The Balkan Wars in light of memories in Turkish public opinion (1912-1913)

In 1804, the Balkan States rebellions that started with the Serbian Revolution concluded with the result that they gained their independency and obtained concessions from Ottoman Empire. Although they gained their independency, the Balkan States continued causing rebellion and disorder in Balkans to attain their goal by enlarging their state boundaries.They could not make an alliance against Ottoman Empire until the Balkan Wars because of the fact that the Balkan States? goals were in contradiction with each other. They made an alliance due to the fact that Ottoman Empire solved the church conflict that was an important disagreement between Balkan States, their desires to take advantage of the gap that was caused by the Tripoli War and the encouragement and support of the big countries and especially of Russia, the third of October in 1912.Ottoman Empire declared war against the declaration of war of Balkan States which the Ottomans were caught unprepared, by announcing mobilization.According to the content of military, political and civil memoirs, in this period, besides Tripoli war, Ottoman Empire was in a complexity because of the interior problems, Yemen rebellions, the problems that governmental changes originated and separatist thoughts that occurred due to the effectiveness of politics between army officers.Ottoman Empire sustained a defeat in the Balkan wars that it went to under all these circumstances, because of not completing the mobilization exactly, inadequate transportation vehicles which were used to propel the commanders and the soldiers to their duty stations, the problems occurred in the field of food and health in the war, the disclamation of changed commanders according to the governments by soldiers and inadequate military equipment.European countries asserted that the status quo would not change in the consequence of the war, because of the fact that they did not predict that the war would be resulted in the defeat of Ottoman Empire. However, upon the Balkan States came out the victorious at the end of the war, by changing their discourse, they supported the fact that attained lands would stay in the Balkan States.Ottoman Empire retrieved Edirne as a result of Balkan States? disagreement about the issue of sharing out the attained lands at the end of the II. Balkan War in the September of 1913.The Balkan Wars laid bare the weakness of Ottoman Empire. Ottoman Empire went into action to renew its army and fleet after the war.Ottomanism, one of the determinant thought movements in Ottoman Empire, lost its efficiency with the results of this war and Turkism movement took its place because of the Turks who are present in the Empire.Key Words: Ottoman Empire, Balkan Wars, Public Opinion, Memoirs, European Great Powers.