Session 18
Session 18: Genocide 1582-1603
Antalya 1582
The two Ottoman-Teke Wars had devastated both nations by the spring of 1582. Proud armies stood in ruins. Lush farm lands in Asia Minor were devastated. Trade in the Thrace center of trade was disrupted. Yet the last of act of this conflict would have drastic far reaching effects into the future. The Ottoman Empire though weakened by rebellion and two wars with Teke was far from defeated. Teke, although it was gaining strength it was still unable to compete with the Ottoman influence in Asia Minor. Once more the drums of war would call the innocence of youth to death on the battlefields of Asia Minor.
King Khaled of Teke was impatient he wanted more land. He was the King of Teke and Asia Minor yet he did not control it all. But he wasn’t willing to fight a third war so soon. He realized that his nation need time to rebuild and put down rebellions in the newly claimed territories.
Sultan Murad III was desperate; he feared another war with Teke. The majority of his holdings in the Balkans had either deserted him or joined other empires. But he was willing to defend the rest of his empire with whatever resources he had left. He realized that his nation needed time to expand what little resources it could mister.
1582-1596 was the time of the rebuilding of both nations. Khaled and Murad III desperately sought allies and resources for the inevitable final battle between Teke and Ottoman Empire. Khaled was more successful than Murad because of several small but important events in 1585 and 1592.
In 1585 a peasant rebellion swept through the holy land. Fueled by European nations attempting to disrupt the Ottoman Empire, the rebels besieged and looted towns in the Holy Land. Murad III could barley put down these rebellions because of the great split in his realm. He could not march troops overland to defeat the rebels. He relied on mercenaries and the Hedjaz to stop these rebellions.
In 1592 Murad’s desperation was increasing. His nation was falling behind Teke, in all areas of research and development. His desperation would lead to madness and excess taxation on peasants. The peasants were upset by this action and revolted. Later that year they joined Teke claiming that they were abused by the Sultan’s desires and mental instability. But Murad III was the only thing from keeping a third Ottoman-Teke War from breaking out. He would die three years later and the new Sultan Meh.med III would take the throne. He had dreams like his grand father before him; rebuild the Ottoman Empire into the greatest force the known world had ever known.
Spurred on my illusions of grandeur and power Meh.med III declared war on Teke even though his nation was unprepared for war. European Kings now had their opportunity to watch the Moslems kill each other one more time. Yet they would decide the outcome of this war. Monetary gifts were sent from the largest nations of Europe to bolster the treasury of Teke, The Ottomans were doomed. They couldn’t fight or compete with the powers of Europe.
In 1598 with the war underway Teke armies had backed the Ottoman Empire into a corner. King Khaled led his armies toward Constantinople. When the city fell it was sacked in the good old Teke fashion. Thousands died. Frenzied by bloodlust, Khaled lead his men on more sackings of Ottoman cities. Meh.Med III was in flight. City after city fell to the Teke armies. Citizens and soldier alike were killed in this conflict. Meh.Med III could not protect his people anymore. He finally understood what his father meant by the horrors of war. This war was nothing more than genocide in Asia Minor. Khaled and Teke were insane yet they had to be stopped.
Kastamonu, Trapzon and Aleppo had all fallen by 1599. Ottoman soldiers and supporters alike were killed by Khaled personally. His own personal body guards the legendary 1st Guards took charge in rounding up survivors and beheaded them in front of their king. Peasants were mortified at their so called liberators. They were nothing more than savages killing their own kind. But the war would not end there; Cyprus would be the final battlefield.
For almost 100 years Cyprus was apart of the Ottoman Empire. It was also the birthplace of the rise of the trader dukes. Once more the fields of Famagusta would run red with blood. Khaled and the Army of Teke landed in late 1599. The Ottomans had less than 5,000 men defending the island. 25,000 Teke soldier decided on them with a murderous rage, as all the defenders were killed in a two day running battle all over the island. But the next two years would be the undoing of Khaled. He desperately wanted the city to fall in 1601. He personally led the assault of Famagusta. The 1st guards pleaded against him from participating on this assault but he dismissed them from duty. They were sent back to Antayla, and the assault began at the end of the week. On September 18th 1601 the battle for Famagusta began. Assault teams stormed the fortress city. Ottoman defenders desperately fought their assailants with any weapon they could find. They had believed that they would die there that day. However this was not to be, Khaled’s own aura of invincibility was finished. The King of Teke and Asia Minor was killed in the assault. Teke forces fled the city with the body of their fallen leader.
The following months for the defenders of Famagusta were even harder than before. They were reduced to eating rats and drinking urine. They were desperate, yet Meh.Med III had personally promised them reinforces. Khaled was dead his body was buried in Antalya at his royal estate the third Ottoman-Teke War continued on that bloody island. In spring 1602, Meh.Med III and 10,000 veteran Ottomans landed on the southern shore to drive off the besiegers. The second battle of Famagusta began. Once more the slaughter began; both sides threw everything they had into the battle. The Ottomans had gained an advantage in the early going, but Meh.Med III was killed in the late afternoon. Following his death only a few months after his rival Khaled, the war was winding down. Both nations were eager to end the war. Yet Teke would only end the war if Famagusta had fallen. In January 1603 they city finally fell yet this time there was no genocide of the population. The final treaty between Teke and the Ottoman Empire ended the Ottoman-Teke wars for good, yet there was still a foreboding atmosphere around both nations.
The Ottoman Empire was finished. Their days as being the head of the Moslem world were over. The nation of Teke was now a rising power of the eastern Mediterranean. But their nation would face more hardships than ever before with the downfall of the Ottoman Empire. Teke’s jealousy of the Ottoman way of life in the late 16th Century drove them and their leader Khaled to the edge of insanity to the point of no return. Their myth of invincibility was shattered on the island of Cyprus. The death of Khaled King of Teke opened a new opportunity for new players to take control of the nation of Teke.
