The Last Ottomans: The Muslim Minority of Greece 1940-1949 (New Perspectives on South-East Europe)

Cover......Page 1
Title......Page 4
Copyright......Page 5
Contents......Page 8
List of Boxes......Page 11
List of Tables......Page 13
List of Maps and Plates......Page 14
List of Abbreviations......Page 15
List of Place Names......Page 17
Preface......Page 22
1.1 An historical puzzle: the Muslims of Western Thrace during two wars......Page 26
1.2 Positioning the case study......Page 30
1.3 A note on sources and methodology......Page 32
2.1 Introduction......Page 36
Location, location, location......Page 37
Distant neighbours......Page 43
2.3 Stillborn attempts for Thracian statehood......Page 49
The Tamrash (Тъмръш) Rebellion (1878–1886)......Page 50
The Republic of Gümülcine (1913)......Page 52
The Turkish Republic of Western Thrace (1920)......Page 55
The question of Thrace within the context of socialist internationalism......Page 58
2.4 The ‘minoritisation’ of the Muslims of Western Thrace......Page 61
Between Ottoman ‘traditionalism’ and Kemalist ‘progress’......Page 66
The electoral behaviour of the Muslim minority in the 1930s......Page 70
2.6 Conclusion......Page 76
3.1 Introduction......Page 79
3.2 Shifting balances in the Balkans: the international context prior to WWII......Page 80
3.3 Western Thrace prepares for war......Page 90
3.4 The Muslim community of Western Thrace and the outbreak of war......Page 94
3.5 Changing loyalties: the battle(s) for Turkey’s neutrality......Page 108
3.6 Conclusion......Page 115
4.2 The arrival of the Bulgarian administration......Page 116
4.3 Accounts of Bulgarian repression......Page 118
4.4 The economic impact of the Bulgarian occupation......Page 126
4.5 Wartime population movements......Page 133
4.6 Education and religion as vehicles of Bulgarian nationalism......Page 138
The Armenian community......Page 145
The Roma community......Page 148
The Jewish community......Page 150
4.8 Conclusions......Page 154
5.1 Introduction......Page 156
5.2 The onset of resistance activity in occupied Greece......Page 157
5.3 The activity of EAM-ELAS in Western Thrace......Page 161
5.4 The activity of the nationalist resistance groups in Western Thrace......Page 168
5.5 Muslim collaboration with the Bulgarian forces......Page 173
5.6 The Turkish Consulate of Komotini......Page 177
5.7 Conclusions......Page 181
6.1 Introduction......Page 183
The Allies advance......Page 184
Bulgaria tries to stay......Page 185
Playing the ‘Pomak Card’......Page 191
6.3 A muted liberation......Page 199
6.4 From chaos to chaos......Page 209
The Muslim community at the polls......Page 211
No turning back......Page 213
6.5 Conclusion......Page 214
7.1 Introduction......Page 217
7.2 Muslim soldiers of the Proletarian revolution......Page 218
The military strategy of the DSE in Western Thrace......Page 219
DSE recruitment and violence in Muslim villages......Page 221
The Ottoman Battalion of the DSE......Page 229
Women recruitment in the Ottoman battalion......Page 232
The endgame of the civil war......Page 235
7.3 Good Muslim, bad Muslim......Page 240
Muslim recruitment in the Greek army and government-sponsored militias......Page 242
Evidence of state-induced violence against the Muslim community......Page 247
Court-Martial cases involving members of the Muslim community......Page 251
Communist propaganda in the Rhodope Mountains......Page 254
State-organised anti-communist propaganda......Page 260
7.5 Conclusion......Page 267
The return of the Greek state to Western Thrace......Page 270
The Soviet Muslim Republic of Western Thrace......Page 275
8.3 Muslim immigration to Turkey during the civil war......Page 284
Immigration tales......Page 285
The response of the Greek authorities to the Muslim emigration......Page 289
8.4 Welfare provision for the ‘guerrilla-stricken’......Page 293
The distribution of government aid in Western Thrace......Page 294
The welfare of children as an instrument of war......Page 298
8.5 Minority education during the civil war......Page 302
Educating ‘nationally-minded’ Greeks......Page 304
Educating Muslim communists......Page 309
8.6 Conclusion......Page 314
9 Conclusion......Page 316
9.1 The strategic relevance of kindred minorities......Page 317
9.2 Resistance and insurgency......Page 319
9.3 Identity, ‘groupness’ and war......Page 322
9.4 Future research......Page 326
9.5 The nexus between past and present......Page 327
Sources......Page 330
Index......Page 358