From Dragomans to Members of Parliament: The Greeks in Ottoman Politics on the Eve of the Great War

 

Co-organised with King’s Centre for Hellenic Studies. This fourth Niki Marangou Lecture will be held in London, and the featured speaker will be the former diplomat and King’s alumna, Dr Catherine Boura.

The first Greeks to participate in the affairs of the Ottoman state were Dragomans, interpreters of the Sublime Porte, who were members of the Phanariot patrician class of the Ottoman capital. They rose to the topmost ranks of the administration and served the Sublime Porte efficiently and loyally for many generations. After Greek Independence, Greeks continued the long tradition of serving the Ottoman state albeit in different modes, as ambassadors, bankers, doctors, administration officials. Their influence and rise to positions of distinction was owed to a large extent to their education and personal ability, as much as to the prosperity of their families due to success in trade.

The second constitutional period (1908-1912) opened the way to representation in Parliament and participation of Ottoman citizens in party politics. The election of the Ottoman Greeks as members of the Ottoman Parliament was the first organized Greek participation in the political affairs of the Ottoman Empire. Party politics marked the dramatic changes in the political environment, the gradual dominance of secular state power and the adoption of the values of nationalism, which overturned the old Ottoman ‘order’. The Balkan Wars had a decisive effect on intercommunal relations. The Balkan conflicts intensified the divisions between Muslims and Christians, radicalised the Turkish leadership and prepared the way for the conflagration of the Great War.

Dr Boura has served in diplomatic posts in Nicosia, London, and the Council of the European Union in Brussels, as Ambassador of Greece to Lebanon, to the UAE, and as Permanent Representative of Greece to the United Nations. She holds a B.A. in Literature from the University of Athens, an M.A. in Area Studies from the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, as well as a Ph.D. in History from King’s College London. She is President of the Friends of the Gennadius Library.