Harris Mylonas, George Washington University
What accounts for the preservation of Ottoman-style institutions with respect to some Southeastern European non-core groups and not others? Some contend that the discriminatory nation-building policies along religious lines employed by Balkan nations’ ruling elites are a legacy of the Ottoman era millet system (administration by religious affiliation), others argue that the Ottoman legacy is palpable in the millet-like features preserved in the minority rights protection system resulting from World War I, and yet other scholars see it as a critical antecedent. Studying closely the policies towards non-core groups in the post-Ottoman Balkans, one finds that the ‘Ottoman legacy’ is much more differentiated than is commonly assumed and that effects vary widely from place to place. Moreover, I suggest that an important analytical distinction is in order between ‘legacy’ and ‘maintenance,’ which are often the result of geostrategic choices made by governmental elites. I empirically demonstrate this distinction in a crucial case using archival sources.
