Decisive Victories

Whilst the battles of Gallipoli (1915) and Sakarya (Aug 1921) on one hand and that of Dumlupınar (Aug 1922) on the other differ in the sense that the first two were defensive, the third was offensive, they all played an equal role in preserving Turkey as we know it today. During the 19th century, in particular, then in the wake of the Balkan Wars (1912-1913), the Ottoman realm had, after each defeat, shrunk so much that by the First World War, only Turkey as we know it today was left. Thus, had the Turks lost the battles cited here, there would be no Turkey as exists now; and whatever would have survived would have been a much narrower piece of land with a population perhaps the tenth of what it is today. This work does not focus on the military side of these battles, although this takes some interest; its interest is in highlighting what was in store for Turkey in terms of its final carving up, including just prior to the Gallipoli Campaign, and soon after prior to the other two battles.The book relies primarily on sources of the time to catch the raw picture of what was truly happening on the ground, a reality that has been since much muddled by historical narrative.This is the first book on the Battles of Sakarya and Dumlupınar written in a European language.The book includes maps and illustrations.