THE EDICT OF SULTAN MEHMET THE SECOND-
AHDNAMA OF THE FATIH SULTAN MEHMET MEHMET THE SON OF MURAT KHAN, ALWAYS VICTORIOUS!
THE COMMAND OF THE HONORABLE, SUBLIME SULTAN’S SIGN AND SHINING SEAL OF THE CONQUEROR OF THE WORLD IS AS FOLLOWS:
I, THE SULTAN MEHMET – KHAN INFORM ALL THE WORLD THAT THE ONES WHO POSSESS THIS IMPERIAL EDICT, THE BOSNIAN FRANCISCANS, HAVE GOT INTO MY GOOD GRACES, SO I COMMAND:
LET NOBODY BOTHER OR DISTURB THOSE WHO ARE MENTIONED, NOT THEIR CHURCHES. LET THEM DWELL IN PEACE IN MY EMPIRE. AND LET THOSE WHO HAVE BECOME REFUGEES BE AND SAFE. LET THEM RETURN AND LET THEM SETTLE DOWN THEIR MONASTERIES WITHOUT FEAR IN ALL THE COUNTRIES OF MY EMPIRE.
NEITHER MY ROYAL HIGHNESS, NOR MY VIZIERS OR EMPLOYEES, NOR MY SERVANTS, NOR ANY OF THE CITIZENS OF MY EMPIRE SHALL INSULT OR DISTURB THEM. LET NOBODY ATTACK INSULT OR ENDANGER NEITHER THEIR LIFE OR THEIR PROPERTY OR THE PROPERTY OF THEIR CHURCH. EVEN IF THEY BRING SOMEBODY FROM ABROAD INTO MY COUNTRY, THEY ARE ALLOWED TO DO SO.
AS, THUS, I HAVE GRACIOUSLY ISSUED THIS IMPERIAL EDICT, HEREBY TAKE MY GREAT OATH.
IN THE NAME OF THE CREATOR OF THE EARTH AND HEAVEN, THE ONE WHO FEEDS ALL CREATURES, AND IN THE NAME OF THE SEVEN MUSTAFAS AND OUR GREAT MESSENGER, AND IN THE NAME OF THE SWORD I PUT, NOBODY SHALL DO CONTRARY TO WHAT HAS BEEN WRITTEN, AS LONG AS THEY ARE OBEDIENT AND FAITHFUL TO MY COMMAND.
MAY 28 1463...
WHY THIS AHIDNAME(EDICT);IS SO VERY IMPORTANT FOR THE WORLD PEACE TODAY?
First lets take a look at the date when this edict was issued:May 28,1463.Today as I write this blog it is January 02,2018.That means it was issued 555 years ago in Europe.It was issued by a Muslim Sultan giving full protection to the Christian community living in Bosnia at the time.He had done the same when he conquered Constantinople in1453 to the Galata Church Fathers.Galata by the way is the opposite side of the Golden Horn forming the Northern European Section of İstanbul today while Constantinople was located on the Southern Section.Mehmet the Second had ended the Eastern Roman Empire when he conquered this historic city.
If I live today in a city which is unique in the world for being the only bicontinental city in the world; as a Muslim Turk; for starters how can I forget my ancestors who made it possible for the Muslim Ottoman rule to prevail in this city which was predominantly Christian for 1123 years before Mehmet the Second changed history. Then after 466 years of Ottoman rule it fell under British occupation for four years until October 06,1923 and was then liberated by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and his close Ottoman Army Comrades at the end of the ''Turkish War of Independence and three weeks later Turkish Republic was announced on the 29th.of October 1923 in Ankara to be our new capital city..Finally today if Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as the periodical leader of the OIC(Organization of Islamic Cooperation) which convened in İstanbul some two weeks ago and later it resulted with 128 countries against 9 others defying the US Government decision of announcing Jerusalem to be the Israeli Capital;how can anyone nowadays turn a blind eye on the role of Turkey being at the brink of being a regional power lately;trying to bring back the peace which was established by our ancestors for 401 years when the three Abrahamic Faith Capital;Jerusalem as well as Mecca and Medina was under Ottoman rule in peace.Do not forget please that the Ottoman s were an outside force that had controlled these three cities in peace which is recorded by historians as the ''Ottoman Pax'' and that was not the case during ''Roman Pax'' or neither has it been possible ever since 1948 with the establishment of the State of Israel.Last but not the least the son of Mehmet the Second,Sultan Yıldırım Beyazıt the second brought some fifty thousand Jews from Spain in 1492 along with Muslims who lived there as Moors to freedom of religion within the Ottoman territory and especially in İstanbul.
I listed all the historical data for you to think about one thing!Why is it the Muslim Turks who had always been the bannerbearer of the Freedom Of Religions in the world for all those centuries and how much the rest of the world seems to give credit to these Muslim Turks for all our efforts in reaching global peace.There is so much more that I can give you to think about this subject but in closing do not forget some twenty thousand French Jews who were brought to Turkey in 1943 and their lives were saved from being exterminated at the Nazi camps in Auschwitz?
Can you personally after all my explanations look at yourselves in the mirror and justify Muslim religion with Fundamentalism or Radicalism as the global media generously seems to associate my religion with?How come its only the Muslims who are terrorists?Please send me some articles from your own local papers in English and I will publish them in my blog right here where Jews or Christians are associated with terrorism.Enough is enough!Thank you.
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Now I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Damir Bulcevic;Head Coordinator of Government of Brcko, District of Bosnia and Herzegovina for providing me the above shown documentation.It was a Divine Coincidence that our paths crossed in Kayseri,Turkey recently.I had been trying to get the picture of the edict in English for sometime.I look forward to meeting him again in his beloved Bosnia soon.
02 January 2018,Yeşilyurt,İstanbul 14:10 local time.