Blood Ties: Religion, Violence and the Politics of Nationhood in Ottoman Macedonia, 1878–1908

339 Pages·2013·3.207 MB·English

by  İpek K. Yosmaoğlu

BLOOD TIES

(cid:2)
B L O O D T I E S
Religion, Violence, and the Politics of
Nationhood in Ottoman Macedonia,
1878–1908
˙
Ipek Yosmaog˘ lu
Cornell University Press
Ithaca & London
Copyright © 2014 by Cornell University
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or parts thereof,
must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the
publisher. For information, address Cornell University Press, Sage House, 512 East
State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850.
First published 2014 by Cornell University Press
First printing, Cornell Paperbacks, 2014
Printed in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Yosmaog˘lu, I˙pek, author.
Blood ties : religion, violence, and the politics of nationhood in Ottoman
.
Macedonia, 1878–1908 / Ipek K. Yosmaog˘lu.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8014-5226-0 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-0-8014-7924-3 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Macedonia—History—1878–1912. 2. Nationalism—Macedonia—History.
3. Macedonian question. 4. Macedonia—Ethnic relations. 5. Ethnic conflict—
Macedonia—History. 6. Political violence—Macedonia—History. I. Title.
DR2215.Y67 2013
949.76′01—dc23 2013021661
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include vegetable-based, low-VOC inks and acid-free papers that are recycled, totally
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Cloth printing 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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To Josh

Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Note on Transliteration xiii
Introduction 1
1. The Ottoman Empire, the Balkans, and the Great
Powers on the Road to Mürzsteg 19
2. Education and the Creation of National Space 48
3. Territoriality and Its Discontents 79
4. Fear of Small Margins 131
5. A Leap of Faith: Disputes over Sacred Space 169
6. Logic and Legitimacy in Violence 209
Conclusion 289
Bibliography 295
Index 311
vii

Acknowledgments
During the writing of this book I have accrued a large debt of grati-
tude to colleagues, mentors, friends, family members, and various institu-
tions that generously funded my project. I apologize in advance for any
omissions I may commit in acknowledging them here.
First, I thank the many scholars whose previous work on Macedonia made
mine possible, and apologize to those whom I was not able to cite directly
in this book. I regret that Keith Brown’s excellent work on the Macedonian
revolutionaries, Loyal unto Death (Indiana, 2013) came to my attention
after this book was already in production, which prevented me from di-
rectly engaging with it here. I thank him for sharing his work with me before
publication.
I wish to acknowledge the American Research Institute in Turkey and the
National Endowment for the Humanities for the postdoctoral fellowship
that allowed me to start the research project that resulted in this book; the
Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton and the Andrew W. Mellon Foun-
dation for the year of leave during which I completed the writing process;
and the Graduate School at University of Wisconsin–Madison for the sum-
mer research grants they provided. At Northwestern University I acknowl-
edge the Buffett Center for International Studies for the funds they provided
for research in Turkey; the Alice Kaplan Institute for the Humanities for
funding a quarter of leave for manuscript revision; the Dean’s Office for
their assistance with the production of this book; and the History Depart-
ment for their ongoing support.
I thank the staff of the Ba¸sbakanlık Archives in Istanbul, Turkey; the Ar-
chives du Ministère des Affaires Étrangères in Nantes, France; the Biblio-
thèque Nationale de France in Paris, France; the Gennadius Library of the
American School of Classical Studies at Athens, Greece, especially Robert
Bridges and Charis Kalliga; Despina Syrri, Basil Gounaris, Iakovos Mi-
chailidis and Vlasis Vlasidis at the Museum of the Macedonian Struggle in
Thessaloniki, Greece; AnnaLee Pauls at the Manuscript and Rare Books col-
lection of Firestone Library, Princeton; and Patricia Crone, Avishai Margalit,
Julia Bernheim, Maria Mercedes Tuya, and Marian Zelazny at the Institute
for Advanced Study, School of Historical Studies. Many thanks also go to
Edhem Eldem, who shared images from his own collection, and to the staff
at the Thessaloniki Museum of Photography, who reproduced images from
ix