Teoman Duralı- This science of war, which started with Alexander, is strangely available to Turks. I do not know how and where. The founder of the army is Mete Han. And we know that Mete Han is implementing strategy and tactics, I don’t repeat these documents over and over. Wherever and how many historians we have, none of them are interested in what I have told you, and could not give me a predictive answer. We see that strategy and tactics exist in the Turkish Armed Forces in Chinese texts that mention Huns and Göktürks. Of course, these Chinese texts have ours translated.
Listener – You said that the beginning of the art of war started in the academy where Aristotle raised Alexander in Macedonia, and in the Turks you said that Mete Han was the war commander strategist. They taught us the book of the Chinese Sun Tzu at the public school. They were still teaching today. I think our people also got the art of war from there, can it be true?
Teoman Duralı – Sun Tzu was not a philosopher. He was a sage, he had no strategy or tactical skills. He tells us about martial arts. This is present in all Chinese sages. Not just that. There is also in Kung fu, Confucius. In all these eastern wisdoms there are events that we might know as the “art of defense”.
The art of war and military goes beyond this. It is not a martial art, only a war scenario that I just mentioned is considered. It is predicted, where will you lead the army, how you will feed it. Do you take the family, as we saw in the Ottoman example. If you take it, where will you accommodate that family, neither feed nor drink it. Historians reject it, but as far as we know, large numbers of soldiers are executed. Alexander passes 60 thousand people to Anatolia. An enormous number over Çanakkale, across the Bosphorus Feeding, managing, feeding these men and, of course, tactics, who will direct the martial arts, with archers, infantry, cavalry
I think the most important inspiration for the art of war is the game of chess. Three events are based on pure reason. These do not interfere at all. Philosophy of science, martial arts and chess. Naturally, the most important peak in philosophy science is pure logic and mathematics.
In this sense, war is a completely different event from fighting. War and army are new events. It starts in the 4th century BC. Mete already exists in the 2nd century BC. We do not see this structure I call in that Chinese sage (Sun Tzu).
Source: Prof Dr Teoman Duralı
