Mustafa Aksakal on World War I and the end of the Ottoman Empire
March 17, 2026
Turkey Book Talk #266 – Mustafa Aksakal, associate professor of history at Georgetown University, on “The War that Made the Middle East: World War I and the End of the Ottoman Empire” (Princeton University Press)
The book gives a revisionist take on the Ottoman Empire’s dissolution, suggesting it was not a foregone conclusion and alternative future paths were possible.
Aksakal argues that the end of the empire and emergence of nation states in the region resulted from a combination of European imperial ambitions, resentments among local populations, and catastrophic decisions taken by the Committee of Union and Progress in power in Istanbul during the war.
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