Modernization in the ottoman empire and the Macedonian question in the last quarter of the XIX - early XX century

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the question of the fate of Macedonia, a geopolitically and strategically important region of the Ottoman Empire, was a constant source of tension in the Balkans, causing conflicts between the Balkan states and involving great powers with their own interests in the region in the process of its resolution. On the example of attempts to resolve the Macedonian issue at the beginning of the 20th century, the author examines the experience of resolving interethnic conflicts in the Balkans by European states through the institution of foreign observers. The reforms carried out in the national provinces of the Ottoman Empire represented an attempt to modernize Ottoman society in order to preserve the integrity of the multinational and multireligious state. The modernization policy at the beginning of the 20th century was aimed at combining the idea of building a Turkish national state and preserving imperial statehood through violent methods, which ultimately led to the rise of separatism and nationalism in the periphery, the crisis and collapse of the Ottoman Empire.