786

L'Empire démembré
(Rôle du monde occulte et des gens de la Thora en terre d'Islam)
(Role of the occult world and people of the ground Torah of Islam)

La Franc Maçonnerie en Turquie
Honest Masonry in Turkey
by FLAVIEN BRENIER
Traduction - Translation

   Honest Masonry in Turkey the English tradesmen who attended the ports of Raising^[1] were the first introducers of Frankly-Masonry in Turkey. One finds them with the œuvre since 1730, i.e. at the time where other emissary maconnic worked France, Spain, Germany and the Netherlands. In 1738, they had already obtained positive results ; indeed, one notices, that year, the existence in Smyrna and Alep of two cabins concerned with the Large Cabin of England^[2].
   It was the year even where the Pope Clement XII had just launched against Frankly-Masonry an encyclical which had a considerable repercussion in the catholic countries (April 28, 1738). Certain Protestant governments had not awaited this encyclical to carry against the sect^[3] a similar judgment : in 1735, the States General of Holland had interdi the maconnic assemblies, and the free city of Hamburg, the king of Sweden and the republic of Bern made in the same way in 1738. The principal objection that these powers, of so opposite religion, had against Frankly-Masonry was its religious indifferentism, masks transparent atheism^[4]. It is this same objection which decided the Door Ottoman to enter the way of prohibitions. A firman of the sultan Mahmoud I " pronounced, in 1740, prohibition to belong to the maconnic meetings in all the extent of the empire ottoman ; Cabins of Alep and Smyrna, and those which one worked to constitute in Constantinople and Alexandria of Egypt, had to close their doors.
   This sleep lasted eight years, with the end of which a certain number of Englishman residing in Constantinople organized with small noise a Cabin and belonged to the regular "behaviours", in which some notable Turkish and Greeks were initiated.  The large vizier had wind of these secret assemblies and made determine the FF\in their room, one evening when they were joined together. Severe measurements threatened them, when the intervention of the ambassador of England^[5] occurred : this last arrived, to not only make give in freedom its compatriots, but still to obtain same measurement in favour of the FF\of nationality Ottoman. This incident showed that one could face the firman with impunity prohibition :  also, as of the following day, the Cabin of Constantinople was reformed, and other Cabins emerged, the following years, in the majority of the large wearing of Turkey and Egypt^[6].
   If the first Turkish Cabins had been of exclusively English foundation, it was not long in appearing the different one from which the origin was different.  From 1770, one notices in Turkey the existence of German Cabins and especially Frenchwomen.  These last went, as regards irreligion, well beyond the shy persons audacities who had made prohibit by Mahmoud 1st the cabins of 1740. They spread, among the Greeks and Moslem initiates, of the doctrines openly atheistic and frays of aspirations to the destruction of all the thrones^[7]. Thus created for itself little by little a revolutionary party similar to those of Occident in this Turkey which had been divided until there only by ethniques or denominational competitions^[8].  The Door^[9] was not without realizing of the tendencies of French, German and even English Frankly-Masonry. Disarmed with regard to the latter by the protection which granted to him the British government, the sultan at least sought to block the formation of the Cabins of other nationalities. He had asked the French monks having the guard of the Holy Places^[10] of will refuse any suspect foreigner of masonry the authorization to visit them, and a convention passed with the king Louis XVI made it possible the authorities Ottomans to expel the French consuls who would be convinced to have affiliated itself with a maconnic Cabin. (Barruel, Memories, V.)
   In spite of these precautions, the maconnic action was rather intense in Turkey, towards the end of XVIIIe century, so that the French revolution was ensured to find there, when it burst, of admirateurs and the accomplices^[11]. One of the latter was the knight of Mouradgéa d'Hohson. Greek of origin, but familiarized early with the Occident by many voyages, it was in relations followed with the masons Martinistes de France and the Illuminés masons of Germany.  He had with their influence as much as with his beautiful faculties a rapid career in the diplomacy, crowned by the embassy from Sweden in Constantinople. Cover consequently by the diplomatic immunity, it formed with two Frenchmen (Mr. Ruffin, attached the embassy of France, and M of Lesseps) a triumvirat intended to revolutionize the Turkish empire. The Cabins existing in Turkey provided in abundance to the three conspirators the agents  necessary to agitate the people from there capital and to work the provinces under pretexts skilfully selected.  One moment, one could believe that a republican and atheistic revolution would make during, on banks of the Bosphorus, with that which ensanglantait Paris.  But Turkey was not France, and the difficulties which such a special medium presented to the action finally ruined the projects of Mouradgéa d'Hohson and its accomplices. The spite which this failure caused with the maconnic powers of the continent was for much in the extraordinary decision taken by the French government of launching Bonaparte^[12] and its army on Egypt and Syria, whereas Turkey was in peace with France.
    The Turkish maconnic Cabins hardly showed vitality during first half of XIXe century. The reason was that the activity of the sect went rather then towards the triumph of nationalities Greek, Bulgarian and Serb^[13]. Not that the cause of these Christian people interested in anything Frankly-Masonry;  but this one nourished the hope to weaken the Turkish empire by the proclamation of the independence of the subjected people, and to then federate the Balkan States in a vast republic, which had been easier to dominate maçonniquement than the autocratic empire of the sultans. For this reason Frankly-Masonry supported of the 1814, the creation of Hétaïria (secret society with five degrees, the purpose of which was resurrection of Greece), and, as from 1820, of Omladina, association of all points similar to the preceding one, but reserved for the Slavic populations (see in particular on this subject : History of the Revolution of Greece, by Poucqueville, Paris, 1824, Firmin Didot, T II, p. 309 and 310…  And secret The Societies of the european Revolution, London, 1876, T II, p. 47 and suiv.). We do not intend to raise here a blame against these associations, which counted in their rows a large majority of patriots worthy of praises and whose efforts contributed to prepare the stamping from the Christians of the East. We note only one fact:  with knowing that Frankly-Masonry temporarily granted its contest to these associations, with an aim of dominating them and to lead by their means to the creation of a Republic of Balkans. If this attempt did not achieve its goal completely and if ressuscitées nationalities gave each other monarchical constitutions, it is necessary to make some go up the cause with the diplomatic action of the European powers, and especially of Russia, which opposed the sights of the sect.
   It is impossible to raise a serious political action on behalf of the Turkish maconnic Cabins under the reign of Mahmoud II (1808-1839) and under that of its Abd-ul-Medjid successor Ist However, as from 1850, they started to become populated dissatisfied high-ranking civil servants, at the same time as of young burning people, familiarized with the most advanced literature countries Western and eager to import the designs into Turkey of them^[14]. In September 1859, a plot woven against the life of the sultan was discovered;  several freemasons had taken part in it. Abd-ul-Medjid commuted to an order of exile the marked capital punishment against entreated. It was to die twenty month later, at 38 years, in an obscure way.
   His/her brother Abd-ul-Aziz, who succeeded to him, sincerely eager to regenerate his empire by the imitation of the European institutions, was surrounded ministers and high-ranking civil servants belonging to Frankly-Masonry, without suspecting that those would shake until in its bases its civil and religious authority^[15]. The type of these maconnized statesmen was Midhat pasha, which it made governor of Bulgaria, then minister, and finally large vizier, and who was one day to soil his hands of the blood of his sovereign.
   The reign of Abd-ul-Aziz put practically Turkey at the hands of the Turkish Cabins, i.e. of less than three hundred people, for the manpower of the masons of the empire ottoman then did not reach this figure. But one did not have any so much to occupy all the important stations. All was not to blame in the reforms which resulted from this influence : the reduction of the civil list of the sultan of 70 million piastres to 12 million, the dismissal of the imperial harem (Abd-ul-Aziz having proclaimed its intention to be monogamist), the visit of the sultan to the World Fair of Paris, its voyage to London and its acceptance of the title of middle-class man of the city ; all that could shock the traditional feeling at Ottomans without putting in danger their political and religious building. One could not any say as many the reforms made in teaching, that one endeavoured to make with denominational, as to the imperial college of Galata-Séraï, whose almost all professors were freemasons.
   A policy patient, but inflexible, visa to restrict freedoms of all the religions, including the Islamic religion. The latter has in Turkey of the considerable goods, known as Vakoufs goods, created by the donations accumulated of the faithful ones^[16]; these goods, which were used in major part to help the poor ones, were struck, in May 1867, of heavy loads^[17]. In July 1869, a Civil code, inspired by that which the Revolution gave to France, was promulgated. At the same time, of ceaseless persecutions against the Christians brought, in Crete and Bulgaria, of risings which were drowned in blood. The protests of Europe, the government maconnic of Abd-ul-Aziz answered that never the high positions of the empire had not been largely any more opened to the Christians, which was true : but the Christians in question all were affiliated with the sect maconnic and as detached from any religious belief as their colleagues freemasons of Moslem origin. However, the dreams of part of Turkish Masonry went well beyond the antireligieuse policy which it was possible to impose to Abd-ul-Aziz:  they less did not aim anything than the establishment an atheistic republic^[18], who had made weigh on all the races and all the religions of the empire the yoke of a few hundreds of occult tyrants. The secret committee maconnic which reflected this tendency was in correspondence with the most advanced fraction of European Carbonarisme, Young person-Europe, founded by Mazzini^[19] ; it became soon, under the name of Young person-Turkey, a section of the organization mazzinienne.
   The most active man of this committee was a Roumanian of the name of Ganesco.  It is him which had the idea to ensure the future of the party in him conqueror a recruit of choice, prince Mustapha Fazyl pasha, whose immense fortune was to make it possible Young person-Turkey not to take into account the money. Grandson of  Méhémet-Ali (founder of the Egyptian dynasty), and wire of Ibrahim pasha (the winner of Turkey), Mustapha Fazyl had an elder brother, Ismaïl which became sovereign of Egypt, in 1863. According to the order of succession in force in the Moslem countries, the heir apparent is always the brother born after [puîné] (in the species Mustapha Fazyl), and not the son of the sovereign. But Ismaïl, eager [désireux].d' to ensure the crown his/her Tewfick son, imagined to require of the sultan, of suzerain of Egypt, to change the order of advent to the throne in this country, and to make the capacity transmissible of wire father. Abd-ul-Aziz was too much carried to face the Moslem traditions not to agree to it. Thus Mustapha Fazyl pasha was frustrated hope to be one day sovereign of Egypt. It conceived a sharp resentment against the sultan and sought the occasion of it to return some bad office to him. This one was not made wait. F\Ganesco could, indeed, penetrate in the confidence of the prince and decide it to put its immense resources at the service^[20] of incipient Young person-Turkey.
   One has the document constitutive of this association, which was to play a so great part in the history of Turkey, during these quarante-cinq last years. We reproduce it according to the Shelves of a witness, F\Ganesco, which was the large craftsman of all the intrigue and which was made the historian of it. We restrict ourselves to restore there in all letters the names of which it gave only the initial ones : 

CONSTITUTION OF THE CHANCELLERY OF THE YOUNG PERSON-TURKEY.
(Founded in Constantinople, Paris and London in 1867.)

ART.  Ist -  The party of Young person-Turkey is founded with an aim : I° to carry out the reforming program of prince Mustapha Fazyl pasha, contained in his letter with the sultan (This letter was a true declaration of war rather than about principles, written F -. Ganesco speaks, signed by Mustapha Fazyl pasha, and spread to thousands of specimens in Constantinople), and consequently to operate the inversion of the mode and men who oppress and exhaust the empire ottoman ; 2° to destroy the Russian influence in the East by the emancipation of the Christian populations of Turkey (the bonds which linked the Turkey Young person incipient in Young person-Europe and F\Mazzini give a singular accent of irony to this solicitude testified to the Christians...).

    ART. 2. - Young person-Turkey has its chief, his management Committee, its civil and military agents, its principal seat.
   ART.  3. -  Its chief is S. A. Mustapha Fazyl pasha, president of the management Committee.
   ART.  4. - Les members of the management Committee, in Paris and London, are:  S. E Zia-Bey, Aghia Effendi, the count L. Plater, Kemal Bey and Simon Deutsch (the count Plater, carbonaro of the highest rank, was a Polish refugee in reports/ratios followed with Mazzini ; it usually resided in Zurich.  Simon Deutsch, Jew révolutionaire of Austrian origin, had been successively banished of Austria and Turkey ; he was also friendly of Mazzini^[21].).
   ART. 5. - The members of the management Committee especially in charge of the businesses of the interior of the empire ottoman are : S. E Zia Bey and Aghia Effendi, know-indicated.
  ART. 6. - The members of the management Committee especially in charge of the international and diplomatic businesses are the count L. Plater and Simon Deutsch. They name agents in all the countries.
   ART. 7. -  The management Committee will have as head offices Paris and Zurich.  It will promptly study the development of a constitution and the reorganization of the army.
   ART. 10 -  The principal agent of the committee in Constantinople will be M.J.-B. Bonnal (Mr. Bonnal was a French banker, freemason of old date, bench with Pera (Constantinople)).  If the interest of Young person-Turkey required the presence of prince Mustapha Fazyl pasha in Constantinople, it would be arranged in order to obtain from the Sultan his re-entry, in order to give by its presence in the capital of the empire a very great impulse to the businesses of Young person-Turkey.
   ART. 12. - If prince Mustapha Fazyl has suddenly died before the large company had succeeded, prince Mourad, Khalil-Bey, Zia-Bey and the members of the Committee of Constantinople would continue work according to the traced plan, until the day when the cause of regeneration Ottoman would have triumphed over his interior and external enemies.  ART. 13. - (Secret) the undersigned, chair management Committee, engages to annually pour in the case of the aforesaid Committee the sum of three hundred and thousand francs. Paris, August 30, 1867.
                                            Approval :  MUSTAPHA FAZYL. 

 
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