Turkish Historiography of the First World War

Abstract

Turkish historiography on the First World War remained under the shadow of debates about the role of the wartime Committee for Union and Progress (CUP) government for decades. For that reason, Turkish historians preferred to work on the War of Independence (1919–23) under the leadership of Ataturk rather than the First World War. Consequently, there is not a comprehensive Turkish bibliography of the First World War on the 100th anniversary of its commencement, despite the momentous impact of that conflict on Turkey. Nevertheless, one can consult several accounts that military officers wrote after the war, and based on documents in Turkish military archives. While these sources fill an important gap about military operations, they are generally descriptive narratives with scant or no analyses. In addition, there also are many memoirs that provide valuable information about some of the issues that are neglected in the military accounts. In the last decade, several researchers have begun to examine many of the previously ignored topics pertaining to events in Anatolia during the war. Even though there still is no Turkish text that provides a comprehensive account of all the intertwined diplomatic, economic, political, military, and social dimensions of the First World War, these recent works give hope that such a long-needed book is on the horizon.