Perceptions of the Ottoman Legacy Questioned Most in Turkey and Greece

8/14/2019 Perceptions of the Ottoman Legacy Questioned Most in Turkey and Greece

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Perceptions of the Ottoman legacy questioned most in Turkey andGreece

Columbia University professor Dr.Christine Philliou believes Greece andTurkey seem to be doing much better withpreserving the Ottoman legacy.

This years first-place winner of the Sabanc InternationalResearch Award, an annual award given by the Brookings Institution and SabancUniversity, was Dr. Christine Philliou for her essay titled The Paradox of Perceptions:

Interpreting the Ottoman Past Through the National Present. Dr. Philliou, an assistantprofessor at Columbia University, specializes in the political and social history of theOttoman Empire, particularly in the 18th and 19th centuries. Dr. Philliou shared heropinions about the paradox of perceptions regarding the Ottoman Empire and how seeingthe empires legacy for what it is could help shape the contemporary culture in post-Ottoman states.

Dr. Philliou maintains that there exists a paradox of perceptions regarding the Ottomanlegacy in the world. She believes the same paradox is not only present in Turkey andGreece, but is even stronger here than in other parts of the post-Ottoman world.

The paradox that exists all over the former Ottoman world, from Albania to Iraq,certainly exists in Turkey and Greece, where I have spent the most time and done myresearch. The presence of the Ottoman legacy coupled with the absence of perception ofthat legacy, or the gap between what the Ottoman past was and what people today thinkit was from their national perspective, is most intense in Turkey as well as Greece, Dr.Philliou explained.

We should point out that many regions among the post-Ottoman states, such as certainareas of the Balkans and the Middle East, are conflict areas. Many political scientists andhistorians find it curious about how the Ottomans could maintain relative peace andstability in these regions. Does Dr. Philliou share the same curiosity? I certainly do sharethat curiosity, she said and continued: I try, however, to move beyond a romanticizationof the Ottoman past, which looks only at the diversity and cosmopolitan aspects ofOttoman state and society, to an approach that seeks to understand the principles andmechanisms by which the Ottoman Empire was governed. Who took part in Ottomangovernance and who did not? How were the participants changing over time from oneregion to another?

The empire did not need to eliminate ethnic differences

Dr. Philliou expressed an opinion that the question on the Ottoman Empires ability to


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maintain peace in these regions is a very complicated one. However, she thinks Part ofthe answer could lie in the fact that the Ottomans, for most of their history, did not havethe means or the need to eliminate religious, ethnic or linguistic differences among theirdiverse subject populations. On the other hand, differences could be useful to the projectof governing the Ottoman Empire. This is not to say that there was no violence in the

Ottoman Empire, but the violence does not seem to have been consistently carried outagainst particular ethnic or religious groups until the 19th century, when the aspirationsof both the Ottoman state and its subject populations started to change and conflict withnational projects. And it is partly due to the violence of the last century in the OttomanEmpire that the paradox of perceptions has come about.

In her award-winning essay Dr. Philliou contends, The Ottoman legacy in the Balkansand the Middle East is everywhere -- from the hamams, mosques and Bedestan covered-markets in Salonika [Thessalonica] and Damascus, to the cuisine, music, colloquialismsand some say even common culture of everyday bureaucracy from Egypt to Turkey andAlbania. But beyond these whimsical and somewhat clich examples, the Ottoman legacyis what is present but not perceived. But what could be the reasons behind this?

According to Dr. Philliou, It is precisely the combination of the centuries and layers ofOttoman governance on the one hand, and the violent and protracted un-mixing of theEmpire into supposedly homogenous nation-states, that has created this paradoxicalsituation. In other words, while habits, customs and connections built up over centuriesto collectively form what we call the Ottoman legacy are not going to be eliminated easilyor quickly, at the same time the national projects of the 20th century sent strongmessages to people that Turks have distinct histories from Greeks, Serbs, Albanians andEgyptians, causing people to ignore those commonalties and focus on the differences.

Owning up to the Ottoman past

In an assessment of the physical condition of edifices and works remaining from Ottoman

times, Dr. Philliou believes Greece and Turkey seem to be doing much better withpreserving the Ottoman legacy. Mosques and other Ottoman structures in Greece, andthe Orthodox churches in Turkey (which also constitute part of the Ottoman legacy) wereonce treated terribly, as a kind of symbolic humiliation of the targeted group. Now thesebuildings are being renovated and preserved in many cities. I would hope that thisphenomenon in Greece and Turkey would pave the way for similar trends in the Balkancountries as well,

But have the grievances and anger of the past died out in the post-Ottoman world? Isntit about time that such feelings disappear? Or do we still need time? I think enough timehas passed, three generations now, that citizens of the Ottoman successor-states canbegin to reassess not only their own national projects and histories but the place of the

Ottoman Empire in their own heritage, Dr. Philliou answered.

This of course varies according to the state we are discussing, but overall it seems thatsome scholars and others are ready to take a fresh look at the Ottoman past and try tounderstand how the empire worked, as well as the times and places where functioningbroke down. In other words, to contextualize the violence and coexistence to arrive at amore complex and, I would argue, realistic picture.

Sabanc niversitesi ve Brookings Enstits ibirliiyle bu yl ikincisi verilen Sakp SabancUluslararas Aratrma dl Columbia niversitesinden Do. Dr. ChristinePhilliounun AlglamaParadoksu: Osmanl Gemiini Ulusal Bugn Gzyle Yorumlamak almasna verildi. Uzmanlkalan 18 ve 19. yzyl younluklu olarak Osmanlnn siyasi ve sosyal tarihi olan Philliou, Princeton


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niversitesinde gerekletirdii doktora tezi almasnda da 1800-1850 aras Osmanl ynetimyapsn incelemiti. Selanikli Phillou ile Osmanl Devletinin alglanmasna dair dncelerini konutuk.

Tm dnyada Osmanly alglamayla ilgili bir paradokstan bahsediyorsunuz. Bu paradoksTrkiyede de var m?

Arnavutluktan Iraka kadar eskiden Osmanlnn paras olan her yerde var olan bu paradoks kesinlikleTrkiyede ve benim ok uzun zaman geirdiim ve aratrmalarm srdrdm Yunanistanda davardr. Osmanl mirasnn varlna, o mirasa dair alglamann olmay ya da baka bir deyileOsmanl gemiinin gerekte ne olduu ile insanlarn bugn kendi milli alglamalaryla bu gemiigrdkleri ekil arasndaki fark da eklenince, bu paradoks en youn haliyle Trkiye ve deYunanistanda bulunmaktadr.

Birok siyaseti ve tarihi, Osmanlnn Balkanlar ve Ortadouda bar nasl saladnaratryor. Sizin byle bir meraknz var m?

Kesinlikle, ben de byle bir merak paylayorum. Ancak, ben, Osmanl gemiinin yalnzca OsmanlDevletinin ve toplumunun eitlilii ve kozmopolit ynlerine bakarak ortaya kan bir

romantikletirmesinin tesine gemeye ve Osmanl mparatorluunu yneten ilke ve mekanizmalaranlamaya alyorum. rnein, kimler Osmanl ynetiminde sz sahibiydi ve kimler deildi? Bukatlmclar farkl zamanlara ve farkl blgelere gre bakldnda nasl deiiklikler gsteriyordu?

Sizce Osmanl, bar nasl salamt?

Bu, ok karmak bir konu. Cevabn bir blm Osmanllarn kendi tarihlerinin byk bir ksmndaeitlilik gsteren teba nfuslar arasndaki din, etnik ya da dil farkllklarn ortadan kaldrmak iingerekli aralara ve de bunu yapma gereksinimine sahip olmamasnda yatyor. Aksine, farkllklarOsmanl mparatorluunun ynetim projesine yarar salayabilirdi. Bu, Osmanl mparatorluunda hiiddet olmad gibi anlalmasn, ama kullanlan iddet tutarl bir biimde belirli etnik veya dingruplara kar uygulanm gibi grnmyor ta ki, Osmanl Devleti ve tebaasndaki halklarn isteklerininfarkllamaya ve milli projelerle atmaya balad 19. yya kadar. Ayn zamanda, alglama

paradoksunun oluumu, varln biraz da Osmanl mparatorluunun son yzylndaki iddeteborludur.

Balkanlar ve Ortadoudaki Osmanl miras her yerde grlmektedir; ancak Osmanl miras,mevcut olduu halde alglanmayan bir olgudur. diyorsunuz. Bunun nedeni nedir?

Bir yanda yzyllar boyu sren ve birok katmana yaylm Osmanl ynetimi ile, te yandaimparatorluun homojen olmas beklenen ulus-devletlere gittike uzayan bir zaman diliminde, iddetde kullanarak karmamasnn birleimi tam da bu paradoksal durumu yaratan unsurdur. Bir taraftan,yzyllar sresince olumu alkanlklar, gelenekler ve balantlar -yani Osmanl miras- hzla ya dakolayca silinip atlamazken, dier taraftan, 20 yyda halka Trklerin Yunan, Srp, Arnavut veMsrllardan ok farkl bir tarihleri olduu mesajn ok gl bir ekilde veren milli projeler, insanlarn

ortak noktalar grmezden gelip farkllklar zerinde younlamasna neden oldu.

Balkanlarda Osmanl eserlerinin fiziksel durumunu nasl deerlendiriyorsunuz?

Gene, Yunanistan ve Trkiye, Balkanlarn ou blgesiyle karlatrnca bir nevi istisnai durumda;nk bu iki lkede geen on ylda olduka kkl deiiklikler oldu. Yunanistandaki camiler ve dierOsmanl yaplar ve Trkiyedeki Ortodoks kiliseleri (ki onlar da Osmanl mirasnn bir parasnoluturmaktadr) hedeflenen grubun bir nevi sembolik bir aalamas olarak bir zamanlar korkunmuamele grrd. imdi bu yaplar restore ediliyor ve korunuyor. Yunanistanda ve Trkiyedegerekleen bu fenomenin Balkan lkelerinde de benzeri bir eilimin nn aacan umuyorum.

Balkanlar ve Ortadoudaki Osmanl selefi devletlerin vatandalarnn zerinde mutabkkalacaklar tek bir husus var; o da Osmanl gemiinden uzak olmas gerektii. Bu mesafe dahane kadar devam eder sizce?


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Osmanl selefi devletlerin vatandalarnn artk yalnzca kendi milli proje ve tarihlerini deil, aynzamanda Osmanl mparatorluunun kendi miraslarndaki yerini sorgulamalar iin yeterli zamangemi durumda. Baz aratrmaclar imdiden Osmanl gemiine taze bir bakla ynelmeye,imparatorluun nasl altn ve ilevselliinin krld zaman ve yerleri anlamaya, iddeti ve birarada var oluu bir balama oturtmak ve ayn zamanda daha kompleks ve daha gereki bir resmeulamaya hazr grnyorlar.

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Perceptions of the Ottoman Legacy Questioned Most in Turkey and Greece