The Ten-Year War
Today, Thrace is usually known for its undulating flatlands filled with sunflower and wheat fields, and its carefree people with funny accents. In that, contemporary Thracians seem to have followed the path of Orpheus and Dionysus in their appreciation of music, dancing, playfulness, and good booze. However, it was the other deity from Thrace who characterized the region about a century ago. The inhabitants of Thrace saw an uninterrupted ten-year stretch of war that spanned the Balkan Wars (1912-13), World War I (1914-18), and the Turkish War of Independence (1919-22).
No event in modern history impacted Thrace and its inhabitants more than the Balkan Wars. If the Russo-Ottoman War of 1877–1878 had briefly fractured the region’s shield of security, the Balkan Wars of 1912–1913 shattered it completely by transforming what was once the inland province of Edirne into a volatile frontier that swapped hands between the Turks, Bulgarians, and Greeks over the next decade. Thrace was occupied by the Bulgarian forces in 1912, who arrived at Catalca to lay siege to the imperial capital in November. Fortunately for the Ottomans, members of the Balkan League, particularly Bulgaria, had major disagreements over the spoils of war, which sparked the Second Balkan War. Capitalizing on the divisions within the Balkan League, the Ottomans recuperated some of their territorial losses in Thrace and recaptured the city of Edirne in 1913. Even with these gains, the lost Ottoman territories during the Balkan Wars, which were divided between five countries, totaled over 83 percent of the empire's possessions in Europe.
The Balkan Wars was also a turning point for war journalism. International correspondents and photographers from all across the world trailed the warring armies to battlefields, leaving behind a rich repository of memoirs and photographs documenting the war's progress. These included some famous figures, such as the Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky, who observed the war from the side of the Balkan League armies. Another famous figure was Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, the founder of Italian futurism and co-author of the infamous Fascist Manifesto, who took the siege of Edirne as an inspiration to produce his sound poem Zang Tumb Tumb.
For those following the Ottoman armies in Thrace, Çorlu was designated as the journalists' camp location. They were billeted in tents and were accompanied by a few military and censor officers. Upon the Bulgarian occupation of Çorlu and Thrace, many of these journalists retreated to Istanbul, following the dejected Ottoman army and refugees. Some returned to their home countries to publish their memoirs.
The Bulgarian occupation in Çorlu and Eastern Thrace at large did not last long, but the war left deep psychological and physical scars. With the news of the Bulgarian advance, many Turks, some of whom were refugees from previous Ottoman wars with Russia, deserted Çorlu for safer destinations. Cholera was rampant in the region, claiming more lives than gunpowder and cannons did. Some of the Turkish refugees returned when the Ottoman forces recaptured the region in 1913, but this time, it was Bulgarians who fled their homes for safety, fearing retaliation from Turkish troops and civilians. The sense of security was breached, stoking fears of inter-communal strife.
Before the scars of the Balkan Wars could heal, another war raged, this time not only in the Balkans but across Europe. The Ottomans were again on the losing side, throwing their weight behind the Central Powers.
Thrace in World War I might not ring a bell, except for those interested in the history of the First World War. But everybody knows about the Gallipoli campaign, one of the bloodiest episodes of World War I, which cost over a hundred thousand lives. The campaign took part in the southwesternmost part of Thrace for control of the waterways leading to the Ottoman capital. Even to this day, most parts of the Gallipoli Peninsula are designated as military exclusion zones, and its landscape is dotted with countless memorials in honor of those who died during the campaign.
Ottoman forces were able to avert an Allied invasion in Gallipoli, which would result in an early Ottoman exit from the war and possibly the preemption of the Soviet revolution in 1917. But the victory in Gallipoli came at a steep price. Included in the Ottoman losses were not only over 50,000 lives and countless injuries, but also territories along the Ottoman frontier with Western Thrace.
Two major Central Powers, Germany and the Ottoman Empire, needed a secure and stable line of communications in the Balkans to sustain the war effort in Gallipoli, which required them to recruit Bulgaria to their side. Thus, the Ottomans agreed to cede a strip of territory near Edirne to win Bulgaria's favor and grease the wheels of military logistics. Bulgaria joined the Central Powers in 1915. Two old foes, which had battled for their lives two years ago, thus became new allies. For Gallipoli and Istanbul to be saved, the hinterland of Edirne was sacrificed.
With Bulgaria on the Ottomans' side and the Straits still in the Ottomans' possession, Çorlu and Eastern Thrace avoided the bitter fate of occupation that many Ottoman territories faced during World War I. We don't have much evidence about daily life in Çorlu during wartime beyond state records, which mostly concern military affairs. Due to wartime conditions and censor, only a few personal accounts leaked out from the period to illuminate the trials and tribulations of common people. But war also produced unexpected witnesses, such as Karl Finke, who produced one of the earliest sketches of Çorlu's layout during his travels in Thrace as a German officer.
The collective efforts of the Central Powers delayed their defeat until 1918. In September and November of 1918, members of the alliance asked for an armistice from the Allies one by one. The Armistice of Mudros brought a temporary end to the hostilities in the Ottoman lands.
A clause in the armistice treaty granted the Allies the right to occupy Ottoman territories in case of disorder, which the Allies interpreted liberally despite Ottoman protests. Within a few years, Istanbul came under Allied occupation, and Anatolia was divided between various powers. The southern Anatolian coast along the Mediterranean Sea came under Italian control, and France took control over southeastern Anatolia around the frontier with today's Syria. On their part, the Greeks launched their Asia Minor campaign to seize Western Anatolia, and subsequently occupied Thrace. The acquiescence of the sultan to the dismemberment of the empire gave rise to different resistance movements across Anatolia, which was later unified by an Ottoman military commander, Mustafa Kemal. Cut off from the stronger resistance movement in Anatolia, the elements of resistance in Thrace yielded shortly after the Greek occupation of Thrace began.
Eastern Thrace remained under Greek occupation from 1920 to 1922. With the success of the Anatolian resistance, the Turks eventually recovered Eastern Thrace and Istanbul. Fortunately for us, photographers produced live footage and photographs of post-armistice life in Çorlu and Eastern Thrace while the control of the region shifted from Greece to the Turkish government in the fall of 1922.
