Video - The Language Unity Proposal: 1877

Another magnanimous act of Ahmed Vefik Pasha is this: 1877. Sultan II. Abdulhamid Khan had just ascended the throne. Those who brought him to the Sultanate declared the Constitutional Monarchy and required him to open the Parliament. Elections were held and the first parliament was opened. However, more than half of the deputies were non-Turks such as Greeks, Armenians, Albanians, Arabs, Bulgarians and Persians. The Sultan comes to the podium to make the opening speech of the Parliament. Meanwhile, the response to his speech is being prepared. Damascus MP Nevfel Efendi, Erzurum MP Armenian Hamazap Efendi and Istanbul Greek MP Vasilaki Efendi make a joint proposal for a constitutional amendment. The proposal said: "The article determining that the official language of the Ottoman Empire is Turkish should be changed, and the local languages ​​spoken in every region (such as Greek, Armenian, Arabic, Kurdish, Bulgarian) along with Turkish should be accepted as official languages." The President of the Parliament is Ahmed Vefik Pasha. . From the podium, he falls like a bolt of lightning into the midst of this darkness of separatism, into which the state was already trying to be dragged, and roars: "What unconscionability and disloyalty this is!... If you still speak and write your own languages ​​at home, you owe this opportunity to the generosity of this state. If this state If he had wanted, he would have forced your ancestors to assimilate into Turkish culture centuries ago and your native language would have been Turkish. Don't take your offer back, so I wouldn't have heard of it!”