Between nationalism and reconciliation: the Turkish government and the dual narrativization of the battle of Gallipoli, 1923-2007

This thesis explores the attempts of various Turkish governments to construct two independent narratives, for two separate audiences, around a single site, the Gallipoli peninsula, and the battle that took place there in 1915 between Ottoman military forces and French and British imperial units. Using archival records from Britain and evidence collected at Gallipoli, this study will demonstrate the production of an unusual type of narrative - a narrative of reconciliation - aimed at drawing foreign populations to Gallipoli. Complicit in the production of this reconciliatory narrative, the Turkish government simultaneously constructs a Turkish nationalist narrative of the battle of Gallipoli for its own citizens. This thesis will examine the reasons for and processes of dual narrativization undertaken by successive Turkish governments between the early 1920s and the present, as well as the subsequent, unforeseen consequences of this endeavor.