Can the Turkish Trace in the Balkans be Erased?

In fact, the goal is summarized in these two words. "Ah Pusto Tursko". This is the claim that "Oh those Turkish times (what we suffered)" after the Ottoman withdrawal from these lands. The most typical example of this can be seen in the "Day of Remembrance of the Ilinden Uprising of August 1, 1903". 

As far as I can observe, "Ah Pusto Tursko" is everywhere, it was even made into a movie and was the subject of a cartoon series in the Nova Macedonia newspaper. Yes, this Turkish cartoon hero is a bit of a boor, similar to our "Avni the Simpleton". It has almost been brought to the point that only a "Humpty Dumpty Turk" could do this. I must say here that for some reason, although I have warned those concerned, this has not been addressed. First of all, let us say that this expression is embedded in the cultural codes of Macedonia. And by the way, not only history books, but almost all the literary works produced by Macedonian literature since the beginning of the 20th century have been written with no regard for aesthetics, to increase Islam and Turkophobia. (1) 

The Balkans can certainly mean something for Turkish people, but for us, the Muhajirs, the Mübadils and the children of the Mübadils, it means a lot. You may have heard the word "Mübadil" and the word "Etabli" almost attached to it. As you know, the Lausanne negotiations took place in two rounds. The first one started on November 20, 1922 and ended with the "Turkish-Greek Population Exchange Agreement and Protocol Agreement" on January 30, 1923. The second round of negotiations started on April 23, 1923 and ended with the Treaty of Lausanne on July 24, 1923. As can be seen, it is more or less an 8-month marathon. 

Mübadil is the name given to the compulsory migration of citizens of the Republic of Turkey and the Kingdom of Greece on the basis of religion in accordance with this agreement. "Etabli (Etablis)", a French word meaning "settled, inhabitant", is the name given to those exempted from this forced migration. So, who are they? They are the 'Muslims of Western Thrace' and the 'Orthodox Greeks' settled in Istanbul. Due to the Mosul problem, the principle of religion was accepted as a general principle in the minority system. Sir, the Balkans are a mother heirloom, Turkey is our motherland. 

The Ottoman Empire was a Balkan State, with its head and body in the Balkans and its feet in Mesopotamia all the way to Saudi Arabia. The Balkans were recognized as the brain of the Ottoman Empire of Rome III. The "Ottoman Peace" (Pax Ottomana) was achieved in the Balkans for more than 500 years, unfortunately ended by the involvement of expansionist states. Adakale, a 160-acre island on the Danube, inhabited entirely by Turks, was reluctantly given to Romania only with the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne. However, I regret to say that this Turkish trace on the Danube was also submerged in the waters due to the dam jointly built on the Danube in 1972 by Tito and Çavuşevski. 

By the way, although more than 100 years have passed, the lands left by the Ottoman Empire in the Balkans unfortunately still preserve their weak position and lack of ownership. The Hungarian-born US speculator Soros, who sees this lack of ownership as an opportunity, has made it a mission for the EU(D) to own the legacy of the Ottoman Empire directly in the Balkans. Like the Latin diplomatic term 'casus belli', both the cause and the target are clear. The target was the Ottoman Empire's province of Macedonia, consisting of Bitola, Kosovo and the capital Thessaloniki.  With the Treaty of Bucharest signed on August 10, 1913, which ended the Balkan War, the geography of today's Macedonia is the part that fell to Serbia. 

The Republic of Macedonia is one of the five republics of Tito's Yugoslavia, the South Slavic Union that institutionalized discriminations. Remember those days, after Tito's death, after the civil war that broke out, Yugoslavia, which had been standing on its feet with Tito's strong personality and artificial ties, fell apart. Macedonia, which became independent in 1991 after the break-up of Yugoslavia, is a country with a history of only 31 years. Today, however, it is Macedonia's territories in Greece, Bulgaria and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia that are being targeted. Aegean, Epirus and Vardar Macedonia are the target. But for Bulgaria and Greece, the target is directly 'Vardar Macedonia'. For Bulgaria it is "Macedonia Bulgaria" and for Greece it is "Macedonia Greece". This situation is very widespread, almost monopolized by Bulgaria and Greece. 

After graffiti graffiti on the walls, we can also see such approaches in the signs of speakers from the rostrums of the parliaments of both countries. But those lands are not won by displaying written signs from the rostrums of the parliaments. There is an elephant bigger than a camel. The code name of this situation is the USA, whose position as a mega power is now being discussed. Seeing the lack of ownership in the Balkans, the US has made its plan behind closed doors and has started to settle in Greece and Bulgaria like never before. The apparent aim is the policy of encircling the RF. However, before the US started this work, it raised one of its gigantic US Embassies in Pristina in Kosovo and, regrettably, its second Embassy in Skopje in Vardar Macedonia on the Ottoman martyrdom. The French flag still flies in the French Cemetery next to the Ottoman Martyrdom. 

What should we say? The US, which put money in the budget for the bones of American soldiers lost in Vietnam, destroyed the bones of Ottoman martyrs. According to the principle of succession in law, the Republic of Turkey, which is the continuation of the Ottoman Empire, has to protect the martyrs' cemeteries around the world and the bones of our ancestors, wherever they are, as a sign of our existence. This is one of the most important distinguishing features of being a rooted state. Let us not forget that martyrs are the title deed of a country's existence and every martyr is an indelible nail driven into the land of the homeland. Every martyr who falls to the ground as if entering a rose garden is the registration of our existence, a deed deed. 

This is why it was deemed necessary to destroy this consciousness. This is why the US believed that this was how they would end the 550-year existence of the Ottoman Empire in the Balkans. The largest military base ever established by the US in a foreign land, the 'Bondsteel Camp', also known as the "21st century arsenal", was built in Kosovo. KFOR soldiers serving in Kosovo said: "There are two things visible from space. One is the Great Wall of China, the other is this base' with praise. Spread over an area of 460 thousand square meters, the base is located in the 'Presevo Valley'. In other words, it is on the planned route of the energy corridor number 8, sponsored by the EU since 1994, and the giant 894-kilometer Trans-Balkan oil pipeline to be sponsored by the US. (2)

I think the reasons why the US is trying to wean Europe away from Russian gas and oil and make it dependent on US-led hydrocarbon energy are now better understood. 

In Macedonia, a fetishism of the cross against mosques, symbols of Ottoman sovereignty, has become rampant. The giant illuminated 'cross' erected on Vodna, the highest hill in Skopje, and the giant illuminated crosses erected in the Christian areas of Skopje symbolize the anti-Islamic-Mosque sentiment. A giant cross has been stubbornly erected in front of three skyscrapers of 40 floors each, which a Turkish company has built with great efforts and which are candidates to become a new Turkish residential area. Even the Turgutlu Mosque in Ohrid has a cross on the dome, replacing the crescent that was somehow broken. That is why people now call this mosque the "Kirst (cross) Mosque".

Even in front of the Court Building in Skopje, a statue of a Bulgarian thug with a wedge was erected. Instead of a statue of a veiled woman holding a scale in her hand, symbolizing justice, a statue of a Bulgarian bandit brandishing a dagger with the intent to kill was hastily erected in front of the historic mosques and the bazaar, which is inhabited by Albanian and Turkish Muslims. In spite of the statues of Ottoman Thinkers with outstretched hands on the opposite diagonal. 

By the way. Do any of us now remember that in the middle of Europe, Bulgarian Turks were subjected to a forced name change campaign? In my opinion, the biggest perpetrator of this in the Balkan geography is 'Todor Hristov Zhivkov'. Turks living in Bulgaria faced the forced change of their names within a period of approximately one month from late December 1984 to February 1985. In the lands where they had been living with Turkish and Muslim names for five centuries, they were forced to live not with the names given to them by their ancestors, but with the Bulgarian names deemed appropriate by the Bulgarian Communist Party administrators. This name change implemented in Bulgaria is in fact an indirect and cunning elimination of a racial, linguistic and religious distinction. 

The Bulgarian Communist Party under Prime Minister Todor Zhivkov launched in 1984 the "Văzroditelen protses" (Return to the Family) process, which claimed that Bulgarian Turks were originally Bulgarians, as the final stage of the Bulgarian nationalists' dream of creating a homogeneous nation since the Berlin Treaty, when Bulgaria emerged as an autonomous state. As a result of this campaign, the Bulgarian government declared the complete disappearance of the Turkish presence in Bulgaria by changing the names of all Turks in the country to Bulgarian names. Following the forced name changes imposed on the Turks, all religious and cultural rituals of the Bulgarian Turks were banned. (3) 

As a member of the Board of Directors of International Military Historians, in 2014 I traveled from Balchik, Dobrudja to Silistre and witnessed that the village cemeteries were also affected by this massacre. Suffice it to say that cylinders with iron rods and bulldozers entered the village cemeteries, dug up the bones of our ancestors and burned them in the dark of night in the presence of the inhabitants of the Turkish villages. I think the issue is better understood now, dear readers. 

Now we have to ask, don't we? Where are the symbols of the French Revolution's great trilogy of "Fraternity, Equality and Liberty"? Where are the symbols of peace between communities? Maybe innocent nationalism is understandable, but its counterpart on the ground is multicultural segregation, social segregation instead of integration in a multinational country, building hatred and hatred instead of love and peace. 

The second and perhaps the most dangerous target in the erasure of 'Turkish Traces in the Balkans' is Turkish, the Turkish language itself. Just as the Great Leader Atatürk said in 1931: "Writing history is as important as making history. If the writer is not faithful to the maker, the unchanging truth will take on a nature that will confuse humanity." As he stated in his laconic statement, Turkish language can only be glorified with competent people. Just as Atatürk appointed Agop Dilâçar (Martayan) as the Chief Expert of the Turkish Language Association. 

This situation is partly due to us. It stems from the fact that the work is not handed over to the competent, the meritorious, the worthy. As a religious concept, ehliyet or merit refers to one's competence to assume responsibility and exercise one's rights. This is directly related to the post or career system itself. For example, responsibility as a requirement of the career system requires having the competence to assume that responsibility. The most important feature here is that the person must first self-examine whether he/she is qualified for the task that is being sought. Even if he knows that he is not qualified, he should be able to openly say and shout that he is not qualified for the task offered to him. It is an indisputable fact that when this principle is respected, welfare and satisfaction increase in society, while when it is ignored, unqualified officials make mistakes that lead to discontent. 

For this reason, it is of utmost importance that those who will be appointed to office are determined by objective criteria based on fairness and justice. In politics, loyalty generally prevails, but in the structuring and functioning of the state, merit is essential. But if you exclude merit in the structuring and functioning of the state, then you are more likely to be in heedlessness, delusion and even treason. Gaflet is the view of those who are insensitive to the truths of faith and deviate from the path of truth, but it also means being in treason. In other words, it is a lack of awareness, a slipperiness to put it mildly. Delusion, on the other hand, is to be against the beliefs and positive thoughts that have been established in the public conscience, or in other words, to show deviation and perversion against all kinds of beliefs and thoughts. In religious literature, the exact opposite of the concept of hidâyah is to deviate from the right path knowingly or unknowingly. Deviating from the right path is equivalent to filling one's purse. It is not the homeland first, but the pocket and purse first.  

Why I have told you all this, dear readers, is because of the publication of an unfortunate book that tricked the Turkish Language Institution. The fact that a dictionary work on "Turkisms in Albanian" was prepared by someone who does not know the grammatical rules of Turkish, Arabic and Persian and whose mother tongue is not Turkish is due to the fact that it was published under the title of "Turkish Quotations in Albanian" despite the fact that a negative referee report was issued by Prof. Dr. İrfan Morina, who is very popular in the Balkans, whose knowledge I believe in. Now, we have to ask here, don't we? 

Mr. President of TDK, you both assign a friend who is an authority on assignments as a referee, and you do not take into consideration the 19-page report written by this scientist friend who has proven himself with his writings in the Turkish language world. Even so much so that our friend, Mr. Morina, said at the end of the report: "As a result, if this work is printed by TDK after all these, it will cast a shadow on the institution and it will be a waste of A4 paper. Of course, the final decision belongs to the institution." 

Yes, as Mr. Morina emphasized, the decision to publish the book in question undoubtedly belongs to the institution, but ignoring the mistakes pointed out by the referee is completely against scientific procedures. To put it mildly, as our friend said, it is obvious that it would cast a shadow on the institution. One of the most important distinguishing features of social sciences is making comparisons. Comparison is the laboratory of social sciences. This laboratory work is to add a brick to social science as a result of comparison. 

Let's leave everything else aside now, shouldn't we ask? Lindita Latifi Xhanari, the author of the unfortunate book, who is an Albanalog and the Director of the Center for Balkan Studies at UNYT (University of New York Tirana - New York University in Tirana), may God rest her soul and may God rest her soul, who was able to explain the turkisms, who are the experts in this field in the Balkans, to their own societies. Shkalyic to the Bosnians, T. Dizdari to the Albanians, I. Esih to the Croats, O. Nasteva to the Macedonians, N. Boretzky to the Germans, how has she added more value to the Turkish language? First and foremost, to put it mildly, it has made the bones of the Turkologists, especially Tahir Dizdari, who have spent their lives on this subject, to ache in their graves. Now let's give a few examples based on the importance of the subject. 

How was the word "Ink", which means united, integrated, contiguous, formation, reduced to "donkey" in the unfortunate book, and how did it take the form of "donkey" in the dictionary content? The word has the meaning of riding on a "rival" with the triplet in Arabic and means "mount". Since donkeys are used as riding animals in rural areas, the word "donkey" has become part of the dictionary. 

The second word I chose is the word "allti-ja".  Even today, the "six-shot" revolver used in Turkish is the Smith and Wesson revolver, the weapon of cowboy movies. It is a one-piece revolver with a cylindrical cartridge compartment behind the barrel that holds six cartridges. The lexicologist lexicologist friend explained this as "the name of the number that comes after five" with a great invention. Well done. 

The third word I have selected is "belegi-ja / (ankle stone)". Dizdari writes that "belegi-ja" is very common in Albanian. Wriststone is a noun. Meaning: A fine-grained yellow shale used to sharpen cutting tools such as knives, penknives, scissors, etc. In the unfortunate book, the wriststone is strangely described as a "document". 

The fourth word is "taraba-ja". The word taraba is colloquially used to mean a wooden curtain. In his dictionary, Dizdari very correctly asserts that in Iskodër tarabas, or wooden curtains, were used to cover the windows of houses until 1935. The lexicologist Lindita L. Xhanari confused taraba with "darbuka". Bang, bang, play. 

One last word is the striking word "dykme-ja". This word, which means "pouring, casting" in Turkish, has been molded and explained by the lexicologist Lindita L. Xhanari as "button", while Prof. Dr. Irfan Morina states that "button" as a Turkic word does not exist in Albanian. 

My dear, can you get away with saying that this much can also happen to the daughter of a kadi? No, the situation is too grave to be avoided in this way. You can certainly save neither the language nor the day. So what to do? The best thing to do is to remove the unfortunate book from publication due to the wrong statements and misinterpretations made, and to recall the book that is on sale. 

What shall we say, "what is not nourished by logic cannot be governed by logic". Let us conclude our article with the famous philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer's aphorism, "he who has imagination but no knowledge has wings but no feet." Yes, Dear Readers, we need scientists who have their feet on the ground, not those who fly. 

Footnotes

(1) Gerçek Hayat, “Ah pusto Tursko”, Üsküp Mektupları, 11 Nisan 2016; https://www.gercekhayat.com.tr/uskupten-mektuplar/ah-pusto-tursko/Erişim Tarihi 13 Ağustos 2022/

(2) Hürriyet Haberler Servisi, Uzaydan Görünen Üs, 06 Nisan 2008; https://www.hurriyet.com.tr/dunya/uzaydan-gorunen-us-8600959/Erişim Tarihi 07.11.2021/

(3) Hasan Demirhan, “Bulgaristan Türklerine uygulanan zorla isim değiştirme kampanyası ve Türk basını (Aralık 1984-Mart 1985)”, Rumeli’de Dil ve Edebiyat Araştırmaları Dergisi, Kırklareli Üniversitesi Dergisi, 17 Aralık 2019, s.253