ABSTRACT
The Westernization of Turkey started long before Atatiirk. A century ago a reformed and constitutional Turkey was admitted to the Concert of Europe: the Turkish delegates at Strasbourg follow a long line of Europeans. By the First World War the entire Ottoman ruling class was Westernized: it had been educated abroad or in foreign schools in Turkey, or again on translations of foreign textbooks. The success of the revolution of Atatiirk was therefore no accident. What it did was to proclaim the private practices of the rulers as the faith of the state. The Middle East is behind the back of republican Turkey. It is also, to use the unlovely language of Soviet
experts, an internal emigre. But let us take the rejection first. It was made easier by the fact that politically there was nothing left to reject: the Arabs had come under the care of a Western head master, and both teachers and pupils looked hopeful. Nevertheless, ram’s horns were produced and anathemas pronounced:
‘We came near to extinction as we tried to free ourselves from this race [the Arabs] which has lost all nobility and vitality. I personally would much rather see as neighbours on our southern frontiers Paris smarties than Syrian hajjis [Moslems who have been on a pilgrimage to Mecca]. At least the Parisians are generous enemies and intelligent and honest friends. For five centuries we gave our blood and our possessions for the Arabs and still could not please them. Let us see how the noble race fares under the French.’
