M. Süheyl Konuksay

  Macaulayizm nedir? Ne işe yarar? 19. Yüzyıl bitip 20. Yüzyıl başlarken Britanya İmparatorluğu yayılmacı siyaseti sonucunda dünyanın kara alanlarının ve nüfusunun neredeyse dörtte biri ve denizlerinin de tamamına yakınını kontrol eder hale gelmişti. Kuzey Amerika’daki kolonileri Amerika Birleşik Devletlerine dönüşerek elden çıkmış olmasına rağmen imparatorluk dünyanın tartışmasız en büyük ekonomik, askeri gücü ve bilim ile sanatın da merkeziydi. İmparatorluğun bu noktaya gelmesinde ise Hindistan’ın rolü büyüktü. O zamanki Hindistan’ın yüzölçümü, ülke şimdiki Pakistan ve Bangladeş’i de kapsadığından, tüm Avrupa kıtasının yarısından biraz azdı ve Türkiye'nin beş katından büyüktü. Nüfus yönünden baktığımızda ise 1800 yılında Avrupa nüfusu 150 milyon civarındayken Hindistan 200 milyonun üzerindeydi. İşte İngiliz imparatorluğunun vaz geçilmez parçası Hindistan bu derece önemliydi ve onlar da bu önemin fazlasıyla farkındaydılar. Koskoca me...

  Eskiden müneccimlik iyi meslekti: Eskiden müneccimlik iyi bir meslekti. Yıldızların gezegenlerin hareketleri ya da hayvanların iç organlarını inceleyerek geleceğin tahmin edilmesi “bilimi” ile uğraşırlar ve yöneticilerin yakınında durarak güç ve para sahibi olurlardı. Tahminleri çıkmadığında ise kendilerinden başka birisinin bilinmeyen bir hatası ya da günahı olduğunu söyleyerek işlerine devam ederlerdi. Sonra bunların bilim olmadığı ortaya çıkınca gözden düştüler ve koskoca bir meslek yok oldu. Gelgelelim doğa boşluk kabul etmediğinden yöneticilerin yanında durup geleceği tahmin etme işi boş kalamazdı birilerinin yeni bir “bilim” kullanarak bu görevi ifa etmesi ve topluma hizmet ederken güç ve para edinmesi mecburiydi. 18. Yüzyıl ortalarından itibaren başlayan bu olgu 20. Yüzyılda gücünün zirvesine gelerek bizde “iktisat” dışarıda “economics” diye adlandırılmış ve makro düzeyde toplumların, mikro düzeyde ise bireylerin yaşamlarını etkiler olmuştur. Aslında sağ duyu çerçe...

  The biggest mistake that the Ottoman Empire made in WWI is not to join or join with the Germans. It was inevitable that Turkey would join the Great War because everybody in the Sublime Port knew perfectly well that it would be impossible to survive after the war if they stayed neutral. It was also impossible not to join on the German side because first Britain and later the Russians refused to make a pact with Turkey because after all the Brits were after the oil rich areas and the Russians were ready to give their right arm for Istanbul. Besides even the Germans were reluctant to accept Turkey as an ally up until the day they were stopped at the Western Front. Anyways, Turkey entered the war and because the leaders of the time were not well versed in global affairs and considered the German military superior to everything else, they yielded the command of the Turkish military to German officers. Those officers certainly made their best efforts to win but the German high strategi...

  Some of the politically incorrect opinions I hold are as follows: (Please keep in mind that this is not a complete list and is not in any kind of order) If the fight you are fighting is “fair” you did not get prepared as you should have. Always bring a gun to a knife fight. Most probably there will be no fight. Men and women are not equal. Nobody is equal to anybody else. However, everybody has or should have equal rights regardless of gender, race, belief or whatever. Nobody should be able to have an advantage or demand pity because an ancestor of that group was unrightfully treated. Guns do not kill people. They are just tools. I do not have to respect your ideas no matter what. You can be nonsensical or straightforward evil. The saying “I may not agree with you but I will die so that you can express them” is insincere and besides Voltaire never said it as attributed to. Nuclear energy is not evil. We have to be able to criticize organizations like Greenpeace and even suspect t...

  Never before a brilliant looking idea saddened me this much. Not only me but the whole Turkish nation would be devastated by sorrow seeing two of our favourite peoples destroy each other’s culture and lifestyle. You see, we in the area, contrary to popular belief in the West, feel no enmity to the peoples around us. Eastern Mediterranean is like a huge house where different branches of a family live together, we may fight from time to time but there is no hatred between the peoples. The governments with the help of “allies” do that. Imagine the Sabbath in the taverns of Athens and Thessaloniki. Think of the church bells in Tel Aviv. Behold the kibbutz on this beautiful small Aegean island where it is very inappropriate to wear anything while sun bathing. Imagine the federation’s Jewish finance minister’s face after he sees the first financial report. Extend your sympathies to the teacher trying to explain to Greek school children why an unknown race as the Arabs are bad people fr...

  This is a very good question if the southern part of the Empire is considered as southern Anatolia. (As mentioned in other answers of course the Mesopotamian campaign took place but the objective if that operation was to secure the oil fields.) During the decision making process of the Dardanelles Campaign the alternative was an amphibious attack to Iskenderun  İskenderun - Wikipedia  and invasion of Anatolia through Cilicia.  Cilicia - Wikipedia Winston Churchill considered the attack seriously but had to give up the idea because of French concerns. The French had ambitions regarding the area and would not accept a British or invasion easily. The advantage of a Cilician Operation would be to divide Anatolia in two and force a surrender. However, both operations’ objective was to start an uprising or a coup d’etat and take Turkey out of the war. After all it was obvious that either by bringing a war weary fleet into the Marmara sea which is by all means a huge pond...

  The writing on the wall was visible when Admiral Fisher decided that the new Dreadnought class battle ship would be built and use petrol instead of coal. At the time oil was available in a few places out of the US. Azerbaijan had oil fields but were unavailable to the British. Oil fields in Abadan Iran were in nominal British control but was far from the Mediterranean. What remained was in Turkish control. The fact that the victors of the Great War (British and the French) almost declared war on each other over the route and control of a certain pipeline from Mosul to Eastern Mediterranean proves the importance of this issue. To check the Russian expansion to the south Turkey was needed to the British Empire. Especially during the times of the Great Game when India was at stake the only way to check the Russians was to support the Turks. When Russia became too powerful and the fact that it would attack Turkey not later than 1918 became obvious and the British changed naval techno...