Trying to understand Turkey today while minimizing or disregarding what happened between 1911 and 1923 is like trying to understand Iran today while minimizing or disregarding the Shah, Mosaddegh, the White Revolution, the Islamic Revolution, the hostage crisis and the Iran-Iraq war.
I decided to write this diary before writing about 'Turkey and Iran' and 'Turkey, the IHH and Hamas' because this should make is easier to understand Turkey's relationships with Iran, the IHH and Hamas.
After 7 years of almost continuous war the Ottoman Empire essentially no longer existed. It had been stripped of its outlying territories and most of what was left was occupied by the victors of WWI. A small area was still technically under the control of the Ottoman Empire but most of its governmental powers were under the control of the winning allies. More than 800,000 soldiers had died, about 500,000 soldiers had been wounded and more than 2,150,000 civilians had died. Its infrastructure, agriculture and education system had also been very heavily damaged.
Following the end of WWI the destruction continued for 5 more years during the Turkish War of Liberation until the Republic of Turkey was formed and then recognized in the Treaty of Lausanne.
It is estimated that more than 6 million soldiers and civilians (Turks, Arabs, Greeks, Armenians, Assyrians and Kurds) out of the 21 million people who lived in the Ottoman Empire died during the 12 years of almost continuous war from 1911 to 1923.
Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, France, Russia, Italy, Austria-Hungary, Germany, Prussia, Romania, Bosnia, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Greece, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Serbia, Montenegro, Albania, Mesopotamia, Arabia, Sinai, Palestine, Syria, Aden and Yemen are countries or regions that the Ottoman Empire had had wars with, had fought over, or had been allies with in wars that it lost.
Looking at this list makes it easy to understand why the new Republic of Turkey decided to pursue a policy of balanced but distant relations with its neighbors in the region.
The Republic of Turkey also decided to be a secular western-oriented country and has always had a positive opinion of the U.S. and has worked to maintain a good relationship with it. Two of the main reasons for this are that the United States never declared war against the Ottoman Empire and also refused to participate in the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire.
The wars from 1911 to 1923 were:
- The Italo-Turkish War - September 29, 1911 to October 18, 1912,
- The Balkan Wars - 1912 and 1913,
- World War I - 1914 to 1918,
- The Turkish War of Liberation - May 19, 1919 to October 29, 1923,
- The Greco-Turkish War - 1919 to 1922,
- The Turkish-Armenian War - 24 September to 2 December, 1920,
- The Franco-Turkish War - May, 1920 to October, 1921.
Turkey’s policy of balanced but distant relations with its neighbors in the region, western orientation and close relationship with the U.S., along with the nearly 700 year long history of Jews living in and being a part of what is now called Turkey are the major reasons why Turkey established, developed and maintained good relations with Israel.
All of this information can be found easily on the Internet. If you want links please let me know.
PLEASE NOTE: This diary is not in any way an attempt to deny or justify anything related to Armenians, Kurds or Cyprus. Those are subjects for future diaries.