Please Deny These Manifestly False Reports”

Similar to ruling elites in Western Europe, the Ottomans were preoccupied with foreign “public opinion” regarding their state. Historians have devoted attention to Ottoman state efforts at image building abroad and, to a lesser degree, related attempts to influence the European mass press. Yet, an in-depth study of this subject is lacking. This article turns to one of the prime, though largely neglected, actors in Ottoman foreign policy making: the sultan's diplomats. Through a case study of Ottoman envoys to Belgium, it demonstrates how foreign “press management” evolved and was adapted to shifting domestic and international political circumstances. Increasingly systematic attempts to influence Belgian newspapers can be discerned from the reign of Abdülhamid II onward. Brokers between Istanbul and “liberal” Belgium's thriving newspaper business, Ottoman diplomats proved essential to this development. Ultimately, however, Ottoman efforts to counter Belgian (and European) news coverage of the empire had little impact and occasionally even worked counterproductively, generating the very Orientalist images they aimed to combat in the first place

Ancient history · Economic history · Foreign policy · Newspaper · Orientalism · Ottoman empire · Political science · Politics · Public opinion · Reign · Social science · Sociology · State (computer science · Thriving · European Cultural and National Identity · Historical Art and Culture Studies · Historical Influence and Diplomacy · History · Law

• Britain and the ending of the slave trade

  Suzanne Miers•Britain and the ending of the…•1974

  Incluir item

• Bureaucratic Reform in the Ottoman Empire

  Carter Vaughn Findley•Bureaucratic Reform in the…•2012

  Incluir item

• The Great Game of Genocide

  Donald Bloxham•The great game of genocide•2005

  Incluir item

• The Young Turks In Opposition

  M Şükrü Hanioğlu•The Young Turks in opposition•1995

  Incluir item

• Ottoman Civil Officialdom

  Carter Vaughn Findley•Ottoman Civil Officialdom•1989

  Incluir item

• The press and the palace

  Open Access•Ebru Boyar•Bulletin of the School of…•2006

  Incluir item

• The Eastern Mediterranean and the Making of Global Radicalism, 1860-1914

  Ilham Khuri-Makdisi•The Eastern Mediterranean and the…•2010

  Incluir item

• The War for the Public Mind

  Robert J Goldstein•The War for the Public Mind•2000

  Incluir item

• La légation d'Allemagne, la presse et les milieux de presse bruxellois entre 1887 et 1914

  Jacques Willequet•Revue belge de philologie et d…•1958

  Incluir item

• The Debate on the Early ‘Armenian Question’ 1877–1896

  Brad Dennis•Middle East Critique•2011

  Incluir item

• The Armenian massacre in Istanbul (1896)

  Open Access•Sinan Dinçer•TSEG/ Low Countries Journal of…•2013

  Incluir item

• Muckraker

  Helena Goodwyn•Journalism Studies•2012

  Incluir item

• Foundations of Modernity. Human Agency and the Imperial State

  Isabel DiVanna•Rethinking History•2013

  Incluir item

• International History and the Study of Public Opinion

  Daniel Hucker•The International History Review•2012

  Incluir item

• The Diplomats' World

  H Wayne Morgan•The SHAFR Guide Online•2017

  Incluir item

• Lavigerie, l'esclavage africain et l'Europe, 1868-1892

  J R Hooker, Francois Renault•The American Historical Review•1975

  Incluir item

• The practice of diplomacy

  James Cable•International Affairs•1995

  Incluir item

• The Armenian Rebellion at Van

  Yücel Güçlü•Mediterranean Quarterly•2007

  Incluir item

• Heroes of EmpireFive Charismatic Men and the Conquest of Africa

  Edward Berenson•Heroes of empire•2010

  Incluir item

• Heroes of Empire

  William J Bramwell, W Bramwell•French History•2011

  Incluir item

• Communication and Empire

  Dwayne Winseck, Robert M Pike et al.•Communication and Empire•2007

  Incluir item

• Slavery in the Ottoman Empire and its Demise 1800–1909

  Open Access•Yusuf Hakan Erdem•Slavery in the Ottoman Empire and…•1996

  Incluir item

• Ottoman Censorship in Lebanon and Syria, 1876–1908

  Open Access•Donald J Cioeta•International Journal Middle East…•1979

  Incluir item

• The Ottoman Slave Trade and Its Suppression

  Philip S Khoury, Ehud R Toledano•Ottoman Slave Trade and Its…•1983

  Incluir item

• Down in Turkey, far away

  Margaret Lavinia Anderson•The Journal of Modern History•2007

  Incluir item

• The Ottoman Slave Trade and Its Suppression 1840-1890

  Michelle Dyer, Mark Dyer et al.•The International Journal of…•1983

  Incluir item

• Britain and the Ending of the Slave Trade

  M A Klein, Suzanne Mier et al.•Canadian Journal of African…•1976

  Incluir item