International Tobacco Politics and the Question of Social Movements in the Middle East

A proliferation of scholarly works offering a variety of modernization experiences facilitated an understanding of social protests in non-western settings. Focusing on the initial stages of modern social movements in Iran and the Ottoman Empire, this study makes a comparative analysis of the tobacco protests at the turn of the twentieth century. The social protests against foreign tobacco monopolies are regarded as a key moment for the emergence of modern social movements in these countries. Scrutinizing the negotiation strategies, social value systems and political structures of these countries, it is suggested that these tobacco protests played a catalytic role in the process of capitalist incorporation and adaptation to the accompanying value systems of modernism and liberal democracy. Notes1. Totalizing judgements on the peripheral regions are discussed here mainly in reference to the seminal work of I. Wallerstein criticizing Eurocentrism. See I. Wallerstein, ‘Eurocentrism and Its Avatars: The Dilemmas of Social Science’, Keynote address at ISA East Asian Regional Colloquium: ‘The Future of Sociology in East Asia’, 22–23 Nov. 1996, Seoul, Korea. See also N. Hostettler, Eurocentrism: A Marxian Critical Realist Critique (New York: Routledge, 2012).2. See R. Shecher, Smoking, Culture and Economy in the Middle East: The Egyptian Tobacco Market (New York: I.B. Tauris, 2006).3. See M.H. Abisaab, A History of Women Tobacco Workers: Labor, Community and Social Transformation in Lebanon, 1895–1997 (Binghamton: University of New York at Binghamton, 2001).4. See J. Benin and Z. Lockman, Workers on the Nile: Nationalism, Communism, Islam and the Egyptian Working Class (Cairo: The American University Press in Cairo, 1998).5. See I. Wallerstein, The Modern World System (New York: Academic Press, 1974).6. For a detailed analysis of the capitalist incorporation of Ottoman Empire, see H. İslamoğlu-İnan (ed.), The Ottoman Empire and the World Economy (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990); R. Kasaba, The Ottoman Empire and the World Economy: The Nineteenth Century (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1988). For a detailed analysis of the capitalist incorporation of the Iranian society, see H. Amirahmahdi, The Political Economy of Iran under the Qajars: Society, Politics and Foreign Relations 1799 to 1921 (New York: I.B. Tauris, 2012).7. See Ş. Pamuk. Osmanlı Ekonomisinde Bağımlılık ve Büyüme, 1820–1913 (İstanbul: Tarih Vakfı Yurt Yayınları, 1994).8. For the devastating effects of capitalist incorporation and the alternative strategies of the local manufacturers, see D. Quataert, Ottoman Manufacturing in the Age of Industrial Revolution (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993).9. For further information on the Régie Company, see F. Dığıroğlu, Trabzon Reji İdaresi 1883–1914 (İstanbul: Osmanlı Bankası Arşiv ve Araştırma Merkezi, 2007).10. For a detailed analysis of smuggling in the Ottoman tobacco sector, see D. Quataert, Social Disintegration and Popular Resistance in the Ottoman Empire 1881–1908: Reactions to European Economic Penetration (New York: New York University Press, 1983), pp.163–87; O. Gökdemir, ‘Osmanlı Tütün Tarımında Reji Kolculuğu’, Toplumsal Tarih, No.190 (1999), pp.51–8; M. Temel, ‘Osmanlı Devleti’nin Son Döneminde Tütün Politikası ve Artan Tütün Kaçakçılığı’, Toplumsal Tarih, No.158 (2001), pp.4–11.11. For the criticisms on the Régie administration and several different methods to replace this administration, see İ.N. Dilmen, Türkiye’de Tütün Meselesinin En iyi Çare-i Hali Hakkında: İnhisar ve Bandrol Usullerinin Mukayesesi (İstanbul: Vatan Matbaası, 1922); F. Georgeon, ‘Tütün Reji'sinden Tekel’e Cumhuriyet’in İlk Yıllarında Tütün Sorunu’, in F. Georgeon (ed.), Osmanlı-Türk Modernleşmesi (1900–1930) (İstanbul: Yapı Kredi, 2013), pp.179–86; T. Oktar, ‘Osmanlı Devletinde Reji Şirketinin Kurulmasından Sonraki Gelişmeler’, in E.G. Naskali (ed.), Tütün Kitabı (İstanbul: Kitabevi, 2003), pp.45–71.12. S. Balaghi, ‘Nationalism and Cultural Production in Iran’ (Ph.D. diss., The University of Michigan, 2008).13. H. Braun, ‘Iran in the 19th and 20th Centuries’, in H. Scheel et al. (eds.), The Muslim World (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1981), pp.71–2.14. E. Abrahamian, Iran between Two Revolutions (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2006), p.73.15. For further information on the railroad building initiatives in the Ottoman Empire, see M.E. Bonine, ‘The Introduction of Railroads in the Eastern Mediterranean: Economic and Social Impacts’, in T. Philipp and B. Schabler (eds.), The Syrian Land: Process of Integration and Fragmentation (Stuttgart: Steiner, 1998), pp.52–78.16. Ibid., p.56.17. N.R. Keddie, Religion and Rebellion in Iran: The Tobacco Protest of 1891–1892 (London: Cass, 1966), pp.50–51.18. H.E. Chehabi, The Liberation Movement of Iran under the Shah and Khomeini (London: I.B. Tauris, 1990), pp.9–10. See also M.H. Malek, ‘Capitalism in Nineteen Century Iran’, Middle Eastern Studies, No.27 (1991), pp.67–78.19. Shecher, Smoking, Culture and Economy in the Middle East, p.77.20. H.N. Erikson, Türkiye Tütünleri (İstanbul: n.p., 1954), p.51.21. The offer of the company was rejected by the Ottoman state administration, BOA Y PRK UM, 76/90, 30.Ca.1323.22. BOA DH MKT, 1018/38, 19 Ş 1323; BOA MV, 115/18, 11 M 1325; BOA DH MKT, 2611/113, 14 S 1325; BOA ŞD, 2751/58, 28 M 1325.23. Keddie, Religion and Rebellion in Iran, p.44.24. Ibid., p.39.25. S. Kinzer, ‘Inside Iran's Fury’, Smithsonian Magazine (Oct. 2008), p.3.26. See H. Avni, Bir Yarım Müstemleke OluşTarihi (İstanbul: Sinan Matbaası Neşriyat Evi, 1932); V. Eldem, Osmanlı İmparatorluğu’nun İktisadi Şartları Hakkında bir Tetkik (Ankara: Türkiye İş Bankası Kültür Yayınları, 1970); D.C. Blaisdell, Osmanlı İmparatorluğu’nda Avrupa Mali Denetimi: Osmanlı Düyun-u Umumiye İdaresi’nin Anlamı, Kuruluşu ve Faaliyeti, trans. A.İ. Dalgıç (İstanbul: İstanbul Matbaası, 1979).27. E.L. Daniel, The History of Iran (Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO, LLC, 2012), p.118.28. Oktar, ‘Osmanlı Devletinde Reji Şirketinin Kurulmasından Sonraki Gelişmeler’, p.48.29. See D. Quataert, Social Disintegration and Popular Resistance in the Ottoman Empire (New York: New York University Press, 1983). Note that a similar argument was put forward by Hüseyin Avni, before Quataert. See H. Avni, Bir Yarım Müstemleke Oluş Tarihi (İstanbul: Sinan Matbaası Neşriyat Evi, 1932), pp.40–42.30. J. Scott, Weapons of the Week: Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1985).31. For further details on the folk songs about tobacco smugglers, see S. Şenel, ‘Ayıngacı Türküleri’, in Naskali (ed.), Tütün Kitabı, pp.361–415.32. The collaborating parties in the case examined by Ali Karaca are comprised of the local merchants, local administrators and the Régie Company against the smugglers. See A. Karaca, ‘Osmanlı İmparatorluğu’nda Reji ve Tütün Kaçakçılığında Trabzon Örneği: Bir Yabancı Sermaye Serüveni’, in Naskali (ed.), Tütün Kitabı, pp.56–74.33. BOA TFR I SL, 67/6601, 1323.1.20; BOA TFR I SL, 43/4268, 1322.4.8.34. Dönüm is a unit of measurement equal to 1000 or 920 square metres.35. BOA TFR I SL, 35/3486, 1322.1.24; BOA TFR I SL, 40/3981, 1322.3.14; BOA TFR I SL, 42/4110, 1322.3.24. BOA TFR I SL, 11/1032, 1321.2.21.36. BOA DH MKT, 2885/92, 1327 B 09.37. BOA TFR I SL, 48/4775, 1322.5.27.38. BOA TFR I SL, 67/6615, 1323.1.2; BOA TFR I SL, 35/3478, 1322.1.23; BOA TFR I SL, 37/3650, 1322.2.10; BOA TFR I SL, 38/3797, 1322.2.27; BOA TFR I SL, 39/3890, 1322.3.7; BOA TFR I SL, 40/3905, 1322.3.8; BOA TFR I SL, 40/3985, 1322.3.14; BOA TFR I SL, 41/4001, 1322.3.15; BOA TFR I SL, 50/4936, 1322.6.15.39. BOA TFR I SL, 7/698, 1321.1.7.40. BOA TFR I SL, 47/4693, 1322.5.18; BOA TFR I SL, 48/4713, 1322.5.20; BOA TFR I SL, 205/20454, 1327.1.23; BOA TFR I SL, 214/21309, 1327.7.8.41. A.J. Panayotopoulos, ‘On the Economic Activities of the Anatolian Greeks from the Mid Nineteenth Century to Early Twentieth’, DKMS, No.4 (1983), p.115.42. Report on the Tobacco Congress held in Drama, Drama Tütüncü Kongresi, 1 Aug. 1326 (1910).43. BOA Y PRK ASK, 227/86, 17 M 1323.44. For further information on the labour activism of the cigarette factory workers, see D. Quataert, ‘The Workers of Salonica’, in D. Quataert and E. Zürcher (eds.), Workers and the Working Class in the Ottoman Empire and Turkish Republic 1839–1950 (London and New York: Tauris Academic Studies in Association with the International Institute of Social History, 1995); P. Dumont and G. Haupt, Osmanlı İmparatorluğu’nda Sosyalist Hareketler (İstanbul: Gözlem Yayınları, 1977); O. Hakkı, ‘1908 İşçi Hareketleri ve Jön Türkler’, Yurt ve Dünya, No.2 (1977), pp.277–95.45. G. Balsoy, ‘Gendering Ottoman Labor History: The Cibali Régie Factory in the Early Twentieth Century’, International Review of Social History, Vol.54, No.17 (2009), pp.45–68; Ş. Güzel, ‘1908 Kadınları’, Tarih ve Toplum, No.7 (1984), pp.6–12.46. BOA DH GD, 112-1/13, 27 Ra 1331.47. C. Kurzman, Democracy Denied: 1905–1915: Intellectuals and the Fate of Democracy (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2008), p.158. Referring to the mass sit-ins and bazaar protests, Mirsepassi also views these protests as pre-modern. See A. Mirsepassi, Democracy in Iran: Islam, Culture and Political Change (New York and London: NYU Press, 2010), p.x.48. S.C. Poulson, Social Movements in Twentieth Century Iran: Culture, Ideology and Mobilizing Frameworks. (Plymouth: Lexington Books, 2006), pp.68–70.49. Abrahamian, Iran Between Two Revolutions, p.73.50. Poulson, Social Movements in Twentieth Century Iran, p.9. For further information the resource mobilization theory, see D. McAdam, J.D. McCarthy and M.N. Zald (eds.), Comparative Perspectives on Social Movements (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996).51. Note that the Babis launched one of the strongest social opposition movements in Iran in the mid-nineteenth century. For a detailed analysis of the Babi movement in Iran, see A. Amanat, Resurrection and Renewal: The Making of Babi Movement in Iran, 1844–1850 (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1989).52. S. Mahdavi, ‘Social Mobility in Qajar Iran: Haj Muhammed Hassan Amin al-Zarb’, Middle Eastern Studies, Vol.26, No.4 (1990), p.582.53. J. Foran, Fragile Resistance: Social Transformation in Iran from 1500 to the Revolution (Oxford: Westview Press, 1993), p.124.54. Abrahamian, Iran Between Two Revolutions, pp.60–61.55. C. Chang and H.A. Koster (eds.), Pastoralists at the Periphery: Herders in a Capitalist World (Tucson, Arizona: University of Arizona Press, 1994) pp.19–20.56. T. Atabaki, ‘Disgruntled Guests: Iranian Subalterns on the Margins of the Tsarist Empire’, in T. Atabaki (ed.), The State and the Subaltern: Modernization, Society and the State in Turkey and Iran (London and New York: I.B. Tauris, 2007), pp.33–4.57. Note that the population of Iran was about 5–6 million in 1800 and it reached about 10 million in 1914. C. Issawi (ed.), The Economic History of Iran 1800–1914 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1971), p.20.58. See V. Martin, The Qajar Pact: Bargaining, Protest and the State in Nineteenth Century Persia (London and New York: I.B. Tauris, 2005).59. Abrahamian, Iran Between Two Revolutions, p.48.60. Ibid., p.73.61. See V.M. Moghadam, ‘Workers and the Labor Movement in Iran’, in E.J. Goldberg (ed.), The Social History of Labor in the Middle East (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1996).62. For further information on the Socialist Workers’ Federation of Thessaloniki, see P. Dumont and G. Haupt, Osmanlı İmparatorluğu’nda Sosyalist Hareketler (İstanbul: Gözlem Yayınları, 1977).63. For further information on the struggles of the tobacco workers of Kavala, see Y. Vyzikas, Chronico ton Ergatikon Agonon [Annals of Workers’ Struggle] (Kavala: Tobacco Museum, 1994), pp.11–25.64. Keddie, Religion and Rebellion in Iran, p.78.65. Sayyid Jamal ud-Din Asadabadi, who was known as Afghani, attracted the educated younger generations in Iran and other Muslim countries and opposed European and especially British influences and activities in the East. For further information about Afghani, see E. Kedouri, Afghani and ‘Abduh: An Essay on Religious Unbelief and Political Activism in Modern Islam (London: Frank Cass & Co. Ltd, 1997); N.R. Keddie, Sayyid Jamal Ad-Din Al-Afghani: A Political Bibliography (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1972).66. Mirza Malkom Khan was a man of Armenian origin who was the pioneer of Western liberal ideas. He had been an ambassador in London. After being dismissed in 1890, he launched the newspaper Qanun (Law) and called for a constitution to limit the arbitrary powers of the Shah. For further information about Malkom Khan, see H. Algar. Mirza Malkum Khan: A Study in the History of Iranian Modernism (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973).67. Note that while Mirza Aha Khan Kirmani was directly influenced by the ideas of western socialism, Abdurrahim Talibuf Tabrizi spent his life in several parts of Russia and was experienced with the national liberation movements and the ideas of social democrats. For further details, see A. Mirsepassi, Intellectual Discourse and the Politics of Modernization: Negotiating Modernity in Iran (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000).68. Keddie, Religion and Rebellion in Iran, p.57.69. Kurzman, Democracy Denied, p.5.70. Ottoman Empire, Meclis-i Mebusan Zabıt Ceridesi [Ottoman Parliamentary Debates] (14 Kanunusani 1324/27 Jan. 1909), p.139.71. Ibid., p.141.72. Dumont and Haupt, Osmanlı İmparatorluğu’nda Sosyalist Hareketler, pp.8–9.73. Keddie, Religion and Rebellion in Iran, p.44.74. For the role of Iranian women in protests, see A.A. Mahdi, ‘The Iranian Women's Movement: A Century Long Struggle’, The Muslim World, No.94 (2004), pp.427–48

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