SECULARISM: A PANDORA’S BOX – II
Naveed Tajammal
The Post
154228&catid=11
April 8 2008
Pakistan
The movement was a disaster for the Muslim’s of Turkey. It was started
by certain elements that were the real pressure groups as well as the
intellectual class of the later Ottoman Empire whose efforts resulted
in the culmination and introduction of the idea of secularism in the
new Constitution of a new Turkey in 1924. The purpose of highlighting
the Ottoman Turkey as a case study, though very briefly and practically
in general outlines, is to state that just because Turk leadership
of that time had made a blunder due to pressure of then superpowers,
we need not even think about it for reasons as will be explained as
a chain reaction of events, a study of which is a must.
The intellectual class that had spearheaded this move was ethnically
and religiously not the actual Turks as the term goes. As I had earlier
stated, the composition of the Turkish Empire was 50 percent Muslim as
late as 1910. However, at the time of the start of the 1839 and 1856
so-called reforms, ‘tanzimats’, the Muslim population was much less
in between this period. In 1910, the empire lost a lot of its area,
courtesy the weak Sultans. The powers of that time were obsessed with
breaking Turkey.
Its population, as it stood at the start of the 20th century, the
Albanians inhabited Iannina, Scutari, Kossovo and Monastir. They were
Muslims, orthodox and Catholic Christians. The Bulgarians inhabited
Salonica, Kossova and Monastir -all being Orthodox Christians. It is
pertinent to note that the headquarters of ‘the committee of union and
progress’ was based at Salonica or Salonika. The freemason Jews lent a
powerful support to the work of the committee and the later leader of
Turks, Mustafa Kemal, was a key figure of this organisation. As has
been stated earlier, the empire had 300,000 Jews and the business
and commerce was in their hands. The Greeks followed next. What
happened to Adan Meneders and his hanging much later on September
16, 1961 along with Fatin Rustu Zorlu and Hasan Polatkan was an
interconnected sequence spread over decades of resistance against
secularism in Turkey.
Teservians were in Kossova and Christian Greeks spread all over. In
business in the empire were orthodox as well as Greco-Christians. The
Kutzo-vlachs (Macedonians) were Christians. The Lazes found in
trebizond and east were Muslims as well as Christians. The Kurds were
in Erzerum, Sivas, Seert, Angora and Mosul, all were Muslims. The
Circassians spread all over Asia Minor were Muslims. The Arabs in the
empire lived in Adana, Aleppo, Syria, Baghdad, Sanjak of Jerusalem,
Hejaz, Yemen, Beirut and Basra, all being Muslims. Armenians lived in
Istanbul as well as in vilayets of Turkey in Europe. They were also
found in Sivas, Angora, Trebizond, Adana, Erzirum, Bittlis, Mosul,
Van and Aleppo. All were Gregorian and Christian Catholics.
The Jews had spread in Europe, courtesy the Empire, on whose
destruction they were bent upon. They retained the jugular of business
in the Empire. A sect of Jews called the ‘Samaritan’ was confined
to Napluze, a vilayet of Beirut, (province). The Chaldeans or the
Nestorians who then spoke Syro-chaldaic, and partly Arabic, too, were
in Baghdad, Mosul, Aleppo, Beirut and Mamurat-ul-Aziz. The Melchites
or the Syrian, Greco-Catholics, who were Greeks ethnically, spoke
Arabic but united Orthodox Christians as went the classifications.
Now came the Jacobites, the Syrians who spoke Arabic. They were all
Monophysite Christians. The Monites, too, spoke Arabic but in the
Church it was syro-chaldaic. They were located around Mount Lebanon and
Beirut. All were Monophysite (Catholics). The Druse and the Mendaties
or ben-i-yahya too were located around Mount Lebanon and the Sanjak
of Hauran Basra. They were all Sabaeans. The main aim of these, other
than Muslim races, was to disrupt and destroy the Empire. The first
to go were the ‘janissaries’. This will be explained later why they
were axed.
To have a brief insight into the administrative set-up of the empire
is also a must. Muhammad the second, the conqueror of Constantinople
in 1453, had created a very free set-up with not much of red tape as
the term goes. They presided over all key matters and led the army
too. The administration was composed of ‘kazas’ or cantons under the
command of a Kazi, the Sanjaks or departments came under alia beys
or mir-i-livas (colonels and brigadiers) with one horse-tail banners.
The vilayets were under, bey-ler-beys, Pashas with two-horse tail
banners in war times all bey-ler-beys served under the grand-vezier –
the title of vezier was also held by six or seven persons. They all
met under a ‘kubbe’ or a dome, (cupola) as the hall of the divan
had a massive cupola. The veziers were also Pashas with three-horse
tail banners.
Here it should also be kept in mind that prior to the reforms of 1839
the empire was much larger and had more Christians. The Arabs were
cut off after the Arab revolt spearheaded by T E Lawrence and the new
party that now rules Arabia. The Christians hated the Turks because
they had taken over the capital of the eastern Roman Empire in 1529.
He was at the gates of Vienna, Austria. Khairuddin, called Barbarossa,
had made the Mediterranean Sea a Turkish lake in 1683.
The brilliant ‘Kara Mustapha’ the grand vizier with an army of 500,000
was again at Vienna. This time he wanted the conquest of the whole
of Germany and create an Ottoman province from Rhine to Danube.
The weak ruler Muhammad the fourth could not bear the grand vizier
and so planned his destruction while Kara Mustapha led the army.
But in history, such fickle-minded, weak rulers have always existed.
Hence, in the middle of the war, Kara Mustapha was executed in Belgrade
by the cowardly Sultan’s orders. Eventually, the Turkish army deposed
him and brought forward Sulaman the second. Now the ‘janissaries’
revolted. So, all these events led by a constant interference of the
super powers and the Christian population as well the Jews ended in
the 1839 and 1856 reforms. By 1821, the Greeks had revolted on the
behest of the Russians. It was only the timely help of Mehmet Ali,
the Pasha of Egypt who saved the day by the protocol of April 4, 1826,
signed at St. Petersburg on the behest of the British. Greece was to
be governed by its own elected authorities and would have independent
commercial relations.
The further end on Turks by the superpowers came at the battle
of Navarino on October 20, 1827. With this came the axe on the
‘janissaries’ and the end of the main fighting force of the Turks.
Poor leadership always destroys an organisation that it is unable
to control and then dies its own death. A new leadership controls
the events and leads the same nation once declared dead by all on a
path well-paved.
(to be continued)
The writer has a 24-year experience in investigating the identity of
the Indus-person in a historical context
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
