For the first time "Ottoman history" is taught at the ASPU. Why not earlier?

Baku/29.09.21/Turan: In 2021, for the first time  the Azerbaijani universities teaching  the specialty "Teaching History and Teaching History and Geography",  started the course "Ottoman History" Azerbaijan State Pedagogical University named after N.Tusi (ASPU), Turan was informed by the co-author and a teacher of this subject - the head of the Department of General History and Technology of Teaching History - Doctor of Historical Sciences Sevinj Aliyeva. The second co-author of the book and teacher is Mehman Agayev, Ph.D. in history.

Sevinj Aliyeva explains to Turan agency: "For a long time, the history of Turkey was presented by the Soviet educational system in terms of the foreign policy of the Russian Empire and its long struggle with the Ottoman Empire for spheres of influence. After the collapse of the USSR and the restoration of independence of the Republic of Azerbaijan, interest in the history and teaching of Turkic peoples in the country grew mainly on the wave of social processes and the rise of national and cultural self-awareness, but serious vestiges and contradictions persisted in the teaching system.

Thus, the subject "History of Eastern Europe" was taught, which implied the history of the Western Slavic peoples, who were at the same time the population of the Warsaw Pact countries. Their study from an ideological point of view was understandable in Soviet times, but not justified at the present stage. Or, for example, what did the course "History of the Turkic peoples in the Soviet period" mean? Why was the Soviet period singled out separately? Why not the history of the Turks in the era of Emir Timur, Shah Babur, etc.? The fact is that the writing of programs in the post-Soviet period was carried out by cadres of the Soviet school and according to Soviet literature and clichés. Such a conjuncture in presenting the history of the Turkic peoples and states was based on the Eurocentric approach and ideological component.

From this academic year, thanks to a new program approved by the Ministry of Education, we switched to teaching "History of Turkic peoples and states". We explain to students that there are many nations on the globe, but not all of them are capable of creating a state. The uniqueness of the Turkic peoples is that they created states, leaving a mark on the history of civilizations.

For a long time, the course "General History" taught separately the history of the countries of the USA and Latin America, the history of the countries of Western Europe and Eastern Europe, the countries of Asia and Africa. This was based on a class approach, the countries of the capitalist and socialist camp were considered, as well as developing countries that could follow the path of socialism.

Meanwhile, the history of Turkey and Iran, not to mention the Muslim countries, was considered within the framework of the Russian-Turkish, Russian-Iranian wars or liberation from the Golden Horde yoke. The greatest Turkic commanders and rulers were portrayed as tyrants and despots who destroyed European and Christian cultures and threatened the security of Europe. Turkey is often presented as an instrument of European politics.

The study of Ottoman history is dictated by the fact that Azerbaijan is connected with Turkey by historical, geographical, cultural and religious closeness. Turkey is one might say the only Turkic state that existed for such a huge period of history, located on three continents - in Europe, Asia and Africa. The civilizational value of a huge power has influenced the vast geography of Muslims around the world.

When teaching Ottoman history, we faced a number of problems. Their origins are that in secondary school, topics related to Ottoman history are presented very briefly, and even then, either from Soviet approaches, or deliberately distorted. There is also no specialized literature in the Azerbaijani language.

History courses "blindly" transfer the concepts and terms of Western European and North American historical science, which considers the Islamic world and Asian cultures to be backward. The Marxist formational approach that prevailed during the Soviet era was also quite Eurocentric. The racist colonial Eurocentrism of the 19th century and the non-racist, more democratic Eurocentrism of the second half of the 20th century take into account only the colonial policy of the West. In history books it was impossible to find a word about the fleet of the Ottoman Empire, meanwhile, everyone should have known about the Invincible Armada or the English fleet. This applies to Turkic-Muslim scholars and educators.

Ottoman history is a part of universal history, a huge Turkic-Muslim world, an example of tolerance and government, with a chronology of more than seven centuries - deserves a separate teaching in higher education, - S. Aliyeva explained.

Editor of the new edition - Head of the Department of International Relations of the Institute of Oriental Studies of ANAS, Doctor of Philosophy in History Gular Kavkazli, reviewer - Counselor of the Education Department of the Turkish Embassy in Baku, Doctor of Philosophy in History Nihat Boyukbash. — 0—