OLLI Workshop: History of the Middle East

Leader: Theo Pavlidis (t.pavlidis@ieee.org)

Handout No. 6 - April 16, 2012

Ottoman Calendar

Source: The cover of the book by Elli Skopetea [ES92] and the comments about the calendar on page 99 (footnote No. 13). The title of the book is a clever pun of the double meaning of the words East and West in Greek. The closest rendering is the "Sunset of the East". Additional annotations from [BL02a, p. 270].

Key Point: Each Millet kept its own time!

 

 

 

 

 

The Bequest of the Empires: From Roman/Byzantine to Ottoman to Bitter Conflicts

Left: The Roman Empire circa 564. Right: The Ottoman Empire circa 1606. Overlayed skulls mark five areas of significant conflict in Europe and West Asia during the last 20 years (1990-2010): Bosnia, Kosovo, Chechnya, Kurdistan, and Palestine/Israel. Click here for Larger version of the map on the Right.

Maps adapted from http://www.cit.griffith.edu.au/~wiseman/Roman/5CompMaps.html

The Bitter End - 1922

1919 At the end of WW I the remaining lands of the Ottoman empire become fair game for Italy (SE Asia MInor), France (SW Asia Minor) and Greece (area around Smyrna. The British encourage the Greek army to advance into the interior hoping to reach the Mossul oil fields from the North.
1921 British establish protectorate of Iraq. That gives them access to the Mossul oil fields from the South and have no more interest in supporting the Greek army.
1922 Mustafa Kemal Pasha defeats the Greek army and the following year he establishes the Turkish Republic. He abolishes the sultanate and in 1924 the caliphate.
1922-24 "Population Exchange" between Greece and Turkey with enormous human cost. My parents were amongst those involved in the exchange and I have posted several essays on the subject in http://www.theopavlidis.com/AsiaMinor/index.htm. The site also contains essays by other people.

Some Good Books about the Greek/Turkish conflict of 1919-1924

Bruce Clark, Twice a Stranger, Harvard University Press, 2006.

Louis de Bernieres, Birds without Wings, 2004.