Russophobia in Turkish Society
During the last, tough and desperate centuries of Ottoman Empire, the thoughest of all enemies was Russian Empire. For 241 years of Ottoman collapsing period, there were wars between Ottoman and Russian Empire for 11 times, which lasted for 58 years, which means ¼ of the whole period. Nearly all battles were won by Russians, except the Battle of Prut. Russian Empire was the darkest nightmare of Ottoman governors and people. After these 58 years of wars, Ottoman Empire lost its most valuable parts: Crimea, Romania, Moldavia, some parts of Poland, Bulgaria, former Yugoslavia, Caucasus etc. Even after the war in 1877-1878, Russian armies entered the province Edirne and after they invaded until Yeşilköy, which is now a part of Istanbul. Russian army by this act threatened the existence of Ottoman Empire totally. All these events of course affected the psychology of people and intellectuals in Ottoman Empire, which caused some feeling, that could be called “russophobia”. Millions of deaths were given to wars against Russians and also very huge migration wave started from the lost territories of the empire. The word moskof (derived from the name of the city Moscow) was used among Turks to call Russian Empire and Russians generally. This word had an insultive meaning. The term “moskof” appeared to be a common insult, that even could be used in daily life. After the revolution in Russia in 1917, for the majority right wing Turkish authors, Russia became the worst enemy ever. A historical evil enemy, now with the ideology of devil – communism! Again, turkish nationalists started to call Soviet Union and all communists “moskof”, even the turkish ones, in an insulting manner. Nihat Atsiz, the leader of Turkish ultra-nationalists, wrote: “Communism is a mask and cover of “moskof” imperialism, cheating people with fantasies, that they would bring peace and justice to all humanity. History, geopolitics and faith made us enemies. We’re going to fight until the destruction of someone’s part. We can’t make peace, we’re opposite sides, we’re enemies. Love is impossible without hatred, if you love Turkishness, you should hate moskof!” In this article, Atsiz also claims that all slavic race is “rude and low“. During the cold war, the term “moskof” also was the strongest insult. Conservative circles, nationalists, islamists gently adviced any lefty turkish person to leave the country and go to Moscow (for example, this widely used turkish slogan “communists – to moscow!”). According to them, a “moskof” is a traitor, a possible terrorist, enemy of religion and god, a person without decency. One well known islamist poet, very significant figure of turkish islamist movement Necip Fazil Kisakurek wrote a book with the title “Moskof”. In this book, he summarizes the history of russians from his own, very subjective point of view. The book starts with the chapter “Russians under Turkish reign”, referring to Altin Orda. He states that communism is “in Russian nature”, because “Russians also didn’t have the concept of private property before communism”. According to him, Russians should be thankful first to Timur, who had destructed Altin Orda, second to Baltaci Mehmet Pasha who let Russian armies to escape during the battle of Prut. The book comes to end with “Turks under Russian reign” and “Humanity under Russian reign”. This book which reflects Turkish right wing perception of Russian reality, claims that Russian nation is originally some wild savage people, cruel by nature, who still have these characteristics, mixing it with the ideology of communism, that is much more dangerous, threatening all the humanity. After the collapse of Soviet Union, russophobia in Turkey suddenly disappeared. Because of the pure political reasons, of course: Russia now is much weaker and is a very good trade partner for Turkey. Anyway, turkish ultra-nationalists are still trying to warn, that Russians are eternal enemies. During the chechen war, again there were groups who tried to reveal once more the old “myth of Moskof”. After any conflict in Caucasus, this time ultra-nationalists try to claim that “russians are destroying turkish morality by spreading prostitution in Turkey“.
