"French and Turkish troops were treated side by side by nuns.." What a lie!!!
rick murphy
The article says: "French and Turkish troops were treated side by side
by nuns.."
That is not true at all. The Turkish people of all ages forced to be
Ottoman soldiers and sent to fight the Crimean War for the Ottoman
Empire. Turks under Ottoman flag were forced to do another job which
was to carry French and English dead and wounded on their backs to the
rears let alone "being treated side by side with French (and British)
soldiers.
Malindin, the nun says: “I am retired but still spend time with
patients for the sake of God. They need love and mercy because they
are like children. Most of them do not have family. They are alone and
poor. They do not have enough money to cover their expenses."
The Turks who were forced to fight Ottoman wars did not have families;
they were alone and poor, and needed love and mercy at the Ottoman
killing fields. But the Ottoman system of oppression did not care for
them. The wellfare of French and English soldiers was more
important.
+++++++++++++++++
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=la-paix-2009-10-30
150-year-old hospital endures challenge of time
Friday, October 30, 2009
ŞAHİKA TEMÜR
ISTANBUL – Hürriyet Daily News
Istanbul's La Paix Hospital is a standing testament to tolerance in
the Ottoman Empire. It is also a poignant reminder of the Crimean War,
when French and Turkish troops were treated side by side by nuns who
would later found La Paix with the help of Sultan Abdülmecid
Nuns have continued to heal the sick and feed the poor in Istanbul for
more than 150 years despite wars, feuds, conflicts and coups.
They were originally invited to help in Ottoman military hospitals set
up for the Crimean War in the 1850s, which pitted the Ottomans, France
and Britain against Russia. Afterward the nuns were rewarded with land
for their own hospital, La Paix, which opened in 1858. Today the
legacy of these nuns from France continues through Sister Maria
Malpartida and Sister Andrée Malindin.
The sisters are working at La Paix today on behalf of the Daughters of
Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, an international community of nuns.
They follow in the footsteps of the Filles de la Charité nuns who left
their mark on Istanbul during the Ottoman era.
In 1854, 255 French nuns came to tend to wounded and sick Turkish and
French soldiers, as well as injured or poor civilians. They directed
14 mobile hospitals, each with 80 beds and 24 barracks.
After the war, Ottoman Sultan Abdülmecid I wanted to show his
appreciation to Filles de la Charité and allotted 8,000 square meters
in Sisli, which was on the edge of the city at the time. He also
donated approximately 50,000 franks for construction. La Paix opened
in 1858 with 12 patients on its first day.
Today Malpartida is the director of La Paix and said she sees the
hospital as her home and homeless people sheltering there as her
family. The Peruvian sister said she became a nun when she was 19
after being impressed by the Paris-based St. Vincent de Paul group’s
volunteer work in Peru. Today, she is 45 and still embraces patients
with open arms.
“When I help patients I feel very happy because I am doing this for
God’s sake,” said Malpartida. “We talk to patients and feed them. We
sometimes host tea parties and stroll through the garden.”
Malindin is another long-time, faithful figure at La Paix. Malindin
became a nun when she was 21. She left France and came to Istanbul
decades ago. She is now 79 and lives a reclusive life as a permanent
resident in the hospital.
“I am retired but still spend time with patients for the sake of God.
They need love and mercy because they are like children,” she said.
“Most of them do not have family. They are alone and poor. They do not
have enough money to cover their expenses.”
Rinaldo Marmara, spokesman for a Catholic commission in Turkey, is a
full-blooded admirer of Ottoman tolerance. He is a historian for the
Catholic community living in Istanbul. He keeps one foot in France and
the other in Turkey but spends most of his time in Istanbul working on
books about Levantines in the Ottoman Empire.
He is the author of a book titled “A Testament to Ottoman Tolerance”
that was recently published by IBB Kültür AS.
Marmara wrote that La Paix is a concrete example of Turkish
hospitality toward all people living in the empire regardless of their
differences of religion or ethnicity.
“The Ottoman Empire took the first steps toward a Europe without
borders. Istanbul was a symbol of tolerance with people from different
religions and ethnicities living together in a friendly atmosphere,”
Marmara wrote in his book.
Gülay Solakoglu, a psychiatrist at La Paix, said the hospital is like
a faithful friend who embraces anyone who needs a hug on a difficult
day.
“It is like a person, not just an ordinary place for me. You can feel
the Ottoman warmth in every corner here. The hospital’s story teaches
us a good lesson about how to be more tolerant of each other,” she
said.
Dr. Remzi Temur has worked as an anesthesiologist at La Paix since
1978. He said La Paix is a living witness of the tolerance between
members of two religions.
“If you read the story of La Paix, you learn the way to live side by
side with all communities and minorities in a peaceful environment.
The nuns did much for Muslim soldiers while the Ottomans gave this
land to them as a gift. The hospital is a meeting point for mutual
tolerance and love,” said Temur.
If La Paix were torn down and rebuilt as a skyscraper then future
Istanbul residents would be deprived of a good service, Turkish
historian and writer Hıfzı Topuz told the Daily News in a phone
interview.
“I am worried that Istanbul’s residents could be deprived of the
French hospital’s mental services if it were torn down and replaced by
a skyscraper,” Topuz said. “The hospital is especially important
because Christian nuns are running the hospital without discriminating
by race or religion. They are not trying to impose their beliefs on
patients.”
Nuns toil through turmoil
When historians mention the 1853-1856 Crimean War, they talk about the
heroism of soldiers but often forget the story of the Filles de la
Charité nuns, who are followers of St. Vincent de Paul.
In the winter of 1855-1856 alone, 47,000 French soldiers came through
the hospitals. Of this 9,000 died of cholera, scurvy or typhus in this
winter. More people, however, were sick with dysentery, typhoid fever
and frostbite on their hands and feet. Often dysentery turned into
cholera. As many as 100 Filles de la Charité nuns became sick during
the horrible typhus epidemic and 33 died.
The nuns and missionaries were sometimes unable to keep up with all
the work. They dressed wounds every day and the number of patients per
day sometimes reached 200, with at least 150 or them being Turks,
Jews, Armenians, Greeks and Bulgarians. Each day, 50 to 60 poor people
visited the nuns for a meal. All were give medicine, bread, clothes
and other aid. The sisters made house calls and rushed to help poor
and sick people. More than a hundred children were in their orphanage.
Head doctors from everywhere
In 1877, La Paix began offering psychiatric services on the initiative
of Dr. Mongeri, a doctor of Italian origin, and Sultan Abdulhamid’s
sister, Cemile Sultan. At the time, care at La Paix had become a
luxury. Ottoman civil servants, diplomats, wealthy Levantines and
prominent members of non-Muslim communities were treated at the
hospital.
After Mongeri, the head doctor was a Levantine Jew named Dr. Castiro,
who served until 1908. After Castiro, Dr. Apostolitedes, a Greek from
Varna, took over. He continued as the hospital’s head doctor until
World War I, during which time La Paix treated soldiers injured during
the Balkan Campaigns in 1912 and 1913.
Turkish psychiatric pioneers
When World War I began, France was one of the Allied powers fighting
against the Ottoman Empire. Thus, La Paix, which was considered to be
under French control, was taken over by the government. In 1916,
patients from the Haseki mental hospital were transferred to La Paix.
The head doctor of the Haseki hospital, Dr. Mazhar Osman, was
appointed as head doctor of La Paix. Osman took on assistants and
trained them to be specialists while treating patients at La Paix.
Seminars were organized, cases were presented, conferences were held
and speakers from different institutions were invited. The conferences
held at La Paix had an important influence on the acceptance of
psychiatry in Turkey and influenced many future doctors. These
conferences were also an important factor in the rise of Osman’s fame.
The conferences and cases were published in a journal, marking the
first time that psychiatric studies had been covered in Turkish.
After the Moudros Armistice on Oct. 30, 1918 ended the war for the
Ottomans, the hospital was returned to the French, but Osman continued
as head doctor of La Paix until his death in 1951. After his death,
the conferences and mentorship programs ended. Dr. İhsan Şükrü Aksel
succeeded Osman and served from 1951-1973. During his tenure, modern
psychiatric methods began to be applied at La Paix shortly after being
introduced in Europe.
Foto altı: While walking through the hospital corridors and its
garden, you feel as if you are on a journey through history. If you
could not see skyscrapers around the buliding, it would be diffucult
to know you are standing in the heart of the city.
FOTO: 150-year-old La Paix Hospital still serves in Şişli and has an
important place in the city’s medical history.
FOTO: The two nuns continue to follow in the footsteps of the
Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul.
FOTO: Hospital staff embraces patients and homeless people without any
discrimination.
FOTO: The hospital staff call for more tolerance, brotherhood and
friendship
FOTO: They pray for Istanbul to remain as a living example of peace
and brotherhood.