When Villains Write their History – 2nd Meeting
Political Banditry in the Balkans and Asia Minor through Ego-documents
This workshop proposes to study political banditry via ego-documents produced by gang leaders or bandits, in an Ottoman and post-Ottoman regional framework including the Balkans, Asia Minor and the Caucasus, and concerning political banditry from the 1890s to the early 1920s. The aim of the workshop is to challenge the view that these texts are of a lesser value due to their subjective character. On the contrary, we postulate that the very nature of the ego-document allows for a heuristic interrogation of political banditry.