The Momentary Glory of Banal Ottomanism

Abstract

In the early 2000s the Turkish liberal elite who was endorsed particularly by democratic reforms wholeheartedly supported Turkey’s bid for a greater role in its near abroad by re-narrating the Ottomanist view. They thought that if they adeptly highlighted the already embedded references to cosmopolitanism and the ideal of co-existence in it they would be able to won the so-called Pax Ottomana a universal meaning among the nations in Turkey’s surroundings. This study holds that the first decade of the 2000s was a temporal regnum “a moment” whereby the historical Ottoman heritage in the Balkans which Turkey continued to restore with full enthusiasm might have simultaneously contributed to this intellectual enterprise. © 2025 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.