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 pl...