Talk: “Atatürk: The Soldier Who Made the Statesman, a Neglected Dimension” by Prof. Dr. George W. Gawrych
Professor of Modern Middle East and Military History, Baylor University, Texas, USA.
Thursday, March 3, 12:30 p.m.
A-130 (Seminar Room), FEASS Building
Abstract:
Despite the plethora of studies on Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, scholars and writers have essentially glossed over his military career as inconsequential for understanding the statesman. Yet, it is hard to imagine Ataturk abandoning what he learned and applied as an Ottoman officer when he became a political leader. So it is important to ask how Atatürk consciously developed as a military leader. Drawing upon material from my book The Young Atatürk: From Ottoman Soldier to Statesman of Turkey (2013), translated into Turkish as Genç Atatürk, I analyze Atatürk’s development as Ottoman officer along the triad of the intellect (dimağ), conscience (vicdan), and sentiment/emotions (hissiyat). My sources include Ataturk’s own military publications, personal notebooks, and two signature commands. I end my presentation by suggesting that Atatürk’s military career provides insights into developing intellectual and emotional maturity.
Short Bio:
Prof. Gawrych is a professor of Modern Middle East and Military History at Baylor University, (2003-present). He taught for 19 years at the US Army Command and General Staff, Fort Leavenworth (1984-2003). He was a Visiting Professor in the US Military Academy, West Point, 2002-2003. He will be Charles Boal Ewing Chair of Military History at US Military Academy, West Point, scheduled for 2016-2117. Prof.
Gawrych’s selected publications are as follows:
· The Young Atatürk: From Ottoman Soldier to Statesman of Turkey. London: I. B. Tauris, 2013. Won the Distinguished Book Award for Military Biography for 2014 from the Society for Military History. Finalist in History Today (UK-based magazine) for best history book award. Turkish translation: Genç Atatürk. Doğan Kitap, 2014.
· The Crescent and the Eagle: Ottoman Rule, Islam and the Albanians, 1874–1913. London: I. B. Tauris, 2006.
· Co-author with Robert F. Baumann and Walter E. Kretchik, Armed Peacekeepers in Bosnia, Fort Leavenworth: Combat Studies Institute Press, 2004. Project supported by a grant from the United States Institute for Peace and includes a sixty-minute educational film and a CD, both produced in 2003.
· The Albatross of Decisive Victory: War and Policy between Egypt and Israel in the 1967 and 1973 Arab-Israeli Wars. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2000.
· “Şemseddin Sami, Women, and Social Conscience in the Late Ottoman Empire,”
Middle Eastern Studies, 46 (January 2010), 97-115.