Sir, - An excellent article on the development of the European Union (March 7th) is spoiled by Mr Myers' perverse admiration of the Ottoman Empire, which he first espoused in an article on Lord Byron (Irish Times, July 1st, 1994). Once again, praising its tolerance, he points to its "brilliant" government, which "successfully governed many of the most deeply troubled areas of the world today".
It did, of course, by the might of its sword.
The law of this "benevolent" empire applied to its Christian subjects was simple miscreants were punished by being beheaded, if they were lucky, and by being impaled alive on a stake if they were not. The "blood tax", whereby young Christian boys were periodically collected (i.e. abducted), taken to Istanbul, converted to Islam and trained as "Janissaries" (Turkish cavalry), was rigorously applied. And the local Turkish rulers, agas, pashas, etc, had an absolute right to demand to spend the wedding night of a Christian bride with her.
Nor were the laws governing the Turks any more lenient. A local Turkish governor who fell out of grace, received the Sultan's emissary from Istanbul bearing two gifts - a silk rope, and a phial of poison. It was for him to decide whether to hang or to poison himself.
Mr Myers is correct in saying that non Turks could rise to high positions in the Empire. A victim of the "blood tax", a young Bosnian Serb from the village of, Sokolovac, Mehmed Pasha Sokolovic, rose through the ranks of janissary and became the Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire (his lasting monument is the bridge on the River Drina at Viscgrad). In contrast, his brother Makarijc, who escaped the "blood tax", became the Patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church. - Yours, etc.,
Serbian Information Bureau,
12 Hermitage Lawn,
Grange Road,
Rathfarnham,
Dublin 16.