BHA Webinar Series (Zoom)
Speaker: Ayca Baydar (Kastamonu University)
Date & Hour: April 20 (Monday), 17:00 TRT / 16:00 EET / 15:00 CET
Moderator: Umit Eser (Necmettin Erbakan University)
Technical assistance: Timothy French
This presentation explores the Ottoman Balkans as a space of shared memory shaped by centuries of cultural encounter and imperial coexistence. Within the Ottoman framework, religious affiliation and local belonging intersected in fluid and negotiated ways. The nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, however, brought rupture through nation-building, the Balkan Wars, mass displacement, wartime mobilization, and paramilitary practices. As militarization became embedded in governance, the transition from empire to nation transformed both political structures and historical consciousness. Rumelia remained central to Turkish identity as a lost homeland, while Balkan trauma fostered a defensive attitude toward Europe. This dilemma of legacy echoes the notion that “war made the state and the state made war.”