Sava Đurđević (Djurdjevic)

The aim of this research paper is to analyze the similarities and differences that
existed between the political approaches of Yugoslavia and Turkey during the peace conferences that were held after the conclusion of World War I. The study will be based on the work of Andrej Mitrović, who has provided a comprehensive definition of Yugoslav politics during the Paris Peace Conference. With reference to the Turkish case, the focus will be on the Lausanne Peace Treaty, which has recently marked its centenary. In this regard, the paper will delve into the interpretations of the treaty within the broader context of Turkish and Ottoman history, and will reference several monographs on the subject, available in both English, Turkish and Serbian.

Овај рад за циљ има да на основу писања београдске дневне штампе (Време, Политика, Правда) анализира промену наратива која се о Турцима и Мустафи Кемалу Ататурку створила у српској јавности током тридесетих година двадесетог века. Краљевина Југославија и Република Турска су од 1933. године успоставиле веома блиске пријатељске и дипломатске односе, оличене кроз блиско пријатељство југословенског краља Александра I Карађорђевића и турског председника Мустафе Кемала Ататурка. Како је оснивач и први председник Турске уживао велику популарност у српској и југословенској јавности, рад анализира да ли се позитивна перцепција Атаурка одразила и на позитивну перцепцију Турака или је доминатни наратив о Турцима, из времена Османског царства, наставио да игра примарну улогу у тој перцепцији. 

Овај рад за циљ има да на основу писања београдске дневне штампе (Време, Политика, Правда) анализира промену наратива која се о Турцима и Мустафи Кемалу Ататурку створила у српској јавности током тридесетих година двадесетог века. Краљевина Југославија и Република Турска су од 1933. године успоставиле веома блиске пријатељске и дипломатске односе, оличене кроз блиско пријатељство југословенског краља Александра I Карађорђевића и турског председника Мустафе Кемала Ататурка. Како је оснивач и први председник Турске уживао велику популарност у српској и југословенској јавности, рад анализира да ли се позитивна перцепција Ататурка одразила и на позитивну перцепцију Турака или је доминатни наратив о Турцима, из времена Османског царства, наставио да игра примарну улогу у тој перцепцији.

Since the Ottoman Empire first arrived in Kosovo and Metohija in the fourteenth century, Turks have lived there. It is highly challenging to pinpoint the precise num-ber of Turks considering the Ottoman Empire’s long reign, the considerable Albanian population in these areas, and the widespread adoption of Islam as an essential factor of belonging. Turks in Kosovo and Metohija began to live in the nascent Kingdom of Yugoslavia following the Balkan Wars and the First World War.
The Yugoslav government did not acknowledge the Turks as a national minority throughout the interwar era. Turks became eligible for the title of a national minority following World War II in Kosovo and Metohija in 1951 by the decision of the new socialist authorities. Along with to the acknowledgment of fundamental freedoms, a significant percentage of Turks immigrated after Yugoslavia and Turkey established a 1953 agreement regarding their emigration. The majority Albanian population put pressure on the small percentage of the Turkish population that remained in Kosovo and Metohija by demonstrating that there in fact are no Turks in these areas. In addition to all of this, multiple Turkish cultural and artistic associations developed all through the 1950s, and Turks obtained the right to receive an education in their mother tongue.

Аpstrakt: U radu se analizira pisanje tri beogradska dnevna lista
(Vreme, Politika i Pravda) o grčko-turskom ratu u periodu od grčkog
zauzimanja Smirne u maju 1919. godine, do pobede turske vojske u
Smirni u septembru 1922. godine. Pored analize prikaza samog toka
ratnih borbi, u radu je prvenstveni naglasak stavljen na interpretaciju
nasilja i dominatne narative koje je štampa plasirala u javnost o samom
toku ratnih borbi, kao i diplomatskoj pozadini ovog rata.

With the end of the First World War, the newly-formed states of the Republic of Turkey and the Kingdom of Yugoslavia opened a new chapter in their mutual relations, the culmination of which could be seen in 1933 and 1934. It was the personal relationship between the Yugoslav king Alexander I and Mustafa Kemal Ataturk that provided the impulse for close relations between the countries. This research paper analyses the written material of the Belgrade dailies (Vreme, Politika, Pravda) concerning Turkey, as well as about Ataturk’s reforms and the Turkish people during the 1930s. The paper primarily deals with the narrative and the image of Turkey which was created and disseminated amongst the Serbian and Yugoslav public through newspaper reports. In the analysis of these aspects, this research paper tries to argue that the positive perception of Turkey in the Yugoslav (and Serbian) public was prompted by the close personal relations between the Turkish president and the Yugoslav king. On the other hand, bearing in mind the very rich and nuanced heritage which the relations between the two countries bore, this piece of this work seeks to demonstrate that the radical changes which Turkey underwent during Ataturk’s reign was somewhat of a Yugoslav-Serbian reproduction of Orientalism. More specifically, meaning that the belated Turkish process of modernisation was perceived within a framework of Yugoslav civilisational progress, in which Turkey (as the old suzerain) was, in the Yugoslav case, a part of the East whilst Yugoslavia presented a long-established member of the Occidental camp in its own view.