M-Ray's Improvised Report on Turkishness of Balkans

Bulgarians did most of the killings and Greeks lower in comparison, Serbs killed Turks too but they were mostly focused in killing Albanians and Bosnians as far as I know. Turks mostly lived in northeast Bulgaria and Dobruja and Vardar region, east of today's Macedonia and Southern Macedonia today's Greek Macedonia and western Thrace. The population majorities were cut off. For example Turks were heavy majority in western Thrace but not majority in eastern Thrace (they were about 45%). Turks were also majority in northeast Bulgaria and Dobruja. But it changed in 1878 wars and there were Turks in Serbian cities like Niš. But these Turks left coz Serbia got independent in 1878. There were many killings in this war and it built up even more pressure and ethnic tension. In Balkan wars even more Turks were killed but after that there weren't any Bulgarians left in eastern Thrace, Turks killed all Bulgarians. I wasn't actually talking about the killings but I was talking about the general Turkish identity in Balkans. After Turkey was founded Muslim became Turk. Though you were not ethnically Turk, you started to get identified as one. You must know Yugoslav census results. There are Turks in Bosnia well into the 80s, that's the time they got more into this Bosniak identity.

The Islam had created an identity, even though you were not ethnically a Turk, you were calling yourself Turk. I love how it gathered people around it. Though, the people were mixed in the past 600 years. Either they chose Islam by force or will. All of the Turks with Balkan background must have at least some Pomak, Macedonian, Bulgarian, Greek, Albanian etc ethnicity in them. Some have fully. When people migrated after Balkan wars and world War one, turkey didn't ask them if they knew Turkish or not. Many Bosniaks, Pomaks, Macedonians and Albanian speakers came as well.

The Balkan Turks were always the ruling and most concerning people of Ottomans because Ottoman sultans were like this people over the years of taking many Slavic wives. The revolutions happened in Balkans, the uprisings happened in Balkans, Armenians didn't even do any revolts till 1878 war. There wasn't a significant minority in Western Anatolia (Greeks weren't as numerous as the west likes to claim). Anyway, 1878 war was fought on two fronts, Balkans and Caucasus. Though Ottomans lost, in the east, they only lost Kars, Ardahan, Batum in Balkans Russians were 10 km away from Ottoman palace. Most of the Ottoman pashas were from Balkans, not Anatolia. Ottoman investments focused on East of Salonica-Varna line and west of İzmir-İzmit line. So what I'm trying to say is that Balkan Turks were the core of Ottoman empire, even the young Turks trio Talat, Enver and Cemal were from Balkans, oh yeah not to mention Atatürk.

Serbian Ethno Song About Kosovo Transliteration

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWMrf-J1CSY


Sini jarko sunce sa Kosova.

Ne damo te, zemljo Dušanova.



Ne damo te, zemljo

Nemanjića, Obilića,

braće Jugovića. (x2)



Svi će Srbi kao Jugovići

za krst časni na Kosovo ići,



Da odbrane zemlju blagodatnu

Za krst časni i slobodu zlatnu! (x2)



Od Kruševca, Prizrena, Cetinja,

Dubrovnika, Knina, Nevesinja,



sa Avale, Lovćena i Šare,

kliče Srpstvo, ustani, Lazare (x2)



Dok je Peći i dok je Dečana,

Gračanice i Gazimestana,



Ne damo te, vaskrslo Kosovo

najsvetije polje Srbinovo! (x2)

12 Strong

Great movie. 6.8 out of 10? Shame. 

The movie might/will be criticized by the classic anti-American, anti-West, anti-occupation, anti-war and many many other ideology followers. Though the movie has great story and great battle scenes these will be ignored by them. They will vote it down for their stupid reasons. They dont have the cumulative overall knowledge to understand the movie. 

The movie goes on to show whole of battlefield. We are not focused on close shot to heroes who shoot somewhere to the opposite direction of the camera where we cant see (though these type of scenes exist too, its a level that its supposed to be). As viewers we exactly know what is going on there, we are whether directly told or we get to know it by the cinematography. We are informed of the battle tactics and formations. It will feel great for those among you who like to grasp everything down to its each iota. Not to mention the effects of rocket launches, it gives a chill down the spine.

It's very different from the rest of the movies about Afghanistan. Our American heroes/soldiers dont just go out there and save everyone and save the day. It dives down to understand the conflict and tries to get answers to questions such as "why is there a civil war in Afghanistan, why people of Afghanistan arent doing anything against Taliban/Al-Qaeda, why do we support warlords, isnt Afghan a language, isnt Afghan an ethnicity" etc. The viewers are directly let known that there are many ethnicities and languages in Afghanistan. The leader of Northern Alliance is Abdulrashid Dostum and our team goes to meet him and fight alongside him and clear out as much territory as they can from the Taliban rule. We learn that Dostum is a public leader who is ethnically Uzbek and he speaks Uzbek, Dari, Pashto, Tajik and Russian, then we also figure out he speaks English well as well. We are even introduced to Uzbek language and way of life briefly. Then we understand that the actually the Uzbeks and other minorities suffered more under Taliban (including Dostum's own family) so the main ally US can find in Afghanistan immediately is the Turkic peoples such as Uzbeks and Turkmens. 

I highly recommend you to watch this for the great battle scenes and tactics that were used during America's campaigns, better understanding to history and to realize the ethnic dynamics of the region to some degree.