date
- 21.02.2025
seminar
Charalampos Minasidis “War and Minorities: Citizen-Soldiers and Civilians in Greece and the Ottoman Empire during the Long War (1911–1923)”
The seminar examines the relationship developed between the Ottoman and the Greek state and their minority conscripts and civilians during the Long War (1911–1923). It discusses the states’ policies of inclusion and exclusion of minority conscripts and civilians, and also the latter’s reactions and attitudes toward war. Drawing from grassroots sources such as diaries, memoirs, letters, and oral interviews this seminar delves into minority citizen-soldiers’ and civilians’ experiences, emotions, and the intricacies of their agency. It argues that the axes of their inclusion and exclusion were determined not only by the way the political leaderships of both states viewed minorities but also by war needs. The war revealed the limitations of Ottoman and Greek inclusive nationalisms, and the minority citizen-soldiers and civilians were the first to witness and fall victim to the ongoing changes. Amid the war, the human landscape of total mobilization gradually became less pluralistic and more segregated, as the homogenization of the army and the society became a matter of state and national security. The war had essentially become a laboratory for nation-building, enforcing a postwar majoritarian-centric peace-building and memory, where most minority veterans and civilians did not belong any more.
Το σεμινάριο εξετάζει τη σχέση που αναπτύχθηκε μεταξύ του οθωμανικού και ελληνικού κράτους και των μειονοτικών πολιτών-στρατιωτών και αμάχων τους κατά τον Μακρύ Πόλεμο (1911–1923). Συζητά τις πολιτικές των κρατών για την ένταξη και τον αποκλεισμό των μειονοτικών πολιτών-στρατιωτών και αμάχων, καθώς και τις αντιδράσεις και τη στάση των τελευταίων απέναντι στον πόλεμο. Αντλώντας από πηγές “από τα κάτω”, όπως τα ημερολόγια, τα απομνημονεύματα, οι επιστολές και οι προφορικές συνεντεύξεις, αυτό το σεμινάριο εμβαθύνει στις εμπειρίες, τα συναισθήματα και τις πολυπλοκότητες της δράσης των μειονοτήτων πολιτών-στρατιωτών και αμάχων. Υποστηρίζει ότι οι άξονες της ένταξης και του αποκλεισμού τους καθορίστηκαν όχι μόνο από τον τρόπο που οι πολιτικές ηγεσίες και των δύο κρατών αντιμετώπιζαν τις μειονότητες, αλλά και από τις πολεμικές ανάγκες. Ο πόλεμος αποκάλυψε τα όρια του οθωμανικού και ελληνικού περιεκτικών εθνικισμών και οι μειονοτικοί πολίτες-στρατιώτες και πολίτες ήταν οι πρώτοι που έγιναν μάρτυρες και έπεσαν θύματα των συνεχιζόμενων αλλαγών. Εν μέσω πολέμου, το ανθρώπινο τοπίο της ολοκληρωτικής κινητοποίησης σταδιακά έγινε λιγότερο πλουραλιστικό και πιο διαχωρισμένο, καθώς η ομογενοποίηση του στρατού και της κοινωνίας έγινε ζήτημα κρατικής και εθνικής ασφάλειας. Ο πόλεμος είχε γίνει ουσιαστικά ένα εργαστήριο οικοδόμησης εθνών, επιβάλλοντας μια μεταπολεμική πλειονοκεντρική οικοδόμηση ειρήνης και μνήμης, όπου οι περισσότεροι μειονοτικοί βετεράνοι και άμαχοι δεν ανήκαν πλέον.
bio
Dr Charalampos Minasidis is a European Research Council Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Centre for War Studies and the School of History at University College Dublin, working on “The Age of Civil Wars in Europe, c. 1914–1949” ERC Advanced Grant Project, and an Adjunct Instructor at the University of Crete. His broader research interests include the social, cultural, and political history of war and violence, state-citizen relations, and the history of ideas. His book project tentatively titled War and Minorities: Citizen-Soldiers, Discrimination, and Violence in the Ottoman Empire and Greece during the Long War (1911–1922) examines the human landscape of total mobilization via the social category of citizen-soldiers as a way of studying Greek and Ottoman society and the discrimination policies and practices of their respective states during the Long War (1911–1922). He completed his PhD in History at The University of Texas at Austin in 2023. Prior to that he received an MA in the History of Warfare (2008) from King’s College London and a Master in Balkan and Turkish History (2013), a BA in Political Sciences (2014), and a BA in History and Archaeology (2007) from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. He has taught at the universities of Crete, Thessaloniki, and Texas. He has worked on research projects and his research has appeared in various journals and edited volumes. He has authored the monograph United States Policy on the Macedonian Question during the 1940s (2016; in Greek), has co-edited the collective volume Greek Soldiers and the Asia Minor Campaign: Aspects of a Painful Experience (2022; in Greek), and has edited the book A Jewish Officer on the Asia Minor Front: Unpublished Accounts of the Athenian Second Lieutenant Daniel Sevillias’s War Action and Death (2023; in both English and Greek).
seminar video
seminar video
date
- 21.02.2025
bio
Dr Charalampos Minasidis is a European Research Council Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Centre for War Studies and the School of History at University College Dublin, working on “The Age of Civil Wars in Europe, c. 1914–1949” ERC Advanced Grant Project, and an Adjunct Instructor at the University of Crete. His broader research interests include the social, cultural, and political history of war and violence, state-citizen relations, and the history of ideas. His book project tentatively titled War and Minorities: Citizen-Soldiers, Discrimination, and Violence in the Ottoman Empire and Greece during the Long War (1911–1922) examines the human landscape of total mobilization via the social category of citizen-soldiers as a way of studying Greek and Ottoman society and the discrimination policies and practices of their respective states during the Long War (1911–1922). He completed his PhD in History at The University of Texas at Austin in 2023. Prior to that he received an MA in the History of Warfare (2008) from King’s College London and a Master in Balkan and Turkish History (2013), a BA in Political Sciences (2014), and a BA in History and Archaeology (2007) from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. He has taught at the universities of Crete, Thessaloniki, and Texas. He has worked on research projects and his research has appeared in various journals and edited volumes. He has authored the monograph United States Policy on the Macedonian Question during the 1940s (2016; in Greek), has co-edited the collective volume Greek Soldiers and the Asia Minor Campaign: Aspects of a Painful Experience (2022; in Greek), and has edited the book A Jewish Officer on the Asia Minor Front: Unpublished Accounts of the Athenian Second Lieutenant Daniel Sevillias’s War Action and Death (2023; in both English and Greek).
seminar video
seminar video
seminar
Charalampos Minasidis “War and Minorities: Citizen-Soldiers and Civilians in Greece and the Ottoman Empire during the Long War (1911–1923)”
The seminar examines the relationship developed between the Ottoman and the Greek state and their minority conscripts and civilians during the Long War (1911–1923). It discusses the states’ policies of inclusion and exclusion of minority conscripts and civilians, and also the latter’s reactions and attitudes toward war. Drawing from grassroots sources such as diaries, memoirs, letters, and oral interviews this seminar delves into minority citizen-soldiers’ and civilians’ experiences, emotions, and the intricacies of their agency. It argues that the axes of their inclusion and exclusion were determined not only by the way the political leaderships of both states viewed minorities but also by war needs. The war revealed the limitations of Ottoman and Greek inclusive nationalisms, and the minority citizen-soldiers and civilians were the first to witness and fall victim to the ongoing changes. Amid the war, the human landscape of total mobilization gradually became less pluralistic and more segregated, as the homogenization of the army and the society became a matter of state and national security. The war had essentially become a laboratory for nation-building, enforcing a postwar majoritarian-centric peace-building and memory, where most minority veterans and civilians did not belong any more.
Το σεμινάριο εξετάζει τη σχέση που αναπτύχθηκε μεταξύ του οθωμανικού και ελληνικού κράτους και των μειονοτικών πολιτών-στρατιωτών και αμάχων τους κατά τον Μακρύ Πόλεμο (1911–1923). Συζητά τις πολιτικές των κρατών για την ένταξη και τον αποκλεισμό των μειονοτικών πολιτών-στρατιωτών και αμάχων, καθώς και τις αντιδράσεις και τη στάση των τελευταίων απέναντι στον πόλεμο. Αντλώντας από πηγές “από τα κάτω”, όπως τα ημερολόγια, τα απομνημονεύματα, οι επιστολές και οι προφορικές συνεντεύξεις, αυτό το σεμινάριο εμβαθύνει στις εμπειρίες, τα συναισθήματα και τις πολυπλοκότητες της δράσης των μειονοτήτων πολιτών-στρατιωτών και αμάχων. Υποστηρίζει ότι οι άξονες της ένταξης και του αποκλεισμού τους καθορίστηκαν όχι μόνο από τον τρόπο που οι πολιτικές ηγεσίες και των δύο κρατών αντιμετώπιζαν τις μειονότητες, αλλά και από τις πολεμικές ανάγκες. Ο πόλεμος αποκάλυψε τα όρια του οθωμανικού και ελληνικού περιεκτικών εθνικισμών και οι μειονοτικοί πολίτες-στρατιώτες και πολίτες ήταν οι πρώτοι που έγιναν μάρτυρες και έπεσαν θύματα των συνεχιζόμενων αλλαγών. Εν μέσω πολέμου, το ανθρώπινο τοπίο της ολοκληρωτικής κινητοποίησης σταδιακά έγινε λιγότερο πλουραλιστικό και πιο διαχωρισμένο, καθώς η ομογενοποίηση του στρατού και της κοινωνίας έγινε ζήτημα κρατικής και εθνικής ασφάλειας. Ο πόλεμος είχε γίνει ουσιαστικά ένα εργαστήριο οικοδόμησης εθνών, επιβάλλοντας μια μεταπολεμική πλειονοκεντρική οικοδόμηση ειρήνης και μνήμης, όπου οι περισσότεροι μειονοτικοί βετεράνοι και άμαχοι δεν ανήκαν πλέον.
