Remembering a Very Recent Past in the Turkish Republic

The Single Party Era’s Historical Remembrance of the Great War

Bibliographic Data

ID11046487
AuthorsSevil Özçalık Dumanoğulları (0000-0003-1100-4499, Hacettepe University, corresponding author)
Year2025
Pages1-14
Publication date2025-08-07
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueNationalities Papers (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0090-5992 • E-ISSN: 1465-3923
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/nps.2025.10085
OpenAlexW4413033095
LanguageEN
References cited15

This article examines how issues related to World War I were remembered and represented during the Single Party Era of the Turkish Republic (1923–1945), focusing on the political elite’s narrative strategies. The study situates the persistence of a positive perception of Unionism in contemporary Turkey within the historical remembrance shaped by the early Republic’s identity politics. Drawing on newspaper analyses from the 1930s and 1940s, the article reveals how narratives surrounding prominent Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) figures — such as Talat, Enver, and Cemal — evolved. Initially, the Kemalist regime distanced itself from the CUP by framing World War I (also referred to “the War” in this article) as the product of a few Unionist leaders’ recklessness while celebrating the War of Independence as the foundation of a new, victorious Turkish identity. However, by the 1930s, publications began to reinterpret and partially rehabilitate the CUP leaders’ reputations, emphasizing their dedication to state interests and leadership qualities

Ancient history · Economic history · Linguistics · Political science · Turkish · Turkish republic · Balkans: History, Politics, Society · Historical Turkish Studies · History · Philosophy · Turkey's Politics and Society

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