Every person who attended the funeral ceremony of this grandson of Abdülhamid Khan, who ruled over the Ottoman Empire for a period of 33 years when it was failing and disintegrating, had his own reason or justification for attending. Some had come out of sheer curiosity, while others came with the intention of witnessing this historic moment. I have an added justification for attending the funeral: I am the namesake of his grandfather. I was given this name because I was born in Etfal, a children's hospital whose construction was personally funded by Abdülhamid II in memory of his daughter Hadice Sultan, who died of diphtheria when she was 8 months old. As I grew older, I also learned that my elderly family members who named me thus had also extended a helping hand to the members of the Ottoman dynasty.The funeral ceremony that brought together Ali Koç, Mahmut Efendi, Ertuğrul Günay and members of Nizam-ı Alem was living proof that defamation campaigns launched by official history against the Ottoman legacy were all unreasonable.
If these campaigns that tend to portray Ottoman rule as "unfair, uncivilized, fanatical and zealous" had been successful, would so many people have come together for a member of the Ottoman dynasty? I think there was not a single person among the attendees who wanted to revive the sultanate. However, the lack of such a demand does not mean that there is no longing for the values that the Ottoman Empire had represented for a long period of time not only in our country, but also in the vast area the Ottoman Empire ruled. I want to think that the most important reason for the interest in the funeral ceremony is the yearning for the Ottoman values of tolerance, peace and justice.
The Ottoman Empire provided guarantees not only to Muslims, but also to the practitioners of other religions. The Ottoman Empire meant respect for diversity. It represented a mentality where not only human rights are glorified, but also even the wolves that grew hungry in winter were taken into consideration. However, on Tuesday I saw the results of a survey about how the same society perceived the Jewish community, which was entrusted to us by the Ottoman Empire, and other minorities. I could not help but ask myself: "What society and what Ottoman Empire are we talking about? How can we explain this lack of tolerance of other people while boasting about the same inherited Ottoman heritage? How could one praise the Ottoman Empire but at the same time discriminate against the Jewish, Armenian and Greek ethnicities?”
I am afraid we just want to hear good things about ourselves but are worried about what we might see if we look at ourselves in the mirror. In this respect, the results of the survey conducted by the Frekans polling company to find out social perceptions about different identities and Judaism are thought provoking. According to this survey, 90 percent of the society has had no contact with a Jew, an Armenian or a Greek in its life. Forty-two percent of the society does not want a Jewish neighbor, and 35 percent is worried about a Christian neighbor. A full 19 percent of the society thinks that non-Muslims do not perform compulsory military service. No one knows for sure about the exact number of Greeks, Jews or Armenians living in Turkey. More than half of the respondents are concerned about the employment of non-Muslims in the judiciary, the police, the army, the municipality and even health services.
Some of the people I talked to from the 20,000-member Jewish community are very pleased about the policies of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), contrary to what some groups claim. "The government is launching initiatives no previous government could dare launch. Our relations with the government are particularly good," says a member of the community.
Professor Hakan Yılmaz made an interesting contribution to the meeting held at the Neve Shalom Synagogue, where these results were discussed by a group of journalists and academics. According to his study, 30 percent of the society say, "I may waive my own rights when needed," while this figure rises to 70 percent when the rights of other people are in question.
Yes, there is heightened social interest in the Ottoman Empire and the values it represented, but there is also a society as portrayed in this survey. Which of them is the real us?
