Gábor Demeter Krisztián Csaplár-Degovics A Study in the Theory and Practice of Destabilization: Violence and Strategies of Survival in Ottoman Macedonia (1903-1913) 1 This study has been supported by the Bolyai János Research Scholarship of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. This book was produced under the auspices of the Research Centre for the Humanities of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and with the support of the National Bank of Hungary. Gábor Demeter, PhD (2007) in History and (2008) in Earth Sciences at Debrecen University is a research fellow at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Research Centre for the Humanities, Institute of History (Budapest). His main research topics are: social and economic development on the Balkan Peninsula, diplomatic relations between Austria-Hungary and the Balkan States (1878-1914), historical geography of Hungary in 19th century. Secretary of the Bulgarian–Hungarian Joint Academic Commission of Historians and editor of the Hungarian Historical Review. Habilitated in 2017 at Debrecen University. Krisztián Csaplár-Degovics, PhD in History (2008, Eötvös Loránd University of Budapest) is a senior research fellow at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Research Centre for the Humanities, Institute of History (Budapest), leader of the Department for Southeastern European Studies (2015-2017). Formerly he taught at the Eötvös Loránd University (2008-2012), he was an academic co-worker of the Südost-Institut in Munich (2003-2004) and of the Library of the Albanien-Institut at the Institute for East European History (University of Vienna, 2005-2006). Currently he deals with the Balkan-policy of Austria-Hungary, the nation- and state-building processes in the Balkans, Humanitarian Interventions in the Balkans and with the history of Albania, Serbia, Kosovo and Macedonia in the 19th and 20th century. He is member of the Bulgarian–Hungarian Joint Academic Commission of Historians and of the private Albanien-Institut housed in Munich and in Vienna. Since 2013 he is the editor of the book series Edition Ungarische Geschichte in Berlin (Osteuropa-Zentrum Berlin-Verlag). 2 Contents I. Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 5 Concepts, goals, methods ................................................................................................... 8 The location ........................................................................................................................ 13 General remarks ................................................................................................................ 21 Historical background (1903-1908) ................................................................................. 33 II. The background to the tensions and the komitadji phenomenon ............................. 39 Conflict types – general overview................................................................................... 39 The escalation of the conflicts .......................................................................................... 41 Some temporal and spatial patterns of četa activity ..................................................... 44 Četa types and their origins .............................................................................................. 48 The social background and functions of the revolutionary organizations ............... 55 Financial sources................................................................................................................ 62 Methods of rule .................................................................................................................. 64 III. Violence in Skopje Sanjak ............................................................................................... 67 Everyday violence ............................................................................................................. 67 The practice of destabilization – other forms of violence ............................................ 90 IV. Conflict types in Prizren Sanjak .................................................................................. 103 General tendencies .......................................................................................................... 103 Traditional banditry – weakening central power ....................................................... 122 Banditism vs. the state authorities ................................................................................ 123 The state treatment of banditism – a successful solution? ........................................ 124 Violence as an alternative source of income for Ottoman state officials ................. 127 Conflicts indirectly generated by the competition between the Powers ................. 128 The case of the Bogoslovie in Prizren (1899-1900) ...................................................... 130 Protests against the opening of new consulates and trade agencies ....................... 132 Actions against sacred places during Christian festivals .......................................... 133 The Albanian village vs. the town ................................................................................ 134 Conflicts stemming from border positions .................................................................. 136 3 V. Local strategies of coexistence and survival, the politics of neighbouring states and the attempts of the Ottoman government and Great Powers to restore peace .......... 142 Scratching the surface: exit strategies–symptoms of economic breakdown or of collapsing public security? ............................................................................................. 142 The macroeconomic situation before 1903 and attempts at reform ......................... 145 Prevailing agrarian (social) problems after 1903 ........................................................ 150 The response to the challenge I: The central government and local society ........... 154 The četa problem reloaded ............................................................................................. 169 Community-level response to the changes II: the strategy of the Serbs in Macedonia ........................................................................................................................ 172 Strategies of intimidation and strategies of survival ................................................. 182 VI. Epilogue .......................................................................................................................... 193 Notes in the margin: the limits to Muslim-Christian cooperation ........................... 197 The new order .................................................................................................................. 201 4 I. Introduction This book is written primarily for Western readers and political actors, with the purpose of making ’Balkan phenomena’ (instability, nationalism, corruption) more comprehensible, and to highlight the fact that even thorough knowledge and preparedness cannot be considered a guarantee for success (only as an essential but not sufficient condition). Attitudes towards the Balkans are often extreme. Beyond those who ignore the Balkan question (either because of disinterest, or because of considering the situation hopeless) there were and still there are so-called experts “who arrived yesterday with the resolution to solve problems by tomorrow,”1 who have to face the challenge that solutions offered by Western civilization do not always work, because of deep-rooted cultural differences. One of the morals of the numerous attempts to settle disputes in the Balkans is that solving problems is almost impossible without the involvement of experts of local origin (but trained in the West) simply because, due to their knowledge of local circumstances, they identify different phenomena as the key problems. And as any political system tends to rely on local agents and local social basis in the long run, knowledge of local circumstances is essential: the peace restoration attempts in the Balkans in the last decades proved that the improper selection of allies often led to the emergence of warlords, smugglers, etc., who managed to legitimize their informal power owing to their cooperation with Western decision-makers (the Kosovo experience). European Powers have tried to settle disputes several times in the past too, but interventions often failed partly because of their deep involvement (power interests, balance of power) in the Balkan question, and partly because what was problematic for a Western observer was not considered problematic by local societies and vice versa. An example of the failure of this approach, called ’humanitarian imperialism’2 (a combination of humanitarian intervention and classical colonization – to bring modernization through occupation), is the Austro-Hungarian experience in Albania. “We wanted to establish a colony. Our megalomaniac dreams have almost been fulfilled. This masterpiece of the art of violence, hurry, clumsiness and the lack of principles was observed by the author of these lines from the first row, because he was appointed as civil governor of the 1 Quotation from the sarcastic article on the Albanian policy of Austria-Hungary by Rubin, László. ‘Albánia állammá alakulása.’ Huszadik Század 20, no. 3 (1919): 135–41. 2 For the different interpretations of this term see: Bricmont, Jean. Humanitarian Imperialism: Using Human