Turkey misunderstands its 'Magnificent Century'
Hasan Koz, an ordinary Turkish citizen, filed a court case suing Sultan Kanuni Suleiman for ordering the death of his son Mustafa.
Ever since it came to power, the government of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been publicly invoking the country’s Ottoman heritage, with an understanding that the epoch represents the best of times of this nation, particularly when compared with the Republican era. No wonder Hasan Koz, 47, a Turkish citizen living in Bursa, took the popular television series “Magnificent Century” so seriously. The show is about the life and times of the 10th Ottoman sultan, Suleiman the Magnificent, also known as Kanuni (the Lawmaker).
In its last episode last week, this television series showed the killing of Mustafa, the sultan’s eldest son, upon his father’s order due to an intense suspicion that he was preparing to rebel against his father to take over the throne.
Koz filed a complaint Feb. 15 at the Bursa courthouse — more than 460 years after Mustafa’s murder — saying that Sultan Suleiman, his wife Hurrem Sultan (Mustafa’s stepmother) and Rustem Pasha, grand vizier to the sultan, were responsible for “provoking people to hatred and revenge” and “instigating the strangling” that brought about the demise of the sultan’s eldest son.
While no court will decide to hear such a case, this is yet another great example of how people often learn about history through movies or television series, and consider such works of drama as historical documentaries. No one today can actually know exactly what took place during Mustafa’s killing, but it is a fact that he was killed on his father’s orders. Yet, people’s reawakening to their common historic heritage deeply hurts them. Erdogan reacted on Feb. 16, saying, “We are not the grandsons of the Kanuni who is portrayed on the television screens. We are the grandsons of the real Kanuni.”
