Riding the Storm: The Dynamics of Anglo-Ottoman Relations from 1918 to 1923

Abstract

By the end of the First World War, a new formulation needed over the territory in order to get the most out of the partition of the Ottoman Empire. Along with the premiership of D. Lloyd George, temporal solutions were consolidated, however, the fall of Eleftherios Venizelos against the rise of Turkish Nationalist Movement under Mustafa Kemal’s leadership led to these solutions permanently. The events from 1918 to 1923 in Anatolia and the conflict between Greece and Turkey therefore were vital in order to examine British foreign policies towards the Turks. Although there exists quite a large amount of analysis regarding those events generally or particularly, no research has been carried out in order to analyse this process which ended with the ‘radical change’ in British attitudes towards Turkey. This book examines the dynamics of Anglo-Ottoman relations in conjunction with their long-term effects on British diplomacy. While a chronological order of the crucial events is employed, the main sources for this study have been cabinet papers, memorandums and reports, the Times Digital Archive 1785-1985, memoirs of statesmen’s, theses and various published books and articles. This study is divided into three main chapters. The first chapter, The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and British attitudes, will focus on the dissolution period: i. The Occupation of Constantinople; ii. The Paris Peace Conference; iii. The Turkish Nationalist Movement. The purpose of the second chapter, the Greco-Turkish war in the shadow of British diplomacy, is to explain the main events of the study: The Occupation of Smyrna and The Chanak Crisis. Finally, there will be an examination of the Lausanne Conference and Peace Treaty in order to explore the results of the above mentioned events. In the conclusion, an attempt is made to determine the nature of this ‘gradual and radical change’ in the policies of British diplomacy along with the dynamics of Anglo-Turkish relations.