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Beyond Istanbul's ‘Laz Underworld’: Ottoman Paramilitarism and the Rise of Turkish Organised Crime, 1908–1950

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 June 2010

RYAN GINGERAS
RYAN GINGERAS*
Affiliation:
Naval Postgraduate Institute, Monterey, California, United States; [email protected].
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Abstract

Although the Turkish mafia is increasingly recognised as a powerful force in the ongoing trade in weapons, narcotics and people in Europe and beyond, there are few critical histories of organised crime's origins in Turkey. Rather than present some pedantic general survey of the history of organized crime in modern Turkey, this essay attempts to address two broader critical points of departure. First, how did Anatolia's journey from imperial to republican rule impact, and how was it impacted by, criminal gangs? Second, how do we situate the experience of modern gangs in Turkey in a global context? In attempting to answer these questions, this paper looks at the development of criminal syndicates among Laz migrants in the greater Istanbul area during the first half of the twentieth century. The case of the Laz shows particularly how war, migration, imperial politics, urbanisation and the rise of the international drug trade shaped the parallel development of organised crime and the nascent Turkish Republic.

Au delà du ‘milieu des lazes’ d'istanbul: le paramilitarisme ottoman et l'avènement du crime organisé turc, 1908–1950

Bien que la mafia turque soit de plus en plus reconnue comme un acteur important dans l'actuel trafic d'armes, de drogues et de personnes en Europe et au-delà, il y a étonnamment peu de recherches critiques sur les origines du crime organisé en Turquie. Plutôt que de présenter un survol général de l'histoire du crime organisé dans la Turquie moderne, cet article examine deux points de départ plus larges. Il s'interroge sur les effets réciproques de la transition d'un régime impérial à un régime républicain sur les bandes criminelles. Il examine ensuite comment il faut situer l'expérience des bandes modernes en Turquie dans un contexte global. Pour répondre à ces questions, l'auteur analyse en particulier le développement des syndicats criminels parmis les migrants lazes du grand Istanbul durant la première moitié du vingtième siècle. L'exemple des Lazes illustre parfaitement à quel point la guerre, la migration, la politique impériale, l'urbanisation et la montée du trafic de drogue international ont marqué le développement parallèle du crime organisé et de la République turque naissante.

Istanbuls ‘unterwelt der laz’ und darüber hinaus. osmanischer paramilitarismus und der aufstieg des türkischen organisierten verbrechens, 1908–1950

Obwohl die türkische Mafia zunehmend als einflussreiche Größe im Handel von Menschen, Waffen, und Rauschmitteln in Europa und darüber hinaus anerkannt wird, gibt es erstaunlich wenige kritische Untersuchungen der Ursprünge des organisierten Verbrechens in der Türkei. Der vorliegende Artikel versucht zwei zentrale breitere Ausgangspunkte anzusprechen: Erstens, wie beeinflusste der Übergang Anatoliens von imperialer zu republikanischer Herrschaft die Entstehung krimineller Banden, und umgekehrt? Zweitens, wie kann die Erfahrung moderner Banden in der Türkei im globalen Kontext verortet werden? Um diese Fragen zu beantworten, betrachtet der vorliegende Aufsatz die Entwicklung krimineller Syndikate unter Laz Migranten im Großraum Istanbul während der ersten Hälfte des Zwanzigsten Jahrhunderts. Das Beispiel der Laz verdeutlicht inwieweit Krieg, Migration, imperiale Politik, Urbanisierung und der Anstieg des internationalen Drogenhandels die parallelen Entwicklungen von organisierten Verbrechen und der entstehenden Türkischen Republik beeinflussten.

Type
Articles
Information
Contemporary European History , Volume 19 , Issue 3: Aftershocks: Violence in Dissolving Empires after the First World War , August 2010 , pp. 215 - 230
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

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References

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