It is a
magnificent social movement chain which was directed by a collective conscience depending
wholly on faith and relations that millions of people abandoned their homeland enduring
various difficulties, settled in a condition of a hundred years ago and built convenient
relations with their surrounding. The Ottoman Empire, so called as the Successor of
Prophet on the Earth, had an important role in this chain. The two Empires during this
migrations, Abdulaziz Khan and Abdulhamid Khan the 2nd had always a sympathetic approach
to the migration to “the Land of Islam” and gave full support to resolve any problem
relating to immigrants and settlement. The migration took part especially in Abdulhamid
Khan sovereign which lasted in 32 years 7 months and 27 days, and he supported practically
the Pan-Islamic and in a way Pan-Turkism policy emerging especially around the migration
movement. On the other hand, those are all religion
based effects that caused all Muslim people living in Crimea, Caucasia and Balkans in
thousands year to migrate from their homeland. With the Ottoman-Russian wars, the Muslim
people were under the pressure of Russian or Balkan forces. So, they had to start a
migration which can be so risky even today, by the effect of religious functionaries
suggesting an Islamic phenomenon; migration. Today, the successors of those immigrants is
blaming them to be fooled and deceived for they abandoned their homeland. It is only
hurting the sacred memory of those immigrant ancestors who were only seeking the will of
God. In fact, those who succeeded to be a “Muhacirün fi sebilillah” (immigrants in
the way of God), went to war with no fear and hesitation when they were asked to be a “mucahidün
fi sebilillah” (warrior in the way of God).
Abdulhamid Khan the 2nd wanted to use the potentiol
power of Califate, and therefore, he tried to use the brotherhood sense against the
western policy on seperatist sovements for dissolving the Empire so that he could
eliminate the effect nationality difference among various dervish groups. He even sent
groups of sheikhs and dervishes to Turkistan, Japan, Africa, China and other Islamic
societies which were among the colonies of Western countries. By the help of these
dervishes, some Chinese became Muslims and showed their dependency to the Caliph, they
established “the Hamidiye University” in Pekin.
Uzbek Lodge Sheikh Suleyman Efendi represented
Abdulhamid Khan the 2nd at the “Turan Congre” held in Hungary in 1879 and attended
official meetings there with Turk groups from Turkistan in order to require to work
officially in the name of Ottomans in Turkistan which was his homeland. giderek
Ortaasya'da çeşitli faaliyetlerde bulunmuştur. In the preface of his important work,
“The Dectionary of Chagatai to Ottoman Turkish”, he says in Chagataii dialect;
I traveled as an ambassador, saw Turkmen’s conditions, and recorded their number.
He also tells the Turan Congress with the following lines;
All came and kissed hands, a gread uproar by applauses telling Turk.
While in Turkistan, Sheikh Buhari recorded
the population and settlement of Turkish tribes in Turkistan. It is interesting in respect
of Abdulhamid Khan’s perspective, that these works make us to think about a plan of
migration from Turkistan as those from Caucasia and Crimea. Though it was planned to bring
some groups from Turkistan and settle them in Anatolia, later developments and the fall of
Abdulhamid Khan the 2nd obstructed the realization of this plan. Abdulhamid Khan the 2nd
wanted to make the Muslim groups in Crusade colonies be dependent and loya to the
Caliphate and furthermore he worked for making all the Muslim world as an organized huge
power. Being uneasy with this foreseeing and active policy of Abdulhamid Khan the
2nd, the Russian and British governments developed counter actions and while
Russians organized separatists activities in Balkans, the Britis did the same in the
Middle East in order to dissolve the Ottoman Empire.
It is not hard to understant that Abdulhamid
Khan the 2nd had a foresight in the settlement of immigrants from Caucasia, Crimea and
Balkans, and he applied the most suitable plan for the Ottoman Empire until his fall on
27th April 1909. Whether accepted or not, it is this realisy that lay behind the enmity of
those for the Khan.
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