Agents or Pawns?: Nationalism and Ottoman Children during the Great War

Abstract

From the mid-nineteenth century onwards, and especially during the First World War, children were part of nationalist, class, and religious agitation. The multi-religious, multi-ethnic, multi-lingual structure of the Ottoman Empire and the disunity of the idea of nation complicated what Ottoman children represented and stood for. From street fights to boy scouting organizations, from “child saving” campaigns to the opening of orphanages, Ottoman children from different communal identities embodied and reproduced internal political crisis and rivalries as agents and targets of nationalist politics. Based on research in the Ottoman police records, contemporary Turkish language press, school books, the papers of youth organizations, and memoirs, this paper focuses on the politicization and socialization of Ottoman children and youth along overtly ethnic, religious, and nationalist lines.