It is undeniable that the power of the Turks was once formidable to
their neighbors not by their numbers only, but by their military and
civil institutions, far surpassing those of their opponents. Proud and
vainglorious, conquest was to them a passion, a gratification, and
even a means of salvation, a sure way of immediately attaining a
delicious paradise. Hence their zeal for the extension of their
empire; hence their profound respect for the military profession, and
their glory even in being obedient and submissive to discipline. And
with the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire after World War One, ethnic
conflict came to the fore.
For the Turks, the First World War began in the fall of 1912. In
February, 1912, Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece, and Montenegro formed an
alliance for the purpose of wresting from Turkey her European
territory. War began in October. The Turks, fatally handicapped by the
inefficiency and dim organization of their commissariat, were steadily
driven back by the invading armies, and Scutari and Adrianople, their
most important cities in Europe, were besieged. After the capture of
Kirk-Kilisse by the Bulgarians, they pushed on to cut off the retreat
of the Turks. Part of the Turkish forces were withdrawn to
Lule-Burgas, and here a fierce battle took place, at the close of
which the Turks were forced to make the retreat. The following year,
Bulgaria, disappointed by the terms of the Treaty of London, attacked
Greek and Serbian forces, but was quickly defeated when invaded by
Romania. The subsequent peace treaty doubled the size of Serbia and
gave Greece control over most of the Aegean coast. For the Turks, an
allegiance with the Austro-German Alliance was really the only way to
stem the tide Balkan aggression.(1, Paragraph 1; 2, Paragraph 1)
Unfortunately, the alliance ran counter to Allied objectives. The
Dardanelles is a 61km (28 mile) strait between Europe and Asiatic
Turkey. The maximum width is 7km and in the areas known as the
Narrows, the distance is no more than 1,600 metres. The Dardanelles
Straits are overlooked by high cliffs on the Gallipoli Peninsula. On
the outbreak of the First World War, the Dardanelles Straits were
under the control of Turkey. They were protected by outer fortresses
on either shore at Kum Kale and Sedd el Bahr, linked by a run of shore
batteries and minefields to the fortresses at Chanak and Kilid Bahr.
On 26th December 1914, Britain's War Council discussed the possibility
of attacking Turkey in order to re-open the Dardanelles Straits. It
was argued that if the operation was successful it would encourage
some of the neutral Balkan states to join the Allies. It was a brutal
war front and the Treaty of Versailles basically split the Ottoman
Empire and German interests in the region between the French and
English.(3, Paragraphs 1 - 3)
After the war Britain and France (which also wanted a closer supply of
oil) established themselves as 'rulers' of the Middle East (an
arrangement named 'Sykes-Picot' after the principals), getting
mandates approved by the League of Nations under the pretense that the
natives had not the sophistication to rule themselves. This outraged
the Arabs, especially those who had fought with the British. France
took control of the area now composed of Syria and Lebanon; Britain
took control of the area we now call Iraq, Jordan and Israel. Britain
issued a high-minded statement of principle, the 'Balfour Declaration'
(because Arthur Balfour delivered it), supporting the establishment of
a Jewish homeland, which at one time they had thought of putting in
Africa.(4, Paragraph 3)
And these two colonialist powers ran these protectorates as
efficiently as their colonies. After the Second World War, the British
had not the resources to keep their empire. The most fractious
portions, India & Pakistan, and their Middle Eastern protectorates,
left first. Britain had divided their Middle Eastern protectorates
into three sections: Iraq, a principally Arab country (poor Kurds!);
Transjordan (now Jordan), a principally Arab country; and Palestine,
which they further divided into Jewish and Arab sectors. The British
put a non-Palestinian as king of Jordan, an Arabian who leads an
ethnic-minority government that makes the majority Palestinians
second-class citizens, and has killed more of them than the
Israelis.(4, Paragraphs 6 & 15)
Then there was the issue of the Armenians. Between 1915 and 1917,
Russia occupied virtually the entire Armenian part of the Ottoman
Empire. Then in October 1917, the Bolshevik victory in Russia ended
that country's involvement in World War I, and Russian troops left the
Caucasus. In the vacuum that remained, the Armenians first joined a
Transcaucasian federation with Azerbaijan and Georgia. The danger
posed by the territorial ambitions of the Ottoman Turks and the
Azerbaijanis finally united the Caucasian Armenian population in
support of the ARF program for autonomy. In May 1918, an independent
Armenian republic was declared; its armies continued to fight on the
Allied side south of the Caucasus until the Ottoman Empire surrendered
in October 1918. The Republic of Armenia included the northeastern
part of present-day eastern Turkey, west along the Black Sea coast
past Trabzon and southwest past Lake Van. But Armenia's precarious
independence was threatened from within by the terrible economic
conditions that followed the war in the former Ottoman Empire and, by
1920, by the territorial ambitions of Soviet Russia and the
nationalist Turks under Kemal Atatürk. Atatürk had rehabilitated
Turkey rapidly under a new democratic system, but the ruling party
still hoped to create a larger state by taking territory in western
Armenia from which Armenians had been driven. In defending its
independence, the Republic of Armenia waited in vain, however, for the
material and military aid promised at the Paris Peace Conference in
1919. Caught between the advancing Turks and the Red Army, which had
already occupied neighboring Azerbaijan, in November 1920 the ARF
government made a political agreement with the communists to enter a
coalition government. The Treaty of Aleksandropol', signed by this
government with Turkey.(5, Paragraphs 1- 4)
Sources/References
1. Modern History Sourcebook: The Flight of the Turks from
Lule-Burgas, 1912 Bernard Grant
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1912lulebergas.html
2. Modern History Sourcebook: The Siege of Adrainople, 1912 Philip
Gibbs
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1912adrianople.html
3. Spartucus Schoolnet: Encyclopedia of the First World War The
Dardenels
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/FWWdardanelles.htm
4. CalTech University: Middle East Crisis
http://www.alumni.caltech.edu/~rbell/MiddleEastCrisis.html#AftermathWorldWarOne
5. World War I and Its Consequences Armenia
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+am0020) |