concludes that four major inputs can be discerned: loyalty to the Ottoman monarchy and state; Muslim nationalism; Wilsonian self-determination, and Boslevik-inspired anti-imperialism. These influences were not mutually exclusive. Apart from being influenced by contemporary ideological currents, the National Movement was also an influencer: as a movement to preserve an existing state (and not to create or carve out a new one) it was also a pioneer of the revisionist movements of the interbellum that aimed to undo the Paris peace arrangements. Supplemental data for this article is available online at https://doi.org/10.1080/00263206.2020.1858061.
The Late Ottoman Empire as Laboratory of Demographic Engineering, 2009
... This process was reinforced by the Crimean war of 1853-54, which was lost by the Rus-sians ..... more ... This process was reinforced by the Crimean war of 1853-54, which was lost by the Rus-sians ... as their new homeland, which was to replace the lost provinces.9 The first effects of this ... When the great War broke out, the Young Turk leadership opted to take part as a belligerent on ...
The Young Turk Legacy and Nation Building, 2010
Late Ottoman Society, 2013
Donated by Klaus Kreise
The Young Turk Legacy and Nation Building, 2010
The Young Turk Legacy and Nation Building, 2010
The development of secularism has been a, perhaps even the, dominant theme in the history of the ... more The development of secularism has been a, perhaps even the, dominant theme in the history of the Ottoman Empire and the Turkish Republic from the early Nineteenth Century onwards. Before the mid-Nineteen Twenties, when the Republican government under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal (later: Atatürk) (1881-1938) expressly sought to end the political, social and cultural influence of Islamic institutions and to achieve a total dominance of the secular State over those institutions, this secularisation was not a primary aim of the policy makers, but a side effect of the policies formulated, which were aimed at strengthening the Ottoman State through the adoption of European methods. These policies, which prevailed during most of the Nineteenth and early Twentieth Century, especially during the period of the Tanzimat, or "reforms" (18391878), were motivated primarily by two factors: Firstly, the realisation by a number of leading statesmen and bureaucrats that the only way for ...
Ottoman Past and Today's Turkey, 2000
Publikationsansicht. 20750411. Young Turks, Ottoman Muslims and Turkish Nationalists: IdentityPol... more Publikationsansicht. 20750411. Young Turks, Ottoman Muslims and Turkish Nationalists: IdentityPolitics 1908-1938 (2000). Zürcher, EJ. Details der Publikation. Download, http://hdl.handle.net/ 1887/2518. Archiv, DSpace at University Leiden (Netherlands). Typ, Article. ...
Arming the State, 1999
Modernisering en secularisering van Turkij
VENTUNESIMO SECOLO, 2018
In contrast with most European countries, in Turkey historiography of the First World War remaine... more In contrast with most European countries, in Turkey historiography of the First World War remained underdeveloped for a very long time. The war of 14-18 was overshadowed by the national independence struggle and the establishment of the new republic that followed it. It was only in the 2000s that interest in the Ottoman part in World War I really took off. It is now a flourishing field, in which - due to the increasing use of Ottoman archival resources - the recently appeared studies share one important characteristic: they hand back agency to the Ottomans themselves, who are no longer seen as puppets of the Great Powers.
New Perspectives on Turkey, 2009
Page 1. 1 LECTURES Atatürk as a Young Turk Erik-Jan Zürcher * In the historiography of modern T... more Page 1. 1 LECTURES Atatürk as a Young Turk Erik-Jan Zürcher * In the historiography of modern Turkey, the relationship of Mustafa Kemal [Atatürk] with the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) is depicted as very contentious. ...
International Review of Social History, 1998
The introduction of conscription in the Ottoman Empire of course was closely linked to the introd... more The introduction of conscription in the Ottoman Empire of course was closely linked to the introduction of a European-style army, but it did not coincide with it.As is well known, the first attempt to create an army which was trained, equipped and dressed in the contemporary European fashion, was made by Sultan Selim III in 1792. His Nizam-i Cedid (New Order) army by all accounts was quite an impressive achievement in itself. Starting from a strength of about 2,500, the corps had 22,685 men and 1,590 officers in 1806, half of them stationed in the capital, the rest in provincial centres in Anatolia. When pressure against him and his new army on the part of the old army establishment, primarily the Janissaries, mounted, however, the Sultan succumbed without any attempt to use the considerable strength of his new army and disbanded the corps in 1808.The Nizam troops constituted a professional army. They were not recruited on the basis of universal conscription, but rather in a fashion...
The story I intend to tell here is at the same time a snapshot, focusing on a very specific short... more The story I intend to tell here is at the same time a snapshot, focusing on a very specific short period of exactly a century ago, and a film, in the sense that it looks at continuities that played out over a period of ten years. The moment is that of September 1922, when the remnants of the Ottoman army operating under the control of the National Assembly in Ankara, attacked the Greek occupying force in Asia Minor and within a very short time defeated it and forced it to flee to the shores of the Aegean. This defeat was followed, from 9 September, by the occupation of Smyrna/İzmir, the flight or expulsion of its Christian inhabitants and, from the 13 th , the destruction of the Christian quarters of the city-then one of the biggest and most cosmopolitan cities of the Levant-by fire. The continuity concerns the period between the outbreak of the Balkan War in October 1912 and the end of the war in Asia Minor in September 1922, with some references to Turkish republican history of the twenties and thirties.
The adoption and promotion of secularism is undoubtedly one of the key characteristics of the sin... more The adoption and promotion of secularism is undoubtedly one of the key characteristics of the singleparty era in modern Turkish history. In a narrow sense, it comprised a number of legal and institutional changes that were carried out between 1924 and 1928-the abolition of the caliphate and the office of the Şeyhülislam, the closure of the derwish convents (tekkes), shrines (türbes), and derwish orders (tarikats), the unification of education, the takeover of the religious foundations (evkaf) by the state, the abolition of Şeriat-based law and its replacement by European civil, trade and criminal codes, and, finally, the deletion of Islam as state religion from the constitution. Taken together these can be interpreted as a Turkish version of the French concept of laicism as applied in France from 1905. It is also quite legitimate, of course, to take a wider view of secularization, and to include a whole range of measures that did not in themselves impact on the relationship between the state and religion, but which limited the role of Islamic culture (rather than religion itself) in Turkish society. The changes to clock, calendar, alphabet and dress fall in this category, as does the introduction of Sunday as day of rest. Like the secularizing measures in the more restrictive sense, these changes were part of the overall Kemalist project to create a "modern" (muasır) and "civilized" (medeni) Turkey.
It is debatable whether World War I was the first industrial war (the American civil war fifty ye... more It is debatable whether World War I was the first industrial war (the American civil war fifty years earlier was, after all, decided by the industrial strength of the North) but it was certainly the first total war, in which all human and material resources of the belligerent countries were mobilised and ultimately exhausted. In this sense, it was the ultimate vindication of the ideas of influential military theorists like Colmar von der Goltz, who had made this the central thesis of his 1883 Das Volk in Waffen (The Nation in Arms). The total nature of the war effort changed the balance within the governing systems of the belligerent states, and particularly the relationship between the civilian institutions (parliament and cabinet) and the military leadership. On the one hand it led to the militarisation of society and an enhanced role of the military leadership, but on the other, the need for mass mobilisation and production for the war effort also meant that the military were dependent on the ability of the political institutions to deliver what they needed. To give but one example: arguably, the three measures that made Britain ultimately successful in the war – military conscription, efficient production of munitions and the convoy system for shipping across the Atlantic – were taken by the civilian leadership.
This paper tries to address the question where the Ottoman constitutional revolution of 1908 fits... more This paper tries to address the question where the Ottoman constitutional revolution of 1908 fits in the global wave of revolutions just prior to World War I. It looks at comparisons with the revolutions in Russia, Iran and China, as well as at transnational connections.
