| ID | 174493 |
| Title Proper | Conscription of Greek Ottomans into the Sultan's Army, 1908–1912 |
| Language | ENG |
| Author | Peçe, Uğur Z. |
| Summary / Abstract (Note) | With the reinstatement of the parliament in 1908, the Ottoman state faced new challenges connected to citizenship. As a policy to finally make citizens equal in rights as well as duties, military conscription figured prominently in this new context. For the first time in Ottoman history, the empire's non-Muslims began to be drafted en masse. This article explores meanings of imperial citizenship and equality through the lens of debates over the conscription of Greek Ottomans, the largest non-Muslim population of the Ottoman Empire. In contrast to the widespread suggestion of the Turkish nationalist historiography on these matters, Greek Ottomans and other non-Muslim populations enthusiastically supported the military service in principle. But amidst this general agreement was a tremendous array of views on what conscription ought to look like in practice. The issue came to center on whether Greek Ottomans should have separate battalions in the army. All units would eventually come to be religiously integrated, but the conscription debates in the Ottoman parliament as well as in the Turkish and Greek language press reveal some of the crucial fissures of an empire as various actors were attempting to navigate between a unified citizenship and a diverse population. |
| `In' analytical Note | International Journal of Middle East Studies Vol. 52, No.3; Aug 2020: p.433 - 448 |
| Journal Source | International Journal of Middle East Studies 2020-08 52, 3 |
| Key Words | Citizenship ; Ottoman Empire ; Conscription ; Greeks |