Norman Stone on Turkey: World War I, Ottoman Legacy, and Lessons from Spain

Longtime PFS member, the late Norman Stone^†, author of the wonderful book Turkey: A Short History (Thames Hudson, 2017), had many great PFS lectures including, in particular:

• PFP055 | Norman Stone, World War I—the Eastern Front: Britain, the Ottoman Empire, and the Making of Turkey and the Modern Middle East (PFS 2010)
• PFP090 | Norman Stone, Comparative History: Turkey and Spain (PFS 2012)

These lectures include the transcripts and detailed summary. Below is a combined summary of both lectures (Grok):

Norman Stone on Turkey: History, Challenges, and European Context

Norman Stone argues that Turkey must be understood as a European nation with deep historical complexities rather than through simplistic Middle Eastern lenses. He traces many modern issues to the First World War era, which he dates from 1911 with the Moroccan crisis and Italian actions in Libya that destabilized the Ottomans. Western powers, particularly Britain, displayed dangerous overconfidence in intervening in the region, as seen in the Gallipoli disaster and post-war mandates. Stone highlights how educated leaders like Lord Curzon envisioned a new Roman Empire, only to face failures evident by 1930 in Iraq, where Lawrence of Arabia contrasted efficient Turkish local control with Western forces relying on massive armies and poison gas.

Ottoman Legacy, Decline, and Atatürk’s Transformations

Stone explores why the Ottoman Empire “ticked” for centuries under Turkish rule, crediting flexible early Islam from the 15th-16th centuries, Byzantine influences, and pragmatic governance. Decline set in partly due to religious conservatism, such as ulama opposition to telescopes and mathematics after earthquakes or doctrinal fears, mirroring Spain’s Counter-Reformation stagnation where universities devolved into absurd debates like the language of angels. The Kemalist Republic rejected much of the Ottoman past as corrupt rubbish, enacting radical language and script reform on a post-war refugee clean slate, emancipating women, and building secular institutions. While successful in creating literacy and a flourishing publishing scene, Stone critiques excessive hero worship and notes limits to suppressing Islam.

Economic and Social Progress Amid Persistent Problems

Turkey has achieved impressive progress since 1923 despite losing a quarter of its population to war and epidemics. Stone praises dynamic economic growth, urbanization replacing shanties with modern flats, strong health outcomes better than Russia’s, and global reach of Turkish businessmen. He avoids “economic miracle” labels but notes commendable advances from low starting points. Yet serious challenges remain: geographical vulnerabilities with difficult neighbors, especially Greeks over costly islands and Cyprus disputes that humiliate educated Turks with visa processes. Syrian involvement brought massive refugees and escalated PKK terrorism linked to Kurdish autonomy. Kurds, about a quarter of the population speaking multiple languages, pose intractable nationality issues, as do rising political Islam and erosion of secular standards.

Religion, Politics, and Comparative Lessons from Spain

Religious politics grew from relatively uncorrupt roots in the 1960s-70s but led to current tensions, including mass journalist imprisonments that Stone condemns as excessive. He draws parallels with Spain to illuminate Turkey’s path: shared regional and minority dynamics (Basques like Kurds), costly autonomy with duplicated bureaucracies and artificial language standardization, and religion’s historical drag on innovation. Spain’s catastrophic civil war, Franco’s overreach, and eventual amnesty offer models for moving forward without endless recriminations. Stone warns against overreach in foreign policy, such as strains from Arab provinces or modern entanglements, while noting self-confidence gains that reduced the need for flattery.

Optimistic Yet Cautionary Outlook

Overall, Stone presents Turkey as a vibrant success story he personally embraced upon moving there in 1995, enjoying its lively character and resilience. He urges learning from Spain by wiping the historical slate clean, releasing imprisoned journalists, and prioritizing practical European integration over illusions. While acknowledging tense atmospheres, Kurdish complexities, economic slowdowns, and religious divides, he remains optimistic that Turkey can navigate these without descending into civil war-scale tragedy, provided it balances reform, assimilation, and realistic governance. Stone’s core argument is for contextual humility: avoiding the overconfidence that doomed earlier Western interventions and appreciating Turkey’s unique trajectory from Ottoman flexibility through Kemalist revolution to contemporary dynamism.

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