OZTURKLER


The opinions of Dımaşkî (approximately 1320) determine a special condition. According to Dımaşki, the places surrounding the River Seyhun (Syr-Darya) and the Transoxania are called as Turan = tulan. The Turkestan country called as Fergana is included within this framework.

Tûran, was only used in literary comparisons in Zafer-name written in century XV.Ebu’l-Gazi, one of the compilers of the century XVII used this term as a legendary definition in some cases and sometimes as a term used for the western Siberia. In some other cases, he has implicitly stated that the country of Muhammed Harizmşah was totally located between Iran and Turan.

Europe has become acquainted with the term of Turan in the Bibliotheque oriental of d’Herbelot. In this work, Afrasiyab, son of Faridun who was Turk from birth from the Tur’un lineage was shown as the emperor of all the countries expanding towards the eastern and western directions beyond the River Oxus. This is the country called as Turan; however, the name of Turkestan was also used in the maps of Ortelius and Mercator in the century XVI. In the century XIX, the term of Turan gets its place in the scientific agenda of Europe.

The concept of Kızılelma (Red Apple) that is born in mind in parallel with the Concept of Turan is just like a real object and the flavour and taste in it. The Ottoman authors and compliers who did not have any difficulty in describing the abstract notions through concrete phrases have mentioned about a series of red spheres in the shape of an apple such as (Golden Ball), (Golden World), (Golden Cup) and (Küre-i lal= Ruby Ball). They had also mentioned about some details describing that there was such a glittering ball dazzling in every city named by Turks or on each roof of any palaces or a church domes.

To define why the city of Rome was called as (Kızılelma- Red Apple) in his work titled as Künhü’l Ahbar, for example, Ali Çelebi tells a story about the Ruby Ball (Küre-i la’l) that was once kept within a ruby wineglass in the treasury of Nuşirevan. This ball was stolen by a priest and then hung on the ceiling of Saint-Pierre church in the Vatican City. Similarly, while mentioning about the palace of Buda, Evliya Çelebi states that:

In the domes of each palace, one golden ball was hung in those times and thus, it was called as Red Apple Palace. He has described how Turks called the capital of Hungary as Red Apple (Kızıl-Elma) with the comparison of the term of Ali Çelebi (ruby ball) and the term of (golden ball).

The Red Apple is the representative symbol of the sovereignty in Shamhals of Daghestan. In the line numbered 3905 of the work (Risale-i Dağistan) compiled by a noble of Muslim Kazak nationality in the 18th century that was kept in Nuruosmaniye library, the author clearly states that the Red Apple is the element of sovereignty used in the kingdom ceremonies of Shamhals.

The Ottoman authors and compilers used to state that there were golden or ruby balls in the cities called as Kızılelma (Red Apple). This expression must be in relation with the concept of the sovereignty that we have observed in the example of Daghestan. Under these circumstances, it can be understood that the Red Apple has become a (symbol-sign) for the places targeted for conquest since it is the symbol of the Turk sovereignty. There are some records that show that the Northern Caucasia called as (beyond the Caucasus Mountain) in the folk tales and in some cases the Byzantines were considered as the Red Apple lands. Apart from these considerations, Evliya Çelebi has cited six major Ottoman Red Apples in Europe; but he has only mentioned about five of these lands; he has omitted the sixth one. We will deal with these respectively in the following paragraphs, but let us continue to deal with the thought of Turan that we have studied upon in parallel with the chronic of Red Apple ideal.

Turanian Languages: This phrase was firstly introduced by the historian Bunsen (1854); he has used this term for the Asian and European languages that do not belong in any of the Indian and Sami languages. However, Max Müller first wrote it in his work of art named as The languages of the seat of war in the East, with a survey of 3 families of languages, Semitic, Arian and Turanian.

Müller has not only included the Finno-Ugrian and Altaic languages into the groups of languages; he has also included the languages of Siam, Tibet, Malay, etc. at the same time. In his works of art named as La magie chez les Chaldeens et les origines accadiennes, Leonormart has added the Sumerian language to this circle; since there is not any language named as Sumerian language according to some Sumerology experts. The language assumed to be the Sumerian language is the Turkish language and it the same as Turkish. In his work named as Les peuples et la langue des medes, J. Oppert asserts that the language used in the second column of Ahameni inscriptions (the new Elamite language) is the Med language. Therefore, it dominated to the Turanian qualities of Med people.

Castren divides the ancient Altaic languages into five groups: Finno-Ugrian, Samoyed, Turko-Tatar, the Mogul and Tungusic languages. The following researches brought forward new classifications and these studies separated the first two groups from the last three groups that constituted the Altaic languages. G. Ramstedt, the founder of the comparative grammar of this group has unquestionably proved the relevance of the Turkic and Mogul languages pursuant to a short-term hesitation. Additionally, the relevance of the Mogul language with the Tungusic language was also accepted in the same way. The relevance and correlation of the Altaic group with the Finno-Ugrian and Samoyed languages are still studies upon with great care. As a consequence, it can be seen that these languages may be considered within the framework of the Turanian languages.

Pan-Turanism (Turanism): As a political idea, the Pan-Turanism has been used as a concept in parallel with Turkism that interacts with it; on the other hand, this term has documented the relations and the relevance of the Turanian tribes with each other. The term of Pan-Turanism was especially used in scientific fields by the Hungarian scientists in Hungary towards the end of the nineteenth century.

The usage of this term with the meaning of the ideal of far homeland is rooted from the year of 1839. In the course of the First World War, the Turan magazine published in Budapest by the Turanian society (Turanische Gesellschaft) was a publication peculiar to research the history and cultures of the relative nations (of the nations with the same roots and lineages of ours). The issues on the agenda of this publication were as follows:

"Turan as a geographical concept"

"The reality of Turan in the international policies"

According to the Count Teleki and Prof. Cholnoky (Turan- ein Landschaftsbegriff, a regional concept). They described this region, in other words, the Turan geographical region as the “zone that expands within the frontiers of the Caspian Sea, Iran plateau, the mountain chains that keep the springs of the River Syr-Darya and Irtish and the Akmolins plateau”. This description seems to supersede the geographical concept of the Great Turkestan. Afterwards, as a result of the determinations and interpretations urged in relation with the relevant issue, the “Turan” has been identified as “the regional and the social geography in which all people that consider themselves from the Turanian lineage resides and lives on”. The reality of Turan will be more clearly revealed as a result of the widespread researches and studies that mention about the uniqueness of this geographical region and the tribes that have lived there.

There are some tendencies in parallel to the Hungarian and Turanian works in Russia. The group called as the Eurasian group was interested in the geopolitics and the cultural influence of the Eurasian people.

The fundamental tendencies and approaches of the movement of Pan-Turanism (with its specific meaning, Pan_Turkism) are much clearer;

In the course of the development period of the Ottoman Empire, any Turan opinion was not determined to have been explicitly active. However, the characteristics such as the simplification of the language of the Ottoman bureaucracy with Turkish language, the Turkic elements and people being the fundamental element of the Ottoman demographic considerations and especially the capability of the Ottoman dynasty to count down their family tree since the period of Oğuz Khan and the relevant evaluations show that the Concept of Turan was persevered and maintained without the need for any title.

Particularly the opinions of Aşık Pasha, Kemalpaşazade and Vani Mehmet Effendi that are considered among the Ottoman scholars should be mentioned herewith. Especially, it should be uttered that the last one is the follower of Turkism in a narrower view, in other words, the fan of the Oguz Turkism. Despite the fact that the Turanian idea was an obscure and complicated concept in the Ottoman period, the Ideal of Red Apple gained almost a physical dimension in those periods. Even some places were imagined as the Red Apple lands. For example;

The Red Apple of Engerus Ungarus: Buda;

The second Red Apple of Engerus: İstoni-i Belgrade/İstolni Belgrade

The Middle-Hungarian Red Apple: Usturgon = Esztergon/Gran;

The Small-Hungarian Red Apple or the German Red Apple or Viennese Red Apple: Vienna;

Rim-Pope Red Apple: Rome.

The possibility of the sixth Red Apple to be the city of (Cologne) in Prussia can be understood from the following anecdote while (stating the reason for the utterance that the Muslim community would go and extend towards the Red Apple): “It shall be become known that all the young and various people of the surrounding of the suburbs shall go out and convene in an open plain of the country and in the Red Kapona in that plain, the young handsome boys shall sing an ancient song. What is called as (Red-Kapona) is the Red Apple, it was used as the symbol for a milestone and the meaning of the song singed is as follows:

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