Fascism — The Dark Face of Humanity

The chapter opens with the tense background of Turkish-Italian relations: the Italo-Turkish War over Tripolitania, the Treaty of Ouchy, Italy's «temporary» occupation of the Dodecanese without returning them, and its entry into World War I on the Entente side had created a negative image of Italy in Turkey. After the war, however, Italy failed to obtain the ports of Izmir and Fiume, and Britain's intervention to hand Izmir to Greece opened a rift between Italy and its allies. Against this background, Italian troops in Anatolia turned a blind eye to the Turkish nationalist forces, tried to cooperate with local Turkish administrations, and withdrew quietly once they believed the national struggle would succeed.

The chapter's real drama lies in the coincidence of dates. On 11 October 1922 the Armistice of Mudanya was signed, and the friendly attitude of the Italian delegates raised Turkish hopes for future relations. Just three weeks later, on 30 October, after the «March on Rome», Mussolini came to power, taking the foreign and interior ministries along with the premiership. The book shows how his increasingly harsh statements towards Turkey soon dispelled the goodwill built up during the national struggle.

The most valuable part is the press analysis. Hakimiyet-i Milliye, the semi-official organ of the Ankara government, wrote that events in Italy had not attracted much attention «since we are occupied with very important matters of our own». Turkish newspapers reported the coup the next day under «Breaking news» headlines, but the stories were almost entirely taken from international agencies and left without comment. What stood out was that the coup had been «bloodless». Mussolini's words outside the palace after being received by the king — «Within a few hours you will have not a ministry but a government» — were also carried by the Turkish press.

The chapter also traces the Turkish press's interest in Mussolini's foreign policy: his desire for closer ties with Britain and France, his «cordial» telegrams to Lord Curzon and Poincaré, a telegram from Paris declaring that «the union of the two Latin peoples will save European civilisation», and promises that Italy would behave «fairly» at the Lausanne Conference. The Turkish side's concern is clear: which side would Italy take at Lausanne? The section «Mussolini's Increasingly Harsh Statements» shows how the silence of the first weeks gradually turned into unease.

The chapter's strength also exposes the book's weakness. It is plainly an academic article based on periodicals: the language is heavy with Ottoman Turkish quotations, the sentences are long, and archival sources are not cited in the text. Other chapters — the theories of fascism, for example — are written in an entirely different, more general and encyclopaedic style. This makes it obvious that the book was compiled from different sources and undermines its promise of a read «in one breath».

Even so, the chapter offers Turkic-language readers a rare perspective on fascism: looking at a major historical event from the outside, through the newspaper pages of a state still in the making. Its view of Mudanya, Lausanne and the Turkish War of Independence through an Italian lens is also intriguing. Readers who want to learn about fascism in general should, however, start with the chapters on theory and Hitler, and read this one as a historical supplement.

• Chapters devoted to individual regimes and thinkers
• Quotations from periodicals and politicians' speeches
• Colour photographs and short biographies in the margins
• Bibliography and the translator's sources at the end