The Ottoman Culture of Defeat: The Balkan Wars and Their Aftermath.

• Author: Cetin, Ozan Ahmet
• Position: Book review

By Eyal Ginio

United Kingdom: C. Hurst & Co., 2016, 377 pages, $72, ISBN: 9780190264031.

Reviewed by Ozan Ahmet Cetin, TRT World Research Centre

The Balkan Wars are among the harshest defeats the Ottomans ever experienced. The shock that was felt with the loss of the Balkan territories, the bulk of which had been conquered even before Istanbul, was quite profound. The defeat of Ottomans in the Balkan Wars provoked the emergence of various publications on the defeat's causes and the possible directions the Empire could take to avenge the defeat and regenerate. Through a careful study of these publications, Eyal Ginio, in his book The Ottoman Culture of Defeat: The Balkan Wars and Their Aftermath, deals with the Balkan Wars' impact on Ottoman society.

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The Balkan Wars, understood collectively as the first 'total war' of the Ottoman Empire, have hitherto been understudied. Ginio's book is significant in that it sheds light on a topic which has been overshadowed by World War I. The Balkan Wars contained almost all of the horrific elements of WWI, notably in their eruption as a multi-state conflict which included mobilization of not only the armies but also the entire public. The reason the Balkan Wars have received less scholarly attention is due to their scale and length compared to the Great War. However, Ginio argues, the impact of the Balkan Wars was no less traumatic to the Empire. The loss of large domains, a wave of refugees and the impact of the press let the war penetrate the entire Ottoman society. The entire society was shocked by the atrocities committed in the Balkan states, which were disseminated by an unprecedented diffusion of press and photography.

The Ottoman Culture of Defeat is quite successful in capturing the dynamic atmosphere of the aftermath of the Balkan Wars, which was characterized by a search for consolation, revenge, revival and return to Balkan lands. Although the book makes reference to the literature on the late Ottoman period, it speaks relatively less to the Ottoman studies on the Balkan Wars, and rather uses a new theoretical framework to evaluate the post-war atmosphere in the Empire. The author uses the concept 'culture of defeat' to define Ottoman society at the time. He brings ample evidence from the Ottoman archives as well as newspapers and books in multiple Ottoman languages to provide details of his definition. Thus, he is successful in showing that the Balkan Wars were a major...