New Zealand's Chanak bellicosity: Ian McGibbon notes the centenary of the crisis that could have plunged New Zealand into a war with Turkish nationalists.

• Author: McGibbon, Ian
• Position: ANNIVERSARY

Russia's aggression in Ukraine has gripped New Zealanders' attention, and induced their government to send troops to Europe to assist that beleaguered country. One hundred years ago, New Zealanders were equally transfixed by events occurring not far to the south of Ukraine--the possibility of a major war breaking out with Turkish nationalist forces in September 1922.

The Chanak Crisis had its origins in the Allied victory over the Ottoman Empire in the First World War in November 1918. Under the armistice arrangements, British and French troops occupied not only Istanbul (then Constantinople), the Ottoman capital, but also positions commanding the Dardanelles, the strategic waterway that linked the Aegean and Marmara seas. It had been the Allied attempt to seize this waterway that had brought some 17,000 New Zealanders to the Gallipoli peninsula in 1915--and cost more than 2700 of them their lives.

The first attempt to reach a peace settlement with the Ottoman Empire, the Treaty of Sevres negotiated in Paris in 1920, provided for control of the Dardanelles to go to the Greeks, and for the occupation of large swathes of Anatolia (the Asian portion of the Turkish mainland) by Greek and Italian forces. Many Ottomans recoiled at the proposed peace treaty. A nationalist movement led by Mustafa Kemal (later Ataturk), an army officer who had distinguished himself during the Gallipoli campaign, emerged as a new centre of power in Anatolia, based in the city of Ankara.

Conscious of the many Greek ethnic residents in Anatolia, Greece landed forces there with a view to occupying the territories allotted to it in the Sevres treaty. At first, they swept forward, but eventually came up against Turkish forces defending Ankara. Stalemate followed in what became known as Turkey's War of Independence. This was broken in 1922 when Kemal's forces broke through, and sent the Greek military forces into headlong retreat. This would culminate in their hasty evacuation from the port of Smyrna (today's Izmir). Thousands of ethnic Greek Christians were left to be massacred by Kemalist forces, a searing tragedy that enflamed public opinion in the West.

Further west, the Turkish nationalists also approached the city of Chanak (Cannakale), which overlooks the Dardanelles narrows. As the possibility of a clash loomed, some in the British government welcomed the prospect, showing the same under-estimation of their Turkish opponent that had proved so costly in 1915.

As the...