After the Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power in Ankara, many in the West referred to a new Turkish foreign policy called “neo-Ottomanism”, suggesting a revival of the intellectual, political and social influence of the Ottoman Empire, which departed the scene 92 years ago.
That policy was attributed to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his advisor, now foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu. Quickly, however, the term “Ottomanism” began to fade, given that it was difficult to market in countries formerly controlled by the Ottoman Empire due to continued indoctrination against Ottomanism by the Arabs over nine decades.
Some, however, continued to stand by the term, including Cuneyt Zapsu, an advisor to the Turkish prime minister, who said: “A new, positive role for Turkey in the world requires a reconciliation with its own past, the overcoming of societal taboos, and a positive new concept of Turkish identity. We are the Ottomans’ successors and should not be ashamed of this.”
Decision-makers in Turkey had once tried to hide their Ottoman past, ashamed of it during the heyday of Kemal Ataturk because it looked backward and was too Islamic for the secular state that was being carefully erected in Turkey. That is now a thing of the past thanks to the steady policy of the AKP, which has been opening up to countries such as Syria and, more recently, Lebanon.
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johnpi
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razib, murtad fitri
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thabet
Midwinterspring has a post on Islam, the Ottomans and the Turkish republic:
What would have been the impact of Turkey’s modernisation efforts, but with the office of sultan in place as a kind of figurehead? Would that even have been possible?
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thabet
According to the Orientalist, even Muslim failures (like success) are not of their own doing but always attributable to pre- or extra-Islamic cultures (pdf):
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thabet
A discernable intellectual lineage can also be traced between some of [Auguste] Comte’s followers in Paris and some influential figures in the early Turkih nationalist movements who were exiled during the last years of the nineteenth century. These exiles’ ideas worked their way into the ideological framework of the CUP, whose motto “Union and Progress” not unconditionally was directly influenced by Comtean positivism. These ideas were not entirely new in the Ottoman context, however. They were part of the Ottoman tanzimatist trend that promoted administrative reforms based on the techniques of Western science.
– Taha Parla & Andrew Davidson, Corporatist Ideology in Kemalist Turkey: Progress or Order?, Syracuse University Press, 2004. -
thabet
The first women’s shelter of the Ottoman Empire was established in the late 17th century and served until the mid-19th century. With a capacity of 100 people, the Hatuniye dervish convent, also known as ‘Karılar’ dervish convent, was located in the Bülbülderesi district of Eyüp, in Istanbul.
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thabet
The Ottoman Sultan Abdul-Mejid I declared his intention to send 10,000 sterling to Irish farmers but Queen Victoria requested that the Sultan send only 1,000 sterling, because she had sent only 2,000 sterling herself.
