PDF Dosyası - Ankara Üniversitesi Kitaplar Veritabanı

'Millet' system of the Ottoman empire. This is a reflection of power politics.Unbelievers did not constitute a threat to the Caliphate in its heydaywhilst the Christian states at that time in their fight for survival cultivatedintolerance. During later centuries and especially under colonialism thesituation became reversed.In principle there existed no source of law or legislative power otherthan Sharia. But, as Prof. Feyzioglu has also shown, the running of theenormous and complex Ottoman Empire made it inevitable to institute legalregulations "which were not of Şeriat origin, and sometimes not evencompatible with it". An interestinge case in point is the 'Devshirme' systemwhereby Christian boys vvere forcefully converted to islam andserved as the Sultan's slaves both as soldiers and civil servants up to theposts of Pasha and Grand Vezir-in spite of the fact that the Koran prohibitsboth conversion by force and a Moslem to be the owner of Moslemslaves. The very concept of law could not avoid being influenced by anorder where not only the rank and file of Government service but also theEmpire's highest dignitaries by defınition had limited legal capacity.It becomes an observation only, not a conclusion, that lawmakingand legal practices are an expression of human activities aimed either atcontrol över society for the rulers' own benefit, or aimed at progress andimprovement to society. As such law-making constitututes a creation andexpression of human thought. If a 'fetva' proves unrealistic, as the famousone prohibiting the use of a printing press, the reason could onlybe a human shortcoming. If individuals who are responsible for suchshortcomings are allovved to exert a dictatorial or monopolistic influence,propensity for change will be strangled and progress will not be achieved.Monopolistic influence inevitably leads to failure and must be replacedby a procedure which encompasses popular participation, i.e. manifestationof "common sense" in the original and true meaning of the expression.IVThanks to the reforms in practice and thought introduced by Tanzimata base for the creation of a secular Turkish Republic already existed.However, the forces of tradition and resistance to change vvere stili strongand Atatürk had to overcome them in order to accomplish his task, whichwas based on the conviction that ali political power should derive fromthe will of the people. The unprecedented size of this task and his performancehas been eloquently illustrated by the great historian Toynbee,who wrote: "Imagine for a moment that in our Western vvorld, the Renaissance,the Reformation, the scientific and intellectual revolution at theend of the 1700's, the French Revolution, and the industrial revolutionhad ali been compressed into one human lifetime...". To this list must, Ithink, be added both the thorough legal reforms as manifested in e.g. the207