Archiv orientální. Fighting Under the Same Banner: Memories from the Ottoman Theater of the Great War

What did it mean to individuals of different ethnic and religious backgrounds to participate in World War I under the Ottoman crescent and star banner? This special issue, consisting of articles based on the lectures presented at the conference “Fighting Under the Same Banner: Memories from the Ottoman Theater of the Great War” (Istanbul, September 6-8, 2019), focuses on a wide array of autobiographical sources including memoirs, letters, diaries, and non-textual forms of life narrative left by the multi-ethnic and multilingual Ottoman soldiers and civilians who aided the war effort. The aim of the issue is to obtain a better understanding of the personal experiences of Ottomans in the Balkan Wars and the Great War, and examine how these experiences add to and differ from insights afforded by visual and audio testimonies, as well as the accounts of the Ottoman Empire’s military allies.

This special issue also includes three review essays addressing the growing body of scholarship and writings on the Greater War in Turkish by experts in the field.