Beyond 'ethnic cleansing': aspects of the functioning of violence in the Ottoman and post-Ottoman Balkans

摘要

The aim of this essay is to offer a critical discussion of some salient aspects of the role of violence in the Balkans within a broad chronological purview that ranges from the Ottoman period until the mid-1940s. This study analyzes the continuity and change between pre-modern and modern functions of violence in the region; explores the 'national' and 'ethnic' motivation of Balkan violence; and highlights the importance of religion, and its role in warfare. It is argued that massive violence was important to Balkan nation-states as they strived to materialize their irredentist plans, and suggests that ethnicity and nationalism have only limited impact on Balkan warfare, for nationally inspired violence is not only relatively recent, but also incompletely applied, even in the twentieth century.