Slanders On Muslims In History

Wine Production and Export during the Reign of Abdul Hamid II

In 1889, vineyards were set up on a land in Erenköy, Istanbul on a 70-hectare land. During the rule of Abdul Hamid II, the Sultaniye vineyards in the Aegean region were used to produce grapes for wine production, which would later be exported to Europe.

When European vineyards started going bad, the whole of Europe, particularly France, turned to the Ottoman Empire, to meet the demands for wine. During Abdul Hamid II's reign, wine exports skyrocketed to 340 million liters by 1904. Wine advertisements were to be found in the Ottoman newspapers, while promotional signs for Martel cognac could be seen all around Istanbul.

Ottoman cognacs distilled by Kotroni Efendi of Erdek entered competitions in Paris and won awards. Again, the first champagne factory was opened in the Ottoman Empire when Abdul Hamid II was the Sultan.

Alcohol production and consumption increased so much during Abdul Hamid II's time, the 34th chapter of Ayşe Fahriye Hanım's famous cookbook Ev Kadını (The Housewife), which was first published in 1883, gave recipe for homemade rakı. The readers were given detailed descriptions of the production methods for two different types of rakı (seasoned with mastic and regular rakı) with a side note that fermented grape juice and wine could also be produced using the same setup.

According to journalist Ahmet Cemaleddin Saraçoğlu, '... the rule of Abdul Hamid II provided a massive tavern to citizens'.¹²⁶

Alcohol is a very harmful substance, not to mention that Muslims are forbidden from drinking it. God says in a verse:

O you who have believed, indeed, intoxicants, gambling, [sacrificing on] stone alters [to other than God], and divining arrows are but defilement from the work of satan, so avoid it that you may be successful. (Qur'an, 5:90)

Of course, every individual has the right to live their lives the way they wish. The above historical details are in no way to be construed as interfering in people's choices. However, they are important in that they show how the production, sales and export of alcoholic beverages in a Muslim country, with the permission of the Islamic Caliph, set the stage for the moral decline in society and shook the trust of the Islamic world in the Caliph. Even though certain circles maintain that alcoholic drinks were produced for non-Muslims at the time, it is clear that not as many non-Muslims were living on Ottoman lands at the time that would be able to consume millions of liters of alcoholic drinks. In any case, many photographs taken during those days clearly show Ottoman Turks drinking alcohol at beer houses.

Brothels Open and Prostitution Spreads in the Ottoman Society

One of the least-known facts about the reign of Abdul Hamid II is that it is when the first official brothel in the Ottoman Empire was opened upon a letter of instruction by the Caliph Abdul Hamid II. There is no doubt that prostitution was among the principal factors behind the moral decline that took place in the Ottoman society, laying the groundwork for the Empire's fall. At this point, we should remember that Sultan Abdul Hamid II was under intense pressure from the British deep state, as a result of which he put into action the British deep state's plan regarding brothels.

With a letter of instruction by Abdul Hamid II in 1884, the first brothel was opened on Abanoz Street, and was followed by other brothels in Zürefa Street. The brothels that are still active today in Zürefa Street were opened during Abdul Hamid II's rule. In a short period of time, the number of brothels in Galata alone reached a hundred.

The situation became so grim that at one point, ships started to bring patrons for brothels from Europe and Russia to Istanbul. Most of the time, an important duty of the tour guides would be taking the patrons to Zürefa Street.

According to Ottoman archives, during this time, 2,125 prostitutes operated with official licenses; however, the number of those without official licenses was much higher. Brothels were not only in Galata and Karaköy, but also in Üsküdar. Bursa and Izmir also had their own brothels. Furthermore, during the reign of Abdul Hamid II, prostitutes were also brought from Poland, Romania, Austria and Galicia.

During the rule of Abdul Hamid II, prostitution became so widespread, Samuel Cohen, Secretary of the Jewish Association for the Protection of Girls and Women, wrote the following grim lines about the situation:

Behind the line of docks there runs a long street called Galata Street. ... Most of the alleys were dedicated to brothels. I thought that the sights I witnessed in Rio de Janeiro were bad, but these brothels in Constantinople beggar description. The inmates of the brothel are seated on low stools or on boxes or on low couches, with almost nothing on in the way of clothes. … Some [prostitutes] stood at the doors or walked about in the rooms in a semi-naked condition, others had dressed themselves somewhat and were walking about the streets paying visits to other houses. … In the vicinity of these houses are cafes and drinking saloons, and in almost every one gambling is going on incessantly. … Everything appears as free and as licentious as possible. There are no hindrances and no difficulties from the authorities. … At one house in particular where the performance commences near midnight and goes on till 4.30 in the morning, the scenes are really disgraceful.¹²⁷

The opening of brothels upon the instruction of Abdul Hamid II, in a way, turned the Ottoman Empire into a center of prostitution in a short amount of time and adultery spread like wildfire. This allowed the British deep state to achieve its goal to a large extent, which was morally degenerating the Ottoman Empire in order to hasten up its destruction.

Tobacco Factories Open during the Reign of Abdul Hamid II

Tobacco entered Ottoman society in the 1600s. However, almost every Sultan showed considerable effort to block its spread. The measures they took against this substance, which has been shown by medical research to be highly toxic to human body, were necessary and rational. However, things changed when Abdul Hamid II took over. Since he was under intense pressure from the British deep state, he stopped the anti-tobacco measures. Many tobacco factories were opened during his reign. Before his reign, only small shops were producing tobacco, but as soon as the new factories were opened, tobacco use spread quickly. The increased consumption sped up the physical and spiritual breakdown of the Ottoman Empire, especially after the aforementioned mistakes made during Abdul Hamid II's reign.

During his reign, the Cibali and Samsun tobacco factories were opened in 1884 and 1887 respectively. Samsun tobacco factory produced 60,000 kg of cigarettes and 400,000 kg of tobacco every year between 1887 and 1897. By 1905, the production capacity of the factory has reached one million kg. After a while, Izmir, Adana, Samsun and Istanbul became the most important tobacco production and processing centers.¹²⁸

Instead of fighting to prevent the production and use of this substance, which is lethal for humans, which caused physical and spiritual degeneracy in Turkish youth and wasted away the energy of the nation, Abdul Hamid II continuously encouraged its use. He himself was a tobacco addict. This harmful habit of his is a well-known historical fact, confirmed by many accounts. So much so, his infamous smoking habit was known in even as far away as America. His favorite cigarette was the American 'Ateshian'. This prompted the company to use in its advertisements the slogan 'The cigarret smoked by His Imperial Majesty Abdul Hamid II, Sultan of Turkey'.

İbrahim Peçevi, one of the most prominent chroniclers of the Ottoman Empire, explained how the British introduced tobacco to the Ottoman Empire in his two-volume book Tarih-i Peçevi (Peçevi's History):

The British brought [tobacco] to the Ottoman Empire around 1900 [1600 in Gregorian calendar] and sold it with the claim that it could heal some ailments. Some pleasure-seeker friends became addicts. However, in time, even those people who weren't pleasure-seekers started to consume it. Even many great scholars and statesmen got addicted to smoking… Coffee houses were thick with smoke because all the wasted people and womanizers were there chain-smoking. Even on the streets and marketplaces, they were smoking.¹²⁹

As one can see, it was the British deep state that first introduced tobacco and spread its use in the Ottoman Empire. The members of the deep state made the people addicted to this poison with lies that it would help cure ailments. When the rule of Abdul Hamid II started, another step was made that would help the British deep state. Abdul Hamid II transferred the tobacco revenues to the 'Régie Company', owned by French and British for 30 years, starting in 1883. So, not only were tobacco factories were opened to produce products that would poison Turkish people, the profit from the poison sold went to the British deep state. Again in his reign, the Régie Company was allowed to have its own armed guards, who heavily oppressed the Turkish people.

4. Military Coups and Territorial Losses

Many of the military coups that took place in the past 200 years bear the hidden marks of British deep state intervention. This dark structure changes administrations by means of coups, which it considers a quick, cheap and covert way to further its policies.

Coup plotters are arrogant and usually impressionable people who are not held to account for their actions. They fall for the games of the British deep state for their personal petty gains. They never deserve the positions they gain through coups, as it is only violence and guns and definitely not their knowledge, talents, expertise or experience that brings them to such positions. As such administrations are only transitional regimes, the true names behind the decisions made during those times remain usually unknown and the corruption and problems are usually blamed on a few. This way, the true perpetrators, most notably the British deep state, are kept away from public eyes.

This was the case with the Ottoman Empire too. When her fall began, she was in possession of an impressive 500-year-old experience in running an empire. She had powerful, well-functioning systems in the military, the economy, and education, among other aspects of life. For this reason, the British deep state was in need of a transitional regime because that was the only way to control this powerful Empire. Such intermediate regimes, laden with corruption and misconducts with no visible culprit, gave these elusive powers the opportunity they needed to bring the Empire closer to destruction. For this reason, it is important to carefully analyze the driving power behind the coups in the Ottoman Empire: the British deep state, just as in many other coups around the world.

The Origin of All Coups: The Coup of 1876

The first modern coup in Turkish history is usually considered the one that saw the deposition of Sultan Abdülaziz in 1876. The coup plotters, i.e., Midhat Pasha (head of the Committee of the New Ottomans), Hüseyin Avni Pasha (Chief of Staff), and Süleyman Pasha (Minister of War), deposed the Sultan and brought Murat V to power instead. As would be the case throughout the Republican period, military students were used for the coup. Ten days later, Sultan Abdülaziz was martyred, which was clumsily made to look like a suicide.

As the British deep state spread the lie that the Ottoman Empire was losing its influence and became a 'sick man', the Empire was in truth enjoying one of its powerful eras under the leadership of Sultan Abdülaziz.

In 1876, the Ottoman Empire was the world's most powerful fourth state; it had the world's fourth biggest army and the third biggest fleet. In 1876, it encompassed a territory of 12 million sq. km with a total population of 64 million people. The 1876 territory of the Ottoman Empire included what are today 35 different countries. During those days, Istanbul was the world's fifth biggest city.

Sultan Abdülaziz was a brave sultan that took a clear stance against the British deep state. He didn't allow the spread of Darwinism, and removed the British deep state spies from his immediate circle. He removed Hüseyin Avni Pasha from his duties for being a Darwinist and for his pro-British stance, who would in return act as one of the plotters of the coup against Sultan Abdülaziz. Hüseyin Avni Pasha prepared the assassination plan against the Sultan.

Abdülaziz also immediately shut down Mecmua-i Fünûn (Journal of Sciences) as it started Darwinist propaganda. His order to dismiss pro-British Ahmed Midhat, one of the most fervent Darwinist propagandists in the Ottoman Empire, was as follows:

From now on, no printing house will ever print anything about Midhat Efendi's monkeys.¹³⁰

Sultan Abdülaziz was a devout Muslim, who desired a united Islamic world. During his rule, he made the Ottoman Army a formidable power with the state-of-art weapons, which included 25 ironclads and 175 regular warships. As soon as he ascended to the throne, he tripled the length of the previously 450 km railways. The last Caliph of Islam Abdulmejid II described his father Abdülaziz with the following words in the booklet he wrote in 1920s:

Thank God, my father Abdülaziz Khan was not addicted to any moral weaknesses. In fact, not only did he never drink any alcohol throughout his life, but also he didn't smoke. Even coffee was something he drank only on rare occasions. That's why he had a very strong build. He never got ill during his fifteen-year rule. However, he was martyred after facing the disaster of being deposed because he didn't have a single person that could help him with the great works he initiated.¹³¹

The plotters of this vile coup tried to slander Abdülaziz Khan with claims that he committed suicide. However, the examination of his body revealed that both of his wrists had been slit, one side of his beard had been completely ripped off, his teeth had been knocked out and there was a large bruise on his chest.

Hüseyin Avni Pasha, the instigator of the murder, went to the Palace to see how his murder plan went. When he saw that Abdülaziz Khan was still alive after the scuffle, he ordered that the Sultan be taken to kitchen of the police station on palace grounds. This is why medical help was delayed for the Sultan, and why he bled to martyrdom.

To conceal the traces of a fight, Hüseyin Avni Pasha tore off the curtains in the station and covered the Sultan's body with the exception of his arms. He asked physician Marko Pasha, the director of the Military School of Medicine, to examine his wrists only and write a report of suicide. However, Marko Pasha declined. Then another military doctor, Colonel Dr. Ömer Bey, was summoned, but when he refused to sign the report as well, his medals were ripped off his uniform on the spot and he was exiled to Libya.

Sultan Abdülaziz was buried hastily the same day in the Sultan Mahmud II Shrine at Divanyolu.

Turkish historian İsmail Hami Danişmend, in his five-volume İzahlı Osmanlı Tarihi Kronolojisi (A Detailed Chronology of Ottoman History), listed thirty one pieces of evidence proving why the Sultan did not commit suicide. The physician of the British Embassy also said that no one would be able to cut one's wrists like that, after seeing the body himself.¹³²

The account of Nazime Sultan, Sultan Abdülaziz's daughter, leaves no room to doubt as to what happened:

Any claims that my father committed suicide are deceitful. I saw it with my own eyes that they murdered my father.¹³³

No one believed the suicide lie, because one of the wrestlers that committed the murder confessed after a while:

Fahri Bey went from behind and held back his [Sultan Abdülaziz's] arms. Haji Mehmet and Algerian Mustafa sat on his knees. And I cut his veins in his left arm as deep as I could with a pocketknife. I even pierced his right arm at several places with the knife …¹³⁴

When an investigation was launched after the bloody attack, anglophile Midhat Pasha sought refuge in the British Consulate, predicting how events could unfold against him.

Historians report that prior to the coup, Midhat Pasha was constantly over-praised by the European media, most notably by the British papers. Indeed, during his first term as grand vizier before the coup, which lasted eighty days, Midhat Pasha allowed Egypt and Tunisia to borrow independently, which caused Egypt to come under British - and Tunisia under French - rule. After the coup, he was again appointed grand vizier and he convened the 'Constantinople Conference' (aka the Shipyard Conference), together with the participation of British officials. This conference was a milestone because Midhat Pasha, primed by the British deep state, decided to drag the Ottomans into war with the Russians, which played a big part in the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.

Territorial Losses after the 1876 Coup

The rule of Sultan Abdul Hamid II, who was brought into power under pressure from the British deep state after the 1876 coup, saw the biggest territorial losses in the Ottoman Empire's history. A total of 1,592,896 sq. km were surrendered in only thirty-three years, that was the Abdul Hamid II rule.¹³⁵ The Empire also lost 5 million of its 24 million population as a result.¹³⁶ Tunisia, Egypt, Somalia, Serbia, Montenegro, Bulgaria, Kars, Ardahan, Batum, Thessaly, Cyprus were only some of the lands surrendered during this time.

Below is the chronological order of the losses of 1.6 million sq. km Ottoman territory during this time:

1878 – Montenegro and Serbia declared independence after the Treaty of Berlin.

1878 – Bulgaria became an autonomous principality after the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78, and came largely under German and Austro-Hungarian control. Bosnia-Herzegovina was granted independence in its domestic affairs. The territories of Serbia, Montenegro and Romania were expanded. Kars, Ardahan, Batum and Doğubeyazit were ceded to Russia. Thessaly was ceded to Greece.

1878 – Bosnia and Herzegovina and Yenipazar were occupied by Austria.

1878 – Abdul Hamid II gave Cyprus to Britain, in exchange for supposed protection by Britain against Russia. British troops landed on Cyprus on July 12, 1878, lowered the Ottoman flag and raised their flags instead.

1881 – France invaded Tunisia. On June 8, 1883, Tunisia became a French protectorate after the La Marsa Convention.

1882 – Britain occupied Egypt.

1884 – Somalia came under British control.

1885 – The Ottoman Eyalet of Jeddah and Habesh was invaded by Italy.

1898 – Crete was granted autonomy.

1899 – Kuwait was granted autonomy.

1908 – Bulgaria declared independence.

1908 – Bosnia-Herzegovina came under the control of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

1908 – Crete decided to join Greece.

A careful observation of the developments that took place after this British deep state coup will reveal how these surrendered lands came either under British control, or to those of her allies, or turned into small, weak countries that could be easily controlled. With this treacherous plot, the British deep state not only broke apart the Ottoman Empire, but also set the stage it needed for its global rule ambitions.

Other Military Coups

Military coups and territorial losses of the Ottoman Empire have always been closely linked. The instability that followed coups largely contributed to the further weakening of the Empire, as riots broke out across the Empire's lands and major territories were ceded. Clearly, these were carefully planned incidents by the British deep state. Let's see what territories the Ottomans lost after coups:

* After the Janissary Revolt in 1808, Selim III was deposed and was succeeded by Mustafa IV. It was anglophile Mahmud Raif Pasha, also known as English Mahmud Raif, who incited this revolt. In the subsequent Russo-Turkish war, Ottomans were defeated and ceded various areas, while Serbia gained autonomy.

* After Edward VIII, King of the United Kingdom, and Emperor Nicholas II of Russia reached a deal on June 9, 1908, the Committee of Union and Progress staged a bloodless coup and forced Abdul Hamid II to restore the constitutional monarchy (Second Constitutional Era). Right after this development, the 31 March Incident and a military coup took place. In fact, spy Gerald Fitzmaurice, who had been disguised as an interpreter working for the British Embassy, carefully devised these developments. After the coup, Austria-Hungary annexed Bosnia Herzegovina, and Italy annexed Libya, Rhodes and the Dodecanese islands. Albania declared independence while Greece annexed Thessaloniki, Crete and Ioannina, and Bulgaria seized Kavala and Alexandroupoli. This marked the end of Ottoman rule in Europe.

* On January 23, 1913, Enver Pasha and Talat Pasha of the Committee of Union and Progress raided the Sublime Porte (central government building of the Ottoman Empire) and overthrew the government with a coup. This duo plunged the Ottoman Empire into WWI, which became her death sentence and caused the loss of all Arab territories.

Clearly, all military coups in the history of the Ottoman Empire have been extremely destructive and in all of them, spies of the British deep state were used. Each of those coups was meticulously planned by the British deep state and the subsequent wars and territorial losses were determined a long time before they actually took place. The British deep state encouraged the coup plotters –the sycophants of the deep state– to plunge the country into wars. It was perfectly aware how destructive these wars would be, especially at such vulnerable times. And sinister plans have been schemed accordingly.

5. Loss of the Ottoman Army and the Navy

Even though the Ottoman Empire had the world's fourth biggest army and third biggest navy during the rule of Sultan Abdülaziz, it quickly lost power when Sultan Abdul Hamid II ascended to the throne. Let us recall one more time that Abdul Hamid II was kept under intense pressure from the British deep state when he was the Sultan. The intimidating military prowess that was built during Sultan Abdülaziz's reign greatly concerned the British deep state. When another sultan came into power, whom they kept under pressure, the British deep state was able to get what they wanted. Using his own throne concerns and coup rumors as an excuse, Sultan Abdul Hamid II withdrew the impressive Ottoman Navy from use. He ordered that the ships be anchored at the Golden Horn, and left them there to rot.

The British First Lord of the Admiralty, the Second Earl of Selborne, who had inspected the condition of the Ottoman fleet during those days reported that 'There was no Navy!'.¹³⁷ The Ottoman submarine, the first in history to fire a torpedo while submerged, was left to rot in the Golden Horn. The Ottoman Empire, once the leader of the submarine race in the world, was now facing the prospect of entering WWI without a single one. An Empire that had written history ruined its own fleet at the instigation of the British deep state and entered the dreadful decade of constant wars that started with Balkan Wars of 1912 and ended with the Turkish War of Independence in 1922, without an army or a navy.

The appalling state of the navy became clear only when the Greco-Turkish war broke out in 1897. At the onset of the war, the officers planned a passage of the navy from the Golden Horn to Dardanelles as a tour de force. However, as soon as the movement started, three out of the eight boilers of the ironclad Mesudiye exploded, and the engine room of Hamidiye was flooded. The ships were supposed to meet off the shore of Yeşilköy, but a mere light drizzle was enough to cause them to get lost. Hamidiye went to Lapseki instead of Dardanelles, while the ironclad Hizber got lost. Two days later, she was found beached on the island of İmralı.¹³⁸

Already without a navy at the onset of WWI, the Ottoman Empire once again fell for the games of the British deep state and never received the dreadnoughts Sultan Osman and Reşadiye from Britain, although it had fully paid for them. Clearly, the British deep state had long before plotted with detail how the Ottoman Empire should have been destroyed with WWI.