The nation-state model threatened minorities who once held autonomy under Ottoman rule

Evidence

This, of course, posed a threat to the various ethnoreligious minorities, which had enjoyed a degree of autonomy and recognition of their different sociocultural and religious identities under Ottoman rule. Furthermore, practically all the new political entities came under some form of European colonial control, which also favored the implementation of a nation-state model of political authority. It is not surprising, therefore, that in the post-Ottoman era scholars recorded an exacerbation of ”… tensions among the various ethnic communities in the Middle East and between those communities and the new states” (Esman and Rabinovich, 1988:4). — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 3463

Categorization

• XREF: Relates to the reader’s interests in how political systems structure minority identity claims; also echoes the millet system literature.
• QUESTION: How did the Ottoman millet system’s recognition of communal autonomy compared to the homogenizing pressures of successor nation-states — and what lessons does this hold for pluralist governance today?