Menteşeoğullari Principality, Mediterranean world and Ottoman Principality: Development of inter-state relations

The most important factor in the birth of the Menteşeoğulları Principality is the great Turkmen migration to Anatolia due to the great Mongolian invasion in the 13th century. Like the founders of other principalities, the ancestors of Menteşeoğulları also came to Anatolia with this migration. The Turkoman masses, who gathered in the Taurus Mountains and Western Anatolia, established their principalities by making conquests in their own name in parallel with the Mongol pressure and the collapse of the Turkish Seljuk State. Menteşe Bey appeared on the stage of history for the first time with the Karamanoğulları. Menteşe Bey, who conquered the Byzantine province of Karia, draws attention with the quality of an independent political authority. During the establishment of the principality, the first relations as foreign relations were experienced with Byzantium, and these relations generally have military characteristics. Menteşeoğulları, who later developed military, diplomatic and commercial relations with the Latins, realized a naval holy war as an important naval power. The wars with the Christians did not hinder the development of commercial relations. In this context, it is seen that they made agreements with the Venetians many times. On the other hand, military alliance relations with Genoese and Catalans draw attention. Relations with Menteşeoğulları started on the basis of good neighborliness and friendship during the reign of the Ottoman ruler Murad I. In this period, the Ottomans, whose political and military superiority was recognized all over Anatolia, made the Menteşeoğulları Principality accept their influence. In the period of Yıldırım Bayezid, the Ottomans abandoned the policy of imposing their legal and legitimacy-based superiority against the Anatolian Principalities, and directly turned to the policy of annexation.Yıldırım Bayezid destroyed the Menteşeoğulları and other Western Anatolian Turkish Principalities by using military force in the Anadolu Savaşı he started in 1390. Timur's expedition to Anatolia and the 1402 Ankara War led to the re-establishment of the Menteşeoğulları Principality legally. During the Interregnum, Menteşeoğulları tried to become stronger by following a policy of balance in the struggle for the throne between the Ottomans. Çelebi Mehmed ve II. Murad put an end to the Menteşeoğulları Principality by adhering to legitimacy and relying on legal justifications for military intervention. KEY WORDS: Mediterranean, Byzantine, Latins, Menteşeoğulları, Ottoman