37
years.
53
Ottoman ambassadors were in an intermediary role
between Iranian government and the opposition.
54
After the armed conflict ended in 1823, the main
problem between Ottoman Empire and Iran became
territorial disputes. Having started in 1845, consultations
ended in 1847 Erzurum Treaty.
55
Being a member of the
Iranian delegation and having stayed in Ottoman lands for
four years during these consultations, Mirza Taki Khan
Amiri Kabir adopted some of the new financial,
administrative and consultative parliamentary systems as
well as modern schools, health and quarantine systems and
postal administration as he observed in the Ottoman Empire.
Considered to be the first great reformer of his country,
Amiri Kabir implemented reforms that were not even at
work in the Ottoman Empire.
56
Another Iranian statesman
Mirza Hussein Khan (Sipahsalar) Müşüriddeyle, resided in
the Ottoman lands as the representative of Iranian
government and after his return to his country, he served at
several ministry posts as well as the head of state. Mirza
Hussein Khan lived in the Ottoman capital for many years
and became close
friends with Sultan Abdulaziz, some of the
Young Turks such as Ali Pasha, Fuat Pasha, Mahmut Nedim
Pasha and Mithat Pasha. A close follower of the First
Constitutional Era, Mirza Hussein Khan tried to implement
similar applications in justice system of the Ottoman State in
Iran.
57
A group of Iranians who were exiles or illegal
settlers due to political and religious persecution lived in
Ottoman lands all along. However, the majority of Iranians
in the Ottoman Empire were merchants of Azerbaijani origin
53
Meclis-i Mebusan Zabıt Cerideleri- I, Ankara, 1982, p, 1113-115.
54
Algar,
op.cit.., s.228.
55
For Erzurum Treaty, its results and other treaties see Kaiyan Homi
Kaikobad,
The Shatt-al Arab Boundary Question, Oxford, 1988.
56
When he was on the verge of contributing to Ottoman-Iranian relations,
Amiri Kabir was taken down and strangled as a result of discontent with
reforms that he had pioneered. Feridun Ademiyet,
Amir-i Kabir va İran, 7.
Çap, Tahran, 1360; H. J. Lorentz, “ Iran’s Great Reformer of the
Nineteenth Century Iran : An Analysis of Amir Kabir’s Reform”,
Iranian
Studies, No: 4( 1971), p. 85-103; for Ottoman influence see Metin,
ibid,
pp.112-118
57
Feridun Ademiyet,
Endişeha-yı Terakki va Hükümet-e Kanun, Asrı
Sipehsalar, Tahran, 1351, pp. 142- 260; Farmanyan,
ibid.,p. 123-126;
Algar,
op.cit., p. 169-183; for Ottoman influence, see Metin, ss.121-125.