Naslov
Crimes in the Balkan Wars

Autori
Despot, Igor

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Sažeci sa skupova, neobjavljeni rad, znanstveni

Skup
100 years since the Balkan Wars (retrospections and projections)

Mjesto i datum
Sofija, Bugarska; Blagoevgrad, Bugarska; Stara Zagora, Bugarska; Veliko Trnovo, Bugarska; Krdžali, Bugarska, 03.10.2012. - 08.10.2012

Vrsta sudjelovanja
Pozvano predavanje

Vrsta recenzije
Nije recenziran

Ključne riječi
crimes; atrocities; arsons; western media

Sažetak
The Balkan Wars were the scene of a huge number of war crimes against the civilian population. The crimes were committed by all the parties involved in the conflict which resulted in huge-scale ethnic cleansing and assimilation, changing the ethnic structure of some regions of the Balkans. In the First War the war-waging parties justified their crimes by evoking the stereotypes of the centuries-long horrible oppression and atrocities that the Ottomans had been carrying out against the Christian population. The most current episodes of such atrocities at the time (the massacres in Štip, Kočani, Berane) had turned into the spark that ignited the flame of war. Each Christian village in the Ottoman Empire had its own history of such ordeals. Ultimately, this led to the massacres of the Turks and the setting on fire of as much as 80 percent of the Muslim villages and the massive flight of the Muslim population to Asia. After the outbreak of the Second Balkan War the intensity of the arsons and the killings, now among the former allies, was equal to that seen in the First War. Thus, the narrative of the centuries-long Turkish oppression as justification for such conduct lost its substance. The Carnegie Endowment's Commission listed a great number of crimes whose perpetrators came from all the war-waging sides. Their report was published in a very comprehensive edition and had a number of reprints.

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

Znanstvena područja
Povijest

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