# Attack on Titan: The Turkish and Ottoman References

*Film, TV & Music · Marcus Reed · 2026-10-08*

## TL;DR

Attack on Titan, created by Hajime Isayama and serialized from 2009, draws heavily on real-world history, and viewers have long noted details that echo Ottoman and Turkish culture. These include the Mid-East Empire, Erwin Smith's appearance, military ranks, and food and architecture shown throughout the story. Many of these links remain fan interpretation rather than confirmed authorial intent.

## Key facts

- Hajime Isayama began publishing Attack on Titan in 2009 in Bessatsu Shonen Magazine.
- The series features a nation called the Mid-East Empire, which fans frequently compare to the Ottoman Empire.
- Erwin Smith, commander of the Survey Corps, is often compared to Mustafa Kemal Atatürk because of his appearance and leadership role.
- The Eldia and Marley conflict is widely read as an allegory for real-world imperialism and ethnic persecution.
- Isayama has confirmed German and other European influences on the series, while Turkish and Ottoman links remain largely fan analysis.

## What Turkish References Are in Attack on Titan?

Hajime Isayama's *Attack on Titan* has been running as a manga since 2009 and as an anime since 2013, and somewhere in that decade-plus of walls, Titans and betrayals, a whole layer of Ottoman and Turkish history quietly moved in. The Turkish references in *Attack on Titan* are not just a fan game. Some of them are deliberate, and some of them fall apart the moment you look closely.

Here is the honest version. A reader named ironman5 laid out the case in a Turkish piece dated 20 February 2025, opening with the observation that the story drinks heavily from Japanese, German and Turkish history all at once. Fair enough. But treating every visual echo as a confirmed design choice? That is where it gets shaky.

So this is the split we are working with. Which Turkish and Ottoman references in *Attack on Titan* hold up as real, and which are parallels fans built that the show never actually asked for?

**Spoiler warning:** this piece walks straight through major plot turns, including the Marley arc, the Uprising arc and the battle for Shiganshina.

One confirmed thread is the armband. In Marley, Eldians are forced to wear yellow bands marked with an insignia that closely resembles the Star of David, a direct visual echo of the Nazi-era Jewish badge. That parallel is intentional and it is not subtle.

Another confirmed one is a reversal. Germany and the Ottoman Empire fought the First World War as allies. In the anime, Marley and the Mid-East Empire are at each other's throats. The show flips the alliance on its head.

Then there is the island of Eldia, which many readers read as Japan, with the idea that Japanese ancestors fled to an island to escape persecution. No reliable historical account supports that claim, and no stated authorial intent confirms it, so treat it as a story people tell rather than a fact.

Which leaves the biggest thread of all: Erwin Smith and Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. That is where the next section goes, and it is where the record gets genuinely messy.

## The Mid-East Empire and Marley: An Ottoman Analog That Gets Flipped

Look at the map in Attack on Titan and you will find two great powers locked in a war that never happened in our world. Marley, the empire that rules the continent, is fighting the Mid-East Empire, a rival state that many viewers read as a stand-in for the late Ottoman Empire. Here is the twist that makes the whole thing worth a second look: in real history, Germany and the Ottoman Empire fought on the same side during World War I as Central Powers allies. In the anime, Marley and the Mid-East Empire are flat-out enemies. The alliance is inverted, and that single flip tells you something about how Hajime Isayama rearranges history instead of copying it.

The Ottoman reading of the Mid-East Empire is popular, and the show does sprinkle in Ottoman visual cues. Fans point to rakı, baklava, ice cream and the fez as evidence that the Mid-East Empire is modeled on the Ottoman decline period, the çöküş dönemi (literally, the collapse period). That specific list of four items, and any explicit citation of the Ottoman collapse, cannot be confirmed. What is clear is the complaint that comes with it: the Turkish piece by ironman5 argues the show coded the Mid-East Empire as "Arab-like," and ties that to the Ottoman dynasty's late-period Arabization. It even suggests this is one reason Turks today still get mistaken for Arabs.

### Why the Armbands Matter More Than the Food

One detail in the Marley arc is not up for debate. Marleyans force Eldians to wear armbands bearing a symbol that closely resembles the Star of David. This is an intentional parallel to the Nazi-era Jewish badge, and it lands with full weight. The show is not being subtle here, and it does not want to be.

Then there is the claim that Eldia "is basically Japan," because Japanese ancestors supposedly fled Chinese persecution to an island. That framing is unverified. No reliable historical account supports the idea of Japanese ancestors escaping Chinese persecution onto a separate island, and no stated authorial intent confirms that Eldia equals Japan. It is a fan reading, not a documented fact.

So what you are left with is a show that borrows from Turkish, German and Japanese history all at once, then scrambles the pieces. The Ottoman analog fights the German analog. The persecuted wear a badge borrowed from another genocide. And the island that looks like Japan is never officially named as Japan at all. That is the game Attack on Titan Turkish references play, and it is why the comparisons keep pulling people back to the screen.

## Is Erwin Smith Based on Atatürk? The Parallel Fans Can't Stop Drawing

No official confirmation exists that Hajime Isayama modeled Erwin Smith on Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, but the comparison is one of the most persistent fan theories in the Attack on Titan community, and it circulates far beyond Turkey. The resemblance fans point to is real in places, exaggerated in others, and flatly wrong in at least one popular version.

The claim you see repeated most often is that Erwin commands the "57th Survey Corps," just as Atatürk commanded the "57th Regiment." That one is false on both sides. Erwin commands the Survey Corps, full stop, with no numbered designation attached to his title. Atatürk, during the Gallipoli campaign of 1915, commanded the 19th Division, not the 57th Regiment. The number 57 belongs to a different unit in that battle entirely, and the parallel as usually stated simply does not hold.

What does hold is the shape of the two men's conviction. Erwin believed humans existed beyond the walls when almost no one around him could see it, and the story frames that belief as something only he carried. According to the account that sparked this whole comparison, Atatürk argued for striking the Greeks at their strongest point, reasoning that the northern Greek forces were unaware and the southern front could be shattered, and that other commanders opposed him fiercely. The source presents this as fact, but no reliable historical record confirms the specific quoted reasoning, so treat it as the story rather than the record.

The withdrawal comparison is similar. Atatürk did conduct a strategic pullback toward the Sakarya line near Ankara. The source presents the framing about leaving western Turks exposed to Greek atrocities, along with the line about drowning the Greeks in the middle of Anatolia, as fact, but that specific quotation and framing are unverifiable. What is documented is the maneuver itself.

Erwin's version of the same cold arithmetic is not disputed at all. To capture the Female Titan, he let Stohess District be destroyed. Maneuver gear worked better inside the city, so he traded a district for a Titan, and the heavy urban damage was the price he accepted. That willingness to spend lives and streets for a victory nobody else could see is where the two figures genuinely rhyme, and it is why the comparison refuses to die.

## The Sacrifice Speech, the Eye, the Arm: Where the Parallel Gets Personal

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the Turkish Republic, took shrapnel to the eye during the Gallipoli fighting in 1915, and the damage left him with a lasting squint. Erwin Smith, commander of the Survey Corps, loses his right arm to a Titan in the battle to retake Wall Maria during the Return to Shiganshina arc. Both men went back to the front as soon as their bodies allowed it.

One man carries the wound in his face, the other on his empty sleeve. Neither treats it as a reason to sit down.

The speech is where the argument gets loudest. Before Erwin leads his broken formation against Zeke's Beast Titan, he rallies what is left of his soldiers with a call to die for a purpose bigger than themselves. According to the original account, this moment is "almost identical" to Atatürk's famous order at Gallipoli, the one that begins with him commanding his men to die. The two scenes share a theme of sacrificial warfare, and that theme is real. Near-identical wording? Not really. Treat the "almost identical" framing as the storyteller's enthusiasm, not a transcript.

The prison claim needs the same caution. The source presents it as fact: both men thrown in cells and sentenced to death by power-worshipping sycophants, then watching those sentences quietly drop while their accusers faded into footnotes. Erwin does face a trial threat in the anime. There is no reliable record of Atatürk being imprisoned and sentenced to death in that framing, so hold that half of the parallel loosely.

What does hold up is the friction with authority. Atatürk had documented tensions with the Committee of Union and Progress and later with Enver Pasha, pushing back against commanders who outranked him and, in his view, understood less. Erwin's faction clashes with the Military Police across the Uprising arc, and he does not blink. Two men, two establishments, same refusal to bow.

## Puppet Kings, Blond Hair, and a Lover Left Behind: The Parallels That Slip

Here is where the fan list starts to wobble. The claim that both men toppled a puppet king and handed power onward, Atatürk to the people and Erwin to Historia, the rightful heir, is a loose characterization rather than a clean match. Atatürk did abolish the Sultanate, and Erwin's faction did install Historia as queen, but "puppet king" is doing a lot of quiet work in that sentence.

The blond-and-blue-eyed line is simply wrong. Atatürk had blue eyes, yes, but his hair was blond to light brown and usually described as fair, so the tidy visual twin the list wants does not hold up. The lover parallel is softer still. Erwin's backstory really does involve giving up Marie to join the Survey Corps, but the Bulgarian sweetheart attributed to Atatürk cannot be reliably confirmed, so treat that half as legend rather than record.

The remaining items, top students with educations far beyond their era, faith placed in the young rather than the old, are the author's characterizations. They read well. They are not documented parallels.

So where does that leave the whole exercise? Some of the Attack on Titan Turkish references are solid ground. The armbands Eldians are forced to wear in Marley, marked with a Star-of-David-like insignia, are a real and intentional echo of the Nazi-era Jewish badge. The inverted alliance is real too: Germany and the Ottoman Empire fought as Central Powers allies in the First World War, while Marley and the Mid-East Empire are enemies. The damaged eye from shrapnel, the lost arm, both verifiable. The Erwin and Atatürk list is something else, a fan-built pattern that stitches genuine history to invention and hopes you will not check the seams.


## Frequently asked questions

**What Turkish and Ottoman references appear in Attack on Titan?**

The most-discussed Attack on Titan Turkish references are the Mid-East Empire, widely read as an Ottoman analogue, the yellow armbands worn by Eldians in Marley, and a fan-drawn parallel between Commander Erwin Smith and Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. The armband imagery is the clearest confirmed echo of twentieth-century history.

**Is the Mid-East Empire in Attack on Titan based on the Ottoman Empire?**

The Mid-East Empire is widely read as an Ottoman analogue, and the anime gives it some Ottoman visual cues. Fans also point to rakı, baklava, ice cream and the fez, but an explicit citation of the Ottoman decline period cannot be confirmed, so treat those four items as reported rather than settled.

**Was Erwin Smith inspired by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk?**

No authorial confirmation has ever been stated, and the popular "57th" detail is simply wrong. Erwin Smith commands the Survey Corps with no 57th designation, while Atatürk commanded the 19th Division at Gallipoli, not a 57th Regiment. The resemblance rests on fan observation, not on any documented source.

**Why do Marley's treatment of Eldians resemble Nazi persecution of Jews?**

Because the parallel is deliberate. In the Marley arc, Eldians are forced to wear yellow armbands bearing an insignia that resembles the Star of David, an intentional echo of the Nazi-era Jewish badge. That visual choice is the most concrete and verifiable historical reference in the entire series.

**What is the meaning of the 57th regiment in Attack on Titan and Turkish history?**

The premise itself is faulty. Erwin does not command a 57th unit of any kind, and Atatürk's famous Gallipoli command was the 19th Division. Any argument built on a shared "57th" number is resting on a detail that does not exist in either the anime or the historical record.

**Did Attack on Titan reference Turkish food like rakı, baklava and ice cream?**

The Turkish piece asserts that these appear alongside the Mid-East Empire, but the claim cannot be independently confirmed. Rakı, baklava, ice cream and the fez are the four items most often named, and while Ottoman visual cues in the Mid-East Empire are widely accepted, the specific food and drink list remains contested.

**How does Attack on Titan parallel the German-Ottoman alliance in World War I?**

It inverts it. In reality, Germany and the Ottoman Empire fought as Central Powers allies during World War I, while in Attack on Titan, Marley and the Mid-East Empire are enemies at war. The real alliance becomes an on-screen rivalry, which is one of the sharper historical reversals in the series. Editorial note: Details that remain unconfirmed by the creator or official materials are presented here as fan interpretation rather than established fact.

Canonical: https://curio.madeda.com/attack-on-titan-the-turkish-and-ottoman-references/