Politics, Society and the Decline of Islam in Cyprus: From the Ottoman Era to the Twenty-First Century
2009; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 45; Issue: 6 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/00263200903268686
ISSN1743-7881
Autores Tópico(s)Islamic Studies and History
ResumoAbstract The definition of Turkish nationhood after the founding of the Republic has been evaluated and labelled very differently by various scholars. The classical view paralleled the official representation of Republican policies in describing Turkish nationhood as being based on a civic and territorial understanding of nationality. More recent and much more critical scholarship, which enjoys a near-hegemonic position in the study of Turkish nationalism today, claims that the official definition of Turkish nationhood has a clearly identifiable mono-ethnic orientation, manifest in a series of policies and institutions. This article argues that the definition of Turkish nationhood as manifest in state policies is neither territorial nor mono-ethnic, but rather ironically for the adamantly secular Turkish republic, the definition of Turkish nationhood is mono-religious and anti-ethnic, in striking continuity with the Islamic millet under the Ottoman Empire. The reason critical scholars perceive Turkish nationhood as mono-ethnic might stem from the dichotomous view of nationalisms as civic versus ethnic, a dichotomy that has recently been repudiated by some of its erstwhile proponents. Supremacy of the religious over ethnic categories in Turkey, as a historical legacy of the Ottoman millet system, might be applicable to most post-Ottoman states in the Islamic Middle East and North Africa, in contrast to the interplay of ethnicity and religion in Western Europe. This view of Turkish nationhood is confirmed by a dozen interviews that the author conducted with members of the political and intellectual elite of different ideological orientations in Turkey. It is then demonstrated how the new efforts at reformulating modern Turkish identity with reference to Ottoman and Islamic conceptions lead to new inclusion–exclusion dynamics with the Kurds and the Alevis, suggesting that a truly inclusive reformulation has to follow secular and territorial principles. Notes The authors gratefully acknowledge the comments and suggestions made by Rebecca Bryant, Costas Constantinou, Olga Demetriou, Moncef Khaddar, Gina Lende, Kudret Özersay, Kjetil Fosshagen, and Stein Tønnesson. 1. The Islamic connection with the island can be traced back to the early years after the death of the prophet Mohammed when in the seventh century a series of Arab raids, some leading to intermittent periods of settlement, began. İ.H. Danişmend, ‘İslam ve Türk Tarihinde Kıbrıs’, Türk Düşüncesi, Vol.8/9 (1958), pp.15–16. 2. See, e.g., C. Orhonlu, ‘The Ottoman Turks Settle in Cyprus’, in H. İnalcık (ed.), The First International Congress of Cypriot Studies: Presentations of the Turkish Delegation (Ankara: Institute for the Study of Turkish Culture, 1971), pp.76–7; and A.E. Özkul, Kıbrıs'ın Sosyo-Ekonomik Tarihi 1726–1750 (İstanbul: İletişim, 2005), pp.40–43. 3. C.P. Kyrris, ‘Symbiotic Elements in the History of the Two Communities of Cyprus’, in Proceedings: International Symposium on Political Geography (Nicosia: Cyprus Geographical Association), pp.130–31. 4. R.C. Jennings, Christians and Muslims in Ottoman Cyprus and the Mediterranean World, 1571–1640 (New York: New York University Press, 1993), pp.137–8. 5. Ibid., pp.214, 232. 6. N. Çevikel, Kıbrıs Eyâleti: Yönetim, Kilise, Ayan ve Halk 1750–1800 (Gazimağusa: Eastern Mediterranean University Press, 2000), p.178. 7. M.A. Erdoğru, ‘Kıbrıs Adası’ nın 1831 Tarihli Bir Osmanlı Nüfus sayımı’, Ege Üniversitesi Edebiyat Fakültesi Tarihi İncelemeleri Dergisi, No.12 (1997), p.82. 8. D.A. Percival, Cyprus Census of Population and Agriculture 1946 (London: G.V. Hodgson & Son, 1948), p.25. 9. Erdengiz proposes that most of those originally settled in Cyprus, primarily the Janissaries and members of Turcoman tribes of rural Anatolia, were Alevis/Bektaşis. While today's Turkish Cypriots rarely identify themselves as Alevis/Bektaşis, they nevertheless, he suggests, inherited their cultural heritage. The traditional Alevi/Bektaşi way of life (e.g. consumption of alcohol, infrequent attendance at the mosque, and general irreverence for the strict law and religious authorities of Sunni Islam), was already one particularly compatible with the Kemalist approach towards religion, hence, he asserts, the ease with which Turkish Cypriots warmed to Kemalism. A. Erdengiz, ‘Kıbrıslı Türklerin Alevi Kimliği’, in Halk Bilimi Sempozyumları, Vol.3 (Ankara: KKTC Milli Eğitim ve Kültür Yayınları, 2001), pp.240–44. 10. C.F. Beckingham, ‘Islam and Turkish Nationalism in Cyprus’, Die Welt Des Islams, Vol.5, No.1–2 (1957), p.81. 11. Numbers were estimated at around 1,200 at the outset of British rule. S.W. Baker, Cyprus, as I Saw It in 1879 (London: Macmillan & Co., 1879), available at: http://www.gutenberg.net/etext/3656. 12. The tekke is a building traditionally used for gatherings by Sufi orders. 13. About 1,000 soldiers who settled in Cyprus following the Ottoman conquest were Janissaries. The Janissaries were traditionally recruited at an early age from Christian families (though this practice changed after the sixteenth century), and trained to follow the dictates of the Sufi saint Hadji Bektaşi Veli who had blessed the first Janissaries. Amongst the various Sufi tekkes known to have operated in Cyprus during the Ottoman period the most popular was the Mevlevi tekke established in Nicosia at the end of the sixteenth century. The main orthodox Sufi sects which were operative in Cyprus during the same period were Kadiris, Nakşibendis and Rufais. T. Bağışkan, Kıbrıs'ta Osmanlı-Türk Eserleri (Lefkoşa: Kuzey Kıbrıs Müze Dostları Derneği Yayınları, 2005), pp.16–18. 14. J.R. Barnes, ‘The Fate of Dervish Property Under Ottoman Administration in the Nineteenth Century’, in H. Pamir, V. İmamoğlu and N. Teymur (eds.), Culture–Space–History (Proceedings 11th International Conference of the IAPS) (Ankara: Middle East Technical University Press, 1990), p.136. 15. B. Lewis, The Emergence of Modern Turkey (London: Oxford University Press, 1961), p.92. 16. Jennings, Christians and Muslims, p.62 and Özkul, Kıbrıs'ın Sosyo-Ekonomik Tarihi, p.248. 17. Barnes, ‘The Fate of Dervish Property Under Ottoman Administration in the Nineteenth Century’, p.136. 18. Bruce McGowan, ‘The Age of the Ayans 1699–1812’, in H. İnalcık (ed.), An Economic and Social History of the Ottoman Empire, 1300–1914 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), p.660. 19. Lewis, The Emergence of Modern Turkey, p.92. 20. J.R. Barnes, An Introduction to Religious Foundations in the Ottoman Empire (NewYork: E. J. Brill, 1987), p.102. 21. As quoted by Lewis, The Emergence of Modern Turkey, pp.91–2. 22. Barnes, An Introduction to Religious Foundations in the Ottoman Empire, p.117. 23. M.B. Seager, Reports on the Evkaf Properties, Cyprus (London: Colonial Office, 1883), pp.10–12. 24. Mazbuta vakıfs were those, ‘whose whole revenues are available for the benefit of the religion, and whose administration is in the hands of an official appointed by the religious body’. Mülhaka, on the other hand, were, ‘those vakoufs, the revenues of which are left or ceded by private persons, partly for the benefit of the religion and partly for the benefit of some named person or succession of persons, such part benefits varying with and according to the will of the donor’. Ibid., p.10. 25. R. Katsiaounis, Labour, Society and Politics in Cyprus: During the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century (Nicosia: Cyprus Research Centre, 1996), p.127. 26. Several Evkaf officials serving in Cyprus during the Tanzimat period had been implicated in such corrupt practices and actually dismissed. See C. Erdönmez, ‘Şer'iyye Sicillerine Göre Kıbrıs'ta Toplum Yapısı’, 1839–1856’ (Ph.D. thesis, Süleyman Demirel Üniversitesi, 2004), pp.98–9. 27. Barnes, An Introduction to Religious Foundations in the Ottoman Empire, pp.121–2. 28. Ibid., pp.1–3. 29. A. Nesim, Batmayan Eğitim Güneşlerimiz (Lefkoşa: KKTC Milli Eğitim ve Kültür Bakanlığı Yayınları, 1987), p.65; See also Barnes, An Introduction to Religious Foundations in the Ottoman Empire, pp.100–101 and Seager, Reports on the Evkaf, p.58. 30. Some historians have interpreted these events as a re-conversion of formerly Orthodox Cypriots back to their original faith. See, e.g., G. Hill, A History of Cyprus; Vol.4: The Ottoman Province The British Colony, 1571–1948 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1952), p.305; Kyrris, ‘Symbiotic Elements’, p.149; Others, generally Turkish historians, have assigned blame to ‘propaganda’ and ‘bribery’ employed by the Orthodox Church. See K. Adalı, Dağarcık (Vol.2) (Lefkoşa: Işık Kitabevi, 2nd edn. 2000), pp.134–5; Nesim, Batmayan Eğitim Güneşlerimiz p.65; M.H. Altan, Kıbrıs'ta Rumlaştırma Hareketleri (Ankara: Yeni Avrasya, 2003), p.14. 31. C.M. Constantinou, ‘Aporias of Identity and the “Cyprus Problem”’, ECPR Joint sessions, Workshop No.26 –Cyprus – A Conflict at the Crossroads, Nicosia, 25–30 April 2006, available at: http://www.essex.ac.uk/ecpr/events/jointsessions/nicosia/ws_list.aspx. 32. Altan, Kıbrıs'ta Rumlaştırma Hareketleri, pp.7–20. 33. B. Englezakis, Studies on the History of the Church of Cyprus, 4–20th Centuries (Hampshire: Variorum, 1995), pp.437–8. 34. Percival, Cyprus Census Report, pp.9–11. 35. Lee asserted the Ottomans insisted upon these conditions, ‘in order to make a good impression on the population of Cyprus’. D.E. Lee, Great Britain and the Cyprus Convention Policy of 1878 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1934), pp.82–3, 85. 36. See, e.g., M.H. Altan, Belgelerle Kıbrıs Türk Vakıflar Tarihi, Vol.1 (Nicosia: Kıbrıs Vakıflar İdaresi Yayınları, 1986), pp.409, 432. 37. By 1882 16 of the 50 trustees of Nicosia's Mülhaka vakıfs had already been discharged of their duties by the Evkaf's new management. Seager, Reports on the Evkaf, p.29. 38. See Altan, Belgelerle Kıbrıs Türk Vakıflar Tarihi, Vol.1, pp.505–645 and Seager, Reports on the Evkaf, pp.34–6. 39. Seager, Reports on the Evkaf, p.5. 40. In 1935 this compensation was commuted into a single payment and paid over to the parties concerned in full settlement of tithe compensation. M.K. Dizdar, ‘Cyprus Evkaf’, in İnalcık (ed.), The First International Congress of Cypriot Studies: Presentations of the Turkish Delegation, pp.213–14. 41. S.n., Dünkü Ve Bugünkü Evkaf (Lefkoşa: Kıbrıs Evkaf Yayınları, 1973), p.13. 42. N. Kızılyürek, ‘The Turkish Cypriots from an Ottoman-Muslim Community to a National Community’, in H. Faustmann and N. Peristianis (eds.), Britain in Cyprus: Colonialism and Post-Colonialism 1878–2006 (Mannheim and Möhnesee: Bibliopolis, 2006), p.317. 43. See A. Nevzat, Nationalism amongst the Turks of Cyprus: The First Wave (Oulu: Oulu University Press, 2005), pp.213–14 and Clauson to Bonar Law, 6 Nov. 1916. National Archives of the United Kingdom, Records of the Colonial Office: Cyprus, Original Correspondence 1878–1951 (Hereafter NAUK) CO 67/182. 44. F.N. Korkut, Hatıralar, ed. H. Fedai and M.H. Altan (Famagusta: Eastern Mediterranean University Press, 2000), pp.55–6. 45. Kıbrıs (Nicosia Daily), 2 July 1894. 46. Kızılyürek, ‘The Turkish Cypriots’, p.317. 47. M.O. Cemal, The Book Without Title, ed. H. Fedai, trans. F. Memduh (Nicosia: KKTC Milli Eğitim, Kültür, Gençlik ve Spor Bakanlığı Yayınları, 1997), pp.38–41. 48. E.g., see Mir'at-ı Zaman (Nicosia Daily), 24 Feb. 1908. 49. Nevzat, Nationalism amongst the Turks of Cyprus, p.224. 50. J.E. Talbot, and F.W. Cape, Report on Education in Cyprus (Nicosia: Government Printing Office, 1913), p.29. 51. H. Behçet, Kıbrıs Türk Maarif Tarihi, 1571–1968 (Lefkoşa: Halkın Sesi Yayınları, 1969), pp.56–7. 52. Talbot and Cape, Report on Education in Cyprus, p.30. 53. Nesim, Batmayan Eğitim Güneşlerimiz, pp.27, 73–5; See also R. Bryant, Imagining the Modern: The Cultures of Nationalism in Cyprus (London: Tauris, 2004), pp.110–16 and A. Süha, ‘Turkish Education in Cyprus’, in İnalcık (ed.), The First International Congress of Cypriot Studies: Presentations of the Turkish Delegation, p.240. 54. H.M. Ateşin, ‘The Process of Secularization of the Turkish Community’, in H. Faustmann and N. Peristianis (eds.), Britain in Cyprus: Colonialism and Post-Colonialism 1878–2006 (Mannheim and Möhnesee: Bibliopolis, 2006), pp.337–8. 55. Hill, A History of Cyprus, p.413n. 56. See R. Clogg, A Concise History of Greece (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992), pp.93–7. 57. Estimates diverge, however the annual colonial report of 1927 reckoned about 5,000 had emigrated over the course of the previous three years. Cyprus. Report For 1927 (London: His Majesty's Stationery Office, 1928), p.40. 58. Akay and Parry, ‘The Formation of Turkish National Identity’, p.237. 59. R. Storrs, Orientations (London: Ivor Nicholson & Watson Ltd., 1937), p.577; H.M. Ateşin, Kıbrıs'ta İslami Kimlik Davası (İstanbul: Marifet Yayınları, 1996), p.219. 60. B.A. Salmoni, ‘The “Teachers’ Army” and Its Miniature Republican Society: Educators’ Traits and School Dynamics in Turkish Pedagogical Prescriptions, 1923–1950’, Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, Vol.21, No.1–2 (2001), p.62; Söz (Nicosia Daily), 8 Jan. 1931. 61. T. Baybars, Plucked in a Far-Off Land, Images in Self Biography (Worcester and London: Trinity Press, 1970), p.105. 62. T. Atalay, Geçmişten Günümüze Kıbrıs, İdari Yapılanma ve Din Eğitimi (Konya: Mehir Vakfı Yayınları, 2003), p.110–15. 63. Cyprus Gazette, 7 Oct. 1927. 64. Cyprus Gazette, 14 Dec. 1928. 65. The view held by Ateşin and others that the British motivation for abolishing the institutions of the kadılık and particularly the müftülük was related to their concern that they not be used to challenge the colonial administration, is supported by circumstantial evidence relating to Storrs’ earlier post in Jerusalem. Here Storrs had faced difficulties with Müftü Kamil, of whose ‘grotesque insolence’ he was particularly aggrieved, and even more so with his more activist brother, Amin al-Husayni, who replaced Kamil as Mufti upon his death in 1921. Storrs, Orientations, p.388; H.M. Ateşin, Kıbrıs'ta İslami Kimlik Davası (İstanbul: Marifet Yayınları, 1996), pp.216, 241, 250–51. 66. Minute by Judge Raif, 14 June 1930. State Archives of the Republic of Cyprus, Secretariat Archives, SA1/815/1930. 67. Masum Millet (Nicosia Daily), 16 Aug. 1933. 68. As quoted in Ateşin, Kıbrıs'ta İslami Kimlik Davası, p.199. See also Söz, 1 Dec. 1932. 69. Ateşin, Kıbrıs'ta İslami Kimlik Davası, pp.199, 279 and H.M. Ateşin, Kıbrıslı‘Müslüman'ların ‘Türk'leşme ve ‘Laik'leşme Serüveni, 1925–1975 (İstanbul: Marifet Yayınları, 1999), p.51. 70. Söz, 8 Dec. 1932. 71. Söz, 4 and 25 Feb. 1932. 72. Masum Millet, 16 Feb. 1935. 73. Palmer to Secretary of State, 4 Dec. 1936. NAUK CO 67/268/4. 74. Minute by A.J. Dawe, 18 Dec. 1936. NAUK CO 67/268/4. 75. Ateşin, Kıbrıs'ta İslami Kimlik Davası, p.187. 76. Atalay, Geçmişten Günümüze Kıbrıs, pp.97–8; Ateşin, Kıbrıs'ta İslami Kimlik Davası, pp.255–64. 77. K. Alp, Kıbrıs Anemonları (Lefkoşa: Ada Tepe Yayınları, 1966), pp.46–8; and Ateşin, Kıbrıs'ta İslami Kimlik Davası, pp.264–72. 78. See text of Küçük's press conference of 17 April 1956 in Altan, Belgelerle Kıbrıs Türk Vakıflar Tarihi, Vol.2, p.1141. 79. F. Küçük, Evkafın Kayıtsız artsız Topluma Devri-Teslimi: 56 Yıl Süren Kavga (Nicosia: KKTC Vakıflar İdaresi Yayınları, 1999), p.177. 80. Ibid., pp.66–7, 121, 189. 81. See, e.g., Adalı, Dağarcık, pp.108, 199–200. While lawyers may not concur, the British do seem at the end of their reign to have indirectly acknowledged some culpability for the financial predicament of the Evkaf as reflected in a formal letter sent by Governor Foot to the leaders of the Turkish Cypriot community. See Appendix U in the founding documents of the Republic of Cyprus in Cyprus (Cmnd. 1093 presented to the British parliament, July 1960) (London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1960), pp.221–2. 82. See, e.g., H. Hikmetağalar, Eski Lefkoşa'da Semtler ve Anılar (İstanbul: Fakülteler Matbaası, 2nd edn. 2005), pp.30–2. 83. Beckingham, ‘Islam and Turkish Nationalism’, pp.81–2; Baybars, Plucked in a Far-Off Land, p.172. 84. Korkut, Hatıralar, p.45. 85. See, e.g., articles 70, 87 and 110 of the constitution of the Republic of Cyprus. 86. Atalay, Geçmişten Günümüze Kıbrıs, pp.112–13, 145–6. 87. The first, more permanent transfer of religious personnel occurred in 1973 when a request was made by Turkish Cypriot authorities to the Turkish Directorate of Religious Affairs for the dispatch of four qualified religious personnel. Since then Turkey has provided growing numbers to staff more of the unmanned Turkish Cypriot mosques. Even though their numbers have never been sufficient to cover all requirements, religious dignitaries seconded by Turkey's Directorate of Religious Affairs have nevertheless come to form the largest component of all Muslim religious functionaries in Cyprus. Atalay, Geçmişten Günümüze Kıbrıs, pp.118–19, 122. 88. Ibid., p.110. 89. See Ateşin, Kıbrıs'ta İslami Kimlik Davası, pp.383–6. 90. Ibid., pp.199–200. 91. The sheikh defended an openly anti-secular, anti-republican and anti-democratic line. Instead he advocated monarchical rule and the reestablishment of the Ottoman Empire (which he is said to idealize). That his followers have been permitted to form rising numbers of outposts around the world, notably in Europe and North America, rests largely on the fact that he explicitly rejects the use of force against political authorities. See T. Atay, Batı' da Bir Nakşi Cemaati: Şeyh Nazım Kıbrisi Örneği (İstanbul: İletişim, 1996), pp.239–64. 92. In this case the time-lag was relatively long, with the call to prayer being maintained in Arabic till 1949, most probably as a consequence of Evkaf control over imams and müezzins. Atalay, Geçmişten Günümüze Kıbrıs, p.98. 93. See http://www.naqshibandi.de/44/41603.html and Atalay, Geçmişten Günümüze Kıbrıs, pp.115, 146. 94. Adalı, Dağarcık, p.99. 95. H.M. Ateşin, Dr. Fazıl Küçük ve Seyh Nazım Kıbrısi (İstanbul: Marifet Yayınları, 1997), pp.445–6. 96. M. Hatay, Beyond Numbers: An Inquiry into the Political Integration of the Turkish Settlers in Northern Cyprus (Oslo and Nicosia: Peace Research Institute Oslo, 2005), p.38. 97. Yeni Şafak (Īstanbul Daily), 20 April 2004 and Cumhuriyet (Istanbul Daily), 23 April 2004. 98. Kıbrıs (Nicosia Daily), 22 April 2004. 99. Adalı tells the story of events in a Tillirian village as early as 1955, where, as in the rest of the island, a contemporary education was increasingly appreciated as the path to modernity. When the imam refused to allow the only available alternative, the mosque, to be used as a substitute building in which classes could temporarily be held while construction of a new school took place, the muhktar (village headman) booted the imam on the rear and forcibly ejected him from the mosque! Adalı, Dağarcık, p.11. 100. C.P. Ioannides, In Turkey's Image: The Transformation of Occupied Cyprus into a Turkish Province (USA: Caratzas, 1991), pp.140–41. 101. Ateşin, for instance, notes the commander of Paphos as forbidding Sheihk Nazım from entering the territory under his control in traditional religious attire and giving the order that the call to prayer must be voiced in Turkish. Ateşin, Kıbrıs'ta İslami Kimlik Davası, pp.350–51. 102. M. Killoran, ‘Good Muslims and “Bad Muslims,”“Good” Women and Feminists: Negotiating Identities in Northern Cyprus (Or, the Condom Story)’, Ethos, Vol.26, No.2 (1998), p.187. 103. Alp recorded how one fighter, charged with burying ‘martyrs’ in the mid-1960s recited the words ‘I was born for the flag, I live for the flag, I will die for the flag’, while performing this duty. The martyrs, in his eyes at least, had not died in the name of Islam, but rather in the service of the nation. Alp, Kıbrıs Anemonları, pp.39–40. 104. Ioannides, In Turkey's Image, pp.157–8. 105. See Cyprus Mail (Nicosia Daily), 17 June 2004. 106. Ayatollah Khomeini's speech of 9 Sept. 1964, delivered at the A'zam Mosque in Qum, Iran. English text available at http://www.irib.ir/worldservice/imam/speech/15.htm. 107. See, e.g., Kıbrıs, 21 Jan. 2005 and Afrika (Nicosia Daily), 22 July 2006. 108. Killoran, ‘Good Muslims and “Bad Muslims”‘, pp.189, 196; For a definition of the controversial term ‘settler’ within the context of Cyprus see Hatay, Beyond Numbers, pp.vii–viii. 109. See the late Salih Miroğlu's interview with Kıbrıs conducted during his campaign for the leadership of the nationalist NUP (National Unity Party), Kıbrıs, 4 Nov. 2005 and Ferdi Sabit Soyer's statement as Secretary General of the leftist RTP-UF (Republican Turkish Party-United Forces) in Kıbrıs, 6 May 2004. 110. Ioannides, In Turkey's Image, p.33. 111. Atalay, Geçmişten Günümüze Kıbrıs, p.131.
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