Irredentism and national identity Gymnastics and sport in Ottoman-occupied Eastern Macedonia and Thrace (1900- 1912)

Abstract

Gymnastics and Sports, beyond nurturing the citizens of the new Greek state, were also called upon to contribute to the formation and strengthening of a quasi-national consciousness among the Greek Orthodox populations of the collapsing Ottoman Empire at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. This study attempts to understand the contribution of school gymnastics and sports collective action to the multifaceted processes of nationalization of the populations of the Greek Orthodox Ottoman-occupied regions of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace during the period of the peak of Balkan nationalisms. From the analysis and processing of the sources, it seems that gymnastics and sports were fields where the political choices of the redemptive policy as well as the perceptions of the national identity building processes in the Orthodox communities of eastern Macedonia and Thrace were formed. Gymnastics in education and public gymnastic demonstrations as well as team participation in local sporting events attracted enthusiastic spectators and turned the athletic and disciplined youth body of students or athletes into a public marker of a revitalized national community.