- 25/06/2025
Documentary, The Ottomans -3 of 3 Europe's Muslim Emperors
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00:00On the edge of Europe is a city that was once the heart of a mighty empire.
00:16From here in Istanbul, the glories of the Ottoman Empire came to match those of ancient Rome.
00:26Wow, look at this.
00:30This is the view that the Ottoman sultans would have seen, and it just simply takes your breath away.
00:41For 600 years, from the Middle Ages to the 20th century, one dynasty of Ottoman sultans, a single family, ruled over huge swathes of the world.
00:53The Ottomans were staggeringly wealthy. This is an empire of a million square miles. It's a superpower.
01:00The empire stretched south to Baghdad and Cairo, controlling the holiest sites of Islam, Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem.
01:12But it also reached deep into Europe, taking in Sarajevo and threatening the gates of Vienna.
01:24What's more, it was the world's last Islamic empire, and it collapsed less than 100 years ago.
01:32In this series, I'm discovering why the Ottoman Empire seems to have vanished from our understanding of the history of Europe.
01:41Why its story is exciting global interest once more, and how this year's struggles at the heart of the Ottoman story have reignited on the streets they once ruled, from Syria to Turkey and Egypt.
01:54It's remarkable how some of the most important, yet unresolved issues confronting us today were also faced by the Ottomans.
02:04The conflicts between the Christian West and the Muslim East, the need to reconcile secular politics with religious ideology,
02:12and balancing the demands of the clergy with the ambitions of the generals.
02:17All this was faced by one dynasty that ruled for 600 years across three continents.
02:24In this last episode, I'll discover how this great empire was finally destroyed.
02:32Why its achievements were largely lost in the trauma of its final few years.
02:38And how the fallout from its collapse created tensions that still resonate across Europe and the Middle East.
02:46Across the continents, down the centuries, I'll be getting to grips with what we all need to know today about Europe's Muslim emperors.
03:00The Ottomans had been part of the power politics of Europe since their rise to power in the 13th century.
03:18They defeated the Byzantine Empire and turned its capital, Constantinople, into their imperial heart, modern-day Istanbul.
03:36By the 16th century, they had become the leaders of the Muslim world.
03:41Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, the Magnificent, ushered in a golden age.
03:53But 1683 marked the start of decline.
03:57At the gates of Vienna, the Pope's troops imposed a crushing defeat.
04:01All empires had great successes and losses, and they are the same, but they have been seen only as negative.
04:14As industrial and democratic revolutions transformed Europe, the Ottoman Empire became known as the sick man of Europe.
04:23The sick man could have cured himself, and the sick man, rather late in the day, realized what he needed to do.
04:29The Ottomans tried to modernize along Western European lines, but the empire was already fracturing from within.
04:38Its lands began shrinking in the face of an increasingly appealing concept, nationalism.
04:45People who used to be peoples of the empire said, now we want our country.
04:49Why don't we become independent? Why don't we become a whole new nation?
04:52And that's why you had a Greek revolt, that's why you had a Serbian revolt, and a Bulgarian revolt, and an Albanian revolt.
05:01Nationalism created a host of new, hostile neighbors.
05:05With every one of those nationalist struggles, came tremendous violence done by the state to its society, by insurgents against their state.
05:15I think everyone was scarred.
05:17In a last-ditch attempt to hold on to power, the Ottoman Sultan tried to play the Islam card,
05:23to rally what was, for the first time, an overwhelmingly Muslim population.
05:27But by the start of the 20th century, Istanbul was a city in turmoil.
05:40Recent scenes on Turkey's streets were mirrored in the early years of the century.
05:45Tensions produced by nationalism and the struggles to modernize the empire affected the ideas of a new generation.
06:00So-called young Turks demanded democracy to replace the old world autocratic rule.
06:07One of the last Ottoman sultans, Abdul Hamid II, like his father and grandfather, attempted to modernize.
06:15The very schools and academies that the Ottomans had created were churning out.
06:24People convinced that the empire needed their ideas to reform,
06:29and they found the greatest obstacle to their participation in the sultan himself.
06:35And in their resentment against Abdul Hamid II,
06:38you can really see where people who believed in meritocracy were determined to end autocracy.
06:46The result is 1908, the revolution of the young Turks.
06:51And it's a very, it's the first example of a very widely supported revolution, political revolution,
06:59which involves not only the Muslims, but also the Christians.
07:03And there's a, there's a euphoria, there's a hope of the Armenian population,
07:08of the Greek population, of the Jewish population, of the Muslim population,
07:12that things are going to change for the best.
07:15But even as the reforming generation tried to reshape the empire from within,
07:21the Ottomans faced one final fight with the outside world.
07:25It was the moment modern European history collided with that of the Middle East,
07:30in the First World War.
07:32The great powers of Europe had been waiting for an opportunity to pounce on the Ottomans' lands.
07:52It came in 1914.
07:57It was a very serious situation for the Ottomans.
08:00They knew that this would be a struggle of life and death for the 600 years empire.
08:06The Ottomans had entered World War I on the side of Germany.
08:16They soon faced an allied attack within striking distance of their capital, Istanbul.
08:22Under Churchill's direction, the British fleet makes a surprise attack on Turkey.
08:27When you're looking down there, then, to the entrance, how many ships can I see?
08:35One, two, three, four, five.
08:37On the 18th of March, 1915, a fleet of 103 ships sailed into this very small area.
08:4716 of the 103 were some of the biggest in the world at that time.
08:52Just to see them, that was a shock for the Turks who were here on the shores.
09:04This was the Battle of Gallipoli, an attack the Ottomans had long dreaded.
09:16When the Allies made a landing, Ottoman troops were overwhelmed.
09:20But a young officer, Mustafa Kemal, or Ataturk, began his rise to prominence
09:26when he commanded the troops to sacrifice their lives for the empire.
09:31I do not order you to attack.
09:33I order you to die.
09:35Within the time which will pass by, other soldiers and officers will take our places.
09:42And with this division, he stopped the Allies on that day.
09:46What followed was stalemate.
09:57Both armies were entrenched here for eight long months.
10:02And sometimes, the opposing trenches were only nine metres apart.
10:07There were terrible losses on both sides.
10:10The total casualty figure, in terms of both dead and wounded, is thought to be at around 340,000.
10:18Eventually, the Allies had to accept a humiliating defeat.
10:28Gallipoli convinced the Ottomans that they were in a fight to the death.
10:32After years of battles that had seen them lose vast territory and great wealth,
10:39this was a war they felt they had to win.
10:43At any cost.
10:44Up to the First World War, Kurdish Muslims and Armenian Christians
11:14lived in Van in South East Turkey.
11:19This is what's left of the old city today.
11:27This picture is very important for the one history because it's taken before the World War I.
11:35And it shows how the city was.
11:39Now we are seeing there the minarets.
11:42And then the other major monuments, quarters, Armenian churches right over there.
11:49After years of nationalist struggles in the empire, Ottoman tolerance had worn out.
11:55Thousands of Armenians had already been massacred.
11:58But here in the remote East, some fought for autonomy, supported by Russia,
12:04until tensions escalated into a single dreadful event.
12:09Looking down on it now, it is completely and utterly flattened,
12:14save for just a few minerals.
12:17Why? What happened?
12:19During World War I, especially starting 1915, bad things happened there.
12:26The Russian army came to Davan and the Armenian army burned all the Muslim quarters of the city.
12:36And many Muslim population left the city.
12:41When the Ottoman army came here, take revenge, all the city destroyed it.
12:47The Ottomans had dealt brutally with Armenians before, but in 1915, their actions were unprecedented.
13:03They forcibly rounded up whole villages of Armenians and marched them to the desert.
13:08The justification that the Turks will use is the need to secure their own lines of communication
13:13and the fear of a rebellion when it's facing a major military danger.
13:19What clearly happens very quickly is a move from there to the outright massacre of Armenians come what may.
13:25There's a British parliamentary report on the deportations, containing eyewitness accounts.
13:38I looked at it with Armenian historian Ara Sarafian.
13:42Just to give one example, we have the American consul in Harput, modern-day Elazer,
13:48who describes the arrival of deportees from further north,
13:52and he gives a very vivid account of what deportations actually meant.
13:56He says, for example,
13:57if it were simply a matter of being obliged to leave here to go somewhere else,
14:02it would not be so bad.
14:03But everybody knows it is a case of going to one's death.
14:06The entire movement seems to be the most thoroughly organised and effective massacre
14:10this country has ever seen.
14:12The British report has been dismissed by Turkey as wartime propaganda.
14:19There's intense debate about what happened to the Armenians
14:22and whether it should be described as genocide.
14:29Genocide is about a deliberate intent to destroy a race.
14:36That's what it means.
14:37And why the controversy has arisen as to whether the word genocide is appropriate.
14:42has been, in part, because of the difficulty of establishing absolutely clearly that intent.
14:50Well over 2,000 villages individually were targeted,
14:54were sent away, and by and large murdered.
14:57So we can argue whether that's genocide or not,
15:00but that's pretty close to the definition.
15:02The round figure that tends to be used is a million Armenians die
15:06out of a possible population of two or three times that.
15:10It's a story, though, which did not happen because of the Ottoman system.
15:15It's a story that happened because of the fall of the Ottoman system.
15:19Armenians had lived in the Ottoman Empire side by side with Turks for six centuries.
15:23And because of the fears of nationalism at the conflict,
15:27they had this tragic end.
15:28These ruins are a testament to the final troubled years of the Ottoman Empire.
15:38It's incredible that this is all that remains from what was once a thriving city.
15:43This kind of rock cart crosses memories of the Armenian community of the one.
15:56Did anyone win in the end, do you think?
15:58No.
15:58We lost the city.
16:01And we lost the friendship between two communities.
16:03When World War I finally ended in 1918,
16:18it was the Allies who were victorious.
16:21It signaled the imminent death of the Ottoman Empire.
16:24It wasn't solely European aggression that had defeated it.
16:31Nationalism had fractured the Ottomans' diverse peoples,
16:34helping to destroy the empire from within.
16:38As the Allies set about shaping the post-Ottoman world,
16:42the deals done to win the war would sow seeds of conflict
16:46that divide the world to this day.
16:48The victors, Britain and France,
17:02now set about carving up the Ottoman lands.
17:07Russian ambitions were no longer a threat
17:09because that country had been thrown into chaos in 1917
17:13by the Bolshevik Revolution.
17:15France claimed kind of northeastern corner of Turkey around Adana
17:20and they wanted the Syrian coastline in Disneyland.
17:23The British had discovered oil,
17:26so they wanted Musra and Mesopotamia.
17:30A whole series of new countries was created in the Middle East.
17:34France got modern-day Syria and Lebanon.
17:38The British took control of modern-day Iraq, Palestine and Jordan.
17:42The borders of these countries were not designed
17:46according to any geographical reality or any ethnic reason.
17:54Iraq is the consolidation of three former Ottoman provinces.
17:59It was not logically shaped to form a state.
18:04So differences in terms of ethnicity,
18:06differences in terms of religion
18:08meant that it was storing up future problems.
18:11The British had encouraged Arabs in the Ottoman Empire
18:17to pursue the dream of self-rule.
18:20Those who had joined the fight got their reward.
18:23So the sons of the Sharif of Mecca
18:25became the kings of modern-day Jordan and Iraq.
18:29Descendants of the Arab-Wahhabi uprising,
18:31who rejected the authority of the Ottomans over a century before,
18:35became the new rulers of today's Saudi Arabia.
18:38Britain had been using the possibility of territory
18:45within the Ottoman Empire to secure allies.
18:48And so Britain makes contradictory promises.
18:51But in entering those agreements,
18:53Britain has stored up terrible problems for the future,
18:55not only for Britain's own interests in the Middle East, of course,
18:58but for the Middle East itself.
18:59What Britain didn't tell the nationalists
19:04was that it had promised Arab territory to its allies,
19:07including Zionists,
19:08who wanted a new Jewish state in the region.
19:11In a matter of decades,
19:14Israel became a reality in former Arab Palestine.
19:19It left many Arabs feeling betrayed.
19:23It is in the Middle East above all
19:25we continue to see the effects of the First World War.
19:29And I have to say in my moments of gloom,
19:31if I want to think where could a Third World War break out,
19:36it will be there.
19:38Modern-day Saudi Arabia and Yemen
19:41escaped control by the great powers of Europe.
19:45Only one other major Muslim country would achieve this.
19:50Remarkably, that nation was the heartland of the Ottoman Empire,
19:55modern-day Turkey.
19:56In 1918, the future of this country looked bleak.
20:09Ottoman power had passed on for the final time
20:12to the last Ottoman sultan, Mehmed VI.
20:16He wanted to negotiate with the European powers,
20:20but the Allies had other ideas.
20:26Lloyd George likened, actually, the Turks to cancer,
20:31that they were bloodthirsty, you know, Muslim tyrants,
20:34suppressed, actually,
20:36civilized Christian peoples for centuries.
20:38This was really merely tapping into longstanding prejudice
20:43that had both a religious and a racial element to it.
20:48And so Britain's Prime Minister, Lloyd George,
20:50decided to allow the Greeks to attack.
20:56What followed was a defining moment
21:01in the relationship between Greeks and Turks.
21:04With the approval of Britain,
21:06Greece landed troops in western Turkey in 1919.
21:10They wanted control of lands
21:13which were already home to a sizable Greek population.
21:16But officers in the old imperial army were outraged.
21:23One determined to lead the fight back.
21:26He was the same man who had rallied the troops at Gallipoli,
21:30Mustafa Kemal, Atatürk.
21:33Atatürk deliberately depicted jihad, you know,
21:36a holy war between two major religions,
21:40you know, between Christianity and Islam.
21:43It's pretty normal in the history of this part of the world
21:46that you raise the flag of religion to get everyone marching.
21:52Atatürk began mobilizing a rebel army
21:55to fight the Greek invaders.
21:59When the pushback against the Greeks came,
22:03it was incredibly rapid.
22:07The Greeks advanced too far into the interior.
22:11They overextended their lines of communication.
22:14And before long, they were exhausted.
22:17And the Turks were able to turn the tide of war.
22:26Greek troops were pushed back
22:28to the western seaport of Izmir, or Smyrna,
22:32where there was a large Greek community.
22:35In September 1922, Turkish troops followed.
22:45The city was set alight.
22:47The only escape on the waterfront.
22:53Thousands perished in the flames and smoke.
22:57Tens of thousands had to be evacuated.
23:03It was an event that the Greeks have not forgotten,
23:07the Asia Minor disaster.
23:12There was a fascinating combination of cultures,
23:15all living cheek by jowl,
23:16which was destroyed.
23:17And it's left a real hole in people's lives.
23:20It's left a sadness for a lost world,
23:25a lost way of life.
23:26The rebel army had defeated the Greeks,
23:37and they'd done it without the support of the sultan.
23:41He now paid the price.
23:42Mehmed VI would be the last of the Ottoman dynasty,
23:48stretching back 600 years and through 22 generations.
23:53From its founder, Osman,
23:56to Sultan Mehmed, who'd conquered Istanbul,
23:58to Suleyman,
23:59to Suleyman,
24:01who took the Ottomans to the peak of their power,
24:05it was all over.
24:10The Ottoman Empire began at the time of the Dark Ages in Europe
24:16and ended in the era of modernity during the 20th century.
24:21It went from before the Peasants' Revolt in Britain
24:24to the period when aviation had been invented.
24:33In 1922, the sultanate was abolished
24:37and Mehmed left for a life in exile.
24:40In the aftermath of the war with Greece,
24:58Greek Orthodox Christians living in parts of modern-day Turkey
25:01were told to leave.
25:04For centuries, they had lived side by side with Muslims
25:07in villages like this in southern Turkey.
25:11The Greeks knew it as Levitsi.
25:15Today, it's Kayakoy.
25:181,500 people needed to leave their houses.
25:21They cleaned the houses,
25:23made everything ready for the newcomers.
25:26Even they left their keys.
25:29Some of them left it into the local gendarmer
25:31to be given...
25:32The local police.
25:33Yes, local police to be given to the newcomers.
25:37Despyna Mavrikou and her daughter Vera
25:45are descendants of refugees from the village,
25:48now living in Greece.
25:49The forced relocation is still a difficult family memory.
25:53My mother says that she feels pain,
26:01she feels sorry for what happened to them
26:04because they didn't deserve such bad circumstances to leave.
26:10When Greeks left, they opened the churches
26:13and took all things out.
26:15They painted the pictures inside the churches.
26:18They didn't need to do that.
26:22They raped girls within the holy table of the church.
26:28They didn't need to do so savage,
26:32so wild things to the Greek people.
26:35It was as if they wanted to take revenge from the Greeks.
26:39The relocation of Christians was one side of a population exchange
26:46sanctioned by the League of Nations.
26:49Any Muslims still living in Greece also had to move.
26:53The Evrenos family left Greece in 1912.
27:05The ancestors of this family were responsible
27:08for founding some of the first Ottoman towns
27:11in 14th century Greece.
27:14After more than 500 years of calling it home,
27:17the family found it difficult to come to terms with their exile.
27:21What do you think about them?
27:23What do you think about them?
27:24Well, it is a painful story.
27:26The reason why my grandfather and my grandmother
27:29moved into Istanbul is that
27:32because they tried to assassinate him in Greece.
27:36What do you think about them?
27:37Living there for more than 500 years,
27:40it's your home.
27:41Of course, they left everything behind
27:43and they created their own lives again from scratch.
27:48So, it's not an easy thing to do.
27:50In total, around 2 million people
27:58were uprooted by conflicts
27:59and the subsequent population exchange.
28:03The exchange of populations enormously damaged
28:07relations between Greeks and Turks.
28:11To me, it is a sad tragedy,
28:14a lost opportunity that, in modern times,
28:20Greece and Turkey have not been able
28:24to establish closer relations.
28:30In the end, the steep location of this village
28:33proved too challenging for newcomers.
28:35It was eventually abandoned.
28:37Today, it's preserved as a reminder
28:40of the human cost of war.
28:42This is a disturbing place.
28:51Britain encouraged Greece to invade.
28:53But, of course, it was ordinary people
28:55in villages like this one, across Turkey
28:58and, of course, Greece,
28:59who paid the price for that decision.
29:01It's a cautionary tale of the West
29:06intervening in a country
29:08it doesn't really understand.
29:09In a matter of years,
29:18everything had changed
29:19in the old Ottoman heartland.
29:21Where once, about a fifth of the population
29:24had been non-Muslim,
29:26by 1923, it was only 2%.
29:29And with the Sultan gone,
29:31there was no figure to lead the new country.
29:33But there was a man widely credited
29:37with saving the nation twice over.
29:40Ataturk.
29:43Mustafa Kemal Ataturk was a war hero from Gallipoli.
29:46But what really made his career
29:47was his leadership of the Turkish War of Liberation.
29:52He emerged as a hero, you know,
29:53victory personified.
29:55He was the political leader
29:56and the military leader of the struggle.
29:59And therefore, he immediately became
30:02a saint-like figure in Turkey.
30:06That's what sealed his role
30:08as the basically unchallenged president of Turkey for life.
30:14Ataturk grew up in Salonika,
30:16the modern Greek city of Thessaloniki,
30:19when it was still part of Ottoman lands.
30:22He had been born outside the borders
30:23of the state he would lead.
30:26But he had experienced the tensions
30:28at the end of the empire
30:30and they shaped his thinking.
30:32He had a vision of a new state
30:36rising from the ashes
30:37of the failed empire.
30:39On the 29th of October, 1923,
30:51in a new capital, Ankara,
30:53the Republic of Turkey was formally declared.
30:58It soon began to impose fundamental changes to society.
31:02This factory was one of the first built in the new republic
31:07and it was a bold statement.
31:10Drinking alcohol is not permitted in Islam,
31:12but this was a brewery.
31:16The new state was calling time on its Muslim past.
31:19Ataturk would sit in cafes drinking alcohol in public
31:30so that people could see him do it.
31:32He wanted people to behave like Europeans.
31:36He saw drinking alcohol
31:38as something which Turkey could move towards.
31:45He wanted Turkey to be the equal of Europe,
31:50which in those days, of course,
31:51was basically the civilised world in his mind.
31:54Ataturk was a product of his time.
31:59Educated Turks viewed history
32:01in the same way as intellectuals in the West.
32:05It was a struggle between religion and science
32:08and religion held back progress.
32:11Ataturk was convinced that for the republic to succeed,
32:15it had to adopt modern Western ways
32:18and leave behind its traditional Muslim outlook.
32:24One of his famous maxims
32:27is that the only true guide is actually science.
32:34He really believed religion will fade away
32:37and science will reign supreme.
32:41And so Ataturk subsumed religion to his state.
32:46Almost overnight,
32:47the country started to look very different.
32:51Traditional Islamic dress,
32:52such as the headdress for women,
32:54was banned.
32:56Ataturk's vision for a secular state
32:59touched every aspect of people's lives.
33:02One of the most commonly used calendars
33:04was the Islamic calendar.
33:06Now, if Turkey had to be a European nation,
33:08it had to have a European calendar.
33:10So Ataturk implemented
33:11what is known as the calendar reform.
33:14Turks went to bed one night.
33:15It was 13.41.
33:16They woke up the next morning.
33:17It was 1926.
33:21When Ataturk adopted Sunday
33:24as the holiday instead of Friday,
33:27it deeply affected people
33:30because Sunday was associated with Christianity.
33:35He decides that Turkey has to switch
33:38to a Roman Latin-based alphabet.
33:40That switch happens once again very fast
33:43in less than three months.
33:46He gave rights to Turkish women
33:49and this happened really before such rights
33:53actually were granted to women
33:54in many Western societies.
33:55Women being discouraged from wearing the veil,
34:02the Christian calendar being adopted
34:04instead of the Islamic one
34:06and the traditional Arabic script
34:08being replaced by the Western Latin alphabet.
34:11It was a social revolution
34:13of incredible proportions.
34:18In a way, the Ottoman Empire
34:19raised its own nemesis.
34:21Ataturk wants to do it with the Ottoman legacy,
34:24eliminate everything that has to do
34:25with the Ottoman Empire
34:26and establish a republic from scratch.
34:28There is the American college.
34:31I'm here.
34:32Seyda Khan was a child in the new republic.
34:35She feels Ataturk's reforms
34:38transformed their lives for the better.
34:41Look to the West, he said,
34:44because the result is progress
34:46and enlightenment,
34:50getting after this mess.
34:54And then schools were opened
34:57where we could learn English.
35:00They learned how to put on European clothes.
35:04They learned how to throw off their faces.
35:08That's what they did.
35:11And they did it with pleasure, I mean.
35:15Nobody forced them to do it.
35:23They were poor.
35:25They wanted to be Western.
35:28Why shouldn't they?
35:34But Ataturk could be ruthless
35:36with anyone who didn't share his vision.
35:40In 1925, a new reform was introduced,
35:44which forced the Turkish people
35:45to show their acceptance
35:47of the new secular society.
35:49At the start of the 20th century,
35:53Muslim men in Turkey wore a hat known as the Fez.
35:56And this is the last place in Istanbul where it was made.
36:00At the time, it was an incredibly advanced workshop
36:03with steam-powered looms.
36:05But it all came to an end in 1925.
36:07From that point on, the Fez was banned.
36:11It's ironic because the Fez itself had been installed
36:14by a westernizing sultan in 19th century
36:17who had banned a turban.
36:19Yet 100 years later, the Fez has now,
36:22the invented tradition had become
36:23what people thought was their tradition
36:26going back hundreds of years.
36:27The Fez became a symbol for those
36:30who resented Ataturk's sweeping reforms.
36:34An Islamic scholar called Atif Hoca
36:36decided to make a stand.
36:38Atif Hoca, he had actually prepared a pamphlet
36:45and said that this was really un-Islamic, you know.
36:48So he was arrested and brought before, actually,
36:51one of those court-martials
36:53and sentenced, actually, to death.
36:57And he was actually executed.
36:59This is 1926, right after he objected to the reform
37:02of wearing the Western-style hat.
37:05To build a republic out of post-war chaos,
37:08Ataturk believed the needs of the state
37:10had to come before the rights of an individual.
37:13If you were an opponent of Ataturk's,
37:16you would know about it.
37:18But on the other hand,
37:19there was nowhere near the level of brutality
37:22or brutalisation that you saw with,
37:24shall we say, Stalin,
37:26his exact counterpart in the Soviet Union.
37:28There was nowhere near the level of brutalisation
37:31you see in China with Mao Zedong.
37:34He is very criticised today by multiple groups,
37:38but as a nationalist leader
37:40that started a new country,
37:43and was able to adapt
37:46this old imperial state and society
37:51very quickly
37:52to become a productive nation
37:56in the new world,
37:58he was very successful at that.
38:04Ataturk's choice of presidential residence in Istanbul
38:07reflected his Western focus.
38:11The Dolmabacha Palace was built by the Ottomans
38:14but influenced by the fashions of 18th-century Europe.
38:18For Ataturk, it embodied his ideology.
38:23But his new state was built around the idea
38:26of a single Turkish identity.
38:28and it didn't suit everyone,
38:31in particular, the tribal Kurds of southeast Turkey.
38:37The Kurds and the Turks,
38:38they both fought together for the Turkish Republic,
38:41but then the Turkish side with Ataturk
38:42pushed them off overboard, as it were,
38:45and said, no, actually, you're going to be Turks now.
38:47Some Kurdish nationalists say that Kurds were free
38:52under the Ottoman Empire,
38:53so we should have those rights.
38:56Kurdish resistance to the idea
38:58of a single Turkish identity
38:59had its origins in the 1920s
39:02and has continued right up to the ongoing peace talks.
39:05That's one of the big drivers
39:08of the current conflict with the PKK.
39:11Most Kurds are absolutely insistent now
39:14that their identity be recognised as equal
39:17and that they be treated fairly.
39:19And that wasn't an issue in the Ottoman Empire.
39:29At five past nine on the 10th of November 1938,
39:34Ataturk died.
39:39The teacher came in,
39:41her eyes were swollen,
39:43she said, Ataturk died.
39:46Because we saw our teacher crying,
39:49we began to cry,
39:51but when we walked up to the recess,
39:56there, everybody was crying.
39:59I was told to love Ataturk,
40:02But then, as I grew up,
40:05I realised it was the truth.
40:09He was the saviour.
40:11And I feel gratitude.
40:15And I feel appreciation for him.
40:1875 years after his death,
40:29Ataturk's presence is still felt in modern Turkey.
40:35It's just after nine o'clock
40:37on a pretty cold and miserable Saturday morning.
40:40But something unique is just about to take place.
40:48Every year on the 10th of November,
40:51at five past nine in the morning,
40:53everyone stops for one minute.
40:54They remember the moment the founder
41:05of the modern Turkish Republic
41:07passed into history.
41:09A man who created a state
41:11that is still distinct
41:12in this part of the world.
41:14What Ataturk does
41:17is he makes the transition
41:18from military rule
41:20to civil regeneration
41:22and does so
41:24with less harshness
41:25than was the case
41:26across much of the world
41:28in that period.
41:29Ataturk built his republic
41:42at the heart of the former empire,
41:44but the transformation
41:45of Turkish society
41:46didn't happen in isolation.
41:49One of Ataturk's revolutionary changes
41:51reverberated around the Islamic world.
41:59For centuries,
42:07the Ottoman sultans
42:08had also held a role
42:10of supreme significance to Muslims.
42:13In the 16th century,
42:14they laid claim
42:14to the title of khalif,
42:16religious leader
42:17to all Sunni Muslims.
42:23Basically,
42:23when Prophet Muhammad died,
42:25Muslims sat down and said,
42:26what are we going to do now?
42:27So they ultimately chose
42:29one among them,
42:30the person they thought
42:31the most pious,
42:32and he became the first khalif.
42:34But Ataturk saw the khalif
42:36as a potential threat,
42:38an alternative leader.
42:40So after the sultanate
42:41was abolished,
42:42he also got rid
42:43of the khalifate.
42:45This was a shock
42:46for many people,
42:47and it felt for many
42:49like the center
42:51had been taken out
42:52of the Islamic world.
42:54It was trauma
42:55for Turkish Muslims,
42:56it was a trauma
42:57for Arab Muslims.
42:59For the first time
43:00in its history,
43:01the Islamic world
43:02became devoid
43:03of a khalif,
43:05a leader.
43:07Now,
43:07nobody has any authority
43:09to say what is right
43:10or wrong
43:11from an Islamic point of view.
43:12When there are some
43:13radical terrorists
43:14like al-Qaeda
43:15who do some very
43:16unacceptable things
43:17in the name of Islam,
43:18there is no khalif
43:19to come up and say,
43:20this is Islamically wrong,
43:22Islam does not allow
43:23targeting innocent people.
43:24So there is a post-khalif
43:26chaos, if you will,
43:28in the Muslim world.
43:30And the forgotten fallout
43:32from the breakup
43:32of the Ottoman Empire
43:34is playing out today
43:35with bloody civil wars
43:37and the toppling of tyrants
43:38from Damascus to Cairo.
43:40But now,
43:42some in the region
43:43are starting
43:44to make sense
43:45of the present day
43:46by referring
43:47to its Ottoman past.
43:49And the reason
43:50is the remarkable change
43:51in Turkey itself.
43:53The country
43:54that so dramatically
43:55turned its back
43:56on the Ottomans
43:57is once again
43:58looking to its
43:59Islamic heritage.
44:00In the decades
44:02that followed Ataturk,
44:04secular Turkey
44:05clung to its leaders' mantra
44:06that to modernize
44:08it needed to westernize
44:09and that meant
44:10to secularize.
44:14Driving many
44:15of its reforms
44:16was the ultimate goal
44:17of joining
44:18the elite club
44:19that is
44:19the European Union.
44:22A sign of that
44:24was if you looked
44:24at Turkish
44:25weather forecast,
44:27the map
44:27would not center
44:28on Turkey.
44:29It would center
44:29somewhere in Hungary
44:30and you would see
44:31Turkey as part
44:32of European weather
44:33patterns.
44:34So it kind of shows
44:35you that the Turks
44:35thought of themselves
44:36as part of Europe
44:37but not part
44:37of the Middle East.
44:40Eventually,
44:41Turkey adopted
44:41a western-style
44:42free market economy
44:44but it produced
44:45unexpected results.
44:48Many of the
44:49entrepreneurs
44:49who seized
44:50the opportunity
44:51came not from
44:52the cities
44:52in the west
44:53of the country
44:54but from its
44:55more central
44:55heartlands,
44:57Anatolia.
44:57By the late
45:001980s,
45:01this new
45:02economic policy
45:02was paying off.
45:04Newspapers
45:04began to describe
45:05a phenomenon
45:06known as
45:07the Anatolian
45:08Tigers.
45:11This new breed
45:13of entrepreneur
45:13transformed regions
45:15like Konya
45:15in southern-central
45:17Turkey.
45:18I looked around
45:19one of its factories
45:20where they produce
45:21vegetable oil
45:22for export
45:23to 50 countries.
45:24what do you
45:25think personally
45:26about the title
45:27Anatolian Tiger?
45:29Do you like it
45:29or do you prefer
45:30something else?
45:30You like it
45:31too much.
45:32You like it
45:33because this is
45:33a tiger
45:35is a good
45:36animal,
45:38strong animal,
45:40so Anatolia
45:42is the,
45:42we are Anatolian,
45:44so this is
45:45a very big
45:46honor for us.
45:47Despite Ataturk's
45:52secular vision,
45:53religion remained
45:54important to people
45:55in these
45:55conservative heartlands.
45:57Islam is seen
45:58by many
45:59as a crucial part
46:00of their business
46:01success.
46:03The Muslims
46:04must be
46:05hardworking
46:06and trustable
46:07and always
46:08they said
46:09true things.
46:11So you have
46:11to be trustworthy
46:12as a Muslim
46:13and as a businessman.
46:15Yes.
46:15All the Muslims
46:16must do
46:17the trustable.
46:19After then
46:19they do
46:20the good business.
46:22After then
46:22all over the world
46:24people give
46:24the respect.
46:26The economic
46:28success of the
46:29Anatolian Tigers
46:30gave them
46:30political muscle.
46:33In 2002
46:34they helped
46:35elect modern
46:35Turkey's
46:36first Islamic
46:37government.
46:40The AK Party
46:42have held power
46:43for over a decade.
46:45In the old days
46:46Islam was seen
46:47as being part
46:48of the problem.
46:50The current
46:51party in power
46:52is the one
46:53that has seized
46:53upon the Ottoman
46:54story as a way
46:56to show that
46:57it is the heir
46:58of a great empire.
47:00It likes the fact
47:01that most people
47:02see the Ottoman
47:02empire as an
47:03Islamic empire
47:04as well in Turkey
47:05because they tend
47:06to emphasize
47:06the religious side
47:07of things.
47:08And they've
47:09repackaged it
47:10in their own way.
47:11They've reinvented
47:12the story
47:12to serve
47:13their political
47:14purpose.
47:15And they believe
47:16that it makes
47:16them seem like
47:18an eternal
47:19and powerful
47:20ideology and force.
47:21with an elected
47:27Islamic party
47:28and government
47:28Turkey's
47:29undergoing a change.
47:31One which is
47:32reconnecting
47:33with its Ottoman
47:34past.
47:36But not
47:37everyone
47:37is happy.
47:41Secularists
47:41worry that it's
47:42turning back
47:43the clock
47:43in Turkey
47:44undoing
47:44decades
47:45of social
47:46reform.
47:46There's even
47:52been controversy
47:53over a hit
47:54TV show
47:55about the
47:55Ottomans.
48:09Set in the
48:1016th century,
48:12the golden age
48:12of the empire,
48:14magnificent century
48:15attracts 200
48:16million viewers
48:17worldwide.
48:30But it's a show
48:31that polarizes
48:32people and the
48:33directors have
48:34faced a storm
48:35of protest.
48:39You are just
48:40making a TV
48:40series and
48:41everybody in
48:42the country
48:42suddenly
48:44was talking
48:45about it.
48:46I mean,
48:47we were
48:48sitting in
48:49at our
48:50homes
48:50and all
48:51the channels
48:52all of them
48:53were talking
48:54about your
48:54show.
48:56You couldn't
48:57believe it.
48:57It was like
48:58a horror movie
48:59for us.
49:03Before that,
49:04no one
49:04wanted to make
49:06a thing like
49:07that about
49:07Ottoman
49:08because it's
49:08very sacred
49:09issue,
49:11untouchable.
49:15Some
49:16dislike the
49:17TV show
49:18because they
49:18revere this
49:19Islamic history.
49:22Others
49:22don't approve
49:23because they
49:23blame the
49:24Ottomans for
49:24everything that
49:25went wrong
49:26in their
49:26nation.
49:27people are
49:52interested only
49:53to know what
49:53was happening
49:54in the palace.
49:55The fine arts,
49:56the music,
49:57the poetry,
49:58oh, I love
49:59it.
49:59The costumes
49:59are very nice,
50:01the jewelry is
50:02beautiful,
50:03the miniatures
50:03also, but it
50:05wasn't all.
50:06Ottoman Empire
50:07had its ups and
50:08downs and it
50:10had huge
50:11sufferings as
50:12well.
50:15The actor in the
50:17lead role of
50:18Sultan Suleiman
50:18welcomes the
50:20debate.
50:21People started
50:22to read history
50:23and they started
50:25to discuss
50:25about history
50:26and they are
50:28trying to learn
50:29what's right and
50:29what's wrong
50:30and they're
50:31discussing.
50:32So this is
50:34good for the
50:34future, very
50:36promising because
50:37you know, if you
50:38know your history
50:39then you can build
50:42your future in a
50:43healthy way.
50:44I think the
50:51resurgence of
50:53this interest in
50:55the Ottoman Empire
50:55today is both
50:58positive and
50:59also negative.
51:01Religious
51:02extremism has
51:03given us this
51:04image of
51:05Islam as
51:06intolerant.
51:08So the
51:08Ottoman Empire
51:09is a very good
51:11example of
51:12tolerant Islam
51:13for a very
51:14long time.
51:16On the other
51:16hand, the end
51:18of the Ottoman
51:19Empire was
51:20horrendous, where
51:21massacres
51:22happened, where
51:23populations were
51:24eliminated.
51:33Every Turk
51:34today has a
51:35vision of the
51:35Ottoman Empire
51:36and if you just
51:38ask a Turk,
51:38what do you
51:38think of the
51:39Ottoman Empire,
51:40you'll get an
51:40answer and that
51:41answer will tell
51:42you what political
51:43camp that Turk
51:44is probably in.
51:46Conservatives
51:47generally identify
51:48with the Ottoman
51:49Empire, praise it
51:50as their model,
51:52as the source of
51:52their heritage,
51:53whereas more
51:54secularist Turks
51:55look at the
51:56empire as
51:56somewhat corrupt.
51:59But the TV
51:59series about the
52:00Ottomans doesn't
52:01just attract viewers
52:03in Turkey.
52:04This history is
52:05being opened up
52:06across former
52:07Ottoman lands,
52:08from the Balkans
52:09to the Middle
52:09East.
52:12500 years ago,
52:14it was Sultan
52:15Selim the Grim
52:16who brought
52:16Ottoman rule to
52:17cities like
52:18Damascus and
52:19Cairo.
52:20Now the Ottoman
52:21past is a topical
52:23subject here too.
52:24in 2006, I went
52:33for a visit to
52:33Damascus,
52:34the Syrian
52:34capital.
52:36My guide, who
52:37was fantastic
52:38otherwise, the
52:39first morning took
52:40me for a tour of
52:40the city and he
52:41took me to the
52:41central square of
52:42Damascus.
52:44Now I'm originally
52:44from Turkey.
52:46He looked at me
52:46and he said,
52:47this is where your
52:47grandparents executed
52:49my grandparents.
52:49Of course, my
52:50grandparents were not
52:51in Damascus, but
52:52this is how the
52:53Arabs look at
52:53Turkish legacy.
52:54They see it as
52:55the former
52:56imperial masters.
53:01In Cairo as
53:02well, discussion
53:03of the old era
53:04of Ottoman rule
53:05was back on the
53:06agenda after the
53:07Arab spring
53:08uprisings.
53:09The Turkish
53:10Prime Minister,
53:11Recep Tayyip
53:12Erdogan, was
53:13greeted like a
53:14visiting celebrity
53:15by supporters of
53:16the former
53:16government of
53:17Egypt, the
53:18Muslim Brotherhood.
53:19They appeared
53:20delighted to see
53:21a strong outwardly
53:22Muslim leader
53:23ready to speak out
53:24against Israel
53:25and for the
53:26Palestinians.
53:29There's a
53:30Turkish leader
53:31who shows up
53:31in Cairo right
53:32after the fall
53:33of the Mubarak
53:34dictatorship there
53:35and he's met
53:36by a million
53:37people at the
53:38airport, so he
53:39receives a very
53:40warm welcome.
53:42But when the
53:43Turkish Prime
53:44Minister appeared
53:45to advocate the
53:46value of a
53:46secular transformation
53:47in Egypt, the
53:49enthusiasm cooled
53:50in some quarters.
53:52I think Turkey's
53:54plans to become
53:55a regional leader
53:56will be checked
53:57by the reality
53:58that the Arabs
54:00don't want a
54:00big brother to
54:01come and tell
54:02them what to
54:03do.
54:04And yet, Ottoman
54:05history is
54:06unmistakably present
54:08within the debate
54:09about the future.
54:11The specter of
54:11what's been termed
54:12neo-Ottomanism is
54:14used to raise
54:15concerns about
54:16Turkey's growing
54:17prestige.
54:17Syria's
54:19embattled
54:19President
54:20Assad, for
54:20example, has
54:21accused the
54:22Prime Minister
54:22of aspiring
54:23to be an
54:24Ottoman-style
54:25sultan.
54:26Personally, he
54:27thinks that he
54:27is the new
54:28sultan of the
54:29Ottoman and
54:30he can control
54:30the region as
54:31it was during
54:32the Ottoman
54:32empire under
54:34different, let's
54:36say, umbrella.
54:37But that
54:38umbrella in
54:39Turkey is
54:40democratic.
54:41Unlike
54:41President
54:42Assad, who
54:43effectively
54:43inherited his
54:44rule from
54:45his father, or
54:46the Ottoman
54:46dynasty sultans
54:47whose family
54:48also passed
54:49power down
54:50the generations,
54:51this government
54:52can be voted
54:53out.
54:55Turkey is a
54:56combination of
54:57its current
54:58Islamic leadership,
54:59its secular
55:00century, and
55:01its Ottoman
55:02past.
55:04Even in the
55:05post-Atatürk
55:06phase, Turkey's
55:07leaders have a
55:08little bit of
55:09Atatürk in
55:09them.
55:10This idea that
55:11this country has
55:12some unique
55:13aspects of its
55:14identity that
55:15is secular, that
55:16it's Western, and
55:18a little bit of an
55:19Ottoman sultan
55:20also, but it
55:21tells us so much
55:21about modern
55:22Turkey that this
55:23is a country that
55:25is rooted in the
55:25Ottoman Empire.
55:27And a
55:28democratic Turkey
55:29reconnecting its
55:30public life to
55:31Muslim traditions
55:32offers not fear
55:33but hope to
55:35politicians in the
55:35West.
55:38America in
55:39particular has
55:40been keen to
55:40see Turkey as
55:41a role model
55:42for other
55:43Middle Eastern
55:43countries.
55:46Some people
55:47are hoping that
55:48Turkey has a
55:49magic wand and
55:50that these other
55:51countries can
55:52somehow magically
55:53become Turkeys
55:54and become
55:55somehow tame.
55:57But I think it's
55:57very unwise to
55:58try and transfer
55:59the very individual
56:00experience of
56:01Turkey onto the
56:02other very
56:03difficult experiences
56:04of the very
56:05separate countries
56:06of the Middle
56:07East.
56:07There's a
56:08debate about
56:09whether Turkey
56:09serves as a role
56:10model that Islam
56:12and modernity can
56:12coexist.
56:14I think Turkey
56:15is as far
56:17advanced a case
56:18that can be made
56:19that a country
56:21can be mostly
56:22Muslim yet at the
56:23same time part
56:25of both the
56:28global society
56:28and the global
56:29economy.
56:29the Ottoman story
56:35tells us that
56:36for centuries
56:37a Muslim empire
56:38based in Europe
56:40was a global
56:41leader.
56:42An advanced,
56:43highly organized
56:44state with a
56:45sophisticated culture
56:46and for its time
56:47tolerance of
56:48religious difference.
56:49the modern day
56:52politics of the
56:53region continue
56:54to be buffeted
56:55by Western
56:56powers as they
56:57have been since
56:58it was the sick
56:59man of Europe.
57:02This is both a
57:04European story
57:05and a Middle
57:06Eastern story.
57:11Syria,
57:12Lebanon,
57:13Palestine,
57:14Libya,
57:15Tunisia,
57:16Yemen and
57:16Egypt,
57:17the hot spots
57:18of the 21st
57:19century in the
57:20Middle East,
57:21all former
57:22Ottoman lands
57:22bound together
57:23once more
57:24by political
57:25aspirations for
57:26change.
57:28And re-emerging
57:30as a role model
57:31for this
57:31revolutionary
57:32Middle East
57:33straddling
57:34East and West,
57:35Islam and
57:36democracy
57:36is Turkey.
57:40This is a
57:41nation that
57:42knows what it
57:43is to have
57:43an imperial
57:44expansionist
57:45past.
57:46It understands
57:47that it lives
57:48in a truly
57:49secular society
57:50and it's
57:51learning what
57:52it is to be
57:53Islamic and
57:54democratic.
57:55And from this
57:56melting pot of
57:57options,
57:57Turkey will
57:58decide its
57:58future, a
57:59decision that
58:00will affect
58:00all of us.
58:03The relationship
58:04between East
58:05and West
58:06isn't just
58:06symbolized in
58:07this country
58:08where the
58:09continents meet.
58:11Since the
58:11Middle Ages,
58:12it's a
58:12relationship
58:13which has been
58:14defined by what
58:15happened here.
58:16and today
58:18it's at the
58:18heart of a
58:19battle between
58:20democracy,
58:21secularism and
58:22Islam.
58:24At stake are
58:24regional and
58:25global ambitions
58:26and agendas
58:27that cannot be
58:28understood without
58:30grasping the
58:30history and
58:31legacy of the
58:33Ottomans,
58:34Europe's
58:35Muslim
58:35emperors.
58:44More history on
58:45BBC4 now with
58:47the rites and
58:47rituals of
58:48medieval marriage,
58:49how the church
58:50tried to control
58:51a conjugal free-for-all.
58:53Here on BBC2 next,
58:55the wrong man's.
59:05views of
59:07and
59:07aisia
59:08próxima
59:09point.
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59:10
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