The Moral Bankruptcy of Westen Policy Towards the East
Yazar | : | Ahmet Rıza |
İsbn | : | 9751702739 |
Yayın Tarihi | : | 1988 |
Dil | : | İngilizce |
Sayfa Sayısı | : | 218 |
Ölçü | : | 135 x 19,5 cm |
Yayınevi | : | Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı |
In the history of the Turkish reform movement in the period leading from the first Constitution of 1876 to that of the second in 1908, it was Ahmed Rıza Bey who represented the most vigorous opposition to the despotism of the time.
The struggle for the creation of a just administration in Turkey, waged in both speech and writing throughout the nineteen years that he was obliged to remain far from his home and his country, is well known to all Turkish historians.
No one could stem an intellectual movement springing from a combination of courage and love of freedom, patriotism and public service. Furnished as he was with all these various virtues, Ahmed Rıza succeeded in gathering the fighters for fredom abroad beneath the standard he had raised in Paris and in lending strength and energy to the whole movement. The agents of Yıldız Saray failed in all their attempts to suppress the struggle waged against those who wished to deprive the nation of its liberty and impose a ruthless despotism. No amount of money or threats could divert Ahmed Rıza and his group from their aims and firmly-held beliefs.
Before entering upon this struggle, Ahmet Rıza Bey had already presented to Sultan Abdulhamid several petitions pointing out the errors made by the administration and suggesting means of bringing peace and well-being to the country. Ahmet Rıza Bey presented five such petitions to the sovereign. Though he had no intention of taking any of these suggestions into consideration, Abdulhamid, anxious to avoid driving Ahmed Rıza into more active opposition, received his advice and suggestions with tolerant restraint, at the same time attempting to win him over by gifts of money. Ziya Pasha, the Turkish ambassador in Paris, was sent 2,500 gold sovereigns" with instructions to hand this sum over to Ahmed Rıza as 'financial assistance"...