Abstract:

Nationalisms, especially of the irredentist typ~s~ have always been very controversial issues, for value judgements can often prevent the emergence of dispassionate presentations. This is particularly true of Pan-Turkism at a time when the Pan-Turldst groups led by the Nationa.list Action Party are being tried for attempting to change the constitutional order in Turkey. As early as 22 July 1918, the Allies believed that Pan-Turkism was «primarily a Teutonic conception... adroitly moulded iı.nd dire<;ted by the German masterminds coni:rolling the Committee of Uni~ıi and Progress.»ı According to the documents, imperialist Gern:ıany, by. provoking the Ottoman Turks towards their ancestral home, hoped to establish her hegemony over the lands stretching from Berlin to Bokhara. The same tune was played just before and during the Second World War. It is interesting to note that this view found so many adherents in the Turkish left and used as a pretext to discredit the nationalists in Turkey2. Pan-Turkism .ıı.as also been under attack by the ultra-religious rightists in Turkey, who, hasing their bias on a ınisleading British intelligence report of 1909, believed the mavement was given birth by the Salonika Jews [dönmes] controlling the Committee of Union and Progress, the Pan-Turk party. of the Second Constitutional Era (1908-1918)3.

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