10: Defending Turkey on global stages : the young Turk Reşit Saffet’s internationalist strategy in 1919

Band | article

The article investigates the internationalist activities of a Turkish nationalist during his Swiss exile at the outset of the postwar settlements in early 1919. Reşit Saffet, a devoted Young Turk and Ottoman diplomat on leave, moved in the internationalist milieus in Berne while his agenda remained utterly nationalist. Drawing on pan-Turkic, pan-Islamic, anti-imperialist, socialist, and Wilsonian ideas, he adapted his rhetoric to the internationalist conferences he attended; he thus sought to disguise and to defend his otherwise discredited nationalist cause on these global stages. The article traces Reşit Saffet’s internationalist activities as a strategy to engage with the ‘Paris moment’ and the Ottoman question beyond official politics and governmental discourse. In a time when Ottoman diplomacy was in deadlock as a result of the Empire’s exclusion from the peace conference and Reşit Saffet’s career faced an unknown future in the face of the Ottoman collapse, internationalism seemed a promising option. The case illustrates the increasingly blurred border between state diplomacy and non-governmental influence, and thus questions exclusively state-centered approaches. It reveals the appeal and potential held by civil society internationalism, not only for Western pacifists and socialists, but also for anti-imperialist nationalists confronted with the disappointment of the ‘Wilsonian moment’.
Paris Peace Conference, Internationalism, League of Nations, Second International, Ottoman Empire, Panturkism

Angaben zum Objekt

• Sprache: Englisch
• Anmerkungen: Carolin Liebisch ; Gesehen am 16.06.2017

Verweise und Beziehungen

• Erschienen in: New global studies

Klassifikation und Themen

• Schlagwort: Internationalismus ; Turanische Bewegung

Beteiligte, Orts- und Zeitangaben

• Urheber: Liebisch-Gümüş, Carolin
• Erschienen: Berlin ; Boston, Mass. , 2016

Weitere Informationen

• Förderung: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
• DOI: doi:10.1515/ngs-2016-0022
• URN: urn:nbn:de:gbv:3:5-100142
• Letzte Aktualisierung: 04.06.2025, 13:15 MESZ