Notions of Violence and Ethnic Cleansing on the Eve of the First World War
The Balkan Wars of 1912-13
Summary
The Balkan Wars: Notions of Violence and Ethnic Cleansing on the Eve of the First World War is a fascinating new assessment of an important but often neglected conflict. It is also a major new contribution to our understanding of the mechanisms of violence and ethnic cleansing.
The Balkan Wars have a special place in the history of twentieth-century violence and one that is not often recognised in Western scholarship. As Panagiotis Delis shows in his excellent book, many of the logics and practices of violence that came to dominate in Europe between 1914 and 1945 were anticipated in the Balkan Wars.
—Robert Gerwarth, Professor, Director, UCD Centre for War Studies
This is a rigorously researched and masterfully analyzed study of violence at the local level, offering an indispensable comparative perspective on several Balkan borderlands.
—Theodora Dragostinova, Professor of History, The Ohio State University
Panagiotis Delis holds a PhD in history from Simon Fraser University. He serves as a permanent civil servant and as research associate at the University of Athens.
Excerpt
Table Of Contents
- Cover
- Title
- Copyright
- About the author
- About the book
- This eBook can be cited
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 A Longue Durée Borderland Crisis: 1804–1912
- Chapter 2 Bekir Fikri of Grevena: Micro Dynamics of Violence in the Vilayet of Manastir
- Chapter 3 An Undeclared War in the Sidelines: The Paramilitaries and the Locals
- Chapter 4 An Undeclared War in the Sidelines: The Military Occupation
- Chapter 5 Notions of Violence and Ethnic Cleansing in Thrace and the Pomak Christianization
- Chapter 6 The Epirus Front: A Case of Counterinsurgency and the Albanian Factor
- Conclusions
- Bibliography
- Series Index
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Control Number: 2023039074
Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek.
The German National Library lists this publication in the German
National Bibliography; detailed bibliographic data is available
on the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de.
Cover design by Peter Lang Group AG
ISSN 2768-7554 (print) ISSN 2768-7562 (online)
ISBN 9781636672267 (hardback)
ISBN 9781636672274 (ebook)
ISBN 9781636672281 (epub)
DOI 10.3726/ b20638
© 2024 Peter Lang Group AG, Lausanne
Published by Peter Lang Publishing Inc., New York, USA
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This publication has been peer reviewed.
About the author
Panagiotis Delis holds a PhD in history from Simon Fraser University. He serves as a permanent civil servant and as research associate at the University of Athens.
About the book
This book examines patterns of behavior during an era of mass brutality by analyzing, in a transnational context, mechanisms of violence and ethnic cleansing in the Balkan Wars of 1912–13. The main goal is to incorporate these conflicts into the broader discussion of the Greater War (1917–1923), thereby challenging western, Eurocentric dominance of historiography about the First World War. In contrast to earlier works of the political, diplomatic, and military history of the Balkan Wars, this book deals with what took place behind the front lines. Panagiotis Delis explores interactions between the regular army, irregulars, and local civilians, and discusses how the collective experience of war generated an undeclared ‘war on the sidelines’.
The Balkan Wars: Notions of Violence and Ethnic Cleansing on the Eve of the First World War is a fascinating new assessment of an important but often neglected conflict. It is also a major new contribution to our understanding of the mechanisms of violence and ethnic cleansing.
The Balkan Wars have a special place in the history of twentieth-century violence and one that is not often recognised in Western scholarship. As Panagiotis Delis shows in his excellent book, many of the logics and practices of violence that came to dominate in Europe between 1914 and 1945 were anticipated in the Balkan Wars.
—Robert Gerwarth, Professor, Director, UCD Centre for War Studies
This is a rigorously researched and masterfully analyzed study of violence at the local level, offering an indispensable comparative perspective on several Balkan borderlands.
—Theodora Dragostinova, Professor of History, The Ohio State University
This eBook can be cited
This edition of the eBook can be cited. To enable this we have marked the start and end of a page. In cases where a word straddles a page break, the marker is placed inside the word at exactly the same position as in the physical book. This means that occasionally a word might be bifurcated by this marker.
Contents
Chapter 1 A Longue Durée Borderland Crisis: 1804–1912
Chapter 2 Bekir Fikri of Grevena: Micro Dynamics of Violence in the Vilayet of Manastir
Chapter 3 An Undeclared War in the Sidelines: The Paramilitaries and the Locals
Chapter 4 An Undeclared War in the Sidelines: The Military Occupation
Chapter 5 Notions of Violence and Ethnic Cleansing in Thrace and the Pomak Christianization
Chapter 6 The Epirus Front: A Case of Counterinsurgency and the Albanian Factor
Acknowledgements
The journey for this book was long, challenging, and fulfilling. It started in Athens in 2011 and it continued in London, Budapest, and Vancouver. The final result is a revised version of my PhD thesis. The initial source of inspiration was Heather Jone’s class “War Cultures” at the LSE. Along the way, I was lucky enough to meet great scholars and friends who gave me ideas and provoked me intellectually. First of all, I am heavily indebted to my supervisor Evdoxio Doxiadi who stepped in, in a very difficult situation and saved the day. He was always there to give his advice and he was genuinely interested in this project.
Simon Fraser University, my Alma matter proved to be a great place to do PhD work atop of the picturesque Burnaby Mountain. The History Department and the Hellenic studies program accommodated me institutionally while many great colleagues assisted me. Dimitris Krallis with his interesting ideas, Mark Leier with his unique insight about Canadian history, Thomas Kuehn with his intake and valuable feedback in Ottoman History. Special thanks are owned to my supervisory committee members, Megan MacKenzie and Theodora Dragostinova from Ohio State University, who gave wonderful ideas and helped to the revision of this thesis into a book. Ruth Anderson was always there to solve my administrative issues.
Needless to say, that the intellectual environment of Central European University shaped me as historian. The supervision of Tolga Esmer and Vladimir Petrovic built the foundations for this project. I also enjoyed the privilege to hear the thoughts of many prominent scholars for my work that were kind enough to invest time despite their heavy workload. Among them were: Isa Blumi, Ryan Gingeras, Nathalie Clayer, Cathie Carmichael, Eyal Ginio, John Paul Newman, Ramazan Hakki Oztan, Antonis Liakos, Vasilis Fouskas, Tetsuya Sahara, Stefan Papaioanou, Max Bergholz, Robert Gerwarth, Yura Konstantinova, Apostolos Papadimitriou, Othon Anastasakis, Hannes Grandits, and Stathis Kalyvas.
Special thanks also go to the wonderful archivists at the American School of Classical Studies and Historical and Ethnologic Society in Athens as well as the Military Archives in Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria. Vemund Aarbake deserves special mention. He believed and supported this idea from the very beginning as he was his own and for that I am grateful.
My best friend Chris Aliprantis was always there whenever needed. Our travels around the globe were very refreshing during the painful period of writing. Mihai Dragnea, the series editor, and Phil Dunshea kindly offered a home for my book, while Dimitar Tasic with his detailed comments contributed greatly to the final shaping. In this long journey my family was always by my side and helped me and believed in me as nobody else ever did. Christos my father, Dimitra my mother, and John my brother have a special place in my heart.
Last but certainly not least, my partner Maria. Since we have crossed our paths she has become a constant source of inspiration and made me believe in me at times when I was highly in doubt of myself. For that reason, and many more this book is devoted to her.
I take full responsibility for potential mistakes and I hope that my work will contribute somehow to the discussion for a very thorny topic which has created a lot of misconceptions about the Balkan region.
Athens, June 2023
To Maria…
Details
- Pages
- VIII, 190
- Year
- 2024
- ISBN (PDF)
- 9781636672274
- ISBN (ePUB)
- 9781636672281
- ISBN (Hardcover)
- 9781636672267
- DOI
- 10.3726/b20638
- Language
- English
- Publication date
- 2023 (December)
- Keywords
- Balkans ethnic cleansing war violence Ottoman History European History World War I Greece Bulgaria transnational history new military history
- Published
- New York, Berlin, Bruxelles, Chennai, Lausanne, Oxford, 2023. VIII, 190 pp.
