Explain To Me: The Thousand Yard Stare

The painting

Chances are that, if you read about wars and the effect it has on soldiers, you may have inadvertently seen the "Thousand Yard Stare". The first sign of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in many cases, it defined as "a vacant or unfocused gaze into the distance, seen as characteristic of a war-weary or traumatized soldier", by Oxford dictionaries. 

The origin of the phrase comes from Time magazine's publishing a painting titled "Marines Call It That 2,000 Yard Stare", made by World War II artist and correspondent Tom Lea, although it was not explicitly called that. The painting is a 1944 portrait of a Marine at the Battle of Peleliu in Palau (Pacific theater). About the real-life Marine who was his subject, Lea said:

He left the States 31 months ago. He was wounded in his first campaign. He has had tropical diseases. He half-sleeps at night and gouges Japs out of holes all day. Two-thirds of his company has been killed or wounded. He will return to attack this morning. How much can a human being endure?

Prolonged exposure to battle causes the thousand yard stare. You can imagine that it was quite common during the Second World War, Vietnam (and practically any war, to be quite honest). It need not be confined simply to war.

Thousand yard stare from a 9/11 firefighter (from The Online Photographer)

While we're on this topic, it should be clarified that the 1984 photo of Sharbat Gula (popularly coined as the "Afghan Girl"), who obtained international notability for a photo depicting her in a  refugee camp in Pakistan after she was orphaned, is generally considered to not portray the stare. But it is still one of the most defining images of the 20th century.

More information here

If you're keen on reading more about it:

• Thousand Yard Stare by Pierce Kelley (a rather-accurate fictionalization of the stare)

Explain to Me: British Mandate of Palestine

This video is designed for people who are completely new to the topic and it is extremely brief so mind you, there are loads of stuff that aren't in it. Use this video as a start-up point for reading about Palestine.

(From David Charles)

Primary Documents:

• The Balfour Declaration
• The Sykes-Pikot Agreement (1916)
• The Palestine Mandate
• British White Paper of 1922
• British White Paper of 1939
• UN Resolution of the division of Palestine (UN General Assembly Resolution 181)

A Very Brief History of St. Patrick's Day

This may be a late blog post but nonetheless, on the occasion of St. Patrick's Day, I thought it would be fitting.

St. Patrick's day is held every year on March the 17th, and is held in honour of St. Patrick.

 St. Patrick was a Romano-Briton , born in the fourth century AD in present-day Britain , who practically introduced Christianity to Ireland and hence become the most popular of Ireland's patron saints.

Interestingly, St. Patrick wasn't even Irish, but was of Scottish-Roman English descent. His real name was said to have been Maewyn Succat. Due to his Anglicized Roman name, he eventually became known as Patrick.

St. Patrick's Day became an official public holiday in Ireland in 1903. The first St. Patrick's Day parade in the Irish Free State was staged in Dublin in 1931. Curiously, the parade in Montreal was first held almost 100 years earlier -- in 1824. It's one of the longest running St. Patty's Day parades in North America.

 St. Patrick is probably one of the most iconic figures of Irish culture; with legends of him banishing the snakes from Ireland to him explaining the concept of trinity to the pagan Irish by using the Shamrock plant

The Shamrock, otherwise known as the Irish clover

The day is generally characterised by the attendance of church services, wearing of green attire (hence everything is green!) , public parades and processions, and the lifting of Lenten restrictions on eating, and drinking alcohol,

Saint Patrick's day is a national holiday in Ireland and is widely celebrated amongst the Irish diaspora.

If you'd like more insight, here are some works:
About Saint Patrick
Saint Patrick's Day

History of the Fez

Continuing with the recent trend of Ottoman history and culture (I'm biased, I know!), in this post we shall find out about the history of the Fez, a classical example of Ottoman culture. And one more thing... this post won't be a fashion post !

A simple Fez.

The Fez is, in essence, a hat. It's called fez in Turkish ( plural fezzes or fezes), or tarboosh in Arabic          

Mahmut II was the first Sultan to sport the Fez

 ( طربوش‎). They usually come in the shape of a red truncated cone or in the shape of a short cylinder made of kilim fabric.

Both usually have tassels.

The Fez was originally a Greek headgear that the Ottomans adopted in the early 19th Century as part of their efforts to modernize with their European counterparts.

There was thought to have been a myth regarding the choice of headgear.

The Ottomans rejected the Western 'European hats' (probably referring to top-hats and the sort) because it was not very 'user friendly' during the act of praying (I'd assume it kept falling off but feel free to speculate!)

The fez was made a part of the official Ottoman uniforms in the 1840's or so, after the Jannisaries (elite unit in the Ottoman army) were disbanded . Before, a turban was worn by Ottomans.

It's also used in North Africa (I believe that's where the name of the city 'Fez', in Morocco ,comes from ?) The use of the Fez in Anatolia died out with the Turkish Revolution.

The Fez in Greece and Turkey:

Let's focus on this geographic location.

A drawing of Turkish (L) and Greek (R) clothing

The fez-fesi in Greek-originate from the Greek islands and at first it was popular among the Greeks.

The Ottomans gradually abandoned turban and started using the fez.  Kemal Ataturk, the Turkish revolutionary,  condemned the fez as "the headcovering of Greeks" (this anti-Greek feeling was due to the recent Greco-Turkish war, as part of the Turkish War of Independence ) and banned it (this ban was part of a campaign by Ataturk to get rid of anything Ottoman ) in order to modernize Turkey.

Back to the origin, though the Fez is stated to have been Greek, we can precisely say that it was the Ionians in the Ionian and Aegaen sea (the Islanders of Greece) who made the hat.

 The Fez Nowadays:

It is safe to assume that the Fez is no longer banned in Turkey (much to the relief of Turkish TV shows!)

The Fez hat is also deeply significant in other parts of the world such as South Asia, where a large number of the followers and leaders of the Muslim League (The party that created Pakistan) adopted the Fez hat, primarily due to its links with the Ottomans. (The fall of the Ottomans saw a rise in Muslim nationalism and sympathy with the Turks, and created greater animosity towards the ruling British)

Nawabzada Nasarullah Khan, a Pakistani politician of the 90s is famous for his Fez.

The Fez has made an impact in popular culture as well, appearing in a wide range of television shows from Doctor Who to movies like Indiana Jones. It still remains an icon of Ottoman culture.

Who were the Ottomans ? A Brief Introduction

Yes, apparently I'm that much annoyed by the survey's results. So I thought it's time for a real and proper introduction to the Ottomans (and hopefully, I might slim down the margin!), so let's get started !

The Ottoman insignia (they had style , no ?)

The Ottomans were, in essence, Turks. The Turks are an ethnic group that originated from Central Asia. The Ottoman Empire, in particular, started in 1299. At the time, Anatolia (which is present-day Turkey, excluding the European part) was carved up into several minor (and often warring) independent states called 'Ghazi Emirates' (or Anadolu Beylikleri in Turkish). 

The founder Osman I and his Dream:

A map showing Osman I's conquests

One of these emirates was controlled by a man named Osman I (from which the word "Ottoman" is derived from), who controlled a region in western Anatolia. A popular myth about Osman was the famous "Osman's Dream" myth, in which he had dreamed of a tree which symbolized his future empire.

 According to his dream the tree, which was Osman's Empire, issued four rivers from its roots, the Tigris, the Euphrates, the Nile and the Danube.Additionally, the tree shaded four mountain ranges, the Caucasus, the Taurus, the Atlas and the Balkan ranges.

Osman set about conquering nearby areas of Anatolia and with this, the Ottomans have begun their first-minimal wave of expansion.

Expansion , Civil War and Fall of the Byzantine Empire:

The Ottomans continued to expand, non-stop, for another 200 years.

An Ottoman conquest of Thessaloniki from the Venetians secured Hellenic Thrace while a decisive battle against the Serbs at the Battle of Kosovo (1389) effectively ended Serbian influence and supremacy in the Balkan region.

The seemingly invincible Ottoman army dealt a severe blow to the Europeans at the Battle of Nicopolis in 1396 , which was known as the Last Major Crusade of the Middle Ages. The victory of the Ottomans over a pan-European army (comprising of Hungarian,Wallachian, French, Burgundian, German forces) marked the end of the Second Bulgarian Empire and lead to Bulgaria being absorbed into the Ottoman empire.

The Ottoman ,3 years before the capture of Constantinople

In 1402, the Ottomans, having now secured all former Byzantine lands around the capital Constantinople , were poised to besiege the city.

However, it was not meant to happen, yet.

At around the same time, Tamerlane's horde invaded the Ottoman territories, temporarily relieving the Byzantines.

The Ottomans suffered a humiliating defeat at the Battle of Ankara (1402) when the Sultan (Bayezid I) himself was captured (and later killed).

This led to a power-vacuum and a civil war in the Ottoman empire (imagine the relief of the Byzantines!) and it took more than a decade for the problem to be sorted when Mehmed I took power and emerged as Sultan in 1413.

During the civil war, the Balkan holdings of the Ottomans (including Thessaloniki and others) were lost. Mehmed I effectively reconquered them, Murad II (another Sultan) fended off a Hungarian-Polish alliance to drive the Ottomans out of Europe, defeating them at the Battle of Varna in 1444.

The painting shows the Fall of Constantinople

It was Murad's son, Mehmed II , who would be the greatest Ottoman leader yet. He had reorganized the state and military and proved his military ingenuity by conquering Constantinople in 1453 at the mere age of 21, effectively putting to an end, thousands of years of Roman power.

After this, the Ottomans relocated their capital to Constantinople and appropriately, Mehmed II now bears the title "محمد الفاتح‎" which means, Mehmed the Conqueror.

 Constantinople fell in 57 days. The reason was thought to have been because Mehmed had focused on strengthening the Ottoman Navy, which was to have an important role in preventing naval aid from reaching the Byzantines.

It was commonly believed that, 10 years after the siege, Mehmed II visited the site of the ruined city of Troy and boasted about how he had avenged the Trojans in their war against the Greeks.

Mehmed II also placed the title "Caesar" on himself, claiming to be descendant from the Romans (his mother was believed to have been a Byzantine princess). He had tried to conquer Rome, sending an invasion fleet to invade South Eastern Italy. This caused the Pope to panic and called for a crusade. Before reaching the invasion site, Mehmed died and the invasion failed.(In fact, he was the Sultan who had fought off Prince Vlad III the Impaler, otherwise popularly known as Count Dracula!)

Peak of Ottoman Power:

This map explains the extent of Ottoman Expansionism

It would be obvious what the Ottomans had achieved now. By capturing Constantinople, they've consolidated their role as being a Mediterranean power. Anatolia was finally conquered by Beyezid II in 1482. His successor, Selim I, conquered modern-day Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine and Egypt as well as securing Baghdad (temporarily) from the Safavids in the 1510s. After the conquest of Cairo, the Sultan took up the title "Caliph".

Suleiman the Magnificent 's reign followed, in which he expanded the Balkan frontier ; capturing Belgrade and most of Hungary as well as Rhodes. He had also annexed huge parts of Northern Africa (see Libya and Algeria), and had granted the Barbary pirate states of Tripolitania , Tunisia and Algeria, autonomy.

He had also expanded into the Persian Gulf region, turning the local states into Vassal states and maintaining an Ottoman naval presence there until the Portuguese expelled them in 1554. A siege on Vienna (Austria) was laid in 1529 but failed.

By the end of Suleiman's reign, the Ottoman Empire housed 15 million people.

The Ottomans, since they controlled major overland trade routes, had a monopoly over trade products in Europe. However, with the advent of the discovery of the new world and subsequent findings of raw materials and gold, this caused severe inflation in the Ottoman economy. The Ottomans retaliated against aggressive European expansionism , primarily in the form of the Portuguese and Spanish navies.

Decline:

The Ottoman Navy suffered their most humiliating defeat, beaten at the Battle of Lepanto against the Holy League (a confederation of Catholic States). Though, this had little tactical significance, this victory symbolized that the Ottoman Navy was not invincible. The Ottomans could be beaten.

As times changed, reliance on firearms grew more and cavalry importance became less. Though the Ottomans were slightly behind the arms race, the Ottomans replaced their secret weapon , the Sepahi cavalry, with an even more frightening corps that striked fear into the Europeans; the Jannisaries.

The Ottomans faced the onslaught of the Holy League once again, in the Balkan frontier. Fifteen (15) continuous years of war culminated in the Treaty of Karlowitz (1699) which lead to the Ottoman Empire to surrender Hungary permanently to the Holy League.

Battle of Lepanto painting

Besides a constant changing of hands in the city of Baghdad and Yerevan, very little happened on the eastern front with the Safavids.

As the 18th century arrived, the Ottomans gave more land to the Austrians as a result of war. Soon, Algeria and Egypt were independent in all but name (but came under the influence of France and UK respectively). The Ottomans had to face a new growing challenge - The Russian Empire. Sweden's ruler Charles XII, managed to convince the Ottoman Sultan to declare war on the Russians (in order to help the Swedes). The Ottomans were largely successful and ended in an Ottoman victory.

During the Tulip Era (1718–1730), named for Sultan Ahmed III's love of the tulip flower and its use to symbolize his peaceful reign, the Empire's policy towards Europe underwent a shift. The Empire began to improve the fortifications of its cities in the Balkan peninsula to act as a defence against European expansionism.

Cultural works, fine arts and architecture flourished, with more elaborate styles that were influenced by the Baroque and Rococo movements in Europe. A classic example is the Fountain of Ahmed III in front of the Topkapı Palace. The famous Flemish-French painter Jean-Baptiste van Mour visited the Ottoman Empire during the Tulip Era and crafted some of the most renowned works of art depicting scenes from daily life in the Ottoman society and the imperial court

After the Crimean War (fought in the Crimea region of Ukraine, and involving the Ottomans), the Ottomans were inevitably going to fall.

The spread of Nationalism, secessionism (particularly in the Balkans) and the Reform movement (ie, the Tanzimat era) led to the downfall of the Ottomans. The Ottomans were a multi-ethnic empire where differences were bound to be obvious ; the government had tried to impose Ottomanism, where all Ottoman subjects were viewed as equals (perhaps a response to the French Revolution as well ?).

The Empire is Dead. Long Live the Republic:

World War One was the killing blow. The Ottomans, having aligned with the Central Powers, faced a double frontier; one in the Caucuses against the Russians, and one in the Sinai frontier against the British (and briefly, a front in Gallipoli and in Iraq, both of which failed). The Russian theater was particularly a bloody one.

The Mesopotamian Theater

The Great Arab Revolt of 1916 (the brainchild of British negotiations with the Sharif of Mecca) was the turning point in the Middle Eastern theater. Jordan, Palestine, Iraq and Syria was lost by 1918. In 1919, under the Treaty of Sèvres, the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire was solidified. For the first time in 600 years, foreign soldiers of an enemy army occupied Constantinople in 1918.

The Turks were furious , guess why ?

The Turks were furious, their land was being carved up by foreign powers and there was one Turk who didn't stand for this. Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk was a later title), a soldier of the former Ottoman Army who served in Gallipoli, he had lead the Turkish War of Independence against the foreigners.

First, the revolutionary army went to war against the newly-founded Armenian state which culminated to the Treaty of Alexandropol (December 2, 1920) which nullified the state. Attention was turned to the Greeks and their land was won again.

The Greek campaign was launched because the western Allies, particularly British Prime Minister David Lloyd George, had promised Greece territorial gains at the expense of the Ottoman Empire. It ended with Greece giving up all territory gained during the war, returning to its pre-war borders, and engaging in a population exchange with the newly established state of Turkey under provisions in the Treaty of Lausanne.

The collective failure of the Greek military campaign against the Turkish revolutionaries, coupled with the expulsion of the French military from the region of Cilicia, forced the Allies to abandon the Treaty of Sèvres. Instead, they negotiated a new treaty at Lausanne. This new treaty recognised the independence of the Republic of Turkey and its sovereignty over East Thrace and Anatolia.

Painting showing the capture of Ismir

As one Turkish poet said  ;

The war was over. 
The Empire was dead.
The Republic lived on.

If the above article is unclear, I direct you to this colourful map!

Understood now ? :)

Explain To Me : Ireland's 20th Century History

A country I find intriguing is Ireland. For some reason, it reminds distinctively of Bahrain (perhaps my readers could point out why ?) so I had thought it would be fair to post an essay about Ireland in the 20th Century.

Ireland's British problem (or Britain's Irish problem) has been a dominant theme of United Kingdom politics between 1914-1922 and since 1969 (refer to The Troubles). In September 1914, a political solution to British-Irish relations seemed to have been made.

A Home Rule Act, granting limited self government, was passed by the Westminster Parliament but was suspended for the duration of the First World War. However, by 1922, Ireland was partitioned between Northern Ireland and the Irish Free State.

The Easter Rising,of which Eamon de Valera was a leader in.(Image not mine)

The latter was a state within the British Empire with internal self-government. These political developments occurred mainly because of the effects of a failed armed rebellion (known as the Easter Rising) against British rule made by extreme Nationalists in Dublin in 1916,

From the founding of the Irish Free State to the creation of the Republic of Ireland in 1949, some Irish politicians attempted gradually to weaken the links with the British Empire. The most notable (and perhaps controversial) was Eamon de Valera.

From 1932 to 1937, he severed many of these links. In 1937, he introduced a new constitution that created an independent republic "in all but name". In addition, he laid claim to Northern Ireland as part of a united Ireland. In 1949, Ireland became a fully independent sate outside the Commonwealth.

Northern Ireland did receive Home Rule. From 1921 to 1972, it was dominated by the Ulster Unionist party (Ulster being the traditional name for the region that comprised of Northern Ireland). This party was predominantly Protestant and discriminated heavily against Catholics, who were seen as Nationalists who wanted a united Ireland.

By 1968, Catholic civil rights (coinciding with the American Civil Rights era) had become a major issue in Northern Ireland politics. It sparked off a Protestant unionist reaction that led to major sectarian violence in 1969.

A textbook scene of The Troubles. Bombings were common occurrences.

The British government first sent troops to Northern Ireland in 1969 in an attempt to maintain law and order. In 1972, the British government suspended the Northern Ireland Parliament and ruled the area directly from London.

From 1969 to 1998, Northern Ireland was badly affected by political violence. The Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) and Loyalist paramilitary groups engaged in guerrilla warfare and sectarian murder. Successive British governments, both of the Labour and Conservative parties, have attempted to find a political solution.

Attempts to involve both Nationalists and Unionists in government failed. In 1985, a new attempt was made with the Anglo-Irish (Hillsborough) Agreement (actual document here), signed under the Thatcher era, which involved co-operation between the British and Irish governments.

By the 1990s, attempts to solve the conflict in Northern Ireland involved a fusion of previous attempts at a political solution: co-operation in government between political parties within Northern Ireland and co-operation between Britain and Ireland.

Whether a permanent political solution is to be found, will depend on an end to political violence and the disarming of armed paramilitary groups.

Explaining the complexity of Republika Srpska and the Bosnian War

Republika Srpska, in blue

For those of you who don't know, the 90s has seen the dissolution of Yugoslavia into several successor states, one of which was the Republic of Bosnia & Herzegovina, as well as Serbia.

Bosnia comprised of 43% Muslims (calling themselves Bosniaks), 31% Bosnian Serbs and 17% Croats, in the 1991 census.

A referendum for independence was boycotted by the Bosnian Serbs (who were against secession from Serbia, then-considered the main successor of Yugoslavia).

Violence ensued.

Following the declaration of independence, Bosnian Serb forces, supported by the Serbian government of Slobodan Milošević and the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) attacked the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina in order to secure Serbian territory and war soon broke out across Bosnia, accompanied by the ethnic cleansing of the Bosniak population, especially in Eastern Bosnia.

It was principally a territorial conflict, initially between the Serb forces mostly organized in the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS) on the one side, and the multiethnic Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (ARBiH) which was largely though not exclusively composed of Bosniaks, and the Croat forces in the Croatian Defence Council (HVO) on the other side

. The Croats also aimed at securing parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina as Croatian. The Serb and Croat political leadership agreed on a partition of Bosnia with the Karađorđevo and Graz agreements, resulting in the Croats forces turning on the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Croat-Bosniak war.The war was characterized by bitter fighting, indiscriminate shelling of cities and towns, ethnic cleansing, systematic mass rape and genocide mostly led by the Serb forces. Events such as the Siege of Sarajevo and the Srebrenica massacre would become iconic of the conflict.

The Serbs, although initially superior due to the vast amount of weapons and resources provided by the JNA eventually lost momentum as Bosniaks and Croats allied themselves against Republika Srpska in 1994 with the creation of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina following the Washington agreement.

After the Srebrenica and Markale massacres, NATO intervened during the 1995 Operation Deliberate Force against the positions of the Army of Republika Srpska, which proved key in ending the war. The war was brought to an end after the signing of the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina in Paris on 14 December 1995.

Peace negotiations were held in Dayton, Ohio, and were finalized on 21 December 1995. The accords are known as the Dayton Agreement. A 1995 report by the Central Intelligence Agency found Serbian forces responsible for 90 per cent of the war crimes committed during the conflict. 

As of early 2008 the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia had convicted 45 Serbs, 12 Croats and 4 Bosniaks of war crimes in connection with the war in Bosnia. The most recent research places the number of killed people at around 100,000–110,000 and the number displaced at over 2.2 million,making it the most devastating conflict in Europe since the end of World War II

The horrific aspect of the war was because of the intentional ethnic cleasnsing of the Bosniak ethnic group (usually Muslims).
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A few months ago, I had the good fortune of meeting a man from the Balkans, a Bulgarian, who helped me understand just how complex and horrific the 90s has been for the Balkans.

Here is a transcript of his explanation to me:

Me: What is Republika Srpska ? Is it a country ?

Ans: No it is not a different country. It is a political entity, a seperate zone from the Bosnians. Bosnian Serbs live there with different parliment, with their own president and prime minister, seperated from the bosnians.
In the near past Bosnians and bosnian serbs had quite a "disagreement", such a great disagreement it was, that it costed the lives of many. As you might now also Bosnians are mainly Muslims, while bosnian serbs are orthodox christians.

The future of Srpska ? It hang in Bosnia only under threat of foreign force. Bosnia Herzegovina is basically an EU protectorate with an EU governor appointed to watch over it with right to disband Bosnian institutions and veto any national legislation.

Serbs in Republica Serpska probably wish to unite their country with Serbia.

Republica Serbska was created as a result of breakup of Yugoslavia and following civil war. On territory of Bosnia Hercegovina lot of Serbs was living. Up to 40% of its population probably. When Bosnia declared independence from Yugoslavia, these Serbs disagreed with it and wanted to stay in Yugoslavia. They therefore in turn declared their independence from Bosnia. War erupted. 

He explained how all the ethnic groups were divided and scattered around

 Me: So it is all a matter of maps ? Everyone is scattered around ?

Ans: Was. War changed that. People fled or were forced out of territories controlled by other people in to territories controlled by their own.

Me: What about the Croatians ? What part did they play ?

Ans:   At first Croats allied with Serbs against Bosnians, then Croats allied with Bosnians against Serbs. Temporary alliances were rampant at the time. It was practically everyone for himself

Me: So its just ethnicity and nationalism clashing together ?

Ans: To put it in a nut shell, yes. Nationalism is one of the arguments used by power to convince people and make them hate each other.It succeeds when education fails.