Tag Archives: Ottoman Empire

Finding Peace at Çanakkale

May 3, 2020 Andrew Zapf Leave a comment

Çanakkale içinde vurdular beni, Ölmeden mezara koydular beni, off, gençliğim eyvah!

Çanakkale içinde sıra söğütler, Altında yatıyor aslan yiğitler, off, gençliğim eyvah!

In Çanakkale they shot me. They buried me before I died, oh, my youth, alas!

In Çanakkale are rows of willows Brave lions rest beneath them, oh, my youth, alas!

Istanbul is a deep well. Its sweet waters sate any thirst for history. For two years I lived in the Ottoman capital city, once the center of two vast empires and a megacity of a proud republic. Daily I drank from this well. Each gulp brought hitherto unknown names into my consciousness. Names such as Taurus and Nemrut, Kaçkar and Cappadocia, Bodrum and Antalya filled me with wonder. As is my habit, I began reading about the land and its people. The history stretched across these names like a skin bringing life to long-dead Byzantium. Clashes of great armies, deeds of heroism and treachery, and the mysterious and magical came alive. However, it is the name of Çanakkale that still drips with emotion.

Çanakkale is a tiny town at the end of the Dardanelle Strait and is the exact opposite of it’s northern brother which teems with millions of people crowding the Bosphorus Strait. The connection to Istanbul seems unlikely, yet throughout all its wars Istanbul, and Constantinople before it, has relied on Çanakkale to defend the Dardanelles against hostile armadas. It is the guardian of the gateway to the great city.

The Dardanelles Strait is pinched between the Anatolian mainland and the knobby Gallipoli Peninsula. The 1914 British campaign to force the Dardanelles, seize the Gallipoli Peninsula, and capture Istanbul is how most of the western world knows the area. The Gallipoli Campaign also looms large in the Turkish Republic’s founding story and the legend of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. It is here that his decisive action spoiled the invading army’s advance and the sacrifices of his soldiers became an inspiration for a nation seeking independence.

Bus tickets were cheap in Turkey. For a few Turkish Lira, at a good exchange rate, I joined one of my habitual traveling companions on a journey to this sacred peninsula. It was a long trip and we boarded in the dead of night; too early to be described as morning, but well after last call. The bus headed west and left the urban landscape behind. After the dawn both sides of the highway were flanked by neverending fields of sunflowers – a staple of Turkish bodegas and markets. Similar to short haul flight, an attendant walked up and down the aisle serving refreshments and snacks from a narrow rolling cart. Only stopping once for a truck-stop breakfast, the bus deposited us in Çanakkale by late morning.

A statue of an Ottoman solider carrying a wounded Australian to the ANZAC trenches. The Gallipoli Campaign has been dubbed "The Last Gentlemen's War" for the multiple displays of humanity between the two sides during and after the battle. After the Allied evacuation, the Ottoman military went to great lengths to locate, mark, and respect Allied graves. In a famous speech in 1934, Atatürk's said: "Those heroes who shed their blood and lost their lives … you are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side-by-side here in this country of ours … You, the mothers who sent your sons to far away countries, wipe away your tears. Your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace. After having lost their lives on this land, they have become our sons as well." Photo by Andrew Zapf

The town rests on the eastern edge of the strait. For millennia it was positioned to influence the sea trade between the Black and Aegean Seas. During World War I it hosted the Ottoman military headquarters for the defense of the Dardanelles. Much of that era is consigned to national parks and memorials on the Gallipoli Peninsula. What remains in the town is the Çanakkale Naval Museum, which has many naval warfare relics including the big guns from the shore batteries that fired on the British Royal Navy in March 1914.

The British Empire had developed some impressive new battleships in the dreadnaught class prior to World War I and Winston Churchill, First Lord of the Admiralty, wanted to utilize them in a naval dash to capture Istanbul. Questionable British generalship met a resolute Ottoman defense and the plan was spoiled. Hastily, and with supply lines running all the way to Egypt, General Sir Ian Hamilton launched a land invasion of the Gallipoli Peninsula. It was a disaster.

The causes of the Allied failure are too numerous to be listed in this story. Just as the Western Front had gone subterranean with trench warfare, so did the fighting on the Gallipoli Peninsula. The Australian soldiers of the Australian and New Zealand Corps (ANZAC) earned the name “diggers” for the hundreds of miles of trenches they hollowed out on the tiny peninsula. Waves of men disappeared in fruitless charges across machine-gun swept no-man’s lands. The hillsides turned into a moonscape as vegetation vanished under the pummeling of artillery shells. These places are now memorials, cemeteries, and places of remembrance. Even in 2012 I could see remnants of trenches and brass shell casings still loosely held by the dusty earth. Under the hot Mediterranean sun I could only imagine the misery of the months spent on those hillsides.

I visited the cemetery for the 57th Infantry Regiment (Ottoman) where wreaths are still laid. I looked up at the cliffs at the edge of ANZAC Cove where thousands of soldiers waded ashore expecting flat beaches. Commonwealth governments still hold annual remembrance ceremonies there. And I stood at Lone Pine Hill, where one desperate charge after another wiped out a generation of Australian men. The sombreness of the peninsula was overwhelming.

After drenching myself in the bloody memories of Gallipoli we needed to reset our emotions and mentally return to the modern world. From underneath the early-summer sun the cooling embrace of the Aegean Sea beckoned. Through our boutique hotel we had arranged a few places aboard a scuba charter. The Troy was a shambles of a dive boat. The decks were unkempt and the cabin moldy. Sun-bleached wetsuits hung on a narrow rod where unrepaired rips were displayed unashamedly. The life preservers looked dangerously close to being demoted to anchors. Naval precision it was not.

A picture is worth a thousand words about dive boat Troy. Photo by Andrew Zapf

Diving in the Aegean Sea off the coast of Turkey. Photo by Andrew Zapf

Archeological site of the ancient city of Troy. For a century this ramps was believed to be the main gate where the Trohan Horse was brought into the city. Photo by Andrew Zapf

Archeological site of the city of Troy. The first archeological excavation was in 1870 by Heinrich Schliemann. His amateurish techniques and use of dynamite damaged many areas of the site. Photo by Andrew Zapf

Exiting the opening of the Dardanelle Strait the boat passed the ancient city of Troy where Odysseus devised the Trojan Horse in the most memorable feat of military deception. Ancient Greeks and Trojans fought over this critical terrain long before the Byzantines and the Turks. Our boat eventually anchored only a hundred yards from shore along the Turkish coast. Short dirt cliffs met the Aegean Sea with spectacular indifference. Groceries were delivered by an inflatable dinghy from a local village for the homemade lunch of manti. This ravioli-type dish is composed of minced lamb and beef, parsely, onion, and spices stuffed into tiny dumplings, covered with a butter tomato sauce and drenched in yoghurt. Served with big chunks of fresh bread for mopping up sauce it is the perfect companion to physical exertion. The smell of cooking onions wafting from the galley intermixed with salty sea air. The bow of the boat nodded in agreement with the rhythm of the water. It was a leisurely atmosphere on board as divers unhurriedly entered and exited the water.

I hadn’t been diving in years. A great rush of saltwater cleansed my spirit as I took a giant stride off the bow. In an instant I was weightless, reduced to the essentials of life – breathing air and peering into the depths of the unknown. It was unremarkable diving, though. Visibility was poor and aquatic life was sparse. I explored the bottom for a half hour before my air guage summoned me to the surface. After changing four o-rings on a scuba tank, my faith in the rental gear shaken, I elected to forgo a second dive. Instead I swam on the surface and sunbathed on the warm decks. The water was calm and lapped gently into a calming lullaby. I was at peace.

The next morning the hotel set a simple breakfast on an outdoor table. The white cheese, green olives, and amber honey tasted fresh as the morning was young. Turks cherish their street cats, and that morning a trio held vigil as I scooped out the inside of a perfectly soft-boiled egg. I cradled a saucer while using my palm to monitor the temperature of a traditional hourglass-shaped tea glass. It’s impossible to hurry a breakfast such as that. In a few hours I would be on the return bus back to Istanbul. In between delicate sips I reflected on the weekend that had been, the wars that had been fought there, and the legacy of a peninsula at the beginning of a new millenium.

Andrew Zapf is a co-founder of Pushing Horizons.

Disclaimer: All views expressed are that of the author. As an REI Associate, Pushing Horizons earns from qualifying purchases.

Book Reviews, Mind

Ottomans & the Turks

July 27, 2019 Andrew Zapf Leave a comment

For centuries the Republic of Turkey, and its predecessors, occupied the center of the known world. The land of Anatolia connects the peoples of Asia, the Middle East, Russia, Europe, and Africa. Sometimes by war, always by trade, the lands of Turkey have been significant in the time of man. Today, Turkey is a complex a place as there ever was. The debate over the meaning of Europe, the role of religion in politics, nationalism, and the bloody history of the last two centuries are unavoidable when you step foot on Turkish soil. Trust me, I experienced it every day while living in Istanbul. Understanding and appreciating Turkey requires the expansion of the mind to such places as the Eastern Roman Empire, the Ottoman Empire, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, and Islam.

1453 By Roger Crowley

The first book I read on the subject, and the first book I recommend to friends when they ask me about Turkey, is Roger Crowley’s 1453. It’s true what they say, Istanbul used to be Constantinople. Those five words contain more history, violence, ideas, and story lines than any other sentence in human history. The Roman Republic had expanded from a city to a kingdom, into an Empire, and grown so large that half would fall, what we know as the Byzantine Empire, to continue its legacy. Out of the Asian steppes and Arabian deserts rose a new type of power, and the Ottoman sultans came to the Bosphorus to seize the Roman legacy and inherit its future. The Siege of 1453 is the clash of these two monumental histories colliding on the Bosphorus. The ramifications are still being felt, but the days of the siege itself should not be forgotten.

The siege brought forth diverse armies and pitted Byzantine Emperor Constantine XI against Sultan Mehmet II – a.k.a. Mehmet the Conqueror – engaged in the most extreme bravery, cowardice, and treachery in a battle over the destiny of god. The revelation of the first siege cannons on the battlefield instantly made the fortified cities of the world vulnerable, and the dynamic use of naval power exemplified human ingenuity and determination.

The impacts of the fall of Constantinople were immediate and severe. At a time when the history of the Roman empire stretched uninterrupted from the Emperor Constantine XI back over a thousand years to Romulus and Remus, civilization suddenly had to grapple with the permanent demise of the empire’s last vestiges. For Europe, after enjoying extensive trade networks, reaping benefit from Roman expansion, and engaging in multiple crusades to the Holy Land, the East suddenly became a forbidden, mysterious, and impenetrable place. The very existence of the Islamic empires and caliphates would change the arc of European history. For their part, the Ottoman Sultans would look upon Europe, finally unguarded by Byzantine armies, as a prize rightfully theirs. 1453 reads like a novel and the walls of the room I read it in felt too confining as the tale unfolded on the pages in front of me. Crowley followed specific individuals, traced pivotal happenings back to anodyne decisions, and told the story of a battle that was anything but a foregone conclusion. As I finished the final page, I felt the shock of reading a breaking news story. Based purely on momentum, I turned to Roger Crowley again to further my education on the growing Ottoman Empire.

Empires of the Sea by Roger Crowley

I had the fortune of visiting the island of Malta as part of a military staff ride. A staff ride is an educational program that combines academic study, role playing, and visiting of the actual site to get into the minds of the military commanders and understand the decisions they made. The islands of Malta lie between Sicily and the shores of North Africa and has endured two great sieges in its history. During World War II, as part of the British Empire, it survived constant bombardment and blockade by the Axis powers. The fortresses built by the Knights of Saint John served as headquarters for the Allied commanders as they launched Operation Husky, the invasion of Sicily, in 1943. The island’s fortifications existed because of another siege nearly 400 years earlier – that of the Ottoman Empire. Part of my preparation for that staff ride was reading Roger Crowley’s Empires of the Sea.at

The Mediterranean Sea was the other center of the world. Without knowledge of the Americas and East Asia, the ancient world knew the Mediterranean – the Middle of the Earth – as the focal point for trade, communication, and human civilization. Less a barrier, the sea was the highway of the ancient world connecting Carthage and Rome, Egypt and Anatolia, the Holy Land and Europe. The expansion of the Ottoman Empire gave them control of the Eastern Mediterranean Sea, creating significant problems for the kings of Europe. Control over the sea meant control over the known world and the islands of the Mediterranean became the outposts of empires dependent on the sea of their prosperity and survival.

Roger Crowley wrote a second engaging book describing the island battles that defined the competition between the Christian and Islamic Empires of the late Medieval and Renaissance eras. The islands Cyprus, Rhodes, Crete, and Malta had immense importance for the Ottomans, Venetians, Genoese, the French and Spanish kings that sought to control god and destiny on earth. The siege of Malta is another study of individual bravery, folly, indecision, calculus of war, and the luck of a single arquebus shot. As in 1453, the events of 1565 had implications for the world beyond the short days of battle, but to ignore the siege itself would deprive us all of the fascinating stories of the besieged Knights of Malta, the incredible personalities commanding the Ottoman military, and the Ottoman way of war.

The Ottoman sultans reigned for centuries. Even after the empire was mislabeled to “sick man of Europe” the Ottomans adapted and persisted. My experience in Turkey involved a lot of late night discussions on the origins of the Turkish Republic and the legacy of Mustafa Kemal, so for this article I’ll skip the detailed Ottoman histories – with a passing mention of a few worthwhile reads.

The Ottoman Endgame by Sean McMeekin

Modern Turkey did not simply come about from an election or conquest. To come into existence the world had to go to war, empires had to crumble, and heroes had to rise as impostors wilted under the pressure of the moment. The end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th was an immensely important few decades. Each decision made leading up to the First World War was meant to expand influence, flex power, and further the old world order. No one thought these calculated decisions would ultimately bring the downfall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Ottoman Empire, Imperial Germany, the Russian Empire, start the decline of the British Empire, sow seeds of French decolonization, while giving rise to an entire new world order. Sean McMeekin’s book, The Ottoman Endgame, tells one aspect of these unimaginable times – the specific history of the Ottoman Empire descent and imploded, giving way to the forces of nationalism, democracy, and the right of self-determination. His writing only suffers from copious dates, names, and facts that you would expect from such a complicated story, but it brings to life the most extreme of human dramas. McMeekin does an excellent job of highlighting the foreign policy decisions and diplomatic wrangling done in bad faith, poor foresight, with wildly unreasonable cause-and-effects. Although primarily about the fall of the Ottomans there is plenty there on the other European empires and the cataclysm of World War I. As a history lover I found it gripping, as a foreign policy wonk I took copious notes

McMeekin explains the machinations of emperors and their advisers, but touches down to the actions of the common solider, the unnamed actors in the arc of history. This quote captures the eloquence of his writing with the balance he maintains:

“Battles, alas, are not fought on paper, but on rough and often unpredictable terrain, by officers and men subject to all the limitations posed by nature. They are fought against opponents who may summon dirty unexpected valor when they are pushed against the wall.” – p. 252

Atatürk by Andrew Mango

There is no understanding modern Turkey without knowing Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. He is a giant in the history of the world that does not get nearly the recognition outside of Turkey that he should. Every year, at the hour of his death the Turkish people stand motionless for a minute of silence to commemorate the great man. Cars stop on the highway, students stand in their classroom, and the average citizen pauses on the sidewalk. His legend has inspired millions, but his legend is based on in mountains of facts. Andrew Mango’s book is a historian’s book, full of details. Atatürk led an immensely interesting life and shaped what has become one of the strongest and most influential countries in the region. Reading about his influences and experiences in early life that shaped his actions is the benefit of every biography – including this one. His experiences growing up in the Ottoman Empire’s army, his bravery in conduct, and his political acumen are worthy of closer study.

Furthermore, in present-day Turkey, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s vision, policies, and actions cannot be understood without appreciating Atatürk’s long shadow on Turkish politics.

Andrew Zapf is a co-founder of Pushing Horizons.

Disclaimer: All views expressed are that of the author.

1453 By Roger Crowley

Empires of the Sea by Roger Crowley

The Ottoman Endgame by Sean McMeekin

Atatürk by Andrew Mango

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