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

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

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