Provisional Government of Western Thrace
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| Official language | Ottoman Turkish | ||
| Capital | Gumulcine | ||
| Form of government | republic | ||
| Head of state | Hoca Salih Efendi | ||
| surface | 8,578 km² | ||
| independence | August 31, 1913 | ||
| End of independence | October 25, 1913 | ||
| currency | Para | ||
| National anthem | Ey Batı Trakyalı | ||
| Armed forces | 29,170 | ||
Western Thrace : today Northeast Greece,
Eastern Thrace : today European part of Turkey,
Northern Thrace : today Southern Bulgaria ( Rhodope Mountains ) and the Upper Thracian Plain
The Provisional Government of Western Thrace ( Ottoman غربی تراقیا حكومت موقتهس Garbi Trakya Hükûmet-i Muvakkatesi ) or, after the official renaming, the Independent Government of Western Thrace ( Ottoman غربی تراقیا حكومت مستقله سى Garbi Trakya Hükûmet-i Müstakilesi ) was a state entity in western Thrace that existed from August to October 1913. It was the first republic in Turkish history. The later self-designation by the Western Thrace Turks was Turkish Republic of Western Thrace ( Turkish Batı Trakya Türk Cumhuriyeti ). Their capital was Gümülcine (today: Komotini). There was no diplomatic recognition by other states.
Western Thrace was part of the Ottoman Empire until the Balkan Wars . This had lost all of its territory in the Balkans - including Western Thrace - in the Balkan Wars. Apart from the Ottoman Empire, this republic was mainly supported by Greece, to which Western Thrace did not yet belong, but was claimed by it (see Megali Idea ), while Bulgaria demanded the end of the republic. It only existed for 56 days and was directed against the Bulgarian rule and population in western Thrace.
history
In the course of the First Balkan War (1912-1913), which was directed against the Ottoman Empire, the Bulgarian army succeeded in taking all of Thrace . However, during the Second Balkan War (June 21 - August 10, 1913) the Bulgarian troops there were partially withdrawn in some places and completely in other places to the west, where they had to fight against Greece and Serbia. Only the public / military administration established by the Bulgarian military recently remained on site .
On July 14 jul. / July 27, 1913 greg. In July the Bulgarian army began to withdraw from Gümülcine (for strategic military reasons, as there were signs of a Greek advance) towards Momchilgrad to the Makasa Rhodope Pass (south of Podkowa ). On July 15 jul. / July 28, 1913 greg. the population of Gümülcine rebelled against the Bulgarian administration. On July 20, Jul . / August 2, 1913 greg. took Greek troops from Porto Lago Gümülcine.
On July 28th, Jul . / August 10, 1913 greg. However, in the Treaty of Bucharest the region was awarded to the Bulgarians, which was rejected by the local Turkish and Greek population, but was accepted by the Greek and Turkish governments. In view of the imminent return of the Bulgarians, irregulars from Edirne arrived in western Thrace under the leadership of the Teşkilât-ı Mahsusa leader Eşref Kuşçubaşı and organized the Turks and Pomaks in the region. Arms deliveries were also made by the attractive Greeks. After the capture of Gümülcine on August 31, 1913, the Provisional Government of Western Thrace with Gümülcine as the capital was founded on the same day under the leadership of Hoca Salih Efendi . Suleyman Askerî became chief of staff. The flag was hoisted in Gümülcine on August 31 and in İskeçe (today: Xanthi) on September 1 - the day it was taken - stamps were printed, a national anthem was written. The other non-Bulgarian population groups were also represented in the government by a Greek and a Jew . The government later commissioned the Jewish resident Samuel Karaso to found the West Thracian news agency. The newspaper Müstakil / Indépendant appeared in Turkish and French. However, the new government of Bulgaria was viewed with skepticism by the Ottoman Empire , which saw its other interests at risk. The High Porte ordered the irregulars back into the Ottoman Empire and demanded that the government give up. The government then renamed itself the Independent Government of Western Thrace on September 25, 1913 and declared that it would from now on act completely independently of the Ottoman Empire, as Eşref Kuşçubaşı informed the Sublime Porte in a letter of September 25. Previously, Greece had ceded the port cities of Dedeağaç (today: Alexandroupoli) and Feres , overcrowded with Bulgarian refugees from Western Thrace and Asia Minor, to the Republic of Western Thrace with the aim of influencing the negotiations between the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria that were ongoing in Constantinople at the time, that there will be no peace between the two countries. Greece also promised arms deliveries to Western Thrace.
On September 29, 1913, the Peace Treaty of Constantinople between Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire was finally signed. To the consternation of the republic, the Sublime Porte recognized Bulgaria's sovereignty over western Thrace. The Republic of Western Thrace was asked to hand over control of the area to Bulgaria by October 25, 1913. At the beginning of October 1913, Cemal Pasha traveled to Western Thrace to convince the rulers and the population to give up, which he succeeded in doing. The reasons for this policy of the Porte included fears of the Ottoman Empire of a Russian invasion of eastern Anatolia if there was no peace with Bulgaria, pressure from Finance Minister Cavit Bey, who demanded peace with Bulgaria in order to get credit from France approved Enver Pasha's appendicitis , as a result of which he failed as a statesman at this time. Enver Pasha was a supporter of the Republic of Western Thrace.
On October 19, the Bulgarian army, accompanied by Turkish officers, marched into western Thrace. Remnants of the Başı Bozuk and uprisings that tried to prevent this were blown up. On October 29th, when Western Thrace was completely conquered, the Bulgarian government addressed the population with a manifesto for peaceful living of the different ethnic groups.
The eminent historian Cemal Kutay caused confusion . According to Kutay, the eminent thinker Bediüzzaman Said Nursi was involved in the proclamation of the Republic of Western Thrace alongside Suleyman Askeri and Eşref Kuşçubaşı. However, the historian Şükran Vahide (formerly Mary Weld) stated that there was no reference to this anywhere except in Kutay's writings, including Said Nursi's own works. According to Vahide, Said Nursi was in Van at the time , busy building his university (Medresetü'z-Zehra).
The republic only existed for 56 days. Their flag is now the flag of the Turks of Western Thrace . The Western Thrace Turks have been Greek citizens since 1920 (since the Treaty of Sèvres ), they were not affected by the population exchange between Greece and Turkey .
population
Green: Bulgarians and Pomaks
Orange: Turks
Brown: Greeks
The population was about 234,700.
According to the Turkish population statistics from 1910, the ethnic distribution was as follows:
| Provisional Government of Western Thrace | ||
|---|---|---|
| number | percent | |
| TOTAL | 234,700 | 100 |
| Turks | 185,000 | 78.82 |
| Bulgarians | 25,500 | 10.86 |
| Greeks | 22,000 | 9.37 |
| Other | 2,200 | 0.94 |
Relationship with Bulgarians
At the time of its greatest expansion, the Bulgarian Empire reached as far as the Aegean Sea . During the 500-year rule of the Bulgarians by the Ottoman Empire, the various nationalities were not expelled from their settlement areas. As unbelievers, they only had to pay higher taxes and the boys' interest . The upper class consisted of immigrant Turks, poorer Turks also immigrated to Bulgaria. This also resulted in ethnic intermingling in Western Thrace. The extent to which the Muslims in Bulgaria were ethnic Turks or were former Bulgarians who were forcibly or voluntarily converted to Islam (e.g. because of the tax advantages) and who were assimilated by the Turks is highly controversial between Bulgarian and Turkish historians, and this goes with it supported by contradicting sources.
The Rhodope Mountains had such a great autonomy that in 1880 in Plovdiv visas were specially issued to travelers by an authorized representative of the Rhodope Mountains before they could travel to the Rhodope Mountains.
After the annexation of Eastern Rumelia by the Principality of Bulgaria in 1885, part of the Rhodope Mountains fell back to the Ottoman Empire in accordance with the Topchane Treaty (1886). During the Balkan War of 1912, the areas were annexed to Bulgaria.
There was no reliable information about the ethnic composition of the area until 1912, since the Ottomans only decided on religious affiliation and not on ethnicity in their statistics. According to conservative estimates, a total of 180,000 Bulgarians (Christians and Muslims) lived in Western Thrace. During the Balkan War, Muslims were also forcibly Christianized .
A few months later, in 1913, Bulgarian troops were withdrawn from western Thrace. The local population of Turkish origin decided to create their own state structure.
At the end of August and beginning of September 1913, an uprising broke out in the area of Djowlen ( Bulgarian Дьовлен ; today: Dewin ), which affected the surrounding villages in the Western Rhodopes and partly also in the Central Rhodopes.
After August 16, 1913, the Gyumjurdschinska Republic ( Bulgarian Гюмюрджинска република ; also: Autonomous Republic of Gyumjurdschina) was proclaimed. Gyumjurdschina ( Bulgarian Гюмюрджина , actually Bulgarian Turkish Gümülcine ) is the Bulgarian name of the Greek city of Komotini . In Bulgaria, this area was also known as the Aegean West Thrace (White Sea Thrace). The new republic was supported by the city of Dedeagach ( Bulgarian Дедеагач , today Alexandroupoli in Greece).
The Turks and the Pomaks proclaimed the autonomy of this area between the rivers Mariza , Mesta and Arda and formed the "Independent West Thracian Government". It was headed by Hodscha Sali Efendi (Chafas Sali, Bulgarian Хафъз Сали ) - a pomake from the village of Pstandardschak ( Bulgarian Пандъджък ).
The first official act of the new state was the expulsion of the Bulgarians from the area. This procedure had been general practice in the Balkans since 1880 and was also set out in international treaties such as the Berlin Treaty (1878). The aim of the "cleansing" from the Bulgarians was to remove the basis for later territorial claims on the part of Bulgaria in the hope that Western Thrace would join Turkey.
Under the leadership of officers from irregular troops ( Başı Bozuk ), which consisted mainly of Circassians , Lasen and Caucasians , the Bulgarian villages began to be destroyed.
The joint resistance struggle of the Bulgarians in the two villages of Manastir ( Bulgarian Манастир ) and Satschanli (Bulgarian Сачанли) became known. Ultimately, however, all Bulgarians had to give way to violence and flee to Bulgaria. Of the 40,000 displaced Bulgarian men, women and children who fled from Dedeagach ( Bulgarian Дедеагач , now Alexandroupoli in Greece), 18,000 were killed while fleeing to Bulgaria.
In many Bulgarian city chronicles it says in these years: "Expelled resettlers from Thrace settled in the city."
The renewed occupation of Western Thrace by the Bulgarians after the Peace of Bucharest, the Constantinople Agreement and the Peace of Solun (1913, 1915, 1918) was accompanied by renewed acts of violence.
In addition to the Bulgarians who returned to their home villages, there were also displaced Bulgarian refugees from eastern Thrace and southwestern Macedonia. In a census in the region in 1919 by the Bulgarian administration, 105,910 Bulgarians, 79,539 Turks, 28,645 Greeks and 10,922 others lived in the region. Of these Bulgarians, 17,369 were Muslims. However, many Bulgarians of Muslim faith were probably counted as Turks. This can be concluded from the fact that in four of the six counties no Bulgarians of Muslim faith were registered at all.
See also
literature
- Richard C. Hall: Balkan Wars 1912-1913: Prelude to the First World War . Routledge, 2000, ISBN 0-415-22946-4 , p. 126
- Hugh Cecil, Peter H. Liddle: At the Eleventh Hour: Reflections, Hopes, and Anxieties at the Closing of the Great War, 1918 . Leo Cooper, London 1998, ISBN 0-85052-609-4
- Halit Eren: Batı Trakya Türkleri . Istanbul 1997, ISBN 975-96374-0-5
- Ahmet Aydınlı: Batı Trakya Faciasının İç Yüzü . Istanbul 1971
- Kemal Şevket Batıtbey: Batı Trakya Türk Devleti . Istanbul 1978
- Batı Trakya'nın Sesi , No. 65, August 1988
- Tevfik Bıyıklıoğlu: Trakya'da Milli Mücadele . Volume I. Ankara 1987
- Nevzat Gündağ: Garbi Trakya Hükümet-i Müstakilesi . Ministry of Culture and Tourism (ed.), Ankara 1987
- Tuncay Özkan: MİT'in Gizli Tarihi . Istanbul 2003
- Soner Yalçın: Teşkilatın İki Silahşörü . Istanbul 2001
- Tahir Tamer Kumkale: Batı Trakya . 2003
- Ljubomir Miletitsch : Разорението на тракийскитеѣ българи презъ 1913 година (Bulgarian Razorjawaneto na trakijskite balgari prez 1913 godina / The annihilation of the Thracian Bulgarians in 1913 ). Verlag Balgarski Bestseller, Sofia, 2003, ISBN 954-9308-14-6
- Ljubomir Miletitsch: История на Гюмюрджинската република (Bulgarian; German translation of the title: "The History of the Gyumjurdschina Republic")
- Stajko Trifonov: Thrace. The administrative structure, political and economic life in the years 1912–1915 (from the Bulgarian Стайко Трифонов: Тракия. Административна уредба, политически и стопанвоти жи стопанвоти жи стопанвоти житопанвоти жи стопанвон жи стопанвонов жи стопанвонов житически и стопанв1915 ). Publishing House Thracian Foundation "Kapitan Petko Wojwoda", 1992; promacedonia.org (Bulgarian)
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Stajko Trifonow: Thrace. The administrative structure, political and economic life in the years 1912–1915 .
- ↑ Halit Eren: Batı Trakya Türkleri . Istanbul 1997, ISBN 975-96374-0-5
- ^ Şükran Vahide: Islam in Modern Turkey: An Intellectual Biography of Bediuzzaman Said Nursi . State Univ. of New York Press, Albany NY 2005, ISBN 0-7914-6516-0 , ISBN 0-7914-6515-2 , p. 105
- ↑ Katrin Boeckh: From the Balkan Wars to the First World War - small state politics and ethnic self-determination in the Balkans . Munich 1996, ISBN 3-486-56173-1 , p. 77.