Cretan Turks

Cretan Turks (Turkish: Giritli or Girit Türkleri or Türk Giritliler) came about as a consequence of the Ottoman rule in Crete starting 1648 in an equation between Turkish colonization and a high rate of local conversions which makes the island a unique case in Ottoman history ^[1] Some sources prefer to use the term Cretan Muslims to also account for a median population that converted back to Christianity in early 19th century.

They were forced to leave Crete and migrate, in their majority to Turkey, in successive waves in the course of the 19th century, after the events of 1896-1898, at the start of the Greek rule in 1908 ^[2] and especially in the framework of the 1923 agreement for the Exchange of Greek and Turkish Populations. Many Cretan Turks had attained prominent positions within the Ottoman Empire and later in Turkey and they had forged a high level Turkish language culture. In the multilingual environment of Ottoman Crete, many were also fluent in the Cretan Greek dialect (κρητικά kritika).

They have settled along Turkey's coastline stretching from the Çanakkale to İskenderun in Turkey; while other waves of refugees settled in Syrian cities like Damascus, Aleppo and Al Hamidiyah; in Tripoli, Lebanon; Haifa, Palestine, and even as far south as Alexandria and Tanta in Egypt. While some of these peoples have integrated themselves with the hospitable populations around them over the course of the 20th century, the majority of them still live in a tightly knit communities preserving their unique culture, traditions, Turkish language and Cretan Greek dialect. In fact many of them made reunion visits to distant relatives in Lebanon, in Crete and even other parts of Greece where some of the cousins may still share the family name but follow a different religion.

History

Main article: History of Crete#Venetian and Ottoman Crete

See also: Cretan Muslims

Bektashi tradition

Although most Cretan Turks are Sunni Muslims, Islam in Crete during the Ottoman rule was deeply influenced by the Bektashi Sufi order, as it has been the case in other parts of the Balkans. This influence went far beyond the actual numbers of Bektashis present in Crete and it contributed to the shaping of the literary output, folk Islam and a tradition of inter-religious tolerance.

Literature

The "Cretan School" within Ottoman Divan poetry is defined to count twenty-one poets who composed in Ottoman or vernacular Turkish, especially in the 18th century ^[3] denoting the dynamism of the cultural life in the island.

A taste and echo of this tradition can be perceived in the verses below by Giritli Sırrı Pasha (1844 - 1895);

Fidânsın nev-nihâl-i hüsn ü ânsın âfet-i cânsın
Gül âşık bülbül âşıkdır sana, bir özge cânânsın ^[4]
which were certainly addressed to his wife, the poetess-composer Leyla Saz (1845 - 1936), herself of Cretan roots and one of the first Turkish women to have stepped into the modern traditions of the Turkish literature. Her "Hymn to the Mediterranean" (Akdeniz Marşı), in praise of Mustafa Kemal Pasha and in reference to the Turkish War of Independence, had lasting popularity and is constantly being sung in our day in Turkey's schools, caserns and else, remaining instantly recognizable.

Yaslı gittim şen geldim,
Aç koynunu ben geldim,
Bana bir yudum su ver,
Çok uzak yoldan geldim^[5]

Music

The Cretans brought the musical tradition they shared with the Cretan Christians to Turkey with them:

One of the significant aspects of Giritli culture is that this Islamic--often Bektashi--sensibility is expressed through the Greek language. [There has been] some confusion about their cultural identity, and an assumption is often made that their music was somehow more "Turkish" than "Cretan". In my view this assumption is quite wrong....^[6]

Cretan Turkish Culture in Turkey

Nuances may be observed among the waves of immigrations from Crete and the respective behavioral patterns, for the end of the 19th century, when Muslims often fled butcheries to take refuge in the present-day territory of Turkey or beyond (see Al Hamidiyah), and during the 1910s with the termination of the Cretan Republic which had recognized the Muslim community of the island a proper status. The Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922) ^[7] and the ensuing population exchange is the final chapter among the root causes that shaped these nuances.

Among contributions made by Cretan Turks to the Turkish culture in general, the first to be mentioned should be their particular culinary traditions based on consumption at high-levels of olive oil and of a surprisingly wide array of herbs and other plant-based raw materials. While they have certainly not introduced olive oil and herbs to their compatriots, Cretan Turks have greatly extended the knowledge and paved the way for a more varied use of these products. Their predilection for herbs, some of which could be considered as unusual ones, has also been the source of some jokes. The Giritli chain of restaurants in İstanbul, Ankara and Bodrum, and Ayşe Ün's "Girit Mutfağı" (Cretan Cuisine) eateries in İzmir are indicative references in this regard. Occasional although intrinsically inadequate care has also been demonstrated by the authorities in the first years of the Turkish Republic for settling Cretan Turks in localities where vineyards left by the departed Greeks were found, since this capital was bound to be lost in the hands of cultivators with no prior knowledge of viniculture. In the field of maritime industries, the pioneer of gulet boats construction that became a vast industry in Bodrum in our day, Ziya Güvendiren was a Cretan Turk, as are many of his former apprentices who themselves have become master shipbuilders and who are based in Bodrum or Güllük today.

An overall pattern of investing in expertise and success remains remarkable among Cretan Turks, as attested by the notable names below, although the identity formation in the "fatherland" ^[8] did not always take place without pain, including that of being subjected to slurs as in other cases involving immigration of people. ^[9]. According to Peter Loizos, they were often were relegated to the poorest land:

They were briefly feted on arrival, as 'Turks' 'returning' to the Turkish heartland... like the Asia Minor Christians seeking to settle on former Muslim land in northern Greece, the Muslim refugees found that local people, sometimes government officials, had already occupied the best land and housing^[10]

The same author depicts a picture where they did not share the "Ottoman perceptions of certain crafts and trades as being of low status"^[11], so more entrepreneurial opportunities were open to them. Like others who did not speak Turkish, they suffered during the "Citizens Speak Turkish" campaign which started in 1928. "Arabs, Circassians, Cretan Muslims, and Kurds in the country were being targeted for not speaking Turkish. In Mersin, for instance, ‘Kurds, Cretans, Arabs and Syrians’ were being fined for speaking languages other than Turkish."^[12]. In a summary of a book on Bodrum made by Loizos, it is stated that, even as late as 1967, the Cretans and the 'local Turks' did not mix in some towns; they continued to speak Greek and mostly married other Cretans.^[13]

Greek perception of Cretan Turks

The Greek perception of Muslims in Crete used the terms "Turk" and "Greek" in a religious rather than ethnic or racial meaning (Turks themselves would have more readily used the term "Muslim" at the time). A Greek observer remarks that we are acquainted with extremely few cases of Muslim Cretan lyra-players as against Cretan Greeks (the very name for that instrument in Turkish language being Rum kemençesi - Greek kemenche). ^[14]. In the later novels by Nikos Kazantzakis, Cretan Turks also had to assume unflattering roles attributing, although in his earlier masterpiece, "a wise old Cretan Turk" forever affectionately recalled, Recep Efendi, teaches Zorba how to play the santuri.

Notable Cretan Turks

in chronological order)

• Ahmed Resmî Efendi: 18th century Ottoman statesman, diplomat and author (notably of two sefâretnâme). Ottoman ambassador in Berlin (during Frederick the Great's reign).
• Ali Baba Giritli: May refer to two different persons who are also called under other names. One is the founder of the first Bektashi tekke in Crete in the early stages of the Ottoman conquest, and the other is an 18th century Bektashi mystic and author of several works of a Sufi nature.
• Salacıoğlu: (1750 Hanya - 1825 Kandiye): One of the most important 18th century poets of Turkish folk literature.
• Giritli Ali Aziz Efendi: 18th century Ottoman ambassador in Prussia and arguably the first Turkish writer to produce works of fiction influenced by European literary traditions.
• Leyla Saz (1845-1936): Poetess-composer issued from the Ottoman elite,
• Giritli Sırrı Pasha: Ottoman administrator, Leyla Saz's husband and an important man of letters in his own right.
• Vedat Tek: Representative figure of the First National Architecture Movement in Turkish architecture. Son of Leyla Saz and Giritli Sırrı Pasha.
• Giritli Hüseyin: 19th century Turkish painter.
• Rahmizâde Bahaeddin Bediz: The first Turkish photographer by profession. The thousands of photographs he took, based as of 1895 successively in Crete, İzmir, İstanbul and Ankara (as Head of the Photography Department of Turkish Historical Society founded by Atatürk), have immense historical value.
• Ali Fuat Cebesoy: Close aide of Atatürk. His father İsmail Fazıl Pasha was Cretan, and his mother was a member of the Ottoman elite. İsmail Fazıl Pasha himself has been the first Minister of Public Works in the newly-constituted Ankara government in 1920, and by extension, for the republican Turkey.
• Mustafa Ertuğrul Aker: The Turkish officer who sank Ben-my-Chree.
• Mustafa Fehmi Kubilay: National hero who was lynched by a group of Naqshbandi rebels in 1930 in Menemen (called Kubilay incident or Menemen incident in Turkish history) that greatly influenced the direction of politics in Turkey in the thirties.
• Hüsamettin Cindoruk: Former Chairman of the Turkish Grand National Assembly who could have become the Prime Minister in 1993 if he had not opted for remaining in that seat, thus opening the path for Tansu Çiller. Cindoruk had kept the helm of the Turkey's traditional center-right in the eighties, during Süleyman Demirel's forced absence from politics.
• Ekrem Pakdemirli: Prominent Turkish politician.
• Halil Berktay: Turkish historian.
• Ömer Kavur: Award-winning Turkish film director.
• Orhan Suda: Journalist and Turkish socialist thinker, Named after the town of Souda.
• Pakize Suda: Former singer, current columnist, the daughter of Orhan Suda.
• Ayla Algan: Turkish singer.
• Gül Gölge: Turkish model, actress, TV host.

Among other notable Cretan Turks, highly nationalistic investigative journalist Emin Çölaşan, other notable names from the Turkish media such as İlhan Selçuk, his brother Turhan Selçuk, and Doğan Hızlan can be cited. Writer Cevat Şakir Kabaağaçlı, alias Halikarnas Balıkçısı (The Fisherman of Halicarnassus), although born in Crete and has often let himself be cited as Cretan, descends from an Ottoman family with roots in Afyonkarahisar, and his father had been an Ottoman High Commissioner in Crete and later ambassador in Athens. Likewise, as stated above, Giritli Mustafa Naili Pasha was Albanian/Egyptian. ^[15]

See also

• Turkish people
• History of Crete
• Crete Province, Ottoman Empire
• Al Hamidiyah
• Greek-speaking Muslims
• Cretan Muslims

References

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