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From “notable Syrians” to “ordinary Anatolians”: the politics of “normalization” and the experience of exile during World War I

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2021

M. Talha Çiçek
M. Talha Çiçek*
Affiliation:
Department of History, Istanbul Medeniyet University, Istanbul, Turkey.
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Abstract

This article examines an important attempt at the political engineering undertaken in Syria during the Great War. It focuses on the experience of the Arabs exiled to Anatolia by Cemal Pasha to redesign Syrian society in line with the Committee of Union and Progress’ idea of empire, which imagined an authoritarian regime. The members of the Arabist parties were removed from Syria to eliminate their contemporaneous and future resistance to the emerging despotic regime. The article sets out to analyze what the exiles experienced in Anatolia using their memoirs in Arabic and the Ottoman documents describing their conditions in Anatolia, and to what extent the aims could be realized. It argues that the purpose was to put a politics of “normalization” into practice by depoliticizing the Arab notable families through “relocation” to Anatolia, although the resistance of the exiles and varying attitudes in Ottoman bureaucracy significantly differentiated outcomes. It also uncovers many untold stories with regard to the daily life of the exiles and adds much to our knowledge on the experience of Arab exiles in Anatolia. It is the first serious examination of the experiences of the Arab exiles using their own texts and narrative.

Keywords

World War IArab exiles of Syriapolitics of normalizationOttoman CollapseCemal Pasha
Type
Article
Information
New Perspectives on Turkey , Volume 65 , November 2021 , pp. 49 - 77
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Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

Author’s note: I am indebted to Salim Tamari who provided Issa al-Issa’s exile memoires to me which immeasurably enriched the content. Selim Deringil has kindly read the unpublished manuscript and made inspiring comments. I am grateful for his contributions. Anonymous reviewers have greatly increased the analytical level of the article by their comments and critiques. I am thankful for their feedback. Finally, I am indebted to NPT editors Biray Kolluoğlu and Evren M. Dinçer for their patience and help during the reviewing and publication process.

References

References

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BOA: Başbakanlık Osmanlı Arşivleri, Istanbul.Google Scholar
A.MTZ.CL: Sadaret Mümtaze Cebel-i Lübnan.Google Scholar
DH.EUM: Dahiliye Nezareti, Emniyet-i Umumiye Müdiriyeti.Google Scholar
DH.ŞFR: Dahiliye Şifre Kalemi.Google Scholar
DUİT: Dosya Usulü İrade Tasnifi.Google Scholar
HHStA: haus- hof- und staatsarchiv, Vienna.Google Scholar
PA 38/366, PA 38/369.Google Scholar
PA-AA: Politisches Archiv des Auswaertiges Amt, Berlin.Google Scholar
Türkei 177, Bd.13, Bd. 17.Google Scholar
TTK Arşivi: Türk Tarih Kurumu Arşivi,Ankara.Google Scholar
KO Koleksiyonu: Kazım Orbay Koleksiyonu.Google Scholar
“Khalil Sakakini’s Ottoman Prison Diaries: Damascus (1917–1918).” Jerusalem Quarterly File 20 (2004): 7–23.Google Scholar
Akarlı, Engin D. The Long Peace: Ottoman Lebanon, 1861–1920. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993.Google Scholar
Aktar, Ayhan. “A Propaganda Tour Organized by Djemal Pasha: The Arab Literati’s Visit to the Gallipoli Front, 18–23 October 1915.” In Syria in World War I, ed. Çiçek, M. Talha, 61–86. London: Routledge, 2016.Google Scholar
Al-Issa, Issa. Unpublished Memoirs, the section “Issa al-Manfi,” from the estate of Raja al-Issa, Amman, Jordan, undated.Google Scholar
Al-Qattan, Najwa. “When Mothers Ate Their Children: Wartime Memory and the Language of Food in Syria and Lebanon.” International Journal of Middle East Studies 46, no. 4 (2014): 719–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aliye Divan-ı Harb-i Örfisinde Tedkik Olunan Mes’ele-i Siyasiye Hakkında İzahat. Dersaadet: Tanin Matbaası 1916.Google Scholar
Arslan, Shakib. Siratu Dhatiyya. Beirut: Dar al-Tali’a, 1969.Google Scholar
Beška, Emanuel. “Isa al-Isa’s Defence Speech at the May 1914 Trial in Jaffa.” In Studia orientalia Victori Krupa dedicata, ed. Bucková, M. and Rácová, A., 27–36. Bratislava: Slovak Academic Press, 2016.Google Scholar
Cemal, Paşa, Hatırat 1913–1922. Dersaadet, 1922.Google Scholar
Çiçek, M. Talha. “İttihatçılar ve Şerif Hüseyin: Mekke İsyanınının Nedenleri Üzerine Bir Değerlendirme.” Tarih ve Toplum: Yeni Yaklaşımlar, 15 (2013): 41–57.Google Scholar
Çiçek, M. Talha. War and State Formation in Syria: Cemal Pasha’s Governorate during World War I. London: Routledge, 2014.10.4324/9781315851785CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deringil, Selim. The Ottoman Twilight in the Arab Lands: Turkish Memoirs and Testimonies of the Great War. Brighton, MA: Academic Studies Press, 2018.Google Scholar
Dündar, Fuat. Modern Türkiye’nin Şifresi. Istanbul: İletişim, 2008.Google Scholar
Erden, Ali Fuad. Birinci Dünya Savaşı’nda Suriye Hatıraları. İstanbul: Türkiye İş Bankası, 2006.Google Scholar
Fawaz, Leila. A Land of Aching Hearts: The Middle East in the Great War. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2014.10.4159/harvard.9780674735651CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaiser, Hilmar. “Regional Resistance to Central Government Policies: Ahmed Djemal Pasha, the Governors of Aleppo, and Armenian Deportees in the Spring and Summer of 1915.” Journal of Genocide Research 12, no. 3–4 (2010): 173–218.10.1080/14623528.2010.528999CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kayalı, Hasan. Arabs and the Young Turks. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997.10.1525/9780520917576CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kurd, Ali, Muhammad. Al-Mudhakkirat, Vol. 1. Damascus: Dar al-Taraqqi, 1948.Google Scholar
Pasha, Djemal. Memories of a Turkish Statesman, 1913–1919. New York: George H. Doran Company, 1922.Google Scholar
Rogan, Eugene. “Exile and Memory: Arabs in the Ottoman Great War.” In In the House of Understanding: Histories in Memory of Kamal S. Salibi, ed. Abdul Rahim Abu Husayn, Suleiman A. Mourad, and Tarif Khalidi, 219–38. Beirut: AUB Press, 2017.Google Scholar
Said, Amin. Al-Thawrat al-Arabiyya al-Qubra: Tarihu mufassal cami’ li al-kadiyyeti’l-Arabiyye fi rub’ kurn, Vol. 1. Cairo: Maktabatu’l-Madbuli, undated.Google Scholar
Salaam, Salim Ali. Mudhakkiratu Salim Ali Salam, ed. Hassan Ali Hallak. Beirut: al-Dar al-Jami’iyya, 1982.Google Scholar
Tamari, Salim. “Issa al-Issa’s Unorthodox Orthodoxy: Banned in Jerusalem, Permitted in Jaffa.” Jerusalem Quarterly 59 (2014).Google Scholar
Tamari, Salim. “Muhammad Kurd Ali and the Syrian-Palestinian Intelligentsia in the Ottoman Campaign against Arab Separatism.” In Syria in World War I, ed. Çiçek, M. Talha, 37–60. London: Routledge, 2016.Google Scholar
Tanielian, Melanie S. The Charity of War: Famine, Humanitarian Aid, and World War I in the Middle East. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2018.Google Scholar
Tauber, Eliezer. The Emergence of the Arab Movements. London: Frank Cass, 1993.Google Scholar
Yenen, Alp. “Envisioning Turco-Arab Co-existence between Empire and Nationalism.” Die Welt des Islams (2020): 1–41.Google Scholar