Orientalism | Benjamin Jean Joseph Constant

November 27, 2013, 10:27 am

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Mavi Boncuk |

Benjamin Jean Joseph Constant

L'Imperatrice Theodora au Colisée [The Empress Theodora at the Colisseum] Oil on canvas

The Throne Room In Byzantium
Judith
The Entry of Mahomet II into Constantinople Oil on canvas, 1876

Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant (10 June 1845 – 26 May 1902), was a French painter and etcher best known for his Oriental subjects and portraits.


Benjamin-Constant was born in Paris. He studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he was a pupil of Alexandre Cabanel. A journey to Morocco in 1872 strongly influenced his early artistic development and lead him to produce Romantic scenes under the spell of Orientalism. Among his noted works in this vein are Last Rebels, Justice in the Harem (both in the Luxembourg Gallery), Les Chérifas, and Moroccan Prisoners (Bordeaux). His large canvas, The Entrance of Mahomet II into Constantinople (Toulouse Museum), received a medal in 1876.

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The Fall of Constantinople | Opera in three acts.

November 27, 2013, 10:57 am

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Mavi Boncuk | Fall of Constantinople (The) - Manolis Kalomiris[1] (Izmir 1883 - Athinai 1962) or Konstandinos Paleologos Opera in three acts. 

Libretto: based on a play by Nikos Kazantzakis (Heraklion (Crete) 1883 - Freiburg 1957) 

Première: Athens, National Opera of Greece, August 12 1962. "The very real and tragic choice facing Byzantium during its last phase, between the Catholic West and the Ottoman East which bitterly divided the byzantine church and state". [2]

 "The city is ready to fall like ripe fruit said Muhammad 
We must prevent the Pope and the crusaders. 
One thing I think-that I wiil conquer the city."


SYNOPSIS-FALL OF CITY-THEATER-OPERA-CONSTANTINOPLE

See also: Cemal Resid Rey's symphonic poem Fatih Sultan Mehmet

[1]Manolis Kalomiris was born in Smyrna in 1883 into a rich bourgeois family. He studiedmusic first in Smyrna, Constantinople and Athens and completed his studies at the Konservatorium für Musik und darstellende Kunst of Vienna (1901-1906). From 1906 to1910 he was teaching at the Obolensky School of Music in Kharkov, Ukraine, where he acquainted himself with the masterpieces of Russian music. In 1910 he settled permanently in Athens, which would be his “patria” for the rest of his life. Returning from Austria and Russia his idea was to found the “Greek National School”similarly to the “New German School” which was created by the students and friends of FranzLiszt and Richard Wagner, or to the “Russian Fives” led by Ri msky-Korsakoff. 

His ideas andactivity caused a lot of controversy in the musical and literary circles of Athens. Kalomiriswas inimical to Italian music and the so-called Heptanesian composers (who used thetraditional Greek folks songs and Byzantine hymns to their compositions), to expressionismand atonality.To reach a high-level Greek national symphonic culture Kalomiris founded conservatoires, orchestras and opera ensembles. His pedagogical career started in 1911 asappointed professor of piano and theory at the Athens Conservatory. 

In 1919 He resignedfrom this job and founded the Hellenic Conservatory, finally in 1926 departed from theHellenic Conservatory and founded the National Conservatory. A new branch of theConservatory was founded in Alexandria, Egypt and Kalomiris became its Honorary Director.For the institutes he wrote manuals for theory, solfège, harmony and morphology.His other aim was to elaborate the Greek philharmonic culture, so he founded orchestras: in 1920 the Hellenic Symphony Orchestra, in 1932 the National SymphonyOrchestra, and finally, in 1942 the first permanent, state funded symphony orchestra of Greece (Athens State Orchestra), in cooperation with conductor Filoktitis Economides andwith the authorities. As we can see between the 1920s and the 1950s, at the peak of his artistic creativity, Kalomiris became the pillar of Greek musical life.

His third goal was to recreate the Greek opera culture, so he founded the NationalMelodrama Society, headed the Greek National Opera as the two-thirds of the artists werestudents and graduates of his National Conservatory.He died in Athens in 1962

[2] Kalomiris planned to compose the opera since 1953, but he started the work in 1957 and finished in 1961. He recalls his memories of this period in the following sentences: In 1953Kazantzakis gave me an issue of “Nea Estia” containing the text of the trag edy ConstantinePalaeologus . As I had begun my lyrical work with an early passionate work by Kazantzakis,so should I finish it with his latest dramatic national masterpiece. I remember reading Constantine Palaeologus, it had pervaded by spirit. I couldn‟t hold back my tears. I felt I hadto translate my emotions into sounds and rhythms, while on the other hand I felt daunted bythe sheer greatness of the task.Four years went by until some time in April 1957 I found myself lying in a hospitalbed. As I was fighting for my life, the image of my granddaughter Charoula and the vision of Constantine Palaeologus strengthened my will to continue living.And I lived. Right after convalescence I was able to concentrate and work againcreatively, so I made up my mind. I would translate the emotion I had felt when readingConstantine Palaeologus into sounds and rhythms. I would devote whatever power had been left in me to singing it…

Today, inspecting the work of my hands, I believe I have the right to be proud… I do believe that with the work I invested in Palaeologus , more than in any other work of mine…, I opened a new page in the history of Greek art! And this not because of the way I treatedByzantine modes and psalms, but because I showed that here, in a musical Greece swept bydifferent kinds of winds and doubts, I remain true to my artistic ideals, my spiritual gods, my Faith in the Greek Musical Idea.”

EU Watch | EU may fail to delight Turkish

November 27, 2013, 11:18 am

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EU may fail to delight Turkish By Carl Mortished

WE ARE A devious and lustful bunch, we Europeans. Turkey has been asking politely for membership of our club for the best part of two decades. And every time that its candidature is mentioned, we sidestep the question. We said no in 1989 and in 1997 we omitted to name Turkey as an EU accession candidate. In 1999 we finally agreed to address the question and next month the European Commission must provide an answer to Ankara. Only weeks to go, and what do we do? We kick up a fuss about a Turkish law that would make adultery a crime. In defence of the rights of cheating spouses everywhere, we snub the Turks and their old-fashioned values.

There is such dishonesty about the debate over Turkish membership of the EU that the French Government’s position — non à l’islamisation — is welcome in its frankness. France refuses to see Turkey as anything less than an alien invader, a cultural re-enactment of the Ottoman siege of Vienna in 1683. Paris has been forced to swallow anglicisation, the French language relegated in the official business of Brussels. With the prospect of 70 million Turks demanding concessions, the French have drawn their line in the sand. Turkey is, in the words of Valery Giscard d’Estaing, “a different culture, a different approach, a different way of life”.

He is right — Turkey is patriarchal, family-oriented and devout. Europe — as exemplified by the core states of Britain, France and Germany — is materialistic, libidinous and (largely) atheist. One can argue about the stereotypes, but the important assumption is that these distinctions are what the European Union is about. If the EU is a sort of club for adulterous Christians, why do the family-friendly Turks wish to join?

There are economic benefits, in theory. Businessmen in Ankara and Istanbul crave more access to EU markets, and, in particular, to Europe’s capital markets. With closer ties, Turkey’s boom-and-bust economy will be tamed, they hope.

There is also the honeypot. EU membership would provide access to structural funds and the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). The Centre for European Policy Studies estimates that if Turkey were a member today it would receive €9 billion (£6 billion) in CAP receipts plus €8 billion in structural funds. After deducting its theoretical contribution to the budget, Turkey might receive €16 billion annually from all of us.

Of course, no one believes a word of it. Turkey, under Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has about as much hope as Syria of extracting so many billions from Brussels. By the time that Turkey might expect to join the EU, in 2015, the CAP will be a much-shrunken beast. The spectre of a vast army of indigent farmers from Anatolia will be more than enough to kill off agricultural subsidies. (And it is in part this political reality that drives support for the Turkish candidacy in Whitehall, just as it motivates rejection in the Elysée Palace.)

To make matters worse, membership will foist a jungle of regulation on Ankara, legislation that will not just befuddle bureaucrats but drive to distraction every street-corner kebab seller, every bath-house and every butcher as they seek to comply with EU strictures about public health and hygiene. A World Bank investigation into the cost of bringing Turkey up to EU environmental standards put the bill at between €28 billion and €49 billion, representing up to 2.5 per cent of GDP over 18 years, a huge challenge.

Is it worth it? The answer —depends on where you come from. For sophisticated europhiles in Istanbul, the EU is not a dry economic union but a statement about who they think they are. For them the EU is a cultural and political union, the second act of the play written by Kemal Ataturk, who first pointed Turks westwards at the start of the last century. The EU enthusiasts in Istanbul have no more in common with Turkey’s rural and religious poor than do the lounge lizards in Paris who would defend Christian civilisation from the scourge of biblical morality.

For those who love Turkey, and they include this writer, it is a pity that champions of its EU membership are not counted among supporters of the European ideal. Instead, Turkey’s fan club is led by the cynics in Whitehall. They welcome Turkey, not as a fellow European but as the Trojan horse that will stifle further calls for integration. With Turkey casting the largest vote in the Council of Ministers, political union is surely dead.

It raises the question, what is in it for Ataturk’s children?

carl.mortished@thetimes.co.uk

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,8210-1284282,00.html

EU Watch | Turkey Insists on Equal Terms in European Union

November 27, 2013, 11:19 am

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October 3, 2004
Turkey Insists on Equal Terms in European Union
By SUSAN SACHS

ANKARA, Turkey, Oct. 2 - Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has staked his political reputation on leading Turkey into the European Union, said Saturday that Turkey would not accept any affiliation with the union that falls short of full membership.

In a wide-ranging interview at his official residence here, Mr. Erdogan rejected as "ugly" the suggestion that Turkey be offered a special partnership or held to a different standard for European Union membership than other countries.

Some political groups in Germany and France have recently made such proposals as alternatives to accepting a populous and comparatively poor Muslim nation into the 25-member union.

"No member country or candidate country has been offered such a thing or had preconditions placed on their negotiations," Mr. Erdogan said. "It's just in the case of Turkey that these ideas come forward? No, that would be ugly."

Mr. Erdogan gave a preview of the arguments he will make over the next two months as European Union leaders prepare for a December summit meeting that will determine whether Turkey begins formal accession talks.

Under his 22-month-old government, Turkey has won praise from foreign human rights groups and its internal skeptics for revising hundreds of its laws and amending its Constitution to reflect democratic values.

To disregard those reforms and deny Turkey an opportunity to join the European Union, Mr. Erdogan said, would signal that a clash between the Islamic world and the West was inevitable.

"We consider the European Union a community of values, not a Christian club," he said. "We consider the E.U. as an address where civilizations harmonize."

The first test of Turkey's aspirations is expected Wednesday, when European commissioners will decide whether to recommend starting membership negotiations. They are set to issue a voluminous report on human rights, democratization and economic factors in Turkey.

The final decision, however, will rest with European Union leaders, who have their own political constituencies to consider.

Public misgivings in many countries, particularly France, have become evident over the past few weeks even though Turkey has been a member of European institutions for decades and an official candidate to join the European Union for five years.

Turks have watched from the sidelines as Eastern European countries of the former Communist Soviet bloc were welcomed as new members. Earlier this year Cyprus also joined the union and could provide further opposition to Turkey's aspirations.

The two countries have not had diplomatic relations since 1974, when Turkish troops invaded Cyprus after a Greek Cypriot effort to merge with Greece, and the island was divided between rival Green Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot administrations.

Some diplomats here have suggested that Turkey voluntarily withdraw some of its troops as a gesture to the Greek Cypriot government, which remains implacably hostile to Turkey and could act as a spoiler at the European Union summit meeting.

But Mr. Erdogan dismissed the idea. "Turkey," he said, "has made all the gestures it was supposed to make."

Mr. Erdogan is scheduled to address the European Parliament next week and to speak to civic and business groups in France later in the month, as part of an intensification of Turkish efforts to promote its membership.

While he is regarded as a skilled and self-confident politician at home, however, Mr. Erdogan has slipped up recently on the European stage.

Two weeks ago, he abruptly withdrew a package of legal reforms from the Parliament to consider adding a law to criminalize adultery.

Mr. Erdogan's action drew sharp criticism from European commissioners and prompted public speculation that Mr. Erdogan intended to push a religious agenda in Turkey.

He eventually backed down and pushed through the reforms without the adultery provision, but only after commentators in Turkey and outside raised questions about his political judgment and sophistication.

Mr. Erdogan, while not rejecting that criticism, suggested that he was blindsided by the critics.

"I am the prime minister of a country," he said. "I follow the written agreements in front of me. Whatever exists in these written agreements, I struggle to fulfill their requirements."

The legal reforms that the European Union required of Turkey, he added, were fulfilled.

"Now, we have to realize their implementation, which we will," Mr. Erdogan said. "Apart from those, if a set of moral criteria is developed, and submitted to me in writing, I would make my comments on it as well. So, if there is nothing in writing, how am I supposed to know them?"

Ottoman Mehter music

November 27, 2013, 11:21 am

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Ottoman Mehter music, which for centuries accompanied the marching Ottoman army into battle, still echoes in that of drum and zurna - an oboe-like woodwind instrument with seven holes above and one below - which are a part of folk culture all over Turkey. Mehter music was a symbol of sovereignty and independence, and its ardent sounds instilled the soldiers with strength and courage. The rousing songs and crashing sound of the great kös drums were at the same time capable of unnerving the enemy on the brink of battle, and the Mehter music composers took pains to create works that produced this effect. The Mehter band was established in 1299 when Osman Gazi was made bey or liege lord by the Seljuk sultan Keykubat III, who sent him a tabl (kettledrum) and finial as symbols of rank. However, with the dissolution of the Janissary Corps by Sultan Mahmud II in 1826, the Mehter bands were also dispersed, and not until Ferik Ahmed Muhtar Pasa founded the Imperial Military Museum in 1908 was it decided to revive the tradition. 

In 1914 it was reestablished as the Mehterhane-i Hakani - Royal Mehter Band - attached to the museum. The band was again abolished in 1935 by then minister of defense Zekai Apaydin Bey, only to be reformed in 1952 as an institution of historical interest attached to Istanbul Military Museum. Today the band performs several times a week at the museum, and at certain official ceremonies, and is a reminder of former Ottoman glory. The band has its own distinctive marching step, whose rhythm is that of the words, ‘Gracious God is good. God is compassionate’. The mehter band marches behind the commander of the band or çorbacibasi, who wears a headdress known as üsküf. After him to his left and right respectively march the bearers of the white and red standards, the latter with an armed guard. Behind these march nine plume bearers three by three, the ‘plume of attack’ positioned behind the red standard. Then comes the band master in the center, and behind him the çevgâns (jingling instruments in the form of a crescent), zurnas, trumpets, nakkares (small kettledrums beaten with the hands or two sticks), cymbals, davuls (bass drums) and finally the kös drums (giant kettledrums) played on horseback. The mehter band members form a crescent to perform, and play standing except for the nakkare players, who sit cross-legged at the right-hand tip of the crescent, followed anticlockwise by the zurnas, bass drums, cymbals and trumpets. When they march, the band members pause every three steps and turn to right and left in salutation, in a rhythm set by the drums, chanting ‘Rahim Allah, Kerim Allah’ (Merciful God, Gracious God). 

In former centuries the Mehter band used to play even at night on the battlefield to prevent the camp guards from falling asleep. As well as the instruments already mentioned, a full Mehter band could also include two types of zurna (cura and kaba), kurrenay (a kind of horn with a curved end), Mehter whistle, clarinet-type wind instruments, tabl, tambourine and other percussion instruments.

The Mehter bands were primarily military bands, and those under the command of generals included war drums over one meter in height known as harbî kûs or kös. These were carried on camels, and playing them with sticks demanded great skill. The 17th century writer Evliya Çelebi wrote, ‘Each kûs is the size of a bathhouse dome. They are played on feast day nights and days and their sound is like thunder.’ During performances the kös drums were placed in a line on the ground in the center of the circle of musicians, and when marching they were loaded in pairs onto camels. The drummer rode and struck the drums to his right and left by turn. The kös was only ever played by royal Mehter bands, or in that of the commander-in-chief leading the army in lieu of the sultan when on campaign. Each set of players had a leader known as aga. The leader of the bass drum players was called the basmehter aga, and the master of the entire band was called the mehterbasi aga. All the agas and the çevgân players wore white turbans wound around a kavuk (cap), a red coat over a yellow robe and red trousers, a shawl wound around the waist and yellow leather shoes. The other musicians were similarly dressed, except that their kavuks and coats were dark blue.

As the Ottomans advanced westwards into Europe, many elements of Mehter music influenced western composers, particularly in the 17th century. Later Mozart and Haydn composed music inspired by Mehter music, and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony’s use of the kös, bass drum and zurna in the last movement is another striking example. Mozart, Bizet and many other composers produced ‘alla Turca’ pieces. The military Mehter bands symbolized the sovereignty of the Ottoman state, and their powerful stirring music had a spirit which we can still appreciate today when listening to the museums Mehter band playing this sound out of the past.

Prints of Ancient Constantinople

November 27, 2013, 11:23 am

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Mavi Boncuk |

Constantinople,Palace of Sultan Mahmoud the 2. print c. 1838
Ancient Constantinople, Fort Beil-Gorod 1840

engraving by W.H. Bartlett and engraved by C. Cousen. Published by Virtue Co., London 1840


Antique steel engraving.THE fortress of Beil-Gorod, which forms the subject of the accompanying engraving, is situated immediately opposite to the Jouchi Dajhi, or Giant's Grave. It is in the most efficient state of any of the double line of forts bristling the shores of the Bosphorus; and is frequently visited by Sultan Mahmoud, who, during the summer months, occasionally spends whole days at Beil-Gorod, whither he repairs in his gilded barge, attended by a train of Pashas and Beys in their graceful caiques, sweeping along the channel like a flight of swans. It is a singular and beautiful sight to watch the action of the rowers in the larger boats, or galleys, pulling six or eight pairs of oars, as, clad in a uniform dress composed of white silk shirts with loose open sleeves, cotton drawers of extreme width, and small red caps scarcely covering the crown of their shaven heads, they bend to the long sweep of the pliant oars with an action as symmetrical as though it were produced by machinery, and increase their speed to the utmost stretch, when two rival boats are striving for the lead,—while on every occasional rencontre with each other on the same course, the foremost boat makes it a point of honour not to lose its place ; the rowers voluntarily exerting their strength and skill in mimic regattas of perpetual recurrence.

The caiques themselves are beautiful; long and narrow, with high prows glittering with gilding, and raised sterns, where the attendants sit behind their employers, who occupy the bottom of the boat, which is always luxuriously carpetted and cushioned, the build of the caique not admitting of transverse seats, even did the habits of the Osmanii favour them: and thus they skim along upon the ripple like wild birds; or bound over the " Devil's current " with the assistance of the yelik, or towing-rope, which, is flung on board by persons who gain a subsistence in assisting the labouring boats through the whirling eddies, where the oars of the boatmen cannot avail.

A small silver coin, its amount depending on the liberality of the traveller, repays this service; and the Sheitan Akindessi once passed, the oars are resumed, the yelik cast off, and the freed caique again shoots forward like an arrow.

There is probably no boat in the world so thoroughly elegant—the canoe of the Indian, the gondola of the Venetian, even the antique classical-looking bark of the Arab, beautiful as it is, must yield the palm to the fairy boats of the Bosphorus. The situation of Beil-G-orod is very fine, as it commands the entrance of the Bosphorus from the Euxine ; and every vessel bound from the "Sea of Storms" to the Golden City necessarily passes before it, producing a constantly varied panorama full of movement and interest.

The Jouchi Daghi frames in the picture on one side, sobering its tints, and recalling the tradition of its former occupant, who, if he did not actually 'sit upon a rock, and bob for whales," was, according to the legend, quite able to have done so, had he wished it; while in the other direction the " ocean-stream," winding between its romantic snores, stretches away far as the eye can reach, now lost behind some wooded height, now seen again beyond it, until earth and water, bay and mountain, become blent in one pure glittering purple, and are lost amid the horizon.

Devin Bozkaya | Chef de Cuisine

November 27, 2013, 1:13 pm

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Mavi Boncuk |

DEVIN BOZKAYA | CHEF DE CUISINE

Devin Bozkaya’s love for food developed at a young age, while growing up in Turkey with his grandmother, where every evening he would watch her prepare intricate meals from scratch. After moving to the United States at the age of eleven to live with his father in Nashville, Tennessee; Bozkaya’s love for cooking was further instilled at a home where the kitchen was the communal ground and every evening was a family dinner.

Bozkaya’s culinary career began at the age of 16 after a move to Anchorage, Alaska and continued on to Seattle, Washington, where he worked in the kitchens of Blue Water Bistro and Vivanda Ristorante while attending business school. After graduating from the University of Washington, Seattle, Bozkaya continued to pursue his passion of the culinary arts at the Culinary Institute of America in New York, where he earned an associates degree in culinary arts.

In 2006, Bozkaya accepted the opportunity of a lifetime to work under Chef Patrick O’Connell as a Sous Chef at the renowned Inn at Little Washington. Bozkaya’s five years at the Inn at Little Washington was a pivotal point in his career as it gave him the opportunity to explore the art of cooking and hone his skills as a Chef. It was that experience that led him to the next chapter of his career as the Executive Chef of the nearby, award-winning Blue Rock Inn and Restaurant.

After traveling across the country gaining over a decade of experience in the kitchen, Bozkaya is happy to call Westend Bistro his home. In his position as Chef de Cuisine, Bozkaya is thrilled to work alongside such an accomplished culinary staff and General Manager Ryme Lansari, and looks forward to providing Westend Bistro’s guests with an unforgettable meal and dining experience.

Book | Ottoman Tchinghianés

November 27, 2013, 2:06 pm

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Mavi Boncuk |

Études sur les Tchinghianés ou Bohémiens de l'empire Ottoman. 
Alexandre G. Paspati
Constantinople, Antoine Koroméla, 1870.
Large 8vo. Pp. xii, 652. An important work on the Gypsies. 

Contains an introduction about recent published works on gypsies, about their customs and manners but it is mainly devoted to the Romany language. It includes a vocabulary with discussions, a grammar, other wordlists, and six tales.

Download French-Gypsy Dictionary as PDF
and Folk Tales as PDF

See also; Alexandros Paspates. The Great Palace of Constantinople.
Elibron Classics, 2001, 392 pages.
ISBN 140217666X paperback
ISBN 1402127286 hardcover

Replica of 1893 edition by Alexander Gardner, London.

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Profile | Alexander G. Paspati

November 27, 2013, 2:26 pm

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Mavi Boncuk |

Occupation: Physician.
Byzantine specialist. Founder of the Syllogos Littéraire in Constantinople. Grand Officier de l'Ordre du Sauveur.

Alexander G. Paspati is among the 12 Greek youths brought to New York between 1823-1831 by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. [3]

"Six of the Greek youths, who have received instruction from the missionaries of the Board at Malta, have been sent to this country, during the past year, for the purpose of enjoying the literary and religious advantages, with which a kind Providence has so abundantly favored us...arrived in May...Alessandro Paspati...has a mother at Malta, but his father is dead. A younger sister has recently been redeemed from bondage by friends in Smyrna, and a brother is supposed to be still a captive among the Turks." He was studying at an academy in Bolton, Massachusettes, in 1823. [4]

Alexander G. Paspati, 27, b. Chios, unmarried, having arrived Syros in 1830, physician, swore allegiance to the Greek state on 11 Jul 1840 at the town hall, Ermoupolis, Syros. [5]

Alexandre Paspatis, physician, Athens, was a donating member, from 1868, Association for the Encouragement of Greek Studies, Paris, France. [6]



Philip L. Chryssoveloni, Chios through the Ages (Athens, 1937) Alexander George Paspati is mentioned on pages 68-69 

Sources
[S49] Χίος και Χίοι διά μέσου των αιώνων, Χρυσοβελόνης, Φίλιππος Λ [Philip L. Chryssoveloni], (digital document, originally published Athens,1937), 68-69.

[S17] Sturdza, Dictionnaire Historique Genealogique ... Grece, Sturdza, Mihail-Dimitri, (self, Paris, 1983), 123.

[S42] The Greek Community of New York City, Michael Contopoulos, (New Rochelle, NY: A.D. Caratzas, 1992, ISBN 0-89241-518-5), 12, 156.

[S44] Report of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, 116, 1823.

[S25] Greek State Archives (Syros).

[S62] Revue des études grecques Vol 7 (1892), Association for the Encouragement of Greek Studies, (Paris), LVIII. v3, 1890

  [1] Alexander G. Paspati, M.D., (b. 1814 Chios, Greece d. 24 Dec 1891 Athens, Greece), practised  as a doctor at Constantinople, and was an eminent Byzantine antiquary. His Études sur les Tchinghianés ou Bohémiens de l’Empire Ottoman (Cont. 1870, 652 pp.), is one of the very best works that we have on the Rómani language. It is largely based on Turkish-Gypsy folk-tales, of which Dr. Paspati seems to have made a huge collection, but only six of which are published by him as an appendix (pp. 594-629) Folk Tales as PDF, in the original Rómani with a French translation. SOURCE

(pictured) Wife Argyro Vourou, married 03 Mar 1852 Syros, Greece (b. 1828- d. 02 Nov 1913)

Source

Happy Bicentennial James (1813 — 1888)

November 29, 2013, 9:42 am

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James Robertson  Constantinople. Base de l'obélisque [de théodose] 1854 
Papier albuminé d'après négatif sur verre au collodion  24.5 x 29.5 cm 
Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Département des Estampes et de la Photographie  Album du comte de Paris 

General reading 
  
Lawrence, James, 1981, 1854-56 Crimea: The War with Russia from Contemporary Photographs, (Van Nostrand) isbn-10: 0442245696 isbn-13: 978-0442245696 [Δ] 
  
Öztuncay, B., 2003, The Photographers of Constantinople: Pioneers, Studios and Artists from 19th Century Istanbul. Vol.1 - Text and Photographs. Vol.2 - The Album, (Istanbul: Aygaz) 
  
Oztuncay, Bahattin, 2006, The Photographers of Constantinople, (Istanbul) 
  
Taylor, Roger; with Larry J. Schaaf, 2007, Impressed by Light: British Photographs from Paper Negatives, 1840–1860, (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art)   

Mavi Boncuk |

James Robertson (1813 — 1888) was an English photographer and gem and coin engraver who worked in the Mediterranean region, the Crimea and possibly India. He was one of the first war photographers.

Robertson was born in Middlesex in 1813. He trained as an engraver[1] under Wyon (probably William Wyon) and in 1843 he began work as an engraver at the Imperial Ottoman Mint in Constantinople. 

It is believed that Robertson became interested in photography while in the Ottoman Empire in the 1840s.

In 1853 he began photographing with British photographer Felice Beato and the two formed a partnership called Robertson & Beato either in that year or in 1854 when Robertson opened a photographic studio in Pera, Constantinople. Robertson and Beato were joined by Beato's brother, Antonio on photographic expeditions to Malta in 1854 or 1856 and to Greece and Jerusalem in 1857. A number of the firm's photographs produced in the 1850s are signed Robertson, Beato and Co. and it is believed that "and Co." refers to Antonio.

In late 1854 or early 1855 Robertson married the Beato brothers' sister, Leonilda Maria Matilda Beato. They had three daughters, Catherine Grace (born in 1856), Edith Marcon Vergence (born in 1859) and Helen Beatruc (born in 1861).

In 1855 Robertson and Felice Beato travelled to Balaklava, Crimea where they took over reportage of the Crimean War from Roger Fenton. They photographed the fall of Sevastopol in September 1855.

Some sources have suggested that in 1857 both Robertson and Felice Beato went to India to photograph the aftermath of the Indian Rebellion, but it is more probable that Beato travelled there alone. Around this time Robertson did photograph in Palestine, Syria, Malta, and Cairo with either or both of the Beato brothers.

In 1860, after Felice Beato left for China to photograph the Second Opium War and Antonio Beato went to Egypt, Robertson briefly teamed up with Charles Shepherd back in Constantinople. The firm of Robertson & Beato was dissolved in 1867, having produced images - including remarkable multiple-print panoramas - of Malta, Greece, Turkey, Damascus, Jerusalem, Egypt, the Crimea and India. Robertson possibly gave up photography in the 1860s; he returned to work as an engraver at the Imperial Ottoman Mint until his retirement in 1881. In that year he left for Yokohama, Japan, arriving in January 1882. He died there in April 1888.

[1] Robertson has been variously identified, most convincingly as a London-based gem engraver who exhibited at the Royal Academy during the 1830s. In 1839 a new sultan decided to modernize the mint. New equipment was purchased from London, and a team of experts, mostly British and including Robertson, was hired to install and use it.

Shadow Play's Secret Language

November 29, 2013, 9:52 am

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Karagöz (meaning blackeye in Turkish) and Hacivat ( shortened in time from "Hacı İvaz" meaning "İvaz the Pilgrim", and also sometimes written as Hacivad) are the lead characters of the traditional Turkish shadow play, popularized during the Ottoman period. The central theme of the plays are the contrasting interaction between the two main characters. They are perfect foils of each other: Karagöz represents the illiterate but straightforward public, whereas Hacivat belongs to the educated class, speaking Ottoman Turkish and using a poetical and literary language. Although Karagöz has definitely been intended to be the more popular character with the Turkish peasantry, Hacivat is always the one with a level head. Though Karagöz always outdoes Hacivat’s superior education with his “native wit,” he is also very impulsive and his never-ending deluge of get-rich-quick schemes always results in failure. Hacivat continually attempts to “domesticate” Karagöz, but never makes progress. 

Mavi Boncuk |

samamiko = karagöz
pandeli = def
matiz, matto = tuzsuz deli bekir karagözde'ki,ortaoyunu'ndaki sarhoş;türkçe'nin argosu.methiysos,grekçe ''içkici,içkiye düşkün''demekmiş.mattamente,matto,matteza,amattuto...gider böyl
toramanlı karagöz = zekerli karagöz mustehcen konularla oynatılan karagoz oyunu
oski = altın
çori = bıçak çori.romanca, güzeller güzeli çingence'de bıçak, çakı.
cümle içinde örnek:-çoriler fora.meali:-(karşılıklı) bıçakları çek(tiler)
hasbi = gizli argoda, onem vermemek, ilgi gostermemek yani sallamamak anlamina gelir. dalga gecmek anlaminda "hasbi gecmek" diye de kullanilir.
habbe = yemek
hatem = zil
hatem kerizi= çengi oynatmak
delif = güzel
hırbo = kastamonulu

Drug Use Euphemism

November 29, 2013, 9:57 am

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Mavi Boncuk |
Küçük su: Nargile malzemesi
Şaşal içmek: Uyuşturucuyu nargile kıvamına getirip içmek
Serpil Çakmaklı: Taş kokain
Pişmemiş yemek: Taş kokain
Çizgili gömlek: Toz kokain
Borç miktarı: Kokain miktarı
Balık tutmak: Uyuşturucu kullanmak
Şey: Uyuşturucu
Araba: Uyuşturucu
CD: uyuşturucu
Gazoz: Uyuşturucu
Ortama bir şey yapmak: Uyuşturucu kullanmak
Spor yapmak: Uyuşturucu temin etmek
Sevilmeyen karı: Sevilmeyen uyuşturucu çeşidi
Sevilen hediye: İstenilen, sevilen uyuşturucu çeşidi
Evde patlamak: Evde uyuşturucu kullanmak

Balkan Postcards of War

November 29, 2013, 10:11 am

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Mavi Boncuk | 

A World War I postcard depicting the meeting of Bulgarian and Hungarian troops at Kladovo.

Balkan anti Turkey Balkan War Montenegro Postcard 1912 Balkan War Postcard 


Bulgaria Invalid Balkan War

 Bulgaria Comic Postcard

Balkan Postcards of War | 2

November 29, 2013, 9:41 pm

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Mavi Boncuk |1913 Bulgarian card

Battle for Kurdjali(Kircali)

WWI Italian postcard represents Serbian soldier fight with Austrian and German, at that time Bulgarian trying to kill him with a knife, Greek looking from a side.

1913 Bulgarian king Ferdinand comes on Turkey land"

Bulgarian Propaganda Postcard

November 29, 2013, 9:49 pm

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Mavi Boncuk |

Bulgarian propaganda postcard from the First Balkan War issued in 1912 with images of Montenegrin, Serbian, Bulgarian and Greek rulers and Serb, Bulgarian and Greek patriotic slogans. Above images of Montenegrin King Nikola Petrovic Njegos and Serbian King Petar Karadjordjevic are Serb tricolor flags and below them is a slogan "Only Harmony Saves the Serbs". Borders of Serbia and Montenegro are in red color.

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Balkan War | Bulgarian Air Force

December 1, 2013, 10:51 pm

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On Oct. 8, 1912, the tiny Kingdom of Montenegro declared war on a weakened Ottoman Empire, kicking off what is now known as the First Balkan War. Three other Balkan states in league with the Montenegrins—Bulgaria, Greece and Serbia—rapidly followed suit, waging war on the Turks, the old imperial enemy, while drawing upon a wellspring of national sentiment in each of their homelands. Read more: The Balkan Wars: Scenes from the Front Lines |

Mavi Boncuk | The Bulgarian Air Force was the first to use aircraft for offensive military action.

Bulgarian airmen prepare for a mission to drop a bomb by hand on Adrianople (now Edirne, Turkey), from their Bleriot XI aircraft, during the First Balkan War, circa 1913.

Read more: The Balkan Wars: Scenes from the Front Lines 

1920 | British Fleet at Ismid

December 2, 2013, 2:34 pm

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Source: The Mediterranean Fleet, 1919-1929 by Paul G. Halpern, Paul Halpern 

In January 1920, the 1st Battle Squadron was detached to the Mediterranean due to crises in the region. While in the area, Revenge supported Greek forces and remained in the Black Sea, due to concerns about the Russian Civil War until July, when she returned to the British Atlantic Fleet.

In 1922, Revenge, with her sister ships Ramillies, Resolution and Royal Sovereign, was again sent to the Mediterranean due to further crises, in no small part due to the forced abdication of King Constantine I of Greece. Revenge was stationed at Constantinople and the Dardanelles throughout her deployment to that region. She rejoined the Atlantic Fleet the following year.


Mavi Boncuk |

HMS Resolution (pennant number 09) was a Revenge-class battleship of the Royal Navy. She was laid down at Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron Company, Jarrow on 29 November 1913, launched on 14 January 1915, and commissioned on 30 December 1916. From 1916 to 1919, Resolution served in the 1st Battle Squadron (United Kingdom) of the Grand Fleet.

HMS Ramillies was a Revenge-class battleship of the Royal Navy, named after the Battle of Ramillies. The ship is notable for having served in both the First and Second World Wars. Despite her age, she was active throughout the latter war, with service ranging from convoy escort to shore bombardment to engaging enemy battleships. Ramillies was built by William Beardmore and Company at Dalmuir in Scotland. She was launched on 12 June 1916 and commissioned on 1 September 1917. Commissioning was delayed because her rudder was damaged during launch. She was towed with great difficulty to the Cammell Lairdworks on the River Mersey for repairs.

HMS Royal Sovereign (pennant number 05) was a Revenge-class (also known as Royal Sovereign and R-class) battleship. Royal Sovereign was laid down on 15 January 1914 at the Portsmouth Dockyard. The ship was launched on 29 April 1915 and commissioned in May 1916. She served with the Grand Fleet for the remainder of the war, but did not see action. In the early 1930s, she was assigned to the Mediterranean Fleet and based in Malta.


Conflicts between Greece and the crumbling Ottoman Empire prompted the Royal Navy to deploy a force to the eastern Mediterranean. In April 1920, Royal Sovereign and her sister ship Resolution steamed to the region via Malta.[26] While in the Ottoman capital Constantinople, Royal Sovereign and the other British warships took on White émigré fleeing the Communist Red Army. 

HMS Revenge (pennant number 06) was the lead ship of the Revenge class of battleships of theRoyal Navy, the ninth to bear the name. She was launched during World War I in 1915. Though the class is often referred to as the Royal Sovereign class, official documents of 1914–1918 refer to the class as the Revenge class. She was commissioned in 1916, just before the Battle of Jutland.

After the first world war she was sent to The Mediterranean station in 1920  and was stationed with HMS Ramillies at Ismid in June 1920during the Brief war between Greece and Turkey. In July 1920 she joined the 1st Battle squadron guarding British Interests during the seizure of Mudania and in August returned to join the Atlantic Fleet.

HMS Pegasus was an aircraft carrier/seaplane carrier bought by the Royal Navy in 1917 during the First World War. She was laid down in 1914 by John Brown & Company of Clydebank, Scotland as SS Stockholm for the Great Eastern Railway Company, but construction was suspended by the start of the war. The ship was converted to operate a mix of wheeled aircraft from her forward flying-off deck and floatplanes that were lowered into the water.  She spent most of 1919 and 1920 supporting British intervention against the Bolsheviks in North Russia and the Black Sea. 


HMS Ark Royal was the first ship in history designed and built as a seaplane carrier.

She was purchased by the Royal Navy in 1914 shortly after her keel had been laid and the ship was only in frames; this allowed the ship's design to be modified almost totally to accommodate seaplanes. In World War I, Ark Royal participated in the Gallipoli Campaign in early 1915 with her aircraft conducting aerial reconnaissance and observation missions. Her aircraft later supported British troops on the Macedonian Front in 1916, before she returned to the Dardanelles to act as a depot ship for all the seaplanes operating in the area. In January 1918, several of her aircraft unsuccessfully attacked the German battlecruiser SMS Goeben when she sortied from the Dardanelles to attack Allied ships in the area. 

The ship left the area later in the year to support seaplanes conducting anti-submarine patrols over the southern Aegean Sea. After the end of the war, Ark Royal mostly served as an aircraft transport and depot ship for those aircraft in support of White Russian and British operations against the Bolsheviks in the Caspian and Black Sea regions. She also supported Royal Air Force (RAF) aircraft in British Somaliland in the campaign against the Mad Mullah in 1920. Later that year, the ship was placed in reserve. Ark Royal was recommissioned to ferry an RAF squadron to the Dardanelles during the Chanak crisis in 1922.

1920 | Ismid-Black Sea Line and Rebels

December 2, 2013, 3:40 pm

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Mavi Boncuk |

1920 (July 24th) cover + letter from 'HMS Helotrope, Gulf of Ismid', TURKEY to GB with RFHMS m/c. mss .. "The turks must sign on the 27th July 1920 when the Bolshies and Volunteer Army are requested to make peace with each other, if they dont we are to withdraw and leave them to finish things out themselves. That means that there will no longer be any need for sloops in the Black Sea. 25th July. I have been to Karamusar and Yalova to investigate some disturbances .... we got orders to proceed to Touyla and relieve the destroyer 'Sidar' guarding the 'Goeben". From Lt. Commander M Ewbank. Black Sea Ferry ship [Sloop]

Red Line in Iraq

December 3, 2013, 9:23 am

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British Petroleum and the Redline Agreement--The West’s Secret Pact to Get Mideast Oil. Edwin Black. 277 pages. 2011. 

" British Petroleum and the Redline Agreement is only the latest of his several volumes on the geopolitics and diplomatic machinations that led to the carving up of the Mideast the creation of oil states following the fall of the Ottoman Empire nearly one hundred years ago-- and eventually to the two costly wars the United States fought in Iraq. Black is said to be the man who coined the term "petropolitics."

Mavi Boncuk | 

 

Red Line Agreement

TPC, reorganized in 1924 to include Americans among its partners, having obtained a concession from the Iraqi government in 1925, and having discovered the Kirkuk field in 1927, was now poised to operate in a big way, exploiting the Kirkuk reserves. But there was one more hurdle to overcome: formalizing the corporate structure and binding all partners to the original self-denial clause.

To this end, the partners met in the town of Ostend in Belgium on July 31, 1928 to sign the definitive Group Agreement. They confirmed the existing shareholding structure, with the added provision that Gulbenkian could sell his 5 percent share of oil to the French at the market rate, thus assuring himself cash without the trouble of marketing. In return, the French would have the guarantee of an additional 5 percent oil in their oil off-take. At this time, only 5 companies were represented in the American syndicate.

As to the self-denial clause, Gulbenkian took out a large map, laid it on the table and drew with a thick red pencil an outline demarking the boundaries of the area where the self-denial clause would be in effect. He said that was the boundary of the Ottoman Empire he knew in 1914. He should know, he added, because he was born in it and lived in. The other partners looked on attentively and did not object. They had already anticipated such a boundary. (According to some accounts, the “red line” was drawn not by Gulbenkian but by the French).

Thus came into being the infamous “Red Line Agreement.” It marked the creation of an oil monopoly, or cartel, of immense influence, spanning a vast territory. The cartel preceded easily by three decades the birth of another cartel, OPEC, which was formed in 1960. Excepting Gulbenkian, the partners were the super majors of today. Within the “red line” was included the entire ex-Ottoman territory in the Middle East, including the Arabian Peninsula (plus Turkey) but excluding Kuwait. Kuwait was excluded, as it was meant to be a preserve for the British. Years later, Walter Teagle of Jersey remarked that the agreement was “a damn bad move.”

The Red Line Agreement lasted as long as it served the interests of the partners. By 1934 the American syndicate in TPC (IPC) had trickled down to two companies: Jersey and Socony (later Mobil), the two splitting equally the 23.75 percent American share. In 1935 through 1937 the IPC group, under different names, took oil concessions in Oman, the Trucial Coast and Qatar, all within the “red line.” Also, in 1929 two American oil companies, Socal (later Chevron) and Texas Company (later Texaco) obtained an oil concession in Bahrain. Because these two companies were not part of IPC, the Bahrain concession did not create a fuss within IPC. But another, far more serious threat was looming on the horizon: the lure of Saudi Arabia.

Turks Türük and Turkic

December 3, 2013, 10:05 am

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Map from Kashgari's Diwan, showing the distribution of Turkic tribes. 

Mavi Boncuk |


The first known mention of the term Turk (Old Turkic:  Türük or   Kök Türük or  Türük, Chinese: 突厥, Pinyin: Tūjué, Middle Chinese (Guangyun): [tʰuot-küot]) applied to a Turkic group was in reference to the Göktürks in the 6th century. A letter by Ishbara Qaghan to Emperor Wen of Sui in 585 described him as "the Great Turk Khan." The Orhun inscriptions (735 CE) use the terms Turk and Turuk.

Previous use of similar terms are of unknown significance, although some strongly feel that they are evidence of the historical continuity of the term and the people as a linguistic unit since early times. This includes Chinese records Spring and Autumn Annals referring to a neighbouring people as Beidi.

There are references to certain groups in antiquity whose names could be the original form of "Türk/Türük" such as Togarma, Turukha, Turukku and so on. But the information gap is so substantial that we cannot firmly connect these ancient people to the modern Turks. According to the assumptions of the Turkologists Peter Golden and András Róna-Tas, the term Turk could be rooted in the East Iranian Saka language. However, it is generally accepted that the term "Türk" is ultimately derived from the Old-Turkic migration-term "Türük" or "Törük",which means "created", "born", or "strong".

The Chinese Book of Zhou (7th century) presents an etymology of the name Turk as derived from "helmet", explaining that taken this name refers to the shape of the Altai Mountains.[citation needed] According to Persian tradition, as reported by 11th-century ethnographer Mahmud of Kashgar and various other traditional Islamic scholars and historians, the name "Turk" stems from Tur, one of the sons of Japheth (see Turan). During the Middle Ages, the various Turkic peoples of the Eurasian steppe were also subsumed under the classical name of the Scythians. Between 400 CE and the 16th century the Byzantine sources use the name Σκΰθαι in reference to twelve different Turkic peoples.

In the modern Turkish language as used in the Republic of Turkey, a distinction is made between "Turks" and the "Turkic peoples" in loosely speaking: the term Türk corresponds specifically to the "Turkish-speaking" people (in this context, "Turkish-speaking" is considered the same as "Turkic-speaking"), while the term Türki refers generally to the people of modern "Turkic Republics" (Türki Cumhuriyetler or Türk Cumhuriyetleri). However, the proper usage of the term is based on the linguistic classification in order to avoid any political sense. In short, the term Türki can be used for Türk or vice versa.