Facing the Victorious Turks: How the French Misread the Turkish War of Independence
At the end of World War I, parts of the defeated Ottoman Empire were seized and partitioned by the Allied Powers. In response, the newly formed Turkish National Movement waged a military campaign to win Turkey’s independence, eventually leading to the declaration of the Republic of Turkey in 1923.

In Facing the Victorious Turks, Andrew Orr argues that French military, intelligence, and diplomatic officials’ Orientalism and racism led them to misinterpret the Turkish War of Independence by placing Europeans at the center of their analysis of the Middle East. French observers’ flawed understanding of Muslims and Islam fed conspiracy theories that distorted their understanding of Germany, the emerging Soviet Union, Middle Eastern politics, and colonialism. It allowed them to perceive and report the danger of Middle East–wide revolts without questioning whether it was European rule itself that was causing the political turmoil. French military leaders were thus able to escape the sort of self-reflection that might have exposed the exploitative nature of colonialism and pushed them to question the moral and strategic justifications for colonial rule.

Orr’s study draws on French and British military, diplomatic, and intelligence documents, published Turkish sources, journalistic accounts, and combatants’ and aid workers’ journals. It also takes advantage of US intelligence and diplomatic papers that included correspondence with French military and diplomatic officials in Constantinople.

Facing the Victorious Turks is valuable reading for anyone interested in nationalism and imperialism, intelligence studies, French involvement in the Middle East, and modern Turkish history.

1145216452
Facing the Victorious Turks: How the French Misread the Turkish War of Independence
At the end of World War I, parts of the defeated Ottoman Empire were seized and partitioned by the Allied Powers. In response, the newly formed Turkish National Movement waged a military campaign to win Turkey’s independence, eventually leading to the declaration of the Republic of Turkey in 1923.

In Facing the Victorious Turks, Andrew Orr argues that French military, intelligence, and diplomatic officials’ Orientalism and racism led them to misinterpret the Turkish War of Independence by placing Europeans at the center of their analysis of the Middle East. French observers’ flawed understanding of Muslims and Islam fed conspiracy theories that distorted their understanding of Germany, the emerging Soviet Union, Middle Eastern politics, and colonialism. It allowed them to perceive and report the danger of Middle East–wide revolts without questioning whether it was European rule itself that was causing the political turmoil. French military leaders were thus able to escape the sort of self-reflection that might have exposed the exploitative nature of colonialism and pushed them to question the moral and strategic justifications for colonial rule.

Orr’s study draws on French and British military, diplomatic, and intelligence documents, published Turkish sources, journalistic accounts, and combatants’ and aid workers’ journals. It also takes advantage of US intelligence and diplomatic papers that included correspondence with French military and diplomatic officials in Constantinople.

Facing the Victorious Turks is valuable reading for anyone interested in nationalism and imperialism, intelligence studies, French involvement in the Middle East, and modern Turkish history.

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Facing the Victorious Turks: How the French Misread the Turkish War of Independence

Facing the Victorious Turks: How the French Misread the Turkish War of Independence

by Andrew Orr
Facing the Victorious Turks: How the French Misread the Turkish War of Independence

Facing the Victorious Turks: How the French Misread the Turkish War of Independence

by Andrew Orr

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Overview

At the end of World War I, parts of the defeated Ottoman Empire were seized and partitioned by the Allied Powers. In response, the newly formed Turkish National Movement waged a military campaign to win Turkey’s independence, eventually leading to the declaration of the Republic of Turkey in 1923.

In Facing the Victorious Turks, Andrew Orr argues that French military, intelligence, and diplomatic officials’ Orientalism and racism led them to misinterpret the Turkish War of Independence by placing Europeans at the center of their analysis of the Middle East. French observers’ flawed understanding of Muslims and Islam fed conspiracy theories that distorted their understanding of Germany, the emerging Soviet Union, Middle Eastern politics, and colonialism. It allowed them to perceive and report the danger of Middle East–wide revolts without questioning whether it was European rule itself that was causing the political turmoil. French military leaders were thus able to escape the sort of self-reflection that might have exposed the exploitative nature of colonialism and pushed them to question the moral and strategic justifications for colonial rule.

Orr’s study draws on French and British military, diplomatic, and intelligence documents, published Turkish sources, journalistic accounts, and combatants’ and aid workers’ journals. It also takes advantage of US intelligence and diplomatic papers that included correspondence with French military and diplomatic officials in Constantinople.

Facing the Victorious Turks is valuable reading for anyone interested in nationalism and imperialism, intelligence studies, French involvement in the Middle East, and modern Turkish history.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780700637775
Publisher: University Press of Kansas
Publication date: 09/12/2024
Series: Modern War Studies
Pages: 256
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Andrew Orr is professor of history at Kansas State University. He is the author of Women and the French Army during the World Wars, 1914–1940 and The Gay Girl in Damascus Hoax: Progressive Orientalism and the Arab Spring.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. The Great War and the Ottoman Crisis

2. The Cilician War

3. Debating Mustafa Kemal and the Cilician War

4. The Separate Peace

5. Consequences

Conclusion

Bibliography

Notes

Index

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