Journal of the Ottoman and Turkish Studies Association, Vol. 5, No. 2, pp. 25–46 Copyright © 2018 Ottoman and Turkish Studies Association. doi:10.2979/jottturstuass.5.2.05 Sultan Abdülhamid II: Founding Father of the Turkish State? (Keynote Address) Edhem Eldem AbstrAct: The central theme of this event, focusing on parallels between present-day censorship and control over the press and precedents under Sultan Abdülhamid II could be an occasion to widen this interrogation by addressing the question of possi- ble continuities between Hamidian autocracy and today’s authoritarian Turkey under Erdoğan. The exercise is all the more tempting due to the growing way in which the political party in power and its followers are actively engaged in rehabilitating and glorifying Abdülhamid. Despite obvious risks of facile comparisons and shortcuts, it seems that this approach may hold some clues as to inherent weaknesses of the Turk- ish state in the face of authoritarian trends and ambitions. I have always feared and avoided long-term comparisons between past and present, especially when they were triggered by a political context or agenda begging for such an exercise. In Turkey, where history has constantly fallen prey to political and ideological goals and struggles, such shortcuts have fre- quently been used and abused, in most cases with an appalling lack of his- torical sensitivity and commonsense. The Turkish Republic, especially in the heyday of Kemalism, was particularly fond of advertising its achievements by resorting to before and after images that contrasted the traditional/underdevel- oped/Oriental outlook of Ottoman times with the modern/developed/Western showcase of the new regime. I can think of only very few recent cases, where a certain sense of humor gave a redeeming and subversive touch to an otherwise ahistorical context. Thus, the image that was created by subverting Mustafa Kemal’s iconic “blackboard” photograph of 1928 (Figure 1) at a moment when Prime Minister Erdoğan was advocating the teaching of Ottoman Turkish at high school level was a playful and witty way of addressing what turned out to be a temporary whim. 1 1. https://galeri14.uludagsozluk.com/883/reyiz_1668832.jpg.