Genocide and the ‘clean-fighting Turk’ in First World War Britain and Ireland

Abstract

Abstract British and Irish attitudes towards their Turkish enemy during the First World War have rarely been explored. Unlike the German ‘Hun’, Turks were praised as ‘clean fighters’, despite overwhelming evidence of the Armenian Genocide. Using largely unexamined press material, this article attributes the ‘clean-fighting Turk’s’ longevity to the sanctity of soldier testimony, where it originated, and the preoccupation with Germany. Both Turkish chivalry, which highlighted German ‘barbarity’ by contrast, and Germano-centric interpretations of the Armenian Genocide offered hitherto unrecognized validation of the United Kingdom’s ‘just war’ in Europe. The First World War was truly global, but Germany dominated the public imagination.