Abstract:

AIn the early 20th century, the Ottoman Empire lost the Balkan Peninsula, which it had ruled for nearly half a millennium. The loss of the Balkans traumatized the Ottoman elites in particular. One of the most prominent consequences of this trauma was the culture of criticism, including military, administrative, political, economic, moral and social spheres, aimed at understanding the causes and consequences of the defeat in the Balkan Wars. The treatise Millet-i Gayri Müsellaha, which is the subject of our study, sees the reasons for the loss of the Balkans in the lack of opportunity, potential and political consciousness of different segments of Ottoman society. In other words, according to the author, the loss of the Balkans was a natural consequence of the great difference between these shortcomings of the Muslim Turks and the planned and conscious behavior of the Balkan separatist nationalists. The author of the work is İsmail Hakkı Akoğuz, who fought against the gangs operating in Macedonia to gain independence from the Ottoman Empire, then served in the Balkan Wars, then in World War I, and finally in high-ranking military positions in the Republican Era. Therefore, the Treatise which the author wrote as a first lieutenant in the immediate aftermath of the Balkan Wars, is based on facts and events that he mostly experienced and sometimes observed during his time in Macedonia.

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