"Vienna is a Treasure to Us": Vienna and the Austro-Hungarian Empire as Role Models for the Late Ottoman Empire

This paper examines unpublished letters on Vienna by the controversial Turkish nationalist Rıza Nur (1879–1942). After he and other opposition figures were imprisoned for several months and accused of establishing a secret committee to conspire against the CUP government, Rıza Nur travelled to Vienna in 1911 in order to recover from his stay in prison. His “Letters from Vienna” (Viyana Mektūbları), which he wrote during his stay, were presumably planned as a series of articles which, however, has never been published. The contribution focuses on Rıza Nur’s reflections about Austria-Hungary and Vienna as models for the Ottoman Empire and its institutions. Besides the geographical proximity of Austria-Hungary as well as a long-shared history it is above all the fact that Austria represents itself politically and socially as a mosaic, thus showing some parallels to the Ottoman state that make it an exemplary model to emulate.