History Edition: Ottomans and Distant Islands

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Millyet Newspaper, 16 May 2017)


                      (Very) Heavy Guns

Six cannon sent to the Sultan of Aceh by Ottoman Sultan Süleyman
in 1562 have turned up in The Bronbeek History Museum in the
village of Arnhem in Holland (!).  Dr. Mehmet Tütüncü, head of the
Türk-Arap World Research Center, said that the cannon were taken
back to Holland from Aceh as war booty by the Dutch in 1857.

According to Dr. Tütüncü, the Aceh Islamic Sultanate, on Sumatra,
the westernmost island of today's Indonesia, was besieged by the
Portuguese in the middle of the 16th century. To assist the Aceh
Sultanate, Ottoman Sultan Süleyman sent these cannon to his
co-religionists in Aceh:  

Acı Biber Cannon: 6,800 kilograms
Cannon with Animal Decorations: 5,800 kilograms
Bayrak Cannon: 5,600 kilograms
Cannon in pieces; 2,000 kilograms
Leaf motif Cannon: 4,700 kilograms
Plain Cannon: 3,000 kilograms

Three hundred years later, in 1857, these same cannon were brought to
Holland as war booty.  Dr. Tütüncü explained that "In research done
collaboratively with Dr. Ali Güler, we found that these cannon were
confiscated by the Dutch during their time as the colonial power in
Indonesia and brought to Holland.  They are currently exhibited in the
museum in Bronbeek, which is part of a rest home for Dutch soldiers.



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türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Milliyet Newspaper, 16 May 2017)



                          Better late than never.

Queen Olga, the wife of Greek King George I, gave the land on which
there is a cemetery for Turkish soldiers on the island of Corfu, to the
Ottoman state in 1890.  Turkish soldiers who died during the Turkish-
Greek War of 1897 were buried here, as well.  However, neither the
number of dead nor their identies are known.

The graves were rehabilitated by the Turkish Consulate on Corfu in
1924, after the signing of the Lausanne Agreement, but responsibility
for the cemetery's upkeep passed next to the Turkish Consulate in
Pireaus in 1927 and from there to the Turkish Military Attaché office
in Athens in 1994.

Now for the first time in 93 years, descendants of the martyrs have
visited the site, led by journalist İskender Özsoy of the Lausanne
Exchange (of Populations) Foundation.  The Lausanne Agreement
mandated the exchange of populations of Turks from Greece and of
Greeks from Turkey.


Corfu at line's end, left, Istanbul at line's end, right.