The last Ottomans : the Muslim minority of Greece, 1940-1949 / Kevin Featherstone ... [et al].

Includes bibliographical references (pages 305-332) and index.

3.1. Introduction -- 3.2. Shifting balances in the Balkans: the international context prior to WWII -- 3.3. Western Thrace prepares for war -- 3.4. The Muslim community of Western Thrace and the outbreak of war -- 3.5. Changing loyalties: the battle(s) for Turkey's neutrality -- 3.6. Conclusion -- 4. Belomorie -- 4.1. Introduction -- 4.2. The arrival of the Bulgarian administration -- 4.3. Accounts of Bulgarian repression -- 4.4. The economic impact of the Bulgarian occupation -- 4.5. Wartime population movements -- 4.6. Education and religion as vehicles of Bulgarian nationalism -- 4.7. Smaller minority groups in wartime Western Thrace -- The Armenian community -- The Roma community -- The Jewish community -- 4.8. Conclusions -- 5. Strategies for Survival -- 5.1. Introduction -- 5.2. The onset of resistance activity in occupied Greece -- 5.3. The activity of EAM-ELAS in Western Thrace -- 5.4. The activity of the nationalist resistance groups in Western Thrace -- 5.5. Muslim collaboration with the Bulgarian forces

Why, when faced with a brutal occupation and then a bloody civil war, did the Muslims on Greece's border with Turkey remain passive? The Lausanne Treaty of 1923 had recognized them as a vulnerable minority and there were a number of international and local factors that might have led to ethnic conflict. This first in-depth historical study of the minority explores the puzzle of the absence of conflict, the complex patterns of identity of the minority, and the strategic relevance of this community to the international relations of a region long seen as a powder-keg. It is based on extensive Greek, Turkish and Bulgarian archive materials, many of which have not been analyzed before, as well as the official documents of the British and US governments and personal interviews with many of those who lived through these events. The Last Ottomans traces a fascinating, untold story and tells it through an inter-disciplinary lens, raising important questions of relevance not only to the 1940s but also to the inherited assumptions and images of today.