Sorrowful Shores: Violence, Ethnicity, and the End of the Ottoman Empire 1912-1923

by Ryan Gingeras

The Turkish Republic was formed out of immense bloodshed and carnage. During the decade leading up to the end of the Ottoman Empire and the ascendancy of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, virtually every town and village throughout Anatolia was wracked by intercommunal violence. Sorrowful Shores presents a unique, on-the-ground history of these bloody years of social and political transformation.

Challenging the determinism associated with nationalist interpretations of Turkish history between 1912 and 1923, Ryan Gingeras delves deeper into this period of transition between empire and nation-state. Looking closely at a corner of territory immediately south of the old Ottoman capital of Istanbul, he traces the evolution of various communities of native Christians and immigrant Muslims against the backdrop of the Balkan Wars, the First World War, the Armenian Genocide, the Turkish War of Independence, and the Greek occupation of the region.

Drawing on new sources from the Ottoman archives, Gingeras demonstrates how violence was organised at the local level. Arguing against the prevailing view of the conflict as a war between monolithic ethnic groups driven by fanaticism and ancient hatreds, he reveals instead the culpability of several competing states in fanning successive waves of bloodshed.

Genres: History

272 pages, Paperback

First published September 28, 2008

About the author

Ryan Gingeras was raised in San Diego, California. After receiving his B.A. in History at the University of California, San Diego, he went on to complete his M.A. and Ph.D. at the University of Toronto. He is currently Associate Professor, Associate Chair for Instruction, and the Chair of the Doctoral Committee at the Naval Postgraduate School.

Reviews

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

In Sorrowful Shores, Ryan Gingeras’ overarching objective is to challenge what he believes to be the oversimplified nationalist narratives of Turkish history in the early 20th century and, in particular, the nature of the violence that led ultimately to the fragmentation and collapse of the Ottoman Empire. Rather than accepting the idea that high political intrigues and unavoidable ethnic conflicts destined the empire to its final outcome, he argues that developments at the local level, even if influenced by broader trends, were to blame for this deterioration, and that the result was not predetermined. Using the region of South Marmara as a representative example, the author eschews ideology as an explanatory factor, since nationalism had limited popular resonance, and demonstrates that it was local dynamics and interests that played a key role in the intercommunal conflicts of the 1910s and early 1920s.

Gingeras’ first chapter introduces the reader to the four major ethnic groups of his study, Armenians, Greeks, Circassians, and Albanians, and delineates the ways in which various Tanzimat and Committee for Union and Progress (CUP) policies created rifts between these groups. Chapter two begins as tensions flare in the aftermath of the Balkan Wars, when Muslim refugees stirred conflict by blaming local Christian ethnic groups for the Ottomans’ failures in the war. It is in this context that the author raises the issue of the Armenian Genocide, the execution of which was “more operational in nature than ideological”, as the CUP feared uprisings of all kinds and Armenians were not the first to be targeted. Security, not ideology, was their prime concern and the struggle was one of regional control, rather than ethnic cleansing. Naturally these actions roused even more violence, particularly for those who survived and returned to find their homes and the belongings vanished.

Yet this should not lead one to believe that Gingeras is emphasizing the role of high political machinations. Narrowing in on the more locally-based developments, he focuses on the rise of paramilitary groups and examines how simmering ethnic tensions and the chaos engendered by the war led to increasing intercommunal violence. Banditry became a growing problem and many of the enormous amount of deserters from the Ottoman army joined powerful criminal networks, swelling their ranks and helping them forge an alliance with the remnants of the CUP after the war. These groups engaged in violence against other ethnic communities, particularly the Greeks, who were blamed for both the outcome of the war and the presence of brutal occupying forces. Fighting in the name of the Nationalists, their violence against civilians sparked the rise of the Loyalists, which fragmented the Turkish independence movement. While the Turkish nationalist narrative has portrayed the Loyalists as an invention of the palace, which were attempting to regain control over Anatolia, the author argues that they were instead a genuine local reaction to the chaotic and violent conditions engendered by the nationalist gangs, and that their alliance with the remnants of the Ottoman court was forged for both sides’ mutual survival.

The bulk of Gingeras’ fourth and fifth chapters are dedicated to demonstrating how the local ethnic paramilitary groups negotiated their position vis-à-vis the developments on the national stage, and how they engaged different alliances and undertook various actions in order to further their personal, local, and regional (rather than national) ends. After examining the relationships between the Loyalists and Muslim gangs in the fourth chapter, chapter five focuses on how the non-Muslim groups engendered violence by working with, or against, the British and Greek occupying forces. Great Britain and Greece believed that they find support for their objectives in Anatolia among the non-Muslim population but, after the horrors of settlement and deportation, the non-Muslims wanted only to survive and were not interested in the ideologies or goals of the elites. Yet when the Nationalist began to threaten further deportations, Christian gangs began to ally with the Greeks for their own survival and engage in new outbreaks of violence, which spiraled into a deterioration of conditions across the ethnic communities, where alliances were forged and broken.

Gingeras’ penultimate chapter examines the status of these groups following the Nationalist victory and how their actions during the Independence War, real or imagined, led to continued repression in the new state. His final chapter, which contains his conclusion, is a brief reflection of some of his broader themes and the historiography in general. His work accomplishes much more than can be done justice to in a summary such as this, but it is also dry, difficult to read, and intended clearly for specialists in at least modern Turkish history, if not more specific fields. The high level of assumed background knowledge means that the text often lacks context for the uninitiated, while the dense narrative structure and lack of signposting and recapitulation means that it is difficult to retain after an initial read. None of this should deter potential scholars, however, as overall Sorrowful Shores provides an interesting perspective and does an admirable job of bringing a hidden local history to the fore. What it does mean is that one should approach this work with due preparation and without expecting a quick or easy read. Doing so will allow the diligent scholar to get the most out of Gingeras’ thorough and illuminating study.

[Erdem · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a nicely written and concise book. The author in the introduction jokingly states that he picked this topic as his thesis because of his cowardice. Because other topics would be too controversial, and his access to archives would have been restricted. I believe, out of this "cowardice" emerged a balanced book that will not offend many of its sensitive (especially Turkish) readers.

The book has strict geographical boundaries -the scope is limited to South Marmara region. At first, this may frustrate the reader, because many interesting aspects of the topic –broader effects of mass migrations, how the power relationships between paramilitary organizations in South Marmara affected the overall progress of wars, etc.- are omitted. However, the narrow scope lets the author to paint a clearer picture of the plight of non-Muslim and Muslim populations in Anatolia. In addition, I feel like it somehow gives the author more freedom in representing both sides of the struggle.

[Tuncay Tekle · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author of the book (and PhD thesis, as it were) has done a great job on the accounting of a particular region for a particular period. Although the level of detail renders it a book almost only suitable for Turkish people or people with an already existing interest in Turkey. What the author has not accomplished is keeping the reader at its side and summarization of the findings. The reader is mostly left puzzled about the narrative. Good book overall.