Date: 2023
Type: Thesis
Confidential, secret and prompt : intelligence activities across the Ottoman Empire during the Reign of Abdulhamid II, 1876-1909
Florence : European University Institute, 2023, EUI, HEC, PhD Thesis
AKINCI, Arda, Confidential, secret and prompt : intelligence activities across the Ottoman Empire during the Reign of Abdulhamid II, 1876-1909, Florence : European University Institute, 2023, EUI, HEC, PhD Thesis - https://hdl.handle.net/1814/75364
Retrieved from Cadmus, EUI Research Repository
This thesis analyzes one of the most disputed subjects of late Ottoman historiography: namely secret intelligence activities and state espionage during the reign of Sultan Abdulhamid II (r.1876- 1909). So far, the topic has been evaluated in terms of contemporary political debates in Turkey. However, this dissertation approaches the topic by focusing on the transformation of Ottoman secret intelligence activities as a consequence of Ottoman modernization, advances in technology and as a response to the internal and external threats that the Ottoman Empire perceived at the turn of nineteenth century. The focus of this thesis lies on Istanbul as the capital of the Empire, and the three extremely volatile frontier regions of Bulgaria (in the Balkans), the Province of Erzurum (in Eastern Anatolia), and Egypt and Sudan (in Northeastern Africa). By concentrating on these geographically separated outposts of the Ottoman Empire, this dissertation reveals the transnational intelligence networks created by the Ottoman imperial administration, and how the Empire crafted different networks for different regions according to its capacities and needs. Furthermore, by following such an approach this dissertation unearths the organizational structure and the operational scheme of intelligence activities during the Hamidian Era. Finally, the thesis focuses on the transformation of state espionage and its institutional character at the end of Abdulhamid II’s reign with the Young Turk Revolution of 1908 and the abolition of spying in the Ottoman Empire.
Additional information:
Defence date: 21 February 2023; Examining Board: Prof. Pieter Judson, (EUI, supervisor); Prof. Giancarlo Casale, (EUI, second Reader); Dr. İlkay Yılmaz, (Freie Universität Berlin, external); Dr. Ozan Özavcı, (Utrecht University, external)
Cadmus permanent link: https://hdl.handle.net/1814/75364
Full-text via DOI: 10.2870/708704
Series/Number: EUI; HEC; PhD Thesis
Publisher: European University Institute
LC Subject Heading: Espionage -- Turkey -- History; Secret service -- Turkey -- History; Turkey -- History -- 1878-1909