Turkije erkent genocide op oorspronkelijke bewoners VS

[Revisor]

The Young Turks: Who Were They?

During the last quarter of the 19th century, the Near East Question passed into its critical phase. As a result of the Russo-Turkish war of 1877-78, the Ottoman Empire lost extensive territory mainly in the Balkans where the "autonomous" states of Bulgaria, Bosnia, and Herzegovina passed into the defacto administrative sphere of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Thessaly and the prefecture of Artas were ceded to Greece, and in Asia, Russia annexed the territories of Kars and Ardachan in Turkish Armenia. In Africa, the English claimed Egypt, and the French Tunisia, while the Italians did not bother to conceal their territorial ambitions toward Tripoli. Meanwhile, the dissident movements in Crete, Armenia, and Macedonia were beginning to reach worrisome levels for the Turkish Sultanate.

One of the first real threats to the Ottoman Throne was a hard-core, conspiratorial group that formed in 1889 among the students of the Military Medical School in Constantinople. The dissatisfaction, though, was widespread throughout the entire military, and had to do with what might be considered today to be union demands: low wages that were paid sporadically and after months of waiting, a promotion system that was torturously slow and not based on merit but on connections, and a cynical disappointment engendered by the promised but never actualized modernization of the military. The main motivating factor in the ever-widening discontent, however, was an agony and concern over the independence of the Turkish State and how best to ensure its continuance. Added to this, and of equal concern, was the problem having to do with the welfare and perpetuation of the Muslim populations living among the many other ethnicities within the Empire.

The conspiratorial leadership, who came to be known as the Young Turks, expressed their dissatisfaction with the status quo, throwing all of the blame on the Sultan, Abdul Hamit, who they proclaimed to be too dictatorial. They demanded his exile -- though not the abolishment of the Sultanate -- together with the restoration of the constitution of 1876.

Union and Progress
The Young Turk movement -- after many mishaps and near dissolution -- finally achieved it first goal. In early July of 1908, led by the officer-members of the Committee of Union and Progress (Itihàt vè Terakì), the Turkish troops stationed in Macedonia refused to obey orders coming from Constantinople. The Young Turks then sent a telegraphed ultimatum to the Sultan from Serres on the 21st of July. They demanded the immediate restoration and implementation of the constitution, and threatened him with dethronement should he fail to comply. On the 24th of July, Abdul Hamit announced that the constitution had been restored and was in full force and effect.

The subsequent mid-20th century overthrow of King Farouk in Egypt by the Nasserite revolutionaries bears some striking similarities to the Young Turk movement. There are, however, some very striking differences as well. Some of these are: 1) the diverse ethnic background of the conspirators; 2) the significant and crucial role played by the allied movement of fellow-conspirators known as the Donmè (Jews who had converted [?] to Islam); and, 3) the enthusiastic way in which the conspiracy was embraced by Masonic elements.

As far as the multiethnic composition of the conspirators is concerned, one need only read their names to verify their diverse background: Tserkès (Circassion ), Mehmet Ali, Xersekli (Herzogovinians), Ali Roushdi, Kosovali (Kosovars) and others. In many cases, the ethnic origin of the conspirator was not evident from the name: Ibrahim Temo was an Albanian, as was Ismail Kemal. Murat Bey Dagestanos and Achmet Riza had an Arkhazian father and an Austrian mother. One of the theoreticians of the movement was Ziyia Ngiokali, a Kurd, while one of the major planners of tactics and theory was a Jew from Serres who went by the name of Tekìn Alì (real name, Moshe Cohen). The telegraph-office clerk who became one of the ruling troika of post-revolutionary Turkey, Talaàt Pasha, was Bosnian, Pomack, or Gypsy; the point being that he was not a Turk. We should also make note of the fact that the Committee of Union and Progress admitted many members from areas outside of the Ottoman Empire, and that some of these even served on its Central Committee.

Masonic elements
The strong connection between theItihàts (conspirators) and Masonry is a well-documented fact. The leftist Turkish writer, Kamouran Mberik Xartboutlou, in his book, The Turkish Impasse (from the Greek translation of the French publication of 1974. p.24), wrote: "Those who desired entry into the inner circle of that secret organization [theItihàt], had to be a Mason, and had to have the backing of a large segment of the commercial class." The true nature of the relationship between the Young Turks and the Masonic lodges of Thessaloniki has been commented upon by many researchers and writers. In her well-known and extensively documented book, Secret Societies and Subversive Movements (London. 1928, p. 284), author and historian Nesta Webster writes that "The Young Turk movement began in the Masonic lodges of Thessaloniki under the direct supervision of the Grand Orient Lodge of Italy, which later shared in the success of Mustapha Kemal."

Of course, the precise nature of this relationship is clouded in mystery, but enough facts exist allowing for more than just informed conjecture based on circumstantial evidence. An example of the Itihàt-Masonic connection is the interview that Young Turk, Refik Bey, gave to the Paris newspaper Le Temps, on the 20th of August 1908: "It's true that we receive support from Freemasonry and especially from Italian Masonry. The two Italian lodges [of Thessaloniki] -- Macedonia Risorta and Labor et Lux -- have provided invaluable services and have been a refuge for us. We meet there as fellow Masons, because it is a fact that many of us are Masons, but more importantly we meet so that we can better organize ourselves."

The Jewish Component
TheDonmè ("convert" in Turkish), was a Hebrew heresy whose followers converted [?] to Islam in the 18th century. They were most heavily concentrated in Thessaloniki. According to the Great Hellenic Encyclopedia [Megali Elliniki Enkiklopethia]: "It is generally accepted that the Donmè secretly continue to adhere to the Hebrew religion and don't allow their kind to intermarry with the Muslims.

" The disproportionate power and influence (in light of their number) that the Donmè had on both the Ottoman Empire and on the Young Turk movement has been the subject of a great deal of commentary by many observers and researchers. The eminent British historian, R. Seton Watson, in his book, The Rise of Nationality in the Balkans. London, 1917 (H Gennisi tou Ethnikismou sta Valkania), wrote the following: "The real brains behind the [Itihàt] movement were Jews or Islamic- Jews. The wealthy Donmè and Jews of Thessaloniki supported [the Young Turks] economically, and their fellow Jewish capitalists in Vienna and Berlin -- as well as in Budapest and possibly Paris and London -- supported them financially as well.

In the January 23rd, 1914, issue of the Czarist Police [Okrana] Ledger (Number 16609), directed to the Ministry of the Exterior in Saint Petersburg, we read: "A pan-Islamic convention ofItihàts and Jews was held in the Nouri Osman lodge in Constantinople. It was attended by approximately 700 prominentItihàts and Jews, including "Minister" Talaàt Bey, Bentri Bey, Mbekri Bey, and (Donmè) Javit Bey. Among the many Jews in attendance, two of the most prominent were the Head of the Security Service, Samouel Effendi, and the Vice-Administrator of the Police, Abraham Bey."


Donmè and Constantine
The numerous Donmè in positions of authority within the machinery of the Itihàt government, as well as on the powerful Central Committee, strengthens the conviction that their influence was widespread and vital to the cause. Ignoring the names mentioned in the Czarist Police Ledger, and even ignoring such Jews as the fanatical Pan-Turkic Marxist revolutionary and poet, Hikmet Nazim, or even the many casual allusions [as if it were common knowledge at the time] to the Jewish descent of that most dedicated believer in the Young Turk movement, Mustapha Kemal "Atatürk," one still finds oneself wondering by what authority and under whose auspices was such an obscure Jewish Donmè from Thessaloniki, by the name of Emmanouel Karasso, able to become a member of the three-man committee that announced his dethronement to Sultan Abdul Hamit after the counter-coup of April 1909?

Compelling, too, is the widely-referenced document which states that Constantine, the King of Greece at the time, characterized the entire Young Turk movement as composed of "Israelites."According to the facts presented in her book, Glory and Partisanship, the Greek professor of the University of Vienna, Polychroni Enepekithi, contends that Constantine made that characterization while complaining to the German Ambassador in Athens about the outrages committed by Young Turks against Hellenes living in the Ottoman Empire.

These references to the relationship between theDonmè, the Masons, and the Young Turks has not been prompted by anti-Semitism or Masonophobia. Rather, we are attempting to shed some light on what to us seems like a puzzling paradox in this revolutionary movement, which is: Why it is that this non-Turkish leadership struggled so hard under the banner of justice for the Turkish people? Also, why is it that others, having nothing to do with Sunnite Islam [the form of Islam practiced in Turkey] struggled equally hard under the banner of justice for Islam? The only answer to this
paradox demands that we consider that there may have been another reason behind their fervid struggle, and that this unstated cause is what bound these "ideologues" together.

Source Nemesis. by Ioasif Kassesian. September 2001. pp. 64-66. Translated by staff.


Crypto Jews - The Young Turks Who Were They 2

[Revisor]

THE HYSTORY OF FREEMASONRY IN TURKEY

By RW Bro. Celil Layiktez P.Asst. G. M
Lodge Zeytin Dali No. 146 Grand Lodge of Turkey
Editor of TESVÝYE (The level)
The Masonic Magazine of the Grand Lodge of Turkey

Note: The archives of lodges in Turkey, prior to the foundation of the Grand Lodge in 1909, were in the hands of foreign obediences. These documents were lost due to wars, persecution, fires etc. I was able to reconstruct the history of Freemasonry in Turkey through a research in the archives of the Grand Orient de France, preserved from the Germans during the occupation in the Bibliothèque Nationale Française (1890 pages microfilmed), plus the archives of the Grand Lodges of England, Ireland and Scotland. The Greek and Italian Masonic archives had been destroyed during the German occupation.

1721- 1826

A lodge which name is lost, operated in Istanbul, somewhere near the Galata tower, during the reign of Osman III (1703 – 1730). The lodge was founded probably c. 1721 by Levantines (mainly Genoese people) living in the tower quarters.

The first known Turkish Mason is Sait Çelebi, ambassador to France and later grand vizier. The French officer, Count de Bonneval, after some intrigues in the French Court during the reign of Louis XIV, immigrated to England and later came to Turkey to reorganize the Turkish army. Count de Bonneval took a Turkish name and became Kumbaraci Ahmet Osman Pasha. It is said that he was a mason. Another known mason in this period is Ibrahim Müteferrika, who together with Sait Çelebi, started the first printing press used by Muslim subjects of the Ottoman Empire. (The Christians and Jews had their printing presses).

In the Phanar archives (The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate) a French Masonic ritual translated into Greek in 1747, was found by Bro. Andrea Rizopoulos.

10 years after the excommunication of freemasonry by Clement XII, in 1748 Mahmud I, under the pressure of his Christian subjects and also the Muslim clergy, which thought that the Pope would not charge a fraternity with atheism in vein, outlawed freemasonry in the Ottoman Empire. An English lodge was sacked by the police, but as the British ambassador gave notice in due time, the list of members had been rescued. In the Vatican archives, there is a letter by the Pope congratulating the French Cardinal Tencin, and wishing that the same could be done in Naples.

According to Gould, the British Consul in Aleppo, Alexander Drumond had been appointed as District Grand Master for the Orient by the Grand Lodge of England. Later in 1764, Dr. Dionysios Menasse had been appointed District Grand Master for Asiatic Turkey and Armenia.

In 1786 a second charter had been given by the lodge Saint Jean d’Ecosse in Marseilles to the Lodge Saint Jean d’Ecosse des Nations Réunies in Izmir. The first charter had been lost during the big Izmir fire. According to the correspondence, this lodge had been consecrated after 1751 and before 1778. The lodge was closed in 1826.

In the last decade of the 18th Century, Selim III’s step mother and counsellor in his foreign policy, Nakshidil Sultan (Wife of Abdulhamit I and mother of Mahmud II) was the cousin of Josephine, Napoléon’s wife. Under her influence, lodges from different obediences prospered in the Empire. But in 1826, Mahmut II abolished the Janissaries to create a modern army and outlawed the order of the Bektashis to which they all belonged. As Freemasonry was described as a “kind of Bektashism, it was also closed and known freemasons were sent into exile.

1826-1856

Mustafa Reshit Pasha, Grand Vizier, had promulgated the Reform Edict of 1839. It is said that he had been initiated while he was Ambassador to London. No evidence has been found for this initiation. His lodge is not known and as there were no family names at the time, the names of Reshit and Mustafa should be scanned, and even if found, it still could be someone else. His good friend, the British Ambassador to Istanbul, Lord Reading, was a known freemason.

After 1839, with the unofficial permission by the Grand Vizier, Freemasonry had a slow revival in Turkey.

The Crimean War

The arrival of British, French and Piemontise expeditionary forces and diplomats in Istanbul and Izmir in 1856 led to an explosion of lodges under different obediences.

In 1857 the short lived <I>Grande Loge de Turquie was founded in Izmir, by the Grand Orient of France. After the end of the Crimean War, with the departure of foreigners, this grand lodge came to an end.

The creation of an irregular Irish Grand Lodge

In 1856, Captain Atkinson, an Irish officer in the 47th British Regiment, claiming to possess an Irish warrant created three lodges in Izmir and then“The Grand Lodge of the Ancient and Honourable Fraternity of Free and Accepted Masons of TURKEY. (The Constitution of this grand lodge is in the Irish archives.) This was a fraudulent commercial enterprise. Atkinson initiated 200 masons and then disappeared with the funds.

The creation of the District Grand Lodge of Turkey (English Constitution)

The irregular masons, initiated by Captain Atkinson, started to visit or join English and French lodges. There was literally a panic in London and in a swift move, Grand Master Lord Zetland ordered the foundation of the Provincial Grand Lodge of Turkey, in Istanbul, the first Provincial Grand Master being the British Ambassador Sir Henry Bulwer. The consecration ceremony took place on the 24th June 1862 in the Embassy.

The Supreme Council of Turkey (1861)

The founder (1861) and first Sovereign Commander of the Scottish Rite in Turkey (1864) was Prince Abdülhalim Pasha, or shortly, Halim Pasha, Brother of the Khedive (Governor of Egypt, attached to the Ottoman Empire) and uncle of the Khedive Ismail Pasha under whose rule the Suez Channel had been opened. Halim Pasha was also Grand Master of the Provincial Grand Lodge of Egypt (English Constitution). In 1869 this Supreme Council has been recognized by the American Southern Jurisdiction.

The extinction of the Provincial Grand Lodge of Turkey

In 1869 Lord Bulwer had been recalled to London. The above mentioned Halim Pasha was in exile in Istanbul. Having good relations with the Sultan, he was proposed as Provincial Grand Master. But as his proficiency of the English language was not sufficient, an American, John Peter Brown, Secretary at the American Embassy and known writer and researcher of the Islamic mysticism was elected in his place. Hyde Clark, the P.D. Regional G.M. in a letter to a Bro. Harvey (2) in London, proposed that two Grand Masters should be elected together, Peter Brown for the current management of the Grand Lodge and Halim Pasha for his relations with the court. This proposition was not carried on.

After Brown, in 1873 Bro.Stephen Scouloudi has been elected Grand Master. The Provincial Grand Lodge was run inefficiently. Dues were not or could not be collected. In 1884 when Scouloudi resigned, no one was elected in his place. At that time there were 4 English Lodges in Istanbul and 7 in Izmir.

Lodges at the end of the 19th Century

At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th , there were 11 English, 7 Scottish, 2 Irish, 1 Polish, 2 Spanish, 5 German, 15 Italian, 2 Greek, 6 French, 1 Hungarian lodges plus a few chapters attached to the English, Scottish and Irish lodges in Istanbul, Izmir and Thessalonica alone. {There were many lodges in the rest of the big cities of the Empire too (in the provinces of Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Bulgaria, Romania and Macedonia and also in different cities of Anatolia) but as they were irrelevant in the creation of the Grand lodge of Turkey, I did not include them in this study.}

Constitutional Monarchy

Three sons of Sultan Abdulmedjit, the Princes Murat (later Sultan Murat V) and two of his brothers, Nurettin and Kemalettin had been initiated in the French Lodge Prodoos. Five Grand Viziers, including Midhat Pasha who masterminded the first Constitutional Monarchic regime, Turkish ambassadors to European countries and foreign ambassadors to Turkey, famous freedom writers and poets were members of this lodge. Louis Amiable, French Lawyer and politician, writer of the history of the Lodge les Neufs Soeurs”cradle of the Encyclopedists in Paris before the Revolution, was the Orator of the Lodge. (He was in Istanbul on contract to reorganize the Turkish Bar Association).

After the suicide (?) of Sultan Abdulaziz, Prince Murat acceded to the throne on the 30th May 1876, but due to a mental illness, was deposed three months later and his brother Abdulhamit was enthroned, after bargaining with Bro. Midhat Pasha, and thus promising to start the constitutional process. He was not long to go back on his promise.

On the 5th February 1878 Abdulhamit sent Grand Vizier Bro. Midhat Pasha in various exiles, finally to Taif (port city of Yemen, then a province of the Ottoman Empire) arranging his death by poisoning there. On the 13th February 1878 Abdulhamit adjourned the parliament indefinitely, starting a period of absolute despotism which lasted 30 years.

Cleanti Scalieri, W.M. of the lodge Prodoos plotted a bloody but unsuccessful kidnapping of Murat V from the Ciragan Palace, to restore him on the throne. (Articles by Bro. Rizopoulos and myself in the Ars Quator Coronatorum Volumes 104 and 107).

A Masonic political party : Union and Progress, created according to the model of the Carbonaries” in Italy.

After the model of Young Italians, Young Germans, Young Swiss, the Young Turks organized in Paris with the aim of bringing back the constitutional monarchy. But the Young Turks talked a lot but did not act. 5 Freemasons, military students in the faculty of medicine started a revolutionary party which later took the name of Union and Progress. Their model was the Italian paramasonic revolutionary society, the Carbonaries.

In the second half of the 19^th century, the main European powers had obtained an immunity for their subjects living in the Ottoman Empire. This immunity system was called Capitulations. The Turkish police did not have the right to search a house belonging to a foreign subject. Thus, the members of Union and Progress in Thessalonica plotted their revolution in Italian, French and Spanish lodges gathering in houses belonging to foreigners. To get around the Capitulations, the police organized a robbery in the temple of the lodge Macedonia Risorta, were the archives were kept, to obtain the members’ lists, but a freemason in the police force tipped in time the Worshipful Master of the lodge. The frustrated policemen took revenge on the furniture of the temple. The police tried also to harass the members, waiting in the street for them to leave the building.

Abdulhamit and Freemasons

Abdulhamit knew very well what Freemasonry was about. As stated above, three of his brothers were freemasons. The princes Kemalettin and Nurettin were in line for the throne. Most of the European powers were governed by freemason kings and ministers. For these reasons, Abdulhamit did not want to alienate the Freemasons. On one side, while persecuting the revolutionary lodge members of the Italian, French and Spanish lodges in Thessalonica, he gave large donations to the charity efforts of English Lodges in Istanbul.

He even planned the creation of a Grand Lodge in Istanbul, of which he would be the Grand Master. This lodge would act as a senate, assembling the leaders of the different warring communities in Istanbul, (mainly Turkish intellectuals, the members of the Italian, Levantine, Greek, Armenian and Jewish communities). This project was never organize but shows the intricacies of the way Abdulhamit’s mind worked.

[Revisor]

The second Constitutional Monarchy

A great number of high ranking officers were Freemasons and also members of the Union and Progress Party, low ranking officers were not required to become Freemasons to be accepted into the Union and Progress Party, but they hoped to get a quicker promotion if they would be initiated first.

The action of the Union and Progress Party, and its threat to invade Istanbul with the armies stationed in the Thrace, obliged Abdulhamit to promulgate once more the Constitutional Monarchy on the 23^rd July 1908.

The reaction was not long to come. On the 31^st March 1909 the fundamentalists took the control of Istanbul.

The freemasons in the Thrace, mainly from Thessalonica organized an army of reservists. Almost all officers were Freemasons. There were too many officers, some joined the expeditionary force as ordinary soldiers. The army took back Istanbul from the fundamentalists, there were bloody battles and hangings, and Abdulhamit was dethroned by a committee of 5 deputies, all of them Freemasons.

As a result to all this, Freemasons became the hate center of fundamentalist Islam.

The Masonic State

According to the French historian Thierry Zarcone, the period from 1908 to 1918 could be called The Masonic State. The Union and Progress Party in power used Freemasonry in its foreign relations. Deputations of mason parliamentarians went to Italy, France, Hungary and Germany. The Freemason deputies claimed that with their effort, democracy, that is the French slogan of liberty, equality and fraternity was prevailing now in Turkey and that the European powers should be of assistance. The Albanians had revolted against the Ottoman rule and the Italian parliament was about to vote an aid program for the rebels, but after the intervention of the Grand Lodge of Turkey, the Italian Freemasons in the parliament were effective and the motion did not pass.

11 months later, at the end of 1911, after Italy’s expedition to Libya (which was Ottoman territory at that time), the same scenario was repeated, but naturally this time the Grand Orient of Italy could not act against its own government. In answer to the letter from the Grand Lodge of Turkey, the Grand Master issued a very general statement on the 29^th September 1911 Per l’Ingresso di Tripoli, Rivista Massonica, 1911, No. 15-16) and the relations between the Italian And Turkish Grand Lodges were severely affected.

The Creation of the Grand Lodge of Turkey (Ottoman Grand Orient)

On the 3rd March 1909, the dormant Supreme Council of Turkey (1861) was revived. This Supreme Council first consecrated 4 Turkish lodges. These 4 lodges plus 3 Italian, 2 French, 1 Spanish and 2 Egyptian lodges (One of them, Resne, English Constitution) assembled to form the Grand Lodge of Turkey on the 13th July 1909, and elected its first Grand Master, the Minister of the Interior Mehmet Talat S. Pasha, who later became Grand Vizier (Prime Minister). This Grand Lodge was consecrated by the Supreme Council.

The closing of lodges in 1935

This Grand Lodge gave charters to a total of 66 lodges, mainly in Turkey but also in Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Greece, Lebanon and Palestine.

In 1935, the year when Freemasonry decided to hibernate, 6 ministers, the President of the Parliament, more than 60 deputies and many state governors, were Freemasons, Ataturk’s private doctor, M. Kemal Oke, was a Past Grand Master.

In 1935 the English, Germans and Russians transformed Turkey into a vast stage for propaganda and espionage. The Nazi propaganda machine was also stressing the Judeo-Masonic danger. The Ministry of the Interior, Sukru Kaya, a 33° Scottish Rite Mason, in order to curb these activities passed a law from parliament closing all clubs and societies. Freemasonry was not mentioned in the text, but the minister warned his brothers that it would be wiser to stop the activity of Freemasonry by its own free will. That’s how things happened and the reason why Freemasonry was able to recover its buildings after the war.

All lodges did not close. The Supreme Council continued its activity behind closed doors, even chartered 3 new lodges. Craft lodges met at the homes of brothers. The police showed a knowing tolerance to all this, with the tacit approval of the President of the Republic Ismet Inonu, who even gave a little financial aid to the Supreme Council.

The awakening (1948)

Turkey wanted to be accepted to the U.N. The Turkish diplomats were told that Turkey was a totalitarian state, and that even Freemasonry was closed, as it was under all the totalitarian regimes.

The President approached his personal doctor, Supreme Grand Commander (Scottish Rite) M. Kemal Oke, the same doctor who looked after Kemal Ataturk, and told him that the time to resume official working had come.

In 1948 lodges, under the Supreme Council, started to labour in Istanbul and Izmir, and in 1949 in Ankara.

A troubled period started with lodges trying to liberate themselves from the Supreme Council’s rule. The Grand Lodges of Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir were created, and finally those three grand lodges united on the 16th December 1956 to create a totally independent Grand Lodge of Turkey.

International Recognition

After the initial recognition by some American and European Grand Lodges, in 1959 an official deputation by the Grand Lodge of Scotland visited Turkey. The recognition process was delayed to 1963, due to the military coup of 1960.

Most of the regular grand lodges had recognized the Grand Lodge of Turkey, but England and Ireland. In order to satisfy them, the Grand Lodge of Turkey was reconsecrated by the Grand Lodge of Scotland in 1965. (That is why our Grand Officers regalia is green). In 1970 the Grand Lodges of England and Ireland recognized the Grand Lodge of Turkey.

The schism of 1965

Friction was continuous between the Supreme Council and the Grand Lodge.

At the end of 1964, The Grand Secretary, on his own, gave a letter to Bro. Suleyman Demirel, stating that he was not a freemason. The Grand Secretary was the Senior Warden of the lodge in which Demirel had been initiated in 1955. Demirel used this document against the fundamentalist wing in his political party, was thus elected to the Presidence of the party and reigned on Turkish Politics until 2000, when he retired as President of the Republic.

In the 1965 Grand Master elections, the Bro. who issued this letter was elected, in spite of the Supreme Council’s secret opposition. The Supreme Council preferred the election of a Bro. who would be obedient to them and tried to cancel these elections. This led to a lot of turbulence in the ranks of Turkish Freemasons. Finally a schism occurred, with a small group of brothers creating a separate Grand Lodge, which later attached itself to the French Grand Orient. Today this irregular grand lodge has about 3000 members and is in relations with a Turkish Women’s Grand Lodge. This is a rather new outfit and has a few hundred members, organized in all major cities in Turkey.

Today the Grand Lodge of Turkey has about 180 lodges with 12000 active members. It is recognized by all the regular grand lodges and is active, promoting freemasonry in the Balkans, Russia and ancient Soviet republics.

We have a research Lodge which is publishing a quarterly research magazine Mimar Sinan”(Sinan the Architect). Since 1991, I am publishing the bi-monthly Masonic magazine TESVIYE (level), in the name of the Grand Lodge of Turkey.

Notes
(1) Bro. Rizopoulos’ article was published in the Turkish Masonic research Magazine, Mimar Sinan No. 118.
(2) I could not decipher his family name


THE HYSTORY OF FREEMASONRY IN TURKEY

[Revisor]

Freemasonry in Turkey

Kaya Pasakay, Former Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Turkey, and Semih Tezcan explain
Freemasonry came early to Turkey, at that time the heartland of a huge Ottoman Empire embracing most of North Africa, the Middle East and the Balkans. While details are lacking, there is a tradition that the first lodge was founded for non-Muslim merchants near the Arab Mosque in the Thursday Market Place, Galata, Istanbul. In 1738, a London newspaper mentioned lodges meeting in Smyrna (modern Izmir) and Aleppo but the first hard evidence we have comes in 1748 when the Ottoman Sultan, Mahmut I, forbade all masonic activities - indicating that some existed to ban.

The British Ambassador warned the Officers of the Lodge in advance of this impending action and, in the event, no one was arrested although the furniture of the Lodge was destroyed. This Lodge survived clandestinely and continued working until the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789.

The Craft attracted notable modernizers: Sait Pasha, the Turkish Ambassador to France, later the Grand Vizier (Prime Minister), as well as his son, Sait Celebi, and a family friend, the Hungarian convert to Islam, Ibrahim Muteferrika, who established the first printing press in the Empire in 1727, were pioneering Muslim Freemasons in Istanbul.

Unfortunately, in 1826 Sultan Mahmut II (1808-1839), who reformed the Ottoman army in the European style, officially closed all masonic lodges. However, following the Crimean War - which ended in 1856 - with the general influx of Western culture into Turkey, extensive masonic activity emerged in Istanbul and Izmir. The French Grand Orient warranted eleven lodges, one in Ottoman Egypt. United Grand Lodge of England warranted fourteen, eight of these in Izmir. The Grand Lodge of Scotland warranted six; that of Ireland warranted one lodge. Another seventeen were warranted by Germany, Italy, Spain and Belgium. The reformer, Koca Mustafa Resit Pasha (1800-1858), six times Grand Vizier, attended a masonic Lodge near to the Bereketzade Mosque, Galata, Istanbul. At the time its Master was the British Ambassador to Turkey, Lord Reading.

Sultan Murat V (1876) visited to England in 1870 when he was Crown Prince and was introduced to Edward, Prince of Wales - later Grand Master of England - who lectured him about the virtues of Freemasonry. Bearing in mind these recommendations and in close cooperation with the Master of the Proodos Lodge in Istanbul, operating under the Grand Orient of France, Prince Murat was iniated in 1872. Later he was to become an 18th Degree Rose Croix Freemason.

Realising that many Kings in Europe were also the Grand Masters of their respective Countries, Sultan Abdulhamit II (1876-1909), whose three younger brothers were all Freemasons, decided to preside over all Freemasonry within the Ottoman Empire. He believed that by joining he might be able to better control not only restless non-moslem minorities but also it might improve his relations with the West. But he was never initiated; it is believed that certain Freemasons opposed him. In 1878, through the influence of masonic circles, an unsuccessful revolt against his rule erupted in an attempt to reinstate his younger brother the former Sultan Murat V.

The Grand Lodge of Turkey

The Supreme Council of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite for Turkey, first established in Istanbul in 1861, was reconstituted on 3 March 1909. Subsequently, this particular Supreme Council decided to establish a Grand Lodge of Turkey. It did not occur to them that no Symbolic Lodges could ever be established by a Supreme Council.

The Constitution of the Grand Lodge of Turkey was signed at the Noradukyan Plaza, Galata, Istanbul, on 13 July 1909; Prince Aziz Hasan Pasha was representing the Supreme Council of Turkey. Mehmet Talat Sait Pasha, then Minister of Interior, later the Grand Vizier, was elected unanimously to be the Grand Master. Sultan Mehmet Reshat V and many other prominent Turkish Politicians and Statesmen were members of this new Grand Lodge. Despite many wars - Tripoli, Benghazi, the Balkans, the First World War and the War of Independence, between 1909 until 1923, the Grand Lodge of Turkey remained active and influential within the society.

Between 1909 and 1918 most of Turkey’s ruling party were Freemasons; Mehmet Talat Sait Pasha, for instance, continued as both Grand Vizier as well as Grand Master of Turkey. The highest ranking generals in the Turkish army were also Freemasons.

The activities of the Grand Lodge of Turkey reached a climax during the Presidency of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk (1923-1938). Ataturk, a reformer, soldier, advocate of women’s rights, and the founder of the Turkish republic, was initiated in 1907 into Lodge Veritas - warranted by the French Grand Orient - in Salonica. When he landed at Samsun on 19 May 1919 to begin the struggle of independence, six out of his seven highranking military staff officers were Freemasons. During his time of rule there were always some members of his Cabinet who were Freemasons, indeed, from 1923 to 1938 some sixty Members of Parliament were members of the Craft.

The Child Care Centres were established and financed throughout the country by a large group of prominent members of the Grand Lodge, representing a wide spectrum of professions including politicians, diplomats, professors, businessmen, and lawyers. In addition, a Social Assistance Foundation was established in December 18, 1931 by the Grand Lodge, for the purpose of financing the social and medical needs of Brothers and their families throughout the country.

Unfortunately, intensive pressures arising mostly from the oppressive regimes of Stalin, Hitler, and Mussolini, forced Ataturk to recommend that the Grand Master of Turkey declare a cessation of activities on October 9, 1935.

But after the Second World War, since the decision to cease masonic activities was taken only by the governing body of the Grand Lodge of Turkey, and there was no particular Law or Decree requiring it to do so, masonic activities resumed 5 February 1948 with the headquarters in Istanbul.

Regional branches were soon opened: Izmir, December 1948, and Ankara, January 1949. The Grand Lodge of Ancient and Accepted Freemasons of Turkey entered into a new era of growth and expansion but all the degrees, from the 1st until the 33rd remained under the Jurisdiction of the Supreme Council for Turkey.

Then, 26 June, 1955, the Supreme Council for Turkey, issued a declaration that the administration of the first three Symbolic Degrees would be undertaken solely and independently by the Grand Lodge of Turkey. This declaration put a stop to all disputes and accusations of irregularity. In 1965 the Grand Master of Scotland, Lord Bruce formally consecrated the Grand Lodge of Turkey; United Grand Lodge of England recognized it in 1970.

Masonic Life in Turkey Today

The Grand Lodge of Turkey to-day operates in three regional Valleys. Namely, Istanbul, the Central Valley, 102 Lodges and 6,970 members; Ankara Valley, 52 Lodges and 3,570 members; and Izmir Valley, 33 Lodges and 1,970 members: there are a total of 187 Lodges and 12,510 active members, working in thirteen regional Provinces and towns throughout Turkey, including Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, Bursa, Eskiflehir, Antalya, Adana, Bodrum, Marmaris, Karsikaya, Fethiye, Çeflme, and Kusadasi. The masonic membership in Turkey increased from 4,390 in 1980 to 9,230 in 1995. The average yearly growth rate within the last eight years is four percent. Such a steady increase in masonic membership is unique and the highest in the World.

The reasons for a steady increase in the membership of Freemasonry in Turkey, may be attributed to a rich set of activities featured in masonic life. Attendance is strictly required and an oral examination is arranged to test whether the teachings of the Degree are understood. A one or two page essay about the teachings of the Degree is required from every member in order to be promoted and a minimum of one year’s full attendance is required within each Degree. The Craft ritual is that of Scotland slightly modified for Turkish use and, as in England, Turkish Freemasons are required to believe in the Supreme Being and the eternity of the soul.

There are not, as yet, Royal Arch Chapters but discussions are being held; Orders beyond the Craft, such as Mark Masonry, do not yet exist.

A wide variety of social activities are held: evening receptions for families on the occasions of lodge anniversaries, excursions with families inside and out of the City, visits to sick Brethren at hospital or at home, generous aid for any person in need of assistance, annual or biannual dinners combined with educational speeches, celebration of new or existing marriages by masonic ceremony, gatherings of Brethren and families with a common university or professional background, celebration of birthdays and wedding anniversaries within lodges, masonic appearances in public during the National Days and National occasions.

Freemasonry in Turkey focuses upon the professional sector of Turkish society: a special effort and detailed screening process exists to select the ‘rough ashlar’ which aims at collecting together an ‘elite’ class. Entrance fees and annual dues are set at relatively high levels, affordable only by candidates without any severe financial shortcomings, meaning that, in practice usually candidates emerge from the upper echelon of Society such as rulers, diplomats, politicians, religious leaders, educators, doctors, writers, lawyers and poets. Military officers on active service, however, are forbidden to become Freemasons until they retire - and there are many former officers, generals and admirals who subsequently join the Craft.

Any English Freemason who visits Istanbul or any other city with a lodge will certainly find someone speaking English and by presenting a masonic certificate or being proved a Freemason, can attend lodge meetings. In addition, there are a small number of English speaking lodges working in Istanbul.

Dr. Semih Tezcan is a Past Master of Sebat Lodge, No. 150, Grand Lodge of Turkey.

Taken from Freemasonry Today


Palestine Lodge#189 AF&AM - Catonsville, MD: Freemasonry in Turkey - Ataturk Turkey's George Washington

[Revisor]

Few events have been more misunderstood than the Young Turkish Revolution of 1908. It was a coup d'etat carried through by a small group of men of remarkable energy and lack of scruple. Some, like Niazi Bey, who took the first open step of rebellion, perished by assassination, that two-edged weapon which he himself had so readily employed. Others, like Enver Bey, still hold the field in Turkey, having extended the principles of scientific assassination from the provinces to the capital and applied them with equal success to a Commander-in-Chief, a Grand Vizier, and an Heir-Apparent, to say nothing of many minor personages.

The Young Turks with whom Western Europe was in contact were men who had lived long in exile, divorced from Turkish life and thought, infected not so much by the true culture of the West as by the unbalanced theories of the wilder spirits of the French Revolution. Many of them enjoyed a doubtful reputation, and almost all were conspirators rather than politicians, inspired as much by motives of personal revenge and hatred as by patriotic considerations.

The revolution which they promoted was above all the work of a single town. It was in Salonica, under the shelter of its masonic lodges, that the Committee of Union and Progress, the secret organism which over threw the Hamidian regime, grew up and flourished.The real brains of the movement were Jewish or Judaeo-Moslem.

Their financial aid came from the wealthy Dunmehs and Jews of Salonica, and from the capitalists —international or semi-international—of Vienna, Budapest, Berlin, and perhaps also of Paris and London. Gradually the movement was joined by officers in the army, upon whom its organisation naturally relied for the necessary backing to their designs; and after the plot had succeeded these men found it more necessary than ever to dabble in politics, in order to
counteract the perpetual palace intrigues in favour of a restoration of the old regime.


Robert William Seton-Watson: The Rise of Nationality in the Balkans (1917)


http://www.google.nl/url?sa=t&rct=j&...50310824,d.ZWU

[Ibrah1234]

En daar gaan we weer, 5 miljoen Joden welke in staat zijn een orkest van 7 miljard aardbewoners dirigeren.

Der ewige Jude.

[Revisor]

En daar gaan we weer, 5 miljoen Joden welke in staat zijn een orkest van 7 miljard aardbewoners dirigeren.

Der ewige Jude.

Dat wordt een stropopredenering genoemd.

Stropopredenering

Een stropopredenering (stroman/vogelverschrikker) is een type drogreden waarbij men niet het werkelijke standpunt van de tegenstander weerlegt maar een (karikaturale) variant daarvan. Men interpreteert het standpunt van de tegenstander zodanig dat dit standpunt gemakkelijk te weerleggen is en suggereert dan dat dat het werkelijke standpunt van de tegenstander is.

...


https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stropopredenering

[Artikel1]

Dat wordt een stropopredenering genoemd.

Stropopredenering

Een stropopredenering (stroman/vogelverschrikker) is een type drogreden waarbij men niet het werkelijke standpunt van de tegenstander weerlegt maar een (karikaturale) variant daarvan. Men interpreteert het standpunt van de tegenstander zodanig dat dit standpunt gemakkelijk te weerleggen is en suggereert dan dat dat het werkelijke standpunt van de tegenstander is.

...


https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stropopredenering

Die zion-rat is op. Geen argumenten meer. Dan maar trollen en beledigen.

Een zionistische tactiek die naadloos past op de provocerende houding van Ibrahrat op dit Marokkaans/Islamitische forum.

[Ibrah1234]

Dat wordt een stropopredenering genoemd.

Stropopredenering

Een stropopredenering (stroman/vogelverschrikker) is een type drogreden waarbij men niet het werkelijke standpunt van de tegenstander weerlegt maar een (karikaturale) variant daarvan. Men interpreteert het standpunt van de tegenstander zodanig dat dit standpunt gemakkelijk te weerleggen is en suggereert dan dat dat het werkelijke standpunt van de tegenstander is.

Au contraire. Het betreft hier een feitelijke constatering. Men karikaturiseert hier zichzelf door beeldschermen vol te tikken hoe slecht de Joden wel niet zijn.

De gesprekspartner houdt U in dezen slechts een spiegel voor.