From a broader perspective this cross-disciplinary and cross cultural thesis examines the relationships between identity, ideology and propaganda and their influence over the production of private and public memories. This examination is carried out through a case study investigating various representations of the Czech RAF airmen from selected British and Czech WW2 newspapers approached as an archive of memory, and from individual recollections of the Czech veterans – the living archive of memory. These representations in the context of this research become interacting versions of public and private memory which in a unique way and yet equally contribute towards the historical construction of the Second World War. This thesis proposes that the various versions of memory, in Rothberg’s (2009) words ‘multidirectional memory’, are a consequence of versioning, a constant creation and re-creation of different versions of memory due to numerous influences on the producers of such memory. However, this research also considers a presence of Second World War discourse, which underpinned public and private memory and transcended collective memories of the Britishness and Czechness forming a transnational or cross cultural (Radstone, 2010) WW2 memory. In other words, this project draws upon current theories about non competitive multiple, transnational and mediated memory (Dijck, 2007) and extends upon these by considering their existence within a potentially unifying WW2 discourse within which they connect and disconnect. By doing so, this thesis challenges master narratives of history. These memories are also seen as a base for multi-layered identity of the ones who remembered and had the right to remember. Furthermore this study explores the potential reasons behind the creation of the discovered qualitative treasure of this project The Czechoslovak, a small community newspaper produced by the Czech minority living in Britain during the WW2. The theoretical underpinning as well as the methodology of the project attempt to interrogate media studies, oral history and memory studies in order to create a most pertinent space in which the written and oral memory is explored effectively. This merger of theories and methodologies allowed me to investigate the various memories within the context of the WW2 and thus construct them from the past perspective when they were being created. A discourse analysis of selected British and Czech WW2 newspapers (The Times, Daily Mirror, News of the World and The Czechoslovak) has been employed distinguishing between traditional and tabloidised newspaper representations and investigating to what extend the Czechs were portrayed as the ‘other’ or the heroes in the British society. The outcome of this analysis was a discovery that the Czech RAF airmen had not been given much prominence in the British newspapers and that their representations varied according to the different type of newspaper and the different period of the war in which they were produced. Moreover, ideology, propaganda and the notion of Czech and British identity present in the newspapers played an important role in the creation of public memory versions of the Czech RAF airmen’s images. Besides newspapers, this study took the opportunity to reveal very fragile and valuable private recollections of the Czech WW2 RAF veterans (six former members of the Czech RAF settled in Britain after the WW2 and 1 widow were interviewed in the summer 2008); the men who played an important role in the success of the Allies in WW2. By doing this, the former Czech airmen were given a voice and the chance to contribute towards existing knowledge about the Czechs in the RAF and the Second World War. The various versions of the past produced by their private memory have been investigated in the view of various factors influencing these versions: notably their identity, war ideology, propaganda, and forgetting and in relation to WW2 media. Considering the occurrence of versioning, when critically reflecting upon all different memories, I position myself as a researcher into the shoes of yet another producer of another version of the past. Thus, this study creates a space where various, sometimes contrasting memories do not fight for recognition, but where official collective memory and individual memory influence each other and also enrich each other whilst they co-construct a historical representation of the past.

This research is an attempt to understand the relations between the Ottoman imperial government and the local administrators of Egypt, namely the mamluk beys. Gaining more financial and political power, they commenced to challenge the authority of the Ottoman governor of Egypt in the mid-eighteenth century alongside the incessant struggles between each other. Using a variety of Ottoman archival documents and contemporary narrative sources, I examine the factors behind the mamluk beys’ authority expansion that resulted in uprising of Ali Bey al-Kabir (Bulutkapan). Throughout the dissertation I pursue two arguments, which address key issues in Ottoman political historiography. The first argument concerns with the underlying causes of the mamluk beys’ extended authority. I show that short-tenured governors encountered with financially and politically powerful local components, which may be considered as a result of the decentralized administration system of the Ottoman Empire. Mamluk beys’ ambition to accumulate more financial income led them to contact European consuls directly in order to open Suez trade for them. The second argument concerns the centre-periphery relations of the Ottoman Empire. I show that, although they gained power and challenged the pasha, the mamluk beys did not establish an autonomous administration during the eighteenth century. The Ottoman Empire managed the short-term uprising of Ali Bey quickly by taking due precautions.

This thesis contributes to the study of religions, particularly Islam, in the successor states of former Yugoslavia from 1989 to 2009. The theoretical contributions of this work lie in the comparison of the communist and post-communist periods, where clear similarities and differences have been drawn for better understanding of the continuity between them. Current works on the state of Islam and Muslim communities in the Balkans have mainly focused on recent developments without insight into the conditions and effects of religious life under communism. This work is concerned with the continuity of religious practice from the communist period, religious changes and the revival of Islam at the institutional, public, intellectual and individual level. The thesis begins with a historical background of the region and the arrival of Islam. It moves then to examine constitutional and legislative changes regarding religion and their impact on Islam. After analysing the most visible signs of an Islamic revival at the institutional level, the thesis examines the place of Islam in the public arena, analysing the media, public gatherings, Muslim organizations and mosque construction. It then focuses on intellectual changes and similarities within the communist period. The concluding chapter explains the scope and reasons for the Islamic revival.

This thesis has examined the Bolshevik newspaper, Pravda, which began its broadcasting life in April 1912, for the period of the Balkan Wars from October 1912 to October 1913. The objectives of this study are to present and examine the position towards the Balkan Wars of a political group, which viewed the world and the Ottoman Empire from a different angle than the traditional Russian political position of the time, and would seize the power only five years later in Russia.

This thesis examines secret intelligence cooperation between three asymmetric partners – specifically the UK, US and Turkey – from the end of the Second World War until Turkey’s first military coup d'état on 27 May 1960. The thesis shows that our understanding of the Cold War as a binary rivalry between the two blocs is too simple an approach and obscures important characteristics of intelligence cooperation among allies. To reveal a more comprehensive analysis of intelligence cooperation, this thesis develops our understanding of it more broadly, by developing a model called ‘intelligence diplomacy’. This model explores a vital, if little understood, aspect of contemporary international relations given the prevalence of transnational threats today. Intelligence diplomacy involves negotiations and the exploitation of different aspects of joint intelligence activities, synchronized between diplomats and specialized intelligence officers. While such efforts often result in overlap between diplomats and intelligence liaison efforts, there is strong evidence that the acts of intelligence services vary from the instructions of their foreign ministries. The thesis also shows that a pragmatic approach offers states new opportunities to protect national interests, by conducting intelligence diplomacy to influence crucial areas such as nuclear weapons and to exploit cooperation in support of their own strategic imperatives. By doing so this thesis not only reveals previously-unexplored origins of secret intelligence cooperation between Turkey and the West, but also contributes to wider academic debates on the nature of the Cold War by highlighting the potential agency of weaker states in the Western Alliance.

This thesis explores the different scales of sociality (or social interaction) found within the LBK through the lens of a broadly meshwork-based perspective. It evaluates the hypotheses that people in the LBK lived in and recognised multiple levels of 'community', that these different communities overlapped, resulting in negotiation and possibly conflict; and that membership of these communities was potentially open and fluid, varying according to season, task or personal preference. With the help of meshwork-thinking, I explore the social relationships that helped to define the LBK. In doing so, I demonstrate that this dynamic, multi-dimensional approach can offer a new perspective on understanding the degree of homogeneity and variation within the LBK tradition. The core of the thesis is divided into three case studies, each concentrating on a specific scale of analysis. The first case study focuses on social interaction at the household scale and considers the emergence of individual households, household complexes and co-operative groups of households within the Merzbach and Schlangengraben valleys. The second case study explores the inter-play between competing family and clan/lineage identities at the scale of the settlement cluster or micro-region. The third case study zooms out to the regional scale of the Lower Rhine basin, tracing more geographically spread patterns in the material culture as well as interaction with non-LBK groups beyond the loess regions. Calling on these cases studies, I also consider how scale was experienced in the LBK.

The city of Zadar lies upon the Dalmatian coast of modern Croatia. Zadar’s position during the medieval period was that of an affluent port, poised between the markets of East and West, the Balkan hinterland and maritime Adriatic. Such a location made it a strategic colonial target for both Venice and the Kingdom of Hungary. This thesis examines the influence of these political, economic and cultural forces upon the commune’s powerful markers of local identity: its saints’ cults. Zadar’s past wealth created a significant cache of associated metalwork and ecclesiastical architecture that has received little attention beyond the Balkans. Beginning with a grand historical narrative - drawn together from the scholarship of Zaratine, Venetian and Hungarian histories - the complex rivalries and ambitions of the various regional protagonists are highlighted. Zadar’s role within these relations, be it peripheral or central, had an impact upon the commune’s social structures and networks. A study of archival sources indicates a blurring of boundaries between identities, both local and foreign, rather than the stark contrasts that often define the city’s histories. Patronage is also an important aspect of this study, showing how sacral works of art and monumental ecclesiastical structures were important tools in strengthening position and power. The results of such largesse were developments in the cults of Saints Chrysogonus, Simeon the Prophet and Mark the Evangelist. These reveal the flow of cultic practices and artistic trends through Europe, with Zaratine audiences aware of and demanding the most current in their local commissions. Each case study considers ritual, iconography and architectural space, thus contributing additional facets to the understanding of Medieval Zaratine identity.

The main focus of this study is to examine the modernization of the Ottoman navy during the reign of Sultan Abdülaziz, exploring naval administration, education, and technology. Giving a summary of the transformation of shipbuilding technologies and bureaucratic institutions of the Ottoman naval forces between 1808 and 1861, it analyses the structure of the Ottoman navy, its level of development in comparison to previous periods of time, and the condition of the vessels making up the naval fleet from 1861 to 1876. It also intends to evaluate the character of existing administrative structures at the outset of Abdülaziz’s reign in 1861 and the nature of subsequent changes, including structural reorganization of the Imperial Naval Arsenal, the Ministry of Marine, and the Naval Academy, as well as advancements in military training and seafaring; all within the context of the impact of these changes on the military, political, and economic condition of the Empire during the reign of Sultan Abdülaziz.

My Ph.D. dissertation examines the history and archaeology of the monastic institutions of Thrace between the tenth and the late fourteenth centuries. Primarily concerned with the fundamental aspects of monastic life and its modes of interaction with lay society, I sought to investigate the life-cycle, topography and spatial composition of monastic communities in the western hinterland of the imperial capital of Byzantium, the city of Constantinople. My second objective was the investigation of the cultural, economic, and social aspects of the relationship between Thrace and Constantinople as evidenced in the surviving material culture, which consists mainly of architecture and decorative programmes. I followed an interdisciplinary methodology that brings together the systematic analysis of a large corpus of texts associated with monastic institutions -namely wills, monastic foundation documents, monastic archives, letters and imperial laws- with the results of three seasons of archaeological fieldwork. I conducted extensive surveys and recorded remains of monastic complexes including churches and refectories on Mount Ganos (Turkey), on the southern Rhodope Mountains (Greece) and in the cities of Sozopolis and Mesembria (Bulgaria), and explored the cultural ties with Constantinople and other meaningful centers of the Byzantine world.

This thesis attempts to explain the change in Turkey’s foreign policy regarding Cyprus between 2002 and 2004. It argues that the overriding factor in this policy change was a change in leadership, i.e., the coming to power of the Justice and Development Party (AKP), which developed a decidedly liberal outlook on foreign affairs following its split in 2001 from the anti-Western, Islamist Welfare Party. Other crucial determinants included the Europeanization of the Cyprus issue and selective support for interest groups within Turkey, both of which were affected to various degrees by the European Union and a propitious change in decision-making context. This thesis shows how constant policy failures during the 1980s and 1990s led to an identity crisis and the subsequent radical ideational transformation of the AKP whereby the party leadership renounced political Islamism and began to espouse an EU-oriented policy agenda and compatible rhetoric. The arguments presented in this thesis contribute to the literature on foreign policy analysis, political leadership and Europeanization. With regard to foreign policy analysis, this thesis shows that foreign policy change is a multi-causal phenomenon that can only be explained by a combination of various concepts. Moreover, it argues that despite the fact that no ready-made formula can account for all cases of foreign policy alterations, changes in leadership and a favourable decision-making composition appear to be indispensable determinants of any foreign policy shift. With regard to leadership, by applying a social-learning model to the analysis of the AKP leadership, this thesis follows the evolution of the Turkish Islamist Movement towards conservative democracy and an embracing of EU norms, which in turn resulted in a change in Turkey’s Cyprus policy. It is argued that Turkey’s new Cyprus policy was above all the consequence of a radical normative shift in the mindset of the new Turkish leadership. With regard to Europeanization, this thesis demonstrates how the change in Turkey’s foreign policy vis-à-vis Cyprus was bolstered by the Europeanization process. In this context, it can be understood that the EU militated in favour of a policy alteration by Europeanizing the Cyprus disagreement with the acceptance of the Republic of Cyprus into the EU in May 2004. The third essential determinant of Turkish foreign policy shift was the emergence of a propitious decision-making context within Turkey, which rendered such a policy shift possible.