page_title: Japan–Turkey relations
section_title: Ottoman Empire
hierarchical_section_title: Japan–Turkey relations / History / Ottoman Empire
caption_attribution_description: English: The Japanese Cruiser Kongo in Constantiniople (today known as Istanbul) in 1891 by Luigi Acquarone 1800-1896.
context_page_description: Japan–Turkey relations are foreign relations between Japan and Turkey. Japan has an embassy in Ankara and a consulate-general in Istanbul. Turkey has an embassy in Tokyo and a consulate-general in Nagoya.
context_section_description: Relations between the two countries started in the 19th century. A foundational event occurred in 1890, when the Turkish frigate Ertuğrul sank off the coast of Wakayama, Japan, after having an audience with the Meiji Emperor. The surviving sailors were taken back to Istanbul by two Japanese frigates. A monument commemorating the Ottoman sailors has been erected in Kushimoto of Wakayama Prefecture, near the Kushimoto Turkish Memorial and Museum. In 2015, marking the 125th anniversary of relations between Japan and the Ottoman Empire, with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan and the Government of the Republic of Turkey, the movie "125 Years" was released. The motion picture reflects the two historical incidents of Ertuğrul and the Turkish Government's support of Japanese nationals in 1985.
  In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a veritable Japanophilia took hold of the Ottoman press with hundreds upon hundreds of articles written dealing with Japan. As an "Eastern" people who originated in East Asia, many Turks felt a special affinity for another Eastern, Asian nation like Japan, which had modernized without becoming Westernized. Further adding to the mutual attraction between the Turks and the Japanese was their shared enmity towards Russia, the archenemy of the Ottomans for centuries and the new archenemy of Japan. Already starting to promote the ideology of Pan-Asianism, the Japanese start to court the Sublime Porte with the Meiji Emperor sending princes of the House of Yamato to visit the Sultan-Caliph  Abdul Hamid II bearing gifts and proposals for treaties, which generated much excitement in the Ottoman press. Abdul Hamid II, who while admiring Japan to a certain extent, was obsessed with the fear sparked by popular rumors that the Meiji Emperor would convert to Islam and proclaim himself Caliph, thereby displaying him as the object of veneration from all the world's Sunni Muslims.
  The Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) greatly admired Japan, which they took as their model. The fact that an Asian nation like Japan had defeated Russia in 1905, the traditional enemy of the Ottoman Empire, was very inspiring to the Unionists, and Unionist newspapers all portrayed Japan's victory as a triumph not only over Russia, but also over western values. The Unionists especially admired the Japanese for their embrace of western science and technology without losing their "Eastern spiritual essence", which was seen as proving that one could modernize without embracing western values, providing the inspiration to make the Ottoman Empire into the "Japan of the Near East". The Turks originated as a people living north of the Great Wall of China, with the first mention of the Turks in history occurring in a letter written to the Chinese emperor Wen in 585 AD. Over the centuries the Turks had wandered across Eurasia, settling in very large numbers in Anatolia after their victory over the Romans at the Battle of Manzikert in 1071. The Unionists were proud of the East Asian origins of the Turkish people, and spent much time glorying Turan, which was the name they had adopted for the homeland of the Turks in East Asia that was located somewhere north of the Great Wall of China. As the Chinese and Arabs were the traditional enemies of the Turks, there no ties of friendship to celebrate with those peoples. Ziya Gökalp, the chief ideologue of the Young Turks charged in a 1913 essay that "the sword of the Turk and likewise his pen have exalted the Arabs, the Chinese and the Persians" rather than themselves and that the modern Turks "needed to turn back to their ancient past". Gökalp argued it was time for the Turks to once again study the important figures of their own Turco-Mongol tradition, such as Attila the Hun, Genghis Khan, Timur, and Hulagu Khan.
  The modernization policies carried out by the Unionist regime starting in 1908 after the Young Turk revolution were closely modeled after the modernization of Meiji Japan. One Unionist, Colonel Pertev Bey wrote after the revolution of 1908: "We will rise shortly... wit
caption: The Japanese cruiser Kongō in Istanbul, 1891, following the Ertuğrul incident, by Luigi Acquarone (1800–1896).
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