What exactly is colonialism? Isn’t it essentially conquering a country, ruling it from elsewhere, and moving one’s nationals into it? In that case, Ottoman rule in Algeria is a quintessential example of colonialism. But Çavuşoğlu will never admit this, because to do so would cast the Ottoman Empire’s jihadist expansion in a negative light. As far as he is concerned, it was all the will of Allah, and the Algerians benefited from it. That, of course, is what colonial rulers always think. For details about Ottoman colonialism, see The History of Jihad.
“Turkey slams Macron for describing Ottoman rule in Algeria as colonialism,” Duvar English, October 8, 2021:
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu has slammed French President Emmanuel Macron for describing the 300-year rule of the Ottoman Empire as “colonialism,” saying that “such cheap approaches do not benefit anyone in elections.”
Speaking at a news conference in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv after meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart on Oct. 7, Çavuşoğlu said: “It is extremely wrong to drag Turkey, which does not have a black mark, such as colonialism, in its history, into such debates.”
Çavuşoğlu said that France has entered the “election atmosphere” ahead of the 2022 presidential elections and that “Macron uses this way because of the elections.”
“However, both in France and in other countries, we have seen that such cheap approaches do not help in the elections either,” he added….
Macron said last week, “There was a colonization before the French colonial rule” in Algeria, alluding to the Ottoman presence in the country between 1514 and 1830….
al says
Algeria was not arabic or muslim before the arab muslim conquest, but they killed the other ethnicities and religions so, then they could not recover from that sort of genocidal islamic imperualism, the ultimate imperialism is the islamic imperialism which result in genocide of the peoples and religions who were before. The French Empire retreated but the arab islamic empire will not retreat because there is nobody else outside them, the previous peoples, cultures and religions were killed off
Diane Harvey says
And let us not forget Turkey’s intrusion into Cyprus.
gravenimage says
Yes–which is ongoing.
Wellington says
Per Leftthink and Islamthink, only the West engaged in colonialism and imperialism. Other civilizations and societies like those of the Aztec, Iroquois, Inca, Zulu, Arabs, Mongols, Turks, Vietnamese, Japanese, et al.—as long as non-Western—simply sometimes “spread” and nothing more.
Kepha says
Speaking as a history teacher, my guess is that there’s a very logical reason for Lefthink seeing colonialism and imperialism as limited to Western acts: it’s a legacy of Marx dismissing the non-Western peoples as “historyless”. There is also an undertow among many in the Western world, including non-Leftists, to dismiss the societies of Asia, Africa, and the pre-Columbian Americas as “static” (which they most definitely were not).
Once, I showed some WWII US information films to my class. In describing China’s plight, the narrator spoke of China never having waged aggressive war on anyone , and that its expansion was “within its own borders”. Well, sympathetic as I might be towards China’s plight in WWII, and understanding as I may be of the US government’s wartime goal of painting positive pictures of its allies, a state or culture does not expand from the Loess Plateau and North China plain to the Amur, ian Shan, and the Monsoon Tropics without a few aggressive wars or acts of overland colonization.
Re the topic, in a sense the Turks are right about their not playing a “colonial” role in Algeria. My guess is that Algerian Sunnite Muslims were probably quite accepting by rule of another set of Sunnite Muslims, especially if they were allowed to engage in piracy. Now, re the Balkans, Armenia, and the Dhimmi areas of the Middle East, I think “colonialism” is perfectly apt in describing the Ottoman state.
somehistory says
Kepha,
Did you see the recent discovery of an essay written in the 1300’s and analyzed by a historian that seems to show the Italians knew about America before Columbus sailed…150 years before he sailed?
“According to Chiesa, the ancient essay, first discovered in 2013, suggests that sailors from Genoa were already aware of this land, recognizable as Markland/ Marckalada…”
https://www.laboratoryequipment.com/579997-Documents-Suggest-Italian-Sailors-Knew-of-America-150-Years-Before-Christopher-Columbus/
gravenimage says
All too true, Wellington.
And Kepha, I think that dismissing the non-Western world as “historyless” would be unacceptable today (rightly, for once). But this doesn’t mean that many in the West, especially leftists, are aware of any of this history, or interested in learning it. I have been shocked by much of the ahistoric whitewash of non-Western history here.
More:
Re the topic, in a sense the Turks are right about their not playing a “colonial” role in Algeria. My guess is that Algerian Sunnite Muslims were probably quite accepting by rule of another set of Sunnite Muslims
…………..
Actually, Kepha, the Muslim Arabs chafed under the oppressive rule of the Ottoman Turks, and could not wait to revolt. Surely you have heard of Lawrence of Arabia and his involvement with the Arab revolt against the Turks?
That is why the Levant and the Mahgreb are no longer part of the Ottoman Empire.
JimJFox says
The essential difference between western colonisation and the Islamic version is that the former ALWAYS resulted in improved conditions in the colonized country whereas Islam ALWAYS had the opposite effect.
JimJFox says
In addition, much was achieved relatively peaceful through trade, as in India. Not saying that all was peace and light but compared to Islam it was relatively benevolent in general.
Secondly, in many places European colonisation ended centuries sooner than the Muslim invasions.
SAFI says
Another essential difference I find is that, unlike the Europeans who gave up most of their colonial empires mostly peacefully under pressure even from their own publics, the Turks never-ever “decolonized” any territory voluntarily they had to be driven out by force of arms after countless rebellions and wars at great cost.
SAFI says
And also the fact that the Turks / Muslims never ever recognized that there was anything wrong with their own jihad colonialism/ imperialism/ slavery and are to this day totally convinced that they hold the “moral high-ground” vs the evil “crusader” Europeans.
gravenimage says
So true, SAFI.
bill says
Wellington.
True only white people can be colonialist, yet the Ottomans occupied most of the Levant until they were kicked out after WW1 and they were hated by the locals, Arabs. That lead to the creation of most of the present Arab states.
However never forget the occupation and exploitation of the West Papuans by Indonesia after WW2, which was sanctioned by the UN and still continues today. Nobody ever talks about that as it is just brown men ruling over other brown men. Still as the Indonesians are Asian and the Papuans are Melanesian it is still blatant colonialism
somehistory says
Well, how can the mozlums everywhere blame and complain about others having engaged in conquests of other lands if mozlums are also guilty of engaging in wars to conquer others and rule their lands?
How can mozlums condemn with sincerity other people who have engaged in colonialism if they have also engaged in the practice?
One must not tell the truth about mozlums, islam, or the mass-murdering, raper of children, sex-mad slave-trading thief, lying sack of maggot dung, son of satan the devil, or one will be the object of the whining, lies, threats, rage and denial by any and all mozlums who hear and have some way of making their voices heard.
Because mozlums don’t want to admit….and ,being the psychopaths that they are…will not ever admit, to having done any thing like warring with others in order to conquer and rule over others with the iron fist of islam and its lawlessness inspired and directed by satan.
mozlums just “can’t handle the Truth.”
gravenimage says
They just don’t want the Infidels to know this vicious history–not until it is too late, at least.
somehistory says
Yes, g, they actually revel in the knowledge that they were conquering all those lands where Christians lived and worshipped freely, and they wish to do so again, asap.
As you say, they just don’t want the truth to get out before their conquest is complete. Once they have their dream accomplished, they will boast of it being just like in the past, only greater.
I could tell them that this time, they won’t get so far as to force things as they did in the past. It just won’t be allowed, even though it may appear that they will reach their evil goal.
gravenimage says
+1
nicholas tesdorf says
The whole of the Middle East, North Africa, and Southern Asia is an example of Muslim Colonialism.
nicholas tesdorf says
The whole of the Middle East, North Africa, and Southern Asia is an example of Muslim Colonialism.
gravenimage says
Turkey’s Foreign Minister enraged that Macron referred to Ottoman rule in Algeria as ‘colonialism’
…………..
How dare any Infidel tell the truth about Islam? Doesn’t Macron know that only the west can be criticized as colonial?
gregbeetham says
Meanwhile as Erdogan pontificates he is a Muslim standing on Greek territory, apparently he is unaware that all of present day Turkey was once the Byzantine Empire or the Eastern Roman Empire which was Greece in Biblical times and also Christian.
born saturday says
the beggining of the demise of the ottomaniac empire was the hellenic revolution that started exactly 200 years ago… once again, the modern ottomaniac empire will begin its demise due to a bunch of greeks that will revolt against it… only things happen much faster in our days, histrory repeats itself…
https://nordicmonitor.com/
GreekEmpress says
+1
Giacomo Latta says
Yes, and the Ottoman empire’s invasion of present-day Bulgaria, Romania, several Balkan republics, Greece, Samaria, Syria, etc. was simply to regain lost territory that somehow just disappeared from its control.
OLD GUY says
Turkeys leader wants to restore the GREATNESS of the Ottoman Empire with all its glory for the ruling class.
Just where do these people like Erdogan and Hitler etc. come from?
Who wakes up in the morning thinking they are destined to rule the world?
And then there is President Biden???????
Makes one wonder who is really running America?
Who ever they are I’am not sure they have the citizens of America first.
James Lincoln says
OLD GUY says,
“Makes one wonder who is really running America?”
One thing is certain: it is not Sleepy Joe Biden.
Some people on the “inside” know the answer to this, but they’re not talking.
The rest of us can only speculate…
SAFI says
Kudos to Macron I suppose for simply stating the obvious and doubly so if he understood how much that would irritate the delusional Ottobrats when he did so. Keep in mind that for years Erdolf and his minions really love to attack the West and France in particular for their “colonialist” past every chance they get, even as they always shamelessly glorify their own Ottoman jihad-fueled colonial history to which of course they always like to refer using more benign terms https://twitter.com/abdbozkurt/status/1294193186915733505
Algiers incidentally used to be one of the worst and biggest slave trade hub under the Ottomans for hundreds of years, including probably millions of white European slaves who were captured or kidnapped by the Turks or their Berber and Tatar allies from all over Eastern and coastal Europe as far north as Iceland(look up “Turkish Abductions”) alongside Blacks from the pagan/christian regions of Africa(enslaving fellow muslims isn’t allowed in Islam but any infidel is fair game) just another thing which you will never in a million years see these arrogant delusional Turks be apologetic about like Europeans often are about their history with slavery.
In reality the only difference between European and Turkish(/islamic) colonialism/imperialism is that the Turks never-ever “decolonized” a territory voluntarily or withdrew peacefully from any of the lands they conquered, instead they had to be driven out by force in every single occasion and they still got to keep a non-negligible part of their empire, the land now known as Turkey from which they have completely wiped out the native christian cultures in a string of horrific atrocities culminating a little over a hundred years ago with the Armenian Genocide
Oskar says
God bless Mr. Macron and shame on Turkish-caliphate worshipper cult members like Viktor Orban and his so-called “Christian right” government and all other silent fake Christians. Unrecognizing the fact that Turkey is the biggest anti-Christian entity that exists on this world creates an atmosphere of silence and submission towards the barbaric acts of Muslim Turks, like those Islamic fascists Cavusoglu, Erdogan, Bahceli, Ozdog and so on…