Nicolae Constantin Batzaria
Encyclopedia
Nicolae Constantin Batzaria, Besaria, Basarya or Bazaria (also known under the pen name
s Moş Nae, Moş Ene and Ali Baba; November 20, 1874 – January 28, 1952), was a Macedonian
-born Aromanian
cultural activist, Ottoman
statesman and Romania
n writer. A schoolteacher and inspector of Aromanian education within Ottoman lands, he established his reputation as a journalist before 1908. During his thirties, he joined the clandestine revolutionary movement known as the Young Turks
, serving as its liaison with Aromanian factions. The victorious Young Turk Revolution
brought Batzaria to the forefront of Ottoman politics, ensuring him a seat in the Ottoman Senate, and he briefly served as Minister of Public Works under the Three Pashas
. He was tasked with several diplomatic missions, including attending the London Conference of 1913, but, alerted by the Three Pashas' World War I
alliances and the Young Turks' nationalism
, he soon after quit the Ottoman political scene and left into voluntary exile.
Batzaria eventually settled in Romania and became a prolific contributor to Romanian letters
, producing works of genre fiction
and children's literature
. Together with comic strip
artist Marin Iorda, he created Haplea, one of the most popular characters in early Romanian comics. Batzaria also collected and retold fairy tale
s from various folkloric traditions
, while publishing original novels for adolescents and memoir
s of his life in Macedonia. A member of the Romanian Senate
for one term, he was active on the staff of Romania's leading left-wing journals, Adevărul
and Dimineaţa, as well as founder of the latter's supplement for children, before switching his allegiance to the right-wing Universul
. Batzaria was persecuted and probably imprisoned by the communist regime
, spending the last years of his life in obscurity.
(Crushuva), a village in Ottoman-ruled Monastir region
, presently in the Republic of Macedonia
. An Aromanian, he attended a high school sponsored by the Kingdom of Romania
in Bitola
, and later attended the Faculty of Letters and Law at the University of Bucharest
. A polyglot
, he could speak Turkish
, Greek
, Bulgarian
, Serbian
and French
, in addition to his native Aromanian
and the related Romanian language
. While in Romania, Batzaria also began his collaboration with Romanian journals: Adevărul
, Dimineaţa, Flacăra
, Sămănătorul
, Arhiva, Ovidiu and Gândul Nostru. He made his editorial debut with a volume of anecdote
s, Părăvulii (printed in Bucharest
in 1901).
Upon graduation, Batzaria returned to Macedonia as a schoolteacher, educating children at the Ioannina
school, and subsequently at his alma mater in Bitola. He afterward became chief inspector of the Romanian educational institutions in the Ottoman provinces
of Kosovo
and Salonika
. Historian Gheorghe Zbuchea, who researched the self-identification of Aromanians as an ethnic Romanian
subgroup, sees Batzaria as "the most important representative of the national Romanian movement" among early 20th century Ottoman residents. For a while in 1903, following a ban on political activities by Sultan
Abdul Hamid II
, Batzaria was arrested by local Ottoman officials, and experience which later served him in writing the memoir În închisorile turceşti ("In Turkish Prisons"). Five years later, he founded the first ever Aromanian-language journal, Deşteptarea ("The Awakening"), published in Thessaloniki
. It only published four issues before going out of business.
which aimed to reshape the Ottoman Empire from within. Having first came in contact with İsmail Enver
, he thereafter affiliated with the multi-ethnic Committee of Union and Progress
, a clandestine core of the Young Turks
movement. According to his own statements, he was acquainted with figures at the forefront of the Young Turks organizations: Mehmed Talat, Ahmed Djemal
(the future "Three Pashas
", alongside Enver), Mehmet Cavit Bey
, Hafiz Hakki
and others. This was partly backed by Enver's notes in his diary, which includes the mention: "I was instrumental in bringing into the Society the first Christian members. For instance Basarya effendi
." Batzaria himself claimed to have been initiated into the society by Djemal and following a ritual similar to that of "nihilists
" in the Russian Empire
: an oath on a revolver placed inside a poorly lit room, while guarded by men dressed in black and red cloth. Supposedly, Batzaria also joined the Freemasonry
at some point in his life.
Modern Turkish
historian Kemal H. Karpat connects these events with a larger Young Turks agenda of attracting Aromanians into a political alliance, in contrast to the official policies of the rival Balkan
states, all of which refused to recognize the Aromanian ethnicity as distinct. Zbuchea passed a similar judgment, concluding: "Balkan Romanians actively supported the actions of the Young Turks, believing that they provided good opportunities for modernization
and perhaps guarantees regarding their future." Another Turkish researcher, M. Şükrü Hanioğlu
, looks at the alliance from the point of view of a larger dispute between Greece
(and the Greeks
in Ottoman lands) on one hand, and, on the other, Ottoman leaders and their Aromanian subjects. Proposing that Aromanian activists, like their Albanian
counterparts, "supported the preservation of Ottoman rule in Macedonia" primarily for fear of the Greeks, Hanioğlu highlights the part played by British
mediators in fostering the Ottoman-Aromanian entente. He notes that, "with the exception of the Jews
", Aromanians were the only non-Islam
ic community to be drawn into the Ottomanist
projects.
In 1908, the Aromanian intellectual was propelled to high office by the Young Turk Revolution
and the Second Constitutional Era
: the party rewarded his contribution, legally interpreted as "high services to the State", by assigning him a special non-elective seat in the Ottoman Senate (a status similar to that of another Young Turk Aromanian, Filip Mişea, who became a deputy). A regular contributor to Le Jeune Turc and other newspapers based in Istanbul
, he was also appointed vice-president of the Turkish Red Crescent
, a humanitarian society, which provided him with close insight into the social contribution of Muslim women volunteers, and, through extension, an understanding of Islamic feminism
. In 1913, during the First Balkan War
, Batzaria's political career was advanced further by Enver's coup: he became Minister of Public Works in Enver's cabinet, but without interrupting his journalistic activities. It was also he who represented the executive at the London Conference, where he acknowledged the Ottoman defeat. In the short peaceful hiatus which followed his return, Batzaria represented the empire in secret talks with Romania's Titu Maiorescu
government, negotiating a new alliance against the victorious Kingdom of Bulgaria
. As he himself recalled, the request was refused by Romanian politicians, who stated that they wished to avoid attacking other Christian nations. The Ottoman approach however resonated with Romania's intentions, and both states successfully fought Bulgaria in the Second Balkan War
. However, the following years brought a clash of interests between the Three Pashas and Batzaria. Already alarmed by the official Turkification
process, the Aromanian intellectual proved himself an opponent of the new policies which linked the Ottoman realm to the German Empire
, Bulgaria and the other Central Powers
. In 1916, two years into World War I
, he left Istanbul for neutral Switzerland
.
, where he served a term in the Senate
of Greater Romania
(coinciding with Alexandru Averescu
's term as Premier
). During the interwar period
, he became a regular contributor to the country's main left-wing dailies: Adevărul
and Dimineaţa. The journals' owners assigned Batzaria with the task of managing and editing a junior version of Dimineaţa, Dimineaţa Copiilor ("The Children's Morning"). Batzaria embarked on a career in writing, publishing a succession of fiction and nonfiction volumes in Romanian. Among these was a series of books detailing the lives of women in the Ottoman Empire and the modern Turkish state: Spovedanii de cadâne. Nuvele din viaţa turcească ("Confessions of Turkish Odalisque
s. Novella
s from Turkish Life", 1921), Turcoaicele ("The Turkish Women", 1921), Sărmana Lila. Roman din viaţa cadânelor ("Poor Leila. A Novel from the Life of Odalisques", 1922), Prima turcoaică ("The First of Turkish Women", n.d.), as well as several translations of foreign books on this subject. In 1928, he was a judge for a national Miss Romania beauty contest, organized by Realitatea Ilustrată magazine and journalist Alexandru Tzigara-Samurcaş
(the other members of this panel being female activist Alexandrina Cantacuzino, actress Maria Giurgea, politician Alexandru Mavrodi, novelist Liviu Rebreanu
and visual artists Jean Alexandru Steriadi
and Friedrich Storck). As an Adevărul journalist, Batzaria nevertheless warned against politically militant feminism and women's suffrage
, urging women to find their comfort in marriage.
His work in children's literature
, taking diverse forms, was often published under the pen names Moş Nae ("Old Man Nae", a term of respect applied to the hypocorism of Nicolae) and Ali Baba (after the eponymous character
in One Thousand and One Nights). Another variant he favored was Moş Ene. By 1925, Batzaria had created the satirical
character Haplea (or "Gobbles"), whom he made into a protagonist for some of Romania's first comic strip
s. The graphics to Batzaria's rhymed captions were provided by Marin Iorda, who also worked on a 1928 animated
version of Haplea (the first such film in the history of Romanian cinema
). Other characters created by Batzaria in various literary genres include Haplina (the female version and regular companion of Haplea), Hăplişor (their child), Lir and Tibişir (known together as doi isteţi nătăfleţi, "two clever gawks"), and Uitucilă (from a uita, "to forget").
By 1930, Nicolae Constantin Batzaria also became known for his genre fiction
novels, addressed to a general public and registering much success. Among these were Jertfa Lilianei ("Liliana's Sacrifice"), Răpirea celor două fetiţe ("The Kidnapping of the Two Little Girls"), Micul lustragiu ("The Little Shoeshiner
") and Ina, fetiţa prigonită ("Ina, the Persecuted Little Girl"). His main fairy tale
collection was published as Poveşti de aur ("Golden Stories").
competitor Universul
, becoming its publisher. He became involved in political disputes facing the leftists and rightists, expressing some sympathy for the fascist
and antisemitic movement known as the Iron Guard
. This touched his editorial pieces concerning the Spanish Civil War
, marking the death of Iron Guardist politico Ion Moţa
while a volunteer for the Francoist side, and depicting him as a hero comparable to Giuseppe Garibaldi
and the Marquis de Lafayette (see Funerals of Ion Moţa and Vasile Marin
). He also became directly involved in the conflict opposing Universul and Adevărul, during which the latter was accused of being a tool for "communism
", and urged the authorities to repress what he argued was a communist conspiracy.
Batzaria was nevertheless marginalized for the larger part of World War II
, when Romania came under the rule of far right
and fascist regimes (the Iron Guard's National Legionary State
and the authoritarian
system of Conducător
Ion Antonescu
). During that time, he focused on translations from the stories of Danish
author Hans Christian Andersen
, which saw print under the Moş Ene signature in stages between 1942 and 1944. The war's end and the rise of the Communist Party made him a direct target for political persecution. The consolidation of a communist regime
in 1947-1948 led to his complete ostracizing, beginning when he was forced out of his house by the authorities (an action which reportedly caused the destruction of all his manuscripts through neglect).
Sources diverge on events occurring during Batzaria's final years. Several authors mention that he became a political prisoner
of the communists. According to Karpat, Batzaria died in poverty at his Bucharest house during the early 1950s. Later research however suggests that this occurred in 1952, at a concentration camp (or more specifically a penal facility located in Ghencea
district).
and travel literature
, memoir
s, novels, textbooks, translations and various reports. According to his profile at the University of Florence
Department of Neo-Latin Languages and Literatures, Batzaria was "lacking in originality but a talented vulgarizer". Writing in 1987, children's author Gica Iuteş claimed that the "most beautiful pages" in Batzaria's work were those dedicated to the youth, defining the author himself as "a great and modest friend of the children".
His short stories
for children generally build on ancient fairy tale
s and traditional storytelling techniques. A group among these accounts retell classics of Turkish
, Arabic
and Persian literature
s (such as One Thousand and One Nights), intertwined with literary styles present throughout the Balkans
. The interest in Oriental themes also touched his reviews of works by other writers, such as his 1932 essay on the Arabic and Persian motifs present in Kir Ianulea
, a short story by the 19th century Romanian classic Ion Luca Caragiale
. This approach to Middle East
ern themes was complemented by borrowings from Western and generally European sources, as well as from the Far East
. The Poveşti de aur series thus includes fairy tales from European folklore
and Asian folktales: Indian
(Savitri and Satyavan
), Spanish (The Bird of Truth
), German
, Italian, Japanese
, Polish, Scandinavian
and Serbian
. His wartime renditions from Andersen's stories covered The Emperor's New Clothes
, The Ugly Duckling
and The Little Mermaid
.
Among the writer's original contributions was a series of novels for the youth. According to literary critic Matei Călinescu
, who recalled having enjoyed these works as a child, they have a "tearjerker" and "melodrama
tic" appeal. Essayist and literary historian Paul Cernat calls them "commercial literature" able to speculate public demand, and likens them to the texts of Mihail Drumeş, another successful Aromanian author (or, beyond literature, to the popular Aromanian singer Jean Moscopol
). Batzaria is also credited with having coined popular children's rhymes, such as:
Batzaria's Haplea was a major contribution to Romanian comics culture and interwar Romanian humor, and is ranked by comics historiographer Dodo Niţă as the top Romanian series of all times. The scripts were not entirely original creations: according to translator and critic Adrian Solomon, one Haplea episode retold a grotesque
theme with some tradition in the Romanian folklore
(the story of Păcală
), that in which the protagonist murders people for no apparent reason.
and the Ottoman meddahs, also assessed that they often failed attested timelines or accuracy checks. The main book in this series is Din lumea Islamului. Turcia Junilor Turci ("From the World of Islam
. The Turkey of the Young Turks"), which traces his own biography in Macedonia and Istanbul. It its original edition, it carried a preface by prominent Romanian historian Nicolae Iorga
, who saw the text as an accurate rendition "of that interesting act in the drama of Ottoman decline
that was the first phase of Ottoman nationalism
". In Karpat's opinion, the texts mix advocacy of liberalism
, modernization
and Westernization
with "a special understanding of the Balkan and Turkish societies". This argument was coupled with Batzaria's theory about the superiority of Christianity over Islam, seen as a victory of modernization and education over fatalism
and superstition
. His extended coverage of women's existence and Islamic feminism
, Karpat argues, showed the Young Turk modernizing tendency as a forerunner for the Kemalist ideology
developed in the 1920s. Batzaria voiced an anticlerical
message primarily targeting the more conservative
ulema
(but also aimed at those Christian priests whom he depicted as ignorant), and commented on the process of modernization as a cultural and religious phenomenon, noting that the Young Turks had themselves eventually come to reject the Caliphate
for a secular identity
.
În închisorile turceşti and other such writings offer insight into the complications of nationalist
struggles within Ottoman lands, notably by discussing the group loyalty manifested by Albanian
landowners toward the Ottoman Dynasty
and the widespread adoption of the vague term "Turk
" as self-designation by diverse Muslim groups in the Balkans. In contrast, Batzaria's books also record the revolutionary mindset brought into existence by ethnic nationalism
within the Christian millet
, writing: "it was not rare to see in Macedonia a father who would call himself a Greek
without actually being one [...], while one of his sons would become a fanatical Bulgarian
, and the other son would turn into a killer of Bulgarians." While stating an Aromanian exception among the "Christian peoples" of the Ottoman-ruled Balkans, in that the ethnic community as a whole worked to avert the empire's decline for fear of their neighbors' intolerance, Batzaria also argued that other groups were innately hostile to the Young Turks' liberal-minded overtures. However, Karpat writes, "Batzaria believed, paradoxically, that if the Young Turks had remained genuinely faithful to their original liberal ideals they might have succeeded in holding the state together." The eruption of ethic conflict and the failure of liberal programs after the Young Turk Revolution
, Batzaria recounts, made the Young Turk executive fall back on its own ethnic nationalism, manifested as process of institutional Turkification
. This policy, the author argued, was primarily rendered ineffective by the poor social and economical status of regular Turks, and attracted the hostility of European states for encouraging the anti-colonialism of Muslims worldwide. In Din lumea Islamului, he analyzed the individual contributions to these dogmas by tracing psychological sketches of İsmail Enver
(who displayed "an insane courage and an ambition that kept growing and solidifying with every step he climbed on the ladder of power and greatness", but produced a Pan-Turkic
program amounting to "bankruptcy"), Ahmed Djemal
(portrayed as an uncultured chauvinist
), Mehmed Talat ("the most sympathetic and influential" of the Young Turk leaders, who "was never bitten by the snake of vanity").
Batzaria also depicted the changes in discourse as having alienated the Aromanians, divided and forced to cooperate with larger ethnic groups within their millet just before the First Balkan War
, while noting that Bulgaria had marginalized herself among the regional states even before the Second War
. His anecdotal account presents himself and the Ottoman Armenian politician Gabriel Noradungian as rescuers of Istanbul from a Bulgarian invasion, for having spread false rumors about a cholera
epidemic and thus making the enemy hesitant about a siege. His explanation of World War I
depicts the Central Powers
alliance as a gamble by the most daring of the Young Turks. Deploring the repeated acts of violence perpetrated by the Ottomans against members of the Armenian community (Noradungian included), Batzaria also maintains that the Armenian Genocide
was primarily perpetrated by rogue Ottoman Army
units, Hamidieh regiments and other Kurds. His writings include a claim that he had unsuccessfully asked the Ottoman Senate to provide weapons for the Armenians to defend themselves against incursions by "bandits carrying a firman".
. Writing at the time, Kemal H. Karpat argued: "Lately there seems to be a revived interest in [Batzaria's] children's stories." His various works in this field were published in several editions beginning in the late 1960s, and included reprints of Poveşti de aur with illustrations by Lívia Rusz
. Writing the preface to one such reprint, Gica Iuteş defined Batzaria as "one of the eminent Aromanian scholars" and "a master of the clever word", while simply noting that he had "died in Bucharest in the year 1952." In tandem with this official recovery, Batzaria's work became an inspiration for the dissident
poet Mircea Dinescu
, the author of a clandestinely circulated satire
which compared Ceauşescu to Haplea and referred to both as figures of destruction.
Renewed interest in Batzaria's work followed the 1989 Revolution
, which signified the communist regime's end. His work was integrated into new reviews produced by literary historians, and awarded a sizable entry in the 2004 Dicţionar General al Literaturii Române ("The General Dictionary of Romanian Literature"). The character of this inclusion produced some controversy: taking Batzaria's entry as a study case, critics argued that the book gave too much exposure to marginal authors, at the detriment of writers from the Optzecişti generation (whose respective articles were comparatively shorter). The period saw a number of reprints from his work (among them those of the Haplea comics). Fragments of his writings, alongside those of George Murnu
, Hristu Candroveanu and Teohar Mihadaş, were included in the Romanian Academy
's standard textbook for learning Aromanian (Manual de aromână-Carti trâ înviţari armâneaşti, edited by Matilda Caragiu-Marioţeanu and printed in 2006).
Batzaria was survived by a daughter, Rodica, who died ca. 1968. His great-granddaughter, Dana Schöbel-Roman, is a graphic artist and illustrator, who worked with children's author Grete Tartler on the magazine Ali Baba (printed in 1990).
Pen name
A pen name, nom de plume, or literary double, is a pseudonym adopted by an author. A pen name may be used to make the author's name more distinctive, to disguise his or her gender, to distance an author from some or all of his or her works, to protect the author from retribution for his or her...
s Moş Nae, Moş Ene and Ali Baba; November 20, 1874 – January 28, 1952), was a Macedonian
Macedonia (region)
Macedonia is a geographical and historical region of the Balkan peninsula in southeastern Europe. Its boundaries have changed considerably over time, but nowadays the region is considered to include parts of five Balkan countries: Greece, the Republic of Macedonia, Bulgaria, Albania, Serbia, as...
-born Aromanian
Aromanians
Aromanians are a Latin people native throughout the southern Balkans, especially in northern Greece, Albania, the Republic of Macedonia, Bulgaria, and as an emigrant community in Serbia and Romania . An older term is Macedo-Romanians...
cultural activist, Ottoman
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
statesman and Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
n writer. A schoolteacher and inspector of Aromanian education within Ottoman lands, he established his reputation as a journalist before 1908. During his thirties, he joined the clandestine revolutionary movement known as the Young Turks
Young Turks
The Young Turks , from French: Les Jeunes Turcs) were a coalition of various groups favouring reformation of the administration of the Ottoman Empire. The movement was against the absolute monarchy of the Ottoman Sultan and favoured a re-installation of the short-lived Kanûn-ı Esâsî constitution...
, serving as its liaison with Aromanian factions. The victorious Young Turk Revolution
Young Turk Revolution
The Young Turk Revolution of 1908 reversed the suspension of the Ottoman parliament by Sultan Abdul Hamid II, marking the onset of the Second Constitutional Era...
brought Batzaria to the forefront of Ottoman politics, ensuring him a seat in the Ottoman Senate, and he briefly served as Minister of Public Works under the Three Pashas
Three Pashas
"The Three Pashas", also known as the "dictatorial triumvirate", of the Ottoman Empire included the Ottoman minister of the interior, Mehmed Talaat , the minister of war, Ismail Enver, and the minister of the Navy, Ahmed Djemal,...
. He was tasked with several diplomatic missions, including attending the London Conference of 1913, but, alerted by the Three Pashas' World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
alliances and the Young Turks' nationalism
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
, he soon after quit the Ottoman political scene and left into voluntary exile.
Batzaria eventually settled in Romania and became a prolific contributor to Romanian letters
Literature of Romania
Romanian literature is literature written by Romanian authors, although the term may also be used to refer to all literature written in the Romanian language.Eugène Ionesco is one of the foremost playwrights of the Theatre of the Absurd....
, producing works of genre fiction
Genre fiction
Genre fiction, also known as popular fiction, is a term for fictional works written with the intent of fitting into a specific literary genre in order to appeal to readers and fans already familiar with that genre....
and children's literature
Children's literature
Children's literature is for readers and listeners up to about age twelve; it is often defined in four different ways: books written by children, books written for children, books chosen by children, or books chosen for children. It is often illustrated. The term is used in senses which sometimes...
. Together with comic strip
Comic strip
A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....
artist Marin Iorda, he created Haplea, one of the most popular characters in early Romanian comics. Batzaria also collected and retold fairy tale
Fairy tale
A fairy tale is a type of short story that typically features such folkloric characters, such as fairies, goblins, elves, trolls, dwarves, giants or gnomes, and usually magic or enchantments. However, only a small number of the stories refer to fairies...
s from various folkloric traditions
Folklore
Folklore consists of legends, music, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, fairy tales and customs that are the traditions of a culture, subculture, or group. It is also the set of practices through which those expressive genres are shared. The study of folklore is sometimes called...
, while publishing original novels for adolescents and memoir
Memoir
A memoir , is a literary genre, forming a subclass of autobiography – although the terms 'memoir' and 'autobiography' are almost interchangeable. Memoir is autobiographical writing, but not all autobiographical writing follows the criteria for memoir set out below...
s of his life in Macedonia. A member of the Romanian Senate
Senate of Romania
The Senate of Romania is the upper house in the bicameral Parliament of Romania. It has 137 seats , to which members are elected by direct popular vote, using Mixed member proportional representation in 42 electoral districts , to serve four-year terms.-Former location:After the Romanian...
for one term, he was active on the staff of Romania's leading left-wing journals, Adevărul
Adevarul
Adevărul is a Romanian daily newspaper, based in Bucharest. Founded in 1871 and reestablished in 1888, it was the main left-wing press venue to be published during the Romanian Kingdom's existence, adopting an independent pro-democratic position, advocating land reform and universal suffrage...
and Dimineaţa, as well as founder of the latter's supplement for children, before switching his allegiance to the right-wing Universul
Universul
Universul was a mass-circulation newspaper in Romania. It existed from 1884 to 1953, and was run by Stelian Popescu from 1914 to 1943 ....
. Batzaria was persecuted and probably imprisoned by the communist regime
Communist Romania
Communist Romania was the period in Romanian history when that country was a Soviet-aligned communist state in the Eastern Bloc, with the dominant role of Romanian Communist Party enshrined in its successive constitutions...
, spending the last years of his life in obscurity.
Early life and activities
Batzaria was a native of KruševoKruševo
Kruševo also spelled Krushevo, is a town in the Republic of Macedonia. It is the highest town in Macedonia, situated at an altitude of over 4,000 feet above sea level. The town of Kruševo is the seat of Kruševo Municipality.-History:...
(Crushuva), a village in Ottoman-ruled Monastir region
Monastir Province, Ottoman Empire
The Vilayet of Monastir was an Ottoman vilayet, created in 1864. The Monastir Vilayet was occupied during the First Balkan War in 1912 and later divided between Principality of Albania, Kingdom of Greece and Kingdom of Serbia.- Demographics :...
, presently in the Republic of Macedonia
Republic of Macedonia
Macedonia , officially the Republic of Macedonia , is a country located in the central Balkan peninsula in Southeast Europe. It is one of the successor states of the former Yugoslavia, from which it declared independence in 1991...
. An Aromanian, he attended a high school sponsored by the Kingdom of Romania
Kingdom of Romania
The Kingdom of Romania was the Romanian state based on a form of parliamentary monarchy between 13 March 1881 and 30 December 1947, specified by the first three Constitutions of Romania...
in Bitola
Bitola
Bitola is a city in the southwestern part of the Republic of Macedonia. The city is an administrative, cultural, industrial, commercial, and educational centre. It is located in the southern part of the Pelagonia valley, surrounded by the Baba and Nidže mountains, 14 km north of the...
, and later attended the Faculty of Letters and Law at the University of Bucharest
University of Bucharest
The University of Bucharest , in Romania, is a university founded in 1864 by decree of Prince Alexander John Cuza to convert the former Saint Sava Academy into the current University of Bucharest.-Presentation:...
. A polyglot
Multilingualism
Multilingualism is the act of using, or promoting the use of, multiple languages, either by an individual speaker or by a community of speakers. Multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population. Multilingualism is becoming a social phenomenon governed by the needs of...
, he could speak Turkish
Turkish language
Turkish is a language spoken as a native language by over 83 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Northern Cyprus with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo,...
, Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
, Bulgarian
Bulgarian language
Bulgarian is an Indo-European language, a member of the Slavic linguistic group.Bulgarian, along with the closely related Macedonian language, demonstrates several linguistic characteristics that set it apart from all other Slavic languages such as the elimination of case declension, the...
, Serbian
Serbian language
Serbian is a form of Serbo-Croatian, a South Slavic language, spoken by Serbs in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia and neighbouring countries....
and French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, in addition to his native Aromanian
Aromanian language
Aromanian , also known as Macedo-Romanian, Arumanian or Vlach is an Eastern Romance language spoken in Southeastern Europe...
and the related Romanian language
Romanian language
Romanian Romanian Romanian (or Daco-Romanian; obsolete spellings Rumanian, Roumanian; self-designation: română, limba română ("the Romanian language") or românește (lit. "in Romanian") is a Romance language spoken by around 24 to 28 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova...
. While in Romania, Batzaria also began his collaboration with Romanian journals: Adevărul
Adevarul
Adevărul is a Romanian daily newspaper, based in Bucharest. Founded in 1871 and reestablished in 1888, it was the main left-wing press venue to be published during the Romanian Kingdom's existence, adopting an independent pro-democratic position, advocating land reform and universal suffrage...
, Dimineaţa, Flacăra
Flacăra
Flacăra is a weekly magazine published in Bucharest, Romania, originally as a literary periodical....
, Sămănătorul
Sămănătorul
Sămănătorul or Semănătorul was a literary and political magazine published in Romania between 1901 and 1910. Founded by poets Alexandru Vlahuţă and George Coşbuc, it is primarily remembered as a tribune for early 20th century traditionalism, neoromanticism and ethnic nationalism...
, Arhiva, Ovidiu and Gândul Nostru. He made his editorial debut with a volume of anecdote
Anecdote
An anecdote is a short and amusing or interesting story about a real incident or person. It may be as brief as the setting and provocation of a bon mot. An anecdote is always presented as based on a real incident involving actual persons, whether famous or not, usually in an identifiable place...
s, Părăvulii (printed in Bucharest
Bucharest
Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River....
in 1901).
Upon graduation, Batzaria returned to Macedonia as a schoolteacher, educating children at the Ioannina
Ioannina
Ioannina , often called Jannena within Greece, is the largest city of Epirus, north-western Greece, with a population of 70,203 . It lies at an elevation of approximately 500 meters above sea level, on the western shore of lake Pamvotis . It is located within the Ioannina municipality, and is the...
school, and subsequently at his alma mater in Bitola. He afterward became chief inspector of the Romanian educational institutions in the Ottoman provinces
Subdivisions of the Ottoman Empire
The subdivisions of the Ottoman Empire were administrative divisions of the state organisation of the Ottoman Empire. Outside this system were various types of vassal and tributary states....
of Kosovo
Kosovo Province, Ottoman Empire
The Vilayet of Kosovo was a vilayet of the Ottoman Empire in the Balkan Peninsula which included the current territory of Kosovo and the western part of the Republic of Macedonia...
and Salonika
Salonika Province, Ottoman Empire
The Vilayet of Salonica was an Ottoman province from 1867 to 1912. In the late 19th century it reportedly had an area of .The vilayet was bounded by the Principality , of Bulgaria on the north; Eastern Rumelia on the northeast ; Edirne Vilayet on the east; the Aegean Sea on the south; Monastir...
. Historian Gheorghe Zbuchea, who researched the self-identification of Aromanians as an ethnic Romanian
Romanians
The Romanians are an ethnic group native to Romania, who speak Romanian; they are the majority inhabitants of Romania....
subgroup, sees Batzaria as "the most important representative of the national Romanian movement" among early 20th century Ottoman residents. For a while in 1903, following a ban on political activities by Sultan
Ottoman Dynasty
The Ottoman Dynasty ruled the Ottoman Empire from 1299 to 1922, beginning with Osman I , though the dynasty was not proclaimed until Orhan Bey declared himself sultan...
Abdul Hamid II
Abdul Hamid II
His Imperial Majesty, The Sultan Abdülhamid II, Emperor of the Ottomans, Caliph of the Faithful was the 34th sultan of the Ottoman Empire...
, Batzaria was arrested by local Ottoman officials, and experience which later served him in writing the memoir În închisorile turceşti ("In Turkish Prisons"). Five years later, he founded the first ever Aromanian-language journal, Deşteptarea ("The Awakening"), published in Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki , historically also known as Thessalonica, Salonika or Salonica, is the second-largest city in Greece and the capital of the region of Central Macedonia as well as the capital of the Decentralized Administration of Macedonia and Thrace...
. It only published four issues before going out of business.
Young Turks affiliation and World War I
Beginning 1907, Batzaria took a direct interest in the development of revolutionary conspiraciesConspiracy (political)
In a political sense, conspiracy refers to a group of persons united in the goal of usurping or overthrowing an established political power. Typically, the final goal is to gain power through a revolutionary coup d'état or through assassination....
which aimed to reshape the Ottoman Empire from within. Having first came in contact with İsmail Enver
Ismail Enver
Enver Pasha or Ismail Enver Pasha , title was changed with his military ranks such as Enver Efendi , Enver Bey , Enver Pasha, higher than Mirliva) was an Ottoman military officer and a leader of the Young Turk revolution...
, he thereafter affiliated with the multi-ethnic Committee of Union and Progress
Committee of Union and Progress
The Committee of Union and Progress began as a secret society established as the "Committee of Ottoman Union" in 1889 by the medical students İbrahim Temo, Abdullah Cevdet, İshak Sükuti and Ali Hüseyinzade...
, a clandestine core of the Young Turks
Young Turks
The Young Turks , from French: Les Jeunes Turcs) were a coalition of various groups favouring reformation of the administration of the Ottoman Empire. The movement was against the absolute monarchy of the Ottoman Sultan and favoured a re-installation of the short-lived Kanûn-ı Esâsî constitution...
movement. According to his own statements, he was acquainted with figures at the forefront of the Young Turks organizations: Mehmed Talat, Ahmed Djemal
Ahmed Djemal
Djemal Pasha or Ahmed Djemal , was a Young Turk and member of the Three Pashas. Ahmed Djemal was also Mayor of Istanbul.- Biography :...
(the future "Three Pashas
Three Pashas
"The Three Pashas", also known as the "dictatorial triumvirate", of the Ottoman Empire included the Ottoman minister of the interior, Mehmed Talaat , the minister of war, Ismail Enver, and the minister of the Navy, Ahmed Djemal,...
", alongside Enver), Mehmet Cavit Bey
Mehmet Cavit Bey
Mehmet Cavit Bey, Mehmed Cavid Bey or Mehmed Djavid Bey was an Ottoman Sabbateaneconomist, newspaper editor and leading politician during the last period of the Ottoman Empire. A member of the Committee of Union and Progress , he was part of the Young Turks and had positions in government after...
, Hafiz Hakki
Hafiz Hakki
Hafiz Hakki Pasha - February 15, 1915; Erzurum) was a General of the Ottoman Empire military.Hafiz Hakki was a classmate of Enver Pasha, Mahmud Kâmil Pasha, and Fahreddin Pasha...
and others. This was partly backed by Enver's notes in his diary, which includes the mention: "I was instrumental in bringing into the Society the first Christian members. For instance Basarya effendi
Effendi
Effendi, Effendy or Efendi is a title of nobility meaning a lord or master.It is a title of respect or courtesy, equivalent to the English Sir, which was used in Ottoman Empire...
." Batzaria himself claimed to have been initiated into the society by Djemal and following a ritual similar to that of "nihilists
Nihilism
Nihilism is the philosophical doctrine suggesting the negation of one or more putatively meaningful aspects of life. Most commonly, nihilism is presented in the form of existential nihilism which argues that life is without objective meaning, purpose, or intrinsic value...
" in the Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
: an oath on a revolver placed inside a poorly lit room, while guarded by men dressed in black and red cloth. Supposedly, Batzaria also joined the Freemasonry
Freemasonry
Freemasonry is a fraternal organisation that arose from obscure origins in the late 16th to early 17th century. Freemasonry now exists in various forms all over the world, with a membership estimated at around six million, including approximately 150,000 under the jurisdictions of the Grand Lodge...
at some point in his life.
Modern Turkish
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
historian Kemal H. Karpat connects these events with a larger Young Turks agenda of attracting Aromanians into a political alliance, in contrast to the official policies of the rival Balkan
Balkans
The Balkans is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe...
states, all of which refused to recognize the Aromanian ethnicity as distinct. Zbuchea passed a similar judgment, concluding: "Balkan Romanians actively supported the actions of the Young Turks, believing that they provided good opportunities for modernization
Modernization
In the social sciences, modernization or modernisation refers to a model of an evolutionary transition from a 'pre-modern' or 'traditional' to a 'modern' society. The teleology of modernization is described in social evolutionism theories, existing as a template that has been generally followed by...
and perhaps guarantees regarding their future." Another Turkish researcher, M. Şükrü Hanioğlu
M. Sükrü Hanioglu
M. Şükrü Hanioğlu is a Turkish professor of late Ottoman history in the Department of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University. From July 2005 he is the department chair....
, looks at the alliance from the point of view of a larger dispute between Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
(and the Greeks
Greeks
The Greeks, also known as the Hellenes , are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighboring regions. They also form a significant diaspora, with Greek communities established around the world....
in Ottoman lands) on one hand, and, on the other, Ottoman leaders and their Aromanian subjects. Proposing that Aromanian activists, like their Albanian
Albanians
Albanians are a nation and ethnic group native to Albania and neighbouring countries. They speak the Albanian language. More than half of all Albanians live in Albania and Kosovo...
counterparts, "supported the preservation of Ottoman rule in Macedonia" primarily for fear of the Greeks, Hanioğlu highlights the part played by British
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom during the period when what is now the Republic of Ireland formed a part of it....
mediators in fostering the Ottoman-Aromanian entente. He notes that, "with the exception of the Jews
History of the Jews in Turkey
Turkish Jews The history of the Jews in the Ottoman Empire and Turkey covers the 2,400 years that Jews have lived in what is now Turkey. There have been Jewish communities in Asia Minor since at least the 5th century BCE and many Spanish and Portuguese Jews expelled from Spain were welcomed to the...
", Aromanians were the only non-Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
ic community to be drawn into the Ottomanist
Ottomanism
Ottomanism was a concept which developed prior to the First Constitutional Era of the Ottoman Empire. Its proponents believed that it could solve the social issues that the empire was facing. Ottomanism was highly affected by thinkers such as Montesquieu and Rousseau and the French Revolution. It...
projects.
In 1908, the Aromanian intellectual was propelled to high office by the Young Turk Revolution
Young Turk Revolution
The Young Turk Revolution of 1908 reversed the suspension of the Ottoman parliament by Sultan Abdul Hamid II, marking the onset of the Second Constitutional Era...
and the Second Constitutional Era
Second Constitutional Era (Ottoman Empire)
The Second Constitutional Era of the Ottoman Empire began shortly after Sultan Abdülhamid II restored the constitutional monarchy after the 1908 Young Turk Revolution. The period established many political groups...
: the party rewarded his contribution, legally interpreted as "high services to the State", by assigning him a special non-elective seat in the Ottoman Senate (a status similar to that of another Young Turk Aromanian, Filip Mişea, who became a deputy). A regular contributor to Le Jeune Turc and other newspapers based in Istanbul
Istanbul
Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...
, he was also appointed vice-president of the Turkish Red Crescent
Turkish Red Crescent
Turkish Red Crescent is the largest humanitarian organization in Turkey and is part of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement....
, a humanitarian society, which provided him with close insight into the social contribution of Muslim women volunteers, and, through extension, an understanding of Islamic feminism
Islamic feminism
Islamic feminism is a form of feminism concerned with the role of women in Islam. It aims for the full equality of all Muslims, regardless of gender, in public and private life. Islamic feminists advocate women's rights, gender equality, and social justice grounded in an Islamic framework...
. In 1913, during the First Balkan War
First Balkan War
The First Balkan War, which lasted from October 1912 to May 1913, pitted the Balkan League against the Ottoman Empire. The combined armies of the Balkan states overcame the numerically inferior and strategically disadvantaged Ottoman armies and achieved rapid success...
, Batzaria's political career was advanced further by Enver's coup: he became Minister of Public Works in Enver's cabinet, but without interrupting his journalistic activities. It was also he who represented the executive at the London Conference, where he acknowledged the Ottoman defeat. In the short peaceful hiatus which followed his return, Batzaria represented the empire in secret talks with Romania's Titu Maiorescu
Titu Maiorescu
Titu Liviu Maiorescu was a Romanian literary critic and politician, founder of the Junimea Society. As a literary critic, he was instrumental in the development of Romanian culture in the second half of the 19th century....
government, negotiating a new alliance against the victorious Kingdom of Bulgaria
Kingdom of Bulgaria
The Kingdom of Bulgaria was established as an independent state when the Principality of Bulgaria, an Ottoman vassal, officially proclaimed itself independent on October 5, 1908 . This move also formalised the annexation of the Ottoman province of Eastern Rumelia, which had been under the control...
. As he himself recalled, the request was refused by Romanian politicians, who stated that they wished to avoid attacking other Christian nations. The Ottoman approach however resonated with Romania's intentions, and both states successfully fought Bulgaria in the Second Balkan War
Second Balkan War
The Second Balkan War was a conflict which broke out when Bulgaria, dissatisfied with its share of the spoils of the First Balkan War, attacked its former allies, Serbia and Greece, on 29 June 1913. Bulgaria had a prewar agreement about the division of region of Macedonia...
. However, the following years brought a clash of interests between the Three Pashas and Batzaria. Already alarmed by the official Turkification
Turkification
Turkification is a term used to describe a process of cultural or political change in which something or someone who is not a Turk becomes one, voluntarily or involuntarily...
process, the Aromanian intellectual proved himself an opponent of the new policies which linked the Ottoman realm to the German Empire
German Empire
The German Empire refers to Germany during the "Second Reich" period from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became a federal republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of the Emperor, Wilhelm II.The German...
, Bulgaria and the other Central Powers
Central Powers
The Central Powers were one of the two warring factions in World War I , composed of the German Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Bulgaria...
. In 1916, two years into World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, he left Istanbul for neutral Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
.
Literary career in Romania
He settled in BucharestBucharest
Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River....
, where he served a term in the Senate
Senate of Romania
The Senate of Romania is the upper house in the bicameral Parliament of Romania. It has 137 seats , to which members are elected by direct popular vote, using Mixed member proportional representation in 42 electoral districts , to serve four-year terms.-Former location:After the Romanian...
of Greater Romania
Greater Romania
The Greater Romania generally refers to the territory of Romania in the years between the First World War and the Second World War, the largest geographical extent of Romania up to that time and its largest peacetime extent ever ; more precisely, it refers to the territory of the Kingdom of...
(coinciding with Alexandru Averescu
Alexandru Averescu
Alexandru Averescu was a Romanian marshal and populist politician. A Romanian Armed Forces Commander during World War I, he served as Prime Minister of three separate cabinets . He first rose to prominence during the peasant's revolt of 1907, which he helped repress in violence...
's term as Premier
Prime Minister of Romania
The Prime Minister of Romania is the head of the Government of Romania. Initially, the office was styled President of the Council of Ministers , when the term "Government" included more than the Cabinet, and the Cabinet was called The Council of Ministers...
). During the interwar period
Interwar period
Interwar period can refer to any period between two wars. The Interbellum is understood to be the period between the end of the Great War or First World War and the beginning of the Second World War in Europe....
, he became a regular contributor to the country's main left-wing dailies: Adevărul
Adevarul
Adevărul is a Romanian daily newspaper, based in Bucharest. Founded in 1871 and reestablished in 1888, it was the main left-wing press venue to be published during the Romanian Kingdom's existence, adopting an independent pro-democratic position, advocating land reform and universal suffrage...
and Dimineaţa. The journals' owners assigned Batzaria with the task of managing and editing a junior version of Dimineaţa, Dimineaţa Copiilor ("The Children's Morning"). Batzaria embarked on a career in writing, publishing a succession of fiction and nonfiction volumes in Romanian. Among these was a series of books detailing the lives of women in the Ottoman Empire and the modern Turkish state: Spovedanii de cadâne. Nuvele din viaţa turcească ("Confessions of Turkish Odalisque
Odalisque
An odalisque was a female slave in an Ottoman seraglio. She was an assistant or apprentice to the concubines and wives, and she might rise in status to become one of them...
s. Novella
Novella
A novella is a written, fictional, prose narrative usually longer than a novelette but shorter than a novel. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Nebula Awards for science fiction define the novella as having a word count between 17,500 and 40,000...
s from Turkish Life", 1921), Turcoaicele ("The Turkish Women", 1921), Sărmana Lila. Roman din viaţa cadânelor ("Poor Leila. A Novel from the Life of Odalisques", 1922), Prima turcoaică ("The First of Turkish Women", n.d.), as well as several translations of foreign books on this subject. In 1928, he was a judge for a national Miss Romania beauty contest, organized by Realitatea Ilustrată magazine and journalist Alexandru Tzigara-Samurcaş
Alexandru Tzigara-Samurcaş
Alexandru Tzigara-Samurcaş was a Romanian art historian, ethnographer, museologist and cultural journalist, also known as local champion of art conservation, Romanian Police leader and pioneer radio broadcaster...
(the other members of this panel being female activist Alexandrina Cantacuzino, actress Maria Giurgea, politician Alexandru Mavrodi, novelist Liviu Rebreanu
Liviu Rebreanu
Liviu Rebreanu was a Romanian novelist, playwright, short story writer, and journalist.- Life :Born in Târlișua , Transylvania, then part of Austria-Hungary, he was the second of thirteen children born to Vasile Rebreanu, a schoolteacher, and Ludovica Diuganu, descendants of peasants...
and visual artists Jean Alexandru Steriadi
Jean Alexandru Steriadi
Jean Alexandru Steriadi was a Romanian painter and drawing artist. He made portraits and compositions based on a strong, expressive drawing; then he evoluated towards impressionistic influenced landscapes in which the subtle harmony is combined with a refined sense of picturesque...
and Friedrich Storck). As an Adevărul journalist, Batzaria nevertheless warned against politically militant feminism and women's suffrage
Women's suffrage
Women's suffrage or woman suffrage is the right of women to vote and to run for office. The expression is also used for the economic and political reform movement aimed at extending these rights to women and without any restrictions or qualifications such as property ownership, payment of tax, or...
, urging women to find their comfort in marriage.
His work in children's literature
Children's literature
Children's literature is for readers and listeners up to about age twelve; it is often defined in four different ways: books written by children, books written for children, books chosen by children, or books chosen for children. It is often illustrated. The term is used in senses which sometimes...
, taking diverse forms, was often published under the pen names Moş Nae ("Old Man Nae", a term of respect applied to the hypocorism of Nicolae) and Ali Baba (after the eponymous character
Ali Baba
Ali Baba is a fictional character from medieval Arabic literature. He is described in the adventure tale of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves...
in One Thousand and One Nights). Another variant he favored was Moş Ene. By 1925, Batzaria had created the satirical
Satire
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
character Haplea (or "Gobbles"), whom he made into a protagonist for some of Romania's first comic strip
Comic strip
A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....
s. The graphics to Batzaria's rhymed captions were provided by Marin Iorda, who also worked on a 1928 animated
Animation
Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways...
version of Haplea (the first such film in the history of Romanian cinema
Cinema of Romania
The cinema of Romania is the art of motion-picture making within the nation of Romania or by Romanian filmmakers abroad.As upon much of the world's early cinema, the ravages of time have left their mark upon Romanian film prints. Tens of titles have been destroyed or lost for good...
). Other characters created by Batzaria in various literary genres include Haplina (the female version and regular companion of Haplea), Hăplişor (their child), Lir and Tibişir (known together as doi isteţi nătăfleţi, "two clever gawks"), and Uitucilă (from a uita, "to forget").
By 1930, Nicolae Constantin Batzaria also became known for his genre fiction
Genre fiction
Genre fiction, also known as popular fiction, is a term for fictional works written with the intent of fitting into a specific literary genre in order to appeal to readers and fans already familiar with that genre....
novels, addressed to a general public and registering much success. Among these were Jertfa Lilianei ("Liliana's Sacrifice"), Răpirea celor două fetiţe ("The Kidnapping of the Two Little Girls"), Micul lustragiu ("The Little Shoeshiner
Shoeshiner
Shoeshiner or boot polisher is a profession in which a person polishes shoes with shoe polish. They are often known as shoeshine boys because the job is traditionally that of a male child. In the leather fetish communities, they are often called bootblacks...
") and Ina, fetiţa prigonită ("Ina, the Persecuted Little Girl"). His main fairy tale
Fairy tale
A fairy tale is a type of short story that typically features such folkloric characters, such as fairies, goblins, elves, trolls, dwarves, giants or gnomes, and usually magic or enchantments. However, only a small number of the stories refer to fairies...
collection was published as Poveşti de aur ("Golden Stories").
Final years, persecution and death
In 1936, Batzaria parted with Dimineaţa and joined its right-wing and nationalistNationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
competitor Universul
Universul
Universul was a mass-circulation newspaper in Romania. It existed from 1884 to 1953, and was run by Stelian Popescu from 1914 to 1943 ....
, becoming its publisher. He became involved in political disputes facing the leftists and rightists, expressing some sympathy for the fascist
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
and antisemitic movement known as the Iron Guard
Iron Guard
The Iron Guard is the name most commonly given to a far-right movement and political party in Romania in the period from 1927 into the early part of World War II. The Iron Guard was ultra-nationalist, fascist, anti-communist, and promoted the Orthodox Christian faith...
. This touched his editorial pieces concerning the Spanish Civil War
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...
, marking the death of Iron Guardist politico Ion Moţa
Ion Mota
Ion I. Moţa [or Motza] was the Romanian fascist deputy leader of the Iron Guard killed in battle during the Spanish Civil War.-Biography:...
while a volunteer for the Francoist side, and depicting him as a hero comparable to Giuseppe Garibaldi
Giuseppe Garibaldi
Giuseppe Garibaldi was an Italian military and political figure. In his twenties, he joined the Carbonari Italian patriot revolutionaries, and fled Italy after a failed insurrection. Garibaldi took part in the War of the Farrapos and the Uruguayan Civil War leading the Italian Legion, and...
and the Marquis de Lafayette (see Funerals of Ion Moţa and Vasile Marin
Funerals of Ion Moţa and Vasile Marin
The Funerals of Ion Moţa and Vasile Marin were a series of wide-scale manifestations in Romania. The two leaders of the Iron Guard were killed in battle on the same day, January 13, 1937, at Majadahonda during the Spanish Civil War while fighting on the side of the Nationalist Spain.The funerary...
). He also became directly involved in the conflict opposing Universul and Adevărul, during which the latter was accused of being a tool for "communism
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
", and urged the authorities to repress what he argued was a communist conspiracy.
Batzaria was nevertheless marginalized for the larger part of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, when Romania came under the rule of far right
Far right
Far-right, extreme right, hard right, radical right, and ultra-right are terms used to discuss the qualitative or quantitative position a group or person occupies within right-wing politics. Far-right politics may involve anti-immigration and anti-integration stances towards groups that are...
and fascist regimes (the Iron Guard's National Legionary State
National Legionary State
The National Legionary State was the Romanian government from September 6, 1940 to January 23, 1941. It was a single-party regime dictatorship dominated by the overtly fascist Iron Guard in uneasy conjunction with the head of government and Conducător Ion Antonescu, the leader of the Romanian...
and the authoritarian
Authoritarianism
Authoritarianism is a form of social organization characterized by submission to authority. It is usually opposed to individualism and democracy...
system of Conducător
Conducator
Conducător was the title used officially in two instances by Romanian politicians, and earlier by Carol II.-History:...
Ion Antonescu
Ion Antonescu
Ion Victor Antonescu was a Romanian soldier, authoritarian politician and convicted war criminal. The Prime Minister and Conducător during most of World War II, he presided over two successive wartime dictatorships...
). During that time, he focused on translations from the stories of Danish
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
author Hans Christian Andersen
Hans Christian Andersen
Hans Christian Andersen was a Danish author, fairy tale writer, and poet noted for his children's stories. These include "The Steadfast Tin Soldier," "The Snow Queen," "The Little Mermaid," "Thumbelina," "The Little Match Girl," and "The Ugly Duckling."...
, which saw print under the Moş Ene signature in stages between 1942 and 1944. The war's end and the rise of the Communist Party made him a direct target for political persecution. The consolidation of a communist regime
Communist Romania
Communist Romania was the period in Romanian history when that country was a Soviet-aligned communist state in the Eastern Bloc, with the dominant role of Romanian Communist Party enshrined in its successive constitutions...
in 1947-1948 led to his complete ostracizing, beginning when he was forced out of his house by the authorities (an action which reportedly caused the destruction of all his manuscripts through neglect).
Sources diverge on events occurring during Batzaria's final years. Several authors mention that he became a political prisoner
Political prisoner
According to the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, a political prisoner is ‘someone who is in prison because they have opposed or criticized the government of their own country’....
of the communists. According to Karpat, Batzaria died in poverty at his Bucharest house during the early 1950s. Later research however suggests that this occurred in 1952, at a concentration camp (or more specifically a penal facility located in Ghencea
Ghencea
Ghencea is a district of the Romanian capital city Bucharest, which is home to the famous football team FC Steaua Bucureşti. It is also home to the rugby team Steaua Bucureşti Rugby.-Notable landmarks:*Stadionul Steaua, home stadium of Steaua Bucureşti...
district).
Fiction
Anthumous editions of Nicolae Constantin Batzaria's work include some 30 volumes, including children's, fantasyFantasy literature
Fantasy literature is fantasy in written form. Historically speaking, literature has composed the majority of fantasy works. Since the 1950s however, a growing segment of the fantasy genre has taken the form of films, television programs, graphic novels, video games, music, painting, and other...
and travel literature
Travel literature
Travel literature is travel writing of literary value. Travel literature typically records the experiences of an author touring a place for the pleasure of travel. An individual work is sometimes called a travelogue or itinerary. Travel literature may be cross-cultural or transnational in focus, or...
, memoir
Memoir
A memoir , is a literary genre, forming a subclass of autobiography – although the terms 'memoir' and 'autobiography' are almost interchangeable. Memoir is autobiographical writing, but not all autobiographical writing follows the criteria for memoir set out below...
s, novels, textbooks, translations and various reports. According to his profile at the University of Florence
University of Florence
The University of Florence is a higher study institute in Florence, central Italy. One of the largest and oldest universities in the country, it consists of 12 faculties...
Department of Neo-Latin Languages and Literatures, Batzaria was "lacking in originality but a talented vulgarizer". Writing in 1987, children's author Gica Iuteş claimed that the "most beautiful pages" in Batzaria's work were those dedicated to the youth, defining the author himself as "a great and modest friend of the children".
His short stories
Short story
A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...
for children generally build on ancient fairy tale
Fairy tale
A fairy tale is a type of short story that typically features such folkloric characters, such as fairies, goblins, elves, trolls, dwarves, giants or gnomes, and usually magic or enchantments. However, only a small number of the stories refer to fairies...
s and traditional storytelling techniques. A group among these accounts retell classics of Turkish
Turkish literature
Turkish literature comprises both oral compositions and written texts in the Turkish language, either in its Ottoman form or in less exclusively literary forms, such as that spoken in the Republic of Turkey today...
, Arabic
Arabic literature
Arabic literature is the writing produced, both prose and poetry, by writers in the Arabic language. The Arabic word used for literature is adab which is derived from a meaning of etiquette, and implies politeness, culture and enrichment....
and Persian literature
Persian literature
Persian literature spans two-and-a-half millennia, though much of the pre-Islamic material has been lost. Its sources have been within historical Persia including present-day Iran as well as regions of Central Asia where the Persian language has historically been the national language...
s (such as One Thousand and One Nights), intertwined with literary styles present throughout the Balkans
Balkans
The Balkans is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe...
. The interest in Oriental themes also touched his reviews of works by other writers, such as his 1932 essay on the Arabic and Persian motifs present in Kir Ianulea
Kir Ianulea
Kir Ianulea or Kyr Ianulea is a fantasy and historical fiction novella or short story, published by Romanian author Ion Luca Caragiale in 1909...
, a short story by the 19th century Romanian classic Ion Luca Caragiale
Ion Luca Caragiale
Ion Luca Caragiale was a Wallachian-born Romanian playwright, short story writer, poet, theater manager, political commentator and journalist...
. This approach to Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
ern themes was complemented by borrowings from Western and generally European sources, as well as from the Far East
Far East
The Far East is an English term mostly describing East Asia and Southeast Asia, with South Asia sometimes also included for economic and cultural reasons.The term came into use in European geopolitical discourse in the 19th century,...
. The Poveşti de aur series thus includes fairy tales from European folklore
European folklore
European folklore or Western folklore refers to the folklore of the western world, especially when discussed comparatively.There is, of course, no single European culture, but nevertheless the common history of Christendom during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period has resulted in a number...
and Asian folktales: Indian
Folklore of India
The folklore of India compasses the folklore of the nation of India and the Indian subcontinent.The subcontinent of India contains a wide diversity of ethnic, linguistic, and religious groups...
(Savitri and Satyavan
Savitri and Satyavan
The oldest known version of the story of Savitri and Satyavan is found in "The Book of the Forest" of the Mahabharata.The story occurs as a multiple embedded narrative in the Mahabharata told by Markandeya...
), Spanish (The Bird of Truth
The Bird of Truth
The Bird of Truth is a Spanish fairy tale collected by Cecilia Böhl de Faber in her Cuentos de encantamiento. Andrew Lang included it in The Orange Fairy Book.-Synopsis:...
), German
German folklore
German folklore shares many characteristics with Scandinavian folklore and English folklore due to their origins in a common Germanic mythology. It reflects a similar mix of influences: a pre-Christian pantheon and other beings equivalent to those of Norse mythology; magical characters associated...
, Italian, Japanese
Japanese folklore
The folklore of Japan is heavily influenced by both Shinto and Buddhism, the two primary religions in the country. It often involves humorous or bizarre characters and situations and also includes an assortment of supernatural beings, such as bodhisattva, kami , yōkai , yūrei ,...
, Polish, Scandinavian
Scandinavian folklore
Scandinavian folklore is the folklore of Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, and the Swedish speaking parts of Finland.Collecting folklore began when Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden sent out instructions to all of the priests in all of the parishes to collect the folklore of their area...
and Serbian
Serbian folklore
Serbian folklore is the folk traditions among ethnic Serbs. The earliest examples of Serbian folklore are seen in the pre-Christian Slavic customs transformed into Christianity.-Folklore:...
. His wartime renditions from Andersen's stories covered The Emperor's New Clothes
The Emperor's New Clothes
"The Emperor's New Clothes" is a short tale by Hans Christian Andersen about two weavers who promise an Emperor a new suit of clothes that is invisible to those unfit for their positions, stupid, or incompetent...
, The Ugly Duckling
The Ugly Duckling
"The Ugly Duckling" is a literary fairy tale by Danish poet and author Hans Christian Andersen . The story tells of a homely little bird born in a barnyard who suffers abuse from his neighbors until, much to his delight , he matures into a beautiful swan, the most beautiful bird of all...
and The Little Mermaid
The Little Mermaid
"The Little Mermaid" is a popular fairy tale by the Danish poet and author Hans Christian Andersen about a young mermaid willing to give up her life in the sea and her identity as a mermaid to gain a human soul and the love of a human prince...
.
Among the writer's original contributions was a series of novels for the youth. According to literary critic Matei Călinescu
Matei Calinescu
Matei Călinescu was a Romanian literary critic and professor of comparative literature at Indiana University, in Bloomington, Indiana....
, who recalled having enjoyed these works as a child, they have a "tearjerker" and "melodrama
Melodrama
The term melodrama refers to a dramatic work that exaggerates plot and characters in order to appeal to the emotions. It may also refer to the genre which includes such works, or to language, behavior, or events which resemble them...
tic" appeal. Essayist and literary historian Paul Cernat calls them "commercial literature" able to speculate public demand, and likens them to the texts of Mihail Drumeş, another successful Aromanian author (or, beyond literature, to the popular Aromanian singer Jean Moscopol
Jean Moscopol
Jean Moscopol was a Romanian singer of the interwar period.-Biography:Moscopol's parents were Greeks. His mother, née Constantinidi, was from Constanţa, while his father originated in Mesembria on the shores of the Aegean Sea. From there he settled in Brăila, where he opened a pastry shop and then...
). Batzaria is also credited with having coined popular children's rhymes, such as:
Sunt soldat şi călăreţ, Uite, am un cal isteţ! |
I'm a soldier and a cavalryman, Look, I have one clever horse! |
Batzaria's Haplea was a major contribution to Romanian comics culture and interwar Romanian humor, and is ranked by comics historiographer Dodo Niţă as the top Romanian series of all times. The scripts were not entirely original creations: according to translator and critic Adrian Solomon, one Haplea episode retold a grotesque
Grotesque
The word grotesque comes from the same Latin root as "Grotto", meaning a small cave or hollow. The original meaning was restricted to an extravagant style of Ancient Roman decorative art rediscovered and then copied in Rome at the end of the 15th century...
theme with some tradition in the Romanian folklore
Folklore of Romania
A feature of Romanian culture is the special relationship between folklore and the learned culture, determined by two factors. First, the rural character of the Romanian communities resulted in an exceptionally vital and creative traditional culture. Folk creations were the main literary genre...
(the story of Păcală
Păcală
Păcală is a fictional character in Romanian folklore, literature and humor. An irreverent young man, seemingly a peasant, he reserves contempt and irony for the village authorities , but often plays the fool...
), that in which the protagonist murders people for no apparent reason.
Memoirs and essays
A large segment of Batzaria's literary productions was constituted by subjective recollections. Kemal H. Karpat, according to whom such writings displayed the attributes of "a great storyteller" influenced by both Romanian classic Ion CreangăIon Creanga
Ion Creangă was a Moldavian-born Romanian writer, raconteur and schoolteacher. A main figure in 19th century Romanian literature, he is best known for his Childhood Memories volume, his novellas and short stories, and his many anecdotes...
and the Ottoman meddahs, also assessed that they often failed attested timelines or accuracy checks. The main book in this series is Din lumea Islamului. Turcia Junilor Turci ("From the World of Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
. The Turkey of the Young Turks"), which traces his own biography in Macedonia and Istanbul. It its original edition, it carried a preface by prominent Romanian historian Nicolae Iorga
Nicolae Iorga
Nicolae Iorga was a Romanian historian, politician, literary critic, memoirist, poet and playwright. Co-founder of the Democratic Nationalist Party , he served as a member of Parliament, President of the Deputies' Assembly and Senate, cabinet minister and briefly as Prime Minister...
, who saw the text as an accurate rendition "of that interesting act in the drama of Ottoman decline
Decline of the Ottoman Empire
The Decline of the Ottoman Empire is the period that followed after the Stagnation of the Ottoman Empire in which the empire experienced several economic and political setbacks. Directly affecting the Empire at this time was Russian imperialism...
that was the first phase of Ottoman nationalism
Turkish nationalism
Turkish nationalism is a political ideology that promotes and glorifies the Turkish people, as either a national, ethnic or linguistic group and puts the interests of the state over other influences, including religious ones.-Pan-Turkism:...
". In Karpat's opinion, the texts mix advocacy of liberalism
Liberalism
Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...
, modernization
Modernization
In the social sciences, modernization or modernisation refers to a model of an evolutionary transition from a 'pre-modern' or 'traditional' to a 'modern' society. The teleology of modernization is described in social evolutionism theories, existing as a template that has been generally followed by...
and Westernization
Westernization
Westernization or Westernisation , also occidentalization or occidentalisation , is a process whereby societies come under or adopt Western culture in such matters as industry, technology, law, politics, economics, lifestyle, diet, language, alphabet,...
with "a special understanding of the Balkan and Turkish societies". This argument was coupled with Batzaria's theory about the superiority of Christianity over Islam, seen as a victory of modernization and education over fatalism
Fatalism
Fatalism is a philosophical doctrine emphasizing the subjugation of all events or actions to fate.Fatalism generally refers to several of the following ideas:...
and superstition
Superstition
Superstition is a belief in supernatural causality: that one event leads to the cause of another without any process in the physical world linking the two events....
. His extended coverage of women's existence and Islamic feminism
Islamic feminism
Islamic feminism is a form of feminism concerned with the role of women in Islam. It aims for the full equality of all Muslims, regardless of gender, in public and private life. Islamic feminists advocate women's rights, gender equality, and social justice grounded in an Islamic framework...
, Karpat argues, showed the Young Turk modernizing tendency as a forerunner for the Kemalist ideology
Kemalist ideology
Kemalist Ideology, "Kemalism" or also known as the "Six Arrows" is the principle that defines the basic characteristics of the Republic of Turkey. It was developed by the Turkish national movement and its leader Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.-Fundamentals:...
developed in the 1920s. Batzaria voiced an anticlerical
Anti-clericalism
Anti-clericalism is a historical movement that opposes religious institutional power and influence, real or alleged, in all aspects of public and political life, and the involvement of religion in the everyday life of the citizen...
message primarily targeting the more conservative
Conservatism
Conservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism...
ulema
Ulema
Ulama , also spelt ulema, refers to the educated class of Muslim legal scholars engaged in the several fields of Islamic studies. They are best known as the arbiters of shari‘a law...
(but also aimed at those Christian priests whom he depicted as ignorant), and commented on the process of modernization as a cultural and religious phenomenon, noting that the Young Turks had themselves eventually come to reject the Caliphate
Ottoman Caliphate
The Ottoman Caliphate, under the Ottoman Dynasty of the Ottoman Empire inherited the responsibility of the Caliphate from the Mamluks of Egypt....
for a secular identity
Secularism in Turkey
Secularism in Turkey defines the relationship between religion and state in the country of Turkey. Secularism was first introduced with the 1928 amendment of the Constitution of 1924, which removed the provision declaring that the "Religion of the State is Islam", and with the later reforms of...
.
În închisorile turceşti and other such writings offer insight into the complications of nationalist
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
struggles within Ottoman lands, notably by discussing the group loyalty manifested by Albanian
Albanians
Albanians are a nation and ethnic group native to Albania and neighbouring countries. They speak the Albanian language. More than half of all Albanians live in Albania and Kosovo...
landowners toward the Ottoman Dynasty
Ottoman Dynasty
The Ottoman Dynasty ruled the Ottoman Empire from 1299 to 1922, beginning with Osman I , though the dynasty was not proclaimed until Orhan Bey declared himself sultan...
and the widespread adoption of the vague term "Turk
Turkish people
Turkish people, also known as the "Turks" , are an ethnic group primarily living in Turkey and in the former lands of the Ottoman Empire where Turkish minorities had been established in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Greece, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Romania...
" as self-designation by diverse Muslim groups in the Balkans. In contrast, Batzaria's books also record the revolutionary mindset brought into existence by ethnic nationalism
Ethnic nationalism
Ethnic nationalism is a form of nationalism wherein the "nation" is defined in terms of ethnicity. Whatever specific ethnicity is involved, ethnic nationalism always includes some element of descent from previous generations and the implied claim of ethnic essentialism, i.e...
within the Christian millet
Millet (Ottoman Empire)
Millet is a term for the confessional communities in the Ottoman Empire. It refers to the separate legal courts pertaining to "personal law" under which communities were allowed to rule themselves under their own system...
, writing: "it was not rare to see in Macedonia a father who would call himself a Greek
Greeks
The Greeks, also known as the Hellenes , are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighboring regions. They also form a significant diaspora, with Greek communities established around the world....
without actually being one [...], while one of his sons would become a fanatical Bulgarian
Bulgarians
The Bulgarians are a South Slavic nation and ethnic group native to Bulgaria and neighbouring regions. Emigration has resulted in immigrant communities in a number of other countries.-History and ethnogenesis:...
, and the other son would turn into a killer of Bulgarians." While stating an Aromanian exception among the "Christian peoples" of the Ottoman-ruled Balkans, in that the ethnic community as a whole worked to avert the empire's decline for fear of their neighbors' intolerance, Batzaria also argued that other groups were innately hostile to the Young Turks' liberal-minded overtures. However, Karpat writes, "Batzaria believed, paradoxically, that if the Young Turks had remained genuinely faithful to their original liberal ideals they might have succeeded in holding the state together." The eruption of ethic conflict and the failure of liberal programs after the Young Turk Revolution
Young Turk Revolution
The Young Turk Revolution of 1908 reversed the suspension of the Ottoman parliament by Sultan Abdul Hamid II, marking the onset of the Second Constitutional Era...
, Batzaria recounts, made the Young Turk executive fall back on its own ethnic nationalism, manifested as process of institutional Turkification
Turkification
Turkification is a term used to describe a process of cultural or political change in which something or someone who is not a Turk becomes one, voluntarily or involuntarily...
. This policy, the author argued, was primarily rendered ineffective by the poor social and economical status of regular Turks, and attracted the hostility of European states for encouraging the anti-colonialism of Muslims worldwide. In Din lumea Islamului, he analyzed the individual contributions to these dogmas by tracing psychological sketches of İsmail Enver
Ismail Enver
Enver Pasha or Ismail Enver Pasha , title was changed with his military ranks such as Enver Efendi , Enver Bey , Enver Pasha, higher than Mirliva) was an Ottoman military officer and a leader of the Young Turk revolution...
(who displayed "an insane courage and an ambition that kept growing and solidifying with every step he climbed on the ladder of power and greatness", but produced a Pan-Turkic
Pan-Turkism
Pan-Turkism is a nationalist movement that emerged in 1880s among the Turkic intellectuals of the Russian Empire, with the aim of cultural and political unification of all Turkic peoples.-Name:...
program amounting to "bankruptcy"), Ahmed Djemal
Ahmed Djemal
Djemal Pasha or Ahmed Djemal , was a Young Turk and member of the Three Pashas. Ahmed Djemal was also Mayor of Istanbul.- Biography :...
(portrayed as an uncultured chauvinist
Chauvinism
Chauvinism, in its original and primary meaning, is an exaggerated, bellicose patriotism and a belief in national superiority and glory. It is an eponym of a possibly fictional French soldier Nicolas Chauvin who was credited with many superhuman feats in the Napoleonic wars.By extension it has come...
), Mehmed Talat ("the most sympathetic and influential" of the Young Turk leaders, who "was never bitten by the snake of vanity").
Batzaria also depicted the changes in discourse as having alienated the Aromanians, divided and forced to cooperate with larger ethnic groups within their millet just before the First Balkan War
First Balkan War
The First Balkan War, which lasted from October 1912 to May 1913, pitted the Balkan League against the Ottoman Empire. The combined armies of the Balkan states overcame the numerically inferior and strategically disadvantaged Ottoman armies and achieved rapid success...
, while noting that Bulgaria had marginalized herself among the regional states even before the Second War
Second Balkan War
The Second Balkan War was a conflict which broke out when Bulgaria, dissatisfied with its share of the spoils of the First Balkan War, attacked its former allies, Serbia and Greece, on 29 June 1913. Bulgaria had a prewar agreement about the division of region of Macedonia...
. His anecdotal account presents himself and the Ottoman Armenian politician Gabriel Noradungian as rescuers of Istanbul from a Bulgarian invasion, for having spread false rumors about a cholera
Cholera
Cholera is an infection of the small intestine that is caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. The main symptoms are profuse watery diarrhea and vomiting. Transmission occurs primarily by drinking or eating water or food that has been contaminated by the diarrhea of an infected person or the feces...
epidemic and thus making the enemy hesitant about a siege. His explanation of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
depicts the Central Powers
Central Powers
The Central Powers were one of the two warring factions in World War I , composed of the German Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Bulgaria...
alliance as a gamble by the most daring of the Young Turks. Deploring the repeated acts of violence perpetrated by the Ottomans against members of the Armenian community (Noradungian included), Batzaria also maintains that the Armenian Genocide
Armenian Genocide
The Armenian Genocide—also known as the Armenian Holocaust, the Armenian Massacres and, by Armenians, as the Great Crime—refers to the deliberate and systematic destruction of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during and just after World War I...
was primarily perpetrated by rogue Ottoman Army
Military of the Ottoman Empire
The history of military of the Ottoman Empire can be divided in five main periods. The foundation era covers the years between 1300 and 1453 , the classical period covers the years between 1451 and 1606 , the reformation period covers the years between 1606 and 1826 ,...
units, Hamidieh regiments and other Kurds. His writings include a claim that he had unsuccessfully asked the Ottoman Senate to provide weapons for the Armenians to defend themselves against incursions by "bandits carrying a firman".
Legacy
The work of Nicolae Constantin Batzaria was the subject of critical reevaluation during the last decades of the communist regime, when Romania was ruled by Nicolae CeauşescuNicolae Ceausescu
Nicolae Ceaușescu was a Romanian Communist politician. He was General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party from 1965 to 1989, and as such was the country's second and last Communist leader...
. Writing at the time, Kemal H. Karpat argued: "Lately there seems to be a revived interest in [Batzaria's] children's stories." His various works in this field were published in several editions beginning in the late 1960s, and included reprints of Poveşti de aur with illustrations by Lívia Rusz
Lívia Rusz
Lívia or Livia Rusz is a Romanian and Hungarian graphic artist, best known for her work in illustration, comic strip and comic book genres...
. Writing the preface to one such reprint, Gica Iuteş defined Batzaria as "one of the eminent Aromanian scholars" and "a master of the clever word", while simply noting that he had "died in Bucharest in the year 1952." In tandem with this official recovery, Batzaria's work became an inspiration for the dissident
Dissident
A dissident, broadly defined, is a person who actively challenges an established doctrine, policy, or institution. When dissidents unite for a common cause they often effect a dissident movement....
poet Mircea Dinescu
Mircea Dinescu
Mircea Dinescu is a Romanian poet, journalist and editor.He was born in Slobozia, the son of Ştefan Dinescu, a metalworker and Aurelia . Dinescu studied at the Faculty of Journalism of the Ştefan Gheorghiu Academy, and was considered a gifted young poet during his youth, with several poetry...
, the author of a clandestinely circulated satire
Satire
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
which compared Ceauşescu to Haplea and referred to both as figures of destruction.
Renewed interest in Batzaria's work followed the 1989 Revolution
Romanian Revolution of 1989
The Romanian Revolution of 1989 was a series of riots and clashes in December 1989. These were part of the Revolutions of 1989 that occurred in several Warsaw Pact countries...
, which signified the communist regime's end. His work was integrated into new reviews produced by literary historians, and awarded a sizable entry in the 2004 Dicţionar General al Literaturii Române ("The General Dictionary of Romanian Literature"). The character of this inclusion produced some controversy: taking Batzaria's entry as a study case, critics argued that the book gave too much exposure to marginal authors, at the detriment of writers from the Optzecişti generation (whose respective articles were comparatively shorter). The period saw a number of reprints from his work (among them those of the Haplea comics). Fragments of his writings, alongside those of George Murnu
George Murnu
George Murnu was a Romanian university professor, archaeologist, historian, translator, and poet of Aromanian origin....
, Hristu Candroveanu and Teohar Mihadaş, were included in the Romanian Academy
Romanian Academy
The Romanian Academy is a cultural forum founded in Bucharest, Romania, in 1866. It covers the scientific, artistic and literary domains. The academy has 181 acting members who are elected for life....
's standard textbook for learning Aromanian (Manual de aromână-Carti trâ înviţari armâneaşti, edited by Matilda Caragiu-Marioţeanu and printed in 2006).
Batzaria was survived by a daughter, Rodica, who died ca. 1968. His great-granddaughter, Dana Schöbel-Roman, is a graphic artist and illustrator, who worked with children's author Grete Tartler on the magazine Ali Baba (printed in 1990).
External links
- Film samples (Haplea included) at the National Film Archive of Romania