Italian Academy: Our commercial relations with Turkey back to Ottoman era

A member of the faculty at the University of “Ca ‘Foscari” Italian, based in Venice, Dr. Vera Constantini called for the development of Turkish-Italian relations.

She praised the strong relations that bind the Republic of Venice and the Ottoman Empire throughout history, and its important role in the prosperity of the two countries.

Konstantini, a professor at the Department of Turkish Language and Literature at the Department of Mediterranean, African and Asian Studies at Ca ‘Foscari University, stated.

The city of Venice, which this year celebrates its 1600th anniversary, has forged close ties with the Turks throughout history.

Constantini stated that she studied Ottoman history at the University of Venice upon the recommendation of the famous Italian economist, Professor Rogiero Romano, and that these studies drew the features of her career.

She added: Professor Romano asked me to conduct studies on Ottoman Turkish history and language.

This is instead of working in the archives of Venice, which Italian academics used to conduct studies in their archives.

I conducted a lot of research in this field and learned Ottoman Turkish in Italy and Istanbul in order to research the history of Venice based on what was mentioned in the Ottoman sources.

Constantine pointed out that the issue of relations between Venice and the Ottoman Empire was not a common topic in history research in Italy.

Unfortunately, she said, very few academics paid attention to this field, and there could be ideological reasons behind this.

Nevertheless, I had to study the history of relations between Venice and the Ottoman Empire, as it was of a special importance that contributed to the development of the Venetian Republic and its commercial and economic richness.

And she continued: The Republic of Venice has realized the importance of building close relations with the Ottoman Empire, which went beyond good-neighborly relations.

Despite their war over Cyprus in 1570, relations quickly regained their momentum.

The Venetians put up a very important project after they lost Cyprus at the end of the sixteenth century.

Where they focused more on the Balkans after the British began to expand their commercial activities in the eastern and southern Mediterranean.

And she went on to say: The goods used to come to Bosnia via Anatolia, Istanbul and Edirne, before they reached Venice without paying taxes, which created good competition conditions for Venetian merchants and merchants from outside it.

Konstantini explained that the Republic of Venice allocated the “Fondaco dei Turchi” Palace, also known as “Turkish Khan”, for merchants from the Ottoman Empire, especially Bosnia.

Venice also provided Muslim merchants with all means of comfort, safety and places of worship, noting that the Venetian Mosque that was built is considered the first mosque built in Europe outside the lands that were affiliated with Islamic countries.

She said: In the seventeenth century, the word Turki was synonymous with the word Muslim.

It does not matter if this person came from Bosnia or Anatolia or anywhere else, it is sufficient for him to be a Muslim to be a Turkish in Venice.

Constantine criticized the foreign policies pursued by Italy now, noting that this policy is not similar to the one pursued by the Republic of Venice.

Rome and Venice together should strengthen friendly relations with Turkey, the state and the people, including academic relations.

She added: In fact, we have good cooperation relations with Turkish universities, as well as with historians interested in Ottoman history.

We have been studying history and joint relations in order to shed light on those relationships and the extent of their development in the past.

Founding of the Venice-based Friendship Association

Constantini expressed Turkey’s openness to strengthening relations with Italy and Venice, despite the rise in racist anti-Turkish voices in Italy.

Noting that she is working on organizing activities at the university to overcome these voices.

She concluded by saying: In this context, we decided with a group of academics in Italy to establish the Italian-Turkish Friendship Association in Venice.

In fact, we want to shed light on the importance of relations, their dimensions, their usefulness to the peoples of the region, and how they developed historically, based on documents in the Ottoman and Italian archives.