Education and the Nation State in Republican Turkey

Abstract

The First World War ended in the total collapse of the Ottoman Empire. The Armistice which was signed on 30 October 1918 was followed by the occupation of large parts of the empire by the Allies. A British naval force arrived in Istanbul early in November. By this time, British forces occupied parts of the Arabian peninsula and southern Anatolia. British forces were followed by French and Italian troops and, in May 1919, under the cover of Allied warships an invasion force from Greece landed in Izmir (Smyrna). The treaty of Sevres which followed in August 1920 amounted to a total dismemberment of the empire. Among its provisions eastern Anatolia was to be an independent Armenian state; south eastern Anatolia an independent Kurdish state. Thrace and Western Anatolia were to be ruled by the Greeks. Turkish rule to be confined to a small arid area in central Anatolia.