Ataturk By British Sources

Abstract

Ataturk is the hero of many popular biographies in the world, especially in Western literature. With that; Works related to Atatürk are not limited to this field. It can be said that; the scope of many works in the field of modern Turkey, Ataturk largely gathers around the axis of attention. Britain supported Turks mostly through diplomatic means until World War I (1914-1918) and sometimes with military forces (as in the Crimean War of 1855-1856). Meanwhile, in the second half of the XIX century, he participated in the movements to share the Ottoman Empire, but he also made efforts to prevent it from disappearing as a whole (as in the Berlin Treaty of 1878). But we see that this traditional policy of Britain changed with the First World War. Because, together with Tsarist Russia, which had adopted the fall of the Ottoman Empire as the main goal, the Turks were also in the same ranks. Especially in the First World War, upon the collapse of Tsarist Russia and the defeat of the Ottoman Empire, Britain became the flag-bearer of the movement against the Turks. In the words of the well-known British writer Lord Kinross, "... all this (order) against the Turks was especially under the head of the (British) Prime Minister Lloyd George. Despite being a great (!) Leader, Lloyd George was a person with little knowledge of geography and historical events.