Istanbul street named after French friend of Turks : Claude Farrere

Claude Farrere is no more than a street’s name in Istanbul’s Sultanahmet district for many residents. Although contemporary Sarkozy-led France follows anti-Turkish policies, his countryman Farrere was an author who defended Turkish ambitions during World War I, even in the face of harsh criticism.

    Claude Farrere is no more than a street’s name in Istanbul’s Sultanahmet district for many residents. Although contemporary Sarkozy-led France follows anti-Turkish policies, his countryman Farrere was an author who defended Turkish ambitions during World War I, even in the face of harsh criticism.

Istanbul street named after French friend of Turks

This side street in Istanbul’s busy touristy area Sultanahmet is not easy to find even if one is looking for it. As if to make it even more difficult, the parasol of the barber shop on the corner covers the street sign, making the street’s name invisible to all but the most determined visitor.

This is Claude Farrere Street, named after a famous French author. Claude Farrere is actually pseudonym of Frederic Charles Pierre Edouard Bargone who was born in 1876 in Lyon and died in 1957 Paris, France.

The name of the street is written phonetically in Turkish – “Klod Farer.” Although Farrere helped Turkish ambitions during World War I and Turkey’s Independence War, he remains a mystery even for the residents of the neighborhood.

Barýþ Ateþ, a salesman at the Gül Optometrist on the street, said he knew the street was named after a foreign author but he had no idea why a Frenchman’s name would be given to a street in Istanbul.

A young waiter working at a teashop on Klod Farer said he did not know much about Farrere even though he had lived there his entire life.

“Some friends recently visited me. One of them asked me about the French author but I couldn’t give him an answer. This teashop has been here for 40 years but neither I nor the other employees know who Farrere is,” said Engin Karakaþ.

Fevzi Seden, who has run a chemical equipments company in Sultanahmet for nearly 25 years, said he just knew the street was named after a French author. Seden did not know about Farrere’s efforts to support Turkey’s independence. The absence of a plaque on the street giving information about Farrerer also contributes to this lack of awareness.

This Frenchman, who is now unknown by most residents of Istanbul, was a keen supporter of the Ottoman State during World War I and later became an advocate of Turkey’s independence, according to historians. His name was given to the street to honor him for his contributions.

Farrere first came to Turkey as an officer in the French navy in 1902. As he got to know Turks better, his previously negative opinion of Turks changed.

“He considered Ottoman Turks as an easy-going and pure people. When you look at his works, you see how gently he defined Turks,” said historian Pýnar Dost Niyego from Sciences Po Paris & French Institute for Anatolian Studies in Istanbul.

“The real ‘Turks’ are good-tempered, easy-going, honorable and brave people, in contrast to the reformist minority that ruled the Ottoman country,” said Farrere in his column dated Oct. 16, 1912.

Farrere distanced himself from the reformist Young Turk movement because he strongly admired the Ottomans, the way people practiced Islam, and Ottoman Istanbul.

Niyego said Farrere did not approve of the Young Turks because he strongly believed this reformist movement destroyed Islam. “The Young Turks insulted the Holy Koran, canceled the former constitution, dismissed the Sultan from his duty and were responsible for many bloody developments,” wrote Farrere in another column.

The Young Turk movement favored the reformation of the Ottoman Empire’s administration and was opposed to the monarchy. The movement seized power with “the Young Turk Revolution,” establishing the “second constitutional era” in 1908.

“The French author believed that the 1908 revolution was backed by Western-oriented and reformist intellectuals only, rather than being supported by the public,” Niyego said.

Farrere continued to support the Ottoman State in its declining years. In France's L’Intranssigeant daily, he wrote several reports of Turks who were massacred by Greek soldiers in Thessaloniki during the Balkan campaign of 1912.

“In this fight, I am taking the side of the weak against the strong, the innocent against the tyrant and Muslim against Christian,” said Farrere in an Oct. 3, 1913, report published in L’Intranssigeant before the start of the second Balkan campaign.

Niyego said Farrere gained an outstanding reputation through his sincere campaign in which he supported Turkey’s fight against Greece and Britain, immediately following World War I. “During this time Farrere mainly drew attention to Greek soldiers’ massacres in the western city of Ýzmir,” she said.

In a column published in 1922, Farrere said, “The Greek invasion in Ýzmir, [is] … a barbarism of murders, rapes, tortures and is a bloodstain on the silk Greek flag that has already lost its respectability.”

France’s High Commissioner in Istanbul, Gen. Pele, invited Farrere to give a series of conferences in the Ottoman capital in 1922. “He met with the Ottoman sultan, the last caliph, Abdülmecit II, and the last Ottoman grand vizier, Ahmed Tevfik Pasha, as well as several pro-French intellectuals and journalists in Istanbul,” said Niyego.

Farrere went to nearby Ýzmit to meet Mustafa Kemal, modern Turkey’s founder, who was then a general leading the national forces.

Niyego said Farrere's visit in fact served a secret aim because he had been dispatched to Ýzmit by the commissioner to gather information about Mustafa Kemal's plans.

“France was trying to see the Turkish troops' conditions, Mustafa Kemal's expectations about the fate of Independence War and the sort of political concept he envisaged for a new Turkish state,” said Niyego.

“The commander told Farrere he was definitely sure about the coming victory. [Farrere] was very much impressed by Kemal’s decisive manner and strong belief to win the Independence War,” she said, adding that the author left believing Kemal would win the war.

In his 1922 book, “The Resurrection of Turkey, What I Saw,” Ferrare said: “[Kemal had] an incredible self-control and a will which was impossible to break. He was also a most patient and decisive thinker.”

“If I weren’t French, I would sincerely fight along with my friend Mustafa Kemal in Ankara against Greece, Britain and almost all of Europe,” he said.

Farrere promoted Islam in his works. He was therefore greatly disappointed after the fledgling Turkish Republic abolished the caliphate and exiled members of the Ottoman dynasty in 1924.

Istanbul’s governorship named the street in Sultanahmet after Claude Farrere in November 1921.

Source: http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com

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