VOLUNTEERS FROM RUMELİA FIGHTING IN ÇANAKKALE AND OTHER FRONTS

When the Ottoman Empire entered World War I, Turkish, Bosnian and Albanian Muslims living in Rumelia responded to the call for jihad, some were martyred, some were captured, some of those who survived stayed and settled in Turkey, and those who left a family behind returned as veterans. The fate of the volunteers who were martyred or captured on fronts far from Rumelia was reported to their families by the Ottoman Ministry of War through consulates.
It seems difficult to determine the exact number of Muslim volunteers provided from Rumelia. When the volunteers sent to Istanbul from Serbia, Montenegro, Albania, Bulgaria, Southern Kosovo, Macedonia, Romania, the region from Western Thrace to the Struma River, and the Sanjak region are added, it can be assumed that the number exceeded roughly 50 thousand. The volunteers were ethnically Albanian, Turkish, Bosniaks and other Muslims. It is stated that over 15 thousand Bosniaks participated in the war in Çanakkale, the vast majority of whom were from the Sandzak region, and these people were called dzurumliye among the people, meaning volunteers from Rumelia. The story of tens of thousands of Muslim volunteers who joined the army ranks from Rumelia has not received the place it deserves in Ottoman military history literature or other sources. The traces in social memory of the indifference and occasionally negative attitude of the local people to the defense of the country during the Balkan War, the acceptance of non-Turkish Muslims, namely Arabs and Albanians, as traitors, the difficulty of academics and researchers accessing archive material on the subject, the abundance of bureaucratic procedures required to access documents, and ideological preferences whose influence is also known in 20th century historiography are influential in this. The fact that the people supported the Ottoman Empire with a significant number of volunteer soldiers contradicts the propaganda that the Ottomans gave nothing but cruelty and oppression to almost all ethnic groups in Balkans. For this reason, contemporary nationalisms that fictionalize the past in the Balkans also prefer to ignore the issue. In addition to the intensive volunteer participation from Rumelia and the Balkans in the fronts of the last period of the Ottoman Empire, many commanders from Rumelia participated in the Ottoman Empire, which was a Rumelian empire. 12 generals and senior commanders, 19 colonels, 22 lieutenant colonels, eight majors, and two captains from the Balkans participated in the Balkan War; nine generals and senior commanders, nine staff colonels, six colonels, 30 lieutenant colonels, 47 majors, and nine captains from the Balkans participated in the First World War; 15 generals and senior commanders, five staff colonels, seven lieutenant colonels, 16 majors, and six captains from the Balkans participated in the War of Independence. Three brigadier generals, four staff colonels, nine lieutenant colonels, 20 majors, six captains, five senior captains, 20 captains, 28 first lieutenants, 40 lieutenants, 10 reserve officers and six reserve officer candidates from the Balkans served on the Çanakkale Front.

References:
1. Saygılı, H. (2013). BİRİNCİ DÜNYA HARBİ’NDE RUMELİ’NDEN OSMANLI ORDUSUNA MÜSLÜMAN GÖNÜLLÜ KATILIMLARI. Hacettepe Üniversitesi Türkiyat Araştırmaları (HÜTAD)(18), 231-255.
3. Esenkaya, A. (2012). Balkanlardan Çanakkale Cephesine gelenler. I. Uluslararası Balkan Kongresi (24-26 Eylül) bildiri kitabı içinde (ss. 1067-1100). İstanbul: Süleyman Şah Üniversitesi Yayınları.