Imperial killing fields: Revolution, ethnicity and Islam in Western Anatolia, 1913--1938.
Published: 2006
Language: eng
Number of pages: 420
ISBN-13: 9780494218877
Description: This dissertation intends to strip away the determinism associated with the nationalist interpretation of the Turkish War of Independence, a period of revolutionary transition between empire and nation-state. Rather than assume a nation-wide or Anatolian perspective of the interregnum between Ottoman and Turkish statehood, this work confines itself to the evolution of the southern provinces of the Marmara littoral (namely the modern provinces of Kocaeli, Sakarya, Bursa, Balikesir and Canakkale). Situated within close proximity to the Ottoman capital of Istanbul, the region continues to comprise a rich variety of Muslim and non-Muslim indigenous and immigrant communities. During the War of Independence, the South Marmara was among the most contested regions of Anatolia and the scene of vicious acts of violence and ethnic-cleansing. The politics of the South Marmara between the years 1913 and 1938 pose a direct challenge to the traditional framework of Turkish historiography, which situates the war and its aftermath as a conflict between "Muslim, nationalist Turks," "Christian Greeks and Armenians," and "the Great Powers." To accentuate the complexities of this period, this dissertation presents the revolution through the perspective of two of the most influential, yet misunderstood, diasporas of the South Marmara: North Caucasians (or more commonly known as Circassians) and Albanians.As a micro-history of a diverse region caught between imperial and post-imperial eras, the study of immigrants in this portion of Western Anatolia presents an avenue of exploration into the understanding and participation of local actors in constructing and resisting new national, bureaucratic and social institutions (namely ethnic identity, class, party, Islam and political discourse). The context and themes addressed in this dissertation resonate within a wide body of literature related to the history of revolution, localism and identity in Latin America, South Asia and the rest of the Middle East. It present a further step in identifying and examining fundamental, yet discrete, regional, cultural and political elements that define Anatolia both as a political entity (the Republic of Turkey) and a site of social exchange.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-01, Section: A, page: 0311.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Toronto, 2006.

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