Akademik Düşünce Dergisi

Abstract

Revolution movement of 1848 was one of the most echoing events of the 19th century, especially in Europe. In this process, which almost brought the Russian, Austrian and Ottoman Empires to the brink of war, asylum of Hungarian refugees to the Ottoman Empire caused a major diplomatic crisis. This crisis is called “the question of refugees.” Despite all the external pressures of Austria and Russia, the Ottoman Empire refused the extradition of refugees in her territory. Accordingly, Ottoman diplomacy was important in terms of showing that it has evolved as a soft power in the international area with this crisis which emerged during and after the refugees entered the lands of the Ottoman Empire. The aim of this study is to examine the diplomacy carried out by the Ottoman Empire during the refugee question and also try to evaluate it with the concept of hospitality and its reflections on the international field. During the study, the reasons behind the opening the doors and extending a helping hand of the Ottoman Empire to refugees are investigated. For this reason, it has been tried to analyze whether the approach put forward by international level corresponds to the definitions of hospitality enounced by Derrida and Kant. Therefore, the purpose of the study analyzing the concept of hospitality through the activities carried out by the Ottoman Empire in the case of 1848/49 Hungarian Refugee Question has directed previous studies dealing with “the question of refugees” including books, research papers and a thesis involving archive documents; rather researching into archive documents directly.