TR Turkish point of view on the Balkan wars

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Hi there. I'm intersted in that topic - what Turks knows and thinks about the Balkan wars.
Also I want to make a documental movie about that and need to know if there is a tour with guides in English in the historical museums in the European part of Turkey (excluding Istanbul)? I am mostly interested in Edirne, Bulair, Luleburgaz, Kirklareli and Chataldja.
 

Ryder

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Turks see it as a tragedy because it was a winnable war that led to an awful defeat with long term consequences.
 

B.t.N

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Turks see it as a tragedy because it was a winnable war that led to an awful defeat with long term consequences.
Winnable? How? The army that was to defend Thrace was just a bunch of illeterate trouble makers, without any motivation. Officers who were to lead this crowd were instead struggling with one another, and the higher-ups in the administration. And the administration? They were totally blind to pre-war political situation and the military pact shaping up against them.

That would be a rare miracle if the Ottomans had any success. But, as I say, it is rare!

I am with you on your statement though, Balkan War is the beginning of the END. And I go further to say it is the final nail in the coffin, and not the WW1.
 

Ryder

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Winnable? How? The army that was to defend Thrace was just a bunch of illeterate trouble makers, without any motivation. Officers who were to lead this crowd were instead struggling with one another, and the higher-ups in the administration. And the administration? They were totally blind to pre-war political situation and the military pact shaping up against them.

That would be a rare miracle if the Ottomans had any success. But, as I say, it is rare!

I am with you on your statement though, Balkan War is the beginning of the END. And I go further to say it is the final nail in the coffin, and not the WW1.

So many military experts agreed it would be winnable if the Ottomans played a defensive role rather than a offense.

Goltz Pasha actually devised a defensive plan but Nazim Pasha threw it in the bin believing the Ottomans can go on the offensive by fighting them one by one.

Plan was to lock the Balkan countries into a state of attrition where they would accumlate high casualties and lose materiel the costs would be too much for them. I dont think the Ottomans could have avoided high casualties either.

Our biggest problem was not just officers fighting among themselves but the navy was in a inadequate. Greeks took the islands even blocked troops and supplies from being crossed into Balkans.

Land war could have been won perhaps if it was locked into a state of attrition.

At the end we lost huge chunks of Europe for good and signalled the end.

Losing to countries which we ruled for centuries was pretty embarassing.
 

BordoEnes

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The sheer amount of atrocities, ethnic cleansings, genocides and deportation is the only thing that comes to mind for me. Till this day we have millions upon millions of Turks who have at least a single grand-or great grandparents that have survived what happened in the aftermath of the Balkan Wars. Its not so much the losing of the territory that left a bad taste, all empires are bound to fall eventually, but what they did to the Muslim communities afterwards is unforgivable in many aspects. It doesn't help much of the policies continued well into the 20th century and to some extent today. Greece still doesn't even acknowledge Turks living in their borders, they are seen as "Muslim Greeks". Other then that I have a "It is what it is" mindset about it.
 

Ryder

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The sheer amount of atrocities, ethnic cleansings, genocides and deportation is the only thing that comes to mind for me. Till this day we have millions upon millions of Turks who have at least a single grand-or great grandparents that have survived what happened in the aftermath of the Balkan Wars. Its not so much the losing of the territory that left a bad taste, all empires are bound to fall eventually, but what they did to the Muslim communities afterwards is unforgivable in many aspects. It doesn't help much of the policies continued well into the 20th century and to some extent today. Greece still doesn't even acknowledge Turks living in their borders, they are seen as "Muslim Greeks". Other then that I have a "It is what it is" mindset about it.

Greece wanted it to take it further by invading Turkiye itself.

Give these Greeks a little power they will go after us.

Good thing in this time of darkness we had guys like Ataturk, Fevzi Cakmak, Kazim Karabekir, Ismet Inonu and Sakalli Nurettin Pasha to put these Greeks in their place.

Now today they cry over the asia minor catastropthe and their bullshit hellenic civilisation.

I think war is coming soon between Turkiye and Greece. There are scores to settle between both sides.

Greeks and their atrocities make Isis look like boy scouts.

Greece is not a secular state but a fanatical orthodox christian state where anti Turkism is a central ideology.
 

TheInsider

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Balkan wars=Turkish genocide. Millions of Turkish civilians were butchered and millions of them were forced to flee their lands.
 

Ryder

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Ataturk talked about the balkan wars he even said that many officers did not even bother to send supplies.

Ataturk constantly documented the poor state of troops many even getting abandoned.

Thats why the Turkish independance was fought so hard none of the officers engaged in shitty politics none have abandoned their troops to their fate.

Shows how competent Turkish officers were.
 
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I don't know about Greece but in Bulgaria there weren't problems with the Turkish minority during the wars. Many Turks and muslims fought in Bulgarian army and were also highly motivated. There were christian and also muslim priests on the prayers before battle and in general this weren't a war against Turkish people but against backward and tyrannical empire.
 

Ryder

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I don't know about Greece but in Bulgaria there weren't problems with the Turkish minority during the wars. Many Turks and muslims fought in Bulgarian army and were also highly motivated. There were christian and also muslim priests on the prayers before battle and in general this weren't a war against Turkish people but against backward and tyrannical empire.

Thats bs with the aftermath most Turks were either deported or killed.
 
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We didn't deport Turks, the only deportation was during the 80's during communist regime. However after 1990 they were allowed to return back.
 

Ryder

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We didn't deport Turks, the only deportation was during the 80's during communist regime. However after 1990 they were allowed to return back.

Not really we are talking about the aftermath of the Ottoman Empire collapsing where every Turk even Muslim were targeted in revenge killings hence the refugee crisis.

If the Turks did not fight in Catalca Istanbul was would have been ethnically cleansed of any Turk or Muslims by Orthodox Christians
 
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There weren't ethnic cleansing in Bulgaria after the war. As you can see Turks and Muslims are still here and are almost 10% of the population in the country.
 

Ryder

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We didn't deport Turks, the only deportation was during the 80's during communist regime. However after 1990 they were allowed to return back.

Literally 3 waves migration. 1878, 1912 and the 1980s to the 1990s.
 

GoatsMilk

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Literally 3 waves migration. 1878, 1912 and the 1980s to the 1990s.

Generally Bulgarians are brainwashed by their prior Russian/soviet masters and new EU masters that the Turk was exceptionally brutal and evil, the Bulgarians are kept intentionally ignorant of the Bulgar history where it was Turkic tribes that created the first Bulgarian kingdom. The common Bulgarian has no idea that Turkish Khans created the Bulgarian kingdom. That Turkic tribes settled in that region creating the forefather of Bulgaria today. Its also worth pointing out that it was Turkic tribes like the Bulgars and others who facilitated the slavic migrations into the Balkans as they fled from viking invaders in the north.

The brutality of what they did to their Turkish community in the space of a few decades eclipses anything the Ottomans did to them in the space of 500 years. These guys were even going to gravesites and changing the names of Turkic peoples to hide the Turkic past of Bulgaria.

This is done to make Bulgaria geostrategically opposed to Turkey and subservient to the west. Its been exceptionally successful.

Had the Turks been like their European imperial counterparts, the lands the Ottomans conquered would have been made to speak Turkish, convert to Islam and their histories rewritten to the entire benefit of the Turk and her imperial ambitions.
 

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