An Island in the Shadow of Great Powers the Cretan Question in British and Ottoman Public Opinion (1897- 1913)

This study, which is the product of a long-term academic journey, examines the conflicts experienced on the island of Crete in the late Ottoman world, the diplomatic traffic between the Ottoman government and the great powers, the interventionist attitudes of the European states and especially the trauma that emerged with the loss of the homeland where the Muslim population lived. Focusing on the rather difficult and distressing developments such as the rebellions, chaos and the forced migration of the Muslim population from the island of Crete, this study also devotes a special place to the issue of the damage to national honor that was frequently encountered in the Ottoman public opinion with the loss of Crete. Dr. İbrahim Hamaloğlu draws attention to the fact that the deep impact of the loss of Crete on the Ottoman state administration increased with the risk of the state disintegrating and even collapsing. This study examines the violence and discrimination that the Muslim population living on the island was subjected to, their resistance and struggle for survival through the British and Ottoman press and Ottoman diplomatic correspondence of the period, and also presents the diplomacy and international negotiations carried out during the solution of the problem that emerged on the island in an impressive style with all its details.