In pursuit of homogeneity: the Lausanne Conference, minorities and the Turkish nation

2014 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 108-125 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yeşim Bayar
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
Present Article ◽  
Political Elite ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
World War ◽  
National Assembly ◽  
The Status ◽  
New Nation ◽  
Turkish Case ◽  
Muslim Minorities

Following World War I, the Allied Powers signed Minority Treaties with a number of Central and Eastern European states. These treaties delineated the status of religious, ethnic and linguistic minorities in their respective countries. Turkey would be one of the last states that sat down to the negotiation table with the Allied Powers. In the Turkish case, the Lausanne Treaty would be the defining document which set out a series of rights and freedoms for the non-Muslim minorities in the newly created nation. The present article explores how and why the non-Muslim minorities were situated in the fringes of the new nation. In doing so, the article highlights the content of the discussions in the Lausanne Conference and in the Turkish Grand National Assembly with an emphasis on the position of the Turkish political elite.

REPUBLIC OF PARADOX: THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS MINORITY PROTECTION REGIME AND THE NEW TURKEY'S STEP-CITIZENS

2014 ◽  
Vol 46 (4) ◽  
pp. 657-679 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lerna Ekmekcioglu
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
Ottoman Empire ◽  
League Of Nations ◽  
Political Elite ◽  
World War ◽  
Minority Protection ◽  
The Republic ◽  
International Power ◽  
New Nation ◽  
Republic Of Turkey

AbstractThis article focuses on the years after World War I, especially the first decade following the 1923 establishment of the Republic of Turkey, in order to analyze the position of minorities in the developing “we” of the new nation as projected by its political elite. Situating the discussion in the context of the League of Nations interwar minority protection regime, I demonstrate that the Treaty of Lausanne, which the Ankara government and the Allies signed in July 1923, played an important role in the conflicting treatment that minorities have since received in Turkey. The treaty's minority protection clauses entrenched divisions that had already been formed in the Ottoman Empire during the violence of the preceding decade, including the Armenian genocide. Moreover, reminding Turkish leaders of how 19th-century European imperial powers had used the cause of Ottoman Christians’ suffering as an excuse to infringe on Ottoman sovereignty, these clauses alarmed the Turkish political elite, especially as the “Great Powers” themselves were not bound by such minority protection guarantees. The goal of preventing a repetition of this unbalanced international power dynamic, which, according to the new Turkey's leaders, had led to the demise of the Ottoman Empire, engendered paradoxical policies toward non-Muslim Turkish citizens; they have been largely excluded from a Turkness (Türklük) to which they were sometimes included, even forcibly included.

The Rebellion of the Daughters

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel Manekin
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
Religious Education ◽  
Primary Schools ◽  
University Education ◽  
Orthodox Jewish ◽  
Traditional Schools ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
Jewish Women ◽  
World War ◽  
Educational Innovations

This book investigates the flight of young Jewish women from their Orthodox, mostly Hasidic, homes in Western Galicia (now Poland) in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In extreme cases, hundreds of these women sought refuge in a Kraków convent, where many converted to Catholicism. Those who stayed home often remained Jewish in name only. The book reconstructs the stories of three Jewish women runaways and reveals their struggles and innermost convictions. Unlike Orthodox Jewish boys, who attended “cheders,” traditional schools where only Jewish subjects were taught, Orthodox Jewish girls were sent to Polish primary schools. When the time came for them to marry, many young women rebelled against the marriages arranged by their parents, with some wishing to pursue secondary and university education. After World War I, the crisis of the rebellious daughters in Kraków spurred the introduction of formal religious education for young Orthodox Jewish women in Poland, which later developed into a worldwide educational movement. The book chronicles the belated Orthodox response and argues that these educational innovations not only kept Orthodox Jewish women within the fold but also foreclosed their opportunities for higher education. Exploring the estrangement of young Jewish women from traditional Judaism in Habsburg Galicia at the turn of the twentieth century, the book brings to light a forgotten yet significant episode in Eastern European history.

scholarly journals The role of Anglo-German Naval Agreement in escalation of crisis trends of the Versailles system (based on the materials of new archival documents)

2020 ◽  
pp. 75-84
Author(s):  
Alexander Naumov
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
World War I ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Political Elite ◽  
World War ◽  
Systemic Mechanism ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The World ◽  
Archival Documents

This article reviews the role of Anglo-German Naval Agreement of 1935 in escalation of crisis trends of the Versailles system. Leaning on the British Russian archival documents, which recently became available for the researchers, the author analyzes the reasons and consequences of conclusion of this agreement between the key European democratic power and Nazi Reich. Emphasis is placed on analyzing the moods within the political elite of the United Kingdom. It is proven that the agreement became a significant milestone in escalation of crisis trends in the Versailles model of international relations. It played a substantial role in establishment of the British appeasement policy with regards to revanchist powers in the interbellum; policy that objectively led to disintegration of the created in 1919 systemic mechanism, and thus, the beginning of the World War II. The novelty of this work is substantiated by articulation of the problem. This article is first within the Russian and foreign historiography to analyze execution of the Anglo-German Naval Agreement based on the previously unavailable archival materials. The conclusion is made that this agreement played a crucial role in the process of disintegration of interbellum system of international relations. Having officially sanctioned the violation of the articles of the Versailles Treaty of 1919 by Germany, Great Britain psychologically reconciled to the potential revenge of Germany, which found reflection in the infamous appeasement policy. This launched the mechanism for disruption of status quo that was established after the World War I in Europe. This resulted in collapse of the architecture of international security in the key region of the world, rapid deterioration of relations between the countries, and a new world conflict.

scholarly journals International Recognition and the International Law Status of Poland in the 20th Century

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-48
Author(s):  
Elżbieta Dynia
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
World War I ◽  
International Law ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
World War ◽  
The Third ◽  
International Recognition ◽  
The Status

The article concerns international recognition of the Polish state established after World War I in the year 1918, the Polish state and the status of Poland in terms of international law during World War II and after its conclusion until the birth of the Third Polish Republic in the year 1989. A study of related issues confirmed the thesis of the identity and continuity of the Polish state by international law since the year 1918, as solidified in Polish international law teachings, and showed that the Third Polish Republic is, under international law, not a new state, but a continuation of both the Second Polish Republic as well as the People’s Republic of Poland.

Epilogue

2020 ◽  
pp. 206-214
Author(s):  
Michael Geheran
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
National Socialism ◽  
Great War ◽  
World War ◽  
The Past ◽  
German Identity ◽  
The Status ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Great War

The book closes with a short glimpse into the history of Jewish veterans after 1945, as the survivors of the camps returned to Germany, outlining ruptures and continuities in comparison with the pre-Nazi period. Jewish veterans imposed different narratives on their experiences under National Socialism. As the past receded into the distance, it became a concern for the survivors to engage with the past, which they variously looked back on with nostalgia, disillusionment, or bitter anger. Although National Socialism threatened to erase everything that Jewish veterans of World War I had achieved and sacrificed, sought to destroy the identity they had constructed as soldiers in the service of the nation, as well as bonds with gentile Germans that had been forged under fire during the war, threatened to sever their connections to the status they had earned as soldiers of the Great War and defenders of the fatherland, their minds, their values and their character remained intact. Jewish veterans preserved their sense of German identity.

scholarly journals Albanien als Krisen- und Kriegsgebiet 1908–1921

2014 ◽  
Vol 73 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Björn Opfer-Klinger
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
Great Powers ◽  
Self Concept ◽  
The Political ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
International Conflicts ◽  
World War ◽  
Postwar Europe ◽  
Foreign Intervention ◽  
Permanent Shape

Abstract The Albanian national movement was still quite young and heterogeneous when international conflicts lead to the foundation of the Albanian state in 1912/13. Located by the strategically important Strait of Otranto, it came into existence as a compromise and under the protection of the Great Powers in a time when the Osman Empire was collapsing and the South-eastern European States were practising an aggressive policy of expansion. Only a few months later World War I broke out and affected the region severely. Consequently, it took another ten years for the Albanian state to take permanent shape within the changed order of postwar Europe. At this point, however, the political self-concept of Albania had altered pertinently due to constant foreign intervention and occupation by opposing war parties. Some of these influences continue to affect Albania to the present day.

scholarly journals The Heroic Battle of Van-Vaspourakan according to the Testimonies of the Eyewitness Survivors

2020 ◽  
pp. 9-44
Author(s):  
Verjiné Svazlian
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
Ottoman Empire ◽  
Present Article ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
World War ◽  
Human Right ◽  
The People ◽  
The Town

The Young Turk leaders of the Ottoman Empire participated in World War I having expansionist objectives and with their former pan-Turkic and pan-Islamic plan to carry out the genocide of the Armenians. The mobilization and the collection of arms of the Armenians started with the war. The governor of Van Djevdet pasha besieged the town with the Turkish armed forces. The people of Van struggled heroically, till the last drop of their blood, to defend their elementary human right for survival and their Motherland. The testimonies and historical songs, communicated by 35 eyewitness survivors of the heroic battle of Van, which I have enscribed, audio- and video-recorded, have served as a basis for the preparation of the present article.

scholarly journals Everyday Life of German Prisoners of War in the Russian Empire during World War I (on the basis of personal documents)

2020 ◽  
pp. 67-75
Author(s):  
С.Р. Повалишникова ◽  
О.В. Захарова
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Present Article ◽  
Russian Empire ◽  
Prisoners Of War ◽  
Eastern Siberia ◽  
World War ◽  
Prisoner Of War ◽  
The Russian Empire ◽  
Russian Research

Основной массив современных отечественных исследований направлен на изучение положения русских военнопленных в годы Первой мировой войны. В настоящей статье сделана попытка проанализировать бытовые условия содержания военнопленных, находившихся на территории Российской империи. Эти условия во многом зависели от звания и национальности пленных. В статье делается акцент на источники личного происхождения. Особое внимание уделяется воспоминаниям немецкого генерала Э. Людендорфа, немецкого журналиста А. Курта и находившегося в Восточной Сибири немецкого военнопленного Э. Двингера. The vast majority of modern Russian research is aimed at the investigation of the position of Russian prisoners of war during World War I. The present article attempts to analyze the conditions of everyday life of German prisoners of war who lived in the Russian Empire during World War I. The conditions largely depended on the rank and nationality of prisoners of war. The article analyzes personal documents. It focuses on memoirs written by E. Ludensdorff (German general), A. Kurt (German journalist), who lived in Eastern Siberia, and E. Dwinger (German prisoner of war).

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