Wasti, S. T. "The 1912-13 Balkan Wars and the Siege of Edirne"

64 MIDDLE EASTERN STUDIEScombined with the increase in population would create enormous problems.The administration had, in fact, begun to encourage women, invalids andforeign nationals to leave the confines of Edirne voluntarily. Therequisitioning of available wagons and beasts of burden had also begun.The first sounds of gunfire reached Edirne on 21 October; the war wasinching closer, and though morale remained high, womenfolk were often seenboarding the train for Istanbul.The train also brought the latest newspapers from the capital to an Edirnestarved of news, because the postal services were no longer functioning. Ertürsays he was depressed by the optimistic reports of the war given bynewspapers published far from the front. In Edirne, wounded Turkish soldiershad already begun to arrive on 23 October. 49 By 25 October, army unitsrepositioned themselves within the confines of Edirne in preparation for asiege like Plevna. No word was to be had about the army units supposed to becoming from the east to relieve the pressure on Edirne. Rakım Ertür and afriend, Mazhar by name, went to the French hospital to visit a mutual friend,an artillery captain called İsmail Hakkı, who had been wounded in anencounter in which he showed great bravery. Although İsmail Hakkı hadtaken his guns to within pistol range of the enemy and routed their positions,he had much respect for the Bulgarian fighters, calling them ‘the Japs of theBalkans’. While intermittent heavy skirmishing continued all around, thenext blow fell on 4 November when the Bulgarians cut off the water supplyof Edirne, forcing people to use water from the river and from wells. A warmwater bath became a luxury. Sugar and salt were the next ‘casualties’ of thesiege – their disappearance from the shops was occasioned by the threat thatblack marketeers would be court-martialled. On 9 November, while on a getwellvisit to the house of the artillery captain İsmail Hakkı, Ertür had theopportunity of encountering both Remzi Bey and Fuat Bey, who arrived toenquire after the captain. The officers discussed military matters in French fora while and though Rakım Ertür knew no French, he found out that the armyhad decided to pull back tactically to Çatalca. This caused him muchdespondency. On 15 November, a Bulgarian plane flew over the Edirne skies,showering leaflets below containing the following message:We have surrounded Edirne with a thousand guns. Come and surrender.O people of Edirne, we shall save you from your despotic officials. TheBulgarian armies are victorious everywhere. 50It was in response to this propaganda that Şükrü Pasha issued his ownproclamations. 51On 16 November, long queues were observed for the first time for thepurchase of bread from the various ovens and bakeries. Black marketeering

1912–13 BALKAN WARS 65and hoarding of foodstuffs and tobacco products developed. As a man witha strong religious background, Ertür is extremely critical about those who,with a city under bombardment and fires breaking out everywhere, canforget their morals and decency in the selfish desire to make a fast buck.The Muslim feast of ‘Id al Adha took place on 20 November and moreanimals than usual were sacrificed because hay and fodder were no longeravailable for the animals. 52 Expeditions conducted by small guerilla groupsoutside the precincts of the fortified city in order to obtain foodstuffs andfodder usually met with no success, but often came under heavy enemy fire.The first shells from the Bulgarian guns whistled over the fortifications andfell within the confines of Edirne on 21 November creating explosions andsmoke. The bombardment was to continue with increasing intensity andfrequency in succeeding days and weeks, creating a movement of thepopulation within the walled areas to houses which were relatively safer.The heavy shelling led Şükrü Pasha to issue a fresh proclamation which,according to Ertür, did little to raise the spirits of the population. 53 For thepoor soldiers being besieged the bombardment was like a round the clockvigil, but even for ordinary citizens, the incessant one-sided bombardmentslowly turned into a routine. Fires broke out, soldiers and civilians werewounded, and those who died, whether from the shelling or from naturalcauses, were carried to their graves.Ertür’s journal on 24 November records that after days of consumingsaltless food and bread he learned to prize even such a humble commodityas salt. Of course, he does not fail to mention that the size of the breadloaves continued to shrink, and their quality to deteriorate. People beganto carry sugar in little paper bags in their pockets, because cafes whichserved tea and coffee had no stocks of sugar left. The hopelessness oftheir condition led to occasional loss of appetite, but the craving fortobacco never disappeared, and asserted itself whether one was happy ormiserable.On 2 December, along with an interlude in the bombardment, there wererumours of a possible ceasefire. News was telegraphed from Istanbul that aBulgarian military delegation would arrive for some negotiations with theEdirne command. Major Kâzım was instructed to receive the delegation andErtür later learned that the Bulgarians had asked the Turkish forces tosurrender the fortress of Edirne with full honour. Major Kâzım was alsoasked to deliver an envelope to Şükrü Pasha, but he refused scornfully,saying:We have not yet given battle for the control of the fortress, and willdefend it till the last man. We have not sought this meeting. We wouldlike to face either a real friend or a serious enemy.

1912–13 BALKAN WARS 67advantage of the ceasefire to tour the surroundings of Edirne, but wasdepressed by the poor quality of the fare consumed by the soldiers. In hisdiary entry for 6 January, he says that the citizenry had been reduced tosimple bread and cheese, as even money could not buy anything else. On 13January, a friend of Ertür, Cemil by name, finally ransacked the house of hisfather-in-law who had departed for Istanbul and came up with a supply of saltand sugar. A consequence of this loot was a surreptitious feast of helva 55 forErtür, Cemil and a couple of friends.On 17 January, the rumour spread that the ‘powers that be’ had pronouncedthat Edirne was ultimately to be surrendered to the Bulgarians, causing greatunease. A telegram to the Edirne command had indicated this possibility andmentioned that if the fort held out for another month it might result in someadvantage in the political bargaining. The prospect of the loss of Edirne was asource of deep pain and worry to Ertür. Rumours continued that the soldiersdefending Edirne might be tempted to resort to violence or guerilla tactics. Aweek later, on 24 January, came the news of the toppling of the governmentof Kâmil Pasha, 56 along with renewed hopes that Edirne would not berelinquished.Over the next couple of weeks, inspection teams were formed for therequisitioning of stocks of wheat and grain from the dwellers within thefortress. A receipt was issued for each quantity of foodstuff requisitioned.Ertür was perforce a member of these teams on the orders of Halil Bey thegovernor of the province. However, all this requisitioning did not result inany substantial improvement in the quality of the bread.On a visit to a café on 1 February, Ertür read a telegram that announced theappointment of İzzet Pasha as Commander-in-Chief along with instructionsfrom his office for the fortress to prepare itself once more for the immediatecommencement of active hostilities. The announcement contained anemotional appeal to the Ottomans to prove that their blood still flowed withvigour when it came to saving the flags of faith and state.On the basis of his first-hand information Ertür calculated that such foodsupplies as existed would last about 40 days and run out by 10 March. Someresult would surely be reached by then, he thought, because the soldiers wereill-prepared for a long war. They were poorly trained, underfed and weak,worried about the lands they had been ejected from and in most casesdesperate about their wives and children left behind in far-flung villages. On2 February, Ertür continued with his melancholy task of requisitioning wheatfrom the Feyzullahpaşa and Altunî districts of Edirne. According to theaccount of Yiğitgüden:In the early hours of the morning of Tuesday, 4 February, the Bulgarianattack commenced with ferocious cannonading. Over 150 cannonballs

1912–13 BALKAN WARS 69for a crust of bread, but to little avail. Very likely the people on whosedoors they knocked had also gone hungry that night.The end of February and the beginning of March brought intermittentshelling punctuated by snowfall. Ertür was not impressed by the inspectionvisits paid by the Governor who was always flanked by the Director of Policeand by the Kaymakam, 60 both of whom served to shield him from any directquestions. Meanwhile, the battles in the area surrounding Edirne continued torage fiercely. With the outside world crumbling about his ears, Ertür’s entriesfor the month of March become laconic and grim. On 3 March, however, hewas able to rescue a starving horse from being slaughtered by soldiers whohad no food or use for it. After a few days of feeding the animal with couchgrass, Ertür became the owner of a beautiful horse. On 19 March came thereport of the assassination of the Greek King 61 in Salonica a day earlier.Finally, after weeks of shelling, the explosion of the ammunition dumpwithin the Ottoman fortified command and the resultant fires resulted in thesurrender of Edirne on Wednesday, 26 March 1913, at 13.00 hours. 62 Thoughthe violence and plunder by the occupying Bulgarian forces continuedunabated in Edirne and its environs, the Bulgarian king Ferdinand 63 whocame to congratulate his army returned to Şükrü Pasha the ceremonial swordthat the Pasha had surrendered just a day earlier. 64During the siege of Edirne, the Bulgarians attempted to jam the radio linkbetween Istanbul and Edirne. As mentioned by Hall, 65 they also ‘directedsome intense shelling at the European quarter of Adrianople in the hope thatforeign consuls posted in the city would pressurize Sukru Pasha to surrender’.However, it appears that both the French and British consuls 66 remainedwithin the city until all foreign nationals were assembled in the PomakSchool in Edirne on 26 March. 67 What is available from the accounts of theseconsuls indicates that the Turkish soldiers, neglecting their own safety,rushed to extinguish fires caused by the shells and shrapnel and valiantlyfought back throughout the siege.In Öke’s 68 collection of his own published newspaper columns, 69 there aretwo references to Şükrü Pasha and the siege of Edirne. Lieutenant Sadık, abright young officer who had been chosen to convey military instructions tosave a company deprived of communication with the besieged fort of Edirne,performed his mission valiantly but was killed in the attempt. A few dayslater, his young widow, a girl of 17, turned up at the Pasha’s headquarterswith a 10 month old baby son. The Pasha himself opened the door and invitedher to sit down. But all that the proud girl requested was a chance to serve andgive her own life for her country. The other reference relates to instructions,almost in the form of a will, 70 written down by Şükrü Pasha himself, at somestage during the siege of Edirne.

1912–13 BALKAN WARS 71The subsequent recovery of Edirne on 22 July 1913 was a smoothoperation 86 conducted by the Ottomans who had never accepted the fall ofthis historic city of mosques and monuments. 87 In the list of officers 88 takingpart in the overall military operation, many illustrious names of futureTurkish commanders may be found, including Lt. Col. Enver, 89 Lt.Col.Mustafa Kemal 90 and Lt.Col. Fahreddin. 91 Simultaneously, the area aroundKırkkilise (now Kırklareli) was recovered by forces under Fethi Okyar. 92 ATurco–Bulgarian treaty signed on 29 September 1913 in Istanbul restoredEdirne and Eastern Thrace to the Ottomans. All the Balkan neighbours slowlybegan to patch up their differences. Nine months later, however, the shotsfired at Archduke Ferdinand and his wife in Sarajevo signalled the start of yetanother cataclysm.NOTES1. A Turkish word meaning a mountain range containing wooded passes.2. H.C. Armstrong, Grey Wolf (An Intimate Study of a Dictator) (London: Arthur Barker, 1935)in which the following is stated on p.52: ‘All the four Christian states, suddenly, and for theonly time in their history, attacked Turkey’.3. S. Kocabaş, Balkan Harbi–Son Haçlı Seferi [The Balkan War–The Last Crusade] (Kayseri:Vatan Yayınları, 2001).4. R.C. Hall, The Balkan Wars 1912–1913 – The Prelude to the First World War (London:Routledge, 2000). This sentiment is also expressed by Talat Pasha, one of the CUP‘triumvirate’ and later Grand Vizier, in Talat Paşa‘nın Anıları [Memoirs of Talat Pasha](Istanbul: İletişim Yayınları, 1994), p.24, wherein he states:Without considering that the majority element in a large part of Albania and Macedoniawas Turkish, the 1913 London conference wielded the scalpel like a deadly surgeonand freely cut up the map of the Balkans. This operation not only did not yield thedesired results, but caused the sickness to spread to other parts. Thus all of Europe wasaffected by an incurable illness. The Balkan War gave birth to the World War.5. W. Miller, The Ottoman Empire and its Successors, 1801–1927 (London: Frank Cass, 1966)has an extensive and excellent bibliography, pp.568–93. See also the works cited at the endof R.C. Hall (note 4). Turkish sources on the Balkan Wars are treated fully in a relativelyrecent copiously annotated and documented work: M. Naim Turfan, Rise of the Young Turks(London: I.B. Tauris, 2000), ch.3 and 4.6. Italy’s quest for ‘a place in the sun’ has been set down by Bosworth:Despite Libya’s lack of natural appeal. . ., Italy had long enunciated her special interestin the area. She did so initially on the beggars-can’t-be choosers principle that, after theestablishment of the French protectorate in Tunis (1881) and the rejection of Britishovertures about Egypt (1882), there was no other ‘vacant’ territory left.See R.J.B. Bosworth, ‘Italy and the End of the Ottoman Empire’ in Marian Kent (ed.), TheGreat Powers and the End of the Ottoman Empire (London: Frank Cass, 1996), p.57.7. Trablusgarp, now the Republic of Libya.8. W. Miller, The Ottoman Empire and its Successors, 1801–1927 (London: Frank Cass, 1966),p.501.9. B. Lewis, The Middle East – A Brief History of the Last 2,000 Years (New York: Simon andSchuster, 1995), p.107.

72 MIDDLE EASTERN STUDIES10. H.C. Armstrong, Grey Wolf (London: Arthur Barker, 1935), p.54.11. Properly Çatalca.12. The second capital (between 1365 and 1453) of the Ottomans, Adrianople is called Edirne inTurkish.13. In the less dramatic words of Miller:Thus, in a few weeks, nothing was left of the Turkish empire in Europe but the cities ofAdrianople, Scutari and Jóannina, which still resisted the Bulgarian, Montenegrin andGreek besiegers, the promontory of Gallipoli, and the narrow peninsula which stretchesfrom the lines of Chatalja to the Bosphorus.14. William Ewart Gladstone, Bulgarian Horrors and the Question of the East (London: JohnMurray, 1876), 32 pp.The most quoted passage from this pamphlet is as follows:I entreat my countrymen, upon whom far more than perhaps any other people ofEurope it depends, to require and to insist, that our Government, which has beenworking in one direction, shall work in the other, and shall apply its vigour to concurwith the other States of Europe in obtaining the extinction of the Turkish executivepower in Bulgaria. Let the Turks now carry away their abuses in the only possiblemanner, namely by carrying off themselves. Their Zaptiehs and their Mudirs, theirBimbashis and their Yuzbachis, their Kaimakams and their Pashas, one and all, bag andbaggage, shall, I hope, clear out from the province they have desolated and profaned.It may be pointed out that Benjamin Disraeli, as Prime Minister, received acomplimentary copy of this booklet. Disraeli was Gladstone’s foremost political rivaland is reputed to have said that Gladstone’s pamphlet was ‘of all the Bulgarian horrorsperhaps the greatest’.15. Bilâl Şimşir, Rumeli‘den Türk Göçleri [Turkish Migrations from Rumeli] (Ankara: TürkTarih Kurumu, 1968–1970), two vols.16. Ahmet Halaçoğlu, Balkan Harbi sırasında Rumeli‘den Türk Göçleri (1912–1913) [TurkishMigrations from Rumeli during the Balkan War (1912–1913)] (Ankara: Türk Tarih Kurumu,1995).17. Halidé Edib (1884–1964) , a well known female Turkish novelist, known in Turkey as HalideEdip Adıvar. She was first married to the mathematician Salih Zeki and later to Dr AdnanAdıvar. She played a part in Turkish politics before the establishment of the Republic and, inlater years, was a professor of English at Istanbul University. Her books written in Englishinclude The Clown and his Daughter (London: Allen & Unwin,1935), Memoirs of HalidéEdib (note 18) and Inside India (London: Allen & Unwin, 1937).18. Halidé Edib, Memoirs of Halidé Edib (London: John Murray, 1926), p.334.19. Joan Haslip, The Sultan – The Life of Abdul Hamid II (London: History Book Club, 1973),p.292.20. Also mentioned in Ayşe Osmanoğlu, Babam Sultan Abdülhamid [My Father, the SultanAbdülhamid] (Istanbul: Selçuk Yayınları, 1984), pp.219–21.21. Ali Fuad Türkgeldi, Görüp İşittiklerim [What I have Seen and Heard] (Ankara: Türk TarihKurumu, 1987), p.70.22. Mehmet Şükrü Pasha was born in Erzurum in 1857 as the only child of an army officer. Hewas marked out for a military career and became a Lieutenant in the Artillery in 1879. Hewas also a student at the French military academy in St Cyr. With his all-round success andespecially his talent in mathematics, he was sent to the famous Prussian garrison at Potsdamfor four years. He achieved the rank of Major in 1887 and married the daughter of aLieutenant-General in the Turkish cavalry. His promotions were swift, as he became aBrigadier-General in 1893. In addition to his regular duties, he also taught mathematics andballistics in the War Academy and other institutions of Istanbul. An eminent Turkishmathematician, Salih Zeki (note 17), was among his students. A strict disciplinarian in thePrussian manner, Şükrü Pasha was famous as an officer who did not mince his words. He wasappointed General commanding the fortifications at Edirne in early 1912. Although his

1912–13 BALKAN WARS 73written orders were to enable the defence of Edirne against Bulgarian and Serbian forces forup to 50 days, he held out in the face of dwindling rations against vastly superior forces for 5months and 5 days, surrendering only because he feared that further bombardment woulddestroy the historic structures such as the famous Selimiye mosque in the former Ottomancapital. However, such being the nature of war, the Pasha, on his return to Istanbul, wasconstrained to opt for retirement. Şükrü Pasha died in 1916, but the family adopted thesurname Edirne after the law related to surnames was passed in 1934. The name Şükrü mayoften be found transcribed as Shukri or even Choucri.23. This was the period envisaged in the mobilization plan for the fortress of Edirne as reportedby Yiğitgüden (note 40).24. In Turkish, the Enez-Midye hattı.25. Known in Turkish as İttihad ve Terakki Cemiyeti; later, the word Cemiyet [Association] wasreplaced by Fırka [Party]. Originally founded in 1889 as an anti-Hamidian organization by adisgruntled group of medical students in Istanbul, the Committee of Union and Progress(usually abbreviated as CUP) had a chequered career, with a chapter in Paris. The name wasappropriated by the Osmanlı Hürriyet Cemiyeti [Ottoman Freedom Society] in Salonica in1907 on the advice of Dr Nazım, an enterprising revolutionary who was one of the primemovers in both societies. The CUP acquired a political following in Istanbul and İzmir aswell as Salonica, and was in the forefront of Turkish politics for a decade between 1908 and1918. See E.E. Ramsaur, The Young Turks (Prelude to the Revolution of 1908) (Princeton:Princeton University Press, 1957).26. Known in Turkish history as the Bâb-ı Alî Baskını, or the Raid on the Sublime Porte.27. Kâmil Pasha (1833–1913), born in Cyprus, an astute civil servant and politician; four timesGrand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire who generally adopted a pro-British stance; lies buriedin the courtyard of the Arap Ahmet mosque in Lefkoşa [Nicosia].28. A story by Hector Hugh Munro (Saki) which, although first published in 1916 in a collectionentitled The Toys of Peace, very much transcends its time is The Cupboard of the Yesterdaysfrom which the following excerpt remains as relevant as ever:I remember a sunburnt, soldierly man putting little pin-flags in a war-map, red flags forthe Turkish forces and yellow flags for the Russians. It seemed a magical region, withits mountain passes and frozen rivers and grim battlefields, its drifting snows, andprowling wolves . . . And there was a battle called Plevna that went on and on withvarying fortunes for what seemed like a great part of a lifetime; I remember the day ofwrath and mourning when the little red flag had to be taken away from Plevna – likeother maturer judges, I was backing the wrong horse, at any rate the losing horse. Andnow to-day we are putting little pin-flags again into maps of the Balkan region, and thepassions are being turned loose once more in their playground.29. Rumeli [literally, the land of Roum; often Rumelia or Roumelia in English] is traditionallyused to denote the European dominions of the Ottoman empire.30. Feroz Ahmed, ‘The Late Ottoman Empire’, in Marian Kent (ed.), The Great Powers and theEnd of the Ottoman Empire (London: Frank Cass, 1996), wherein he states (p.15):It is not possible to understand Unionist policy and behaviour after 1913 withoutrealizing what a traumatic effect the disaster of the Balkan Wars had on the Turkishpsyche. The Turks had lost the very lands that had provided the life-blood of theEmpire for centuries. Moreover, the capital had come within an ace of falling to theenemy, spelling the end of their Empire. Throughout this entire catastrophe the GreatPowers had stood by, even though at the outbreak of hostilities they had declared thatthey would not permit a change in the status quo.31. Yahya Kemal Beyatlı (1884–1957), a celebrated writer who is often considered to be the lastgreat Ottoman poet writing in the classical style. He spent many years in the diplomaticservice, and was Turkey’s first Ambassador to Pakistan.

74 MIDDLE EASTERN STUDIES32. Yahya Kemal Beyatlı, Çocukluğum, Gençliğim, Siyasî ve Edebî Hatıralarım [My Childhood,Youth, Political and Literary Memories] (Istanbul: Baha Matbaası, 1976), p.146.33. Mehmed Cavid (1875–1926), prominent member of the inner circle of the Committee ofUnion and Progress (CUP), several times Minister and an expert on Economics, wasexecuted in 1926 on the grounds of involvement along with others in a conspiracy toassassinate Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the first President of the Republic.34. Quoted in Tevfik Çavdar, Talât Paşa – Bir Örgüt Ustasının Yaşam Öyküsü [Talat Pasha –The Life Story of a Master Organizer] (Ankara: Kültür Bakanlığı Yayınları, 1995), p.231.35. A very brief list of such memoirs would include: Halil Menteşe‘nin Anıları [The Memoirs ofHalil Menteşe] (Istanbul: Hürriyet Vakfı Yayınları, 1986); Ali Fuad Türkgeldi, Görüpİşittiklerim [What I have Seen and Heard] (Ankara: Türk Tarih Kurumu, 1987); Mithat ŞükrüBleda, İmparatorluğun Çöküşü [The Collapse of the Empire] (Istanbul: Remzi Kitabevi,1979); and Cemaleddin Efendi, Siyasi Hatıralarım [Political Memoirs] (Istanbul: NehirYayınları, 1990).References also exist in the diaries attributed to the sultan Abdülhamid such as: İsmetBozdağ, Sultan Abdülhamid‘in Hatıra Defteri [The Journal of Sultan Abdülhamid] (Istanbul:Pınar Yayınları, 1996)]. Abdülhamid had been exiled to Salonica but had to be transferredhurriedly from Salonica to the Beylerbeyi palace on the Asian shores of the Bosphorus in1912. A courtier, Rasim Bey, wakes him up in the middle of the night to inform him thatGreece, Bulgaria, Montenegro and Serbia have combined to attack the Ottomans, and that hemust leave at once as Salonica is on the verge of falling. The sultan (p.150) is quoted asshouting with rage:Four states unite against us and we are caught unawares! What negligence is this?Those states could never become united – they have quarrels over their churches!36. A town in present-day Bulgaria, Plevna (Plevne or Pilevne in Turkish) was defended againstvastly superior Russian forces in the 1877 Russo-Turkish war by Osman Pasha (1832–1900)who earned the title of Gazi [Warrior for the Faith]. See, for example, Captain F.W. vonHerbert, The Defence of Plevna (Ankara: Ministry of Culture, 1990).37. Yanya and İşkodra in Turkish.38. Kâzım Karabekir (1882–1948), a celebrated Turkish general whose later contributions to theTurkish War of Independence were of the utmost importance; he later served in the Turkishparliament and was also the author of several books dealing with the events in late Ottomanhistory in which he participated.39. Remzi Yiğitgüden (?–1965), subsequently rose to the rank of General in the Armed Forces ofthe Republic of Turkey. He lies buried in the Cebeci graveyard in Ankara.40. Remzi Yiğitgüden, Balkan Harbinde Edirne kale muhasaraları [The Sieges of the Fortress ofEdirne during the Balkan War] (Istanbul: Askeri Matbaa, 1938–1939), 2 vols.41. Fevzi Çakmak (1876–1950), the only officer to have served as Chief of the General Staff inboth the Ottoman Armed Forces and those of the Turkish Republic. Born into a family ofsoldiers, Fevzi Çakmak became a Staff Captain at the age of 22, and saw action on manyfronts from Gallipoli to the Caucasus. He left Istanbul in 1920 to join the Turkish Resistancein Ankara. After the battle of Sakarya in 1921 he was elevated to the rank of Field Marshal.He retired as Chief of General Staff in 1944.42. Yiğitgüden writes that the valour shown during the long siege of Edirne bears out thejudgement of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk that the Turkish army would always defeat an army ofequal strength, would successfully defend itself against an enemy twice its strength, and evenresist a much larger enemy for a long time.43. Ratip Kazancıgil, Balkan Savaşında Edirne Savunması Günleri (Hafız Rakım Ertür‘ünAnılarından) [The Days of Edirne’s Defence during the Balkan Wars (from the memoirs ofHafız Rakım Ertür)] (Edirne: Türk Kütüphaneciler Derneği, 1999).44. Rakım Ertür (1883–1961) was a Hafız [one who has memorized the Qur’an] and came from afamily of religious scholars in Edirne. Like his father, Hafız Mehmet Efendi, Hafız Rakımserved for many years as the Imam of the Eski Cami [Old Mosque] in Edirne. He was also a

1912–13 BALKAN WARS 75member of the Mevlevi order of whirling dervishes and for their ceremonies used to play theney [the reed pipe].45. Ertür’s journal gives the dates as Sunday, 16 Sept. 1912 and 13 March 1913, following notthe Gregorian but the Julian (old style) calendar.46. Raif Necdet Kestelli, in Esra Keskinkılıç (ed.), Ufûl [The Sinking] (Istanbul: BensenoYayınları, 2002). Kestelli’s notebook consists of military items interspersed with the selfcommunion,jottings, remarks of a sensitive soul. The first entry is dated 3 Oct. 1912 andthere are a few entries until September/October 1913 including some excerpts from theperiod of his incarceration in Bulgaria.47. Raif Necdet Kestelli (1880–1937) was born into a well-known family in Izmir. He graduatedfrom the Kuleli Military School in Istanbul and passed out from the War Academy as aLieutenant in the Infantry in 1899. He was also quite a prolific writer, with several volumesof essays and letters, translations of some of the works of Tolstoy, a couple of novels, a play,and even a dictionary to his credit. He took part in the defence of Edirne with the rank ofCaptain and, after the fall of Edirne, was taken to Sofia where he was kept as a prisoner ofwar for 6 months. He returned to Istanbul to pursue an active career in teaching and writinguntil his death in 1937.48. Rifat Osman Tosyavizade, Edirne Rehnüması [Guide to Edirne] (Edirne: Trakya ÜniversitesiRektörlüğü, 1998), p.77.49. An issue that complicated the military situation was the large-scale desertion of non-MuslimOttoman soldiers from the front. According to Ertür, based on reports he heard from juniorarmy officers, Şükrü Pasha should have set an example by sentencing a few deserters to deathby hanging, in accordance with martial law.50. The text of the leaflets is given in greater detail by Yiğitgüden, q.v., pp.122–3 and byKestelli, q.v., p.48.51. These proclamations referred to leaflets dropped from the Bulgarian plane and asked citizensnot to accept their fictitious contents. They mentioned successes that had been gained againstthe Bulgarians and the Greeks, and reiterated that the safety of the fortress of Edirne againstall assaults would be ensured. The leaflets were signed by Division General Mehmet ŞükrüPasha, Corps Commander, Edirne Fortified Post.52. Seeing little but destruction around him, Kestelli compares Edirne to a poor orphan whocould not even afford the new dress traditionally worn for this great religious feast.53. The Pasha mentioned that the dangers of the bombardment should not be exaggerated butordered that citizens should not assemble outdoors during periods of bombardment as thatwould only increase casualties. He advised citizens to continue with their daily business andto show both patience and fortitude, and issued a warning that misbehaviour would bepunished.54. Hostilities continued, however, with the Greek forces in their sector of the conflict.55. The name of several types of dessert, made from flour or semolina with oil, milk, sugar andnuts.56. See note 27. The assault was led by Enver and a band of rioters, resulting in the shooting ofNazım Pasha, and the forced resignation of Kâmil Pasha. A few more details are given inS.T. Wasti, ‘Feylesof Rıza’, Middle Eastern Studies, Vol.38, No.2 (2002), pp.83–100.57. Ertür, in his journal entry of 23 Feb. 1913 when the food shortage was unprecedented,scathingly criticizes the owners of flour mills whose main duty was to provide flour for theArmed Forces. In times of hunger and starvation, according to Ertür, the loyalty of a manmay be purchased with a loaf of bread. Villagers who had supplied wheat to the factorieswould be turned away from the gates of the factories when they asked to be paid. The wellfedminions of the factory owners would prevent the villagers even from approaching therich factory owners and in any case would delay any payments. He goes on: ‘The mill owneris not afraid of the government, of martial law or of anyone in this world. The orders of thegovernment affect him not; he works only to his own satisfaction.’58. Sultan Mehmed Reşad (Mehmed V) (1844–1918), penultimate Ottoman sovereign. Moreinformation on him may be obtained from S.T. Wasti, ‘The Last Chroniclers of the Mabeyn’,Middle Eastern Studies, Vol.32, No.2 (1996), pp.1–29.

76 MIDDLE EASTERN STUDIES59. Ertür goes on to explain how even the workings of this commission could not stem the tide ofirregularity that inevitably takes over in such critical situations. There were delays inpayments to poor people whereas those with connections were paid promptly. Problemsarose over whose signatures from among the special commission members were to overrideothers. Another problem was that mill owners would purchase large quantities of wheat,barley, corn, broom corn and other grain and it was difficult to establish whether there wasadulteration in the grinding of these for bread flour.60. A kaymakam is the administrative head of one of several districts into which a provinceheaded by a Governor is divided.61. King George I of the Hellenes, shot by one of his servants.62. Although Ertür’s memoirs draw to a close with this cataclysm, the entry for 26 March isperhaps the longest in Kestelli’s notebook, of which a few lines may be quoted here:The fortress was being surrendered. Was this sacred earth, leavened with the glorioushistory of our ancestors, slipping out of our hands? O Lord, what a painful and terriblesinking, unrelieved by any rebirth!! But no. . .No! Sometimes the sunset brings abrighter sunrise . . . The depths of my soul, my very being, shriek out: ‘Revenge!Revenge!’63. Ferdinand (1861–1948), first king of modern Bulgaria, who proclaimed Bulgarianindependence in 1908. After the First World War, in which Bulgaria was on the losingside, he abdicated in 1918 to be succeeded by his son, Boris III.64. According to a contemporary report, the king stood up to receive Şükrü Pasha, and said:‘There appears to have been a mistake. You have presented your ceremonial sword duringthe surrender of the city. Swords cannot be taken from soldiers like yourself. You havewritten a glorious page in the war. Please accept your sword. I am proud not only to receiveyou, but to have fought against soldiers like yourself who have turned an impossible defenceinto a reality.’65. Hall, p.87.66. The names given in the text may be transliterated as Marcel Coigne and Major Samson,respectively.67. The activities of the Bulgarian and British consulates are criticized by Yiğitgüden, whomentions that under the pretext of hunting, the foreign consuls left few areas in the regionunvisited.68. Mim Kemal Öke (born 1955), is a prominent professor, writer and broadcaster in Turkey.69. Mim Kemal Öke, Bilinmeyen Tarihimiz [Our Unknown History] (Istanbul: İrfan Yayımcılık,1998), pp.228–9 and 253–5.70. ‘If I should die after the enemy crosses the lines, I shall not consider myself a şehit [martyr].Do not put me into a grave. Let the wild dogs and the birds pluck my flesh and eat it. But if Idie while our lines of defence are unbroken, my winding sheet, washcloth and soap are in mybag. You will bury me in this place and future generations will raise a monument above me.’71. Maulana Mohamed Ali Jauhar (1878–1931), Poet, Journalist and Political Activist.72. For an account of Maulana Mohamed Ali’s involvement with the fortunes of the Turks,reference may be made to Afzal Iqbal, The Life and Times of Maulana Mohamed Ali(Lahore: Institute of Islamic Culture, 1979), 457 pp.73. Dr Mukhtar Ahmad Ansari (1880–1936), doctor of medicine, educationist, writer andpolitician, was born in the United Provinces of India. He studied medicine in Madras and theUK, becoming House Surgeon at Charing Cross Hospital, London, but returned to Delhi after1910. He was leader of an Indian Muslim medical mission organized by Mohamed Ali andsent to Turkey in December 1912 during the Balkan Wars after an appeal was made by theTurkish Red Crescent Society. The mission (Hindistan Tıp Heyeti) treated war patients,generated much goodwill and returned to India in July 1913. See Azmi Özcan, Panislamizm:Osmanlı Devleti Hindistan Müslümanları ve İngiltere (1877–1914) [Pan-Islamism: TheOttoman State, the Indian Muslims and England (1877–1914)] (Istanbul: TDV İslâmAraştırmaları Merkezi, 1992), pp.218–24. Özcan devotes a whole section to the activities ofthe Indian medical mission, mentioning how the members were received by high-ranking

78 MIDDLE EASTERN STUDIESFarewell, sister of Andalusia,Islam and the caliphate have fallen from theeThe crescent moon has gone down from thy sky.Would that the heavens had folded upAnd darkness enveloped all the globe.83. Miller (note 5), p.510.84. The behind-the-scenes discussions may be followed in several sources, e.g. Kocabaş (note 3),pp.216–24.85. Writing years later, Celâl Bayar, President of the Turkish Republic between 1950 and 1960,points out that this decision made to placate the Great Powers resulted in the surrender oflarge areas in Western Thrace whose population was 85% Turkish. See Kocabaş (note 3),p.219.86. Kestelli, incarcerated in Sofia, wrote in his notebook: ‘ July the 22nd. . . This date will formthe most unique, exuberant and happy day in the history of our lives. My being, racked withpain, buffeted by imprisonment, by disgrace and danger, suffering from the pessimism andnervous fatigue that arose from not being able to receive the long-awaited good news, todayregained both life and pride.’87. The swift capture of Edirne was a feather in the cap of Enver Bey (see note 89), who hadearlier won great fame in 1908 as the ‘hero of freedom’ in the struggle that led to theRevolution of 24 July, 1908 whereby the Constitution was restored.88. Given in İsmet Görgülü, On Yıllık Harbin Kadrosu 1912–1922 [The Cadres of the Ten YearWar 1912–1922] (Ankara: Türk Tarih Kurumu, 1993), pp.33–5.89. Mehmet Enver (1881–1922), who later became famous as Enver Pasha, one of the‘triumvirate’ of the Committee of Union and Progress and Ottoman Minister of War. He diedwhile fighting the Bolsheviks in Central Asia and was buried in the present-day Tajikistan.90. Mustafa Kemal (1881–1938), who later became celebrated as Gazi Pasha, fought heroicallyat Gallipoli and later organized the Turkish Resistance. He became the first President of theRepublic of Turkey in 1923 and took the surname Atatürk [Father of the Turks] in 1934.91. Mehmet Ömer Fahreddin (1868–1948) who also earned fame later as Fahreddin Pasha, thedefender of Medina. See S. Tanvir Wasti, ‘The Defence of Medina 1916–19’, MiddleEastern Studies, Vol.27, No.4 (1991), pp.642–53.92. Fethi Okyar (1880–1943), born in the Balkans, graduate of the War Academy as a classfellow of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. Served in many positions with distinction in the earlyyears of the Turkish Republic, as Ambassador in Paris and London and as Prime Minister.