BOOK REVIEVVS
Halil İnalcık, Tanzimat ve Bulgar Meselesi, İstanbul, Eren, 1992 (first printing: Ankara, Dil ve Tarih-Coğrafya Fakültesi, 1943), xxxii+161 pp.; , Osmanlı İmpara-torluğu: Toplum ve Ekonomi, İstanbul, Eren, 1993, xi + 468 pp.; , The Middle East and the Balkans under the Ottoman Empire: Essays on Economy and Society, Bloomington, Indiana University and Turkish Studies and Turkish Ministry of Culture Joint
Series, 1993, x+475 pp.; , F r o m Empire to Republic: Essays on Ottoman and
Turkish Social History, İstanbul, the ISIS
Press, 1995, 179 pp.; ,Sources and Studies on the Ottoman Black Sea: I. The
Customs Register of Caffa, 1487-1490, Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University, the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, 1995, ix + 201+xxv.
The fıve volumes above are recent (1992-1995) publications of Professor Halil inalcık, the universally acclaimed dean of Ottoman historical studies. The first title on Tanzimat (Reordering) and the Bulgarian question is a reprint of his doctoral dissertation (1943) published on the occasion of its fiftieth anniversary. Read after half a century, it strikes one with its sound judgements no less than meticulous research in archives, then very little utilized. The book impresses the reader with its grasp of the essentials in analyzing a complex phenomenon in the turbulent Balkans.
Rightly asserting that Bulgarian history cannot be apprehended without appropriateiy accentuating its links with Turkish history, the author selects, nevertheless, a crucial period, i.e., the years betvveen 1839 and 1853, or the beginning of the Westernization reforms on the one hand, and the year preceding the outbreak of the Crimean War (1854-1856), on the other. Although Bulgaria's partial secession occurred decades later, Professor İnalcık correctly contends in this dissertation of his youthful days that the underlying causes laid in the earlier period, exemplified by the Vidin insurrection (1850). Conceding that this revolt also had a nationalistic fervour, he places due emphasis on the land question exacerbated by feudal landovvnership
(gospodarlık). On the heels of the 1848 revolutions of Europe, the Bulgarian
peasant insurrection occurred in "the most sensitive spot" of the whole empire. The Tsarist Russian armies lost no time in taking their positions at Kalafat, right across Vidin. Although the Ottoman government, under the able leadership of Koca Reşit Paşa, offcrcd solutions to the land problem, the opposition of the Bulgarian aghas threatened another revolt vvhich the Sublime porte could not risk.
înalcık's dissertation makes full use of the related section (Bulgar mesalihine dair iradat-ı seniyye defteri) of the Ottoman archives, not adequately utilized by C. Jirececk and S. Staneff.
The second book is a collection of formerly published fourteen articles, ali of vvhich help to illuminate aspects of Ottoman social and economic history. The first article on peasants or agrarian structure underlines the significance of the mirî (state property) lands on vvhich cereals farming (vvheat and barley) vvas done. The second and the third articles are on agricultural taxation. The fourth dvvells on the origins of Christian cavalry
(sipahi) in fifteenth century Rumelia. The fifth treats the tımar system
according to a document dated 1431. This system vvas a form of military compensation popularly referred to as fief. The sixth article concerns the feudal land ovvnership in Vidin and its eradication. The seventh reflccts some thoughts on a research by Professor Mustafa Akdağ on the economic characteristics of the society during the foundation and the development of the Ottoman Empire. The eighth enumerates the historical sources of Turkey's economic and social life in the fifteenth century. The ninth treats various documents on the industry and trade of the city of Bursa. The tenth evaluates the competition betvveen the cotton industries of Turkey, India and England. The eleventh deals vvith the lavvs of Mehmed II as introduetion to Ottoman legislation. The tvvelfth discusses the Sened-i İttifak (Document of Agreement, 1808) and Hatt-ı Hümayun (Imperial Rescript, 1839). The thirteenth deseribes the social reactions to the Tanzimat. The last article evaluates the social and the psychological impact of the transfer of Western technology to prevent Ottoman economic collapse.
The third book includes seventeen articles appearing in English. Essays 4, 5, 6, 9, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 and 17 were already published in various journals. The seventh article based on extensive use of the Bursa law court records, and entitled "A Case Study of the Village Microeconomy: Villages in the Bursa Sancak: 1520-1593)", is published here for the first time. Seven of them were originally in Turkish, the rest appearing in various international journals. They are ali grouped under five general headings: the state, society, the economy, politics, and miscellanea.
Professor İnalcık was the first (in 1960) to discuss the register of the customs dues (gümrük bekaya defteri) of the important city of Caffa (Kefe) in the Crimea that the Ottomans had taken in 1475. This English presentation of the register, vvith essays on the Black Sea trade, tables and documents, gives the reader, in the vvords of the publishers, "a colorful tapestry of the Ottoman Black Sea trade system." It is more than a full publication of the oldest extant Ottoman customs register from Caffa, vvhich the English ambassador to the porte Sir Thomas Roe described as "the chief seat and port of the Euxine." İnalcık's essays are investigations of the Ottoman Black Sea trade as vvell as an analysis of the register. With meticulous examination of ali facts and fıgures, he describes the grain production, imports and exports of the Crimea, and the shipovvners, captains and merchants in the Black Sea, comparing his fındings vvith the trade of Kili and Kerş. The appendices, tables and rare documents bring forth fascinating details of Ottoman life. His data on vveights and measures, Ottoman and Crimean currency and the glossary make the book an invaluable chef d'oeuvre. The materials provided describe hovv the Black Sea vvas transformed into an Ottoman lake and hovv the northern communities in Moldavia, Ukraine, Muscovy and others benefitted from this grovvth. The customs register of Caffa is also a volume of a more general character vvith contributions on the history of the Black Sea economy.
The fifth volume above is a collection of the papers dating betvveen 1962 and 1992, mostly dealing vvith Ottoman social history and the emergence of modern Turkey. The first paper is an attempt to correlate the phases of Ottoman historiography. The second critically revievvs the principal theories on the Ottoman politico-social system. The third discusses the çift-hane system, vvhich represents the organization of the Ottoman rural society based on a particular agrarian-fiscal approach. The fourth deals vvith the long struggle of the Ottoman conquest of northern Albania vvith a description of the demographic consequences. Ottoman archive collections on religious organizations are described in the fifth essay, vvith special emphasis on the Greek Orthodox Church based on a register of Peskopos Mukataası for the years 1641-1651. The sixth examines the circumstances inducing the Ottomans to extend protection to the Sephardic Jevvs expelled from Spain (1492). The next four articles study the Ottoman impact on Europe, and
Europe's influence on the Ottoman Turks, culminating in the emergence of the secular Turkish Republic.
Although some of the sections in these fıve volumes are republished, they stili contain points of interest for the specialists and general readers.
TÜRKKAYA ATAÖV
* * *
T . C . Başbakanlık, Devlet Arşivleri Genel Müdürlüğü, Osmanlı Arşivi Dairesi Başkan-lığı, Bosna-Hersek ile İlgili Arşiv Belgeleri: 1516-1919, Ankara, 1992, xxviii+692 pp. World public opinion followed with great concern the policies (a) of aggression launched by Serbian forces and militia against the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina, an intemationally recognized member of the United Nations; (b) of invasion and occupation of lands belonging to Bosnian Muslims (Boşnaks), together with their expulsion from territories in which they had been living as a people for centuries, and (c) of genocide, involving atrocities (and rape of up to 50,000 Müslim women) committed against the civilian population and rarely seen in the history of mankind.
The underlying purpose of the Serbian invasion was territorial expansion, based on the ethnic cleansing of large areas that belong to another independent state. The atrocities committed -the burning of homes, destruction of villages, bombardment of cities and their historical monuments, gang rapes, torture in concentration camps and prisons, sniper fire on civilians, vvholesale murders, punishment of guards who showed some leniency tovvards prisoners and similar inhuman acts- were comparable only to the sadistic policy of extermination of the Jewish people in Europe during the last general war or to the fate of the Palestinians after 1948. In some cases, the Bosnian Müslim experience surpassed the Jewish and the Palestinian tragedies.
The fıve parmanent members of the U.N. Security Council, who have the veto privilege, have never seriously considered checking the aggression against the territory and the people of this land. They allowed, instead, power politics to make the Bosnian Muslims the victims of hegemonic rivalries among the great powers, rewarding the aggressor in the process. For a long time, the only support for the victims came from the members of the Organization of Islamic Conference (in which Turkey was a moving spirit), who, nevertheless, had no veto powers to stop the growing suffering of the Bosnians -a suffering that should have shocked the conscience of the world
more and more. If some non-Serbs, at times, resorted to criminal acts as well, this did not change the overall fact that the Bosnian Muslims were the main targets and the big losers.
It was regrettable that the Bosnian conflict, a pure and clear case of aggression, ethnic cleansing and genocide, was unabashedly used to reinforce the old stereotypes. What was at issue was not "Islamic fundamentalism"; it was a matter of basic human rights and resistance to genocide. The Bosnian Muslims were facing an aggressor, who inherited the weapons of the former federal state and grabbed more than two-thirds of Bosnian territory where the Muslims happened to constitute about 44 percent of the population.
To deny the Boshnaks the right to purchase or receive arms under the circumstances of unprovoked attack was to commit a erime against international law. Who can deny that the most fundamental human right is the right to life? The Nuremberg legal concept, which states that "non-assistance to a person in danger" is murder itself, may be applied, afortiori, in the case of a threat facing a nation.
International law commanded that Serbia stop its war of aggression, withdraw from ali territories occupied and account for the undeniable atrocities. It also required that those who made such crimes against humanity possible through overt or covert support, were also answerable. It is instruetive to remember at this point that the International Court of Justice called (on April 8, 1993) upon Yugoslavia to "immediately...take ali measures within its power to prevent commission of the erime of genocide." The Court's ruling has been accepted by some international lawyers as an implicit criticism of the U.N. Security Council's inactivity and lack of resolve to stop acts of genocide. The enlightened section of world public opinion, represented by experts respeetful of legality did not accept the so-called "peace plan", which was in fact an approval of the forceful break-up of a sovereign state through partition by arms. This was a way of supporting crimes of aggression, ethnic cleansing and genocide at the threshold of the 2 İst century.
The Muslims of Bosnia-Herzegovina do not constitute, generally speaking, an ethnic minority. Most of them are members of the South Slav ethnic community. What distinguishes them from the rest of the South Slavs is the fact that they are Müslim in religion. In that sense they are different from Serbs and Croats, but ethnically they are also different from the other Islamic peoples like the Albanians and the Turks living outside Bosnia-Herzegovina.
In Serbo-Croat language, the noun shovving a person's nationality begins with a capital letter, but the noun designating religion with a small letter. Likevvise, when the term is applied to a section of the Islamic
religious community ([muslimani), the small letter "m" is used. But the Bosnian Muslims (Muslimani) are written vvith a capital "M". The religion of the Bosnian Muslims, who also speak Serbo-Croat, distinguishes them from the Serbs, who are Orthodox Christians, and the Croats, who are Catholics.
The Bosnian Muslims are a separate people. Their separate development should be sought in the medieval Bosnian state and the Ottoman (Turkish) period that followed. The Bosnian church, known as the Bogomils (Manichaeans), vvas considered "heretic" and came under pressure from Catholic and orthodox organizations. The Bogomils defended their individuality vis-a-vis the pope and the Catholic state, on the one hand, and Byzantium and the Greeks, on the other. The Bosnians vvere neither Latin (that is, not Croats), nor Orthodox (that is, not Serbs) before the advent of the Müslim Turks. With the coming of the Ottomans to Bosnian lands in 1463 they accepted islam of their ovvn vvill. It vvas the Bogomils vvho became the nucleus in the development of separate identity of Bosnian Muslims. This vvas how islam began to flourish right in the heart of the South Slav peoples. There matured, throughout the centuries, a nevv religious and social community gradually but firmly evolving into a separate formation.
It is only natural that the long presence of the Turks in the Balkans should leave, not only Müslim populations (Turkish, Bosnian, Albanian), but should also strike deep roots in ali aspects of life. Looking at the majority of old settlements in Bosnia-Herzegovina (vvhich I personally toured several times, the last being during the heat of vvar in 1995), Macedonia, Kosovo and to a lesser extent in Serbia and Montenegro, vvith their vertical structures, cubically-conceived architecture, slender minarets next to semicircular domes, clock-tovvers, magnificent bridges, khans, caravanserais, numerous Turkish baths, public fountains, colorful bazaars, covered markets, old library buildings, Müslim cemeteries like open-air museums, Islamic monastaries and the like, one might think that one is in a typical Anatolian environment
This Turkish-Islamic component vvas projected onto a complex bakground, vvhich vvas an amalgamation of many influences from the South east (Archaic Greek, Hellenistic and Byzantine), from the Southvvest (Etruscan, Roman and Ancient Christian) and from the North (Germanic, Hunnic, Avarian and Slavic). Ali of these influences and concrete relics from the past are part of the people's heritage vvhich must be preserved and restored.
The Turks built bridges, like the one in Mostar, constructed by Hayreddin, the outstanding pupil of the great Sinan, at the forefront of ali architects of ali ages, vvantonly destroyed by Croat gunfıre, to connect continents, cities, peoples and values. For those vvho travelled and traded,
they also constructed rest houses in towns and along the roads. The civil war in former Yugosiavia at least partially destroyed the Morich Khan in Sarajevo (Saraybosna) and the Machkoviv Khan in Vrana. Gazi Hüsrev Bey's hamam had stood there ali these centuries in the old part of Sarajevo.
The Turks built waterworks in Yugosiavia, They had to bring the water before building the exquisite hamams, the graceful shadirvans (the apodycteria) and the monumental but pretty fountains. They built bazaars, open or covered. One shop next to the other lined the streets, most stili preserved until the civil war. And not only the Turks or Muslims used to indulge in trade. The shops of the Christians, whether Catholic or Orthodox, and of the Jews stood next to those of the Muslims. There used to be sixty mosques in Sarajevo alone, and more than thirty in Mostar. They represented the early istanbul school, the classical period and the post-classical era. For instance, the Gazi Hüsrev Bey mosque in Sarajevo belonged to the early period. The great Sinan's large mosques in Bitola (Manastır) are from the classical period. The Bayraklı mosque in Belgrade represents the post-classical school. There used to be about 2,500 mosques of various sizes in former Yugosiavia. The mosques were not only places of vvorship. Schools, libraries and infırmaries were attached to them. The mosques were also surrounded by cemeteries that included mauseleums as well. The carvings, calligraphy, tiles and other decorations are insurmountable. The Turks left beauteous rugs on the floors, delicate wood carvings in the ceilings and on the doors, richly decorated examples of valuable handvvritten books, and graceful fermans (written orders) done in exquisite calligraphy.
Apart from the people, the Bosnian Muslims above ali, this rich and irreplaceable heritage was continuously under the threat of destruction. The Serbs, and sometimes the Croats, destroyed what even the Nazis had been unable to do.
The Ottoman Empire had also been their state. The former Bogomils, considered heretics by their cousins Serbs and Croats, had welcomed the Turkish rule. In 1878, they put up the first resistance to foreign occupation, i.e., that of the Austro-Hungarians. This was also the beginning of collaboration between the Muslims and Serbo-Croats against foreign powers. Events in the period from 1878 to 1918 accentuated the identity of the Muslims. While some considered themselves part of the greater Islamic world, others migrated to Turkey where they felt at home. But the majority stayed in Bosnia, creating their societies, printing shops, papers, banks, this time by cousin Serbs and Croats, in the first few years after the creation of the Serbo-Croat-Slovene Kingdom in 1918.
There are 96 documents, ali from the Ottoman archives, in the publication indicated above. They encompass close to 400 years from 1516 to 1919. They mostly reveal atrocities by the Austrians and Serbs. The first
three, dated 1516, 1530 and 1541, are Ottoman laws for Bosnia. The remaining 93 documents dvvell on Austrian and Serbian brutality and Bosnian search for Ottoman protection. The book includes summaries and the transcriptions of the documents. Beneath the summaries in italics both the original Islamic and the Christian dates are given. Ali documents have undemeath the name of the section and the number in the archives. Ali of them go to prove the plight of the Bosnian Müslim community after the withdrawal of the Turks from these lands.
TÜRKKAYA ATAÖV
4'-The Turkish Republic, Prime Minister, General Directorate of State Archives, Directorate of Ottoman Archives, Armenians in Ottoman Documents: 1915-1920, Ankara, 1995, vliv+653 pp.
This is the English version of a collection of documents, the Turkish print of vvhich vvas published in 1994 under the title of O s m a n l ı Belgelerinde Ermeniler: 1915-1920. The English-language edition includes the photostatic copies of 272 original Ottoman documents (pp. 295-641), their English summary and transcription in Turkish (pp. 17-275), and an index (pp. 277-289). The dates according to the Müslim and Christian calendars are indicated beneath the summaries. Documents 3-5 reveal the massacre of about 30,000 Turkish men by Armenians. Document 17 substantiates the cruelties inflicted on the Turkish POWs. Documents 29, 34, 35, 46, 50, 64, 66, 69, 81, 102, 149, 156, 210, 213, 230, 233, 246, 249, 259, 266 and 267 shovv the Ottoman efforts to secure the lives and the vvell-being of the displaced Armenians. Documents 143, 144, 153, 219, 220, 223, 247, 248, 253, 260, 261, 265 and 270 prove that the individual crimes committed against the Armenians vvere not left unpunished. Documents 62, 63, 87, 135, 145, 151, 152, 154, 155, 173, 178, 179, 191, 197, 203, 213, 224, 228, 242, and 251 express government concern for the food and accommodation requirements during the relocation. Documents 24, 80, 255 and 272 indicate that the relocated Armenians are exempted from taxes and that their debts are postponed. Documents 45, 47, 79, 82, 89, 91, 92, 95, 96, 182, 189, 192, 212, 225, 226, 230, 235, 243, 250, 252 and 262 dvvell on homeless Armenian children placed in orphanages. And documents 27,29, 59, 76, 83, 84, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 95, 104, 141, 142, 148, 164, 165, 169 and 172 state that innocent Armenians vvere not displaced. These documents are offered for the perusal of foreign scholars.
Hans Köchler, Democracy and the Internati-onal Rule of Law, Wien and New York,
Sprin-ger-Verlag 1995, xi+170 pp.; , ed., Green Dialogue for an Alternative Vforld
Order, Vienna, Jamehir Society for Culture
and Philosophy, 1995, 117 pp.; , ed., Democracy and an Alternative World
Order, Vienna, Jamahir Society for Culture
and Philosophy, 1996, 86 pp.; , ed., The United Nations and International
Democracy, Vienna, Jamahir Society for Culture and Philosophy, 1995, 129 pp.
The first of the four books cited above is a collection of six selected papers by Professor Hans Köchler, published on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary (1995) of the United Nations. The other volumes, edited by the same professor of philosophy (University of Innsbruck, Austria), are the selected papers of three international conferences (held in 1992, 1993 and
1994), ali of which search for alternative world orders.
Reminding that the legitimacy of any democratic system excludes ideological domination, Professor Köchler searches, in Democracy and the International Rule of Law, a genuine model of democracy compatible with the inalienable rights of the people in the individual and collective sense. He considers that the re-formulation of the democratic concept becomes ali the more imperative when democratic rules are to be applied on a world-wide level, and to the relations between states. He contends that such relations after the end of the Cold War are stili characterized by the rules of power politics. What is preached domestically is deliberately excluded from the international system. As several of his piercing philosophical essays in that volume successfully demonstrate, the U.N. Charter is a striking example of this disparity. Professor Köchler's book, printed in 1995, was timely when one ought to think about reshaping the U.N. towards a transnational structure where the principle of sovereign equality should apply in a manner consistent with human rights. He warns that replacing the old East-West bipolarity by a new bipolarity between North and South is making the world organization a tool of the industrialized world in the latter's drive to control the rest.
Green Dialogue for an Alternative World Order is more about ecological crisis. It blames the industrialized countries with strict environmental restrictions for taking advantage of the absence of these limitations in developing countries, and selling to the latter technologies which are hazardous to man and the environment. Ozone depletion, global warming, deforestation, destruction of marine ecosystems, desertification, toxic vvastes, pest resistance, and immunity to chemical pesticides, as well as
uncontrolled urbanization are among the majör environmental crises facing humanity.
The discussions revolved around four majör topics: Peace and the Nevv World Order, the Environmental Crisis, Democracy and People's Authority, and a Nevv International Economic Order. They led to the adoption of a Program of Action.
Professor Köchler emphasizes that the peoples of the vvorld have to raise their voice in favour of a just economic, social and ecological order that ensures the survival of mankind as a vvhole, and for the evenhanded distribution of the vvealth of nature. Following several papers on people's authority, and the Nevv International Economic Order, Terence Duffy, the director of Peace Studies at the University of Ulster (Northern Ireland), quotes several models of planet management, and reminds the reader of the achievements of the Biopolitics International University as vvell as the interesting project of the Prairie Peace Park (Nebraska, U.S.A.). Francisco Garrido Pena, professor of philosophy and political ecology at the University of Seville (Spain), introduces five postulates, emphasizing that ali suggestions for an ecological change can only be realized, hovvever, step by step if the economy, culture, and politics are radically demilitarized. Jakob von Uexküll, founder and chairman of Right Livelihood Avvard ("Alternative Nobel Prize") and former member of the European Parliament (Svveden), introduces the idea of a "Peoples' Council for Global Sustainability", vvith direct elections to take place region by region and continent by continent. Presenting a Third World perspective of the ecological crisis, three researchers from Malaysia emphasized that nature and men ought to be perceived as partners in the cosmic process.
The papers published in Democracy and an Alternative World Order revolve around one majör topic: the role of democracy in a genuinely nevv vvorld order. The papers explain that such an order can only be based on a multipolar international structure in vvhich no country or region dominates the others. It must necessarily be an alternative vvorld order, a democratic one, and not the so-called "Nevv World Order" based on the hegemony of the only remaining superpovver. The book describes the Nevv World Order as the old imperial order, and emphasizes the need to vvork out an alternative vision of international relations in the lines of international democracy.
Köchler's essay describes the American president's proclamation of a Nevv World Order as an attempt to ideologically legitimate the exercise of povver and the application of military force. Closely examining the "ideals", repeatedly invoked in political declarations, he considers them as component parts of a legitimation strategy, even allovving the use of force. Professor Themba Sono (South Africa), vvho argues that behind the idea of a so-called democracy is the age-old idea of domination, states that any U.N. activity,
such as the "Desert Storm" against Iraq, the sanctions pertaining to Libya, and the inaction against the Serbian onslaught on the Bosnian Muslims, confırms this. Duffy's essay stresses the need to effectively enforce human rights principles. My essay focusses on double standards in American foreign policies towards countries such as Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine/Israel, Bosnia, Somalia and Libya, as well as singifıcant concepts like nuclear weapons and the United Nations. Professor J.R. Nufiez Tenorio's (University of Caracas, Venezuela) essay is a critical look at the actual political situation in parts of Latin America, and at the state of human rights.
The selected papers in The United Nations and International D e m o c r a c y seek a new methodological approach in the theory of international relations. Old paradigms related to the traditional Left-Right distinction no longer offer an edequate conceptual framework in a new unipolar international system.
Köchler urges the balance of power resulting from the Second World War be reconciled with an ever-increasing awareness of the importance of democracy in international relations, and stresses that only a decisive democratic reform of the U.N. can evert the majör confrontation betvveen North and South. Erskine Childers (Ireland), former senior advisor to the U.N. Director General for Development and International Economic Cooperation, considers the line between the minority of world population in the Northern industrial states, and the vast majority in the South as "the most explosive frontier in the history of humankind". Sono esserts that the U.N. Charter naively propounds an inherently untenable philosophical premise of the equality of sovereign states, which are at the same time subject to the hegemonial supervision of the povverful nations. My chapter questions some of the assumptions of the U.N. system and offers alternatives to revise certain procedures and structures. Robert Charvin, professor of international law (University of Nice), secretary of the International Association of Democratic Jurists, and editör of North-South XXI (France), accentuates the necessary enforcement of the U.N. General Assembly. Awad al-Karim Mussa, member of the National Assembly in Sudan, deals with democracy in the international system. Marius Martens, the director of the Center for Development Analysis (South Africa), gives an African perspective to the erosion of national sovereignty in the present international system. William Dan Purdue, professor of sociology (Eastern Washington University, U.S.A.), focusses on the fundamental weaknesses of the U.N. that serve to blockade progress. He contends that the real U.N. emerged in July 1944 in Bretton Woods. It was then that the erection of new architecture for the post-war modernization of the global market order began. The World Bank and the IMF have contributed to growth in world economic output and increase in international trade, but they historically served as active promoters of a "reverse development model" for the South.
This international conference also brought out a Communique, vvhich stated, inler alias, that the present U.N. system vvas lagging behind the development of international relations, and that the overvvhelming influence of the industrialized countries in the U.N. has brought about a nevv division betvveen North and South.
TÜRKKAYA ATAÖV
* * *
Nodar Komakhidze, Mezobelo Kirisao: Nateli har Tvalisao, Tiflis (Tbilisi), Şamşoblo Yayınevi, 1994, 246 s.
"Demokratik ve düzenli bir Gürcistan devleti kuruluşu aşamasında olan ülkemiz için artık somut ve fiilî işlerin yapılması zamanı gelmiştir. Bunu da öncelikle gelişmesinde uzun zamandan beri Avrupa yolunu seçmiş olan, bu yönde önemli sonuçlar elde etmiş bulunan ve ekonomik açıdan da gelişmiş Türkiye Cumhuriyeti gibi en yakın komşu ülkemizle yapmamız gerekiyor." Kısa süre önce Gürcistan'ın Şamşoblo Yayınevi tarafından basılmış olan Mezobelo Karisao: Nateli har Tvalisao (Kapı Komşum: Sen Gözümün Nurusun) başlıklı kitap Eduard Şevardnadze'nin yukarıdaki sözleriyle başlıyor. Yazar kitabına başlığını "ev alma, komşu al" biçimindeki ünlü Türk atasözünden ve onun Gürcüce karşılığı olan "Mezobelo karisao, nateli har tvalisao"dan esinlenerek vermiştir. Halktan doğan bu güzel ifade, iki dost ve kardeş ulusun kendi komşusuna verdiği önemin ve değerin açık bir göstergesidir. Yazarın sözleriyle, "eğer devletlerin komşu olması yüce Tanrı tarafından düzenleniyorsa, insan kuşaklarının ana görevi bu komşuluğu korumak ve bunun gereği olarak güvenli bir ortam kurmak için hiçbir çabayı esirgememektir." işte, sözünü ettiğimiz yapıt ta bu önemli konuya hizmet etmektedir.
Kitabın yazarı tanınmış Gürcü Türkolog, bilgin, doğubilimci ve tarihçi, Türkiye'nin yeni ve çağdaş tarihinin araştırmacısı, bu konulara ait beş monografi ve yüzü aşkın makalenin yazarı olan, Prof. Dr. Nodar Komakhidze'dir. Yazarın şimdiki görevi Gürcistan Cumhuriyeti'nin (ilk) Ankara Büyükelçiliğidir. Yapıt Gürcistan ve Türkiye arasında gelişmekte olan ve çağımıza uygun yepyeni ilişkilerinin iki önemli yılını (1992-1994) kapsıyor. Kitabın Türkçe çevirisine 1994-1996 yıllarını da kapsayan ve son gelişmelere ilişkin bilgiler de eklenmiştir. Yazar okurlarına dünyaca tanınmış iki siyaset adamının Türkiye Cumhuriyeti'nin bugünkü Cumhurbaşkanı Süleyman Demirel ve Gürcistan Cumhuriyeti Devlet Başkanı Eduard Şevardnadze tarafından 30 Temmuz 1992'de imzalanmış olan "Dostluk, işbirliği ve iyi Komşuluk ilişkileri Anlaşması"yla temeli atılan iki dost ve kardeş ulus ve devlet arasında gelişen ilişkiler hakkında geniş bilgi vermeyi başarmıştır.
Yazar kitabın "Çoruh-Ötesi Ülke" isimli bölümünde 1918-1921 yıllarında uluslararası ilişkiler alanında ilk adımlarını atan Gürcistan Demokratik Cumhuriyeti ile kuruluş aşamasındaki yeni Türkiye devleti arasındaki ilişkileri anlatmaktadır. Yazarın da belirttiği gibi, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti'nin kurucusu ve uzak görüşlü seçkin bir devlet adamı olan Mustafa Kemâl Atatürk Kafkasya'da bağımsız ve güçlü bir Gürcistan'ın oluşmasından yanaydı. 1918'in Aralık ayında büyük Atatürk döneminin Dışişleri Bakanı Bekir Sami Beyi Tiflis'e göndermiş ve Ankara'da Gürcistan Demokratik Cumhuriyeti Büyükelçiliği'nin açılmasına karar verilmişti. Gürcü ulusunun da, hükümetinin de duygularını yansıtan "Sakartvelo" (Gürcistan) gazetesi o dönemdeki ilişkilerimiz hakkında şunları yazıyordu: "Ankara Hükûmeti'nin söz ve vaadlerine inanıyor ve Mustafa Kemâl Paşa'nın bize uzattığı dost eline karşılık biz de kendi elimizi uzatıyoruz..." Yazarın da belirttiği gibi, ne yazık ki, o zamanki tarih koşulları ülkemizin özlediği hedeflerine ulaşabilmek için gerekli olanağı sağlamamıştır. Ancak, gene yazarın sözleriyle, "birgün, yani yaklaşık yetmiş yıl sonra, bir kez daha, Türkiye ve Türkiye Cumhuriyeti'nin dokuzuncu Cumhurbaşkanı gene bağımsız Gürcistan devletine dost elini uzatmıştır. Gürcistan içtenlikle karşılık vermiş ve ikisi arasında dostluk, kardeşlik ve eşitlik çerçevesinde iyi niyetlerle dolu yeni tip ilişkiler başlamıştır..."
Yazar yapıtının öteki bölümlerinde çoğu kez kendisinin de katılımıyla gelişmekte olan devletlerarası ilişkilerden, ve özellikle ekonomik işbir-liğinden, Karadeniz'in nimetleriyle çevre ülkeleri arasında artan temaslardan, Karadeniz ekonomik işbirliği tasarısının öneminden, bu işbirliğinin oluşturulması aşamalarında atılan ilk adımlardan ve ayrıca eğitim, bilim, kültür ve spor alanlarında işbirliği sonucunda elde edilen başarılarımızdan ve ilerde gerçekleştirilmesi istenen düşüncelerden söz etmektedir.
Gene önemli bir konu olarak, yapıt iki ülke arasındaki ilişkilerde güvenlik köprüleri rolünü üstlenecek Türkiye'de yaşayan Gürcü kökenli yurttaşların da sözünü ayrı bir bölüm çerçevesinde etmektedir.
Türkiye ve Gürcistan'ın geleneksel komşuluk duygularını öven ve pekiştiren yazar, yapıtının son bölümünde okurlarına şöyle sesleniyor: "Üstünde durmamız gereken daha çok konular var. içimize sığdırama-yacağımız kadar büyük çaba ve tutkularla birbirimizin olanaklarından en üst düzeyde yararlanmalı ve ilişkilerimize daha yüksek boyutlar kazandırmak uğruna tüm gücümüzle çalışmalıyız. Halklarımız bunu bizden bekliyor; bu hedef geleceğimiz için de önemlidir."
