[MUSLIMS BOYCOTT NON-MUSLIM TRADESMEN & SHOPKEEPERS DURING THE BALKAN WARS] مسلمانلره مخصوص! مجّاناً / Müslümânlara mahsûs! Meccânen. [i.e., Reserved for Muslims! Free of charge]

N. A.

[N. p.], [Istanbul], AH 1329 [CE 1913].

Original pinkish wrappers, pages loosely inserted. 12mo (16 × 11.5 cm). In Ottoman script (Old Turkish in Arabic letters). 32 p. Chipping to the upper right corner and foxing to the wrappers. Otherwise, a good copy.

An extremely rare pamphlet, distributed free of charge and addressed exclusively to Muslims, calling for a boycott of Greek craftsmen and tradesmen in Istanbul on the grounds that they allegedly provided covert financial support to the Greek army in the lead-up to the Balkan War. Prepared and circulated anonymously and bearing no printing details, the pamphlet appears to have been produced by one of the nationalist associations of the period.

The front cover states that the Muslim who obtains the pamphlet should never discard it after reading and should instead pass it on to another Muslim brother and help circulate it.

This interesting pamphlet, apparently issued by a branch affiliated with the Committee of Union and Progress, sets out in strongly nationalist language the rationale and implementation of a proposed boycott. Its content alleges acts of oppression by the Greek government against Muslim Turks in Salonica, the Dodecanese (particularly Crete) and Macedonia, and attributes the Ottoman defeat in the Balkan Wars, in part, to covert financial support provided by Ottoman Greek subjects to the Greek army. It further cites the case of the Greek armoured cruiser Averof, which confined the Ottoman navy to the Sea of Marmara and was reportedly donated to the Greek government by an Ottoman Greek from Görice named Averof, as a key justification for the boycott and outlines in detail the manner in which it is to be carried out.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND:

The first economic boycott movement of the Second Constitutional Period was directed against Austria, which had declared the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The boycott began on 8 October 1908, when thousands of people, primarily madrasa students and members of the Committee of Union and Progress, as well as Turks, Greeks, and Armenians, gathered in front of the Ministry of War. In the following days, the movement spread and intensified as dockworkers and lightermen in Istanbul and Salonica refused to handle cargo from ships belonging to the Austrian Lloyd company. The boycott came to an end with an agreement concluded on 26 February 1909 between Austria and the Ottoman Empire, after Austria suffered economic losses. Under the terms of this agreement, Austria agreed to pay an indemnity of 2.5 million gold coins to the Ottoman Empire in return for the annexation. Thus, the government under the Committee of Union and Progress understood that the boycotts were effective.

The period of the Balkan Wars witnessed the growing spread of Turkish nationalism as a reaction to the increasing isolation of the Turkish element within the Empire. In this context, the Committee of Union and Progress began to view the commercial boycott as more than merely a weapon against foreign adversaries. Within such a political climate, boycotts came to be directed against groups whose loyalty to the state was considered suspect, particularly the Greeks (Rum). Although there is no precise information as to when and by whom the boycott against the Greeks was initiated, it was effectively guided by the Unionists, who had seized control of the government through the "Raid on the Sublime Porte" in 1913, and came to dominate political life.

The immediate justification for the boycott lay in the financial contributions made by certain Greek Ottoman subjects to the Greek government. According to those organizing the campaign, Greece's success in the Balkan War had been achieved in part through the support of Ottoman Greeks. The case of the armoured cruiser Averof, which confined the Ottoman navy to the Sea of Marmara and was said to have been donated to the Greek government by an Ottoman Greek from Görice bearing the same name, was frequently cited. Boycott advocates further argued that commerce within the Ottoman territories was largely in Greek hands and that trade was effectively controlled by Greek "citizens", thereby claiming that "poor, bewildered, and heedless Muslims" were, through their own consumption, financing Greece’s military power, including its artillery and warships.

The boycott movement against the Greeks was conceived not only as a response to alleged Greek oppression of Turks in Macedonia, but also as a measure aimed at undermining Greek economic dominance and creating opportunities for the economic advancement of Turks. Accordingly, the Committee of Union and Progress disseminated slogans through its networks, particularly in regions with significant Greek populations, promoting the ideas of "Turks buying from Turks" and the complete severance of commercial relations with Greek and Greek-affiliated merchants. The boycott thus pursued a dual objective: to nationalize capital held by the Greeks without outright destruction, and, consequently, to compel them toward "voluntary migration". This policy, in various forms, continued to surface intermittently until the 1960s, often to the detriment of non-Muslim citizens.

Not in Özege and TBTK., As of March 2026, OCLC records two copies (with different imprint details), located in Turkey and Canada, with none held in any libraries in the United States (253877820).