Human Angle

Anatolia’s Cultural Contribution to the European Identity

Prof. Dr. Özer OZANKAYA

Europe owes its central place in the world to the great advances which it has accomplished in the fields of art, science, technology, humanitarian philosophy and democratic socio-political order. All this is the outcome of a dialectical relationship between local and common cultural elements. This common European identity has been formed through continuous contributions of the peoples and regions of Europe and has in its turn guided and rescued them from sterile particularism and raised them above the folkloristic level to the level of arts and sciences.

Anatolia has been a part of this process for millenia, playing host to a succession of astonishing civilisations all of which have had a definite role in the evolution of European culture. So much so, in fact, that in many European languages the word ‘orient’ not only denotes what is lustrous and precious, along with the geographical East, but also means to establish one’s position (One does not “occident” oneself!).

Hittite heritage

Some 5,000 years before our time, the Hittites tilled the Anatolian soil, producing wheat and barley, and extracting and processing ores. “Their rulers,” says H. J. Muller in his The Loom of History, “were not divine or divinely appointed, but ruled rather as constitutional monarchs.’ They shared their authority with a council of nobles and warriors that supposedly represented the whole community, and queen mothers had a part in their prestige.

Arnold Toynbee has said that the cultural heritage of Anatolia remained predominantly Hittite down to Ottoman times. Unquestionably, they made a lasting impression. The immediate contribution of the Hittites was chiefly political. As they conquered they did not simply slaughter or enslave, but showed some genius for organisation and administration. They established a feudal empire that seemingly enlisted the loyalty of most of its diverse subjects by respecting their customs and according them some equity; the tablets found at Boğazköy contain traces of at least eight different languages. Hittites built a radiating system of roads, paving the way for the later Persians and Romans. (Muller, p.67)

In the third millennium the Hittites gave way to the Phrygians, who achieved a synthesis between the Anatolian and Mesopotamian traditions, as is most evident in their artefacts: reliefs and statuettes of ducks and rams; decorations and imagers engraved or painted on household utensils and woven into rugs. The harvest god Lityersis is a manifestation of the cycle of life, death and rebirth and pre-figures Christianity. After the defeat of the Persian Emperor Darius by Alexander the Great, the brilliant if hedonistic Ionian civilisation faded away, ushering in the classical epoch, and the coastal cities of Pergamon, Ephesos, Didyma, Assos and Miletos came to represent the heights of philosophy and arts.

In Ankara today there still stand, side by side, two monuments; the Temple of Augusts (Monumentum Ankyranum), with its columns and bath, and the memorial and mosque to the 15^th century Turkish thinker Hacı Bayram. Here, cultures borrow viable, noble, productive elements from each other to work out a new synthesis.

Era of empires

From the 4th Century onwards, a succession of major empires held sway in Anatolia. The Byzantine Empire, a bridge of artistic and commercial exchange, was founded upon the cultural heritage of the ancient Anatolian civilisations. In its prime the empire was ruled by three Asiatic dynasties: the Assyrian, founded by Leo III (who was contemptuously called “the Phrygian”), the short-lived Amorian or Phrygian, and the so-called Macedonian, founded by Basil I, an Armenian born in Macedonia. (Muller,  p.279). “A fresh impulse was needed,” writes Muller, “and it came from the East”.

During the iconoclastic period of the 8^th and 9^th centuries, the rock churches and homes of Cappadocia provided refuge to Anatolian Christians oppressed for depicting human faces. Historians believe that the main current of cultural influence at that time was from Cappadocia to Byzantium rather than the other way round, revealing a Cappadocian theme in Byzantine art and architecture.

The empire of the Seljuk Turks brought relief from persecution and the number of churches increased. A culture exempt from fanaticism and conscious of the beauty of consensus was rising. The philosophers of the period – Yunus Emre, Hacı Bektaş, Mevlana – are still loved and respected in Turkey, and have attracted recent international attention with their characteristic tolerance and humanity. The Seljuks built prosperous cities, medreses (colleges), hospitals, roads, bridges and caravanserais. Their arts used some Anatolian animal motifs such as the twin-headed eagle of the Hittites, while they fully developed and perfected all the characteristics of Islamic art – its use of colour and abstract ornament in metal and wooden objects, calligraphy, painted tiles, and architecture.

Ottoman contributions

The Ottomans, too, worked out a synthesis of the preceding cultures. They interacted intensively first with Venice and then with many other cities, states and lands to the West. All this is well-known and well-documented. But at the same time it is worth drawing attention to two figures from the Ottoman world of ideas: the poet Fuzuli and the writer İbrahim Hakkı.

Fuzuli is best known among Turks today for his sharp criticism of corrupt officialdom (“I offered them a greeting/ but still I was not welcome/ because it was no bribe”). His prime theme, however, was the exaltation of the truth. Although by “truth” he naturally refers to the truth of God, he gives a remarkable definition of science which emphasises the necessity of never-ending research: “To reach the highest ranks through science/ is an unattainable desire /For science is nothing but what we already know! /The most fundamental thing is love (of truth)”. There is a striking parallel here with the concept of science expressed by Justus von Liebig from 19^th century Germany – “Science begins to be really interesting only when it no longer provides explanation”.

The propositions of Hakkı, a native of Erzurum, are perhaps even more striking. Hakkı is the author of the Marifetname , a study of science, philosophy and literature completed in 1756. Half a century before the birth of Darwin, he suggested that human beings were the outcome of a very long process of evolution, in which they were preceded by the monkey. Elsewhere in his famous study, Hakkı warns that:

“Whoever believes that it is a religious duty to dispute the reality of the facts stated here does nothing but enfeeble and invalidate the religion and commit a crime against it. For these facts are established through mathematical proofs. When one learns and verifies them and discovers their causes, time, quantity and prolongation, one would no more doubt the truth of them even if he were told they are against the religion. One would rather call the religion itself into question, asking oneself, ‘How could the religion ever go against the reason?’”

Republican revival

The Turkish Republic was founded upon this millennial cultural heritage at a time when the East was flattened by colonialism and the West was suffering from “a pure organic disintegration and a pure mechanical organisation” – to quote from English author D.H. Lawrence. The Turkish Republic is a comprehensive project of civilisation saving the Turkish people from both types of decline and opening up for them the vistas of arts and science, representative government, individual freedom, female emancipation, human rights and supremacy of law. It implies both peace between nations, in which colonialism is eradicated, and deliverance from materialist obsessions, moral sterility, social stagnation and intolerance. And above all it seeks to meet both the political and economic requirements of democracy.

The project of civilisation enhances a culture which integrates the local with the general and inspires the preservation and development of both. One of the first steps taken by the Republican regime was to determine and disseminate the cultural values of Anatolia. The Anatolian cultural heritage was put at the service of the national and international community through the founding of modern universities, academies, museums, libraries, archives, exhibitions and excavations. Meanwhile, many aspects of Turkish culture were elevated above the former folkloristic level and acquired the form and content of opera, ballet symphonic music, painting, sculpture, cinema, broadcasting and literature. In art and science as in the realm of political and social systems, Anatolia continued its role in the European synthesis.

(DIPLOMAT  -  December 2004  -  Ankara)