THE INTERNATIONAL POSITION OF THE MINORITIES AFTER THE WORLD WAR I
THE INTERNATIONAL POSITION OF THE MINORITIES AFTER THE WORLD WAR I

Summary/Abstract: The minority issues in the era of creation of the nations and nationalism in Europe during the XIX century, directly affected the existence of the Ottoman Empire. In fact, the minority problems in Southeastern Europe were an indirect generator of the crucial issues within the international concert. Observed from the aspect of the religious protectorate, these issues inspired the Russian-Turkish military clashes and started the wave of national uprisings among the Balkan peoples, which culminated during the Balkan wars. The struggle for primacy over the Christian population within the Ottoman Empire also affected the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and the Russian Empire. In a certain moment, even France demonstrated its interest, becoming not only a strategic partner of the Ottomans and protector of the Orthodox Christian population on the Balkan during the period from the end of the Crimean War in 1856 until the outbreak of the Great Eastern crisis. At the 1919 international conference in Paris, a more serious, though unsuccessful attempt was made to protect minorities from possible tortures and injustices of any kind. In fact, we can safely conclude that the purpose of establishing the Corps Minority Issues within the Versailles system was not contained in the intention to resolve minority problems, but to construct appropriate ways that would encourage intervention. This approach, both politically and from a legal, and, of course, from a psychological point of view, represented a very sensitive area, which often resulted in a collision with the individual interests of the states, and at the same time threatened to disrupt the already established international relations. It is very obvious that the system of minority issues after the war was limited exceptionally to the weaker countries, and especially treated those countries which were defeated in the same war. In no existing sense this system could be implemented in the internal law of all the states-members of the League of Nations. Therefore, the international problematization of the issues from the minority corpus slipping through its historical progress, entering the phase when they culminated in the concentration camps, or, in the slightly better version, in the emigration in the countries of the new world.

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