Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Author's note on usage
- List of maps and figures
- List of tables
- INTRODUCTION
- 1 THE OTTOMAN GREAT WAR AND CAPTIVITY IN RUSSIA AND EGYPT
- 2 IMAGINING COMMUNITY AND IDENTITY IN RUSSIA AND EGYPT: A COMPARISON
- 3 SAVIOUR SONS OF THE NATION: INSIDE THE PRISONERS' MINDS
- 4 PRISONERS AS DISEASE CARRIERS: CASES OF PELLAGRA AND TRACHOMA
- 5 WAR NEUROSES AND PRISONERS OF WAR: WARTIME NERVOUS BREAKDOWN AND THE POLITICS OF MEDICAL INTERPRETATION
- 6 DEGENERATIONIST PATHWAY TO EUGENICS: NEUROPSYCHIATRY, SOCIAL PATHOLOGY AND ANXIETIES OVER NATIONAL HEALTH
- EPILOGUE: THE SEARCH FOR A USEABLE PAST: PRISONERS OF WAR, THE OTTOMAN GREAT WAR AND TURKISH NATIONALISM
- Bibliography
- Index
1 - THE OTTOMAN GREAT WAR AND CAPTIVITY IN RUSSIA AND EGYPT
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 October 2013
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Author's note on usage
- List of maps and figures
- List of tables
- INTRODUCTION
- 1 THE OTTOMAN GREAT WAR AND CAPTIVITY IN RUSSIA AND EGYPT
- 2 IMAGINING COMMUNITY AND IDENTITY IN RUSSIA AND EGYPT: A COMPARISON
- 3 SAVIOUR SONS OF THE NATION: INSIDE THE PRISONERS' MINDS
- 4 PRISONERS AS DISEASE CARRIERS: CASES OF PELLAGRA AND TRACHOMA
- 5 WAR NEUROSES AND PRISONERS OF WAR: WARTIME NERVOUS BREAKDOWN AND THE POLITICS OF MEDICAL INTERPRETATION
- 6 DEGENERATIONIST PATHWAY TO EUGENICS: NEUROPSYCHIATRY, SOCIAL PATHOLOGY AND ANXIETIES OVER NATIONAL HEALTH
- EPILOGUE: THE SEARCH FOR A USEABLE PAST: PRISONERS OF WAR, THE OTTOMAN GREAT WAR AND TURKISH NATIONALISM
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Weep oh heart, weep for my state
A curtain of darkness fell over my bright future.
Tuberculosis ruined my youth and existence
Fate wrecked me and made me wretched
At a young age, destiny turned youth's joy into torment
In the end, doctors became my only true friends.
M. Feyyaz Efendi, ‘Hatlrat’ (unpublished), p. 54This chapter does two things. The first quarter provides historical background, explaining why the Ottomans entered the Great War, how the war unfolded and how many prisoners were taken by other powers. The remainder of the chapter uses a comparative approach to examine the capture and captivity experiences of Ottoman prisoners in Russia and Egypt. The latter section explores the similarities and differences in the captivity experiences and analyses how they contribute to the project of nationalism. Conclusions reached in that section form the basis of the argument constructed in Chapter 2.
THE OTTOMAN GREAT WAR: HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
In late October of 1914, the Ottoman Empire entered what would soon be known as the Great War on the side of Germany and Austria-Hungary. This new conflict came soon after the disastrous Balkan Wars of 1912–13, in which the Ottomans lost nearly all of their Balkan territories, retaining only parts of Thrace. In the First Balkan War, even the city of Edirne, the former Ottoman capital and only 220 kilometres (135 miles) from Istanbul, was lost to the Bulgarians.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Healing the NationPrisoners of War, Medicine and Nationalism in Turkey, 1914-1939, pp. 14 - 45Publisher: Edinburgh University PressPrint publication year: 2013