The Rebirth of Turkey

In Short

Clair Price offers an eye-witness account of the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the foundation of the modern Turkish Republic. Writing in 1923, he traces the decline of Sultan Abdul Hamid II’s multi-ethnic state, the failed reform attempts of the Young Turks, and the catastrophic impact of the First World War. From the ruins of defeat, Mustapha Kemal Pasha mobilizes the Anatolian peasantry, repels foreign invaders, and replaces an ancient autocratic system with a secular, Westernized republic centered in Angora. It endures as a vital firsthand record of a historic geopolitical transformation.

The Story

The narrative begins with the decline of the old Ottoman regime under Sultan Abdul Hamid II, a system that divides its subjects into separate religious communities and relies on traditional military strength while falling behind the industrializing West. Deep within the army, covert revolutionary movements take root. Young officers, inspired by forbidden Western political texts, form the Committee of Union and Progress—the Young Turks—hoping to save the failing empire through constitutional reform and the unification of all races into a single Ottoman identity. Among these ambitious young men is Mustapha Kemal, born in Salonica and trained in the military academies.

The imperial structure is caught between competing foreign ambitions. Great Britain and Russia fight for influence across the Near East, holding the fragile empire together only to protect their own imperial trade routes and borders. When Germany enters the region with the Bagdad Railway project, the Ottomans align with Berlin, plunging into the First World War. The conflict brings total devastation. Enver Pasha's Pan-Turanian offensives fail, internal ethnic conflicts break out, and the Allied powers move to partition the core Turkish homelands.

Following the armistice, European armies occupy Constantinople, and Allied-backed Greek forces land at Smyrna to claim Anatolian territory. The Sultan's government in Constantinople capitulates to foreign oversight, leaving the country disarmed and helpless. Refusing to accept total subjugation, military leaders break away from the old capital. Led by Mustapha Kemal, Fevzi Pasha, Rafet Pasha, and Kiazim Karabekr Pasha, they retreat into the Anatolian interior to organize a civilian and military resistance. Establishing a new capital at Angora, they form the Grand National Assembly and launch the Turkish Nationalist movement.

Kemal’s forces face immense challenges: an impoverished peasantry, internal counter-revolutions sponsored by the Sultan, a war against the Armenian Republic of Erivan in the east, and a major Greek military offensive in the west. Securing their eastern flank through treaties with Soviet Russia, the Nationalists re-equip their armies without relying on hyper-inflated paper money. At the Sakaria River and later at Afium-Karahissar, the Nationalist forces turn the tide, routing the Greek army and driving them back to the Mediterranean at Smyrna. Victorious on the battlefield, the Nationalists force the Western powers to negotiate at Lausanne, securing full independence, abolishing foreign economic privileges, and establishing a sovereign, secular republic driven by a new national identity.

How It Unfolds

The old order crumbles Mustapha Kemal grows up in Salonica, enters the Ottoman War Academy, and secretly reads banned political plays that inspire him to join the clandestine movement to overthrow Abdul Hamid II's autocratic rule.

The imperial trap The Young Turks seize power to build a unified constitutional empire, but their ambitions are crushed between British and Russian imperial strategies, internal ethnic divisions, and the outbreak of the First World War.

Disaster and occupation Following defeat in the Great War, foreign troops occupy Constantinople, Allied powers partition the empire's territories, and Greek armies land at Smyrna, threatening the survival of the Turkish homeland.

The retreat to the interior Rejecting the Sultan's submission to foreign control, Kemal and his fellow officers relocate to the rugged interior of Anatolia, establishing a defense base and a new government in Angora.

Securing the borders The Nationalists defeat invading forces on the eastern front, make peace with Soviet Russia to recover lost provinces, and reach a diplomatic settlement with the French in Cilicia.

Victory and rebirth Fevzi and Ismet Pashas launch a secretive, decisive counter-offensive that routing the Greek army, driving them out of Smyrna and forcing Western nations to recognize a fully independent Turkish Republic.

The People

• Mustapha Kemal Pasha: A headstrong officer from Salonica who transforms from an exiled secret revolutionary into the supreme commander and political architect of the new Turkish Republic. He seeks to transform a traditional military society into a modern, Westernized economic state.
• Enver Pasha: A leading Young Turk figure whose ambitious Pan-Turanian vision and wartime leadership lead the empire into an alliance with Germany, disastrous military campaigns in the Caucasus, and ultimate political exile.
• Fevzi Pasha: The chief military organizer in Angora who secretly re-mobilizes and re-equips the Nationalist armies in Anatolia, directing the strategic operations that expel foreign forces.
• Rafet Pasha: A key Nationalist general who helps administer the interior provinces under Angora's authority, handling difficult civil administration duties and maintaining relations with foreign relief agents.
• Kiazim Karabekr Pasha: The commander who holds the eastern provinces from Erzerum, securing the military victory over Erivan that stabilizes the eastern frontier and opens vital routes to Central Asia.

In Its Own Voice

“Watan gave the young Kemal his first taste of Western ideas and made him secretly a Young Turk and a bitter opponent of Abdul Hamid, which at the time was a rather ridiculous thing to be.”

“Inside a ring of British bayonets, the Asia Minor provinces had been turned loose in semi-independence and were being rapidly disarmed.”

“For twenty years he has been lifting up his cry and today he is still making his way through the scorched and decimated villages of Turkey, still burning himself out with his old cry: ‘I am a Turk; My race and language are great.’”

What It's Really About

The book explores how an ancient empire, bound by religious tradition and strangled by foreign intervention, reconstitutes itself into a sovereign nation-state. Price examines the conflict between Eastern traditionalism and Western modernism, showing that Western political and economic methods were ultimately adopted by the Turks to defeat Western military imperialism. He argues that real political reform cannot be imposed from the outside by foreign powers acting under the guise of religious or humanitarian interest. Instead, stable governance emerges only when a population takes control of its own affairs under a uniform system of domestic law, abandoning imperial overreach in favor of a clear, unified national identity.

Why Read It Today

This work offers an immediate, unvarnished look at a pivotal moment in twentieth-century history. Writing in 1923, Price captures the immediate aftermath of the Turkish War of Independence with the clarity of a veteran journalist who walked the streets of Angora while the new government was being forged. Readers interested in geopolitical shifts, military history, and the modernization of the Middle East will find his analysis sharp and refreshing.

The prose is swift and engaging, balancing high-level diplomatic analysis with vivid, ground-level descriptions of scorched villages, military councils, and dusty provincial towns. Price does not indulge in the romantic orientalism common to European travelogues of the era; he treats his subjects as practical political actors navigating an existential crisis. The text naturally reflects the period spellings and political vocabulary of the 1920s, but its core narrative remains dynamic and accessible. It stands as an essential document for understanding how the modern Near East was born out of the ashes of imperial collapse.