War and Nationalism: The Balkan Wars, 1912-1913, and Their Sociopolitical Implications

by M Hakan Yavuz (Editor), Isa Blumi (Editor)

Overview

War and Nationalism presents thorough up-to-date scholarship on the often misunderstood and neglected Balkan Wars of 1912 to 1913, which contributed to the outbreak of World War I. The essays contain critical inquiries into the diverse and interconnected processes of social, economic, and political exchange that escalated into conflict. The wars represented a pivotal moment that had a long-lasting impact on the regional state system and fundamentally transformed the beleaguered Ottoman Empire in the process.

This interdisciplinary volume stands as a critique of the standard discourse regarding the Balkan Wars and effectively questions many of the assumptions of prevailing modern nation-state histories, which have long privileged the ethno-religious dimensions present in the Balkans. The authors go to great lengths in demonstrating the fluidity of social, geographical, and cultural boundaries before 1912 and call into question the “nationalist watershed” notion that was artificially imposed by manipulative historiography and political machinations following the end of fighting in 1913.

War and Nationalism will be of interest to scholars looking to enrich their own understanding of an overshadowed historical event and will serve as a valuable contribution to courses on Ottoman and European history.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781607812401
Publisher:	University of Utah Press
Publication date:	08/15/2013
Series:	Utah Series in Turkish and Islamic Stud
Edition description:	1st Edition
Pages:	932
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 2.40(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

M. Hakan Yavuz is a professor of political science at The University of Utah. He is the editor of War and Diplomacy: The Russo-Turkish War of 1877-878 and the Treaty of Berlin (The University of Utah Press, 2011).

Isa Blumi is an associate professor of history at Georgia State University and a Senior Research Fellow for the Centre for Area Studies at Leipzig University. He is the author of Reinstating the Ottoman Empire and Foundations of Modernity.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations xi

List of Maps and Tables xii

A Note on Transliteration xiii

Foreword: Lessons Learned from the Balkan Wars Edward J. Erickson xv

Preface: The Rise of Balkan Nationalism within the Triangle of the Ottoman, Austrian, and Russian Empires, 1800-1878 Peter von Sivers xxiii

Acknowledgments xxxix

Introduction: Lasting Consequences of the Balkan Wars (1911-1913) Isa Blumi M. Hakan Yavuz 1

Part I The Origins of the Balkan Wars

1 Warfare and Nationalism: The Balkan Wars as a Catalyst for Homogenization M. Hakan Yavuz 31

2 Bulgaria and the Origins of the Balkan Wars, 1912-1913 Richard C. Hall 85

3 The Young Turk Policy in Macedonia: Cause of the Balkan Wars? Mehmet Hacisalihoglu 100

4 Rebels with a Cause: Armenian-Macedonian Relations and Their Bulgarian Connection, 1895-1913 Garabet K. Moumdjian 132

5 The Origins of the Balkan Wars: A Re interpretation Gül Tokay 176

6 A Micro-Historical Experience in the Late Ottoman Balkans: The Case of Austria-Hungary in Sanjak Novi Pazar (1879-1908) Tamara Scheer 197

7 The Balkan Wars in the Italian Perspective Francesco Caccamo 230

Part II War as Experience and the Persecution of Change

8 Armies Defeated before They Took the Field?: The Ottoman Mobilization of October 1912 Feroze Yasamee 251

9 Epidemic Diseases on the Thracian Front of the Ottoman Empire during the Balkan Wars Oya Daglar Macar 271

10 Fighting on Two Fronts: The Balkan Wars and the Struggle for Women's Rights in Ottoman Turkey Serpil Atamaz 198

11 Pomak Christianization (Pokrastvane) in Bulgaria during the Balkan Wars of 1912-1913 Fatme Myuhtar-May 316

12 Bulgaria's Policy toward Muslims during the Balkan Wars Neriman Ersoy-Hacisalihoglu 361

13 The Aggressiveness of Bosnian and Herzegovinian Serbs in the Public Discourse during the Balkan Wars Amir Duranovic 371

14 Paramilitaries in the Balkan Wars: The Case of Macedonian Adrianople Volunteers Tetsuya Sahara 399

Part III Assessing Local, Regional, and International Reactions to the War

15 Between Cross and Crescent: British Diplomacy and Press Opinion toward the Ottoman Empire in Resolving the Balkan Wars, 1911-1913 Pamela J. Dorn Sezgin 423

16 Perceiving the Balkan Wars: Western and Ottoman Commentaries on the 1914 Carnegie Endowment's Balkan 'Wars Inquiry Patrick J. Adamiak 474

17 Whose Is the House of Greatest Disorder?: Civilization and Savagery on the Early Twentieth-Century Eastern European and North American Frontiers Jonathan Schmitt 496

18 Impacts of the Balkan Wars: The Uncharted Paths from Empire to Nation-State Isa Blumi 528

19 Ottoman Disintegration in the Balkans and Its Repercussions Sevtap Demirci 558

20 "And the Awakening Came in the Wake of the Balkan War": The Changing Conceptualization of the Body in Late Ottoman Society Melis Hafez 571

21 Making Sense of the Defeat in the Balkan Wars: Voices from the Arab Provinces Eyal Ginio 594

Part IV The Republic of Turkey and Republican Introspection

22 The Balkans, War, and Migration Nedim Ipek 621

23 The Balkan Wars and the Refugee Leadership of the Early Turkish Republic Erik Jan Zürcher 665

24 The Traumatic Legacy of the Balkan Wars for Turkish Intellectuals Funda Selçuk Sirin 679

25 The Loss of the Lost: The Effects of the Balkan Wars on the Construction of Modern Turkish Nationalism Mehmet Arisan 704

26 What Did the Albanians Do?: Postwar Disputes on Albanian Attitudes Çagdas Sümer 717

27 The Legacy and Impacts of the Defeat in the Balkan Wars of 1912-1913 on the Psychological Makeup of the Turkish Officer Corps Dogan Akyaz 739

28 The Influence of the Balkan Wars on the Two Military Officers Who Would Have the Greatest Impact on the Fortunes of the Ottoman Empire and the Republic of Turkey Preston Hughes 769

29 More History Than They Can Consume?: Perception of the Balkan Wars in Turkish Republican Textbooks (1931-1007) Nazan Çiçek 777

Chronology of the Balkan Wars 805

Bibliography 809

List of Contributors 853

Utah Series in Middle East Studies 855

Index 857

Editorial Reviews

Professors Yavuz and Blumi have edited an excellent and much needed study on the interdisciplinary aspects of the Balkan Wars (1912-1913). By avoiding nationalist narratives that came to dominate the recent scholarship, the chapters rigorously develop the social, economic, cultural, and diplomatic connections between local, regional, and European dimensions of this catastrophic event that resulted in the annihilation of the Ottoman Muslim civilization in the Balkans. This book argues for a new theoretical approach to studying the complex connections between warfare, nationalism and homogenization. This book is more so a study of the patterns of the nation-building than a military history. It is a must read for the Balkan and Ottoman specialists and students of nationalism.”—Ilber Ortayli, Galatasaray University, Istanbul and the author of Discovering the Ottomans

“A very impressive collection. Not only will this be the most comprehensive volume on the Balkan Wars, but the interdisciplinary approach which it incorporates casts new light on the origins of contemporary conflicts in the Balkans.”—Uli Schamiloglu, University of Wisconsin

“War and Nationalism is the second volume in this series, which covers the causes, course and consequences of the end of the Ottoman Turkish empire. It had famously been multi-ethnic and multi-religious, and its destruction was accompanied by mass deportations, what we have learned to call ethnic cleansing, and vicious murder. This volume's originality lies in its demonstration that the first instance of this came with Greek independence, and that the model was then adapted to the rest of the Ottoman Balkans and then to Anatolia itself. The articles are of high quality, bringing various elements of history—social, intellectual, diplomatic and economic—together to present a coherent narrative of these tragedies.”—Norman Stone, Bilkent University and author of The Eastern Front 1914-1917

“War and Nationalism offers a new perspective on understanding the process of nation-building in the Balkans at the end of the nineteenth century. It indicates very clearly that war-making became an effective agent of homogenization through ethnic cleansing and mass killing. A number of papers argue that the Ottoman military defeat and the deportation of so many Muslims from southeastern Europe, and the destruction of long-established Muslim communities, radicalized the Young Turks and helped to create a revanchist (rather than nationalist) political atmosphere. Ottoman public opinion concluded that the very existence of the Ottoman state was in the balance, and that they needed a major ally. This is a large part of the explanation for the Ottomans' decision to enter the First World War. This book offers a clear and original narrative of the social and political implications of the Balkan Wars.”—Peter Sluglett, President of the Middle East Studies Association of North America, 2012-13, Visiting Research Professor, Middle East Institute, National University of Singapore

“Those with an interest in and familiarity with the south Balkans will find real merit in these papers.”—CHOICE

From the Publisher