Some studies in Russian on the Ottoman empire

Turcologica 1986, a Festschrift presented to A.N. Kononov on his eightieth birthday (Leningrad: Nauka Press for the Institute of Oriental Studies in the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union, 1986; 303 pp.).

I. Ye, and Yu A. Pyetrosyan, on the periodization of the ‘era of reforms’ in the Ottoman Empire (pp.219–24).

Yuri A. Pyetrosyan, Director of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Soviet (now Russian) Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg, also contributes a brief, but useful paper on the Turkish emigrant press in the early twentieth century (pp.225–9).

Kh. M. Ibragimbyeyli and N.S. Rashba, entitled Osmanskaya Impyeriya v pyervoy chyetvyerti XVII vyeka: sbornik dokumyentov i matyerialov, The Ottoman Empire in the First Quarter of the 17th Century: A Collection of Documents and Materials (Moscow: Nauka Press, 1984; 214 pp.).

A.A. Vitol's Osmanskaya Impyeriya (nachalo XVIII v.), The Ottoman Empire at the Beginning of the 18th Century (Moscow: Nauka Press for the Institute of Oriental Studies in the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union, 1987; 136 pp.).

V.P. Grachyev's Balkanskiye vladyenya Osmanskoy Impyerii na rubyedzhye XVIII‐XIX vv. (vnutryennyeye polodzhyeniye, pryedposilki natsional'no‐osvobodityel'‐nikh dvidzhyeniy), The Balkan Domains of the Ottoman Empire at the Meeting Point of the 18th and 19th Centuries: Internal Situation, the Preconditions of National Liberation Movements (Moscow: Nauka Press for the Institute of Slavonic and Balkan Studies in the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union, 1990; 200 pp.).

M.T. Boddzholyan has written on Ryeformi 20–30‐kh gg. XIX vyeka v Osmanskoy Impyerii, The Reforms of the 1820s and 1830s in the Ottoman Empire (Erevan: Academy of Sciences of Soviet Armenia Press, 1984; 156 pp.).

Osmanskaya Impyeriya: systyema gosudarstvyennogo, upravlyeniya, sotsial'niye i etnoryeligiozniye problyemi. Sbornik statyey, The Ottoman Empire: System of Government, Administration, Social and Ethno‐Religious Problems. A Collection of Articles (Moscow: Nauka Press for the Institute of Oriental Studies in the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union, 1986; 253 pp.).

Osmanskaya Impyeriya: gosudarstvyennaya vlast’ i sotsial'no‐politichyeskaya struktura, The Ottoman Empire: State Power and Socio‐Political Structure (Moscow: Nauka Press for the Institute of Oriental Studies in the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union, 1990; 338 pp.).     

Amir Shakib Arslan and the CUP Triumvirate

Amir Shakib Arslan was a Druze aristocrat and one of many loyal non-Turkish Ottomans who were in the forefront of the political and cultural scene in the final years of the Ottoman empire. As a poet, author, journalist and Ottoman deputy, he chronicled the political events of the time in which he took part. Amir Shakib Arslan had friendly personal relations with the triumvirate of Talât, Enver and Cemal pashas. As such, he was able to penetrate into the inner circles of the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) and offer support as well as salutary advice.     

Decentralizing Centralists,or the Political Language on Provincial Administration in the Second Ottoman Constitutional Period

The centralization–decentralization controversy has been considered the key to understanding Second Ottoman constitutional politics. The Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) is considered to be centralist, while the opposition is regarded as decentralist under the intellectual influence of Prens Sabahattin with the support of non-Turkish ethnic groups. In actuality, both the CUP and the opposition emphasized the need for administrative decentralization (or the delegation of authority) while they rejected political decentralization, considering it as a first step toward the dismemberment of the Empire. Non-Turkish politicians shared this general state of mind as well. Therefore, the political bipolarization and its causes during this period needs to be reconsidered from a different viewpoint.     

The Ottoman Identity: Turkish,Muslim or Rum?

It is awkward for historians to depict a clear-cut portrayal of Ottoman identity. Scholarly analyses by and large lay emphasis on the Islamic and Turkish character of the Ottoman Empire. However, it would be reductionist to evaluate an empire that lasted for six centuries, on three different continents, with solely monolithic ethno-religious tools. A new approach around the term Rum may help to get rid of this reductionism and to understand the sui generis structure of the Ottoman identity. Instead of focusing on ethnic and religious aspects, this novel approach would add both a territorial dimension of Ottoman hegemony and also a social component regarding the relations between the rulers and the ruled. The Rum, with a meaning above Orthodoxy, Greek or Roman Empire, can highlight the ingredients of Ottoman identity and help to overcome the influence of modern nationalist discourses in historical readings.     

Macedonians in Anatolia: The Importance of the Macedonian Roots of the Unionists for their Policies in Anatolia after 1914

The article looks at statements and acts of the core members of the Committee of Union and Progress in the run-up to the constitutional revolution of 1908 to determine whether these express ideas that later guided them in their policies in Anatolia. The main argument is that the Balkan War of 1912–13, in which the European provinces were largely lost, was an important catalyst that led to a radicalization of policies but that in fact the basic outlook of the Young Turks had been shaped years earlier, during their struggle to keep Macedonia Ottoman. Their relative ignorance of Anatolia led them to read the social and political realities there through a Macedonian prism.     

The Resilience of Monarchised Military in Thailand

ABSTRACT

This paper argues that conventional notions of Thailand’s military must be re-examined because they misrepresent the military’s role in politics. Instead of examining its material interests, one must also scrutinise the power and legitimacy of Thailand’s armed forces in terms of its connection to monarchy over time. The relationship between monarchy and military represents a “parallel state”, whereas the ideology, rituals and processes within this relationship result in what can be termed a “monarchised military.” The purpose of this nexus is to sustain a palace-centred order from which the military obtains legitimacy. From 1991 until 2014, the monarchised military mostly operated behind a defective democracy, although it occasionally carried out coups to re-assert the palace’s authority. Its more recent political intrusions have enhanced the military’s power on Thailand’s political stage. Civilian prime ministers have unsuccessfully sought to reign in the military, but to no avail owing to the armed forces’ close association with monarchy.     

Fragile frontiers: Sayyid Taha II and the role of Kurdish religio-political leadership in the Ottoman East during the First World War

At the start of the First World War the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), the ruling party of the Ottoman Empire, used numerous means to ensure that the Kurdish leaders remained allies. Interpretations of Jihad became a major tool for recruitment of Kurdish soldiers by all sides in the war, including the Ottomans, Russians, British and Kurds, though the tactic had limited success. During this period, several religio-political leaders emerged among the Sufi orders in Kurdistan and created their own regiments that fought alongside the Ottomans. Other leaders sided with Russian and British forces. Among those leaders that did not support the Ottomans, Sayyid Taha II arose as a rational, yet unorthodox political figure. His political maneuvering proved that the frontiers were fragile, fluid and impermanent. The present study aims to show that in the context of the First World War the Kurdish leaders of the time, primarily Sayyid Taha II, vis-à-vis the non-religious notables in Istanbul, were transformed into political leaders by their experiences during and after the war.     

An island unmixed: European military intervention and the displacement of Crete's Muslims, 1896–1908

This article examines the displacement of the majority of Crete's Muslim population after an upheaval led to the establishment of an autonomous regime on the island in 1898, following the military intervention by a coalition of European powers (Britain, France, Italy and Russia). By drawing a connection between Cretan topography and the type of intervention, I argue that the coalition's policies played a central role in Muslim emigration from the greatest Ottoman island. The article highlights the sectarian lens through which the European decision-makers regarded relations between the island's Christian and Muslim populations. In so doing, it makes a contribution to the history of European intervention in the Ottoman Empire. The final section offers a glimpse into the diminished Muslim minority under the autonomous regime, which was established after Abdülhamid II withdrew his soldiers from Crete, signifying de facto termination of Ottoman sovereignty on the island.     

Demands for Reforms in Saudi Arabia

The article deals with the British government's recognition of limitations of its power of defence against the Ottoman Empire. The material used comes mainly from the papers of the Committee of Imperial Defence.     

Understanding Life in the Ottoman–Montenegrin Borderlands of Northern Albania during the Tanzimat Era: Catholic Mirdite Tribes,Missionaries and Ottoman Officials

The paper reconsiders the development of decentralization/centralization dynamics during the Ottoman Empire, focusing on the Ottoman–Montenegrin borderlands of Northern Albania with particular reference to the Mirdite territory inhabited by Catholic tribes. First, the paper describes the local socio-political system and balance of power in Mirdite territory before the enactment of the Gulhane decree. Secondly, the paper focuses on the developments and changes occurring in this land during the Tanzimat. Interaction, intertwining and overlapping between different strategies and policies are analysed in regard to the relationship between Catholic tribes, missionaries and Ottoman officials. Because of them, the changes and developments in the local administrative system occurring in both the religious and the political dimensions during the last part of the nineteenth century were expressions of the process of decentralization/centralization triggered by Istanbul from the third decade of the nineteenth century on.     

Works in Russian on Ottoman foreign relations

O.V. Pavlochyenko's Rossiya i Syerbiya, 1888–1903: diplomatichyeskiye otnoshyeniya, obshchyestvyenniye svyazi, Russia and Serbia, 1888–1903: Diplomatic Relations, Social Ties (Kiev: Naukova Dumka for the Institute of History in the Academy of Sciences of the Ukraine, 1987; 131 pp.).

V.N. Vinogradov, entitled Myedzhdunarodniye otnoshyeniya na Balkanakh, 1856–1878 gg.,

International Relations in the Balkans, 1856–1878 (Moscow: Nauka Press for the Institute of Slavonic and Balkan Studies in the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union, 1986:416 pp., 1 map),

Yu. A. Pisaryev's Vyelikiye dyerdzhavi i Balkani nakanunye pyervoy mirovoy voyni, The Great Powers and the Balkans on the Eve of the First World War (Moscow: Nauka Press for the Institute of Slavonic and Balkan Studies in the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union, 1985; 286 pp.).

Osmanskaya Impyeriya i strani Tsyentral'noy, Vostochnoy i Yugo‐Vostochnoy Yevropi v XV‐XVI vv.: Glavniye tyendyentsii politichyeskikh vzaimootnoshyeniy, The Ottoman Empire and the Countries of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe in the 15th and 16th Centuries: The Main Trends of Mutual Political Relations (Moscow: Nauka Press for the Institute of Slavonic and Balkan Studies in the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union, 1984; 302 pp.).

V.I. Shyeryemyet's Osmanskaya Impyeriya i Zapadnaya Yevropa: vtoraya tryet’ XIX v., The Ottoman Empire and Western Europe: Second Third of the Nineteenth Century (Moscow: Nauka Press for the Institute of Oriental Studies in the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union, 1986; 311 pp.).

Angliya, Rossiya i Tanzimat (vtoraya chyetvyert’ XIX v.), England, Russia and the Tanzimat (Second Quarter of the Nineteenth Century) (Moscow: Nauka Press, 1983; 184 pp.).

V.A. Zolotaryev, entitled Rossiya i Turtsiya: voyna 1877–1878 g., Russia and Turkey: The 1877–1878 War (Moscow: Nauka Press, 1983; 232 pp.).     

The coup d'état in Spain: from the anti-liberal movements to the democratic revolution, 1814–1874

SUMMARY

In this article Mikel Urquijo seeks to explain the evolution of the coup d'état as a feature of the political history of Spain in the nineteenth century. The repeated interventions based on the armed forces, with a greater or lesser contribution from the civilian politicians, are seen as the method by which some alternation in government between the political factions was made possible. The article traces the development from the purely military coup, or pronunciamiento of the early years, intended to exclude civilian politicians, to the mixed coups of the mid-century. In the absence of a truly democratic political system, or a developed national and civic consciousness, in a system where the ruling party could decide the outcome of elections by executive action, the coup was the accepted method of changing the regime. But the increasing participation of civilian politicians in the process culminated in the coup of 1868, which had some of the characteristics of a democratic revolution, and overthrew for a time the Bourbon monarchy. This represents a true civic-military coup d'état.     

The Quest to Understand Global Jihad: The Terrorism Industry and its Discontents

In the 1840s Sarantis Archigenes, an Ottoman Greek citizen, wrote a book on political economy called Tasarrufat-? Mülkiye. The book contained both political-economic knowledge and developmentalist policy recommendations for the Ottoman Empire. The emphasis given to human capital, trade and transportation, industrialization and property relations is noteworthy. Since it did not reach large numbers of people, the importance of Tasarrufat-? Mülkiye has not been appreciated. The goal of this article is to provide an account of Archigenes' views on political economy as presented in his long-neglected book. Had the policy makers in the Empire in the second half of the nineteenth century taken Archigenes' views seriously, a sound development strategy could have been formed.     

An Imperial German Battle to win over Mesopotamia: The Baghdad Propagandaschule (1909–17)

This article investigates the German cultural diplomatic efforts in the Ottoman Empire between 1900 and 1918 and the example of the German so-called Propagandaschule in Baghdad. The article argues that contrary to recent scholarship, the German Empire had a considerable and well-designed secular-based cultural diplomacy programme, especially in the Ottoman Empire. This finding is important for the social history of the Arab provinces of the late Ottoman Empire, as it gives the local population, especially the Muslim part, a much stronger agency in daily life than recently argued. The finding breaks with the assumption that the local population only had the Ottoman state schools or western missionary schools to choose from. The Muslim population in particular favoured the possibility of secular education.     

Ahmed Rüstem Bey and the End of an Era

Ahmed Rüstem Bey was accredited as Ottoman Ambassador to the United States of America at a critical juncture before the First World War. The Ottoman Empire had weakened as a result of revolts by many minorities agitating for self-determination and a series of military conflicts culminating in the Balkan Wars. Ahmed Rüstem Bey, though born in Turkey of non-Turkish parentage, was a dyed-in-the-wool Ottoman who felt deeply attached to his country. As Ambassador his stay in the US was short and controversial. Information on Ahmed Rüstem's life and career needs augmentation, and the present article represents an initial attempt to portray this unconventional diplomat.     

Revisiting the legal infrastructure for the confiscation of Armenian and Greek wealth: an analysis of the CUP years and the early modern Republic

Properties belonging to Ottoman Armenians and Greeks were seized through various laws, decrees and other legal regulations passed by the Committee of Union and Progress (hereafter CUP) government, and later the cadres of the Republican regime. Both governments concocted ways of making this illegal process look legitimate by using the legal veil of the law. Central to this process were the economic outcomes of violence committed against Armenians and Greeks. The aim of this article is to analyze these laws and statutes, which were known as the Abandoned Properties Laws, and discuss the impact of this legislation on the process of the changing of hands of Armenian and Greek properties. It attempts to elucidate the dominant logic of the laws, decrees, and regulations concerning the abandoned properties in the periods of 1915–1923 and post-1923.     

明防暗退——从香港保卫战前的部署看英国如何操作放弃香港

1941年12月日本进攻港英当局殖民统治下的香港,香港保卫战爆发前英国政府为了保全其帝国整体利益,对香港进行了战略性放弃,"明线"上表现出坚决保卫香港的姿态,"暗线"上却将主要军力撤至战略位置更重要的新加坡。英国在军事上放弃防御香港的同时,又拒绝通过不设防城市的方式避免香港受战火摧残,最终导致香港军民承受了重大伤亡,香港陷入日本的残酷占领和统治。     

Three Ottoman Pashas at the Congress of Berlin, 1878

In the weakened Ottoman Empire of the nineteenth century, revolts in the Balkans and subsequent Russian intervention led to the Russo-Turkish War of 1877 which resulted in a great loss of Ottoman territory and population in the European part of the Empire. After the ceasefire at Edirne in January 1878 and the signing of the Treaty of San Stefano in March 1878, the Congress of Berlin was convened in June 1878 in order to achieve a political settlement. High-level plenipotentiaries of the main European Powers took part in the deliberations. Against the backdrop of the Congress of Berlin, details are provided about the lives and careers of the members of the Ottoman Turkish delegation.     

Resistance to centralisation in the Ottoman periphery: the Kurdish Baban and Bohtan emirates

Modern Kurdish historiography, which examines resistance to provincial centralisation in Ottoman Kurdistan, focuses largely on Bedir Khan’s Bohtan emirate and his revolt in the 1840s, while ignoring the rest of the other Kurdish emirates such as Baban emirate. While both states, Qajar Iran and Ottoman Empire, were endeavouring to solve their conflicts in the 1840s (a process which culminated in the treaty of Erzurum in 1847) the future of the Baban emirate and its territories emerged as one of the major issues during the course of negotiations. The Baban emirate was the last emirate to give up its struggle against the Sublime Porte’s centralisation reforms. The legacy of the Kurdish emirates is important to understand better the relations between the centre of the Ottoman Empire and its eastern periphery, a much less studied subject in Ottoman historiography. This article will highlight the impact of the centralisation policies in Kurdistan, more specifically on territories of the Bohtan and Baban emirates. It will be demonstrated that the changes wrought by the Tanzimat reforms were partially successful in transforming the Kurdish notables, who later became a part of the state bureaucracy. However, the reform-minded officials, who were appointed after the Kurdish emirs were removed from the region, failed to persuade the locals in favour of the new administration thus transforming their lives.     

A Precarious Path: The Evolution of Civil–Military Relations in the Philippines

Abstract

In the Philippines, the armed forces have played a major role in the country's authoritarian past. Yet despite the advent of democracy, vestiges of authoritarianism have continued to linger. This article analyzes the successes and failures in the efforts of Philippine civilians to gain authority over their military in five areas of political decision making, with the objective of achieving consolidated democratic rule. The article argues that in the Philippines, civilians have made genuine progress in curtailing the influence of military in certain areas, while in others, the armed forces continue to challenge civilian prerogatives. The article concludes that the ability of the Philippine military to continue acting in breach of civilian supremacy in certain areas reflects an impediment to democratically elected authorities' power to govern effectively.