Ottoman History

Ottoman History

• Relations between Iran and Turkey have long been defined by mutual suspicion and competition, despite a 312-mile border that has remained unchanged since 1639.
• Close allies during the monarchy, relations soured after the 1979 revolution. Ankara felt threatened by Tehran’s ambitions to change the regional order. Iran in turn perceived Turkey as a close ally of the West and therefore potentially hostile.
• Adding to tensions, Tehran and Ankara have diametrically opposed worldviews: Turkey is a constitutionally secular state where the military is the self-appointed guardian of secularism. Iran is a theocracy in which Islamic law rules and clerics play decisive roles, including control over the military.
• Yet the two governments have cooperated when necessary, especially on energy and Kurdish issues. Relations improved after the 2002 election of Turkey’s Justice and Development Party, which has Islamist roots.

Selim III (1761-1808), the twenty-eighth Ottoman sultan, was a late-18th-century reformer who sought to end the stagnation and decay weakening the empire.
Born on Dec. 24, 1761, Selim was the son of Mustafa III and successor to his uncle Abdul Hamid I, who died April 7, 1789. As a youth, the new sultan had benefited from a moderately free existence in contrast to the century-old custom of caging Osmanli princes. He was better educated then most of his recent predecessors.

Selim initially devoted himself to prosecuting the 2-year-old Austro-Russian War, an outgrowth of the first detailed plan to divide the Ottoman Empire, drawn up by Austria and Russia in 1782. The Peace of Sistova, in August 1791, involved no territorial changes with Austria, but the Peace of Jassy (laşi), in January 1792, advanced the Russian border to the Dniester.

Internal Reforms

Green Mosque (Turkish: Yeşil Cami, "Yeşil Mosque"), also known as Mosque of Mehmed I, is a part of the larger complex (a külliye) located on the east side of Bursa, Turkey, the former capital of the Ottoman Turks before they captured Constantinople in 1453. The complex consists of a mosque, türbe, madrasah, kitchen and bath.

History

The Ottoman Empire's entry into World War I began when its navy carried out a surprise attack on Russia's Black Sea coast on 29 October 1914, following which Russia declared war on it on 1 November 1914. Russia's allies, Britain and France, then declared war on the Ottoman Empire on 5 November 1914. The reasons for the Ottoman action were not immediately clear, since the Empire was not formally allied with any of the great powers.[1] This decision would ultimately lead to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Ottomans and the eventual dissolution of the empire.[2][3][4]

Background[edit]

Before becoming part of the triumvirate that seized power in Turkey at the beginning of 1913, Enver, the Ottoman minister of war, served as a military attaché to Berlin. During his four-year commission Enver developed a close relationship with German Kaiser Wilhelm II.1 After the coup of 1913 that brought Enver to power, German-Ottoman military cooperation became national policy.
In December 1913, a German mission arrived in Turkey with the task of reorganizing the Ottoman army. Officers of the German military mission assumed responsibility for the command of the Turkish army under the leadership of Enver. The German-Turkish relationship was strengthened after the agreement of a military alliance between Germany and the Ottoman Empire in August 1914.

The Turkish Armed Forces (TAF; Turkish: Türk Silahlı Kuvvetleri, TSK) are the military forces of the Republic of Turkey. They consist of the Army, the Navy and the Air Force. The Gendarmerie and the Coast Guard, both of which have law enforcement and military functions, operate as components of the internal security forces in peacetime, and are subordinate to the Ministry of Interior. In wartime, they are subordinate to the Army and Navy. The President of Turkey is the military's overall head.

Miniature painting of a parade of two riding Gazi (veterans from Rumelia) in front of Sultan Murat III (from the Surname-i hümayun, 16th century CE)
Murad III (Ottoman Turkish: مراد ثالث Murād-i sālis, Turkish:III.Murat) (4 July 1546 – 15/16 January 1595) was the emperor of the Ottoman Empirefrom 1574 until his death in 1595.

Biography
Born in Bozdağan or Manisa, Şehzade Murad was the son of Sultan Selim II and Afife Nurbanu Sultan. After his ceremonial circumcision in 1557, Murad was appointed sancakbeyi of Akşehir by Suleyman I (his grandfather) in 1558. At the age of 18 he was appointed sancakbeyi of Saruhan. Suleiman died when Murad was 20, and his father became the new Sultan. Selim II broke with tradition by sending only his oldest son out of the palace to govern a province, and Murad was sent to Manisa.[1]

Until a few days ago there were no hopes that Turkey and Russia would see eye to eye for years as many critics wrote obituary to Russo-Turkish relations thanks to which the NATO got a shot in its terror arms. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ordered the shooting of Russian plane angering the Kremlin.
Russian President Vladimir Putin issued sanctions against Turkey following the downing of a Russian Su-24 bomber by the Turkish air force on Nov. 24. The document, signed on Nov. 28, envisages restrictions on the import of certain types of products from Turkey. Russia suspended the visa-free travel regime for Turkish citizens, Russian employers will not be allowed to hire Turkish nationals, and charter flights will be banned.

Osman declared the independence of his own small kingdom from the Seljuk Turks in 1299. The westward drive of the Mongol invasions had pushed scores of Muslimstoward Osman's Anatolian principality, a power base that Osman was quick to consolidate. As the Byzantine Empiredeclined, the Ottoman Empire rose to take its place.

Founding an empire
Ertuğrul, Osman's father, led his Kayi tribe west into Anatolia, fleeing Mongol belligerence. Under the auspices of the Seljuks of Rum, he founded a town known as Sogut. This location was auspicious, as the wealthy Byzantine Empire was reeling in the West, and Muslim forces in the East were splintering under Mongol aggression. Baghdad had been sacked by Hulagu Khan in 1258, the very year Osman I was born.

French–Turkish relations cover a long period from the 16th century to the present, starting with the alliance established between Francis I and Suleiman the Magnificent. Relations remained essentially friendly during a period of nearly three centuries, with the resumption of intense contacts from the reign of Louis XIV. Relations became more complex with the invasion of the Ottoman territory of Egypt by Napoleon I in 1798, and the dawn of the modern era.

Franco-Ottoman alliance
Letter of Suleiman the Magnificent to Francis I of France regarding the protection of Christians in his states. September 1528. Archives Nationales, Paris, France.

The disappearance of the Ottoman Empire had been foretold since the end of the eighteenth century. But, since it was not finally abolished by Mustafa Kemal until 1924, in fact it survived its traditional enemies, the Russian and Habsburg Empires, and its disastrous ally, the German Empire, by six or seven years. Moreover, during the First World War, at Gallipoli and Kut, the Ottoman Empire was able to inflict some impressive defeats on its former ally, after 1914 its most ambitious and dangerous enemy, the British Empire.

Called by the Turks Osmanlıs, after the name of the founder of the dynasty Osman I (Ar., ʿUthmān), the Ottomans were Oghuz (Tk., Oğuz) Turks who came out of Central Asia and created a vast state that ultimately encompassed all of southeastern Europe up to the northern frontiers of Hungary, Anatolia, and the Middle East up to the borders of Iran as well as the Mediterranean coast of North Africa almost to the Atlantic Ocean. As a multiethnic, multireligious, and multicultural entity, the Ottoman Empire was the last of the great Islamic empires, which emerged in the later Middle Ages and continued its existence until the early twentieth century.

Conquest, 1300–1600.

Kösem Sultan was one of the most powerful women in Ottoman history. She found herself in the midst of political chaos after her husband Sultan Ahmed I died, but she eliminated her opponents even though she suffered a bitter death. While some historians say she was a master manipulator, others think she was a prominent actor who helped ensure the empire's survival

Süleyman I, byname Süleyman the Magnificent or the Lawgiver, Turkish Süleyman Muhteşem orKanuni (born November 1494–April 1495—died September 5/6, 1566, near Szigetvár,Hungary) sultan of the Ottoman Empirefrom 1520 to 1566 who not only undertook bold military campaigns that enlarged his realm but also oversaw the development of what came to be regarded as the most characteristic achievements of Ottoman civilization in the fields of law, literature, art, and architecture.
SULEIMAN I (1494/95–1566; ruled 1520–1566)