Finalist - 2016 Curtin Prize
As the Sultan Suleiman I breathed his last on the 7th of September, 1566, his dominion
was at the absolute peak of its power and expanse. Through relentless vigor and fierce
determination, Suleiman “The Magnificent” had seen the dawn of a new era in Turkish history,
where the great Ottoman Empire’s might stretched from the ports of Tunis to the banks of the
Tigris. The Ottoman state had, by the turn of the 16th century, become the most powerful and
feared empire in all of Europe. At the heart of this grand military engine were the Sultan’s fabled
Janissary corps. An elite and privileged creed of warriors, the Janissary order was the result of
the two century old Devsirme System, which scoured the Ottoman Balkans for Christian boys to
capture and train as the Sultan’s personal retinue in the capital. Taken from their homes and
converted to Islam, these ethnicities perceived as “foreign” were deliberately targeted by the
Turkish elite. A hundred years after the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, its successor state,
the Republic of Turkey, is being called into question for an exploitation of foreign elements
within their ranks as veritable slaves. Syrian refugees, fleeing the terrible struggles that are
plaguing their country, have been subject to sweatshop labor in Turkey’s developing economy,
which benefits greatly from such egregious violations of human sanctity. By utilizing foreign
children as a means of integral labor within their borders, Turkey has found itself emulating the
Devshirme System of the Ottoman state.
The Devsirme System which flourished from the late 15th to 17th centuries saw Janissary
captives being taken into coerced labor for the state from a very early age, as are the present
Syrian child laborers in the Turkish industry. The Janissary order itself saw its inception in 1330
CE as personal bodyguards for the Ottoman Sultan (Davis and Hamilton). Although initially
conscripted from prisoners in the captured Byzantine city of Adrianople in 1356 CE, the lack of
necessary manpower from captives prompted Sultans to build a more reliable pool from which to
draw their soldiers. From the 15th century onwards, boys were exclusively selected for the
Janissary corps from Christian families in the Balkan peninsula, the most populous group of
nonethnic Turks in the burgeoning empire (Davis and Hamilton). At the height of their
effectiveness, the Janissaries numbered 20,000 in number under Suleiman I, growing at a rate of
3,000 officers per year (Davis and Hamilton). Such numbers reflect a rapid pace of inducting
children into the core of the Ottoman slave engine, a staggering population shift reflected in the
21st century under Turkey.
The Republic of Turkey, though presently at far less of a disposition to capture and
export their own citizens to Istanbul for militaristic purposes, is nonetheless guilty of housing an
equally dubious enterprise within their borders. 1.7 million migrant Syrians have fled to Turkey
due to the Syrian Conflicts, lacking adequate food, shelter, and employment to survive in their
new environment (United States. Department of Labor). To many fleeing Syrians, the stable,
powerful, and well ordered Turkey offers the haven and structure for them to thrive once more,
despite its high living costs (Tali). The country has been greatly praised for its embracing of
Syrian refugees through permits and sponsorship, but closer scrutiny reveals that “S yrians are
required to obtain formal sponsorship in order to work, and permits are typically granted only to
highly skilled refugees” (Tali). Without the ability to easily obtain legal work, children have
become “breadwinners” due to their ability to more easily learn languages and job skills at a
young age (Tali). As Turkey’s child labor protection laws(namely Article 71 of Labor Act and
Annex 3 of the Regulation on Methods and Principles for Employment of Children and Young
Workers ( 38 , 39 ) do not apply to agricultural enterprises with less than 50 workers, small shops
with less than 4 workers, or domestic services, Syrian children can be left vulnerable to
exploitation and poor working conditions ( United States. Department of Labor) . Already, some
400,000 Syrian children are reported to have been working in Turkey, making “a third to half of
what Turkish people make.” at minimum wage (Tali). As a fresh pool of laborers become open
for exploitation, both the Turkish and Ottoman models encourage the seizure of young laborers
for the state.
The Devsirme System and Turkish sweatshops are and were maintained in great part
however, due to their coveted place amongst Balkan Christians and Turkish Syrians. Upon being
brought to Istanbul (then Constantinople), Janissary recruits were forced to undergo numerous
physical and intellectual examinations, being trained in “ Arabic, Persian, Turkish, math,
calligraphy, Islam, horsemanship, and/or weaponry” (Devshirme System [Gravure]). These
skills, alongside the “material benefits and social privileges” of the Janissary corps made the
position highly desired by Christians hoping to bolster their status in the empire (Radushev 15).
In his novel The Ottoman Centuries: The Rise and Fall of the Turkish Empire, Lord Kinross
remarks on the notion that:
Unnatural as such enslavement might appear in the eyes of the West, it proved in its own
context to be an enlightened and practical formula for using to the full the qualities and
skills of the Sultan’s young Christian subjects, to the benefit of the Empire and indeed of
the slaves themselves. For soon they came not to resent but to value their enforced status,
for the privileges which it brought to them and which were denied to the Moslemborn”
The privileges of the Janissary order, serving as administrators, governors, tax collectors,
and even on occasion as Grand Vizier (Prime Minister) of the vast and rich Ottoman Empire,
were evidently held in great esteem by the Christian minority in the Ottoman Empire, allowing
such a form of slavery to be selfreinforcing throughout its three century tenure (Morier 11;
Devshirme System [Gravure]; Radushev 6). In the same vein, the the prosperity of Turkish child
labor lies in the skills developed and right to live under Turkish protection from the horrors
presently ongoing in Syria.
Despite clearly illegal connotations, child laborers from Syria value and need these
occupations to maintain the safety and prosperity of their families. The Guardian reports that:
A key aim of the new work permits is to ensure Syrian refugees in Turkey receive the
minimum wage, currently set at 1,647 lira a month (£379). Their illegal status and lack of
any bargaining power mean that, for many, wages are far below this level (Johannisson).
Without proper labor permits or support from the Turkish government, countless Syrians
are required to work illegally in order to sustain themselves (Johannisson). Syrian children are
therefore presented with a crucial role in ensuring that their families are able to sustain a life in
Turkey (Tali). The skills that Syrian children learn in Turkish shops and industries are essential
however, to pursuing a greater future. A 16 year old textile worker named Adil remarks that “ In
three years, I learned everything I could. Now I can operate all the machines and do ironing.”,
and further elaborates, “I learned a lot about textile. When the war is over and we go back to
Syria, I can get a good job.” (Tali). When the chaos in Syria at last dissolves, it appears that a
generation of Turkish migrant laborers like Adil will return equipped with the qualities to
contribute in the Syrian labor force. As such, despite their slavelike implications, both Balkan
Christians and Syrian refugees stay and stayed within the system due to the prospect of social
mobility in the future.
The elite prowess of the Janissary order were fundamental to Ottoman expansionism,
much as the labor of Syrian child refugees are to the developing Turkish economy. The
Janissaries first burnished their legend as the first through the gates in the spectacular Capture of
Constantinople, and further proved their worth at the Sieges of Rhodes and Vienna as the
Sultan’s first line of offense in the amazing Turkish conquests of the fifteenth and sixteenth
centuries (Davis and Hamilton; Balfour 108). Until the dawn of the seventeenth century,
Janissaries were the beating heart of Turkish civil and administrative efforts, dominating the
Ottoman bureaucracy (Davis and Hamilton). Janissaries further contributed to the smaller
markets in towns and provinces, having “the privilege, when quartered in a town, to share the
profits of the tradesmen, by assisting them in their shops” (Morier 1011).
So high was the demand for Janissary officers that in some villages, Janissaries could from the majority of a
population (Radushev 4). The power and skill of the Janissaries was a driving force in the
development of the Ottomans to the apex of their power. Turkey, in many senses, emulates the
need for nonethnic labor to sustain their economic development.
Turkish businesses and sectors have seized the opportunity of such a large Syrian
diaspora to further their own (and by extension, the country’s) monetary stimulation (Tali). It has
been estimated by some that 60% of the Turkish textile industry is composed of unregistered
workers (Johannisson). In 2013, Turkey “repealed laws protecting children from other heavy and
hazardous work and revised regulations to allow employment of children between ages 16 and
18 in brick and plastics factories” (“Turkey”), allowing more teenage individuals to be brought
into manual labor. Murat Erdogan of the Migration and Politics Research Center at Hacettepe
University in Ankara reports that, a Syrian refugee working in Turkey is “more likely to be a
child than an adult,” and “Especially in seasonal or laborintensive sectors like agriculture,
construction or textile, Syrian child labor has become the norm,”(Tali). Especially in the seasonal
agriculture and hazelnut industries, the labor pool has experienced a vast influx of Syrian
children as a result ( “Turkey”). The continued economic growth of Turkey brings a glaring need
for foreign labor, most readily available from the vast swaths of refugees emerging from Syria.
As a result both the Ottoman and Turkish states utilized and continue to utilize ethnic labor in
their domains, in order to fuel their own ends. In both scenarios however, such wanton violation
of liberty runs the risk of equally tremendous backfiring.
The Janissary order, and therefore the Devshirme institution, was a critical factor in the
destruction of the Ottoman Empire because of the empowerment of its slavepopulace.
With a developing Turkish economy, it may be possible that integrated Syrians could one day pose a
similar threat to Turkish Sweatshops. Where they had once been forced to remain celibate, the
Janissaries were granted the right to hereditary succession and marriage in 1579, immediately
following the death of the Grand Vizier Sokollu Mehmed Pasha (Radushev 12). Now holding
priority in the preservation of their family position over the continued seizure of talented
Christians, the Janissaries became dramatically reduced in their military capabilities by the end
of the sixteenth century (Davis and Hamilton). The practice of sending Janissaries as the
ferocious front line of the Ottoman army had incurred enormous and mounting casualties, which
became less and less remediable with the decline of mass Devsirme recruitment(Davis and
Hamilton). In his expedition to Egypt in 1801, Englishman J.P Morier degrades many Janissaries
as “poor effeminate Asiatics” (Morier 9). Although English accounts of the day were notoriously
insensitive to the virtues of foreign cultures, the decline of the Janissaries from Europe’s most
powerful warrior slaves to a corrupt and altogether ineffective institution is evident with such
scornful statements. Although welcomed at the time, the rise of 19th century nationalist
movements within the Ottoman Empire were exacerbated by the Devsirme model, as “The
memory of this practice left a deep impact on the historical memory of generations, often
generating negative national feelings towards the Ottoman Turks and their rule in the Balkans”
(Radushev 15).
Lastly, and most crucially, the Janissaries’ extensive powers within the empire
gave them the ability to exert influence on the Sultan himself, even gaining the right to remove a
Sultan at will throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries (Davis and Hamilton). Due to
this, the Janissaries’ extensive powers allowed them to force the Sultan to abandon the Devsirme
practice, in turn permanently moulding the Janissaries into a poorly trained group of extortionists
and bullies ( Radushev 3). The Devsirme System crumbled down upon itself once the captured
masses of Balkan Christians gained the necessary foothold in the Ottoman system to exert
genuine influence on society. If in some time in the distant future, Syrian refugees can advance
up the ladder through their efforts in the Turkish industry, they may find the voice to speak out
against the illicit working conditions that they were put through. If this was to be fully revealed
and protested against, the growing Turkish economy may be put in jeopardy with increased
apprehension by the international community. In both realities, Turkish and Ottoman, the power
of those placed under laborious conditions can rise to make their voices heard, and present no
end of trouble to those that once lorded over them.
The Devsirme System, which helped define Ottoman Turkey for centuries, lives on in the
Turkish utilization of Syrian migrant workers. The displacement of ethnic minorities for the sake
of labor towards the state are indisputably identical in nature for both sides, as is the placement
of these groups towards fields of great use to the country in question. A process of assimilating
the minority demographic within their labors remains stalwart amongst the two, as is the
acceptance of their new place in society by both oppressed Balkan Christians and Syrians.
Lastly, the rise in power and influence for both groups could be seen as the death knells for both
systems, as the very oppressors found themselves treading in deeper waters than they could have
ever imagined. The Ottoman model, efficient, swift, and unspoken, proved that it’s unsettling
methods can survive in an everglobalized and increasingly humanitarian world. One need only
know where to look.
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