by halil » Wed Jul 23, 2008 10:52 am
we are talking calture !
to understand TC's calture below boring readings might also help . (by Ahmet An)
after this writing i am planing to write about eating , dresses , wedding and life , houses constructions of the TC's . I will try to compare them with GC's culture too .My sources will be elderly TC's .
“BİRLİK OCAGI” TURNS INTO “KARDESH OCAGI”
On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the British occupation of the island on 9 July 1928, there was a campaign to make celebrations, but the T/C were against it, because the Ottoman flag was pulled down on that day. Advocate Fadil Niyazi, Dr.Pertev, Necmi Avkiran and Shevket Bahcheli were members of the Nicosia Municipal Council and they published a statement protesting against the Governor Storrs’ campaign that the Turkish Cypriots should mourn, instead of celebrating the day.
Mr.Storrs phoned Munir Bey, the Turkish Cypriot delegate of Evkaf and later a great majority of the Turkish Cypriot civil servants were forced to resign from the “Birlik Ocagı”, which had Fadil Bey as its President. Only a few free professionals and 20-30 shop-keepers were left and they wanted to change the name of the hearth and have a new President. Fadil Bey resigned from the presidency and the name was changed into “Kardesh Ocagı” (Brother’s Hearth) in January 1931.
Fadil Bey comments that maybe Mr.Storrrs had understood a secret meaning of “Unity”! Misirlizade Mehmet Nedjati was already active in politics and he collected signatures on a paper from the people who were against the statement of the Turkish Cypriot councillors. Who adviced this to him was not known, but after a while he was confronted with Mr.Storrs in the elections of 1930.
THE CYPRUS BRANCH OF “ITTIHAT VE TERAKKI CEMIYETI”
Zihni Imamzade gives us the following information about the activities of the “Ittihat ve Terakki Cemiyeti” (ITC) (Unity and Progress Association) of the Ottoman Empire in Cyprus: “The first activity on the island was the inauguration of the “Ittihat ve Terakki Kulubu” (The Unity and Progress Club) in 1909 in Paphos. Djemal Has Bey, originally a native of Paphos who emigrated to Istanbul when he was young and who was a Financial Inspector in Istanbul, kept his contact with his friends back in Paphos and registered his fellow townsmen to this organization when they came to Istanbul for higher education. He helped the university students to establish a branch of the Association in Paphos with the support of the pro-ITC teachers.
Among the founders of the club, which started its activities in 1909 in Paphos in a room on the second floor of a shop of a G/C, named Yerui, were Hafuz Ramadan, Dr.Eyyup Necmeddin and advocate Hulus Bey who later became a judge. The Paphos Club had 27 official members and in the Scala branch, the Kenan brothers, Orundalizade and a lot of other personalities from Tuzla were members. Among the members of the Club opened in Nicosia were Advocate Hafiz Djemal, Shevki Bey from Famagusta, Hasan Hamit, Huseyin Bey, Fadil Korkut and Raik Bey.
Ahmet Raik Bey, brother of Fadil Bey and one of the founders of the Nicosia Terakki Club, spoke on a literary evening on 21 August 1909, citing the constitution of the club which said: “The reason why we established this club under the name of Progress was to work for the enlightenment of our community by publishing and disseminating the progressive ideas.”
According to Imamzade, one of the objectives of the ITC was to prepare rebellions and revolts on the lost Ottoman territories and to make a policy of regaining these territories back to the Ottoman Empire. The education of cadres and disseminating them among the old subjects of the empire were their aim. That’s why the teachers, who were ITC members, were sent to Cyprus from Turkey to teach at the only Turkish Cypriot secondary school in Nicosia.
Among them who were head-masters of the Lycee, were Semsettin Gunaltay (from 1907 to 1909 in Cyprus, who later became Prime Minister of Turkey), Mucteba Oktem (1912-1924), Hikmet Ertaylan, Shevket Sureyya Aytach and Kazim Nami Duru (1925-1928, who one of the founders of the Ottoman Freedom Association established in Tsalonika in September 1906).
These educators were using the same Anatolian cirricula used in the Ottoman Empire in the Turkish Cypriot schools in Cyprus. They were able to bring books from Turkey even during the First World War.
W.W.Weir, who made a research on the history of education in Cyprus, writes that as he learned in an interview with Muderris M.Hulusi of Larnaca, “some rebels escaped before the revolution of 1909 to Cyprus where they could easily disseminate their reformist ideas to the people in a more secure atmosphere under the British Administration. One of these men became a teacher in Cyprus and at the end of the year, he was expelled together with his friends by the conservative pro-British Mohammedans.”
Imamzade gives this example of Shemsettin Gunaltay who came to Cyprus as a teacher in 1901 and organized the Turkish Cypriots in the branches of the ITC in Cyprus. But he was caught and expelled from Cyprus by the British Colonial Administration. He also tells that according to the British Law of Education from 1905, the elementary school teachers were recruited from Cyprus and the secondary school teachers were brought to Cyprus through the Ministry of Education of Turkey. They had to be members of ITC and supporters of the “Turk Ocağı” (Turkish Hearth).
The other Turkish Cypriot newspapers which were supporting the policy of ITC after the revolution of 1908 were Sunuhat (1906-1912) and Seyf (1912-1914).
Milyalizade M.Zeki whose father was a T/C Young Turk, Milyali Ahmet Lutfu, gives us some names of mainland Young Turks who had been in Cyprus: Serezli Hoca Muhiddin, Captain Saffet, Dr. Behaeddin, Dr. Galip, Vizeli Hoca Riza, Poet Eshref from Izmir, Dr. Nihat Reshat and many other Turkish intellectuals. Those who were local supporters were his brother Pharmacist Asim, Ahmet Remzi, Hafiz Mulazim, Akçali Raif, Jon Rifat and many others.
