This articule developed from a short discussion paper, now published as The ‘Turkish yoke' revisited: the Ottoman Empire in the eyes o f its non-Muslim subjects in: Zones of Fracture in Modem Europe: the Baltic Countries, the Balkans, and Northern Italy, edited by Almut Bues, Wiesbaden 2005, pp. 157-164. Its later working version was read at the 20 th International Congress of Historical Sciences (Sydney, 3-9 July 2005).