Ottoman Nationality Law as an Example of a Forced Modernization

Beginning from 18th century, nonmuslim Ottoman subjects began to go under protection of foreign states. In time, these protections increased inexorably. People who could get foreign passports claimed that they were not Ottoman citizens anymore. Ottoman State tried different methods in order to solve these kinds of abuses which caused subjection arguments with foreign states. Some of these attempts were to warn the foreign states, to create a privileged class called Avrupa Tüccaris among Ottoman reaya and to try to make all the Ottomon citizens equal to each other through the Tanzimat reforms. The common point of these formulas was to eliminate the attraction of getting foreign protection. But these attempts couldn’t be successful. Nationality problems increased rapidly after the emigrations, territorial loss, and foundation of new states on the Ottoman land. In this period lack of a nationality law was felt. In order to solve the subjection problems, Ottoman State set out a new policy by introducing a nationality law in 1869. Thereby the definition of ‘Ottoman nationality’ was made in the modernization process and on the international stage. Our study contains the process which leads to legislation of Ottoman Nationality Law, the first secular nationality law in the Islamic world, reactions to the law and observations on applications of the law.