Andrew Mango
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Andrew Mango (born 1926) is a British author who was born in Istanbul, Turkey, one of three sons of a prosperous Anglo-Russian family. He is the brother of the distinguished Oxford historian and Byzantinist, Professor Cyril Mango. Mango's early years were passed in Istanbul but in the mid-1940's he left for Istanbul and a job as a press officer in the British Embassy. He moved to the United Kingdom in 1947 and has lived in London ever since. He holds degrees from London University, including a doctorate on Persian literature. He joined BBC's Turkish section while still a student and spent his entire career in the External Services, rising to be Turkish Programme Organiser and then Head of the South European Service. He retired in 1986.
[edit] Atatürk
Mango abandoned his early intention of becoming an academic, finding his career at the BBC congenial, but he also wrote copiously in his spare time, publishing books and pamphlets on Turkey of which "Turkey" (1968) and "Discovering Turkey" (1971) are the most important. In addition he wrote a large number of shorter articles and working papers for British and American thinktanks on Turkey and its strategic role. He has also written for many years an annual review of major western studies of Turkey for the academic journal, "Middle East Studies."
The high point of Mango's career as an author, however, came after he retired from the BBC in 1986 when he was commissioned by the British publishers, John Murray, to write a new biography of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. The aim was to replace the earlier biography written by Lord Kinross who, though enthusiastic about Atatürk, had not actually been able to read Turkish sources himself.
Mango spent five years on the biography, using Turkish printed sources though not archival material. This is a controversial work that has received enthusiastic reviews from Ataturk sympathizers whereas it has had a much cooler reception from those favoring a more critical approach.
He presents Atatürk's life within the broad framework of the future of the Ottoman lands at the beginning of the twentieth century and the question of what homeland, if any, the Western Powers would leave to the Turks in the coming breakup of the Ottoman Empire. He presents Atatürk's life within the broad framework of the future of the Ottoman lands at the beginning of the twentieth century and the question of the nature of the new Turkish state. Like earlier biographers of Atatürk, Mango gives a highly detailed account of the events of Gallipoli and the Turkish War of Independence (1919-1923) and as a result the final decade of Ataturk's life when he was attempting to transform Turkey into a western-style nation is somewhat compressed. The biography has in general been warmly received in Turkey where it is now regarded as the standard life of the founder of the Republic. On the other hand, outside Turkey this book (as well as the more recent The Turks Today) has often been criticized for extreme bias and indifference to the fate of the ethnic and religious minorities before and after the founding of the Republic. Notably, Mango denies the Armenian genocide and he only discusses later Armenian reactions to the genocide without any reference to the actual Armenian deaths (which, in contrast to their designation as a genocide, are accepted by the Turkish side). In 2005, Mango published Turkey and the War on Terrorism, a medium-length study of terrorist movements in Turkey and their international links, arguing that the problems with which the West is grappling since 9/11 have been faced by the Turks for many years.
