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ANKARA: [USAK Conference] Britain's Great War On Turkey From An Iris

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  • ANKARA: [USAK Conference] Britain's Great War On Turkey From An Iris

    [USAK CONFERENCE] BRITAIN'S GREAT WAR ON TURKEY FROM AN IRISH POINT OF VIEW
    Agshin Umudov

    Journal of Turkish Weekly
    Oct 26 2010

    On October 26, International Strategic Research Organization (USAK)
    organized a 2-hour seminar on "Britain's Great War on Turkey from an
    Irish Point of View" which was presented by Dr. Pat Walsh. The aim of
    the seminar was to discuss Ottoman Empire during the WWI and the 1915
    events. USAK Vice President Mehmet Tiras also attended the conference.

    At the beginning of the seminar, moderator, Prof. Guner Ozkan,
    introduced Dr. Walsh to the audience. After that Dr. Walsh gave a
    presentation that addressed the following questions: Why did Ireland
    involve in the "Great War"?; why did Britain make a war on Ottoman
    Empire?; what were the Britain's objectives and motivations in war
    against Ottoman Empire?; why did Britain produce so much propaganda
    against Ottoman Empire?; lastly, what were the positive affects of
    the Great War in Turkey? Elaborating on the above listed questions Dr.

    Walsh pointed out that Ireland's involvement in the Great War against
    Ottoman Empire could be explained by looking at the inner politics
    of the Great Britain in the early twentieth century. Apart from that,
    he noted that, unfortunately, in Ireland people perceived the "Great
    War" as a war of small nations; this in turn enticed many Irish men to
    join the war against Turks. He stated that Turkish victory in Gallipoli
    substantially decreased the Irish support for the British royal army.

    Dr. Walsh also gave the perfect picture of the alliances that were
    formed before and during the WWI. He depicted how Britain's traditional
    stance towards Ottomans had changed just before the WWI; oftentimes
    in the history, particularly in the 19th century, Great Britain was
    supporting Ottoman Empire in order to curb the Russian expansion in
    Asia, especially down to the Indian Ocean.

    Interestingly, Dr. Walsh stressed that most of the ongoing problems
    of the Middle East, such as Israel-Palestinian, were sown by the
    British Empire. He said that "Britain conquered too much land that
    eventually became unable to rule over them".

    Lastly, Dr. Walsh depicted how Britain used Armenians as a tool to
    create a barbarian image of Turks all over the world. He said that
    up to the WWI Turks were known as the "clean fighters"; and Britain
    felt that such image of Turks must be impaired in order to make the
    conscription easer. To that end, Britain used Armenians to create
    "inhuman" image of the Turks. Moreover, small nations within the
    Ottoman Empire were also used to cause instability within the Ottoman
    Empire.

    At the end of the seminar, Vice President and Deputy Director of USAK,
    Mr. Mehmet Tiras, presented Dr. Walsh a plaque.




    From: A. Papazian
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