REMEMBERING "THE TURKISH TIGER WHO TAMED THE RUSSIAN BEAR AT "PLEVNE"

(An Editorial)

Mahmut Esat Ozan
The Turkish Forum

AUGUST 30, THE VICTORY DAY

As it is every year, August 30 is the occasion when Turks celebrate
Many victories of the Turkish Independence War against the Greek invaders (1919-1922). In past essays I had contributed stories of that sort. This year I am offering another example of victory from the glorious Turkish history: THE SIEGE AND THE DEFENSE OF PLEVNE- BY OSMAN PASHA THE HEROIC
TURKISH MILITARY GENIUS


The 500-year-long administration by the Turks of the region known as The Balkans constitutes the most extensive period for one nation's ruling Of another, found in the annals of world history. Ridiculed even today, This incredibly long period of governance was accomplished not by terror as The contemporary European and Serbian writers want you to believe, but by An almost magical formula of tolerance shown by the Ottoman Turks to the
populace of the lands acquired in wars, and the freedom granted by them to the various existing cultures to govern themselves the way they wanted. It was a new idea of governance and it worked for five long centuries, covering a span of time beginning roughly with the discovery of the New World and lasting up to the end of the American Civil War. When the Ottoman Turks occupied these Balkan lands, the peasantry was subjected to much lower taxes and work requirements than they had under their Previous Christian landlords.

Even though the Ottoman Turks have been out of the Balkans for a long time, Bosnians today are still representing the vestiges of that long nostalgic presence of theirs. The descendants of the old Turkish colonizers can also be found today in Albania, Macedonia, Kosovo, Greece and Bulgaria. It was in fact in an Ottoman territory which is known Today as Bulgaria that one of the great occurrences of heroism the world has ever known took place.

In the year l877, in a small Balkan village called Plevne a handful of
soldiers of a bedraggled army of Turks stopped cold the enormous forces of the Czar of Russia. Just like the defenders of Sarajevo of a few years ago, they also were pinned-down by a huge infantry surrounding them, being bombarded day and night by heavy artillery positions from all sides. They were cut off from all civilization. They were sure to perish in the sun-baked fields of their outpost with no ammunition, no supplies of any kind, and above all, no food of any description.

Looking at recent situations in Bosnia, and in Kosovo, the
Unquestionable heroism of the Muslim population becomes doubly meaningful if one assesses what's been happening there. With the indecisive, unfair policy of the Western powers in clear view, one comes to the conclusion that the World must bow its head in deepest respect to the inhabitants of Sarajevo as it had done for the heroic defenders of Plevne a century earlier.

A former Yugoslav diplomat by the name of Civijeto Job, wrote the
following in a recent article published in a Belgrade-based Serbian
newspaper Vreme. "Whatever happens, the world must now bow in deepest gratitude to Sarajevo and its heroic stand. For it has held up for many months a mirror in which the world governments can see themselves. The picture is not reassuring."

In l877, the Czar of the mighty Russian Empire, Alexander II was waging war upon the Turks, determined to take over the country and come down to the all-important Dardanelles. The war had been going on for some time. It was said that a once mighty Ottoman Empire was now standing on its last legs. The Turkish General defending the outpost in the village of Plevne in what is now Bulgaria, was General Osman, or Osman Pasha as he was
Known to the Turks. He would soon display a legendary heroism of epic proportions.

During the siege, Osman Pasha gathered his troops and his commanders And told them without emotion, his pale blue eyes leveled on them, that the fate of the Ottoman Empire rested now on their shoulders.

A rare photo of Osman Pasha

  "The Russians are good soldiers," Osman Pasha told them. "They are brave, determined. But," he added, "we beat them before. We will beat them again. On no account must you be afraid of them. We will make them run again today.

But you must have confidence in me. Above all, you must have
Confidence in yourselves. Remember if we fail, our country dies."

The men present shouted: "We shall never forget that, Your Excellency." "The blessings of Allah upon you, my sons," Osman Pasha said. "The blessings of Allah upon you also, Your Excellency." As Osman Pasha turned and galloped away, the men looked after him In hushed silence. Their eyes glistened with adoration.

At 5:30 the next morning, the Russian General, Krudener, opened his assault on the Turkish Army. Crouching in the bushes and the ravines, the Turks waited grimly for the command to open fire. It came in the sound of a piercing bugle call. In a second, the soft, hushed beauty of the morning exploded into a shrieking, insane chaos of war. All day long, without let-up, this insanity continued.

The Turks succeeded to hurl back the Russian attacks one after another. An hour before sunset, General Krudener finally was forced to call a Halt to the swiftly crumbling Russian offensive. Defeated disastrously in every sector, the Russian dead totaled 4000 men. The first Russian attack had failed. That evening the correspondent of the Daily Telegraph in London, sent a story to his paper about the amazing victory of Osman Pasha in Plevne. He ended the article with this eulogy of the Turkish General. "Osman Pasha is more than a great general. He is a great leader of men. When he orders an attack, he does not say 'go' to his soldiers. He says 'come, follow me.'"

Giving himself no rest, Osman Pasha began to prepare for the next
Russian offensive. The battle of Plevne, he knew, had just begun.

A keen student of the American Civil War, Osman Pasha decided to fortify his positions with earthen redoubts, a defensive tactic that had been greatly employed by the Confederacy during the Civil War.

His men digging day and night, constructed two great redoubts on a ridge. They were flanked on either side by rows of trenches. In spite of the fact that he was heavily outnumbered by the enemy, Osman Pasha coolly withdrew 5,000 men completely from the battle zone, concealing them in the hills to the south of Plevne. This strategy totally confused the Russians. Attack after attack of theirs were repulsed by a small contingency of Turkish soldiers.

At the end of the battle more than 8,000 Russians lay dead on the
battlefield. It was a bad, bad day for the Russians. The brilliance
of Osman Pasha's leadership, combined with the staunchness of his troops not only astonished Europe, but also helped dull the edge of anti-Turkish feeling that gripped the Christian countries.

In England, the Prime Minister, Lord Disraeli harping on the theme that the Russian attack on Turkey was a shameless act of conquest, found that people were suddenly, and finally, showing interest in what he had to say.

In Turkey, just a week earlier, the collapse of the Ottoman Empire
Seemed imminent. But Osman's victory put new life into his people. It gave Them back their pride, their honor. The Turkish general went on to tell his troops that the battle for Plevne was not yet over, that he Russians were sure to return in far greater strength, that the enemy needed Plevne more than it needed Constantinople or the Dardanelles.

It was a grim speech, but Osman's men, their faces full of pride, heard him out unflinchingly. By September of that year, the Russians under a new commander, Prince Skobeleff were ready to resume the battle for Plevne. Over l00,000 Russian soldiers, plus l0,000 Romanian troops were poised For the word to attack.

Inside Plevne, Osman, his forces at the ready, was awaiting the enemy's assault. The Turkish general was aware that there wasn't a military expert in Europe who gave him a ghost of a chance against the Russians.

The great Russian assault began on September ll. Besides the forces under the command of General Skobeleff, the two adjacent armies of General Zotoff and Kriloff surged forward in a concerted drive on Osman's northwestern line. But the Turkish fire power proved to be enormous. It stopped the Russians dead in their tracks. Within a matter of seconds, the enemy had lost half of its attacking force. By the time the Russian reserves arrived on the scene, the original attacking forces were in chaotic retreat.

That afternoon Skobeleff, at the head of 7,000 reserves rushed back to The "Krishnin" redoubt. When he saw the Turkish Crescent and Star flying Over the fortress, the Russian general let out a wild cry of pain. "All is lost," he said "All is lost." Europe was electrified by the news of Russian defeat at Plevne. People could hardly believe that the mighty Russian hordes had been defeated by a handful of Turks. The name of Osman Pasha rang throughout the world.

A great Turkish general

His leadership and his military genius made him the man of the hour. Public sympathy heretofore strongly pro-Russian veered sharply to the Turks. In Russia, a stunned and dejected Czar refused to let his Generals test their skill against Osman Pasha any further. The Czar gave orders for Plevne to be starved into submission.

Thousands and thousands of fresh Russian troops were brought to the Scene for the purpose of encircling and blockading the little town.

Days followed into weeks, weeks, into months. The siege continued. Food and fuel supplies quickly ran out in Plevne. Within the next few weeks, disease and hunger stalked the little town. Misery was everywhere. The dead littered the streets. The living were forced to eat the soles of their shoes to stay alive.

On November l3, the Grand Duke sent a personal letter to Osman begging him to surrender "in the name of humanity."

Osman Pasha refused. The motley army that the Sultan put together from Syrians, Palestinians and Circassians took to their heels at the first sight of the enemy soon after their arrival from Turkey. Upon the rout of this army, Osman decided to make a break-through of the Russian lines using the Turkish conscribes. His soldiers all declared that they preferred it to an abject surrender.

On December l0 the last battle of Plevne occurred. It was a terrible
And sublime spectacle as a handful of Turks went marching on the double Across the plain towards the massed Russian army.

Behind the heroes of Plevne rode their leader, Osman Pasha. In the
Face of devastating artillery barrage, Turks swept on like a whirlwind. Now with Osman in the lead they smashed in and over the first two rows of Russian trenches. As the Turks gathered for their third charge, a Stray bullet hit Osman Pasha and he suddenly toppled from his horse. Believing that Osman was dead and not just wounded, the grief-stricken Turkish soldiers were in disarray. The battle was already over.

At 1:00 p.m. the same day, Osman Pasha surrendered to the Russians. Skobeleff, who was present at the historic moment, refused to receive The Turkish General's saber, and told him: "You are a great general. You Have saved the honor and dignity of your country."

Osman replied, "I know only that I have lost the war."

"No," replied Skobeleff, "I'm afraid you have won the war." Skobeleff
proved to be right. Osman Pasha had indeed won the war. All Europe was entranced by the heroism of Osman Pasha and his men. All over the continent of Europe, especially in England, hundreds upon hundreds of newborn babes were named after the Turkish general.

Osman Pasha, freed by the Russians the following year in l878, returned To a triumphant reception in Istanbul. He was appointed the
Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial Guard, and the following year as the Minister of War. He died in 1900, but in Turkey he will always be remembered as the "Turkish Tiger, who tamed the Russian bear."