No foolish escapade: the Irish at Gallipoli

AGAIN Dr Pat Walsh (Letters, April 5) ignores the facts in wishing to view British involvement in World War I against Turkey as part of an imperialist plot to dismember it.

Any cursory investigation into why Turkey entered the war never posits Britain as the instigator or willing facilitator of such an action.

Dr Walsh does not respond to the well-known facts that the pro-German faction within the Turkish government were the controlling party in the lead-up to the war.

His quote of Lord Grey as expecting war with Turkey in early October 1914 was just demonstrating sensible political prescience knowing this fact and knowing Turkish fears of Russia.

Britain had to remain true to its ally Russia when it declared war on Turkey in early November 1914 and so, like the larger war itself, it was sucked into a conflict not of its choosing.

Just because some Foreign Office civil servants in the years prior to the war might have hatched ideas and theories on how a post-Ottoman empire might benefit Britain does not produce the smoking gun when the war eventually came.

It was not akin to the American neo-conservative policy of regime change in Iraq that was voiced publicly in 1998 and given effect in 2003 when the opportunity arose. Turkey attacked Russia first and sunk some of its ships. There was no British involvement here.

Whether it justified a Russian declaration of war is another question, but considering their fraught history it was a highly provocative act that made Russia’s reaction understandable in the circumstances.

If Serbia had done the same to Austria, its possible the conflict would have remained regional as Austria’s harsh demands could in some way have been seen to be justified, and not as they were, an over-reaction to the assassination of the archduke as a means to reassert Austrian dominance in the region. Military aggression by a country usually produces a response and Turkey’s acts were no different with the result that many Irishmen fought and died in the war against Turkey.

It was not a foolish escapade. There was a worthy principle at work in their sacrifice.

Mark Cronin

Delaney Park

Dublin Hill

Cork