EU-Ottoman Comparison
by MEHMET KAMIS

Zaman Online, Turkey
Dec 9 2004

Historians say that it is better to evaluate each period from its
own perspective, but from time to time we should look at history from
the viewpoint of today. The Ottoman Empire used to resemble today’s
European Union (EU). We could possibly define the Ottoman geography
as the EU of its era even though it covered a different region. The
empire stretched from the Balkans through the Middle East to Africa.
Over 40 countries today fill the vacuum left after the collapse of
the empire. Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia,
Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Bosnia,
Serbia, Algeria, Egypt, Tunisia, Romania and Hungary all now seem
foreign to each other, even though once they sheltered under the same
roof. If we look at them through the eyes of today, millions of Turks,
Bosnians, Palestinians, Serbs, Arabs, Greeks, Hungarians, Romanians,
Bulgarians, Armenians and Jews would have been trading in this region
as an economic union, without any customs control.

Had it not been for the mismanagement of imports and British tricks,
the Ottoman Empire would have survived, and would have prevented
the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Balkan wars and the ongoing
conflict in Iraq. Turkey is now surrounded by countries, which had
lived in peace as part of the Ottoman Empire, but whose history since
then has been unhappy and desperate. These countries once again are
in dire need of a larger roof.

Again through the eyes of today, it is certain that the Ottomans were
more liberal than the EU on human rights. The EU has not attained
Ottoman standards especially with regards to the freedom of thought
and protection of the rights of subjects, to let them wear their own
religious and traditional dresses and speak their own languages.

Today’s EU does not protect freedoms as the Ottomans did. The Ottomans
were very successful in accommodating differences and providing
freedoms, when compared to the EU, and always had a liberal attitude in
protecting the identities of various nations and religions. The empire
never embraced the imperialist ideal that the ruled must resemble
their rulers, and refrained from imposing a lifestyle on them. The
EU Turkey demands are more severe and its judgment more negative,
showing that the EU is afraid of anything that does not resemble
itself. On the other side, the Ottoman Empire’s structure was one in
which many different ethnic and religious groups were able to live
together without any problems. My question is this: Which is more
contemporary and democratic, the Ottoman Empire, which recognized the
differences, allowed them live together and provided everyone freedom
on religious and traditional issues without assimilation; or the West,
that wants to assimilate everything and is afraid of differences?
From: Baghdasarian