On the Margins of Empire: Refugee Mobilities and Military Intelligence on the Russo-Ottoman Borderlands, 1850-1880

• In Event: War, Peace, and Diplomacy on the Russo-Ottoman Borderlands, 1860–1920

Abstract

This paper will examine the role of North Caucasian refugees in Ottoman diplomatic, military, and intelligence collection efforts against the Russian Empire. It will center on a North Caucasian General, Musa Kundukhov, who defected from the Russian Imperial Army to fight on behalf of the Ottomans. This paper aims to contribute to literature on the Eastern Question and reconsider the mass migration of North Caucasian refugees from a humanitarian crisis that strained Ottoman administration, to a diplomatic asset for Ottoman competition in Great Power rivalry.

Author

• Alika Alanovna Zangieva, Princeton U