Studies in Atatürk’s Turkey Th e Ottoman Empire and its Heritage Politics, Society and Economy Edited by Suraiya Faroqhi and Halil Inalcik Advisory Board Firket Adanir, Idris Bostan, Palmira Brummett, Amnon Cohen, Jane Hathaway, Klaus Kreiser, Hans Georg Majer, Ahmet Yaşar Ocak, Abdeljelil Temimi, Gilles Veinstein VOLUME 40 Studies in Atatürk’s Turkey Th e American Dimension Edited by George S. Harris and Nur Bilge Criss LEIDEN • BOSTON 2009 Cover illustration: Ghazi Mustafa Kemal, Chairman of Turkey’s National Assembly, 24 April 1923. Th is book is printed on acid-free paper. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Studies in Atatürk’s Turkey : the American dimension / edited by George S. Harris and Nur Bilge Criss. p. cm. — (Th e Ottoman Empire and its heritage, ISSN 1380-6076 ; v. 40) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-90-04-17434-4 (hbk. : alk. paper) 1. United States—Foreign relations— Turkey. 2. Turkey—Foreign relations—United States. 3. Diplomats—United States— History—20th century. 4. Diplomats—Turkey—History—20th century. 5. United States—Foreign relations—1923–1929. 6. United States—Foreign relations—1929–1933. 7. United States—Foreign relations—1933–1945. 8. Atatürk, Kemal, 1881–1938. 9. Turkey—Foreign relations—1918–1960. I. Harris, George S. (George Sellers), 1931– II. Criss, Bilge. III. Title. IV. Series. E183.8.T8S78 2009 327.730561—dc22 2009012417 ISSN 1380-6076 ISBN 978 90 04 17434 4 Copyright 2009 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, Th e Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Hotei Publishing, IDC Publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill NV provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to Th e Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change. printed in the netherlands CONTENTS Contributors ....................................................................................... vii Introduction ........................................................................................ 1 Şuhnaz Yılmaz Chapter One Louis E. Browne and the Leaders of the 1919 Sivas Congress ................................................................................ 15 Seçil Karal Akgün Chapter Two Th e General Harbord Commission and the American Mandate Question ...................................................... 55 Seçil Karal Akgün Chapter Th ree Turkey and Her Nationalist Leaders as Seen in the 1923 Reports of Louise Bryant ........................................ 83 Howard A. Reed Chapter Four Shades of Diplomatic Recognition: American Encounters with Turkey (1923–1937) ....................................... 97 Nur Bilge Criss Chapter Five Repairing Turkish-American Relations aft er the First World War: Ahmet Muhtar in Washington ............ 145 George S. Harris Chapter Six Cementing Turkish-American Relations: Th e Ambassadorship of (Mehmet) Münir Ertegün (1934–1944) .................................................................................... 177 George S. Harris Epilogue ............................................................................................... 197 Nur Bilge Criss vi contents Appendix Condensed Memorandum Concerning the Organization and Points of View of the League for the Defense of the Rights of Anatolia and Rumelia ...................... 201 Bibliography ........................................................................................ 213 Index .................................................................................................... 223 Illustrations ......................................................................................... 235 CONTRIBUTORS Seçil Karal Akgün, (Ph.D. Ankara University) is Professor of History at the Middle East Technical University (METU) in Ankara. She teaches courses on Contemporary Turkish and Modern Ottoman History. She taught at the Gülhane Military Academy, War College and at Bilkent University in Ankara. She was awarded a Fulbright Grant in 1984 and did research in the U.S. on American missionaries in the Ottoman Empire. She served as a visiting professor, research fellow and lecturer at the University of Utah and Columbia University (U.S.A.); University of Frankfurt (Germany), and Th e Hebrew University in Jerusalem. She has published on modernization in the Ottoman Empire, the Gallipoli campaign and the Anzacs, the Armenian question, Turkish revolution and reforms, education, and the history of the Red Crescent. Currently, chair of the History Department at METU, Professor Akgün is member of various Turkish and foreign historical societies and NGOs. She is heading the classifi cation project of the Turkish Red Crescent archives as well as serving as the coordinator of the joint METU-Australia McGuire University project to commemorate the centennial of the Gallipoli campaign. Nur Bilge Criss, (B.A. Ankara University; M.A. University of Florida; Ph.D. George Washington University) is State Associate Professor teach- ing at Bilkent University in Ankara and editorial board member for the journals Turkish Studies, Th e Middle East Review of International Aff airs, and Journal of Central Asian Studies, and is also a contributing editor to Th e Journal of American History. Criss is author of Istanbul under Allied Occupation, 1918–1923, and Atatürk’s Legacy: A Worldview in Historical Context. She has published articles in such journals as Studies in Confl ict and Terrorism; Journal of Strategic Studies; Security Dialogue; Journal of Peace Research; and the Journal of American History, and she has contributed chapters to such volumes as Turkey; Türkei und Europa, Facetten einer Beziehung in Vergangenheit und Gegenwart; Historical Image of the Turk in Europe; Terrorism and Politics; U.S. Military Forces in Europe: the Early Years; L’Europe et la Crise de Cuba; Der Grosse Exodus: Die Russische Emigration und ihre Zentren 1917 Bis 1941; International Institutions and Security; History and September 11; viii contributors Turkish Foreign and Security Policy: Its Environs in Eurasia and the Middle East; Th e Importance of Being European: Turkey, the EU, and the Middle East; and What Th ey Th ink of US: International Perceptions of the United States since 9/11. George S. Harris, (Ph.D. Harvard University) aft er almost 40 years of government service, retired in 1995 as Director of the Offi ce of Analysis for Near East and South Asia in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research of the Department of State. He also served as a Professorial Lecturer on Turkey and the Middle East at the School of Advanced International Studies, Th e Johns Hopkins University, from 1968 to 1981. He has in addition been a Research Fellow at Bilkent University and a Professorial Lecturer at Th e George Washington University. Among his publica- tions are Troubled Alliance: Turkish-American Problems in Historical Perspective, 1945–1971, Turkey Coping with Crisis, and Th e Communists and the Kadro Movement: Shaping Ideology in Atatürk’s Turkey. Howard A. Reed is Professor Emeritus of Middle Eastern, Islamic, and Turkish History from the University of Connecticut. Raised in İzmir, he has had lifelong experience in Turkey and the Middle East. He earned his B.A. from Yale and his Ph.D. from Princeton. He taught at these institutions as well as McGill University, where he co-founded and was Assistant Director and Professor of the Graduate Institute of Islamic Studies. He then served on the staff of the Ford Foundation before joining the University of Connecticut. He also has been a Visiting Professor or Research Scholar at Alaska Pacifi c University, the American University of Beirut, Bosphorus University, the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace, and UCLA. Şuhnaz Yılmaz (B.A. Bilkent University, M.A. and Ph.D. Princeton University) is Associate Professor of International Relations at Koç University, İstanbul. She specializes on International Affairs and the Middle East. She pursued her post-Doctoral Studies at Harvard University working on a project on the role of third party mediation in confl ict resolution, focusing particularly on the U.S. role in Turkish- Greek relations. Her areas of interest and expertise include foreign policy analysis, Turkish foreign policy, Turkish-American relations, Eurasian politics, Energy politics, Mediterranean cooperation and security, European Union Foreign and Security policy, and International develop- ment. She has publications in journals such as Middle Eastern Studies, contributors ix Insight Turkey, World Today, Middle East Journal, and Political Science Quarterly. She also has a forthcoming book entitled Turkish-American Relations (1800–1952): Between the Stars, Stripes, and Crescent from Routledge Press International Studies Series. In 2007, Şuhnaz Yılmaz received the Sakıp Sabancı International Research Award, granted by Sabancı University and the Brookings Institution, and in 2008 she has received the prestigious Distinguished Young Scientist Award (GEBIP) of the Turkish Academy of Sciences. INTRODUCTION Şuhnaz Yılmaz Th e origins of Turkish-American relations can be traced all the way back to the visit of the frigate George Washington