La Costruzione di una Nazione. Carlo Galli ambasciatore ad Ankara e le relazioni italo-turche nel primo dopoguerra

This article focuses on the Turkish experiences of the Italian diplomat Carlo Galli in the 1920s and 1930s. Galli, who entered the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as a consul in 1904, had the opportunity several times during his career to travel to Eastern offices or to deal with Middle Eastern issues, on which he became an expert. As Italian delegate to the Paris Peace Conference in 1919-20, he was involved in the drafting of the Treaty of Sèvres with the Ottoman Empire, assuming a pro-Turkish position and from the beginning harbouring serious doubts about the applicability of the document. His interest in the East and his desire to protect Italian interests in the Levant were strengthened in the time he spent in Damascus from 1923 and in Tehran as head of mission from 1924 at the time of the conquest of power by Reza Khan, and then consolidated during the time he spent in Ankara as Ambassador to Kemalist Turkey, the strength of which he had been among the first to understand. Turkish questions then became a second area of expertise for the Italian diplomat, and flanked the initial one relating to Danubian-Balkan issues.