WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.359 [BLANK_AUDIO] 00:00:05.359 --> 00:00:09.720 So, what were the challenges that led to the emergence of Turkish nationalism? 00:00:11.520 --> 00:00:14.712 In Turkish nationalism, we are talking first and 00:00:14.712 --> 00:00:17.524 foremost of the pressure that is coming from 00:00:17.524 --> 00:00:20.184 Europe and the problem of secession by the 00:00:20.184 --> 00:00:24.696 Christian populated territories in the European part of [INAUDIBLE]. 00:00:24.696 --> 00:00:30.987 Ottomanism failed to keep the Christians inside the Empire. 00:00:30.987 --> 00:00:33.980 During the [UNKNOWN] read on the about the equality 00:00:33.980 --> 00:00:37.411 about the law that was passed, and this equality before 00:00:37.411 --> 00:00:41.061 the law that included Christians and Muslims; was suppose 00:00:41.061 --> 00:00:44.240 to create a shared Ottoman identity but it did not. 00:00:46.810 --> 00:00:50.770 In the face of Christian secession, Sumpana turn to 00:00:50.770 --> 00:00:57.370 [INAUDIBLE] to strengthen the bonds between the increasingly Muslim empire. 00:00:57.370 --> 00:01:01.539 As Christian seceded, so the Empire became even more Muslim. 00:01:03.170 --> 00:01:07.880 But this idea of pan-Islam and uniting the people on the basis of their religion. 00:01:07.880 --> 00:01:12.990 Was becoming less and less acceptable to the new, Westernizing Turkish elite. 00:01:14.640 --> 00:01:17.470 They believed in Turkish national solidarity. 00:01:17.470 --> 00:01:21.080 Based on a common langauge, Turkish, European-style. 00:01:22.250 --> 00:01:25.660 The empire now was almost entirely Turkish and Arab. 00:01:27.400 --> 00:01:31.410 Therefore, the emphasis on Turkishness could be a cause of tension with 00:01:31.410 --> 00:01:36.480 the Arabs, especially after 1908 when the young Turks came to power. 00:01:39.160 --> 00:01:41.930 So, though Turkish nationalists, the young Turks 00:01:41.930 --> 00:01:44.509 were reluctant to push Turkish nationalism too far. 00:01:45.590 --> 00:01:50.340 Not create a break with a very large narrow Muslin population. 00:01:51.590 --> 00:01:53.531 Then who were the young Turks. 00:01:53.531 --> 00:01:58.349 The young Turks were young military officers and bureaucrats, the graduates 00:01:58.349 --> 00:02:02.039 of the [INAUDIBLE] and not the usual opponents of the Sultan. 00:02:03.040 --> 00:02:07.260 Not the local [INAUDIBLE] or the unruly tribes or the Christians. 00:02:09.509 --> 00:02:12.410 And it's the Young Turks who stage a revolution 00:02:12.410 --> 00:02:17.911 in July 1908, dispose the Sultan in April of 1909. 00:02:19.270 --> 00:02:24.350 And continued with the process of reform in the military with German advisers, 00:02:24.350 --> 00:02:27.270 as they continued like their predecessors, building 00:02:27.270 --> 00:02:30.050 new schools and adding to legal reform. 00:02:31.530 --> 00:02:33.020 The young Turks continued as 00:02:33.020 --> 00:02:36.770 their predecessors, building a modern infrastructure. 00:02:36.770 --> 00:02:41.900 Telegraph, roads, and railways, generally modernizing the Ottoman Empire. 00:02:43.980 --> 00:02:46.820 Government became ever more centralized. 00:02:46.820 --> 00:02:49.170 Even the development of an effective secret police. 00:02:50.870 --> 00:02:55.610 Many of the revolutionaries, those who came out the revolution of 1908. 00:02:55.610 --> 00:02:59.140 Where military officers organized in an organization that 00:02:59.140 --> 00:03:02.740 was called The Committee of Union and Progress. 00:03:02.740 --> 00:03:05.730 In short, the C-U-P. 00:03:05.730 --> 00:03:07.970 They sought the salvation of the empire 00:03:07.970 --> 00:03:10.910 and the restoration of the 1876 Constitution. 00:03:12.000 --> 00:03:13.910 They believed in Turkish nationalism. 00:03:13.910 --> 00:03:19.730 On Westernized education and on the implementation on the constitution. 00:03:23.110 --> 00:03:27.480 There was very impressive impact amongst the young 00:03:27.480 --> 00:03:30.959 Turks and others in the Muslim middle east. 00:03:32.110 --> 00:03:36.580 Of the defeat of Russia in 1905, by the Japanese. 00:03:38.220 --> 00:03:43.160 This was a defeat of a European power by an Asian power. 00:03:44.410 --> 00:03:46.900 And in looking for the success of the Japanese against 00:03:46.900 --> 00:03:50.955 the Russians, many in the Middle East focused on the fact. 00:03:50.955 --> 00:03:52.950 That Japan had gone in the direction 00:03:52.950 --> 00:03:56.190 of constitutionalism, whereas the Russians had not. 00:03:56.190 --> 00:04:00.220 And therefore, the idea of a constitutional government 00:04:00.220 --> 00:04:03.680 was gaining ground as a source of collective power. 00:04:05.500 --> 00:04:08.420 But also, for the young Turks. 00:04:11.240 --> 00:04:16.800 Constitutions meant, the steady shift of power into the hands of 00:04:16.800 --> 00:04:21.029 the army at the expense of both the sultan and the bureaucracy. 00:04:22.740 --> 00:04:25.200 They also believed that the resumption of 00:04:25.200 --> 00:04:27.910 parliamentary life, would ease you to peer pressure. 00:04:29.270 --> 00:04:29.940 But he did not. 00:04:31.060 --> 00:04:34.810 In the Balkans, the Ottomans continued losing ground. 00:04:36.560 --> 00:04:40.541 And in 1911 the Italians took Tripoli in Libya. 00:04:40.541 --> 00:04:44.919 In 1912, '13, the Ottomans lost nearly all the territory they had left in Europe. 00:04:46.450 --> 00:04:49.610 In 1913, the CUP assumed complete control, 00:04:49.610 --> 00:04:53.040 which they had not enjoyed entirely until then. 00:04:53.040 --> 00:04:55.940 But they didn't manage to do much before the outbreak 00:04:55.940 --> 00:04:59.170 of the First World War, and that changed a great deal. 00:05:00.540 --> 00:05:03.520 Since the second half of the 19th century, there had been 00:05:03.520 --> 00:05:07.310 a steadily increasing interest in the history of the Turkish people. 00:05:07.310 --> 00:05:09.620 As well as in the Turkish language, in Turkish literature. 00:05:10.790 --> 00:05:14.130 Ziya Gokalp, who lived from 1876 to 1924, 00:05:14.130 --> 00:05:19.510 was the most prominent idealogue of Turkish nationalism. 00:05:19.510 --> 00:05:25.550 He rejected autonism and made theTurkish nation the basis of his program. 00:05:25.550 --> 00:05:28.730 But as long as the empire continued to exist. 00:05:28.730 --> 00:05:32.620 Turkish nationalism, as a practical, political program, had little 00:05:32.620 --> 00:05:36.380 appeal to the leadership and to the general public. 00:05:36.380 --> 00:05:41.430 The CUP, those sympathetic and supportive of Turkish nationals, continued like 00:05:41.430 --> 00:05:46.614 their predecessors with autonism, centralization and modernization. 00:05:47.630 --> 00:05:51.038 It would take the end of empire for [INAUDIBLE] 00:05:51.038 --> 00:05:54.880 ideology to become the policy of the new Turkish republic. 00:05:57.040 --> 00:06:02.150 This emergence of Turkishness, and Turkish nationalism, gives 00:06:02.150 --> 00:06:06.100 rise to a question of how this all relates. 00:06:07.170 --> 00:06:09.750 To the notorious Armenian tragedy. 00:06:12.990 --> 00:06:17.290 And now we turn to this so called Armenian problem. 00:06:19.580 --> 00:06:24.510 Since the Empire was losing territory all the time, what was 00:06:24.510 --> 00:06:28.699 left of the Empire which essentially was the area of Anatolia. 00:06:31.420 --> 00:06:37.560 Faced increasing nationalist challenges by others, 00:06:37.560 --> 00:06:42.350 that served to reinforce Turkish identity and nationalist fashions. 00:06:43.910 --> 00:06:45.739 With the loss of the European province. 00:06:47.350 --> 00:06:53.360 Anatolia was established as the heartland of the Turkish speaking people. 00:06:53.360 --> 00:07:01.210 And it was its zone of their prospective self-determination. 00:07:01.210 --> 00:07:04.459 But this allowed for the emergence of the Armenian problem. 00:07:05.570 --> 00:07:09.882 As a potential threat to the Turkish [INAUDIBLE]. 00:07:09.882 --> 00:07:14.610 Anatolia developed, impressively like the rest of the empire, 00:07:14.610 --> 00:07:18.480 especially in the west of Anatolia during the 19th century. 00:07:19.550 --> 00:07:23.320 Eastern Anatolia remained less developed and 00:07:23.320 --> 00:07:26.990 there was considerable social and political tension. 00:07:26.990 --> 00:07:31.590 Between the Armenians who are Christians, and the [INAUDIBLE] 00:07:31.590 --> 00:07:35.500 who are Saudi Muslims in the eastern part of Anatolia. 00:07:37.430 --> 00:07:42.110 There were Armenians in all of Anatolia, but especially in the eastern provinces. 00:07:43.920 --> 00:07:46.210 And during the 19th century. 00:07:46.210 --> 00:07:51.490 An Armenian National Consciousness developed very much under the 00:07:51.490 --> 00:07:57.040 influence of western sources, especially 00:07:57.040 --> 00:08:01.770 through the American partisan missionaries who were active amongst the Armenians. 00:08:04.050 --> 00:08:06.844 The Armenians engaged in provocations against the [INAUDIBLE]. 00:08:08.130 --> 00:08:11.480 To attract European intervention on their behalf. 00:08:12.730 --> 00:08:16.720 Cooperation with Russia, men's cooperation of the 00:08:16.720 --> 00:08:20.210 Armenians, with the traditional enemy of the Armenians. 00:08:21.790 --> 00:08:28.010 Tensions between the Turkish speaking muslims and the Armenians rose. 00:08:29.330 --> 00:08:33.840 And in the last quarter the nineteenth there were massacres of Armenians, 00:08:33.840 --> 00:08:38.840 by Kurdish irregulars of the Ottoman army in the eastern part of Anatolia. 00:08:41.090 --> 00:08:43.070 A combination of a lack of 00:08:43.070 --> 00:08:47.280 government control, with suspicion towards the Armenians 00:08:47.280 --> 00:08:51.010 as a national move threatened what the Turks had left of their Empire. 00:08:52.730 --> 00:08:57.120 These two came together to allow for a 00:08:57.120 --> 00:09:00.140 terrible massacre of the Armenians to take place. 00:09:01.280 --> 00:09:05.175 This terrible massacre took place in the midst of 00:09:05.175 --> 00:09:08.848 World War One, in the early years of the war. 00:09:08.848 --> 00:09:11.129 [BLANK_AUDIO] 00:09:11.129 --> 00:09:17.063 Armenians in Eastern Anatolia had fought with the Russians against the Ottomans. 00:09:17.063 --> 00:09:20.443 Other Armenians had engaged in guerrilla operations and some 00:09:20.443 --> 00:09:24.180 Armenians populations rose against the Ottomans during the war. 00:09:26.010 --> 00:09:30.529 In the spring of 1915, with the British attacking at the Dardanelles. 00:09:31.570 --> 00:09:35.690 The Russians attacking in the East and the British apparently advancing on Baghdad, 00:09:35.690 --> 00:09:41.930 the Ottomans decided on the deportation of the Armenians in Eastern Anatolia. 00:09:44.570 --> 00:09:47.900 In the process of this deportation, hundreds of 00:09:47.900 --> 00:09:51.319 thousands, maybe even one million Armenians or even more. 00:09:52.650 --> 00:09:57.900 Perished because of the harsh conditions, dying of hunger, disease and exposure. 00:09:58.980 --> 00:10:03.688 Many were murdered by local, mainly Kurdish, tribesman and villagers. 00:10:03.688 --> 00:10:10.870 The Armenian tragedy is part of. 00:10:10.870 --> 00:10:13.820 A general transition that is taking place in the Ottoman Empire. 00:10:15.230 --> 00:10:21.380 The transition from commoner identity to territorial self-determination. 00:10:21.380 --> 00:10:28.470 And this had some very unfortunate consequences on the ground. 00:10:29.780 --> 00:10:32.390 The transition from communal co-existence, where religious 00:10:32.390 --> 00:10:36.140 communities lead side by side Ottoman style. 00:10:36.140 --> 00:10:38.600 To territorial nationalism, European style. 00:10:39.870 --> 00:10:43.430 Required some degree of territorial continuity. 00:10:45.020 --> 00:10:48.469 The need for communities now to acquire territorial continuity. 00:10:49.700 --> 00:10:54.620 In the name of self-determination, rather than communities just living side 00:10:54.620 --> 00:10:59.650 by side, created unavoidable clashes between the mosaic 00:10:59.650 --> 00:11:04.720 of minorities within the Ottoman Empire, accompanied by horrific bloodshed. 00:11:06.600 --> 00:11:08.990 The Balkans of those days. 00:11:08.990 --> 00:11:13.210 And latter-day Yugoslavia of the 1990s were one example. 00:11:13.210 --> 00:11:16.980 The Armenians in Anatolia was another. 00:11:18.630 --> 00:11:23.320 Not all parts of modernity and change had positive results. 00:11:23.320 --> 00:11:24.726 Some were quite catastrophic. 00:11:24.726 --> 00:11:29.510 Indeed, the Turkish-Armenian clash. 00:11:29.510 --> 00:11:32.550 Was the worst example of this unfortunate reality.