Minorities in Turkey from Tanzimat to Lausanne

Ayber, Bahar. Minorities in Turkey from Tanzimat to Lausanne, Master?s Thesis, Ankara,2008-03-26The concept of ?Minority? first emerged in the 16. century. However, in this period, the consept was not used to identify ethnical groups as is today, but religious groups. In this period, the Otoman Empire developed the ?millet? system, which was based on religious identification and this system had been maintained for centuries. However, the nationalist ideologies propagated by the French Revolution in 1789, paved the way for a new conception of ?minorty?, which was based on ethnic roots and this prepared the end of the multi-ethnic/ multinational empires of the 19. century. The Otoman Empire, which entered the 19. century diplomatically unprepared, had gone through a number of reformations due to the influences of the international pressures and iner conflicts. It?s no doupt that the most significant step of these reformations was the regulations intended for the non-muslims. The constitutional regulations and imperal edicts that were put into force in order to minimize the demands of the minorities and to ensure consistency did not help in preventing the collapse. With the Treaty of Serves, which was signed right after the World War I, all the minorities in the Otoman Empire were given autonomy; however, the young Turkish Republic, which had won a victory in the War of İndependence, did not recognize the treaty. With theTreaty of Lausanne, which was signed after a great deal of efforts, it was agreed upon that only the non-muslim Turkish citizens be acknowledged as minorities. Today, however, this restrictive attitude of recognizing only the non-Muslims as minorities is increasingly conflicting with the global trends.Key Words1. Minority2. Non-Muslim3. Reform4. Reformation5. Lausanne