Ottoman-Turkish Empire’s Repression Policies

The Ottoman Empire was one of the largest imperial rulers in human history, having ruled vast territories in North Africa, the Balkans, and extending all the way to the Middle East. It is known that the Ottoman Turkish Empire strictly followed Islam to signify the commonality with its Muslim majority population. Islam also helped the Empire in their quest for civilization and temporal discourse over non-Turkish Muslims and non-Muslim subjects. The Turkish statesmen and intellectuals also considered and declared the Turkish language as the official language, which was seen as a tool for achieving cohesiveness and loyalty throughout its Empire. History indicates that the Ottoman-Turkish Empire was relentless as they unleashed repression policies against secessionist minorities as well as non-Turkish Muslim populations to advance their rule from the 1820s through 1918. 

The sultanate was the head of the state and ruled according to Islamic Law. According to Stark (2016), non-Muslim subjects existed in the Turkish society at the lowest level, which denied them their basic civil rights and was expected to pay extra taxes as compared to their non-Turkish Muslim subjects. It is also important to note that; the discrimination was legalized, which made it hard for the subjects to disobey.  Ethnic policies intensified as non-Muslims were segregated from the national projects based on their cultural differences. 

Although Islam was the dominant religion during the Ottoman-Turkish Empire, other people who subscribed to a different religion such as Christianity were allowed to keep their religion under specific conditions. Non-Muslims were not treated as equals with their Muslim counterparts, even though they interacted freely and celebrated some festivals together (Lapidus, 2014). In the same way that non-citizens have limited rights in modern day society non-Muslims had various legal limitations. For instance, the testimony of non-Muslims was rejected in court. Public manifestation of religious practices such as the ringing of church bells was prohibited. The non-Muslim subjects were also expected to dress in a particular type of clothing when appearing in public. Prosecution was rare although sometimes there was intense pressure for non-Muslims to convert to Islam.

Along with that, in a bid to create a more cohesive and loyal society, the Turkish public officials, and intellectuals advocated for making the Turkish the official language of communication (Bayir, 2016). Thus, in 1876, article 18 of the Turkish constitution made Turkish the official language and a condition for employment. In schools, Turkish was introduced in the education system, and non-Muslim schools and a committee assigned to assess the student’s fluency in the language. Turkish history and geography lesson were also introduced in non-Muslim schools. The move was designed to undermine the immunity enjoyed by foreign schools and to counter the rising nationalist enthusiasm among non-Turkish subjects. Literally, education was viewed as a symbol of the unification of ideas and Islam regarded as a way of uniting everyone despite their ethnicity.

Virtually, the Ottoman-Turkish Empire was one of the largest kingdoms in human history. The Empire is also known for one of the greatest murder of its Armenian Christian subjects as the opposed the ruling dictatorship and in an attempt to save themselves from their rule. Like many other Empires, the repressing policies against the secessionist minorities and the non-Turkish subject Muslim populations helped maintain the Empire throughout 1820s to 1918. Eventually, the Empire disintegrated to form the modern day Turkey.  

References

Bayir, D. (2016). Minorities and nationalism in Turkish law. London; New York: Routledge; Taylor & Francis Group.

Lapidus, I. M. (2014). A history of Islamic societies. New York: Cambridge University Press.Stark, L. (2016). Ethnologia europaea 46:1: Special issue: muslim intimacies. Denmark: Museum Tusculanum Press.