0:00:09 > 0:00:10On the edge of Europe is a city
0:00:10 > 0:00:14that was once the heart of a mighty empire.
0:00:19 > 0:00:22From here in Istanbul, the glories of the Ottoman Empire
0:00:22 > 0:00:25came to match those of Ancient Rome.
0:00:28 > 0:00:30Wow!
0:00:30 > 0:00:32Look at this!
0:00:32 > 0:00:35This is the view that the Ottoman sultans
0:00:35 > 0:00:39would have seen and it just simply takes your breath away.
0:00:43 > 0:00:48For 600 years, from the Middle Ages to the 20th century,
0:00:48 > 0:00:52one dynasty of Ottoman sultans, a single family,
0:00:52 > 0:00:56ruled over huge swathes of the world.
0:00:56 > 0:00:59The Ottomans were staggeringly wealthy.
0:00:59 > 0:01:02This is an empire of a million square miles.
0:01:02 > 0:01:05It's a superpower.
0:01:05 > 0:01:09The empire stretched south to Baghdad and Cairo,
0:01:09 > 0:01:12controlling the holiest sites of Islam.
0:01:12 > 0:01:15Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem.
0:01:17 > 0:01:21But it also reached deep into Europe,
0:01:21 > 0:01:26taking in Sarajevo and threatening the gates of Vienna.
0:01:29 > 0:01:32What's more, it was the world's last Islamic empire
0:01:32 > 0:01:36and it collapsed less than a hundred years ago.
0:01:36 > 0:01:39In this series, I'm discovering why the Ottoman Empire
0:01:39 > 0:01:41seems to have vanished from our understanding
0:01:41 > 0:01:44of the history of Europe,
0:01:44 > 0:01:47why its story is exciting global interest once more
0:01:47 > 0:01:51and how this year's struggles at the heart of the Ottoman story
0:01:51 > 0:01:54have reignited on the streets they once ruled
0:01:54 > 0:01:57from Syria to Turkey and Egypt.
0:01:57 > 0:02:00It's remarkable how some of the most important,
0:02:00 > 0:02:04yet unresolved, issues confronting us today
0:02:04 > 0:02:06were also faced by the Ottomans.
0:02:06 > 0:02:09The conflicts between the Christian West and the Muslim East,
0:02:09 > 0:02:14the need to reconcile secular politics with religious ideology
0:02:14 > 0:02:16and balancing the demands of the clergy
0:02:16 > 0:02:19with the ambitions of the generals.
0:02:19 > 0:02:21All this was faced by one dynasty
0:02:21 > 0:02:25that ruled for 600 years, across three continents.
0:02:28 > 0:02:32In this last episode, I'll discover how this great empire
0:02:32 > 0:02:34was finally destroyed,
0:02:34 > 0:02:37why its achievements were largely lost
0:02:37 > 0:02:41in the trauma of its final few years
0:02:41 > 0:02:43and how the fallout from its collapse
0:02:43 > 0:02:48created tensions that still resonate across Europe and the Middle East.
0:02:52 > 0:02:54Across the continents,
0:02:54 > 0:02:56down the centuries,
0:02:56 > 0:03:00I'll be getting to grips with what we all need to know today
0:03:00 > 0:03:02about Europe's Muslim emperors.
0:03:14 > 0:03:18The Ottomans had been part of the power politics of Europe
0:03:18 > 0:03:21since their rise to power in the 13th century.
0:03:25 > 0:03:29They defeated the Byzantine Empire and turned its capital,
0:03:29 > 0:03:35Constantinople, into THEIR imperial heart - modern day Istanbul.
0:03:39 > 0:03:41By the 16th century, they had become the leaders
0:03:41 > 0:03:45of the Muslim world.
0:03:46 > 0:03:50Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent ushered in a golden age.
0:03:55 > 0:03:59But 1683 marked the start of decline.
0:03:59 > 0:04:04At the gates of Vienna, the Pope's troops imposed a crushing defeat.
0:04:07 > 0:04:11All empires had great successes and losses,
0:04:11 > 0:04:17and they are the same, but they have been seen only as negative.
0:04:17 > 0:04:21As industrial and democratic revolutions transformed Europe,
0:04:21 > 0:04:25the Ottoman Empire became known as the sick man of Europe.
0:04:25 > 0:04:28The sick man could have cured himself and the sick man,
0:04:28 > 0:04:32rather late in the day, realised what he needed to do.
0:04:32 > 0:04:36The Ottomans tried to modernise along Western European lines.
0:04:36 > 0:04:40But the empire was already fracturing from within.
0:04:40 > 0:04:42Its lands began shrinking in the face
0:04:42 > 0:04:47of an increasingly appealing concept - nationalism.
0:04:47 > 0:04:50People who used to be peoples of the empire said,
0:04:50 > 0:04:53"Now we want our country. Why don't we become independent?
0:04:53 > 0:04:55"Why don't we become a whole new nation?"
0:04:55 > 0:04:58And that's why you had a Greek revolt,
0:04:58 > 0:05:01that's why you had a Serbian revolt and the Bulgarian revolt
0:05:01 > 0:05:03and Albanian revolt.
0:05:03 > 0:05:08Nationalism created a host of new hostile neighbours.
0:05:08 > 0:05:11With every one of those nationalist struggles
0:05:11 > 0:05:14came tremendous violence done by the state to its society,
0:05:14 > 0:05:16by insurgents against the state.
0:05:16 > 0:05:19I think...everyone was scarred.
0:05:19 > 0:05:22In a last ditch attempt to hold onto power,
0:05:22 > 0:05:26the Ottoman sultan tried to play the Islam card to rally
0:05:26 > 0:05:30what was, for the first time, an overwhelmingly Muslim population.
0:05:33 > 0:05:36But by the start of the 20th century,
0:05:36 > 0:05:38Istanbul was a city in turmoil.
0:05:38 > 0:05:41CHANTING
0:05:43 > 0:05:45Recent scenes on Turkey's streets
0:05:45 > 0:05:48were mirrored in the early years of the century.
0:05:53 > 0:05:56Tensions produced by nationalism
0:05:56 > 0:05:58and the struggles to modernise the empire
0:05:58 > 0:06:01affected the ideas of a new generation.
0:06:01 > 0:06:05So-called Young Turks demanded democracy
0:06:05 > 0:06:10to replace the old world autocratic rule.
0:06:10 > 0:06:13One of the last Ottoman sultans, Abdul Hamid II,
0:06:13 > 0:06:17like his father and grandfather, attempted to modernise.
0:06:21 > 0:06:25The very schools and academies that the Ottomans had created
0:06:25 > 0:06:30were churning out people convinced that the empire needed their ideas
0:06:30 > 0:06:34to reform and they found the greatest obstacle to their participation
0:06:34 > 0:06:35in the sultan himself.
0:06:37 > 0:06:40And in their resentment against Abdul Hamid II,
0:06:40 > 0:06:44you can really see where people who believed in meritocracy
0:06:44 > 0:06:47were determined to end autocracy.
0:06:49 > 0:06:51The result is 1908,
0:06:51 > 0:06:54the Revolution of the Young Turks, and it's a very...
0:06:54 > 0:06:57it's the first example
0:06:57 > 0:07:00of a very widely supported revolution,
0:07:00 > 0:07:04political revolution, which involve not only the Muslims
0:07:04 > 0:07:07but also the Christians, and there's a euphoria,
0:07:07 > 0:07:12there's a hope of the Armenian population, of the Greek population,
0:07:12 > 0:07:14of the Jewish population, of the Muslim population,
0:07:14 > 0:07:17that things are going to change for the best.
0:07:17 > 0:07:20But even as the reforming generation
0:07:20 > 0:07:22tried to reshape the empire from within,
0:07:22 > 0:07:27the Ottomans faced one final fight with the outside world.
0:07:27 > 0:07:30It was the moment modern European history
0:07:30 > 0:07:33collided with that of the Middle East...
0:07:33 > 0:07:34in the First World War.
0:07:48 > 0:07:51The great powers of Europe had been waiting
0:07:51 > 0:07:55for an opportunity to pounce on the Ottoman's lands.
0:07:55 > 0:07:57It came in 1914.
0:07:59 > 0:08:02It was a very serious situation for the Ottomans.
0:08:02 > 0:08:06They knew that this would be a struggle of life and death
0:08:06 > 0:08:09for the 600 years empire.
0:08:14 > 0:08:18The Ottomans had entered World War I on the side of Germany.
0:08:18 > 0:08:22They soon faced an Allied attack within striking distance
0:08:22 > 0:08:24of their capital, Istanbul.
0:08:24 > 0:08:26'Under Churchill's direction,
0:08:26 > 0:08:29'the British fleet makes a surprise attack on Turkey.'
0:08:32 > 0:08:35When you are looking down there to the entrance,
0:08:35 > 0:08:37how many ships can you see?
0:08:37 > 0:08:39One, two, three, four, five...
0:08:39 > 0:08:42On the 18th of March 1915,
0:08:42 > 0:08:44a fleet of 103 ships
0:08:44 > 0:08:48sailed into this very small area.
0:08:48 > 0:08:5416 of the 103 were some of the biggest in the world at the time.
0:08:54 > 0:08:56Just to see them,
0:08:56 > 0:09:00that was a shock for the Turks who were here on the shores.
0:09:06 > 0:09:08This was the Battle of Gallipoli -
0:09:08 > 0:09:11an attack the Ottomans had long dreaded.
0:09:18 > 0:09:22When the Allies made a landing, Ottoman troops were overwhelmed.
0:09:22 > 0:09:26But a young officer, Mustafa Kemal, or Ataturk,
0:09:26 > 0:09:30began his rise to prominence when he commanded the troops
0:09:30 > 0:09:33to sacrifice their lives for the empire.
0:09:33 > 0:09:37"I do not order you to attack. I order you to die.
0:09:37 > 0:09:39"Within the time which will pass by,
0:09:39 > 0:09:43"other soldiers and officers will take our places."
0:09:44 > 0:09:46And with his division,
0:09:46 > 0:09:48he stopped the Allies on that day.
0:09:53 > 0:09:55What followed was stalemate.
0:10:00 > 0:10:04Both armies were entrenched here for eight long months.
0:10:04 > 0:10:09And sometimes the opposing trenches were only nine yards apart.
0:10:09 > 0:10:12There were terrible losses on both sides.
0:10:12 > 0:10:16The total casualty figure in terms of both dead and wounded
0:10:16 > 0:10:19is thought to be at around 340,000.
0:10:19 > 0:10:24Eventually the Allies had to accept a humiliating defeat.
0:10:30 > 0:10:32Gallipoli convinced the Ottomans
0:10:32 > 0:10:35that they were in a fight to the death.
0:10:35 > 0:10:37After years of battles
0:10:37 > 0:10:41that had seen them lose vast territory and great wealth,
0:10:41 > 0:10:44this was a war they felt they had to win...
0:10:44 > 0:10:46at any cost.
0:11:11 > 0:11:13Up to the First World War,
0:11:13 > 0:11:16Kurdish Muslims and Armenian Christians
0:11:16 > 0:11:19lived in Van in southeast Turkey.
0:11:21 > 0:11:24This is what's left of the old city today.
0:11:29 > 0:11:34This picture is very important for the Van history,
0:11:34 > 0:11:37because it's taken before the World War I,
0:11:37 > 0:11:41and it shows how the city was.
0:11:41 > 0:11:44And now we are seeing there, the minarets.
0:11:44 > 0:11:47And then the other major monuments,
0:11:47 > 0:11:51quarters, Armenian church right over there.
0:11:51 > 0:11:55After years of nationalist struggles in the empire,
0:11:55 > 0:11:57Ottoman tolerance had worn out.
0:11:57 > 0:12:00Thousands of Armenians had already been massacred.
0:12:00 > 0:12:03But here in the remote East,
0:12:03 > 0:12:06some fought for autonomy supported by Russia,
0:12:06 > 0:12:11until tensions escalated into a single, dreadful event.
0:12:11 > 0:12:13Looking down on it now,
0:12:13 > 0:12:16it is completely and utterly flattened,
0:12:16 > 0:12:19save for just a few minarets.
0:12:19 > 0:12:21Why? What happened?
0:12:21 > 0:12:24During the World War I,
0:12:24 > 0:12:27especially starting 1915,
0:12:27 > 0:12:29bad things happened there.
0:12:29 > 0:12:32The Russian Army came to the Van
0:12:32 > 0:12:38and the Armenian Army burned all the Muslim quarters of the city
0:12:38 > 0:12:42and many Muslim population left the city.
0:12:42 > 0:12:47When the Ottoman Army came here, take revenge,
0:12:47 > 0:12:49all the city destroyed it.
0:12:57 > 0:13:00The Ottomans had dealt brutally with Armenians before.
0:13:00 > 0:13:05But in 1915, their actions were unprecedented.
0:13:05 > 0:13:08They forcibly rounded up whole villages of Armenians
0:13:08 > 0:13:10and marched them to the desert.
0:13:10 > 0:13:13The justification that the Turks will use
0:13:13 > 0:13:16is the need to secure their own lines of communication
0:13:16 > 0:13:21and the fear of a rebellion when it's facing a major military danger.
0:13:21 > 0:13:25What clearly happens very quickly is a move from there to outright
0:13:25 > 0:13:28massacre of Armenians, come what may.
0:13:34 > 0:13:37There's a British parliamentary report on the deportations,
0:13:37 > 0:13:40containing eye-witness accounts.
0:13:40 > 0:13:44I looked at it with Armenian historian Ara Sarafian.
0:13:44 > 0:13:46Just to give you one example,
0:13:46 > 0:13:50we have the American consul in Harput, modern day Elazig,
0:13:50 > 0:13:53who describes the arrival of deportees from further north
0:13:53 > 0:13:58and he gives a very vivid account of what deportation actually meant.
0:13:58 > 0:13:59He says, for example,
0:13:59 > 0:14:03"If it were simply a matter of being obliged to leave here
0:14:03 > 0:14:06"to go somewhere else, it would not be so bad,
0:14:06 > 0:14:09"but everybody knows it is a case of going to one's death.
0:14:09 > 0:14:12"The entire movement seems to be the most thoroughly organised
0:14:12 > 0:14:15"and effective massacre this country has ever seen."
0:14:15 > 0:14:19The British report has been dismissed by Turkey
0:14:19 > 0:14:21as wartime propaganda.
0:14:21 > 0:14:25There's intense debate about what happened to the Armenians
0:14:25 > 0:14:28and whether it should be described as genocide.
0:14:32 > 0:14:36Genocide is about a deliberate intent
0:14:36 > 0:14:38to destroy a race,
0:14:38 > 0:14:40that's what it means.
0:14:40 > 0:14:43And why the controversy has arisen as to whether the word "genocide"
0:14:43 > 0:14:47is appropriate has been, in part, because of the difficulty
0:14:47 > 0:14:50of establishing absolutely clearly that intent.
0:14:52 > 0:14:56Well over 2,000 villagers individually were targeted,
0:14:56 > 0:14:59were sent away and, by and large, murdered,
0:14:59 > 0:15:02so we can argue whether that's genocide or not,
0:15:02 > 0:15:04but that's pretty close to the definition.
0:15:04 > 0:15:09The round figure that tends to be used is a million Armenians die
0:15:09 > 0:15:12out of a possible population of two or three times that.
0:15:14 > 0:15:16It's a story, though, which did not happen
0:15:16 > 0:15:18because of the Ottoman system
0:15:18 > 0:15:21but happened because of the fall of the Ottoman system.
0:15:21 > 0:15:24Armenians had lived in the Ottoman Empire side by side with Turks
0:15:24 > 0:15:28for six centuries, and because of the fears of nationalism,
0:15:28 > 0:15:31ethnic conflict, they had this tragic end.
0:15:35 > 0:15:38These ruins are a testament to the final troubled years
0:15:38 > 0:15:40of the Ottoman Empire.
0:15:40 > 0:15:43It's incredible that this is all that remains
0:15:43 > 0:15:45from what was once a thriving city.
0:15:49 > 0:15:52This kind of rough cut crosses,
0:15:52 > 0:15:55are memories of the Armenian community of the Van.
0:15:58 > 0:16:00Did anyone win in the end, do you think?
0:16:00 > 0:16:03No. We lost the city
0:16:03 > 0:16:06and we lost the friendship between two communities.
0:16:16 > 0:16:20When World War I finally ended in 1918
0:16:20 > 0:16:23it was the Allies who were victorious.
0:16:23 > 0:16:26It signalled the imminent death of the Ottoman Empire.
0:16:28 > 0:16:32It wasn't solely European aggression that had defeated it.
0:16:32 > 0:16:36Nationalism had fractured the Ottoman's diverse peoples,
0:16:36 > 0:16:40helping to destroy the empire from within.
0:16:41 > 0:16:44As the Allies set about shaping the post-Ottoman world,
0:16:44 > 0:16:48the deals done to win the war would sow seeds of conflict
0:16:48 > 0:16:51that divide the world to this day.
0:17:02 > 0:17:04The victors - Britain and France -
0:17:04 > 0:17:07now set about carving up the Ottoman lands.
0:17:09 > 0:17:12Russian ambitions were no longer a threat,
0:17:12 > 0:17:15because that country had been thrown into chaos in 1917
0:17:15 > 0:17:18by the Bolshevik revolution.
0:17:19 > 0:17:22France claimed kind of northeastern corner of Turkey,
0:17:22 > 0:17:26around Edirne, and they wanted the Syrian coastline into Jalad.
0:17:26 > 0:17:28The British had discovered oil,
0:17:28 > 0:17:32so they wanted Basra and Mesopotamia.
0:17:32 > 0:17:36A whole series of new countries was created in the Middle East.
0:17:36 > 0:17:40France got modern day Syria and Lebanon.
0:17:40 > 0:17:44The British took control of modern day Iraq, Palestine and Jordan.
0:17:44 > 0:17:49The borders of these countries were not designed
0:17:49 > 0:17:54according to any geographical reality or any ethnic reason.
0:17:56 > 0:18:01Iraq is the consolidation of three former Ottoman provinces.
0:18:01 > 0:18:04It was not logically shaped
0:18:04 > 0:18:06to form a state,
0:18:06 > 0:18:09so the differences in terms of ethnicity differences,
0:18:09 > 0:18:11in terms of religion,
0:18:11 > 0:18:13meant that it was storing up future problems.
0:18:16 > 0:18:19The British had encouraged Arabs in the Ottoman Empire
0:18:19 > 0:18:21to pursue the dream of self-rule.
0:18:21 > 0:18:25Those who had joined the fight got their reward.
0:18:25 > 0:18:28So, the sons of the sharif of Mecca
0:18:28 > 0:18:30became the kings of modern day Jordan and Iraq.
0:18:30 > 0:18:33Descendants of the Arab Wahabi uprising,
0:18:33 > 0:18:37who rejected the authority of the Ottomans over a century before,
0:18:37 > 0:18:40became the new rulers of today's Saudi Arabia.
0:18:43 > 0:18:47Britain had been using the possibility of territory
0:18:47 > 0:18:50within the Ottoman Empire to secure allies,
0:18:50 > 0:18:53and so Britain makes contradictory promises,
0:18:53 > 0:18:55but in entering those agreements
0:18:55 > 0:18:57Britain has stored up terrible problems for the future,
0:18:57 > 0:19:00not only for Britain's own interests in the least, of course,
0:19:00 > 0:19:02but for the Middle East itself.
0:19:04 > 0:19:06What Britain didn't tell the nationalists
0:19:06 > 0:19:09was that it had promised Arab territory to its allies,
0:19:09 > 0:19:13including Zionists who wanted a new Jewish state in the region.
0:19:15 > 0:19:17In a matter of decades,
0:19:17 > 0:19:21Israel became a reality in former Arab Palestine.
0:19:21 > 0:19:23It left many Arabs feeling betrayed.
0:19:26 > 0:19:29It is in the Middle East above all, we continue to see
0:19:29 > 0:19:31the effects of the First World War
0:19:31 > 0:19:33and I have to say, in my moments of gloom,
0:19:33 > 0:19:37if I want to think where could a third world war break out,
0:19:37 > 0:19:39it would be there.
0:19:40 > 0:19:43Modern day Saudi Arabia and Yemen
0:19:43 > 0:19:46escaped control by the great powers of Europe.
0:19:46 > 0:19:52Only one other major Muslim country would achieve this.
0:19:52 > 0:19:56Remarkably, that nation was the heartland of the Ottoman Empire.
0:19:56 > 0:19:58Modern day Turkey.
0:20:06 > 0:20:11In 1918, the future of this country looked bleak.
0:20:11 > 0:20:14Ottoman power had passed on for the final time
0:20:14 > 0:20:19to the last Ottoman sultan, Mehmed VI.
0:20:19 > 0:20:22He wanted to negotiate with the European powers.
0:20:22 > 0:20:25But the Allies had other ideas.
0:20:29 > 0:20:33Lloyd George likened, actually, the Turks to cancer,
0:20:33 > 0:20:36that they were bloodthirsty, you know, Muslim tyrants
0:20:36 > 0:20:41who suppressed, actually, civilised Christian peoples for centuries.
0:20:41 > 0:20:45This was really merely tapping into long-standing prejudice
0:20:45 > 0:20:50that had both a religious and a racial element to it.
0:20:50 > 0:20:53And so Britain's Prime Minister, Lloyd George,
0:20:53 > 0:20:57decided to allow the Greeks to attack.
0:21:01 > 0:21:03What followed was a defining moment
0:21:03 > 0:21:06in the relationship between Greeks and Turks.
0:21:06 > 0:21:09With the approval of Britain, Greece landed troops
0:21:09 > 0:21:13in western Turkey in 1919.
0:21:13 > 0:21:15They wanted control of lands
0:21:15 > 0:21:19which were already home to a sizeable Greek population.
0:21:21 > 0:21:25But officers in the old Imperial Army were outraged.
0:21:25 > 0:21:28One determined to lead the fight back.
0:21:28 > 0:21:32He was the same man who had rallied the troops at Gallipoli.
0:21:32 > 0:21:35Mustafa Kemal - Ataturk.
0:21:35 > 0:21:38Ataturk deliberately depicted jihad,
0:21:38 > 0:21:42a holy war between two major religions,
0:21:42 > 0:21:45you know, between Christianity and Islam.
0:21:45 > 0:21:48It's pretty normal in the history of this part of the world
0:21:48 > 0:21:52that you raise the flag of religion to get everyone marching.
0:21:55 > 0:21:59Ataturk began mobilising a rebel army to fight the Greek invaders.
0:22:02 > 0:22:10When the pushback against the Greeks came, it was incredibly rapid.
0:22:10 > 0:22:12The Greeks advanced too far into the interior,
0:22:12 > 0:22:16they overextended their lines of communication.
0:22:16 > 0:22:20And before long, they were exhausted
0:22:20 > 0:22:25and the Turks were able to turn the tide of war.
0:22:28 > 0:22:32Greek troops were pushed back to the western seaport of Izmir,
0:22:32 > 0:22:37or Smyrna, where there was a large Greek community.
0:22:37 > 0:22:41In September 1922, Turkish troops followed.
0:22:47 > 0:22:52The city was set alight. The only escape, on the waterfront.
0:22:55 > 0:22:59Thousands perished in the flames and smoke.
0:22:59 > 0:23:03Tens of thousands had to be evacuated.
0:23:05 > 0:23:09It was an event that the Greeks have not forgotten,
0:23:09 > 0:23:11the Asia Minor disaster.
0:23:14 > 0:23:18There was a fascinating combination of cultures all living cheek by jowl,
0:23:18 > 0:23:22which was destroyed, and it's left a real hole in people's lives,
0:23:22 > 0:23:27it's left a sadness for a lost world.
0:23:27 > 0:23:29A lost way of life.
0:23:37 > 0:23:40The rebel army had defeated the Greeks.
0:23:40 > 0:23:43And they'd done it without the support of the sultan.
0:23:43 > 0:23:47He now paid the price.
0:23:47 > 0:23:50Mehmed VI would be the last of the Ottoman dynasty,
0:23:50 > 0:23:55stretching back 600 years and through 22 generations.
0:23:55 > 0:24:02From its founder Osman, to Sultan Mehmed, who'd conquered Istanbul,
0:24:02 > 0:24:05to Suleiman the Magnificent, who took the Ottomans
0:24:05 > 0:24:08to the peak of their power.
0:24:08 > 0:24:10It was all over.
0:24:13 > 0:24:19The Ottoman Empire began at the time of the Dark Ages in Europe
0:24:19 > 0:24:23and ended in the era of modernity during the 20th century.
0:24:23 > 0:24:27It went from before the Peasants Revolt in Britain
0:24:27 > 0:24:30to the period when aviation had been invented.
0:24:36 > 0:24:39In 1922, the sultanate was abolished,
0:24:39 > 0:24:42and Mehmed left for a life in exile.
0:24:57 > 0:25:01In the aftermath of the war with Greece, Greek Orthodox Christians
0:25:01 > 0:25:06living in parts of modern day Turkey were told to leave.
0:25:06 > 0:25:10For centuries, they had lived side by side with Muslims
0:25:10 > 0:25:14in villages like this in southern Turkey.
0:25:14 > 0:25:20The Greeks knew it as Livizzi. Today, it's Kayakoy.
0:25:20 > 0:25:231,500 people needed to leave their houses.
0:25:23 > 0:25:28They cleaned their houses, made everything ready for the newcomers.
0:25:28 > 0:25:31They even left their keys.
0:25:31 > 0:25:34Some of them left it into the local Jandarma to be given...
0:25:34 > 0:25:38The local police? Yes, local police, to be given to the newcomers.
0:25:44 > 0:25:47Despina Mavrikou and her daughter Vera
0:25:47 > 0:25:51are descendants of refugees from the village, now living in Greece.
0:25:51 > 0:25:55The forced relocation is still a difficult family memory.
0:25:55 > 0:25:59SHE SPEAKS GREEK
0:26:01 > 0:26:03My mother says that she feels pain,
0:26:03 > 0:26:06she feels sorry for what happened to them
0:26:06 > 0:26:12because they didn't deserve such bad circumstances to live.
0:26:12 > 0:26:18When Greeks left, they opened the churches and took all things out.
0:26:18 > 0:26:21They painted the pictures inside the churches.
0:26:21 > 0:26:23They didn't need to do that.
0:26:23 > 0:26:30They raped girls within the Holy Table of the Church.
0:26:30 > 0:26:37They didn't need to do so savage, so wild things to the Greek people.
0:26:37 > 0:26:42It was as if they wanted to take revenge from the Greeks.
0:26:42 > 0:26:48The relocation of Christians was one side of a population exchange
0:26:48 > 0:26:51sanctioned by the League of Nations.
0:26:51 > 0:26:57Any Muslims still living in Greece also had to move.
0:27:01 > 0:27:06The Evrenos family left Greece in 1912.
0:27:08 > 0:27:10The ancestors of this family were responsible
0:27:10 > 0:27:13for founding some of the first Ottoman towns
0:27:13 > 0:27:17in 14th-century Greece.
0:27:17 > 0:27:20After more than 500 years of calling it home,
0:27:20 > 0:27:24the family found it difficult to come to terms with their exile.
0:27:26 > 0:27:30It is a painful story. The reason why my grandfather
0:27:30 > 0:27:33and my grandmother moved into Istanbul
0:27:33 > 0:27:39is that because they tried to assassinate him in Greece.
0:27:39 > 0:27:43Living there for more than 500 years, it's your home.
0:27:43 > 0:27:47Of course, they left everything behind and they created
0:27:47 > 0:27:50their old lives again from scratch.
0:27:50 > 0:27:53So, it's not an easy thing to do.
0:27:57 > 0:28:01In total, around two million people were uprooted by conflict
0:28:01 > 0:28:04and the subsequent population exchange.
0:28:06 > 0:28:10The exchange of populations enormously damaged relations
0:28:10 > 0:28:16between Greeks and Turks. To me, it is a sad tragedy,
0:28:16 > 0:28:21a lost opportunity that, in modern times,
0:28:21 > 0:28:29Greece and Turkey have not been able to establish closer relations.
0:28:32 > 0:28:35In the end, the steep location of this village
0:28:35 > 0:28:37proved too challenging for newcomers.
0:28:37 > 0:28:40It was eventually abandoned.
0:28:40 > 0:28:45Today, it's preserved as a reminder of the human cost of war.
0:28:51 > 0:28:55This is a disturbing place. Britain encouraged Greece to invade.
0:28:55 > 0:28:59But, of course, it was ordinary people in villages like this one,
0:28:59 > 0:29:02across Turkey and, of course, Greece,
0:29:02 > 0:29:06who paid the price for that decision.
0:29:06 > 0:29:10It's a cautionary tale of the West intervening in a country
0:29:10 > 0:29:12it doesn't really understand.
0:29:19 > 0:29:21In a matter of years, everything had changed
0:29:21 > 0:29:24in the old Ottoman heartland.
0:29:24 > 0:29:28Where once about a fifth of the population had been non-Muslim,
0:29:28 > 0:29:32by 1923, it was only 2%.
0:29:32 > 0:29:36And with the sultan gone, there was no figure to lead the new country.
0:29:36 > 0:29:39But there was a man widely credited
0:29:39 > 0:29:45with saving the nation twice over. Ataturk.
0:29:45 > 0:29:48Mustafa Kemal Ataturk was a war hero from Gallipoli,
0:29:48 > 0:29:51but what really made his career, was his leadership
0:29:51 > 0:29:53of the Turkish War of Liberation.
0:29:53 > 0:29:57He emerged as a hero, you know, victory personified.
0:29:57 > 0:30:00He was the political leader and the military leader
0:30:00 > 0:30:05of the struggle and therefore, he immediately became
0:30:05 > 0:30:08a saint-like figure in Turkey.
0:30:08 > 0:30:11That's what sealed his role, basically,
0:30:11 > 0:30:14as the unchallenged President of Turkey for life.
0:30:16 > 0:30:18Ataturk grew up in Salonica,
0:30:18 > 0:30:20the modern Greek city of Thessaloniki,
0:30:20 > 0:30:24when it was still part of Ottoman lands.
0:30:24 > 0:30:28He had been born outside the borders of the state he would lead.
0:30:28 > 0:30:32But he had experienced the tensions at the end of the empire
0:30:32 > 0:30:34and they shaped his thinking.
0:30:35 > 0:30:38He had a vision of a new state, rising
0:30:38 > 0:30:41from the ashes of the failed empire.
0:30:50 > 0:30:55On the 29th of October 1923, in a new capital, Ankara,
0:30:55 > 0:30:58the Republic of Turkey was formally declared.
0:31:00 > 0:31:06It soon began to impose fundamental changes to society.
0:31:06 > 0:31:09This factory was one of the first built in the new republic
0:31:09 > 0:31:12and it was a bold statement.
0:31:12 > 0:31:18Drinking alcohol is not permitted in Islam, but this was a brewery.
0:31:18 > 0:31:22The new state was calling time on its Muslim past.
0:31:28 > 0:31:33Ataturk would sit in cafes, drinking alcohol in public,
0:31:33 > 0:31:36so that people could see him do it. He wanted people
0:31:36 > 0:31:40to behave like Europeans and he saw drinking alcohol
0:31:40 > 0:31:44as something which Turkey could move towards.
0:31:48 > 0:31:52He wanted Turkey to be the equal of Europe,
0:31:52 > 0:31:58which in those days, of course, was the civilised world in his mind.
0:31:58 > 0:32:01Ataturk was a product of his time.
0:32:01 > 0:32:05Educated Turks viewed history in the same way
0:32:05 > 0:32:08as intellectuals in the West. It was a struggle
0:32:08 > 0:32:13between religion and science, and religion held back progress.
0:32:13 > 0:32:17Ataturk was convinced that for the republic to succeed,
0:32:17 > 0:32:20it had to adopt modern Western ways
0:32:20 > 0:32:24and leave behind its traditional Muslim outlook.
0:32:27 > 0:32:29One of his famous maxims
0:32:29 > 0:32:37is that the only true guide is actually science.
0:32:37 > 0:32:39He really believed religion will fade away
0:32:39 > 0:32:42and science will reign supreme.
0:32:42 > 0:32:47And so Ataturk subsumed religion to his state.
0:32:48 > 0:32:53Almost overnight, the country started to look very different.
0:32:53 > 0:32:56Traditional Islamic dress, such as the headdress for women,
0:32:56 > 0:32:58was banned.
0:32:58 > 0:33:01Ataturk's vision for a secular state
0:33:01 > 0:33:04touched every aspect of people's lives.
0:33:04 > 0:33:08One of the most commonly used calendars was the Islamic calendar.
0:33:08 > 0:33:11Now, if Turkey had to be a European nation,
0:33:11 > 0:33:12it had to have a European calendar,
0:33:12 > 0:33:16so Ataturk implemented what is known as the "Calendar Reform".
0:33:16 > 0:33:18The Turks went to bed one night, it was 1341,
0:33:18 > 0:33:21they woke up the next morning, it was 1926.
0:33:24 > 0:33:29When Ataturk adopted Sunday as the holy day instead of Friday,
0:33:29 > 0:33:33it deeply affected people, because Sunday
0:33:33 > 0:33:36was associated with Christianity.
0:33:38 > 0:33:42He decides that Turkey has to switch to a Roman Latin-based alphabet.
0:33:42 > 0:33:49That switch happens, once again, very fast, in less than three months.
0:33:49 > 0:33:53He gave rights to Turkish women and this happened, really,
0:33:53 > 0:33:56before such rights actually were granted to women
0:33:56 > 0:33:59in many Western societies.
0:34:01 > 0:34:04Women being discouraged from wearing the veil,
0:34:04 > 0:34:08the Christian calendar being adopted instead of the Islamic one
0:34:08 > 0:34:11and the traditional Arabic script being replaced
0:34:11 > 0:34:15by the Western Latin alphabet. It was a social revolution
0:34:15 > 0:34:18of incredible proportions.
0:34:20 > 0:34:23In a way, the Ottoman Empire raised its own nemesis.
0:34:23 > 0:34:26Ataturk wants to do away with the Ottoman legacy,
0:34:26 > 0:34:28eliminate everything that has to do with the Ottoman Empire
0:34:28 > 0:34:30and establish a republic from scratch.
0:34:33 > 0:34:38Seyda Kayhan was a child in the new republic.
0:34:38 > 0:34:40She feels Ataturk's reforms
0:34:40 > 0:34:43transformed their lives for the better.
0:34:43 > 0:34:49"Look to the West," he said, "because the result is progress
0:34:49 > 0:34:55"and enlightenment... getting out of this mess."
0:34:56 > 0:35:01And then schools were opened, where we could learn English,
0:35:01 > 0:35:06they learned how to put on European clothes,
0:35:06 > 0:35:11they learned how to throw off their fezs.
0:35:11 > 0:35:13That's what they did
0:35:13 > 0:35:17and they did it with pleasure, I mean,
0:35:17 > 0:35:20nobody forced them to do it.
0:35:25 > 0:35:30They were poor, they wanted to be Western.
0:35:30 > 0:35:33Why shouldn't they?
0:35:36 > 0:35:41But Ataturk could be ruthless with anyone who didn't share his vision.
0:35:42 > 0:35:47In 1925, a new reform was introduced which forced the Turkish people
0:35:47 > 0:35:53to show their acceptance of the new secular society.
0:35:53 > 0:35:55At the start of the 20th century,
0:35:55 > 0:35:58Muslim men in Turkey wore a hat known as the fez.
0:35:58 > 0:36:02And this is the last place in Istanbul where it was made.
0:36:02 > 0:36:05At the time, it was an incredibly advanced workshop
0:36:05 > 0:36:10with steam-powered looms, but it all came to an end in 1925.
0:36:10 > 0:36:13From that point on, the fez was banned.
0:36:13 > 0:36:16It's ironic, because the fez itself had been installed
0:36:16 > 0:36:21by a Westernising sultan in the 19th century who had banned the turban.
0:36:21 > 0:36:24Yet a hundred years later, the fez has now...
0:36:24 > 0:36:27the invented tradition had become what people thought
0:36:27 > 0:36:30was their tradition going back hundreds of years.
0:36:30 > 0:36:34The fez became a symbol for those who resented
0:36:34 > 0:36:36Ataturk's sweeping reforms.
0:36:36 > 0:36:41An Islamic scholar called Atif Hodja decided to make a stand.
0:36:41 > 0:36:47Atif Hodja, he had actually prepared a pamphlet
0:36:47 > 0:36:50and said that this was really un-Islamic.
0:36:50 > 0:36:54So he was arrested and brought before, actually, one of those,
0:36:54 > 0:36:59court martialled and sentenced, actually, to death.
0:36:59 > 0:37:01And he was actually executed.
0:37:01 > 0:37:04This is 1926, right after he objected to the reform
0:37:04 > 0:37:07of wearing the Western-style hat.
0:37:07 > 0:37:10To build a republic out of post-war chaos,
0:37:10 > 0:37:12Ataturk believed the needs of the state
0:37:12 > 0:37:15had to come before the rights of an individual.
0:37:15 > 0:37:20If you were an opponent of Ataturk's, you would know about it.
0:37:20 > 0:37:22But on the other hand, there was nowhere near
0:37:22 > 0:37:25the level of brutality or brutalisation
0:37:25 > 0:37:29that you saw with, shall we say, Stalin, his exact counterpart
0:37:29 > 0:37:32in the Soviet Union. There was nowhere near
0:37:32 > 0:37:36the level of brutalisation you see in China with Mao Tse Tung.
0:37:36 > 0:37:40He's very criticised today by multiple groups,
0:37:40 > 0:37:45but as a nationalist leader that started a new country
0:37:45 > 0:37:51and was able to adapt this old imperial state
0:37:51 > 0:37:59and society very quickly to become a productive nation
0:37:59 > 0:38:03in the new world, he was very successful at that.
0:38:07 > 0:38:10Ataturk's choice of presidential residence in Istanbul
0:38:10 > 0:38:13reflected his Western focus.
0:38:13 > 0:38:16The Dolmabache Palace was built by the Ottomans,
0:38:16 > 0:38:21but influenced by the fashions of 18th-century Europe.
0:38:21 > 0:38:25For Ataturk, it embodied his ideology.
0:38:25 > 0:38:28But his new state was built around the idea
0:38:28 > 0:38:33of a single Turkish identity, and it didn't suit everyone.
0:38:33 > 0:38:39In particular, the tribal Kurds of southeast Turkey.
0:38:39 > 0:38:42The Kurds and the Turks, they fought together for the Turkish republic.
0:38:42 > 0:38:46But then the Turkish side with Ataturk pushed them off overboard,
0:38:46 > 0:38:49as it were, and said, "No, actually, you're going to be Turks now."
0:38:51 > 0:38:55Some Kurdish nationals say that Kurds were free under the Ottoman Empire,
0:38:55 > 0:38:57so we should have those rights.
0:38:57 > 0:39:01Kurdish resistance to the idea of a single Turkish identity
0:39:01 > 0:39:05had its origins in the 1920s and has continued
0:39:05 > 0:39:08right up to the ongoing peace talks.
0:39:08 > 0:39:13That's one of the big drivers of the current conflict with the PKK.
0:39:13 > 0:39:18Most Kurds are absolutely insistent now that their identity
0:39:18 > 0:39:21be recognised as equal and that they be treated fairly,
0:39:21 > 0:39:24and that wasn't an issue in the Ottoman Empire.
0:39:32 > 0:39:38At 9.05 on the 10th of November 1938, Ataturk died.
0:39:41 > 0:39:48The teacher came in, her eyes were swollen, she said, "Ataturk died."
0:39:48 > 0:39:53Because we saw our teacher crying, we began to cry,
0:39:53 > 0:39:58but when we walked out to the recess,
0:39:58 > 0:40:01there, everybody was crying.
0:40:01 > 0:40:04I was taught to love Ataturk,
0:40:04 > 0:40:10but then, as I grew up, I realised it was the truth.
0:40:10 > 0:40:13He was the saviour
0:40:13 > 0:40:17and I feel gratitude
0:40:17 > 0:40:20and I feel appreciation for him.
0:40:29 > 0:40:3175 years after his death,
0:40:31 > 0:40:34Ataturk's presence is still felt in modern Turkey.
0:40:37 > 0:40:39It's just after nine o'clock
0:40:39 > 0:40:42on a pretty cold and miserable Saturday morning.
0:40:42 > 0:40:46But something unique is just about to take place.
0:40:46 > 0:40:50CAR HORNS BLARE
0:40:50 > 0:40:55Every year on the 10th of November, at 9.05 in the morning,
0:40:55 > 0:40:57everyone stops for one minute.
0:41:05 > 0:41:09They remember the moment the founder of the modern Turkish republic
0:41:09 > 0:41:11passed into history.
0:41:11 > 0:41:14A man who created a state that is still distinct
0:41:14 > 0:41:16in this part of the world.
0:41:18 > 0:41:23What Ataturk does is he makes the transition from military rule
0:41:23 > 0:41:26to civil regeneration and does so with less harshness
0:41:26 > 0:41:31than was the case across much of the world in that period.
0:41:42 > 0:41:46Ataturk built his republic at the heart of the former empire.
0:41:46 > 0:41:51But the transformation of Turkish society didn't happen in isolation.
0:41:51 > 0:41:53One of Ataturk's revolutionary changes
0:41:53 > 0:41:56reverberated around the Islamic world.
0:42:08 > 0:42:12For centuries, the Ottoman sultans had also held a role
0:42:12 > 0:42:16of supreme significance to Muslims. In the 16th century
0:42:16 > 0:42:18they laid claim to the title of caliph,
0:42:18 > 0:42:21religious leader to all Sunni Muslims.
0:42:25 > 0:42:28Basically, when Prophet Muhammad died, Muslims sat down
0:42:28 > 0:42:31and said, "What are we going to do now?" So, they ultimately chose
0:42:31 > 0:42:34one among them, the person they thought the most pious,
0:42:34 > 0:42:36and he became the first caliph.
0:42:36 > 0:42:39But Ataturk saw the caliph as a potential threat,
0:42:39 > 0:42:42an alternative leader.
0:42:42 > 0:42:44So after the sultanate was abolished,
0:42:44 > 0:42:47he also got rid of the caliphate.
0:42:47 > 0:42:51This was a shock for many people and it felt for many
0:42:51 > 0:42:57like the centre had been taken out of the Islamic world.
0:42:57 > 0:43:01It was a trauma for Turkish Muslims, it was a trauma for Arab Muslims.
0:43:01 > 0:43:04For the first time in its history, the Islamic world
0:43:04 > 0:43:09became devoid of the caliph, a leader.
0:43:09 > 0:43:13Now, nobody has any authority to say what is right or wrong
0:43:13 > 0:43:14from an Islamic point of view.
0:43:14 > 0:43:17When there are some radical terrorists like Al-Qaeda
0:43:17 > 0:43:20do some very unacceptable things in the name of Islam,
0:43:20 > 0:43:22there is no caliph to come up and say,
0:43:22 > 0:43:26"This is Islamically wrong, Islam doesn't allow targeting innocent people".
0:43:26 > 0:43:32So there's a post-caliph chaos, if you will, in the Muslim world.
0:43:32 > 0:43:36And the forgotten fallout from the break-up of the Ottoman Empire
0:43:36 > 0:43:39is playing out today with bloody civil wars
0:43:39 > 0:43:44and the toppling of tyrants from Damascus to Cairo.
0:43:44 > 0:43:47But now some in the region are starting to make sense
0:43:47 > 0:43:51of the present day by referring to its Ottoman past.
0:43:51 > 0:43:55And the reason is the remarkable change in Turkey itself.
0:43:55 > 0:43:59The country that so dramatically turned its back on the Ottomans
0:43:59 > 0:44:03is once again looking to its Islamic heritage.
0:44:03 > 0:44:06In the decades that followed Ataturk,
0:44:06 > 0:44:10secular Turkey clung to its leaders' mantra that to modernise,
0:44:10 > 0:44:14it needed to Westernise, and that meant to secularise.
0:44:16 > 0:44:19Driving many of its reforms was the ultimate goal
0:44:19 > 0:44:24of joining the elite club that is the European Union.
0:44:24 > 0:44:29And a sign of that was if you looked at Turkish weather forecasts,
0:44:29 > 0:44:32the map would not centre on Turkey, it would centre somewhere in Hungary
0:44:32 > 0:44:36and you would see Turkey as part of European weather patterns,
0:44:36 > 0:44:38so it kind of shows you the Turks thought of themselves
0:44:38 > 0:44:42as part of Europe, but not part of the Middle East.
0:44:42 > 0:44:46Eventually, Turkey adopted a Western-style free-market economy,
0:44:46 > 0:44:50but it produced unexpected results.
0:44:50 > 0:44:53Many of the entrepreneurs who seized the opportunity
0:44:53 > 0:44:56came not from the cities in the west of the country
0:44:56 > 0:45:01but from its more central heartlands, Anatolia.
0:45:01 > 0:45:06By the late 1980s, this new economic policy was paying off.
0:45:06 > 0:45:08Newspapers began to describe a phenomenon
0:45:08 > 0:45:11known as the Anatolian Tigers.
0:45:14 > 0:45:18This new breed of entrepreneur transformed regions like Konya
0:45:18 > 0:45:20in southern-central Turkey.
0:45:20 > 0:45:23I looked around one of its factories
0:45:23 > 0:45:27where they produce vegetable oil for export to 50 countries.
0:45:27 > 0:45:31What do you think personally about the title Anatolian Tiger?
0:45:31 > 0:45:33Do you like it, or do you prefer something else?
0:45:33 > 0:45:36We like it too much. We like it because this is a...
0:45:36 > 0:45:42A tiger is a good animal, a strong animal.
0:45:42 > 0:45:45So Anatolia is the...
0:45:45 > 0:45:49We are Anatolian, so this is a really big honour for us.
0:45:52 > 0:45:56Despite Ataturk's secular vision, religion remained important
0:45:56 > 0:45:59to people in these conservative heartlands.
0:45:59 > 0:46:05Islam is seen by many as a crucial part of their business success.
0:46:05 > 0:46:10The Muslims must be hard-working and trustable
0:46:10 > 0:46:13and always they said true things.
0:46:13 > 0:46:17So you have to be trustworthy as a Muslim and as a businessman.
0:46:17 > 0:46:20Yes, all the Muslims must do the trustable...
0:46:20 > 0:46:24..after then they do the good business,
0:46:24 > 0:46:29after then, all over the world, people give the respect.
0:46:29 > 0:46:32The economic success of the Anatolian Tigers
0:46:32 > 0:46:35gave them political muscle.
0:46:35 > 0:46:40In 2002, they helped elect modern Turkey's first Islamic government.
0:46:43 > 0:46:47The AK Party have held power for over a decade.
0:46:47 > 0:46:52In the old days, Islam was seen as being part of the problem.
0:46:52 > 0:46:57The current party in power is the one that has seized upon the Ottoman story
0:46:57 > 0:47:02as a way to show that it is the heir of a great empire.
0:47:02 > 0:47:04It likes the fact that most people
0:47:04 > 0:47:07see the Ottoman Empire as an Islamic empire as well in Turkey
0:47:07 > 0:47:10because they tend to emphasise the religious side of things,
0:47:10 > 0:47:13and they've repackaged it, in their own way,
0:47:13 > 0:47:17they've reinvented the story to serve their political purpose
0:47:17 > 0:47:21and they believe that it makes them seem like an eternal
0:47:21 > 0:47:24and powerful ideology and force.
0:47:28 > 0:47:31With an elected Islamic party in government,
0:47:31 > 0:47:33Turkey's undergoing a change.
0:47:33 > 0:47:38One which is reconnecting with its Ottoman past.
0:47:38 > 0:47:42But not everyone is happy.
0:47:42 > 0:47:46Secularists worry that it's turning back the clock in Turkey,
0:47:46 > 0:47:48undoing decades of social reform.
0:47:48 > 0:47:51CHANTING
0:47:53 > 0:47:59There's even been controversy over a hit TV show about the Ottomans.
0:47:59 > 0:48:05THEY SPEAK IN TURKISH
0:48:07 > 0:48:11HE SPEAKS IN TURKISH
0:48:11 > 0:48:15Set in the 16th century, the golden age of the empire,
0:48:15 > 0:48:22Magnificent Century attracts 200 million viewers worldwide.
0:48:22 > 0:48:23HE SPEAKS IN TURKISH
0:48:28 > 0:48:32HE SPEAKS IN TURKISH
0:48:32 > 0:48:35But it's a show that polarises people
0:48:35 > 0:48:39and the directors have faced a storm of protest.
0:48:39 > 0:48:41THEY SPEAK IN TURKISH
0:48:41 > 0:48:45You are just making a TV series and everybody in the country,
0:48:45 > 0:48:49suddenly, was talking about it. I mean,
0:48:49 > 0:48:54we were sitting at our homes and all the channels...
0:48:54 > 0:48:58All the channels. ..all of them was talking about your show.
0:48:58 > 0:49:04You couldn't believe. It was like a horror movie for us!
0:49:04 > 0:49:10Before that, no-one wanted to make a thing like that, about Ottoman,
0:49:10 > 0:49:15because it is very sacred issue, you know, untouchable.
0:49:18 > 0:49:23Some dislike the TV show because they revere this Islamic history.
0:49:23 > 0:49:26Others don't approve because they blame the Ottomans
0:49:26 > 0:49:30for everything that went wrong in their nation.
0:49:30 > 0:49:32I detest it.
0:49:32 > 0:49:36I don't like it, because it's gone.
0:49:36 > 0:49:39Who goes back. Who is going back?
0:49:39 > 0:49:43I don't know what makes it so attractive.
0:49:43 > 0:49:46Which part of it?
0:49:53 > 0:49:57People are interested only to know what was happening in the palace,
0:49:57 > 0:50:01the fine arts, the music, the poetry. Oh, I love it.
0:50:01 > 0:50:05The costumes are very nice, the jewellery is beautiful,
0:50:05 > 0:50:08the miniatures also, but it wasn't all.
0:50:08 > 0:50:15Ottoman Empire had its ups and downs and it had huge sufferings as well.
0:50:18 > 0:50:22The actor in the lead role of Sultan Suleiman welcomes the debate.
0:50:22 > 0:50:26People started to read history.
0:50:26 > 0:50:29They started to discuss about history and they are trying
0:50:29 > 0:50:34to learn what's right and what's wrong and they are discussing.
0:50:34 > 0:50:40So this is good for the future, very promising, because if you know
0:50:40 > 0:50:46your history, then you can build your future in a healthy way.
0:50:46 > 0:50:48APPLAUSE
0:50:48 > 0:50:51TANNOY ANNOUNCEMENT
0:50:52 > 0:50:59The resurgence of this interest in the Ottoman Empire today
0:50:59 > 0:51:04is both positive and also negative.
0:51:04 > 0:51:07Religious extremism has given us this image
0:51:07 > 0:51:13of Islam as intolerant, so the Ottoman Empire is a very good
0:51:13 > 0:51:18example of tolerant Islam for a very long time.
0:51:18 > 0:51:22On the other hand, the end of the Ottoman Empire was horrendous,
0:51:22 > 0:51:27where massacres happened, where populations were eliminated.
0:51:27 > 0:51:30MUSIC PLAYS
0:51:30 > 0:51:34HE SINGS IN TURKISH
0:51:35 > 0:51:38Every Turk today has a vision of the Ottoman Empire.
0:51:38 > 0:51:42If you just ask a Turk what do you think about the Ottoman Empire,
0:51:42 > 0:51:44you'll get an answer and that answer will tell you
0:51:44 > 0:51:47what political camp that Turk is probably in.
0:51:49 > 0:51:53Conservatives generally identified with the Ottoman Empire,
0:51:53 > 0:51:56praise it as their model, as the source of their heritage,
0:51:56 > 0:52:01whereas more secularist Turks look at the empire as somewhat corrupt.
0:52:01 > 0:52:03But the TV series about the Ottomans doesn't just
0:52:03 > 0:52:06attract viewers in Turkey.
0:52:06 > 0:52:10This history is being opened up across former Ottoman lands,
0:52:10 > 0:52:12from the Balkans to the Middle East.
0:52:14 > 0:52:17500 years ago, it was Sultan Selim the Grim who brought
0:52:17 > 0:52:21Ottoman rule to cities like Damascus and Cairo.
0:52:23 > 0:52:26Now the Ottoman past is a topical subject here too.
0:52:31 > 0:52:37In 2006, I went for a visit to Damascus, the Syrian capital.
0:52:37 > 0:52:41My guide, who was fantastic otherwise,
0:52:41 > 0:52:43the first morning took me for
0:52:43 > 0:52:46a tour of the city and he took me to the central square of Damascus.
0:52:46 > 0:52:47I'm originally from Turkey.
0:52:47 > 0:52:49He looked at me and he said,
0:52:49 > 0:52:52"This is where your grandparents executed my grandparents."
0:52:52 > 0:52:54Of course, my grandparents were not in Damascus,
0:52:54 > 0:52:56but this is how the Arabs look at Turkish legacy.
0:52:56 > 0:52:59They see it as the former imperial masters.
0:53:03 > 0:53:07In Cairo as well, discussion of the old era of Ottoman rule was
0:53:07 > 0:53:12back on the agenda after the Arab Spring uprisings.
0:53:12 > 0:53:14The Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan,
0:53:14 > 0:53:17was greeted like a visiting celebrity by supporters of
0:53:17 > 0:53:22the former government of Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood.
0:53:22 > 0:53:25They appeared delighted to see a strong, outwardly Muslim leader
0:53:25 > 0:53:29ready to speak out against Israel and for the Palestinians.
0:53:32 > 0:53:35There's a Turkish leader who shows up in Cairo right after
0:53:35 > 0:53:37the fall of the Mubarak dictatorship there
0:53:37 > 0:53:41and he's met by a million people at the airport,
0:53:41 > 0:53:43so he receives a very warm welcome.
0:53:44 > 0:53:48But when the Turkish Prime Minister appeared to advocate the value of
0:53:48 > 0:53:52a secular transformation in Egypt, the enthusiasm cooled
0:53:52 > 0:53:54in some quarters.
0:53:55 > 0:53:58I think Turkey's plans to become a regional leader
0:53:58 > 0:54:02will be checked by the reality that
0:54:02 > 0:54:05the Arabs don't want a big brother to come and tell them what to do.
0:54:06 > 0:54:10And yet, Ottoman history is unmistakably present within
0:54:10 > 0:54:13the debate about the future.
0:54:13 > 0:54:16The spectre of what's been termed "neo-Ottomanism"
0:54:16 > 0:54:21is used to raise concerns about Turkey's growing prestige.
0:54:21 > 0:54:24Syria's embattled President Assad, for example, has accused
0:54:24 > 0:54:28the prime minister of aspiring to be an Ottoman-style sultan.
0:54:28 > 0:54:32Personally, he thinks that he is the new sultan of the Ottomans
0:54:32 > 0:54:35and he can control the region as it was during the Ottoman Empire,
0:54:35 > 0:54:39under a different, let's say, umbrella.
0:54:39 > 0:54:43But that umbrella in Turkey IS democratic,
0:54:43 > 0:54:47unlike President Assad, who effectively inherited his rule
0:54:47 > 0:54:50from his father, or the Ottoman dynasty sultans whose family also
0:54:50 > 0:54:57passed power down the generations - this government can be voted out.
0:54:57 > 0:55:00Turkey is a combination of its current Islamic leadership,
0:55:00 > 0:55:07its secular century and its Ottoman past.
0:55:07 > 0:55:10Even in the post-Ataturk phase, Turkey's leaders have
0:55:10 > 0:55:12a little bit of Ataturk in them.
0:55:12 > 0:55:16This idea that this country has some unique aspects
0:55:16 > 0:55:20of its identity, that it's secular, that it's Western,
0:55:20 > 0:55:24and a little bit of an Ottoman sultan also, but it tells us so much about
0:55:24 > 0:55:27modern Turkey, that this is a country that is rooted in
0:55:27 > 0:55:28the Ottoman Empire.
0:55:29 > 0:55:33And a democratic Turkey, reconnecting its public life to
0:55:33 > 0:55:38Muslim traditions, offers not fear but hope to politicians in the West.
0:55:40 > 0:55:44America in particular has been keen to see Turkey as a role model
0:55:44 > 0:55:47for other Middle Eastern countries.
0:55:48 > 0:55:52Some people are hoping that Turkey has a magic wand
0:55:52 > 0:55:57and that these other countries can somehow magically become Turkeys
0:55:57 > 0:56:02and become somehow tame, but I think it's very unwise to try and transfer
0:56:02 > 0:56:06the very individual experience of Turkey onto the other very difficult
0:56:06 > 0:56:09experiences of the very separate countries in the Middle East.
0:56:09 > 0:56:13There is a debate about whether Turkey serves as a role model
0:56:13 > 0:56:15that Islam and modernity can coexist.
0:56:15 > 0:56:23I think Turkey is as far advanced a case that can be made that
0:56:23 > 0:56:28a country can be mostly Muslim, yet at the same time
0:56:28 > 0:56:32part of both the global society and the global economy.
0:56:36 > 0:56:40The Ottoman story tells us that, for centuries, a Muslim empire,
0:56:40 > 0:56:44based in Europe, was a global leader.
0:56:44 > 0:56:48An advanced, highly organised state with a sophisticated culture
0:56:48 > 0:56:52and, for its time, tolerant of religious difference.
0:56:54 > 0:56:58The modern day politics of the region continue to be buffeted by
0:56:58 > 0:57:02Western powers, as they have been since it was the sick man of Europe.
0:57:05 > 0:57:09This is both a European story and a Middle Eastern story.
0:57:13 > 0:57:18Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Libya, Tunisia, Yemen
0:57:18 > 0:57:22and Egypt, the hot spots of the 21st century in the Middle East.
0:57:22 > 0:57:27All former Ottoman lands bound together once more
0:57:27 > 0:57:29by political aspirations for change.
0:57:31 > 0:57:35And re-emerging as a role model for this revolutionary Middle East,
0:57:35 > 0:57:38straddling East and West, Islam and democracy, is Turkey.
0:57:43 > 0:57:46This is a nation that knows what it is to have
0:57:46 > 0:57:48an imperial, expansionist past.
0:57:48 > 0:57:53It understands that it lives in a truly secular society.
0:57:53 > 0:57:58And it's learning what it is to be Islamic and democratic.
0:57:58 > 0:58:01From this melting pot of options, Turkey will decide its future,
0:58:01 > 0:58:03a decision that will affect all of us.
0:58:05 > 0:58:08The relationship between East and West isn't just
0:58:08 > 0:58:12symbolised in this country where the continents meet.
0:58:12 > 0:58:15Since the Middle Ages, it's a relationship
0:58:15 > 0:58:19which has been defined by what happened here.
0:58:19 > 0:58:23And today it's at the heart of a battle between democracy,
0:58:23 > 0:58:24secularism and Islam.
0:58:26 > 0:58:28At stake are regional and global ambitions
0:58:28 > 0:58:32and agendas that cannot be understood without grasping
0:58:32 > 0:58:36the history and legacy of the Ottomans, Europe's Muslim emperors.
0:59:05 > 0:59:07Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:59:13 > 0:59:16TENOR SINGS ROUSING ITALIAN SONG