Kamuoyu ve Girit Sorunu: İngiliz Basınının Bakış Açısı

Yıl 2025, Cilt: 25 Sayı: 51, 737 - 770, 30.12.2025

İbrahim Hamaloğlu

https://doi.org/10.18244/cttad.1787396

Öz

1897–98 Girit isyanı, Avrupa siyasi kültürünün kitle gazeteciliğinin yükselişi, iletişim teknolojilerindeki hızlanma ve giderek genişleyen bir okuyucu kitlesi tarafından şekillendiği bir dönemde ortaya çıkmıştır. Britanya gazeteleri, bu karmaşık taşra çatışmasını yerel okurlara aktarma sürecinde belirleyici bir rol üstlenmiş; olayı medeniyetler arası bir mücadele olarak çerçeveleyen ahlaki bir anlatıya dönüştürmüştür. Haber söylemi, kökleşmiş filhelenist ve Oryantalist kalıplardan beslenmiş; Giritli isyancılar ulusal öz-yönetimin meşru temsilcileri olarak sunulurken, Osmanlı otoritesi çoğunlukla anakronik veya düzen sağlayamaz bir yapı olarak tasvir edilmiştir. Şiddet haberlerinde belirgin bir asimetri göze çarpar: Müslümanların Hristiyanlara yönelik saldırıları yoğun ve duygusal bir tonla aktarılırken, Hristiyan grupların Müslümanlara yönelik şiddeti küçümsenmiş, şüpheli görülmüş veya yeniden çerçevelenmiştir. Bu seçici temsil, dönemin okur beklentileriyle uyumlu bir “mağduriyet hiyerarşisi” üretmiş ve özellikle Kandiye vakası sonrasında insani tepkiyi güçlendirmiştir. Büyük Güçlerin —özellikle Almanya ve Avusturya’nın— çekimser tutumuna yönelik eleştiriler ise Avrupa Uyumu’nun etkinliğine dair kuşkuları artırmış ve ulusal öz-belirlenim ile ahlaki müdahalecilik temelli alternatif bir uluslararası düzen anlayışını öne çıkarmıştır. Bu çalışma, kitle gazeteciliğinin Girit üzerinden Doğu Akdeniz’e ilişkin kamuoyu algılarını nasıl şekillendirdiğini, diplomatik esnekliği nasıl daralttığını ve isyanı dönemin Avrupa kimliği ile siyasi sorumluluğuna dair bir sınama haline getirdiğini göstermektedir.

Anahtar Kelimeler

İngiliz Basını , Girit İsyanı (1897–98) , Kamuoyu , Kamu Diplomasisi , Osmanlı İmparatorluğu

Etik Beyan

Bu çalışma şu tezden oluşturulmuştur. İbrahim Hamaloğlu, İngiliz ve Osmanlı Basınında Girit Sorunu (1897-1913), Ege Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü, Doktora Tezi, İzmir 2025.

Public Opinion and the Cretan Question: A British Press Perspective

Öz

The Cretan revolt of 1897–98 occurred during a period of significant transformation in European political culture, shaped by the rise of mass journalism, expanding communication technologies, and an increasingly engaged reading public. British newspapers played a central role in mediating the revolt for domestic audiences, translating a complex provincial conflict into a moralized narrative of civilizational struggle. Reporting drew heavily on established philhellenic and Orientalist frameworks, depicting Cretan insurgents as legitimate agents of national self-determination and portraying Ottoman authority as anachronistic or inherently disorderly. Coverage of violence displayed marked asymmetry: Muslim attacks on Christian communities received sustained and emotive attention, whereas Christian violence against Muslims was minimized, questioned, or reframed. This selective framing contributed to a hierarchy of suffering that aligned with the expectations of late Victorian readers and intensified humanitarian outrage, especially following the Candia massacre. By criticizing the perceived hesitancy of the Great Powers—particularly Germany and Austria—newspapers further undermined confidence in the Concert of Europe and advanced an alternative vision of international order rooted in national self-determination and moral interventionism. The analysis underscores how mass journalism shaped public understanding of the Eastern Mediterranean over the Crete, constrained diplomatic flexibility, and reframed the revolt as a test of European identity and political responsibility at the fin de siècle.

Anahtar Kelimeler

British Press , Cretan Revolt (1897–98) , Public Opinion , Public Diplomacy , Ottoman Empire

Etik Beyan

This study was developed from this thesis. İbrahim Hamaloğlu, İngiliz ve Osmanlı Basınında Girit Sorunu (1897-1913), Ege Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü, Doktora Tezi, İzmir 2025.

Kaynakça

• Foreign Office, British Documents on Foreign Affairs, David Gillard, ed. (Frederick, Md.,1984), “Series B” 1.
• Foreign Office, British Documents, 2.
• Hansard (1867), cc. 746.
• The Annual Register, LXXV (London, 1853).
• The Annual Register, LXXXIX (1867).
• UK Parliament Hansard Commons: Commons Chamber Adjournment Of The House (Easter) Crete, 48, 12 April 1897.
• Adamowicz-Hariasz, Maria, “From Opinion to Information: The Roman-Feuillton and the Transformation of the Nineteenth-Century French Press,” Making the News: Modernity & the Mass Press in Nineteenth- Century France, ed. Dean De la Motte and Jeannene M. Przyblyski, 160-184. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1999.
• Adıyeke, Ayşe Nükhet and Adıyeke Nuri. Osmanlı Dönemi Kısa Girit Tarihi. İstanbul: İş Bankası Kültür Yayınları, 2021.
• Albrecht-Carre, Rene, A Diplomatic History of Europe Since the Congress of Vienna. New York: Harper & Row Press, 1958.
• Anderson, Benedict R. O’G., Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. London: Verso, 1983.
• Baycroft, Timothy. “France: Ethnicity and Revolutionary Tradition.” What Is a Nation? Europe 1789-1914. Editors Mark Hewitson and Timothy Baycroft, 28–41. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006.
• Baycroft, Timothy. “The New Nationalism.” The Fin-de-Siècle World. Editor Michael Saler, 323-334. London; New York: Taylor & Francis, 2015.
• Conboy, Martin, The Press and Popular Culture. London: SAGE Publications Ltd., 2002.
• H. Karpat, Kemal, “The Transformation of the Ottoman State, 1789-1908.” International Journal of Middle East Studies 3, 3 (July, 1972): 243-281.
• Hamaloğlu, İbrahim. An Island in the Shadow of Great Powers the Cretan Question in British and Ottoman Public Opinion (1897- 1913). Konya: Eğitim Press, 2025.
• Heller, Joseph. British Policy Towards the Ottoman Empire, 1908-1914. London: Frank Cass Press, 1983.
• Hobbs, Andrew, A Fleet Street in Every Town: The Provincial Press in England, 1855-1900. Open Book Publishers, 2018.
• Hobsbawm, Eric, Nations and Nationalism Since 1780. Cambridge: Cambrdige University Press, 1990.
• Holland, Robert, “Nationalism, Ethnicity and the Concert of Europe: The Case of the High Commissionership of Prince George of Greece in Crete, 1898-1906.” Journal of Modern Greek Studies 17, 2 (1 October 1999): 253-272.
• J. Potter, Simon, “Jingoism, Public Opinion, And The New Imperialism.” Media History 20, 1 (2 January 2014): 34-50.
• Joll, James, The Origins of the First World War. 3rd ed. Oxford: Routledge, 2013.
• Lane-Poole, Stanley, The Life of the Right Honourable Stratford Canning, Viscount Stratford de Redcliffe: From His Memoirs and Private and Official Papers. New York: Ams Press, 1976.
• Lee, Alan J., The Origins of the Popular Press in England, 1855-1914. London: Croom Helm, 1976.
• Lowe, John, The Great Powers, Imperialism, and the German Problem, 1865- 1925. London; Routledge, 1994.
• Otte, Thomas G., “A Question of Leadership: Lord Salisbury, the Unionist Cabinet and Foreign Policy Making, 1895–1900.” Contemporary British History 14, 4, (1 December 2000): 1-26.
• Özgün, Cihan. “Osmanlı’nın Bitmeyen Sancısı Girit Problemi ve Dış Politika.” Tanzimat’tan Günümüze Olaylar ve Kişiler Ekseninde Türk Hariciyesi. Editors İrşad Sami Yuca, Hidayet Kara, 7-34. İstanbul: Kitabevi, 2019.
• Rantanen, Terhi, “The Globalization of Electronic News in the 19th Century.” Media, Culture & Society 19, 4 (1 October 1997): 605–20.
• Rodogno, Davide, Against Massacre. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2011.
• Rodkey, Frederick Stanley, “Lord Palmerston and the Rejuvenation of Turkey, 1830-41: Part II, 1839-41.” Journal of Modern History, 2 (June 1930): 193-225.
• Rohé, Niko, “European Medical Experts in Wars of ‘Others’: The Greco-Turkish War of 1897.” European Review of History 26, 2 (April 2019): 163-177.
• Şenışık, Pınar, “Rethinking Muslim and Christian Communities in Late Nineteenth Century Ottoman Crete.” Journal of Modern Greek Studies 28, 1 (2010): 27-47.
• Şenışık, Pınar, The Transformation of Ottoman Crete: Revolts, Politics and Identity in the Late Nineteenth Century. London: I.B. Tauris, 2011.
• Shannon, Richard T., Gladstone and the Bulgarian Agitation 1876. Connecticut: The Harvester Press, 1975.
• Steele, David, “Three British Prime Ministers and the Survival of the Ottoman Empire, 1855–1902.” Middle Eastern Studies 50, 1 (2 January 2014): 43–60.
• Stock, Paul, “Towards a Language of ‘Europe’: History, Rhetoric, Community.” The European Legacy 22, 6 (18 August 2017): 647-666.
• Temperley, Harold, “British Policy Towards Parliamentary Rule and Constitutionalism in Turkey (1830- 1914).” Cambridge Historical Journal, 4 (1933): 156-191.
• Webster, Sir Charles Kingsley. The Foreign Policy of Palmerston, 1830-1841: Britain, the Liberal Movement, and the Eastern Question. vol 1, New York: Humanity Press, 1969.
• Wiener, Joel H., The Americanization of the British Press, 1830s-1914: Speed in the Age of Transatlantic Journalism, Palgrave Studies in the History of the Media. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, Palgrave Macmillan, 2011