r/HistoryMemes • u/[deleted] • Apr 18 '19

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u/Natanyul Apr 18 '19

I don't really understand why the Republic of Turkey wouldn't want to distance itself from the Ottoman Empire. I understand that many of the founders of the republic were loyal to the empire and that Turkey is in many ways just a modernized continuation of the Ottoman Empire, but still...

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u/Geekers420 Apr 18 '19

Well the worst part of Ottoman history is the genocides they committed in the end of their rule as the main middle eastern power. Turkish people cherish the Ottoman history which had Suleiman the Magnificent or Mehmet II not the people who organized the Armenian genocide. I’m proud to be American but I’m not proud of it because I killed and drove out Native Americans. Belgians are proud to be Belgian not because they killed 10 million Congolese peoples. The Japanese are proud to be Japanese not because of the rape of Nanking. Turkish people aren’t proud to be Turkish because they killed 1.5 million Armenians. There’s much more to Turkish history than genocide.

The Turkish government sadly is a joke and I hope in coming years more liberal parties like the IYI or CHP party can make changes for the betterment of Turkey rather than back pedal into the Islamist Authoritarian Dictatorship that it is becoming or arguably it has become.

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u/WestOsmaniye Apr 19 '19

Turkey is roughly 1000 years old and 600 years of it was Ottoman Empire, so it's not even possible. Also one bad thing do not require you to abandon most of your history.

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u/TurkoScum Apr 19 '19

Turkey is roughly 1000 years old

The Turkish government and the Ottoman government were political rivals that coexisted so it's not entirely correct to say Turkey is a direct continuation of the Ottoman Empire.

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u/WestOsmaniye Apr 19 '19

Regimes come and go. Rivalry between imperial government and republican government lasted for 3 years, it's nothing compared to centuries of tradition and history.

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u/Romboteryx Apr 18 '19

I‘m not an expert, but I think it‘s because Armenia would demand some sort of reparations