ABSTRACT Title of Document: BALKAN WARS BETWEEN THE LINES: VIOLENCE AND CIVILIANS IN MACEDONIA, 1912-1918 Stefan Sotiris Papaioannou, Ph.D., 2012 Directed By: Professor John R. Lampe, Department of History This dissertation challenges the widely held view that there is something morbidly distinctive about violence in the Balkans. It subjects this notion to scrutiny by examining how inhabitants of the embattled region of Macedonia endured a particularly violent set of events: the Balkan Wars of 1912-1913 and the First World War. Making use of a variety of sources including archives located in the three countries that today share the region of Macedonia, the study reveals that members of this majority-Orthodox Christian civilian population were not inclined to perpetrate wartime violence against one another. Though they often identified with rival national camps, inhabitants of Macedonia were typically willing neither to kill their neighbors nor to die over those differences. They preferred to pursue priorities they considered more important, including economic advancement, education, and security of their properties, all of which were likely to be undermined by internecine violence. National armies from Balkan countries then adjacent to geographic Macedonia (Bulgaria, Greece, and Serbia) and their associated paramilitary forces were instead the perpetrators of violence against civilians. In these violent activities they were joined by armies from Western and Central Europe during the First World War. Contrary to existing military and diplomatic histories that emphasize continuities between the Balkan Wars of 1912-1913 and the First World War, this primarily social history reveals that the nature of abuses committed against civilians changed rapidly during this six-year period. During the Balkan Wars and the opening campaigns of the First World War, armed forces often used tactics of terror against civilians perceived to be unfriendly, including spontaneous decisions to burn houses, murder, and rape. As the First World War settled into a long war of attrition, armed forces introduced concentration camps and other kinds of bureaucratically organized violence against civilians that came increasingly to mark broader European violence of the twentieth century. In all of these activities, the study reveals, Balkan armies and paramilitary forces were little different in their behavior from armed forces of the era throughout the Western world. BALKAN WARS BETWEEN THE LINES: VIOLENCE AND CIVILIANS IN MACEDONIA, 1912-1918 By Stefan Sotiris Papaioannou Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2012 Advisory Committee: Professor John R. Lampe, Chair Professor Jeffrey Herf Professor Steven A. Mansbach Professor Jon T. Sumida Professor Madeline C. Zilfi © Copyright by Stefan Sotiris Papaioannou 2012 Acknowledgements I owe a large debt of gratitude to many people who gave generously of their time and support to help me to undertake, refine, and complete this project. John Lampe has inspired big and beneficial decisions in scope and approach with only a few suggestive words, while also improving the manuscript in countless smaller ways through tireless and timely reading of draft after draft. I thank him not only for this ideal balance of qualities in an academic advisor but also for his always encouraging confidence and interest in my work. My committee members helped me improve the final product in a variety of ways. Madeline Zilfi has influenced this project from its inception, and her consistent encouragement and expertise on Ottoman and other matters have been immensely valuable. Jeffrey Herf’s comments at crucial points during the writing have helped me in particular to clarify my arguments and address important questions. Jon Sumida and Steven Mansbach offered thoughtful readings and new suggestions that helped me improve the manuscript during its final stages. I wish also to thank Katja David-Fox, whose insights into theoretical and historiographical issues were crucial early on in conceptualizing the project. My research relied on generous funding from the International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX) Individual Advanced Research Opportunities Fellowship, the American School of Classical Studies at Athens Cotsen Traveling Fellowship for Research in Greece, and research and writing grants from the University of Maryland’s Department of History. It was also enriched by the exemplary professionalism, expertise, and hospitality of archivists, librarians, and scholars affiliated with the several archives and libraries I visited in the Balkans. Particularly ii helpful were Maria Georgopoulou and Maria Voltera of the Gennadius Library in Athens, Triantafillia Kourtoumi of the Historical Archive of Macedonia in Thessaloniki, Ioannis Karatzas of the Florina branch of the Greek General State Archives, Georgi Lukov of Bulgaria’s Central Military Archive in Veliko Tûrnovo, Dimitûr Tiulekov of the State Archive of Blagoevgrad, and Zoran Todorovski of the Central State Archive of the Republic of Macedonia. As important were the friendship, support, and hospitality extended to me by my exceptionally talented instructor of Bulgarian Kristina Bumbarova and the entire Bumbarov family, Takis Papaioannou, Jack Davis, Shari Stocker, Ivan Bimbilovski, Katerina Miteloudi, Georgios Papanikolaou, Leehom Wang, and so many others. Constructive comments on parts of my work in various stages were offered by Keith Brown, Alice Freifeld, Savvas Kyriakidis, George Papaioannou, Steve Scala, and İpek Yosmao ğlu. Milena Angelova, Dimitris Antoniou, Nadia Danova, James Frusetta, Rossitsa Gradeva, Evangelos Kofos, Yura Konstantinova, Tasos Kostopoulos, Milena Methodieva, Lejnar Mitrojorgji, Philip Shashko, Elton Skendaj, Dimitris Stamatopoulos, Varban Todorov, Maria Todorova, and Dimitris Varvaritis all offered helpful insights in conversations and often pointed me to important sources I had not known about before. Many of the helpful people I have mentioned here may well not fully agree with my conclusions, and for this reason especially I emphasize the disclaimer that errors of fact and interpretation are my responsibility alone. Helena Iles Papaioannou has helped me in so many ways throughout this project that there is no possible way I could thank her enough. Not only does her iii name belong above along with all those who advanced my work through helpful suggestions on my ideas and my writing, but it deserves a special place because of her constant support, sacrifices of her time, and love. Possibly without intending to, my parents set me on this journey a long time ago with their intriguing stories about my family’s past, their generally inquisitive and broad-minded spirit, and their love and support. This first major research project of mine is dedicated to them. iv Table of Contents Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................... ii Table of Contents...........................................................................................................v Map 1: Macedonia within the Ottoman Empire (c.1910).............................................vi Map 2: Geographic Macedonia after the First World War (c.1919) .......................... vii Introduction ...................................................................................................................1 The Balkan Wars of 1912-1913, the First World War, and Geographic Macedonia 4 Wartime Violence, Balkan and European .................................................................9 National Identity, Indifference, and Other Priorities...............................................19 Scope, Sources, and Approach ................................................................................26 Chapter 1: Political Violence and National Identity in Late Ottoman Macedonia......33 Ottoman Macedonia at the Turn of the Century: Ferment in a Reforming Empire 35 Patterns of Political Violence in Late Ottoman Macedonia ....................................54 The Limits of National Affiliation among Ottoman Macedonia’s Orthodox Christians.................................................................................................................71 Chapter 2: From the Hürriyet to the First Balkan War, 1908-1912 ............................82 The “Hürriyet” Ottoman Constitution of 1908 and Macedonia ..............................83 The Resumption of Violence, Increasingly Muslim versus Christian.....................99 The First Balkan War in Ottoman Macedonia.......................................................110 Chapter 3: The Pressures of Impermanence: Macedonia from a Collapsing Balkan Alliance to a Second Balkan War, 1912-1913 ..........................................................135 Advertising Permanence: Establishing Administrations in the New Territories...137 Interbellum Politics and Local Activism...............................................................148 Descent into the Second Balkan War ....................................................................168 Violence against Civilians during the Second Balkan War...................................184 Chapter 4: Macedonia’s “Construction of Life” after Two Balkan Wars ................196 Local Priorities in Peacetime.................................................................................199