• Acta Via Serica
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.47-68
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• 2017

To the Greeks, the Ottoman era was a "Dark Age" one that comprised a threat to their Greek Orthodox identity. The identities of Orthodox and Hellene were integral parts in the construction of their national history. In fact, the Morea Uprising, which began in 1821, was symbolized by a priest blessing the Greek flag in Aya Lavra Church. One of the most common national myths is religious oppression of the Christian population during the Ottoman Era, namely Turkokratia. They identified Ottomans as Asian barbarians who did not let Greeks practice their religion freely, and who furthermore forced them to change their religion. These kinds of beliefs, which might be taken as religious propaganda, are today still highlighted both in Greek textbooks and in publications supported by the church and books and newspapers published in their affiliated institutes. The underlying truth behind all these propagandist statements is Islamophobia. The existence of Islamophobia in the Balkans, where religious nationalism is intense, has caused nations to hold to these kinds of mythical beliefs. Most of the time the stories and narratives have been used for history building. The objective of this paper is to demonstrate the effect of the anti-Islam propaganda of the church in Greece on the state and the people using Greek sources. The references are Greek religious textbooks and books and newspapers published by church-supporting publishing houses.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.1-10
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• 2020

Turkey is a transcontinental country located partly in Asia and partly in Europe, and hosted by diverse civilizations including Hittite, Urartu, Lydia, Phrygia, Pontius, Byzantine, Seljuk's and Ottomans. At various times, these built many historic monuments representing the most significant characteristics of their civilizations. Today, these monuments contribute enormously to the esthetic beauty of environment and important to many cities of Turkey in attracting tourism. The survival of these monuments depends on the investigation of structural behavior and implementation of needed repairing and/or strengthening applications. Hence, many countries have made deeper investigations and regulations to assess their monuments' structural behavior. This paper presents the dynamic behavior investigation of a monumental masonry mosque, the "İskenderpaşa Mosque" in Trabzon (Turkey), by performing an experimental examination with non-destructive testing. The dynamic behavior investigation was carried out by determining the dynamic characteristic called as natural frequencies, mode shapes and damping ratios. The experimental dynamic characteristics were extracted by Operational Modal Analysis (OMA). In addition, Finite Element (FE) model of masonry mosque was constructed in ANSYS software and the numerical dynamic characteristics such as natural frequencies and mode shapes were also obtained and compared to experimental ones. The paper aims at presenting the non-destructive testing procedure of a masonry mosque as well as the comparison of experimental and numerical dynamic characteristics obtained from the mosque.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.59 no.3
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• pp.539-558
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• 2016

Minarets are almost the inevitable part of Mosques in Islam and according to some, from a philosophical point of view, today they symbolize the spiritual elevation of man towards God. Due to slenderness, minarets are susceptible to earthquakes and wind loads. They are mostly built in a masonry style by using cut limestone blocks or occasionally by using bricks. In this study, one minaret (M1 Minaret) of one of the charmest mosques of Turkey, Sultan Ahmed Mosque, popularly known as Blue Mosque, built between 1609 and 1616 on the order of Sultan Ahmed by the architect Mehmet Agha is investigated under some registered earthquake loads. According to historical records, a great earthquake hit Istanbul and/or its close proximity approximately every 250 years. Ottomans tackled with the problem of building earthquake resistant, slender minarets by starting to use forged iron connectors with lead as a filler to fix them to the upper and lower and to adjacent stones instead of using traditional mortar only. Thus, the discrete stones are able to transfer tensile forces in some sense. This study investigates the contribution of lead to the energy absorption capacity of the minaret under extensive earthquakes occurred in the region. By using the software ANSYS/LS-DYNA in modelling and investigating the minaret nonlinearly, it is found out that under very big recorded earthquakes, the connectors of vertical cast iron-lead mechanism play very important role and help to keep the structure safe.

• Acta Via Serica
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.103-117
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• 2018

This article aims to examine European reactions against the Ottoman mission headed by Enver Pasha, who was dispatched to China during the 'Boxer Uprising' in 1901. Based on Western archival documents, we can find reliable and informative correspondence about the attitude of the European countries toward the sultan's mission and its pan-Islamic plans in China. The coming of the Ottoman mission caused great reaction in such European countries as Britain, France, Germany and Russia, who were engaged in a competitive power struggle for an influential political and economic position in China. They kept a close watch on the sultan's envoy to find out his secret mission on the one hand and tried to persuade Enver Pasha not to work against their advantage in China on the other. From time to time, Abdul Hamid II (r. 1876-1909), the sultan of the Ottoman Empire, sent China an official mission and secret agents, through whom he tried to subjugate Chinese Muslims for his own advantage. The significance for the Ottoman Empire of any success in penetrating China by way of a pan-Islamic approach cannot be overrated, not only for political advantage but also for commercial and cultural benefit. Like other European countries, Ottomans could retain or gain rights which might bring them opportunities for free trade in opium and in other commodities. The sultan believed that they would constitute a great political factor to his advantage, because most of the tens of millions of Chinese Muslims recognized the Ottoman sultan as their caliph and praised him in their Friday sermon (Khutuba). Taking these factors into consideration, he decided to dispatch the Enver Pasha mission during the Boxer Uprising (1898-1901), responding to the suggestion of German Kaiser Wilhelm II. However, when the Ottoman mission arrived in China, the uprising had already been suppressed. This unexpected situation made the envoy initiate meaningful contacts with Chinese Muslims during its stay in China.