World War I and the Creation of the Turkish State

For more than a decade, historians have been interrogating received interpretations of the transition from the Ottoman Empire to the Turkish Republic.  Old narratives of the power of nationalism have given way to complex notions of changing affiliations.  Central questions focus on the extent to which Muslim identities directed wartime behaviors; the role of the Balkan wars and the 1919 Greek invasion in consolidating Turkish identity; and the continuity between the leadership of the Committee of Union and Progress and the new Republican government.

This paper will survey recent literature within the context of growing access to alternative sources of information and emerging openness about the early Republic within Turkish society.