Understanding the identity construction of a minority requires an understanding of the intricate interplay between the real and the symbolical groups it belongs to. In such a context, individuals and groups adopt identity strategies (at the personal or/and the collective level) by means of which they assert their existence, their social visibility, and their integration in the wider community, while at the same time valuing and establishing their own internal coherence. The case of the Muslim minority in Western Thrace is a very good example of this identity construction, which arose from incessant dynamic confrontations between the dominant values of the majority and the affirmation of their own individual ones. Taking into consideration the socio-historical context, this paper will try to analyze the complex interplay of national, ethnic, religious, linguistic, and cultural identities of the minority groups constituting the Muslim minority of Thrace.

Recent episodes of financial crises in emerging markets progressively highlighted the importance of a sound and well-functioning banking sector for macroeconomic stability and sustainable economic growth. The Asian crisis of 1997, in particular, drew attention to the fundamental role that a deficient banking system could play in terms of generating major financial crises with devastating repercussions on the real economy and with significant possibilities of contagion in an emerging market context. The recent twin economic crises experienced by Turkey in 2000 and 2001 illustrated in a rather dramatic fashion the strong correspondence between a poorly functioning and under-regulated banking system, on the one hand, and the sudden outbreak of macroeconomic crises on the other. Indeed, the Turkish experience shows that both public and private banks can contribute significantly to the outbreak of economic crises. In retrospect, it may be argued that private commercial banks played an instrumental role in the first of the twin crises experienced in November 2000, whilst, public banks emerged as the central actors in the context of the subsequent crisis of February 2001.

When the movie [Domu' al-hubb (Tears of Love) (Turkish title: Aşkın Gözyaşları) (Muhammad Karim, 1936)] was first released in Istanbul's Şehzadebaşı district, the movie theatre's windows were broken and the traffic was jammed [because of the crowd]. The audience, who had not been able to watch any Turkish films for the last three years, loved this type of movie, which was not much different from those made by our theatre artists, and starring some Arab singers, and people wearing the fez and local dress (Özön 1962a, p. 760).

In July 1910 a letter, signed by Şamlı Abdülkadir Hikmet'ul-Hatib, arrived at the ministry of Şeyhülislam (Bab-ı meşihat or Bab-ı fetva) in Istanbul. The writer notified the ministry about the death of his father, the former shari'a judge (naib) of Jaffa, Hatibzâde Ebu'n-Nasr Efendi, adding that before his father died, he had appointed him as executor of his will. Accordingly, he asked the officials to allocate him financial support on behalf of his father's dependents: two widows and three orphans, a son and two daughters (SA dos. 3720, 3 Temmuz 1326/17 IIV 1910). The letter was passed on to the Council for Orphan Affairs (Meclis idare-i eytam), the body in charge of supporting the widows and orphans of deceased ulema. From there, it was transmitted to other departments in the ministry with requests to provide information about the late judge's career path, apparently in order to calculate the financial support for which the judge's relatives were eligible (ibid., doc. 1852, 19 B 1328/27 IIV 1910; doc. 417, 4 Ş 1328/11 IHV 1910; list, 17 Ş 1328/24 IIIV 1910). This letter, with the comments and information added by the clerks, was the last document filed in the personal dossier of the late judge in the archive of Bab-ı meşihat.

The political crisis of modernity has given rise to a number of studies in the area of political history that are disproportionately concerned with civil society. This consequently has spawned the development of broad theoretical frameworks concerning civil society and the public sphere. One of the lesser-treated subjects within this context has been public opinion. Developed primarily by post-Enlightenment liberal political theory, the notions of civil society and the public sphere had been presented as major alternatives to the domain of the power politics of the Machiavellian tradition. In order to place public opinion on a sound theoretical basis, there arose the need to promote historical empirical studies of it across national contexts over time. . One of the most significant tasks confronting comparative historical sociologists today is uncovering the origin of public opinion, which this paper undertakes to do within an Ottoman context.