The Arab World From the Turkish Perspective
The English-language Hürriyet Daily News has an outstanding roundup of recent events in the Arab world today, to which I call to your attention because the perspective they provide is one that you might miss in similar roundups in the American press. Particularly look at the column on "relations with Turkey." Some highlights:
Libya: Ruled by Ottomans from 1551 to 1912 as three separate districts, which were consolidated by Italy. Until the late 1960s, Turkey trained Libyan officers. Former PM Abdesselam Jaloul is a graduate of the Turkish Military Academy.
Bahrain: Bahrain was administered by the Ottoman Empire’s Najd Governor of the Arab peninsula during the 18th century.
Yemen: The first Ottoman rule began in the 16th century and lasted through the 17th century. Its second rule was between 1848 and 1918. Nearly 300,000 Ottoman soldiers were killed during war in Yemeni deserts, which became the host of a gigantic Turkish cemetery.
Oman: Never became a province of the Ottoman Empire, but did pass through a short period in the 16th century as a political dependent.
Algeria: Algeria was under Ottoman rule from 1514 until the French occupied the country in 1830.
Tunisia: Occupied in 1574 by the great Barbaros Hayrettin Paşa, an admiral in the Ottoman Navy who dominated the Mediterranean for decades. The country was known as the “Regency of Tunis” under Ottoman rule until 1881.
Iran: These two neighboring nations have had close relations throughout history, starting from when the Great Seljuk Empire first entered Anatolia from Persia in the 10th century. (My note: This is a considerable simplification.)
Sudan: Ottomans ruled the country in the 19th century.
Jordan: Ruled by the Ottomans from 1516-1917 under the Damascus Governorship. Home to a cemetery for Turkish soldiers.
The maps show the expansion and decline of the Ottoman Empire. The summaries, I think, suggest the extent to which nothing in the contemporary Middle East may be understood without a grasp of Ottoman history. That's one big footprint the Turks left.
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Jul '10
Re: The Arab World From the Turkish Perspective
Seems like the Turks are awfully obsessed with the past glories of their empire. Perhaps that's because their more recent effort to integrate within the European Union has been a miserable, humiliating failure - and that their per-capita income is less than one-third of that of the EU.
For a sad-sack country, Turkey sure struts awfully proudly. If it wasn't so strategically-located it would be just another Kazahkstan. Without oil.
Edited on March 4, 2011 at 10:59amRe: The Arab World From the Turkish Perspective
I think you're misreading the piece, Kenneth. That's the last way I'd describe the paper in question. Of course a local paper will look at events through the lens of local history, just as an American paper would. And Turkey is strategically-located, and it does have an extraordinary history. Saying "If it weren't strategically located and if it didn't have an immensely important history it wouldn't be interesting" is trivially true, but so what?
Dec '10
Re: The Arab World From the Turkish Perspective
So, there must be a tendency for Arabs to view Turkey in a manner similar to the way they view more recent European colonial masters.
Aug '10
Re: The Arab World From the Turkish Perspective
Waiting for the NYT (and other European media outlets) to point the finger at Turkey for celebrating its own colonial / imperialist past... 3..2..1...
Dec '10
Re: The Arab World From the Turkish Perspective
Thanks Claire -
This is pretty interesting. I just finished the Hew Strachan series on the First World War that I thought not only was excellent, but provided a comphrehensive view from the Middle East and the Balkans. Your map and article add an exclamation point to it..!
Re: The Arab World From the Turkish Perspective
I don't read the piece that way at all--it's not a celebration, as far as I can see, just a summary of the history. I haven't seen a summary of this historical context anywhere else lately.
Feb '11
Re: The Arab World From the Turkish Perspective
The Persians, Alexander, the Romans, the Ottamans, and the British/French. Who's next?
Dec '10
Re: The Arab World From the Turkish Perspective
In the early twentieth century they feared the Russians would be next. This is how they landed on the wrong side of WWI.
Aug '10
Re: The Arab World From the Turkish Perspective
Curious ,your neglect of other highlights of Ottoman rule in the neighborhood. I think Egypt,Mecca, Medina being the most telling, and are they now the facts to be forgotten ?
Selim seldom ?
Re: The Arab World From the Turkish Perspective
flownover: Curious ,your neglect of other highlights of Ottoman rule in the neighborhood. I think Egypt,Mecca, Medina being the most telling, and are they now the facts to be forgotten ?
Selim seldom ? · Mar 4 at 6:56am
My neglect? Surely you don't expect me to dash off a complete history of the Ottoman Empire on Ricochet?
Aug '10
Re: The Arab World From the Turkish Perspective
Claire Berlinski, Ed.
I don't read the piece that way at all--it's not a celebration, as far as I can see, just a summary of the history. I haven't seen a summary of this historical context anywhere else lately. · Mar 4 at 4:27am
That is just what every colonial power says... It is just history, no mention of the suffering, the theft of territory or natural resources, just the beneficial aspects of imperialism -- "Until the late 1960s, Turkey trained Libyan officers."
Claire, I am just kidding with you and highlighting a soft bigotry of low expectations present in the western media. A Turkish paper can print a summary like this, but a western paper could not without a hue and cry from the intelligentesia. That a Turkish paper could and not suffer criticism show they aren't viewed as equal in the west (despite a Millenia of influence).
Perhaps this is not living up to Ricochet ethics - I'll restrict comments to substantive issues.
Dec '10
Re: The Arab World From the Turkish Perspective
Claire Berlinski, Ed.
flownover: Curious ,your neglect of other highlights of Ottoman rule in the neighborhood. I think Egypt,Mecca, Medina being the most telling, and are they now the facts to be forgotten ?
Selim seldom ? · Mar 4 at 6:56am
My neglect? Surely you don't expect me to dash off a complete history of the Ottoman Empire on Ricochet? · Mar 4 at 7:24am
Claire,
Put your cats on it. Make 'em do something to earn their keep.
Re: The Arab World From the Turkish Perspective
Instugator
A Turkish paper can print a summary like this, but a western paper could not without a hue and cry from the intelligentesia.
You might be right about that--with the result that no one actually knows anything about history. This seems to me a better piece, in the sense that it's more in-depth and more informative, than most of what I've read lately in the Western press.
Dec '10
Re: The Arab World From the Turkish Perspective
Were not parts of Spain at one time controlled by the Ottomans?
Jan '11
Re: The Arab World From the Turkish Perspective
Is Turkey suggesting that they want it all back?
Re: The Arab World From the Turkish Perspective
You're thinking of the Moors--Arabs and Berbers, not Turks.
Re: The Arab World From the Turkish Perspective
No. Frankly, I don't think anyone wants the hassle. Running the Middle East is a thankless task.
Sep '10
Re: The Arab World From the Turkish Perspective
Claire Berlinski, Ed.
flownover: Curious ,your neglect of other highlights of Ottoman rule in the neighborhood. I think Egypt,Mecca, Medina being the most telling, and are they now the facts to be forgotten ?
Selim seldom ? · Mar 4 at 6:56am
My neglect? Surely you don't expect me to dash off a complete history of the Ottoman Empire on Ricochet? · Mar 4 at 7:24am
I've been meaning to ask you about 50 or 60 times to recommend a general introductory history on the area and every time I think of it, someone else posts something interesting on Ricochet. So, while the iron is hot, I'm asking!
Jul '10
Re: The Arab World From the Turkish Perspective
A celebration or not, I expect the run down is calculated to swell the Turk nationalist with pride and recall the West's role in the unraveling of past glories. It is the way of the world.
I recall, for example, how in my youth we contended with and overcame a great empire, landed men on the Moon, and elected a President who motivated the release of hostages by an alien power simply by taking office.
And today our leaders are too feeble-minded to maintain and renew our energy infrastructure, and preach poverty and deprivation, curse us as a mean people and spit on our achievements. Then denounce us as racist trash when we object.
I understand Turkish nostalgia.
Dec '10
Re: The Arab World From the Turkish Perspective
Claire Berlinski, Ed.
No. Frankly, I don't think anyone wants the hassle. Running the Middle East is a thankless task. · Mar 4 at 11:14am
Erdogan specifically denies being a neo-Ottoman, but it seems clear that Turkey believes that the legacy of its empire is a natural leading role in speaking for and guiding the policy of the region that once comprised that empire.
Erdogan talks like Turkey and Iran need to take the backward Arabs under their wing and lead them toward a new age of Islamic glory. I wonder whether the Arab world views that as condescension on the part of Turks and Persians.