Institute for Advanced Study scholar discusses role of nationalism in Balkan Wars
Durva TrivediThe Albanian conflict and nationalist ideologies both played key roles in bringing about the Balkan Wars, Nader Sohrabi saidin a lecture on Monday. Sohrabi is a scholar of Ottoman and Iranian history currently conducting research at the Institute for Advanced Study. Sohrabi explained that, within scholarship on Turkish nationalism, there are two popular views with regards to Balkan history: orthodox and revisionist. According to the orthodox view, the Ottoman Empire broke downbecause of the irrational nationalism of the Committee of Union and Progress, a well known political organization in the region. According to the revisionist view, however, Turkish nationalism is an entirely new idea — a product of the republic — while the empire’s identity was religious, local, hybrid and Ottomanist. “I counter both,” Sohrabi said.“I claim here that CUP is going somewhere that is close to an assimilationist stance.







