![]() ![]() ![]() The narrative also speaks of the eventual “treachery” of Arabs and Armenians, the unavoidable fall of the Empire, and the “necessary” emergence of the Republic of Turkey. Non-Turkish people have been erased from it, making their contributions to the war (whether voluntary or involuntary) invisible. This master narrative has attributed the war’s glory and sacrifice mainly to the Ottoman Empire’s Turkish population. The texts’ wide circulation during the past eighty years has substantially affected ordinary Turks’ view of the war and coloured their sense of national identity. Regardless of these texts’ manifold differences, they have all contributed to the creation and perpetuation of a nationalist, exclusivist, Turko-centric narrative of the Ottoman war effort, both at the institutional level and in society at large. Others were national bestsellers or widely cited works by Turkish intellectuals and scholars, often repeating aspects of the same narrative. Some of these sources originated from key state institutions, such as the Turkish military, the Turkish Ministry of Education, and the Turkish Historical Society (Türk Tarih Kurumu, or THA), and thus represent the “authorized” story of the war. Texts were selected according to their status as “official accounts,” high circulation, and popularity among Turkish readers. ![]() Mandatory high school and university history textbooks, widely circulated academic and popular histories, the Turkish General Staff’s campaign histories and other publications, and war memoirs, published in Turkish from the 1930s to the present, constitute my source base. "This essay traces and contextualizes manifestations of Turkish nationalism in selected texts describing the Ottoman Empire’s experience of the First World War. ![]()
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