Dogs of Istanbul.

According to the rumors before Turks captured Istanbul, the cats were the rulers of the streets of Istanbul. But with Turks, the dogs had the upper hand..Possibly the dogs came from Turkmenistan with the soldiers of Sultan Mehmet..
Apparently several travelers mentioned the stray dogs of Istanbul in their writings including Mark Twain. Some of them praised some of them critisized..
But when it came to 19th century, the time apparently the dogs were taken indoors in the west, there were 40 or 50 thousands stray dogs in Istanbul..Because Islam is not very fond of keeping the animals in doors, instead of taking them into houses, people of Istanbul and the authorities started to think about  growing population of the dogs..

After cleaning the city from Janissaries,Sultan Mahmut II decided to clean Istanbul from dogs as well. (there was also an incident involving an evil Brit . This person was attacked by the street dogs around Galata district. While he was trying to escape, he fell from a wall and died..Then his/her majesty sent a diplomatic note to our Sultan)  So, he ordered all the dogs to be put into  ships and sent to some of the islands in Marmara sea.
But the ship sunk because of a storm. When the ship and carcass of dogs washed up the shores, the population of Istanbul accused the sultan bringing bed omens as he did not consult the religious leaders before sending those animals to the islands..They thought that the god´s punishment would be severe. And of course, they simply used to living with the dogs and loved them..

Another deportation (genocide or so called genocide) of the dogs was committed during the time of Sultan Abdulaziz . Again the same method and to the same place..

Though this time the dogs were managed to make to the islands, because of the fires in Istanbul and people complaining that it was a punishment from god because of poor dogs, they were brought back.. . During this period of time, people would pay for dogs to be taken to the other side of the bosphorus and the same dogs would be posted back the following day by the other side, paying double price.. (sea sick dogs :S )

The dogs had their most glorious time during Abdülhamit II because he was very friendly towards the dogs..He donated 10.000 golds to the Institute of Pastor in France for their effort for rabies. An institute for rabies was established in Istanbul (the 3rd institute  for rabies in the world at the time)

In 1910, 80 thousands dogs were sent to the same islands despite the people´s plea about the bed omens and their love of dogs..Since there was nothing to eat or drink on those islands, and despite the fact that Some people  sent food to the islands with  small boats, the dogs exterminated eachother during next two months (dog eats dogs ). The howling would reach to the shores. ..

But in two years time, the population went up to 30.000 again and  Dr. Cemil Topuzlu who was  mayor of Istanbul at the time, dealt with them.. (´Committee of Union and Progress´ was in power at the time and curiously, the same people took the decision of Armenian deportation as well)

During military regime in 1980s, the soldiers, this time, managed to deal with  88.000 street dogs and proudly said that ´we managed to solve a great problem which could not be done under civil governments´

Anyway..Lets finish this meaningful post with some pictures of poor dogs which managed to escape these several genocides!!!

This would have made an interesting article for the columns

It can still be one, if Thehandsom wrote this post himself of course.

 How can you suggest otherwise

But those two dogs in that cage, I just want to go get them, they look so sad poor things...... How to tug at ones heart strings show photos of disconsolate dogs

 this is a must read, hairy

highlited the funny part.

but on the other hand this reminds me the fate of some ethnicities or ethnic cleansings (not necessarily in turkey)