Turks NOT the Issue Of the Grey Wolf
By Jirair Tutunjian
While the English were rising to the status of great power in the 16th Century, they wanted to establish friendly relations with the powerful and aggressive Ottoman Empire. The English policy was motivated by positive diplomatic, political, and commercial expectations. Although the Ottomans continued to threaten Europe, the English wanted to believe their fog-bound island was safely far from Eastern Europe where Ottoman armies were on the move. The English authorities also believed an English-Ottoman friendship would make rival France nervous and improve English trade in the Eastern Mediterranean. Finally, certain English authorities expected that by portraying the shortcomings of Ottoman imperialism, they would be able to justify their imperialism light.
To improve their relations with the Ottomans, the English authorities deployed travelers, writers, merchants, explorers, and ambassadors to travel to the East and to write, with a positive spin, about England’s hoped-for ally.
The English ‘reporters’ were Johnny-come lately to the “in praise of the Ottomans” fad. Italian poet Mario Filelfo (1426-1489) had written in his epic Amarys 4,000 verses dedicated to Sultan Mehmet II. In 1484 theologian Feilix Fabri had traced the roots of Turks to the Trojan King Priam’s father, Laomedan.
A competing claim about the origin of the Turks said they were descended from Scythians–barbarians who lived north of Greece. Thus, Turks were as European as merry French boulevardiers.
Among the English “reporters” who explored the roots of the Turks were George Sandys, Richard Knowles, and Paul Rycourt. Their first challenge was reconciling the Ottoman Muslim religion with English Christianity. This obstacle was addressed by pointing out the admirable “unity” of the Muslim religion compared to England’s mélange of Christian sects.
In an insane mental somersault, Sandys explained the Ottoman leadership’s ignorance of classical literature was a huge advantage because it allowed them to focus on the “business of governance.”
To burnish the Ottomans, the English scouts wrote that the Ottomans were tough, disciplined, and physically clean compared to Europeans.
Perhaps because the positive Ottoman PR had failed to make an appreciable dent in the English public’s view of the Ottoman Empire (authoritarian, rampant slavery, oppression of Ottoman Christian minorities, corruption, sexual scandals at the Sublime Court), the PR contingent revived and energized the myth that Turks were descendants of the Trojans.
This is the tale they tried to sell to the English:
Turks had drawn their name from Teucer, the son of Greek Telamon [does Recep Erdogan know?] and Trojan Princess Hesione.
The tangle of assertions became more complicated when one of these ink-stained wretches claimed King Priam of Troy had a son named Teucer. After the fall of Troy, Teucer‘s son Franco migrated to Germany where his son became the leader of mighty tribe named Frank after his father Franco. This migration must have been a precursor to the gasterbeiter project of Germany.
IF YOU ARE STILL WITH ME…
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The other Teucer (son of Greek Telamon and Trojan King Priam) headed east to Central Asia where his descendants came to be known as Turks. The Grey Wolf origins was discredited. Perhaps they drowned the Grey Wolf in Lake Baikal. Erdogan hasn’t heard the news: he still makes the wolf’s head sign with his index and ring fingers.
2. Thus, when the Ottomans raided Armenia-Asia Minor and reached Constantinople, they were returning home.
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Having descended from Trojan Franco, Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Marlene Dietrich, and band leader James Last were Trojans.
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Germans, Turks, and Greeks are blood brothers. The first two descended from Trojans while Greek Talamon’s son named the tribe Turks.
P.S. Most of the writers mentioned asserted Turks were European because they descended from Trojans. These writers must have failed their geography class in elementary school: Troy is in Asia, east of the Bosporus.
