The political role of the patriarch in the contemporary Middle East

This study focuses on the effects of significant events such as the transition to a republic, the Greek invasion in 1919 and finally the Great Depression on the economic conditions, demography and economic actors in Izmir. Trade and agriculture are at the centre of this article; the commercial life in the city within the changing reach and expression of Ottoman power and structure of the world economy. There are few studies on the Izmir economy for the period 1918 to 1938. Therefore, primary sources were used, such as city year books, Izmir city statistics, Izmir city guides, government year books, trade year books, Turkish economic periodicals, Izmir trade and industrial chamber periodicals, and British Embassy reports on economic conditions in Turkey. In addition to these, the the most important local newspapers, Ahenk and Anadolu, we also utilized. Thus, this study examines the continuity and change from Ottoman Empire to Turkish republic in terms of economic policies and economic conditions through focusing on Izmir (Smyrna) province for the period 1918 and 1938.     

‘Fadaeeyan-i Islam’: the prototype of Islamic hard-liners in Iran

The voyages of the HMS Doris along the Mediterranean coast near Alexandretta (modern Iskenderun, Turkey) in the winter of 1914–15 had a dramatic effect on the Ottoman Empire that far exceeded the scope of the operations. This article uses British, German, and Turkish archival sources to focus on the ship's operations in the vicinity of Dörtyol and on the strategic impact these had on Ottoman perceptions of threats to the empire. The Doris figures prominently in two critical strategic outcomes – the relocation of the Armenians in 1915 and in the activation of three Ottoman army divisions for coastal defence and internal security.     

Süleyman Nazif's ‘Open Letter to Jesus’: An Anti-Christian Polemic in the Early Turkish Republic

The recent ‘cartoon crisis’ caused by European newspapers that published disrespectful caricatures of the prophet Muhammad and offended Muslims all over the world, intensified the discussions on ‘the clash of civilizations’. The present religious quarrels, as distressing as they are, remind us of the uproar Süleyman Nazif (1870–1927), a Muslim Turkish nationalist caused in Turkey in 1924. At that time the bone of contention was not a cartoon but the ‘Open Letter to Jesus’ Nazif published followed by his ‘The Reply of Jesus’ and in both of which he condemned the ‘crusader mentality’ of the Christian world. Being political satires, these letters reflect the views of Süleyman Nazif on the imperialist European powers, show his attempt to defend the newly founded Turkish Republic and illustrate how relations between Turkey and Europe had been deepening the prejudices of Muslims and Christians toward each other. This contribution presents translations of Nazif's two letters, preceded by an overview of Muslim–Christian polemics in the late Ottoman Empire and the early Turkish Republic.     

Echoes of a Universalism Lost: Rival Representations of the Ottomans in Today's Turkey

Ottoman claims to universality – embodied in Ottoman imperialism, Ottoman Islam, and Ottoman cosmopolitanism – were undermined and ultimately shattered by the encounter with ascendant Europe. Following near-dismemberment after the First World War, Mustafa Kemal categorically rejected Ottoman universalism in favour of a non-irredentist, secularist nationalism. His brand of Turkish particularism shaped national identity and foreign policy for much of the twentieth century. Since the 1980s, however, a growing number of Turks have begun to revisit the Ottoman past. They are drawn to one or another of the three dimensions of Ottoman universalism which they use to make alternative national and foreign policy claims. This study provides a brief, schematic account of the later years of the Ottoman Empire and early years of the Turkish Republic in order to trace the metamorphosis of Ottoman universalism into Turkish particularism. It then explores how Kemalists, Islamists, liberals, and ultranationalists appropriate Ottoman universalism today in their attempts to redefine national identity and foreign policy.     

The Ottoman Identity: Turkish,Muslim or Rum?

It is awkward for historians to depict a clear-cut portrayal of Ottoman identity. Scholarly analyses by and large lay emphasis on the Islamic and Turkish character of the Ottoman Empire. However, it would be reductionist to evaluate an empire that lasted for six centuries, on three different continents, with solely monolithic ethno-religious tools. A new approach around the term Rum may help to get rid of this reductionism and to understand the sui generis structure of the Ottoman identity. Instead of focusing on ethnic and religious aspects, this novel approach would add both a territorial dimension of Ottoman hegemony and also a social component regarding the relations between the rulers and the ruled. The Rum, with a meaning above Orthodoxy, Greek or Roman Empire, can highlight the ingredients of Ottoman identity and help to overcome the influence of modern nationalist discourses in historical readings.     

Berl Katznelson and the theory and practice of revolutionary constructivism

This study examines the effects of the first globalization on the late period Ottoman economy as well as the impact of the second globalization on the Turkish economy for the last three decades. Since the demand of Western industrial countries for Ottoman agricultural products was high, the production and export of such goods increased. Improved terms of trade had some positive short term impact on the exporting agricultural sector, but resulted in a massive deindustrialization all around the Empire. Again during the second globalization, Turkish foreign trade has increased, and a few manufacturing sectors have shown improvements because of the global competitive forces. However, Turkish agriculture has suffered, and trade and current account deficits have grown persistently, with foreign debt displaying certain similarities with the infamous Ottoman public debt.     

Three Ottoman Pashas at the Congress of Berlin, 1878

In the weakened Ottoman Empire of the nineteenth century, revolts in the Balkans and subsequent Russian intervention led to the Russo-Turkish War of 1877 which resulted in a great loss of Ottoman territory and population in the European part of the Empire. After the ceasefire at Edirne in January 1878 and the signing of the Treaty of San Stefano in March 1878, the Congress of Berlin was convened in June 1878 in order to achieve a political settlement. High-level plenipotentiaries of the main European Powers took part in the deliberations. Against the backdrop of the Congress of Berlin, details are provided about the lives and careers of the members of the Ottoman Turkish delegation.     

Resistance to centralisation in the Ottoman periphery: the Kurdish Baban and Bohtan emirates

Modern Kurdish historiography, which examines resistance to provincial centralisation in Ottoman Kurdistan, focuses largely on Bedir Khan’s Bohtan emirate and his revolt in the 1840s, while ignoring the rest of the other Kurdish emirates such as Baban emirate. While both states, Qajar Iran and Ottoman Empire, were endeavouring to solve their conflicts in the 1840s (a process which culminated in the treaty of Erzurum in 1847) the future of the Baban emirate and its territories emerged as one of the major issues during the course of negotiations. The Baban emirate was the last emirate to give up its struggle against the Sublime Porte’s centralisation reforms. The legacy of the Kurdish emirates is important to understand better the relations between the centre of the Ottoman Empire and its eastern periphery, a much less studied subject in Ottoman historiography. This article will highlight the impact of the centralisation policies in Kurdistan, more specifically on territories of the Bohtan and Baban emirates. It will be demonstrated that the changes wrought by the Tanzimat reforms were partially successful in transforming the Kurdish notables, who later became a part of the state bureaucracy. However, the reform-minded officials, who were appointed after the Kurdish emirs were removed from the region, failed to persuade the locals in favour of the new administration thus transforming their lives.     

The curious case of Ahmed Necmeddin Bey: a look into the sociopolitical climate in Aintab on the eve of 1915

Ahmed Necmeddin Bey was the kaimakam (district governor) of Aintab in late July 1908. One day, however, Ahmed Necmeddin Bey was beaten by a group of Turks and Armenians in Aintab; his clothes torn, he was dismissed from his post and finally expelled him from the city. But what was the reason for this incident? Within the first year of the declaration of the Constitution, it was the most important event that occurred in the city. This particular incident calls for careful examination, for this significant event reflects how the Second Constitutional era and the new regime were perceived by Muslims and Armenians in Aintab on a local level. Additionally, it offers us some useful clues regarding how the Union and Progress Party as a political organization and its policies were received on a local scale. By studying this case, it is also possible to see a clear example of how ordinary Ottoman citizens reacted towards the revival of the Constitution.     

Surname narratives and the state–society boundary: Memories of Turkey's family name law of 1934

The definition of Turkish nationhood after the founding of the Republic has been evaluated and labelled very differently by various scholars. The classical view paralleled the official representation of Republican policies in describing Turkish nationhood as being based on a civic and territorial understanding of nationality. More recent and much more critical scholarship, which enjoys a near-hegemonic position in the study of Turkish nationalism today, claims that the official definition of Turkish nationhood has a clearly identifiable mono-ethnic orientation, manifest in a series of policies and institutions. This article argues that the definition of Turkish nationhood as manifest in state policies is neither territorial nor mono-ethnic, but rather ironically for the adamantly secular Turkish republic, the definition of Turkish nationhood is mono-religious and anti-ethnic, in striking continuity with the Islamic millet under the Ottoman Empire. The reason critical scholars perceive Turkish nationhood as mono-ethnic might stem from the dichotomous view of nationalisms as civic versus ethnic, a dichotomy that has recently been repudiated by some of its erstwhile proponents. Supremacy of the religious over ethnic categories in Turkey, as a historical legacy of the Ottoman millet system, might be applicable to most post-Ottoman states in the Islamic Middle East and North Africa, in contrast to the interplay of ethnicity and religion in Western Europe. This view of Turkish nationhood is confirmed by a dozen interviews that the author conducted with members of the political and intellectual elite of different ideological orientations in Turkey. It is then demonstrated how the new efforts at reformulating modern Turkish identity with reference to Ottoman and Islamic conceptions lead to new inclusion–exclusion dynamics with the Kurds and the Alevis, suggesting that a truly inclusive reformulation has to follow secular and territorial principles.     

The great powers and the water dispute in the Middle East: A prelude to the six day war

The definition of Turkish nationhood after the founding of the Republic has been evaluated and labelled very differently by various scholars. The classical view paralleled the official representation of Republican policies in describing Turkish nationhood as being based on a civic and territorial understanding of nationality. More recent and much more critical scholarship, which enjoys a near-hegemonic position in the study of Turkish nationalism today, claims that the official definition of Turkish nationhood has a clearly identifiable mono-ethnic orientation, manifest in a series of policies and institutions. This article argues that the definition of Turkish nationhood as manifest in state policies is neither territorial nor mono-ethnic, but rather ironically for the adamantly secular Turkish republic, the definition of Turkish nationhood is mono-religious and anti-ethnic, in striking continuity with the Islamic millet under the Ottoman Empire. The reason critical scholars perceive Turkish nationhood as mono-ethnic might stem from the dichotomous view of nationalisms as civic versus ethnic, a dichotomy that has recently been repudiated by some of its erstwhile proponents. Supremacy of the religious over ethnic categories in Turkey, as a historical legacy of the Ottoman millet system, might be applicable to most post-Ottoman states in the Islamic Middle East and North Africa, in contrast to the interplay of ethnicity and religion in Western Europe. This view of Turkish nationhood is confirmed by a dozen interviews that the author conducted with members of the political and intellectual elite of different ideological orientations in Turkey. It is then demonstrated how the new efforts at reformulating modern Turkish identity with reference to Ottoman and Islamic conceptions lead to new inclusion–exclusion dynamics with the Kurds and the Alevis, suggesting that a truly inclusive reformulation has to follow secular and territorial principles.     

Some studies in Russian on the Ottoman empire

Turcologica 1986, a Festschrift presented to A.N. Kononov on his eightieth birthday (Leningrad: Nauka Press for the Institute of Oriental Studies in the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union, 1986; 303 pp.).

I. Ye, and Yu A. Pyetrosyan, on the periodization of the ‘era of reforms’ in the Ottoman Empire (pp.219–24).

Yuri A. Pyetrosyan, Director of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Soviet (now Russian) Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg, also contributes a brief, but useful paper on the Turkish emigrant press in the early twentieth century (pp.225–9).

Kh. M. Ibragimbyeyli and N.S. Rashba, entitled Osmanskaya Impyeriya v pyervoy chyetvyerti XVII vyeka: sbornik dokumyentov i matyerialov, The Ottoman Empire in the First Quarter of the 17th Century: A Collection of Documents and Materials (Moscow: Nauka Press, 1984; 214 pp.).

A.A. Vitol's Osmanskaya Impyeriya (nachalo XVIII v.), The Ottoman Empire at the Beginning of the 18th Century (Moscow: Nauka Press for the Institute of Oriental Studies in the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union, 1987; 136 pp.).

V.P. Grachyev's Balkanskiye vladyenya Osmanskoy Impyerii na rubyedzhye XVIII‐XIX vv. (vnutryennyeye polodzhyeniye, pryedposilki natsional'no‐osvobodityel'‐nikh dvidzhyeniy), The Balkan Domains of the Ottoman Empire at the Meeting Point of the 18th and 19th Centuries: Internal Situation, the Preconditions of National Liberation Movements (Moscow: Nauka Press for the Institute of Slavonic and Balkan Studies in the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union, 1990; 200 pp.).

M.T. Boddzholyan has written on Ryeformi 20–30‐kh gg. XIX vyeka v Osmanskoy Impyerii, The Reforms of the 1820s and 1830s in the Ottoman Empire (Erevan: Academy of Sciences of Soviet Armenia Press, 1984; 156 pp.).

Osmanskaya Impyeriya: systyema gosudarstvyennogo, upravlyeniya, sotsial'niye i etnoryeligiozniye problyemi. Sbornik statyey, The Ottoman Empire: System of Government, Administration, Social and Ethno‐Religious Problems. A Collection of Articles (Moscow: Nauka Press for the Institute of Oriental Studies in the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union, 1986; 253 pp.).

Osmanskaya Impyeriya: gosudarstvyennaya vlast’ i sotsial'no‐politichyeskaya struktura, The Ottoman Empire: State Power and Socio‐Political Structure (Moscow: Nauka Press for the Institute of Oriental Studies in the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union, 1990; 338 pp.).     

Ahmed Rüstem Bey and the End of an Era

Ahmed Rüstem Bey was accredited as Ottoman Ambassador to the United States of America at a critical juncture before the First World War. The Ottoman Empire had weakened as a result of revolts by many minorities agitating for self-determination and a series of military conflicts culminating in the Balkan Wars. Ahmed Rüstem Bey, though born in Turkey of non-Turkish parentage, was a dyed-in-the-wool Ottoman who felt deeply attached to his country. As Ambassador his stay in the US was short and controversial. Information on Ahmed Rüstem's life and career needs augmentation, and the present article represents an initial attempt to portray this unconventional diplomat.     

Hamas in Politics: Democracy,Religion, Violence

Ahmed Midhat Efendi, a nineteenth century Turkish author, maintained that it was necessary to establish customs duties and other barriers against foreign sellers in order to convince them to produce locally in the Ottoman Empire. This would be a way to attract foreign direct investment (FDI) to a country in need of capital and technology. However, today, liberals around the world as well as in Turkey see a free trade environment as a prerequisite for FDI. This study tries to find out whether a relationship existed between free trade and FDI inflows in Turkey during a period when the Turkish foreign trade and financial markets were almost completely liberalized.     

Lost in Historiography: An Essay on the Reasons for the Absence of a History of Limited Government in the Early Modern Ottoman Empire

This article tackles the question of why an attempt to uncover an indigenous history of limited government in the early modern Ottoman Empire has not been undertaken in twentieth-century Turkish historiography despite the obvious existence of several constituents for such a history, such as the political power and prestige of jurists (ulema), the political role of the janissary corps, and the many depositions and other revolts that they staged in cooperation with the jurists, which, in practice, limited the political authority of the sultan. The answer suggested by the article focuses on the political concerns of the early republic, the socio-economic concerns of the Muslim democrats currently in power, and the theoretical concerns of contemporary western historians who have been influenced by Edward Said's critique of Orientalism.     

Romioi–Armenian friendship in the Ottoman Empire during the Armistice period (1918–1923)

The Romioi–Armenian friendship, which emerged after the signing of the Armistice of Mudros in October 1918, portrays a unique chapter in the history of Romioi–Armenian relations. During this distinct period, the two communities forged strong bonds over their mutual opposition against the Ottoman state. They drafted common political plans and strategies, established friendship organizations in Istanbul, organized gatherings, and the Armenian and the Ecumenical Patriarchates even entered into a discussion to unite the two churches. Thus, the relationship between the Armenian and the Romioi communities during the Armistice period holds significance in the broader context of the history of Greek–Armenian relations. This article explores the extent of the Romioi–Armenian friendship during the Armistice period through an extensive collection of primary sources including Armenian and Ottoman Turkish newspapers in order to demonstrate how the community leaders worked to improve relations between the Armenian and Romioi communities.     

Policing the ‘suspects’: Ottoman Greeks and Armenians in Istanbul, 1914–18

During the First World War, a primary domestic political aim for all belligerent countries was to preserve the socio-economic status quo in order to provide appropriate conditions for the survival of the state. Therefore, war governments paid particular attention to the maintenance of internal order. While doing this, the central authority of governments became paramount and this situation had remarkable repercussions on state–society relations. This article examines the wartime public order policies of the Ottoman government specifically concerning the Ottoman Greeks (Rum) and Armenians living in Istanbul. During the Great War, these non-Muslim elements were officially regarded as ‘suspects’, in other words, as ‘potential political criminals’ threatening the internal order of the capital. To control the Ottoman Greeks and Armenians, the war government implemented a number of policing strategies that consisted of deportation of individuals and groups, strict control on travel, and close surveillance of ‘suspects’.     

The ‘Louis XVI of the Turks’: The Character of an Ottoman Sultan

Selim III ruled the Ottoman Empire in the Age of Revolutions, but his rule did not reflect the vigorous, expansionist and aggressive spirit of this age. He more resembled a ruler forced to defend his empire from the turbulence of the age, an effort which also shaped his character and perception of rulership. During his years in royal confinement, he clung passionately to the revival of the warrior-sultan through charismatic leadership. While on the throne, there was a gradual transformation of his perception of rulership and he became satisfied with being the bureaucratic ruler of the empire.     

Forgotten brigade of the forgotten war: Turkey's participation in the Korean War

This study is an attempt to shed light on the issue of Cretan Muslim emigration from Crete to the Ottoman Empire in order to analyse the multiple connections among the Ottoman state, immigrants and different localities in the Eastern Mediterranean in the late nineteenth century. Following the Cretan revolts of 1896 and 1897, the establishment of autonomous government on the island of Crete and the withdrawal of Ottoman armies from the island, Cretan Muslims began to emigrate from Crete to various places in the Ottoman Empire. Specifically, this article aims to deal with the migration of Cretan Muslims and to focus mainly on the year 1899, during which large numbers of Muslims were forced to leave their homes. The article suggests that Cretan Muslim emigration provides a good case for understanding the attitudes and policies of the Ottoman state towards migration, and the relationship between the state and immigrants, as well as for analysing the broader connections between Crete and the other localities of the Eastern Mediterranean. The working hypothesis is that in order to understand certain socio-political and demographic changes and transformations experienced within the Ottoman Empire in the late nineteenth century, it is important to study the issue of Cretan Muslim immigration to Ottoman Anatolia. This presents an opportunity to investigate certain questions with regard to the dynamics of migration and also to discuss certain facts associated with migration within the late imperial context.