. -r'f.S 'tO R Û 'B 8, Saf saf sok k
Emirsrân
March 5 1975 Dear Mrs. E hr mann,
Your le t t e r s are aMways a great pie' sure to a l l the fam ily. In the l e t t e r dated February 9 which you -ent Nesrin T find some items that in terest me s p c in lly .
Abput the old s ilv e r comb I immediately wrote to Ne İh F i r a t l y , curator of the Museum o'’ n t iq u it ie * '. Yesterday he answered by +e! ephon£ and salti- that antiques discovered ^n exc vations m-y not be exported but as such i s not the case wi 4'h the old s ilv e r comb you may safely
and. take i t away amng your t o i le t things.
You w r'te that the Memoirs of bdu3»Hami/recently puhished /miirht be some new lig h t on his years ' s S u l t u i " , and vou ask,
"Fow dfd t vey happen to be in Germany?" TheyTîJfite w e ll be authentic. 'T* s daughter, Princess A yş e , writes in hey: book. Babam. Ab dul »Hamid, that when he was exild o Salonica,and ke# there under s t r ic t m ilitary custody, he began to writo h is memfcirs,and at f i s t dictated them to h is private secretary, .All Muhsin Bey, but when the o ff i c e r s who were b is guardians became aware of th is A1 Mtfein Bey was imprisoned fo r teh days in the c e l l a r . She adds that Abdul-Hamid was very sorry fo r him and was not allowed to see him again. YThen transferred to the Palace of Beylerbey Abdul-Hamid cantineued to write h is memCirs, The Tercüman recently discovered that he had s~crete$r s nt a copy to a German publisher whom he had knwn and befriended in Istanbul.
I remember quite w e ll the la s t years of his rei^n, and a l l 1 * eo'rf about him i s quite conform to his personality as appears in his Memoirs. No h is t o r ic a l character has been so much slandered.
ow i t i s the reverse, and h is q u a lit ie s are bainm much exaggerated. It i s quite certain that he was not a b lo o d -t h ir st y , cruel tyrant.
On the contrary he hated war and bloodshed. He never had^onvict execute He was a sportsman, f r u g a l , kindly inclined, and a mood fath er.
He loved music. His hobby was carpentering, in which was wonderfully s k i l f u l . He founded many schools and h o sp itals. But he was dominated by intense fea r and suspicion, and that proved f a t a l to him and
to h is country. He was obsessed by +he fate of his predecessor# and e s p e c ia lly by the "oul murder of Abdul-Aziz. That i s why he is lo la t e d himself in Y ı l d ı z , and fcept quite c& of touch with his people, and in order to be informed about what was goinr" on he created what
L
:;z:z
:::
- -
z s z z l v z
¿ ¿ * 25?
-could not he r®alAi <red <*, a 4 y r e * lcl(,e Midhat Paça • !A1 e l Ih an empire surrounded by «rreedv and w ilv
fo e s, each w aiting fo r an occasion to snitch s e e part of i t m destroy i t completely, and where so many d if f e r e r t — c e - 1’
: r ; : : r r s
o," ° rea« » *«*•.
* * » .a ^ e T h i m t o t 0^ ’ “ * ~ * * * - m e e t l y
edUe a « I n 7 h L th" ‘ T * " 1 Pr,n093 ^ “ * ~ “ 1" « - adequate
l l t h. ! f TOS S M lfu l ' + " * * • * fo re ign a f f a i r s .
T o di m S T S k U fU l V 5 ^ 9 Ch0lce of M - - I h ls t e r s and secretaries who disgraced them e.lv.? with shameful abua. of wow9r. The„
a lso some honorable characters +*, , P " * ere as "namuslular" -u * an" people sP°k& of them
" ‘ h® hûest onesXS^ost re v o ltin g was the lot of the the ^ r r T r 6" ^ ^ Cl3mate ° f and sent to f o r c e t ° " bad’T r l o t h s i H» a » « i l y equl npeel, and
-orceo to remain there ev«n e ffo r tVirHy +« „
e n d e d . . . tt „ ..., ... J . V . ! t h P l r t9™ of e n n r e r i p t i o n was- - “ - J «■-'I*’ t e r . of cnnecrinti on wa.
« war. : eared t h a »if a llo w »« to return home they would
1G TT1İ >* n >> 1 a a.« - U -l j _
rel n + o +Vo Iol lun ncmR tney would.
I t 0 the miserable conditions they had been i n Thei>- i „+ 4
in the sad popular r e fr a in , l0t 15 * * pr889ed
Adi Yemencilr,
Giden gelmez, bilmem nedendir ?
o h ild #or t 0^ mr'rr le 4 V#ry y0UnS “ a l 3 f t * 9h” >d them a I I tw0 nat o l i a would perhaps be decimated.
p r o v e f n e r ^ t l 0! 1" : ? 4 * ! ! " * “ * * * ■ « . * » - t u . - l l y f ac. a , £ $ r which interrupt ^ " lrI" ’ wltn* ss9d « « r i n g the earthquake wh c„ interrupted a Bayrsm ceremony, end the erplosion of a homh at
z t 1 \ 3 1915 nie * » t« - * . *
against the opression of tba t t u u
\ , . T e n on and ProPT-ess Committee. and an
s c i p i i n - l Q" s 1°!° 'Jal° n1ca marChed t0 "tanbul to punish + he rebels and depose
• n - z ' : : \ r “ , r ™ 7 : r ; m * - « - —
T|n , roo . ...a11 Rd ^St be was u n iversa lly hated. ruled f o r ^ t M r t th” 1 ***°U t , m * follow9d. The dmpire which he had d i r - t e r s J : ySarS cruI"i>19« . ' » H from d isaster to d is a s te r , and was complately ruined withih ten ve»re
by M U f t ; ! i l a 7: , r t a : : iy not aav,se ^ ♦<> of the r . , ' 1Ja- U 13 ths m09t ridiculous thing I ever read.
1 knew Ziya quite w e ll, our fam ilies are r e l a t e n
educated, re-nectsblp a ' r e la t e d . He was quite a w e ll-’ r e - peotalll-’19 mnn. “ 4 I cannot imarine how he could p o s s i b ly b.
vOf j-1
h dwrite a book ^ull of grossest e r ro rs . His fath er, Tesid Page, was ambassador in Home, and 1 ter in London, and Ziya sAnt +he f i r s t P'-rt of his l i f e abroad, in urope, and in America. He might be
excused "or not knowing anything about bits native land and i t s histoty, but he cannot be excused ’or w ritin g utter nonsense, and even delibu*#& l i e s .
I hope that you are a l l quite w e ll. Munevver i s now s+aying at Beyrut wi th her laughter, who was not very w e ll. YTe have had a very di sagreable ’ebruary, vi th rain and two days o'? snow, but March be ran with b e a u tifu l weather.
A ffection t e l y ,
/■'
;
/
Kişisel Arşivlerde İstanbul Belleği Taha Toros Arşivi
