Subtitled: How Mass Expulsion Forged Modern Greece and Turkey.
An excellent account of this whole historical episode. It gives the background and the historical information in detail, but not too much. It also includes many personal reminiscences of the experience from older people on both sides of the divide, as well as acute observations from the author made during his travels in both countries.
The end result is a complex picture of a complex set of experiences which tends to counter the more absolute mythology around the expulsions and the events leading up to them.
One interesting passage can be found on pp. 193 - 195, recounting the political moves of the CHP around the opposition that was critical of the government's corruption and inefficiency in dealing with the population exchange. In the end, the leaders of the opposition were accused of being disloyal and imprisoned and eventually executed during the aftermath of the Kurdish uprising shortly after the population exchange. The press was also so suppressed. The ruling party even maintained they had aborted an assassination attempt on Atatürk This is, of course, the identical playbook that Erdoğan has used - the Ergenkon case, as well as the whole Fetah Gülen story. Various aspects of the Turkish managing of the population exchange make it clear that this collusion between the ruling party and the big business elite is built into the DNA of the Turkish Republic. In a way, it is a continuation of the relationship between the Sultan and the non-Muslim elites of the late Ottoman Empire - a favoured business elite with special rapport with the government and which is allowed to enrich itself in exchange for money and favours... As usual, nations have a very hard time changing their political DNA; they just swap round the power brokers and the business elite groups.
Showing posts with label greece. Show all posts
Showing posts with label greece. Show all posts
Tuesday, 23 June 2020
Wednesday, 5 December 2018
Twenty-five Lectures on Modern Balkan History - Steven W. Sowards
A series of lectures from a university course on the internet: http://staff.lib.msu.edu/sowards/balkan/
A good general overview from a prof. at an American university - worth noting, as there is less chance of a nationalistic bias, or an underlying ethnic agenda.
Sowards begins with an attempt to find a definition for the term "Balkan" - what exactly is different about this area that sets it apart from Western Europe.
He mentions how the mountainous terrain tends to isolate populations and make communication between areas, and with the outside world in general, more difficult. He also mentions that generally poorer soil and dryer climate which affects agricultural output, the source of wealth for much of the period in question. He sees multi ethnicity as playing a role to a degree, and also in Turkish held areas, a tendency to identify by religious affiliation rather than linguistic or ethnic affiliation, which would otherwise form a base for the development of nationalism.
Repeated wars and suppressed revolts over two or three centuries also played a role in keeping populations low, and rural.
Economic ideas:
Through the 18th and early 19th century (and later) land formed the basis for wealth. Elites occupied agricultural land at the will of the Sultan, and land was not inheritable (in theory). The Sultan worked to keep some kind of balance between rural workers and nobles in terms of taxes etc. As central authority broke down in the course of the later 18th and 19th C., local landlords became independent local centres of power, and worked to expand their land holdings. They also increased the level of taxation in various forms on peasants working the land. In the later 18th C, landlords began to increase wealth by selling grain, etc. directly to Western European markets, with several important effects. First, as the West was wealthier, prices on produce rose, and this caused increased poverty in the Balkans. Second, because the selling was direct, towns did not grow and benefit from increased commerce, so they remained small and poor, with no developing capital in a middle-class base. Third, as well as exporting, nobles and wealthy landholders began importing cheaper mass produced goods from the West, putting local artisans and craftsmen out of business, again increasing poverty.
As central authority collapsed further (including the Habsburgs in northern Balkans), and revolutions against the Ottomans began to occur, like the ones in Serbia and Greece, the only real change was who occupied the top landholder positions, changing to local strongmen instead of Ottoman officials. The system itself remained the same. (I am reminded here of the accounts of Patrick Leigh Fermor's hide across Central Europe in the early 30's. You see ghosts of this old landed aristocracy still hanging on in Hungary, etc. in his book.)
A good general overview from a prof. at an American university - worth noting, as there is less chance of a nationalistic bias, or an underlying ethnic agenda.
Sowards begins with an attempt to find a definition for the term "Balkan" - what exactly is different about this area that sets it apart from Western Europe.
He mentions how the mountainous terrain tends to isolate populations and make communication between areas, and with the outside world in general, more difficult. He also mentions that generally poorer soil and dryer climate which affects agricultural output, the source of wealth for much of the period in question. He sees multi ethnicity as playing a role to a degree, and also in Turkish held areas, a tendency to identify by religious affiliation rather than linguistic or ethnic affiliation, which would otherwise form a base for the development of nationalism.
Repeated wars and suppressed revolts over two or three centuries also played a role in keeping populations low, and rural.
Economic ideas:
Through the 18th and early 19th century (and later) land formed the basis for wealth. Elites occupied agricultural land at the will of the Sultan, and land was not inheritable (in theory). The Sultan worked to keep some kind of balance between rural workers and nobles in terms of taxes etc. As central authority broke down in the course of the later 18th and 19th C., local landlords became independent local centres of power, and worked to expand their land holdings. They also increased the level of taxation in various forms on peasants working the land. In the later 18th C, landlords began to increase wealth by selling grain, etc. directly to Western European markets, with several important effects. First, as the West was wealthier, prices on produce rose, and this caused increased poverty in the Balkans. Second, because the selling was direct, towns did not grow and benefit from increased commerce, so they remained small and poor, with no developing capital in a middle-class base. Third, as well as exporting, nobles and wealthy landholders began importing cheaper mass produced goods from the West, putting local artisans and craftsmen out of business, again increasing poverty.
As central authority collapsed further (including the Habsburgs in northern Balkans), and revolutions against the Ottomans began to occur, like the ones in Serbia and Greece, the only real change was who occupied the top landholder positions, changing to local strongmen instead of Ottoman officials. The system itself remained the same. (I am reminded here of the accounts of Patrick Leigh Fermor's hide across Central Europe in the early 30's. You see ghosts of this old landed aristocracy still hanging on in Hungary, etc. in his book.)
Saturday, 13 January 2018
Welcome to the Poison Chalice - James K. Galbraith
A collection of essays by Galbraith on the Greek financial crisis. He comes at the issues from the same perspective as Yannis Varoufakis. A bit repetiive, as the is essays and articles are addressing the same issues for different publications.
The best point he makes (apart from the total economic nonsense of Bruxelles approach to the crisis) is the true concern of the leading EU and IMF politicians and leaders: #1 political survival and career #2 protect the banks #3 maintenance of EU system status quo #4 populations of countries in crisis
Worth at least dipping in to.
The best point he makes (apart from the total economic nonsense of Bruxelles approach to the crisis) is the true concern of the leading EU and IMF politicians and leaders: #1 political survival and career #2 protect the banks #3 maintenance of EU system status quo #4 populations of countries in crisis
Worth at least dipping in to.
Friday, 3 November 2017
Border - Kapka Kassabova
Part travelogue, part self-reflective inner journey. I am not sure about this using of place almost as a metaphor for some internal landscape of self-exploration, and self-expression, examination of inner conflict and emotions.
What make this book interesting is the setting - the border area between Bulgaria, Turkey and Greece. This is an area with a very charged history, from Ottoman times, through the Balkan Wars, and into the 20th C Cold War period. Kassabova does explore some interesting places in the Rhodopes in both Greece and Bulgaria. She also explores some interesting sounding areas in the Strandzha area of Bulgaria, and also just on the other side of the border in Turkey. All places I would like to visit.
A very topical book, with all the current issues around migration, border crossing, etc. Much of it currently set in the very area she explores in the book.
What make this book interesting is the setting - the border area between Bulgaria, Turkey and Greece. This is an area with a very charged history, from Ottoman times, through the Balkan Wars, and into the 20th C Cold War period. Kassabova does explore some interesting places in the Rhodopes in both Greece and Bulgaria. She also explores some interesting sounding areas in the Strandzha area of Bulgaria, and also just on the other side of the border in Turkey. All places I would like to visit.
A very topical book, with all the current issues around migration, border crossing, etc. Much of it currently set in the very area she explores in the book.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)