HAPPY (BELATED) BIRTHDAY TO US!
Today’s Zaman, Turkey
Oct 30 2013
The Outsider
30 October 2013 /ELSIE ALAN, GEBZE
On Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2013, the Republic of Turkey celebrated its
90th birthday. Like special days everywhere, Turkey’s Independence
Day is a good time to put aside differences of politics and rhetoric
and to think about what is behind all the flag-waving, celebrations
and wreath-laying. Most of the world, developed as well as emerging,
has no idea of what this day really means to the Turkish people. As
a product of the United States’ generally fine education system,
which probably didn’t think it important enough to mention in any
detail in world history classes, your scribe is ever more amazed
as she learns more about what actually went on during the dark days
following World War I and how the period involved so many empires,
kingdoms and republics, less than a century ago.
As most people in the world know, there was once a powerful state
called the Ottoman Empire. It was founded over the course of a few
centuries by the descendants of a man called Osman, whose tribe of
nomadic herders and warriors came from the vast reaches of Central
Asia near Mongolia. The empire rose to its greatest height during the
16th century before then beginning to decline, as empires are wont to
do. By the 19th and 20th centuries, other empires had sprung up and
they began to nibble at the Ottoman hegemony. Some subjugated lands
fought their Ottoman conquerors on their own and achieved independence,
although often with the result of then falling under the control of
other empires.
The capital of the Ottoman Empire had been moved to the old Byzantine
city of Constantinople after its siege and capture by the young
Ottoman Fatih Sultan Mehmet II in 1453 and would eventually be
called Ä°stanbul. Like his Byzantine predecessors, Sultan Mehmet
welcomed foreigners and the role of the city as a world trading
center, established for over two millennia by Fatih’s time, continued
unabated. Formal diplomatic relations with Europe began in the 14th
century and resident ambassadors began to come to the Ottoman court
in the 15th century. By the early 20th century, though, things had
pretty much fallen apart, following the successful power play of the
Young Turks, a group of secular â~@~reformersâ~@~] from within the
old empire who promoted xenophobic policies. During 1912 and 1913,
the Ottomans were involved in two devastating Balkan wars, which also
involved the influence of the great powers of Europe. This period
of the Young Turks also saw the beginning of the end for much of
the Armenian population of the now-crippled empire. Meanwhile, the
Ottomans under the â~@~reformersâ~@~] built up a close relationship
with Kaiser Wilhelm II, the king of Prussia and German emperor.
Fighting on many fronts Most foreigners have heard of the Battle of
Gallipoli that took place during World War I, one of the enduring
images of the futile abomination that is war. What many don’t realize
is that the Ottoman Empire also fought on many other fronts in
the Great War, most of them on then-Ottoman soil against would-be
invaders. These fronts included the Sinai and Palestine (present
day Egypt and Israel), Mesopotamia (present day Iraq), the Caucasus
(including the northeast of today’s Turkey, Armenia and Azerbaijan),
Persia (present day Iran) and the Arab territories (including present
day Saudi Arabia, Syria, Yemen and Jordan), as well as Gallipoli,
located on the Dardanelles in present day Turkey.
While the Young Turks, the great powers and all the new and old
empires fought it out, millions of ordinary people were massacred,
as is always the case in mankind’s favorite blood sport. As is also
always the case, history is written by the victors and it is hard to
reconcile contemporaneous accounts from the different sides in the
worldwide conflict with the politics of today that, while certainly
conflicted and far from peaceful, nonetheless accommodate travel and
trade between most of the civilizations that were trying to eradicate
one another a mere century ago. But in Turkey, memories are still
fresh due to the existence of many survivors of those days until very
recently. Nearly all of them, in one way or another, were directly
involved in Turkey’s War of Independence, which followed the Great
War that more or less ended in 1918, along with the Ottoman Empire.
Today’s elders were born in the shadow of the repercussions of that
period and in the light of the new Republic of Turkey, which though
it began in bloodshed, has made historic progress from its war-torn
beginnings.
The Treaty of Sèvres, ratified by France, Italy and Great Britain on
Aug. 10, 1920, officially ended Turkey’s war with the French Republic,
the kingdoms of Italy, Greece and Romania and the Serb-Croat-Slovene
State (an early name for Yugoslavia), as well as the empires of
Great Britain and Japan. That part was fine, although Greece never
ratified the Treaty of Sèvres because it didn’t agree with the new
boundaries outlined for the former Ottoman Empire. Armenia, France,
Italy and Great Britain signed it, but the US and Russia were excluded
for various reasons. At the end of the day, most former Ottoman lands
were ceded to the various victors, while the Anatolian peninsula was
divided into â~@~Zones of Influence,â~@~] a term applied to portions
of conquered lands granted to particular countries for colonization
purposes, or in some cases ceded outright to signatories of the
Sèvres treaty. From (roughly) east to west:
Great Britain was awarded Iraq and Palestine, including present
day Israel.
Armenia’s new borders included what are now Erzurum, Van and Trabzon
in today’s Turkey.
France was ceded present day Syria and Lebanon, plus a chunk of
Anatolia including Antep, Urfa and Mardin; it was also granted a zone
of influence that included Diyarbakır, Adana and north to Sivas and
Tokat, not so far from the Black Sea.
Italy received a huge zone of influence that included nearly the
entire Mediterranean coast as well as part of Anatolia’s heartland,
including Afyon and Konya.
Greece was ceded a large portion of Thrace, from Edirne to Istanbul
and a zone of influence that included Ä°stanbul itself, although
shared with other powers. Greece also received Smyrna (Ä°zmir),
although the province was nominally still under the sultan’s control.
Turkey’s defeat becomes complete â~@~Internationalâ~@~] control was
assumed for Ã~Ganakkale and Ä°stanbul, as well as the Dardanelles-Sea
of Marmara-Bosporus seaway and all of Turkey’s major ports, along with
the assumption of all Ottoman banks and assets. What was left of Turkey
— less than a third of Anatolia, including Bursa, Ankara and Samsun —
was controlled by a tired old sultan in the grip of his allied hosts
in occupied Ä°stanbul. Turkey’s defeat was complete and all the loose
ends tied up. (The promised Kurdistan was conveniently ignored by all.)
Now comes the part of this story that explains why the Turks are so
proud of what they have become today and why a statue or image of
Mustafa Kemal Ataturk appears in virtually every corner, public and
private, of today’s republic:
Unbeknownst to or ignored by the folks signing away the old Ottoman
Empire, a war had already begun. A Turkish general famous for his
leadership at the bloody shore of Gallipoli, Mustafa Kemal, began
his counter-campaign on his 38th birthday, May 19, 1929, when he
arrived in Samsun on official army business and began his covert
preparations for independence, more than a year before the Treaty
of Sèvres. It is almost unbelievable to imagine the leadership and
stamina he demonstrated, working secretly with people all over the
future republic, rallying a population near total exhaustion from
nearly a decade of non-stop, ruinous war. From Samsun, he rallied
representatives for a new republic from Amasya, Erzurum and Sivas. On
April 23, 1920, the first Turkish Grand National Association was formed
in Ankara, electing Kemal as its first leader. By now the beneficiaries
of the Sèvres partition had begun their invasions by sea and land,
in preparation for colonization of their various zones of influence,
and the fight was on.
For four long years, until July 24, 1923, the Turkish people fought
alongside their soldiers to free their country from colonizing
foreigners. Cities like Gaziantep (Warrior/Veteran Antep) and
Å~^anliurfa (Glorious Urfa), which actually jumped the gun on the
new government by taking up arms without the aid of anyone, fought
to expel the incoming British and French. Residents of Ä°zmir fired
on Greek occupiers. Old men broke out their hunting rifles and women
helped their men reload. Strange bedfellows were formed, including
Russia and Turkey, the former selling arms to the latter for use in
its fight for independence from Russia’s erstwhile allies. Horrible
vengeance was exacted by both sides and over half a million more
lives were sacrificed to the god of war. The Turkish people finally
prevailed over the combined attempts of the governments of Great
Britain, Armenia, France, Italy and most brutally and tragically,
Greece; there was a new spirit in the land.
At the end of the day, the despised and discredited Treaty of Sèvres
was annulled by the Treaty of Lausanne. While not 100 percent in
Turkey’s favor, it verified the boundaries of the present day republic
and acknowledged its independence. The last 90 years have had their
ups and downs, but Turkey today continues on its path of becoming
a country to be reckoned with on the world stage on its own terms,
while maintaining a peaceful stance with its modern day neighbors
with admirable success.
Happy birthday, Turkey, from all of us who live within your hard-won
borders and from your friends and children abroad; may you have
many more!
From: Baghdasarian
http://www.todayszaman.com/news-330148-the-outsiderhappy-belated-birthday-to-us.html