THE CRETAN CONFLICT 1866-1869: COMPETING AND COMPLEMENTARY IDEOLOGIES THROUGH THE PRISM OF THE GREEK AND OTTOMAN PRESS

Crete was historically one of the most turbulent provinces of the Ottoman Empire. The present doctoral dissertation focuses on the uprising during 1866-1869, while ex-amining it within the ideological context reflected in the publications of the Greek and Ottoman press of the time.
From the presentation of the findings, it is obvious that the events in Crete not only developed within a more general resurgence of the ideological currents of the period, such as the expansive Greek megaloideatism, the unifying Ottomanism, and the ag-gressive Pan-Slavism, but to a certain extent they were made even more acute. How-ever, the attitude of the Constantinopolitan Greek newspapers on the specific issue revealed the existence of a new ideological phenomenon, that of Greek Ottomanism, which could be discerned mainly in the members of the upper class of the Greek mil-let. This phenomenon was a by-product of Ottomanism, and was linked to the desire of the Greek bourgeoisie in the Ottoman Empire to safeguard its privileges in a changing environment, while at the same time distancing itself from the ideological narrative of the Great Idea.
In conclusion, the contemporary Ottoman and Greek language press not only recorded the historical event of the uprising but also became an important means of expression of all the above ideologies which characterised the developments in the area during the 2nd half of the 19th century.