The history of Türkiye-Sri Lanka relations

By Vinod Moonesinghe

The country we now know as Türkiye has a long history, holding within its borders the remains of the world’s first city, Çatalhöyük. Our knowledge of much of ancient foreign relations comes from the records of the Hittite empire, based at Hattusa. The great city of Istanbul formed the confluence of many cultures, a bridge between Europe and Asia.

Some of the tribes which brought the Indo-European language, ancestral to Sinhala and Divehi, to the subcontinent may have tarried in the ancient land of Mitanni, in modern southeast Türkiye and northern Syria, four millennia ago. However, Sri Lanka’s links with Türkiye are much more recent.

Yunani

Very little is known of relations between the two countries in the pre-Ottoman period. Most of the evidence is numismatic, indicating healthy commercial links. Brass coins of the Roman Emperors Constantine and Theodosius, who ruled from Constantinople in the 3rd and 4th centuries have been found here. The Byzantine gold Solidus served as the weight standard (4.54 g) for the Kahavanu coin of the (late) Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa eras. Ottoman Sultani coins circulated in Sri Lanka during the Portuguese era.

Turkish literature provides vaguer, more oblique clues. The 14th century author Tâceddîn Ahmedî, wrote in his İskendernâme, that Alexander built a city called “Serendib” on the Island of “Jaba”. The 15th century dervish poet Şeyh Mehmed Çelebi, in his Hızırname mentioned a visit by his warrior dervish hero to the place of Adam on Mount Serendib. The 17th century polymath Kâtip Çelebi wrote of the Mountain of Serendib, to which Adam descended from heaven, rising up towards the sky majestically. These references indicate that among the literati, “Serendib” had taken on a magical quality, so it could not have been familiar.

Sri Lankan Muslims believe that Turks settled on the island from the 8th century onwards. According to this tradition, in the reign of Dappula II, the first Turk, a son of Sultan Alauddin, from the Anatolian city of Konya by name Jamaluddin, brought to Beruwela the Yunani (“Ionian” – i.e., Greek) medical tradition, four “humours” rather than three, as in Ayurveda and Sinhala medicine. A 12th century Seljuq Turk Sultan called Alâeddin Keykûbad did rule Konya.

DNA tests have indicated Turkish descent among many Muslims, so undoubtedly Turks did migrate to this country over time. It may be that many were already Turkish migrants to other countries, such as India and Arabia. Many of them settled in Beruwela, which became the centre for Yunani medicine. Many would have been Dervishes, whose whirling dances may have given us the Sinhala term for “spinning top”, Bambara.

Pan-Islamism

A new era in Ottoman international relations, the Tanzimat (reorganisation) period of reform and modernisation, began with the accession of Sultan Abdülmejid I in 1839. The Tanzimat reforms extended to foreign policy, with greater friendship with Britain and France. Abdülmejid’s successor, Sultan Abdülaziz, who continued the reforms, appointed as consuls, members of important Muslim families, who could serve as bridges between the Ottomans and local populations.

In 1864, Abdülaziz appointed Hussain Lebbe, a prominent Muslim chieftain of the Macan Markar family (which claimed descent from Sultan Alauddin of Konya), as Ottoman Consul in Colombo, and another, Sultan Bawa Jaman, as Consul in Galle. In 1873, Sultan Bawa’s nephew, Haji Abdullah bin Sultan Bawa, succeeded to the Galle consulship.

Sultan Murad V succeeded Abdülaziz in 1876, after a coup d’etat, but within months abdicated in favour of his brother Abdülhamid II. The latter, who reigned until 1909, transformed the Ottoman foreign policy to Pan-Islamism, seeking to undermine the rule of imperialist rivals by appealing to their Muslim subjects as Caliph. In this context, the role of Ottoman consuls changed to one of actively propagandising for the Caliphate. The rapid modernisation of transport had enhanced the role of the Sultan, as guardian of Mecca and Medina, among Muslims, who now found the Hajj pilgrimage so much easier.

Abdülhamid ensured that his consuls came from high-status Muslim families and increased his engagement with the local population. In 1879, Hussain Lebbe’s son Haji Othuman Lebbe succeeded him as Colombo Consul. Realpolitic, however, caused the Ottomans to appoint Athirige Haji ‘Ali Didi as its Galle Consul in 1881.

A member of the Maldivian Royal Family and treasurer of Maldives, ‘Ali Didi nevertheless resided in Galle. The next year, ‘Ali Didi’s health deteriorated, and his son, Athirige Haji Ibrahim Didi succeeded him. Haji Ibrahim remained in Galle, although he became the Grand Vizier of Maldives, remaining Consul into the 20th century. The Colombo Consulate passed from one Macan Markar to another – in 1891 to Abdul Majeed, in preference to the application of Haji Zeynelabidin, of another “tribe”.

Turukki toppi

Ottoman funds financed, through the consuls, the construction of mosques and cemeteries. Abdülhamid gave an annual prize of a Mushaf-ı Şerif (a calligraphic Holy Quran) to the most successful student of Al Madrasathul Khairiyyathul Islamiah, the first English-language Muslim school in Sri Lanka. In 1901, the school became, in honour of his Silver Jubilee, Al Madrasathul Hameediah (now Hameed Al Husseinie College). Not far away is Sultan Abdul Hameed Street, in remembrance of the Ottoman Padishah.

The effects of Abdülhamid’s policies led to the Ottomans gaining status among Sri Lanka’s Muslims, who had begun a religious revival at this time. This revival, a result of growing wealth combined with the arrival of Arab scholars and, especially, of the Egyptian revolutionary Orabi Pasha, manifested itself as going on pilgrimage, mosque-building, establishing English-language schools, replacing Tamil with Arabic as the liturgical language, and adopting “Muslim” dress.

Muslims now began openly to declare their solidarity with the world Umma (Islamic community), led by the Ottoman Caliph. Muslim men adopted the turukki toppi (“Turkish hat”), the fez. An attempt to ban the fez led in 1905 to a strike and a mass meeting of 30,000 Muslims in Maradana, at which one speaker invoked the “Caliph of the Mohammedan world”, who “himself wears this head-dress”. The ban was lifted.

World War I

In 1903, Mohammed Macan Marker became Consul, holding the office until 1915, when the opening of hostilities between the British and Ottoman empires ended diplomatic relations. During World War I, the predominantly European Ceylon Planters Rifle Corps, joined in the British attack on Gallipoli. There seem to have been no other military encounters between Sri Lanka and Türkiye.

The War ended with the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire and the establishment of the Republic. A new Ministry of Foreign Affairs, created in 1920, began to develop its institutional structure and formulate its legal basis. Since the 1930s, the principles of Kemal Atatürk, and his maxim “peace at home, peace in the world” have guided Türkiye’s foreign policy.

Following Sri Lanka’s independence, Türkiye swiftly established diplomatic relations with the fledgling nation. The Turkish Embassy in New Delhi was accredited to Sri Lanka and the Embassy of Sri Lanka in Tel Aviv was accredited to Türkiye. Relations cooled in 1956-77 but warmed later. In 2005 President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan visited Sri Lanka in the wake of the 2004 Tsunami, making a gift of housing for displaced people. President Mahinda Rajapaksa reciprocated the visit in 2008. Sri Lanka opened its embassy in Ankara in 2012, and Türkiye responded the following year with an Embassy in Colombo.

Türkiye and Sri Lanka have “completely friendly” relations, said Tunca Özçuhadar, Director General of Protocol at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Istanbul, and former Ambassador to Sri Lanka, in January 2021. There is increasing trade between the two countries. Türkiye’s more independent 21st century stance fits in well with Sri Lanka’s foreign policy, and greater co-operation between the two countries may be seen in future.

Vinod Moonesinghe read mechanical engineering at the University of Westminster, and worked in Sri Lanka in the tea machinery and motor spares industries, as well as the railways. He later turned to journalism and writing history. He served as chair of the Board of Governors of the Ceylon German Technical Training Institute.

Factum is an Asia Pacific-focused think tank on International Relations, Tech Cooperation and Strategic Communications accessible via www.factum.lk