War and Nationalism

The Balkan Wars, 1912–1913, and Their Sociopolitical Implications

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.

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
A Note on Transliteration
Foreword by Edward J. Erickson
Foreword by Peter von Sivers
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Lasting Consequences of the Balkan Wars (1912–1913) - Isa Blumi and M. Hakan Yavuz

Part I - The Origins of the Balkan Wars
1. Warfare and Nationalism: The Balkan Wars as the Catalyst of Homogenization - M. Hakan Yavuz
2. Bulgaria and the Origins of the Balkan Wars 1912–1913 - Richard C. Hall
3. Young Turk Policy of Macedonia: Cause of the Balkan Wars? - Mehmet Hacisalihoglu
4. Rebels with a Cause: Armenian Macedonian Relations, 1890–1913 - Garabet Moumdjian
5. The Balkan War of 1912: An Assessment of Responsibilities - Feroze Yasemee
6. Epidemic Diseases seen in the Traceian Front of the Ottoman Empire During the Balkans - Oya M. Daglar

Part II - External Influences and Consequences
7. Ottoman Diplomacy and the Origins of the Balkan Wars - Gul Tokay
8. Austria-Hungary’s struggle for status quo and the Serb and Montenegrin Propaganda in Sandžak Novi Pazar (1879–1908) - Tamara Scheer
9. The Balkan Wars in the Perspective of the European Powers: The Italian Case - Francesco Caccamo
10. Between Cross and Crescent: British Diplomacy and Press OpinionToward the Ottoman Empire in Resolving the Balkan Wars, 1912–1913 - Pamela Dorn Sezgin

Part III - Transforming Ottoman Society
11. The Balkan Wars and the Turkish Women’s Movement - Serpil Atamaz
12. And the Awakening Came as a Result of the Balkan War: The Changing Conceptualization of the Body in Late Ottoman Society - Melis Hafez
13. Making Sense of the Defeat in the Balkan Wars: Voices from the Arab Provinces - Eyal Ginio

Part IV - Ethno-Religious Cleansing and Great Power Epistemologies
14. Paramilitaries in the Balkan Wars: The Case of Macedonian Andrianople - Sahara Tetsuya
15. Nationalism of Coercion: The Case of Pomak Christianization (Pokrasvane) in Bulgaria, 1912–1913 - Fatme M. Myuhtar-May
16. Bulgaria’s Policy towards Muslims during the Balkan Wars - Neriman Hacisalihoglu
17. Perceiving the Balkan Wars: Western and Ottoman commentaries on the 1914 Carnegie Endowment Balkan Wars Inquiry - Patrick Adaimak
18. Savagery and the “Modern” State: Competency and Civilization in the Late Ottoman and Early North American Empires - Jon Schmitt

Part V - Balkan States
19. Shifting Possibilities Before and After 1912: Empire to Nation-State - Isa Blumi
20. Ottoman Disintegration in the Balkans and its Repercussions - Sevtap Demirci
21. Aggressiveness of Bosnian and Herzegovinian Serbs in the Public Discourse during the Balkan Wars - Amir Duranovic

Part VI - Republic of Turkey and Republican Introspection
22. Balkan Ward and Population Movement - Nedim Ipek
23. The Refugee Elite of the Early Republic of Turkey - Erik-Jan Zurcher
24. The Loss of the Lost: Selective Memory and The Construction of the Modern Turkish National Identity - Mehmet Arisan
25. The Political and Military Consequences of the Balkan Wars on the Republican Military - Dogan Akyaz
26. The Impact of the Balkan Wars on the Emergence of Modern Turkey - Preston Hughes
27. The Impacts of the Balkan Wars on the Turkish Intellectuals - Funda Selcuk Sirin
28. What Did the Albanians Do?: Post War Disputes on “Albanian Attitudes” - Cagdas Sümer
29. More History than they Can Consume?: Perception of the Balkan Wars in the Turkish Republican Textbook (1932–2007) - Nazan Cicek

Chronology
Bibliography
List of Contributors
Index