ATROCITY PROPAGANDA AND THE NATIONALIZATION OF THE MASSES IN THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE DURING THE BALKAN WARS (1912–13)

During the Balkan Wars (1912–13), the mobilization of the home front became significant for the belligerent states, which initiated propaganda activities demonizing their enemies and galvanizing the emotions of their publics. This paper explores one type of such mobilization efforts from above, atro...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of Middle East studies 2014-11, Vol.46 (4), p.759-778
Main Author: Cetinkaya, Y Doan
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Atrocities
Balkan States
Emotions
Historiography
Imagery
Middle Eastern history
Mobilization
Muslims
Nationalism
Nationalization
News media
Ottoman Empire
Propaganda
Public support
Radicalism
Total war
Turkish language
War
Woeld War I
World War I
World War One
World wars
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Summary:During the Balkan Wars (1912–13), the mobilization of the home front became significant for the belligerent states, which initiated propaganda activities demonizing their enemies and galvanizing the emotions of their publics. This paper explores one type of such mobilization efforts from above, atrocity propaganda, through which states sought to invoke hatred and mobilize public support for war by focusing on the atrocities (mezalim) that their coreligionists had suffered at the hands of enemies. Although the term “atrocity propaganda” has been used exclusively in the context of World War I in the historiography, the practice it describes was effectively utilized during the earlier Balkan Wars. In the Ottoman Empire, both state and civil initiatives played crucial roles in the making of atrocity propaganda, which was disseminated through intense coverage in the Turkish-language press. The imagery it employed shifted with the onset of the wars, becoming increasingly shocking. Atrocity propaganda contributed to the well-known radicalization of nationalism in the late Ottoman Empire.
ISSN:0020-7438
1471-6380
DOI:10.1017/S0020743814001056