Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles by Stefanos Katsikas
European History Quarterly, 2021
This article explores the conversion of Muslims to Orthodox Christianity during the Greek War of ... more This article explores the conversion of Muslims to Orthodox Christianity during the Greek War of Independence (1821-1832) and the first post-independence years as a case study which shows that religious boundaries in the Balkans do not seem to have been as insurmountable as one might think. The bonds between people of different religious affiliations, including Christians and Muslims, were not so loose in the chaotic period of the nineteenth century. Even though religious differences have always existed in Southeastern Europe, the inhabitants of that region have not always seen fellow humans with different religious affiliations as estranged others. Muslim converts to Christianity were ready to compromise their Islamic faith in exchange for security, social status, and well-being in the changed political and social environment created by Greek nationalism, with a view to advancing their professional opportunities and material interests in the new state. The Greek case is not unique. Religious conversions from Islam to Christianity occurred elsewhere in the region during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Yet, while Balkan historiographical literature has focused on the Islamization of Christians in the region during the Ottoman period, it has paid little attention to the inverse processes of Christianization of Muslims in the age of nationalism.
Journal of Modern Greek Studies Vol. 38, No. 1, 2020
The Greco-Ottoman War of 1897 has created a collective national trauma for Greeks on account of t... more The Greco-Ottoman War of 1897 has created a collective national trauma for Greeks on account of the supposed magnitude of the defeat, feelings of "national shame and humiliation," and a perceived sense of damage to Greek national interests. Scholarship has not paid sufficient attention to this event, which by and large remains in the shadows of history.
Unless Bulgaria and Romania manage to enact judicial reforms, fight corruption and organized crim... more Unless Bulgaria and Romania manage to enact judicial reforms, fight corruption and organized crime, and protect human and minority rights, they will not be able to capitalize on the benefits of EU membership, and will continue to be regarded as second-class EU members.”
This article provides a bibliographical review of the major academic works which have been publis... more This article provides a bibliographical review of the major academic works which have been published in or translated into Greek and deal with the life of the Muslim minority
of Greece. The article focuses on the methodological approach of these works, the time of their publication and the research fields which they cover or disregard. It argues that Greek academic works on the subject are highly influenced by the climate of Greek–Turkish relations. Most remain silent about Muslim populations who lived in the country prior to 1923 and focus on the Muslims of western Thrace, of whose minority life they give a distorted picture. This has started to change since 1989, but there is still a long way to go until Greek academia overcomes its biased, emotional and politically influenced
modus operandi on the subject and adopts a more dispassionate approach.
Books by Stefanos Katsikas
Oxford Univesity Press (Religion and Global Politics), 2021
Drawing from a wide range of archival and secondary Greek, Bulgarian, Ottoman, and Turkish source... more Drawing from a wide range of archival and secondary Greek, Bulgarian, Ottoman, and Turkish sources, Islam and Nationalism in Modern Greece, 1821-1940 explores the way in which the Muslim populations of Greece were ruled by state authorities from the time of Greece's political emancipation from the Ottoman Empire in the 1820s until the country's entrance into the Second World War, in October 1940. The book examines how state rule influenced the development of the Muslim population's collective identity as a minority and affected Muslim relations with the Greek authorities and Orthodox Christians.
Greece was the first country in the Balkans to become an independent state and a pioneer in experimenting with minority issues. Greece's ruling framework and many state administrative measures and patterns would serve as templates in other Christian Orthodox Balkan states with Muslim minorities (Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia, Cyprus). Muslim religious officials were empowered with authority which they did not have in Ottoman times, and aspects of the Islamic law (Sharia) were incorporated into the state legal system to be used for Muslim family and property affairs. Religion remained a defining element in the political, social, and cultural life of the post-Ottoman Balkans; Stefanos Katsikas explores the role religious nationalism and public institutions have played in the development and preservation of religious and ethnic identity. Religion remains a key element of individual and collective identity but only as long as there are strong institutions and the political framework to support and maintain religious diversity.
Special Issue of a Peer-Reviewed Journal by Stefanos Katsikas
Book Contributions by Stefanos Katsikas
Salvation and Catastrophe: The Greek-Turkish War, 1919-1922, 2020
After a brief overview on the life of the Muslim populations in Greece from the Greek War of Inde... more After a brief overview on the life of the Muslim populations in Greece from the Greek War of Independence (1821-1832) onward, the chapter analyzes how the Muslims of Greece coped in war environment of the Greek-Turkish War of 1919-1922. In particular, the chapter explores how the war and the influx of Greek Orthodox refugees from Asia Minor and Eastern Thrace after the Greek defeat of 1922 affected the economic and social life of Muslims in the New Lands (i.e. Epirus, Macedonia, Thrace, Aegean islands, including Crete), their relations with the Greek authorities, with indigenous Greek Orthodox as well as with the Greek Orthodox refugees.
Salvation and Catastrophe: The Greek-Turkish War, 1919-1922, 2020
After a short overview of the life of Muslims in Greece from the start of the Greek War of Indepe... more After a short overview of the life of Muslims in Greece from the start of the Greek War of Independence (1821-1832) onward, the chapter analyzes how the Muslim populations in the New Lands (Νέες Χώρες), i.e. in Macedonia, Epirus, Thrace, and the Aegean islands, including Crete, coped in the war environment of the Greek-Turkish War of 1919-1922. The chapter explores how relations with the Greek state and Greek Orthodox were during the war and how these relations were affected by the influx of Greek Orthodox war refugees from Asia Minor and the forced transfer of Greek Orthodox and Muslim populations after the Greek defeat and signing of the Lausanne Treaty of in 1923.
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Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles by Stefanos Katsikas
of Greece. The article focuses on the methodological approach of these works, the time of their publication and the research fields which they cover or disregard. It argues that Greek academic works on the subject are highly influenced by the climate of Greek–Turkish relations. Most remain silent about Muslim populations who lived in the country prior to 1923 and focus on the Muslims of western Thrace, of whose minority life they give a distorted picture. This has started to change since 1989, but there is still a long way to go until Greek academia overcomes its biased, emotional and politically influenced
modus operandi on the subject and adopts a more dispassionate approach.
Books by Stefanos Katsikas
Greece was the first country in the Balkans to become an independent state and a pioneer in experimenting with minority issues. Greece's ruling framework and many state administrative measures and patterns would serve as templates in other Christian Orthodox Balkan states with Muslim minorities (Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia, Cyprus). Muslim religious officials were empowered with authority which they did not have in Ottoman times, and aspects of the Islamic law (Sharia) were incorporated into the state legal system to be used for Muslim family and property affairs. Religion remained a defining element in the political, social, and cultural life of the post-Ottoman Balkans; Stefanos Katsikas explores the role religious nationalism and public institutions have played in the development and preservation of religious and ethnic identity. Religion remains a key element of individual and collective identity but only as long as there are strong institutions and the political framework to support and maintain religious diversity.
Special Issue of a Peer-Reviewed Journal by Stefanos Katsikas
Book Contributions by Stefanos Katsikas
of Greece. The article focuses on the methodological approach of these works, the time of their publication and the research fields which they cover or disregard. It argues that Greek academic works on the subject are highly influenced by the climate of Greek–Turkish relations. Most remain silent about Muslim populations who lived in the country prior to 1923 and focus on the Muslims of western Thrace, of whose minority life they give a distorted picture. This has started to change since 1989, but there is still a long way to go until Greek academia overcomes its biased, emotional and politically influenced
modus operandi on the subject and adopts a more dispassionate approach.
Greece was the first country in the Balkans to become an independent state and a pioneer in experimenting with minority issues. Greece's ruling framework and many state administrative measures and patterns would serve as templates in other Christian Orthodox Balkan states with Muslim minorities (Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia, Cyprus). Muslim religious officials were empowered with authority which they did not have in Ottoman times, and aspects of the Islamic law (Sharia) were incorporated into the state legal system to be used for Muslim family and property affairs. Religion remained a defining element in the political, social, and cultural life of the post-Ottoman Balkans; Stefanos Katsikas explores the role religious nationalism and public institutions have played in the development and preservation of religious and ethnic identity. Religion remains a key element of individual and collective identity but only as long as there are strong institutions and the political framework to support and maintain religious diversity.