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‘Malta yok effendi’, which stands for ‘Malta does not exist.’
“I was shocked upon hearing it in a history class in Israel” says one of the comment writers with the nickname skatanic.
But why in Israel? Then comes this tweet from Lebanon:
Does “Malta yok” really mean “forget about it” in Turkish? Noting among the many Malta-based proverbs and sayings in the Turkish Dictionary of Sayings, such as “Malta eriği” (Maltese plum = loquat), “Malta humması” (Maltese fever = brucellosis), “Malta palamudu” (Maltese bonito = pilot fish), etc., there doesn’t appear to be the term “Malta yok”.
It seems to be a saying unique to Levantine Arabic, from which it probably entered Israeli Hebrew, with a folk etymology to follow.
But how did they get there? There are several points of view. The predominant seems to be as follows.
According to a story, it was the response of an Admiral to the Sultan (Süleyman), who having been sent with a grand army to conquer Malta, failed to do so.
At one time, during the Ottoman Empire, the Sultan dispatched a naval force against Malta. After some time, however, the fleet returned without completing its objective and the Turkish admiral stated ‘Malta Yok’. This is due to the inability of the admiral to read a map of the era. And as if that wasn’t enough, the excuse also came up. According to the admiral, when he went to the charter room to plot a course for Malta, he ordered his adjutant to bring him coffee. So, as he enjoyed his coffee, he moved the cup on the map and, accidently, it covered Malta. As ridiculous as it sounds, it is better than the other excuse that the devil moved the island to another point on the map for the admiral not to be able to spot it.
Arab historian Nicola Ziyadeh, who passed away 99 years old in June 27 2007, was Eyyâm fî Malta, where he touched upon the phrase “Malta yok”. In his telling, the Sublime Porte receives news that there is an island called Malta in the Mediterranean which could cause great danger unless it is captured. The admiral then is instructed to take over the island post, haste. However, the admiral cannot discover this island even though he travels East, west, north and south across the Mediterranean. He writes to the grand vizier “Malta yok”.
Another source recontextualized this to the answer the captain gives not for being unable to find the island but for being unable to capture it.
The Estonian historian Juri Lina, who wrote a book about freemasonry Les Architectes de la déception — l’histoire secrète de la franc-maçonnerie starts a chapter with “Malta yok”. According to the author, the events of 1565 unfolded as follows: the emperor commands his navy to attack the Christian island of Malta. Storms and bad weather conditions stop the navy from reaching the island. The hopeless captain covers up the island of Malta with the wax from a candle he grabs. And then with a victorious air, he turns to his second mate and exclaims, “There is no Malta!” Before turning the fleet to Crete.
Is kicking out Turkey from the F-35 fighter program the reason why the F-35 has become a failure?
Former Operations Specialist at United States Navy (USN) Eric Wicklund answers this question on quora as:
The F-35 is far and away the most successful stealth aircraft in the world. There are 890 of them in service with various nations. No other stealth fighter has matched production numbers like that.
There have been more F-35s placed into service than ALL of the F-22s, Chinese J-20s, Russian Su-57s, B-2s, B-21s, and F-117s…combined!
Yes, Turkey should have got some of them, and they would have. The US and NATO asked only that Turkey not import the Russian S-400 air defense system. Easy as that. And to all who claim that NATO members must follow the orders of the USA, well…Turkey is proof positive that NATO members don’t have to listen. Turkey bought the S-400 anyway, and that’s why they’ll not get the F-35. Yet Finland, who only now is joining NATO, already had a signed contract to get the F-35, prior to joining NATO.
To all who will claim that the F-35 is too expensive, citing the oft-published 1.5 Trillion price tag, well, that’s the cost of acquisition, maintenance, and upgrades for thousands of aircraft for the next 50 years. You show me another plane that has costs covered over that same period of time, and tell me what the number is. I’ll bet you can’t even find it.
Other detractors will mention that one F-16 or Rafale or Typhoon has shot down an F-35 in exercises. Well yeah, they did. There isn’t a single aircraft on this planet, that cannot “ever” be shot down. The West believes in “test until failure.” That means creating scenarios that are harder and harder, until the system of man and machine fails, then figure out how to avoid that failure. Then, once again, test until failure. What no detractor of the F-35 ever mentions is how many F-16s, Rafales, and Typhoons were shot down by the F-35 in exercises in response. Well, the answer is “hundreds.” I don’t have the exact number, but it’s very high, and that’s the whole point. If I shoot down many more of your guys before you shoot down mine, my guys/planes didn’t fail…yours did.
So, no, the F-35 is not a failure, it’s a stunning success. And Turkey not receiving the F-35 has no bearing whatsoever on that fact.
And if you don’t believe it coming from me, listen to Alex Hollings, who’s makes his living studying this stuff. Listen to what he has to say.
The F-35 is the most SUCCESSFUL stealth aircraft in HISTORY
The F-35 may have been an acquisition nightmare, but the resulting fighter is the most technologically advanced tactical aircraft ever to fly… and with creeping up on 900 airframes built, it’s also one of the most prolific.
Will Turkey survive if the opposition wins the election? A conversation with Cengiz Aktar
Renowned Turkish political scientist and activist Cengiz Aktar sat down with CivilNet’s Eric Hacopian to talk about Turkey’s upcoming general election, the country’s continued de-Westernization, its “wagging the dog” relations with Azerbaijan, and the prospects for normalization with Armenia. He also discusses if a Turkish Willy Brandt could ever emerge to honor the victims of the Armenian Genocide.
Originally Answered: Is it right to claim that the Ottomans are the descendants of the Seljuqs, or is it a Turkish propaganda?
Originally asked question: Is it right to claim that the Ottomans are the descendants of the Seljuqs, or is it a Turkish propaganda?
Officially not, but unofficially YES.
Generally, the history when talked about the Turks in Anatolia, Alp Arslan and the Battle of Manzikert in 1071 is considered as the entrance of the Oguz Turks into Anatolia (one of many branches of the Turkic people), even though today historians can trace the entry of Turks a hundred years before trough traders and their new settler families, but this incident made it official.
There were numerous other branches of the Oghuz tribe inside of the Anatolia, who either to the same time or later established many principalities inside of the Anatolian land, but the Seljuk Empire was the ultimate biggest among all of them and lasted much longer and expanded into many neighbouring lands such as Iran or Levant.
When the Ottomans came into existence, there were still many principalities around and the Ottomans one of them, trying to set food with their new state in Anatolia. With time, all of these principalities either diminished by themselves or were taken over by the Ottomans and with that, just like the Seljuk Empire in its largest extension, became the undisputed ruler of all the different branches of the Oghuz Turks in the region.
When we take as a reference to the relationship between the Republic of Turkey, which is undisputed the successor state of the Ottomans, to say the Volume II Ottomans, then the relationship between the Ottomans and the Seljuks is not directly blood or merit-based like the above case, but rather it’s the last and true Empire which has survived here and absorbed all the former principalities and folk of the Seljuks inside of its state and still lives until today. From that perspective, yes, the Ottomans can be regarded as the Descendants of the Seljuks regarding Turkic cultural continuation tradition.
Even today, the Republic of Turkey goes further and considers since the foundation of the Republic of Turkey, itself as the continuation of all the former Turkic Empires throughout the history and depicts it with the order of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in 1925 on the logo of the Presidential House:
(Picture: Entrance of the Presidential House with the historical 17 stars logo)
Where the 16 smaller stars are all the former Turkic empires who deceased to exist:
-Great Hun Empire
-Western Hun Empire
-European Hun Empire
-White Huns
-Gokturk Khanate
-Pannonian Avars
-Khazar Khanate
-Uighur Khanate
-Kara Khanid Khanate
-Ghaznavid Empire
-Great Seljuk Empire
-Khwarazmian Dynasty
-Golden Horde
-Timurid Empire
-Mughal Empire
-Ottoman Empire
The last and large star belongs to the last:
-Republic of Turkey
You will see among the list other Turkic branches and also Turco-Mogol mixed Empires, among with disputed Hunnic Empires which is for some historians a Turkic group and for some others arguing differently. But all of them are listed as the previous Empires, being Turkey as the last successor, from a psychological and cultural state tradition context.
Interestingly, you will not see for example the Safavid Empire inside of this list, another Turkic Empire builds in today’s Iran, not because they were the rivals of the Ottomans, but a simplistic Turkic tradition point of view, that it has mixed itself with Persian cultural assimilation, means the bloodline also according to the Ottomans broken and did not claim to be a Turkic empire, but rather a Persian cultural expansion.
So if you go by a direct heir system of a throne which was a clear system in Western Europe through history, the Turkic tradition emphasizes the ‘’greatness and survival of a Turkic state’’. There is no additional Turkic state today, even those in Central Asia, who can claim themselves as the continuation of the empires above, which leaves the last great Turkic Empire in the world, the Ottomans and his successor, the Republic of Turkey as the only ‘’true successor of Turkic state tradition’’.
You must understand the historical perception of certain races throughout history. The Turkic nomads were always spread into numerous steppes inside of Central Asia with a far lesser number of members than their neighbourhood such as China, which led most of the time, that they either united with the Mongols in the begin or one after another principality submitted themselves to the rule of a stronger power of Turkic principality and united themselves to a single state. It was a very often practise, that even though there were many Turkic principalities or Khanates, the tradition was that ‘’the winner takes all’’ and with that, they remove their numerous fewer numbers against the common enemy around the corner. That was also the reason that most of the time other principalities before in Europe lived over centuries side by side, but wherever the Turks entered, after a certain time, one of them has either absorbed the other small ones or they got united, which was also the fact in Anatolia, where the last of them, the Ottoman Empire has taken all the claim and survived with a new model, which we call today Turkey.
What if Sabiha Sultan had said yes to Atatürk’s marriage proposal? How would history be written for Turkey and the world? What would the lives of the sultans be like? Who knows?
Some of the Turkish sultans and princesses played important roles in the development of women’s status in the countries they went to, they became role models for women with their contemporary behaviors, education and culture. They left schools, hospitals and social aid organizations behind them.
Isn’t it interesting that the last caliph was a painter? He was the founder of the first painters association of the Ottoman Empire. Isn’t it more intersting that the leader of whole islamic world played the çello? What if Caliph Abdulmecid had listened to the warnings of the Ankara Government and was not interested in politics, had not been in conflict with them and the caliphate had continued?
What if Sabiha Sultan had said yes to Atatürk’s marriage proposal? How would history be written for Turkey and the world? What would the lives of the sultans be like? Who knows?……
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Bardakçı, M., (2006). Şahbaba, İstanbul, İnkılâp
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Giraudy, P.Erol kolleksiyonu
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John Fasal foto collection
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Kutlutürk, C., (2022). Tarihe Düşülen Kıymetli Bir Not: Son Halife Abdülmecid Efendi’nin Torunu Muffakham Cah Bey’le Mülakat, Ankara Üniversitesi İlahiyat Fakültesi Dergisi 63:1, 389-401
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