The Turks and the Hungarians have established close relationships since the earliest times in
the history scene. In the 16th century, the Ottomans conquered Hungary and the country was under
Turkish rule for over 150 years. After the dramatic defeat in 1683 in Vienna, the Ottomans lost
Hungary and soon after Hungarians came under the domination of Catholic Austria. Despite a few
failed attempts in the previous decades, the Hungarian War of Independence, which was initiated by
the Hungarians to liberate the Austrian sovereignty and oppression, began on 12 March, 1848.
Although the anti‐Austrian struggles were successful at first, the victories won were not
permanent. As the revolutionaries lost all their hopes, they had to take refuge in the Ottoman
Empire on 11 August, 1849. Lajos Kossuth, the leader of the revolutionaries, wrote a letter to the Ottoman Sultan Abdulmecid when he arrived in the border town of Orsova and demanded asylum
in the Ottoman Empire, and the Ottomans opened their doors to the Hungarians they had known
for centuries.
The event which passed in to the history as the event of “Hungarian Refugees” won
appreciation both in European countries and among Hungarians due to the renunciative attitude
and a successful diplomacy of the Ottoman Empire. Thus, the 19th‐century passed into history as
the century of trust and intimacy between the Hungarians and Turks. Hungarian refugees have
long maintained their gratitude for the Ottoman Empire, which embraced them on their hard days,
and they have often expressed these feelings in their memories. In this article, the heroic benevolence
of revolutionary leader Lajos Kossuth and the people of two countries will be examined and the
reflections of this historical event in Hungary will be dealt with.
Primary Language | Turkish |
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Journal Section | Articles |
Authors | |
Publication Date | September 26, 2018 |
Published in Issue | Year 2017 Issue: 6 |
Selçuk University Journal of Seljuk Studies is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY NC).