Hans-Lukas Kieser, Kerem Öktem, Maurus Reimkowski, eds.. World War I and the End of the Ottoman Empire: From the Balkan Wars to the Turkish Republic. Library of Ottoman Studies Series. London: I. B. Tauris, 2015. Illustrations. 288 pp. $90.00, cloth, ISBN 978-1-78453-246-8.
Reviewed by Hakan Gungor
Published on H-War (March, 2017)
Commissioned by Margaret Sankey (Air University)
World War I and the End of the Ottomans lation” (p. 29), such as Maronite Christians in strives to place the First World War in a global Mount Lebanon, Jews in Palestine, Arabs of Mec‐ perspective, in particular, Ottoman Anatolia, the ca, and Kurds and Armenians in Anatolia. The Balkans, and Palestine. For each of these three re‐ government put its non-Turkish citizens under gions, the authors endeavor to present how na‐ surveillance, because the state considered these tionalism and its politics questioned the Ottoman minority citizens to be the potential allies of for‐ State and its legitimacy before and during the eign powers. Yiğit Akın presents a diferent kind Great War. Two of these territories—Palestine and of surveillance during the Seferberlik (mobiliza‐ the Balkans—continue to be theaters of confict tion). Akın concludes, “threat of death for non‐ today. This collective volume covers signifcant compliance” to the army created “a wave of fear events, including the Balkan Wars, World War I, and anxiety” in the Ottoman towns and villages and the Armenian genocide. Coeditors Hans- (p. 62). Kieser and Akın show that questioning of Lukas Kieser, Kerem Öktem, and Maurus minorities’ loyalty to the state and the fear of re‐ Reinkowski jointly wrote the introduction, and cruitment into the army created violence in the ten authors contributed chapters to the volume. Ottoman Empire. Thus, following the coup d’état The book is broken into four main sections. of January 23, 1913 (Bab-I Ali Baskını), which The volume follows a chronological order, start‐ brought the Young Turks to power until 1918, co‐ ing with the Ottoman loss of its European posses‐ ercion of diferent minority groups began in the sions in the Balkan Wars in 1912 through the end Ottoman land. of World War I. The frst section includes two The second part contains two chapters writ‐ chapters and sets the stage for the Great War. In ten by Y. Doğan Çetinkaya and Emre Erol. this part, Kieser argues that the Ottoman State Çetinkaya and Erol present how nationalism and “questioned the imperial loyalties of certain popu‐ religion united people against the Ottoman Em‐ H-Net Reviews pire in the Balkans and the severe response of the Russian dragoman André Mandelstam demanded Ottomans to this uprising, which ignited the the six eastern Ottoman provinces for the Armeni‐ Balkan War of 1912-13. ans. Such proposals, demands, and issues brought The last two parts of the book explore Pales‐ Turkish-Armenian relations to a deadlock, which tinian, Kurdish, and Armenian problems in the still continues. Ottoman Empire. In the third section, Michelle U. In this impressive collection, the authors use Campus and Yuval Ben-Bassat shed light on the various archival sources in many languages, in‐ Ottoman perspective during the last decade of its cluding Arabic, Ottoman Turkish, Armenian, and rule about the never-ending Palestinian issue. Macedonian. The essays interconnect diverse pro‐ Campus and Ben-Bassat explore the range of reac‐ cesses of social, political, and nationalistic ex‐ tions to Ottomanism and the roots of Palestinian change that escalated into confict and created vi‐ nationalism after the 1908 revolution. Hasan Kay‐ olence throughout the Balkans and the Middle ali’s book Arabs and Young Turks: Ottomanism, East. The volume efectively presents the defni‐ Arabism, and Islamism in the Ottoman Empire, tive end of religious and ethnic coexistence in the 1908- 1918 (1997) presents an analytical approach Ottoman Empire after World War I. The events to the emergence of Arab nationalism. Kayali con‐ that took place until 1915 marked a defnitive Ot‐ cludes that the Young Turks’ Turkifcation policy toman break with the idea of Ottomanism or Ot‐ intensifed and unifed sentiments of Arabism. As toman identity (Osmanlilik). The Ottoman revolu‐ Kayali, Campus and Ben-Bassat state that after the tion of 1908, the Balkan Wars, the coup d’état of Young Turks claimed power, the Palestinians saw January 23, 1913, and the Armenian events of Ottomanism as a “sick” concept. In 1912, several 1915 all marked the end of Osmanlilik; that is, the leading articles in the Haifa-based newspaper al- chain of mentioned events ended the viability of a Kamil and the Jafa-based newspaper Falastin multicultural, multiethnic, and multireligious Ot‐ “decried the grave ‘sickness’ facing Ottomanism” toman community. This provocative work will be‐ (p. 131). Four years after 1908, these newspapers come a central reference work for scholars, as played a key role in promoting Arab nationalism, well as an indispensable source for future studies which still persists in the Arab Peninsula. of Arab-Ottoman and Balkan-Ottoman interac‐ The last part of the book is devoted to Kurdish tions during the Young Turks reign. and Armenian problems, which Turkey has been forced to face in the international arena. Part 4 contains four chapters written by Mehmet Polatel, Thomas Schmutz, Vahé Tachjian, and Uğur Ümit Üngör. In their chapters, the authors explore vari‐ ous issues between the central government and the Kurds and Armenians. These problems includ‐ ed the central government’s policy regarding land distributions and disputes; confscations of Arme‐ nian lands by local, mostly Kurdish people; and the Armenian communities siding with the Rus‐ sians against the Ottoman Empire. As early as 1913, the Russians endeavored to create one big Armenian region as a bufer zone between them‐ selves and the Ottomans. With this intention, the
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Citation: Hakan Gungor. Review of Hans-Lukas Kieser; Öktem, Kerem; Reimkowski, Maurus; eds. World War I and the End of the Ottoman Empire: From the Balkan Wars to the Turkish Republic. H-War, H-Net Reviews. March, 2017.
URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=45873
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