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  • Andrew Mango obituary

    Andrew Mango obituary

    Writer on Turkey who produced a notable biography of Atatürk


    Jonathan Fryer
    theguardian.com, Monday 21 July 2014 12.01 BST
    http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/jul/21/andrew-mango

    Andrew Mango produced his best books about Turkey in his retirement,
    including a biography of the founder of modern Turkey, Atatürk.
    Photograph: Ben Mango

    The polyglot bon vivant is a figure more usually associated with the
    19th century than the 21st, but Andrew Mango, who has died aged 88,
    proved that it was still possible to be a scholar - in his case of
    Turkish studies - and a gentleman. For three decades he was based at
    Bush House, then home to BBC World Service radio, initially working
    for the Turkish and French language sections before becoming head of
    the South East European Service until his retirement in 1986.
    Successive Turkish ambassadors and others seeking expert advice beat a
    path to his office door, assured of brilliant conversation over drinks
    from his well-stocked cocktail cabinet.

    Though he had published a couple of books on Turkey for the general
    reader while still working for the BBC, it was during the long years
    of his fruitful retirement at his home in Barnes, south-west London,
    that he produced his most significant work, including a magisterial
    biography of the founder of modern Turkey, Atatürk (2000), and From
    the Sultan to Atatürk (2009). The scholarship was impeccable, but some
    of his historical and journalistic interpretations were controversial,
    notably his belief that the military coups of 1960 and 1980 had been
    necessary to avoid the country slipping into civil war, and his
    assertion that the Armenian massacres of 1915 did not amount to
    genocide.

    When Andrew was born in Istanbul, the Republic of Turkey was a mere
    three years old. He was the middle of three sons of a successful
    barrister, Alexander Mango, who was of mixed Italian and Greek origin,
    and his wife, Adelaide Damonov, a refugee from Bolshevik Russia.
    Despite the dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire at the end of the
    first world war, Istanbul was still one of the great cosmopolitan
    cities of the world and Andrew was soon fluent in a range of
    languages, including both Ottoman and modern Turkish, English, French
    and Greek. This enabled him, while still a youth, to get a job as a
    translator in the press office of the British Embassy in Ankara during
    the second world war - a post that qualified him for a second-class
    diplomatic passport.

    In 1947 he moved to Britain, to study at London University's School of
    Oriental and African Studies, culminating in a doctorate in Persian
    literature. His older brother, Tony, moved to the US, but the youngest
    sibling, Cyril, followed in Andrew's footsteps, later becoming
    professor of Byzantine and modern Greek at Oxford University.



    Andrew Mango during his BBC years Photograph: Ben Mango

    Andrew could easily have found a comfortable berth in academe himself,
    but he was far too interested in politics and international affairs,
    which made Bush House the ideal niche. He also kept abreast of what
    colleagues outside the BBC were thinking through his membership of the
    UK section of the Association of European Journalists. Though a
    convinced European, he believed Turkey to be better off outside the EU
    than in.

    Until his final illness, Andrew was a regular visitor to Turkey, where
    he was feted as an author who understood the complexities of the
    country and its culture. He was awarded several honorary doctorates at
    Turkish universities, as well as the Turkish Distinguished Service
    Medal.

    In 1956 he married the journalist Mary Muir. She survives him, as do
    their children, Daphne and Benedict, four granddaughters and two
    brothers.

    * Andrew James Alexander Mango, author, born 14 June 1926, died 7 July 2014

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