Cretan Turks

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The neutrality and factual accuracy of this article are disputed. Please see the relevant discussion on the talk page. (March 2008)

Cretan Turks (Girit Türkleri)
Total population
est. 200,000-300,000[2]
Regions with significant populations
Turkey
Languages
Turkish, Cretan Greek
Religions
Sunni Islam, Bektashism
Related ethnic groups
Turks, Greeks

Cretan Turks (Turkish: Giritli or Girit Türkleri or Türk Giritliler) came about as a consequence of the Ottoman rule in Crete starting 1648 in an equation between Turkish colonization and a high rate of local conversions which makes the island a unique case in Ottoman history ^[1] Some sources prefer to use the term Cretan Muslims to also account for a median population that converted to Christianity in the course of the 19th century.

They were forced to leave Crete and migrate, in their majority to Turkey, in successive waves in the course of the 19th century, during or after the events of 1897 ^[2], at the start of the Greek rule in 1908^[3] and especially in the framework of the 1923 agreement for the Exchange of Greek and Turkish Populations. Many Cretan Turks had attained prominent positions within the Ottoman Empire and later in Turkey and they had forged a high level Turkish language culture. In the multilingual environment of Ottoman Crete, many were also fluent in the Cretan Greek dialect (κρητικά kritika).

They have settled along Turkey's coastline stretching from the Çanakkale to İskenderun in Turkey; while other waves of refugees settled in Syrian cities like Damascus, Aleppo and Al Hamidiyah; in Tripoli, Lebanon; Haifa, Palestine, and even as far south as Alexandria and Tanta in Egypt. While some of these peoples have integrated themselves with the hospitable populations around them over the course of the 20th century, the majority of them still live in a tightly knit communities preserving their unique culture, traditions, Turkish language and Cretan Greek dialect. In fact many of them made reunion visits to distant relatives in Lebanon, in Crete and even other parts of Greece where some of the cousins may still share the family name but follow a different religion.

Contents 1 History 1.1 Bektashi tradition 1.2 Literature 1.3 Music 1.4 Cretan Turkish Culture in Turkey 1.5 Greek perception of Cretan Turks 2 Notable Cretan Turks 3 Cretan Muslims 4 History 5 See also 6 References 7 External links 8 Sources

[edit] History

Main article: History of Crete#Venetian and Ottoman Crete

[edit] Bektashi tradition

Although most Cretan Turks are Sunni Muslims, Islam in Crete during the Ottoman rule was deeply influenced by the Bektashi Sufi order, as it has been the case in other parts of the Balkans. This influence went far beyond the actual numbers of Bektashis present in Crete and it contributed to the shaping of the literary output, folk Islam and a tradition of inter-religious tolerance.

[edit] Literature

Turks in Crete produced an unusually rich and varied literary output, leading one researcher to define a "Cretan School" which counts twenty-one poets who evolved within Ottoman Divan poetry or Turkish folk literature traditions, especially in the 18th century ^[4] Personal, mystical, fantastic themes abound in the works of these men of letters, reflecting the dynamism of the cultural life in the island.

A taste and echo of this tradition can be perceived in the verses below by Giritli Sırrı Pasha (1844 - 1895);

Fidânsın nev-nihâl-i hüsn ü ânsın âfet-i cânsın
Gül âşık bülbül âşıkdır sana, bir özge cânânsın^[5]

which were certainly addressed to his wife, the poetess-composer Leyla Saz, herself a notable figure for being one of the first Turkish women to have stepped into the modern traditions of the Turkish literature and her "Hymn to the Mediterranean" (Akdeniz Marşı), in praise of Mustafa Kemal Pasha remains highly popular and, since constantly sung in our day in Turkey's schools and caserns, instantly recognizable. ^[6]

[edit] Music

A study by one Greek researcher counts six Muslim Cretans who engaged themselves into music in Cretan Greek dialect ^[7]. The Cretans brought the musical tradition they shared with the Cretan Christians to Turkey with them:

One of the significant aspects of Giritli culture is that this Islamic--often Bektashi--sensibility is expressed through the Greek language. [There has been] some confusion about their cultural identity, and an assumption is often made that their music was somehow more "Turkish" than "Cretan". In my view this assumption is quite wrong....^[8]

[edit] Cretan Turkish Culture in Turkey

Nuances may be observed among the waves of immigrations from Crete and the respective behavioral patterns. At the end of the 19th century Turks often fled massacres^{[citation needed]} to take refuge in the present-day territory of Turkey or beyond (see Al Hamidiyah). During the 1910s, with the termination of the Republic of Crete which had recognized the Muslim community of the island a proper status, many others left. The Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922)^[9] and the ensuing population exchange is the final chapter among the root causes that shaped these nuances.

Among contributions made by Cretan Turks to the Turkish culture in general, the first to be mentioned should be their particular culinary traditions based on consumption at high-levels of olive oil and of a surprisingly wide array of herbs and other plant-based raw materials. While they have certainly not introduced olive oil and herbs to their compatriots, Cretan Turks have greatly extended the knowledge and paved the way for a more varied use of these products. Their predilection for herbs, some of which could be considered as unusual ones, has also been the source of some jokes. The Giritli chain of restaurants in İstanbul, Ankara and Bodrum, and Ayşe Ün's "Girit Mutfağı" (Cretan Cuisine) eateries in İzmir are indicative references in this regard. Occasional although intrinsically inadequate care has also been demonstrated by the authorities in the first years of the Turkish Republic for settling Cretan Turks in localities where vineyards left by the departed Greeks were found, since this capital was bound to be lost in the hands of cultivators with no prior knowledge of viniculture. In the field of maritime industries, the pioneer of gulet boats construction that became a vast industry in Bodrum in our day, Ziya Güvendiren was a Cretan Turk, as are many of his former apprentices who themselves have become master shipbuilders and who are based in Bodrum or Güllük today.

An overall pattern of investing in expertise and success remains remarkable among Cretan Turks, as attested by the notable names below. With sex roles and social change starting out from different grounds for Turkish Cretans ^[10], the adaptation to the "fatherland" ^[11] did not always take place without pain, including that of being subjected to slurs as in other cases involving immigration of people.^[12]. According to Peter Loizos, they were often were relegated to the poorest land:

They were briefly feted on arrival, as 'Turks' 'returning' to the Turkish heartland... like the Asia Minor Christians seeking to settle on former Muslim land in northern Greece, the Muslim refugees found that local people, sometimes government officials, had already occupied the best land and housing^[13]

The same author depicts a picture where they did not share the "Ottoman perceptions of certain crafts and trades as being of low status",^[14] so more entrepreneurial opportunities were open to them. Like others who did not speak Turkish, they suffered during the "Citizens Speak Turkish" campaign which started in 1928. "Arabs, Circassians, Cretan Muslims, and Kurds in the country were being targeted for not speaking Turkish. In Mersin, for instance, ‘Kurds, Cretans, Arabs and Syrians’ were being fined for speaking languages other than Turkish."^[15]. In the summary translation of a book on Bodrum made by Loizos, it is stated that, even as late as 1967, the Cretans and the 'local Turks' did not mix in some towns; they continued to speak Greek and mostly married other Cretans.^[16]

[edit] Greek perception of Cretan Turks

The Greek perception of Muslims in Crete used the terms "Turk" and "Greek" in a religious rather than ethnic or racial meaning (Turks themselves would have more readily used the term "Muslim" at the time). A Greek observer remarks that we are acquainted with extremely few cases of Muslim Cretan lyra-players as against Cretan Greeks (the very name for that instrument in Turkish language being Rum kemençesi - Greek kemenche).^[17]. In the later novels by Nikos Kazantzakis, Cretan Turks also had to assume unflattering roles attributing, although in his earlier masterpiece, "a wise old Cretan Turk" forever affectionately recalled, Recep Efendi, teaches Zorba how to play the santuri.

[edit] Notable Cretan Turks

Part of the series on Turkish people Turkish culture Architecture ·Art · Carpets · Cinema Cuisine · Dance ·Festivals · Folklore · Holidays Literature · Miniature · Music · Nazar boncuğu Shadow plays · Sport · Theatre· Native Turkish people Turkey · Northern Cyprus Bulgaria · Cretan Turks Greece (Dodecanese, Western Thrace) Iraq ·Kosovo· Macedonia Meskheti· Romania · Syria Turkish peoples diaspora Australia · Austria · Azerbaijan Belgium · Brazil · Canada Denmark · Egypt · Finland · France · Germany Iran · Israel · Italy Japan · Jordan · Liechtenstein Mexico · Netherlands· Norway Poland· Russia Saudi Arabia · Spain · Sweden Switzerland · United Kingdom United States · Uzbekistan · Former Yugoslavia People Turkish People Mustafa Kemal Ataturk · List of Turkish people History Gokturk · Oghuz Turks Seljuqs· Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm Beyliks· Ottoman Empire · Republic of Gumuljina Republic of Turkey v • d • e

(in chronological order)

• Ali Baba Giritli: May refer to two different persons who are also called under other names. One is the founder of the first Bektashi tekke in Crete in the early stages of the Ottoman conquest, and the other is an 18th century Bektashi mystic and author of several works of a Sufi nature.
• Ahmed Resmî Efendi: 18th century Ottoman statesman, diplomat and author (notably of two sefâretnâme). Turkey's first ever ambassador in Berlin ^[18] (during Frederick the Great's reign).
• Salacıoğlu: (1750 Hanya - 1825 Kandiye): One of the most important 18th century poets of Turkish folk literature.
• Giritli Ali Aziz Efendi: Turkey's third ambassador in Berlin and arguably the first Turkish author to have written in novelistic form.
• Giritli Sırrı Pasha: Ottoman administrator, Leyla Saz's husband and a notable man of letters in his own right.
• Vedat Tek: Representative figure of the First National Architecture Movement in Turkish architecture. Son of Leyla Saz and Giritli Sırrı Pasha.
• Giritli Hüseyin: 19th century Turkish painter.
• Dr. İbrahim Pertev: 19th century community leader.
• Paul Mulla (alias Mollazade Mehmed Ali): Roman Catholic bishop and author.
• Rahmizâde Bahaeddin Bediz: The first Turkish photographer by profession. The thousands of photographs he took, based as of 1895 successively in Crete, İzmir, İstanbul and Ankara (as Head of the Photography Department of Turkish Historical Society founded by Atatürk), have immense historical value.
• Ali Fuat Cebesoy: Close aide of Atatürk. His father İsmail Fazıl Pasha was Cretan, and his mother was a member of the Ottoman elite. İsmail Fazıl Pasha himself has been the first Minister of Public Works in the newly-constituted Ankara government in 1920, and by extension, for the republican Turkey.
• Mustafa Ertuğrul: The Turkish officer who sank Ben-my-Chree.
• Fodulaki Mustafa Efe: Efe based in the region north of İzmir during the Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922).
• Mustafa Fehmi Kubilay: National hero who was lynched by a group of Naqshbandi rebels in 1930 in the Menemen (called the Kubilay incident or Menemen Incident in Turkish history) that greatly influenced the direction of politics in Turkey in the Thirties.
• Hüsamettin Cindoruk: Former Chairman of the Turkish Grand National Assembly who could have become the Prime Minister in 1993 if he had not opted for remaining in that seat. Cindoruk had kept the helm of the Turkey's traditional center-right in the eighties, during Süleyman Demirel's forced absence from politics.
• Ekrem Pakdemirli: Prominent Turkish politician.
• Halil Berktay: Turkish historian.
• Ömer Kavur: Award-winning Turkish film director.
• Orhan Suda: Journalist and Turkish socialist thinker, Named after the town of Souda.
• Pakize Suda: Former singer, current columnist, the daughter of Orhan Suda.
• Ayla Algan: Turkish singer.
• Gül Gölge: Turkish model, actress, TV host.

Among other notable Cretan Turks, highly nationalistic investigative journalist Emin Çölaşan, other notable names from the Turkish media such as İlhan Selçuk, his brother Turhan Selçuk, and Doğan Hızlan can be cited. Writer Cevat Şakir Kabaağaçlı, alias Halikarnas Balıkçısı (The Fisherman of Halicarnassus), although born in Crete and has often let himself be cited as Cretan, descends from an Ottoman family with roots in Afyonkarahisar, and his father had been an Ottoman High Commissioner in Crete and later ambassador in Athens. Likewise, as stated above, Giritli Mustafa Naili Pasha was Albanian/Egyptian.^[19]

[edit] Cretan Muslims

Cretan Muslims or Turco-Cretans (Turkish: Giritli Müslümanlar or Giritli Türkler, Greek: Τουρκοκρητικοί Turkokritiki) were the Muslims of Crete from the time the Ottoman Empire took Crete (1648) to the Treaty of Lausanne (1923), when Muslims in Greece were exchanged with Christians in Turkey.

Most Cretan Muslims were converts of local Cretan Greeks to Islam, and remained Greek-speaking. Heavy emigration from Crete began with the Greek Revolution of 1821 and continued through the 19th century. Their descendents can be found today mostly in Turkey, where they are called Cretan Turks, and often preserve Cretan traditions, including speaking Greek, though this has diminished with time, and they are today nearly fully integrated into Turkish society.

[edit] History

Starting in 1648, the Ottoman Empire gradually took Crete from the Republic of Venice, which had ruled it since 1204. In the final major defeat, Candia (modern Iraklion) fell to the Ottomans in 1669 (though some offshore islands remained Venetian until 1715). Crete remained part of the Ottoman Empire until 1897.

Unlike other Ottoman provinces, the fall of Crete was not accompanied by a large influx of Muslims. On the other hand, many Cretans converted to Islam—more than in any other part of the Greek world. Various explanations have been given for this, including the disruption of war, the possibility of receiving a timar (for those who went over to the Ottomans during the war), Latin-Orthodox dissension, avoidance of the head-tax (cizye) on non-Muslims, the increased social mobility of Muslims, and the opportunity that Muslims had of joining the paid militia (which the Cretans also aspired to under Venetian rule).^[20]

It is difficult to estimate the proportion which became Muslim, as Ottoman cizye tax records count only Christians: estimates range from 30-50%.^[21] By the early 19th century, as many as 45% of the islanders may have been Muslim. The Muslim population declined through the 19th century, and by the last Ottoman census, in 1881, Muslims were only 24% of the population, concentrated in the three large towns on the north coast, and in Monofatsi.^[22]

Year	Muslims[23]
1821	47%
1832	43%
1858	22%
1881	26%
1900	11%
1910	8%
1920	7%
1928	0%

Most of Cretan Muslims were local Greek converts who spoke Cretan Greek, yet at the dawn of Greek nationalism, the Christian population labeled them "Turks".^[24] People who claim descend from Muslim Cretans are still found in several Muslim countries today, and principally in Turkey.

Between 1821 and 1828, during the Greek War of Independence, the island was the scene of repeated hostilities. Most Muslims were driven into the large fortified towns on the north coast and both the Muslim and Christian populations of the island suffered severe losses, due to conflicts, plague or famine. In the 1830s, Crete was an impoverished and backward island.

As the Ottoman sultan, Mahmud II, had no army of his own, he was forced to seek the aid of his rebellious vassal and rival, Kavalalı Mehmed Ali Pasha of Egypt, who sent troops to the island. Starting in 1832, the island was administered for two decades by an Albanian from Egypt, Giritli Mustafa Naili Pasha (later a Grand Vizier), whose rule attempted to create a synthesis between the Muslim landowers and the emergent Christian commercial classes. His rule was generally cautious, pro-British, and he tried harder to win the support of the Christians (having married the daughter of a priest and allowed her to remain Christian) than the Muslims. In 1834, however, a Cretan committee had already been founded in Athens to work for the union of the island with Greece.

In 1840, Egypt was forced by Palmerston to return Crete to direct Ottoman rule. Giritli Mustafa Naili Pasha angled unsuccessfully to become a semi-independent prince but the Cretans rose up against him, once more driving the Muslims temporarily into siege in the towns. An Anglo-Ottoman naval operation restored control in the island and Giritli Mustafa Naili Pasha was confirmed as its governor, though under command from İstanbul. He remained in Crete until 1851 when he was summoned to the capital, where at a relatively advanced age he pursued a successful career.

Religious tensions prevailed on the island between Muslims and Christians and the Christian populations of Crete revolted twice against Ottoman rule (in 1866 and in 1897). In the uprising of 1866, the rebels initially managed to gain control of most of the hinterland although as always the four fortified towns of the north coast and the southern town of Ierapetra remained in Ottoman hands. The Ottoman approach to the Cretan question was that, if Crete was lost, the next line of defense would have to be the Dardanelles, as indeed it was the case later. The Ottoman Grand Vizier, Mehemed Emin Aali Pasha arrived in the island in October 1867 and set in progress a low profile district-by-district reconquest of the island followed by the erection of blockhouses or local fortresses across the whole of it. More importantly, he designed an Organic Law which gave the Cretan Christians equal (in practice, because of their superior numbers, majority) control of local administration. At the time of the Congress of Berlin in the summer of 1878, there was a further uprising, which was speedily halted through the adaptation of the Organic Law into a constitutional settlement known as the Pact of Halepa.

Crete became a semi-independent parliamentary state within the Ottoman Empire under a Greek Orthodox Governor. A number of the senior "Christian Pashas" including Photiades Pasha and Adossides Pasha ruled the island in the 1880s, presiding over a parliament in which liberals and conservatives contended for power. Disputes between these led to a further insurgency in 1889 and the collapse of the Pact of Halepa arrangements. The international powers allowed the Ottoman authorities to send troops to the island and restore order but the Sultan Abdulhamid II used the occasion for ruling the island by martial law. This action led to international sympathy for the Cretan Christians and to a loss of any remaining acquiescence among them for continued Ottoman rule. When a small insurgency began in September 1895, it quickly spiralled out of control and by the summer of 1896, the Ottoman forces had lost military control over most of the island. The insurrection in 1897 led to a war between Greece and the Ottoman Empire. By March 1897 however, the Great Powers decided to govern the island temporarily through a committee of four admirals who remained in charge until the arrival of Prince George of Greece as first governor-general of an autonomous Crete, effectively detached from the Ottoman Empire, in late December 1898. Ottoman forces were expelled in 1898, and an independent Republic of Crete, headed by Prince George of Greece, was founded.

The island's Muslim population lost heavily from these changes though some remained in Crete . From the summer of 1896 until the end of hostilities in 1898, Cretan Muslims remained under siege in the four coastal cities, where massacres against them took place. Subsequent waves of emigration followed as the island was united by stages with Greece. Those remaining were forced to leave Crete under the Exchange of Greek and Turkish Populations in 1924. In Turkey, some descendants of this population continued to speak a form of Cretan Greek dialect until recently.

In 1908, the Cretan deputies declared union with Greece, which was internationally recognized after the Balkan Wars in 1913. Under the Treaty of London, Sultan Mehmed V relinquished his formal rights to the island.

[edit] See also

• Turkish people
• History of Crete
• Crete Province, Ottoman Empire
• Al Hamidiyah
• Greek-speaking Muslims
• Cretan Muslims
• Abo Hafs Omer Al-Baloty

[edit] References

• Molly Greene, A Shared World: Christians and Muslims in the Early Modern Mediterranean, Princeton, 2000. ISBN 0-691-00898-1
• A. Lily Macrakis, Cretan Rebel: Eleftherios Venizelos in Ottoman Crete, Ph.D. Dissertation, Harvard University, 1983.

[edit] External links

• Project film: Benim Giritli limon ağacım - My Cretan lemon tree
• Lozan Mübadilleri: The Association of Turks exchanged under Lausanne Treaty
• The journey - testimonials by Greeks from Aivalık and Turkish Cretans from Rethymno

[edit] Sources