MINORITIES AND TURKEY

The totalitarian regimes that came out after the World War I developed such strict approaches that they would even take the right to live as minorities.

After this kind of experience, the minority rights were considered to be among the global human rights, and the required precautions were tried to be taken in order not to repeat the same faults.

when the modern Republic of Turkey was founded, the religious references of the citizenship are denied, and it is accepted by the constitution that every person living in the boundaries of the country is the Citizen of Turkey.

It has been adopted that every citizen has equal right and freedom disregarding the ethnic structure or local culture of each.

It is legally and practically possible that people who come from different cultural backgrounds throughout the history of the Empire could adopt, and they could reach every position so long as they deserve.

Any person who adopts the constitutional structure can be positioned in any official job in the Republic of Turkey. There occurs no problem of representation at this point.

The origins of many rulers, those of the most important figures in the Turkish history, are from diverse ethnic groups. In our history, the rulers such as the viziers/ prime ministers, Tonyukuk, Nizamülmülk, Sokullu Mehmet Pasha, all came from different origins.

Neither were the differences of the origins of the Ottoman rulers considered to be important, nor was there any other expectation than serving the state properly and sharing the ideals of the state.

In the Ottoman army, there were a great many military officers from these groups, which were regarded as the minorities. Moreover, the military officers in the Bulgarian Army, which had its independence recently, fought against their classmates in the Military Academy of the Ottoman Army during the Balkan War.

The medical group of the Ottoman Army comprised significantly of the soldiers from Greek origin.

The Turkish state structure, which comes from such tradition, does not constitute any barrier against organizing any kind of political activity that adopts the unitary and secular structure in the constitution for the promotion of the individuals upon the steps of administration. There is no such complication in our country.

The best example of this attitude is the edict that Fatih Sultan Mehmet (Mehmet II the Conqueror) declared in 1462: “I, Fatih Sultan Khan, declare the entire world that the Bosnian Franciscans are under my domain, and I command that no one shall ever disturb or harm the aforementioned people and their church.

Everyone shall live in peace in my Empire and these people who are like immigrants here shall live in freedom and security. They shall return to all the countries in my Empire, and settle at their monasteries without any fear.”

With this edict, unlimited rights upon the soil of the country were given to a religious community which had been oppressed by Vatican and other states for three hundred years. This is an unprecedented document in the world’s history.

In other words, equal rights and the guarantee of unlimited security were provided for a community which had a different belief from the emperor and which received no compassion from their fellow Christians.

Also, a significant part of the Jewish population, who lived in the area of Al-Andalucía at the end of the 15 th century, was settled in the Ottoman country after the collapse of Al- Andalucía. Besides, the Hungarians and the Polish, who ran away from the monarchy of Austria-Habsburg during the 18 th century, and the Jewish people who were dep a rted from the entire Europe during the Nazi era in Germany (Contrary to the Hollywood movies, the majority of the Jewish people who were expelled from every part of Europe either came to Turkey or were sent to secure places over Turkey.

Even though there was threat of war by the Germans and the English declared that no more Jewish immigrant would be admitted to Palestine, Turkey was still an important shelter for them ).

Indeed, today, our country defines everyone who shares the same lands, the same future ideal by constitution as Turkish Nation. Turkey has a structure in which everyone, who considers himself/herself as the member of this country and adopts the secular and unitary structure of the state, is the majority both in legal terms and in the minds of other people.

Even though the legal equality and the relevant proceedings have already written down beforehand, the creed and the eagerness in practice of the members of the community is more important as it is well known, the racism, the xenophobia, the violation of the minority rights are still being experienced severely, even in many states which are considered to apply the liberal democracy for centuries.

Even though there is no law supporting the racism or the xenophobia in such countries, the activities made by the individuals, constitutions, state institutions individually or in an organized manner have led to an important problem.

In general, the inheritance of the Ottoman Empire and the motivation of having the habit of living with different cultures in harmony keep the exceptional negative activities in the marginal levels; thus the general public responds against such activities and does not lead them to find basis.

Thus, it is extremely difficult for people who have the European point of view to understand the structure in our country. Just as famous thinker Edward Said puts or Michael Foucault states, European nationalisms are founded upon defining themselves, alienating from others, and marginalizing them. However, the figures that provided the ideological basis of Turkish nationalism such as Ziya Gökalp, Tekin Alp, Abdullah Cevdet were not even from Turkish origin.

They were just romantics who loved these lands, lived on these lands for a thousand years, and wanted to live there together for a longer time. For this reason, it would contradict the spirit of the structure to constitute a nationalism project which would marginalize the ethnicities they were also involved. Thus, our nationalism is not based on marginalizing the other while defining ourselves but looking at the future together with the other.

The population which is accepted as the minority in legal terms in Turkey is only the non-Muslim ethnic groups. The rights of these groups are taken under guarantee by the Treaty of Lausanne, which is not only a constitutional treaty but also an international one.