Reddit Reddit reviews Turkey: A Modern History

We found 5 Reddit comments about Turkey: A Modern History. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.

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Turkey: A Modern History
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5 Reddit comments about Turkey: A Modern History:

u/jdryan08 · 46 pointsr/AskHistorians

Awesome question, right up my dissertation's alley, so here we go.

To answer your sub-questions first: Why did the Axis not invade Turkey after Bulgaria (and Greece)? For one, because Hitler never wanted to invade those areas in the first place. Only after Mussolini invaded Greece and found the going a bit tougher than he first imagined did Hitler feel compelled to bring the war machine (and the Holocaust along with it) to southeast Turkey. Hitler had no interest in expanding the SE Europe distraction any more than was already necessary. Additionally, Churchill was utterly unable to convince Ismet Inönü (the Turkish President) to enter the war on the side of the Allies until the very end of the war.

And to the second question about access to the ME/Caucasia being attractive, these are technically two separate questions. Nazi influence in the Middle East was independent of any interest they may have had in Turkey, and was met with mixed reception. Reaction against Nazism was fierce in Egypt, more open amongst the Baathi's in Syria, and more of a marriage of convenience amongst the Arab Palestinian leaders (Hajj al-Amin al-Husayni). The Caucasus was firmly in the grasp of the USSR, and since the Nazi's were up for invading Russia and gaining Black Sea control, then that would be easy enough--no need to engaging yet another neutral power (and one with quite a large standing army to boot).

That last point is perhaps the most critical -- Turkey was probably the most mobilized neutral power of the whole conflict. Turkish neutrality was constantly under threat and there definitely was the thinking that they were ready to enter (on either side) at a moment's notice. The precipitating effect of this is often credited with Turkey's zeal in participating in the Korean War (several hundred thousand soldiers got all jacked up for a war that they ultimately didn't get to fight, hence the first legitimate opportunity to fight following the war, they took).

As for how they were able to deny the very compelling reasons not to enter (until very early in 1945, when they did effectively join the Allies), one must credit the deft diplomacy of Ismet Inönü. Russia was of course a threat, but Inönü himself was largely the architect of Turkey's alliance with the USSR during the late 20s and early 30s. Arguably, he had a much better feel for Stalin and his aims than any American or British diplomat. Likewise, he was able to deny many advances from Churchill who was operating on the rather stupid assumption that the Turks would bend to the threat of Russian invasion because they viewed them as mortal enemies (this might have worked on a paranoid Ottoman sultan, like, say, Abdülhamid II, but not on Inönü, who was much smarter).

High politics aside, there's another reason for Turkey's neutrality in WWII, and this is part of the argument I'm trying to formulate in my own research, and that has to do with the fact that the social and intellectual situation on the ground was incredibly fractured in terms of which side they actually supported. There were fierce fights in the press about whether Turkey should enter into an alliance with the West, Russia or Germany. Political ideologies of communism, fascism, nationalism and Islamism were beginning to harden, and with the convenient polarities of the world war, became popularized in the culture. The point being that although they were not fighting with guns and bombs, the Turkish public was fiercely entrenched in the ideological battles being fought throughout Europe, and this battle had extreme consequences. They were certainly involved in this conversation, and observers from all sides of the European conflict were keenly aware of the conversations that were going on. If Inönü were to enter on one side or the other, it would have taken a serious ideological campaign of support to throw their support behind one side or the other. Remember, if Turkey joined the Allies, these are essentially the same powers that twenty-odd years earlier they were fighting against in their war for independence. If they were joining the Axis, that would have serious repercussions for some of their minorities and would involve a more radical shift in the ideological nature of their regime (though there were many affinities between Inönü and Mussolini, the Turks were not in the empire business). Ultimately, Inönü was successful in bottling up this conversation until after the war was over--after which he was able to manage the popular ideological situation without the threat of having to fend off an invading foreign power.

Lastly, here's a few books that might enlighten you on this scenario:
Metin Heper Ismet Inönü

Mark Mazower Inside Hitler's Greece

Erik Jan Zürcher Turkey: A Modern History

There's also much, much more written in Turkish on this subject, and I might guess from your user name that you might read Turkish. If you're interested I can provide those books too.

u/hkkt · 8 pointsr/Turkey

The classic book on the subject is [The Emergence of Modern Turkey] (http://www.amazon.com/Emergence-Modern-Studies-Eastern-History/dp/0195134605/) by Bernard Lewis. The down side is that it's now showing its age (it was first published in 1951). A book to supplement it would be [Turkey: A Modern History] (http://www.amazon.com/Turkey-History-Erik-J-Zurcher/dp/1860649580/) by Erik Zurcher.

u/_Whoop · 5 pointsr/Turkey

Your own Erik Zürcher (nicknamed the Dutch Turk Expert) wrote this: http://www.amazon.com/Turkey-History-Erik-J-Zurcher/dp/1860649580

u/TheGerryAdamsFamily · -8 pointsr/HistoryPorn

Fighting for the independence of their people. Armenians were not really persecuted in this period. In fact as Christians they were under the protection of the European powers at the time and often had more rights that typical ottoman peasant.

Edit: Lol, downvote all you want but this is a fact. I'd recommend this if any of you actually want to learn some history.

Edit 2: Or if you don't want to read a whole book - http://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/minorities_ottoman_empiremiddle_east - this gives an overview of how the Ottoman Empire went from a flawed multi-cultural Empire to genocidal fuckfest.