Research Information System
Archiv Orientalni, vol.88, no.3, pp.309-340, 2020 (AHCI)
Abstract: This
article surveys Ottoman reserve officers’ autobiographical texts and emphasizes
the potential these personal narratives present to revise both the existing
historiography on the Ottoman First World War and the official memory of the
war in Turkey. After briefly exploring the evolution of the Ottoman reserve
officer system as an integrated part of Ottoman conscription, the article shows
how reserve officers’ war memories shed light on the neglected aspects of
Ottoman soldiers’ experience of the front, particularly the daily life of
trench warfare. Reserve officers’ personal narratives include critical observations
and remarks about the Ottoman war experience, and the article discusses how
these critical memories may be significant for the revision of the official
narrative of the war in Turkey. Yet it also argues that as these personal
narratives are diverse, they do not present an all-embracing counter-narrative of
disillusionment. The article also draws attention to the shaping effect of the
context in which these autobiographies were written down and explores the
organic ties between personal and collective memories of the Great War in
Turkey.
Keywords:
reserve officers, Ottoman army, diaries and memoirs, conscription, trench
warfare, disillusionment debate.