Süryani Katolik Patrikliği’nin İdaresi ve Osmanlı Devlet Salnameleri (1847-1918)- The Administration of Catholic Patriarch of Syriac and The Annuals of Ottoman State (1847-1918) (original) (raw)

The subject of the article is about the administration of the Syrian Catholic Patriarchate and its status in the Ottoman State Annuals (Salname-i Devlet-i Aliye-i Osmaniye) between 1847 and 1918. The main source of this study is the official state annuals, which were published 68 issues between these dates. The aim is to present the point of view to Syrian Catholics in Ottoman official publications. It is also to facilitate the understanding of the situation of Syrian Catholics in the administrative system of non-Muslims in the Ottoman Empire by means of official documents. The Ottoman administrated non-Muslims with the ”tradition of preserving the situation before the conquest”. Among the ancient Syriacs, the Catholicism was effectively under Ottoman rule. He kept them before the Ottoman conquest and accepted them from the Syriac Ancients. Ottoman, preserving the state before conquest it accepted them not separated from Syriac Ancients. Ottoman preserved the situation before the conquest and he accepted the Catholics who were not separated from the Syriac Ancients. For this reason, until 1831, the administration remained attached to the Syrian Patriarchate. The ancient Syrians have been subject to the Armenian Patriarchate since 1517 in the Jerusalem-based hierarchy and since 1783 in the Mardin-based hierarchy. Thus, it is possible that the Syrian Catholics belonged to the Armenian Patriarchate. Ottoman Catholics are admitted as a different hierarchy (nation-millet) by Sultan Mahmut II (1830). Priest Andon Nurican was elected as the first leader of Ottoman Catholics. Pope approved him as the archbishop of İstanbul. But, Ottoman government didn’t approve because of the fact that he wasn’t a citizen of Ottoman. Hagop Chuqurian was elected in place of him. Ottoman government approved him as the leader of Ottoman Catholics on 5 January 1831. The second leader was entitled patriarch by Ottoman government in 1835. The other Ottoman Catohilic Nations (Syrian Catholics, Chaldeans, Maronites, Melkites, Bulgarian Catholics) were subordinated to Armenian Catholic hieararchy. The Syriac Catholic Patriarchate’s adherence to this hierarchy continued until the late Ottoman period. In addition, Syriac Catholics were recorded in 48 issues from the second session to the last, which included non-Muslims.