Slayt 1

1
MINORITIES AND TURKEY
2
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.
3
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.
4
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.
5
It has been adopted that every citizen has equal
right and freedom disregarding the ethnic
structure or local culture of each.
6
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.
7
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.
8
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.
9
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.
10
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.
11
The medical group of the Ottoman Army comprised
significantly of the soldiers from Greek origin.
12
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.
13
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.
14
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.
15
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 worlds history.
16
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.
17
Also, a significant part of the Jewish
population, who lived in the area of Al-Andalucía
at the end of the 15th 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 18th century, and the
Jewish people who were departed 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.
18
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 ).
19
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.
20
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.
21
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.
22
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.
23
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.
24
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.
25
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.