Turks also did good things

Submitted by Debanjan Banerjee (India), Oct 24, 2011 at 14:36

I never understood what was wrong in filling up lands with settlers. This is the same way through which Israel now decides to create facts on the ground and this is the same way America was won from the native American tribes. You can not blame Turkey for willing to create facts on the ground which it conquered.

Now the interesting thing is that non-Muslims like the Cypriots and Greeks or for that matter ISraeli regimes can never treat their Muslim subjects equally well. The biggest example is the massacres of Turkish Muslims at the time of Greek and Cypriot independence.

Now consider the fact that the same Turkish harems that you hate so much since they according to you were full of Christian girls , those same harems ensured that a majority of Ottoman Sultans as well as aristocratic families ended up with Greek , Russian or European blood in their veins. This is the way that is still today. Actually intermarraige with non-Muslim populations have been so widespread in the Turkish world that it is really difficult to trace the influence of Christianity on the development of Turkish culture.

You must give me great acknowledgement to Ottoman Caliphate for creating the system of Janisari whereby meritorius Christians after embracing of Islam could serve as much as to be the Grand Viziers as well as top Generals and advisors of the Caliph. Now tell me what opportunity did Rome or Greek empires of antiquity provided to their conquered peoples ? What opportunity does current Italian or Greek republics provide to their Muslim minorities ? The important thing is that you only project the bad side of the Ottoman caliphate but you are blind to its virtues which far outweigh their mistakes. You must accept that the Janisari system did improve a lot the conditions of Chrisitans in the Ottoman caliphate. Can you give one single example from those states like the Romans and Greeks which the Ottoman caliphate succeeded to create a great system like that of Janisari ?

Thanks & regards

Debanjan

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