Sultan Abdülhamid II Conference at Istanbul Sabahattin Zaim University on the 100th Anniversary of his Death

Istanbul Sabahattin Zaim University, Writers Union of Turkey and Educators trade union commemorated Sultan Abdulhamid II on the 100th anniversary since his death with a conference.

"100 Years since Sultan Abdulhamid Khan II" international conference was held in the IZU ISEFAM Conference Hall on 23rd and 24th of February.

In the conference, many topics were brought to discussion from the period of Sultan Abdulhamid II and foreign politics to daily life. Scientists and historians attended the conference from; Tunisia, Iran, Iraq Turkey and England. The topics discussed include modernization, bureaucratization, centralization, culture-arts, education, foreign policy, Palestine issue and Islamic unity in the meeting.

Dr. Muhammed Enes Kala, RA. Nur Salık and RA. Maşallah Nar formed an academic executive committee.

The following names were part of the conference committee: Prof. Abdulkadir Emeksiz, Prof. Adnan Karaismailoglu, Prof. Ahmet Tabakoğlu, Prof. Ali El-Suli, Prof. Arif Bilgin, Prof. Azmi Özcan, Prof. Bülent Arı, Prof. Cevat Özyurt, Prof. Gökhan Çetinsaya, Prof. Hicabi Swallow, Prof. Hüseyin Çınar, Prof. Kadir Canatan, Prof. Mehmet Bulut, Prof. Musa Yıldız, Prof. Mustafa Orçan, Prof. Safa Saygılı, Prof. S. Tufan Buzpınar, Prof. Turan Koc, Prof. Yaqup Zaki, Assoc. Dr. Mehmet Ö. Alkan, Assoc. Dr. Rahman Ademi, Assoc. Dr. Şevki Duymaz, Dr. Mohammad Moussa, Dr. Muhammad Ali Mohammed Allo Hussein, Dr. Nasrollah Salehi and Dr. Zoubeir Khalfallah.

The conference’s opening speeches, was followed by the first session Turkey. The first session was moderated by Writers Association Chairman Prof. Musa Kazim Arıcan and Prof. Yakup Zeki, Prof. Ahmet Tabakoglu, Dr. D. Mehmet Dogan and Prof. Mehmet Bulut made a speech.

Prof. Ahmet Tabakoğlu from Marmara University, Faculty of Economics stated that one of the most important services of Abdülhamid II was to establish a common telegraph system and saying, ‘you will see the importance of this when you read Atatürk's Speech’. And as Atatürk said; 'We won the war of independence thanks to the telegraph.' In other words, ‘the telegraph network was very important.’

Tabakoğlu mentioned  during the period of  II Abdulhamid, there were many developments in the fields of education, economics, bureaucracy. Tabakoğlu said: "One of the most important services of Abdülhamid II is to build the telegraph system as much as the villagers. We should emphasize that the bastions that Abdulhamid made and developed in the Gallipoli victory had a great role if we went a little earlier. . Those were placed there during the reign of Abdulhamid and the great benefit of the pioneering activities in the war was seen."

Prof. Bulut stated that, "during the period of Abdülhamid, debts were used in productive areas".

İstanbul Sabahattin Zaim University’s Rector Prof. Mehmet Bulut talked about the period of Abdülhamid Khan and why it could not be understood by conservative circles. Rector Prof. Mehmet Bulut, ‘whoever suggests that there are large walls in people's minds to understand what the Ottoman State has done in the fields of economics, education, science and technology in the last quarter of the 19th century and early 20th century. It is because of this that a state has been stopped and a new state has been established in place of everything else. This reality has been imposed on us degeneration very much about the failures of the front. It is said that the most important result of World War I is still the destruction of empires. Why did Russia not collapse? Russia dominated the whole Eastern Europe, the Turkish Republics. If the Netherlands, England, Spain remain kingdom today, the Ottoman Empire could continue. Let's break down the barriers in our minds to do better analysis in this matter at least 100 years later. In order to understand this continuity we must make an effort  to understand the Ottoman in every field before the First World War.’ Referring to the foreign debt of the period Abdulhamid Khan Prof. Bulut said that it is wrong to treat these debts as unmanageable and bankrupt. Referring to foreign debt borrowed by the Ottoman Empire, Bulut said: "When the Ottoman Public Debt Administration was founded, the ratio of the Ottoman debt to the total external debt was 51 percent. In 2001, Turkey's ratio of total debt to gross national product was 108 percent.’

Following the two-day session, the speakers and guests visited Sultan Abdulhamid II’s grave on February 25, 2018 Sunday and meeting ended