Living in Cyprus, where the island has been divided into two parts for the past 40 years and the topic of the Turkish occupation is very painful, I suddenly found myself increasingly interested in the history of these lands. At some point, I realized that I actually knew very little about the Ottoman Empire, whose influence on the local way of life would be foolish to deny. Then, I randomly came across a book by Eugene Rogan titled The Fall of the Ottomans: The Great War in the Middle East.
I must say, that most people from Soviet and post-Soviet backgrounds know more about the Great Patriotic War. Even about World War II as a whole — less so (for example, in school we didn’t really study the war in the Pacific that the Americans fought). And as for World War I — even less, with only the basic clichés: gas attacks, trench warfare, Archduke, and revolution ending the war. I personally had no idea that there were battles in the Middle East at the time. That’s why I found it extremely interesting to learn about life there and why the war led to the collapse of the once-mighty Ottoman Empire. From Soviet history, I remembered that Russians had fought the Turks for centuries. But I knew much less about the details. Here, however, a Western author painstakingly reconstructs the history of that time, also relying on Turkish sources that are now available.
He begins the story with events leading up to the war itself: what the situation was in the once-mighty empire, what problems were tearing it apart, and how the Young Turks came to power, under whose leadership the empire entered the war.
Next, you learn why the Germans were so eager for the Ottoman Empire to join the war, and why the British were so afraid of this. How the Allies in the Entente were already cooking a hare before catching him, only to embarrass themselves several times… and so on, up to the end of the war.
The author presents a lot of facts, constantly referring to documents, books, and letters from the participants of the events. But when viewed as a popular science book, it still seemed a bit dry to me. It’s not academic work, but the abundance of facts sometimes becomes tiring.
At the same time, some episodes of this war made me smile (if that’s appropriate when talking about events where thousands of people died). Many victories, it seems, were achieved not due to the genius of the commanders, but more often due to the stupidity of their opponents. For example, when the Turks, in a fog, fought amongst themselves for several hours. In general, treachery, folly, and betrayals — all of it reads like an adventure novel. But we mustn’t forget the real hundreds of thousands who perished.
The author also separately describes the events of the Armenian genocide. And that, too, is terrifying: how even before Hitler’s time, a large portion of the population was deliberately exterminated (by the way, Turkey still does not recognize this as genocide).
On the downside, Russian sources are almost not used, even though several chapters are dedicated to the battles involving Russian troops (mainly in the Caucasus). Most references are to Turkish documents. This is a general feature of the book: you can tell the author worked extensively with archives, but mostly British and Turkish ones.
Overall, though, the book is interesting. It provides a view of the war from a completely different angle and helps you understand the roots of the modern political map and the problems in the Middle East.
My rating: 3/5
