Young Turkish nationalism--One-sided abolition of
capitulations--Anti-foreign efforts at emancipation--Abolition of
foreign languages--German simplicity--The Turkification of commercial
life--Unmistakable intellectual improvement as a result of the
war--Trade policy and customs tariff--National production--The
founding of new businesses in Turkey--Germany supplanted--German
starvation--Capitulations or full European control?--The colonisation
and forcible Turkification of Anatolia--"The properties of people who
have been dispatched elsewhere"--The "Mohadjirs"--Greek persecutions
just before the Great War--The "discovery" of Anatolia, the nucleus
of the Ottoman Empire--Turkey finds herself at last--Anatolian
dirt and decay--The "Greater Turkey" and the purely Turkish
Turkey--Cleavage or concentration?
From the Germans we now turn again to the Turks, to try to fathom
the exact mentality of the Young Turks during the great war, and
to discover what were the intellectual sources for their various
activities.
To give a better idea of the whole position I will just preface my
remarks by stating a few of the outstanding features of the present
Young Turkish Government and their dependents. Their first and chief
characteristic is _hostility to foreigners_, but this does not prevent
them from making every possible use of their ally Germany, or from
appropriating in every walk of life anything European, be it a matter
of technical skill, government, civilisation, that they consider might
be profitable. Secondly they are possessed of an unbounded store of
_jingoism_, which has its origin in _Pan-Turkism_ with its ruling idea
of "Turanism." Pan-Turkism, which seems to be the governing passion of
all the leading men of the day, finds expression in two directions.
Outwardly it is a constant striving for a "Greater Turkey," a movement
that for a large part in its essence, and certainly in its territorial
aims, runs parallel with the "Holy War"; inwardly it is a fanatical
desire for a general Turkification which finds outlet in political
nationalistic measures, some of criminal barbarity, others partaking of
the nature of modern reforms, beginning with the language regulations
and "internal colonisation" and ending in the Armenian persecutions.
It is worthy of note that of the two intellectual sources of the "Holy
War," namely Turanism--which one might reverse and call an extended
form of Old-Turkism--and Pan-Islamism, the men of the "Committee for
Unity and Progress" have only made logical though unsuccessful use
of the former, although theoretically speaking they recognise the
value of the latter as well. While Turkish race-fanaticism, which
finds practical outlet in Turanistic ideas, is still the intellectual
backbone of official Turkey to-day and has to be broken by the present
war, the Young Turkish Islam policy is already completely bankrupt and
can therefore be studied here dispassionately in all its aspects. We
propose to treat the matter in some detail.
All New-Turkish Nationalistic efforts at emancipation had as first
principle the abolition of Capitulations. The whole Young Turkish
period we have here under review is therefore to be dated from that
day, shortly before Turkey's entry into the war, when that injunction
was flung overboard which Europe had anxiously placed for the
protection of the interests of Europeans on a State but too little
civilised. It was Turkey herself that did this after having curtly
refused the Entente offer to remove the Capitulations as a reward for
Turkey's remaining neutral. Germany, who was equally interested in
the existence or non-existence of Capitulations, never mentioned this
painful subject to her ally for a very long time, and it was 1916
before she formally recognised the abolition of Capitulations, long
after she had lost all hold on Turkey in that direction.
As early as summer 1915 there were clear outward indications in the
streets of Constantinople of a smouldering Nationalism ready to break
out at any moment. Turkey, under the leadership of Talaat Bey, pursued
her course along the well-trodden paths, and the first sphere in which
there was evidence of an attempt at forcible Turkification was the
language. Somewhere toward the end of 1915 Talaat suddenly ordered the
removal of all French and English inscriptions, shop signs, etc., even
in the middle of European Pera. In tramcars and at stopping-places the
French text was blocked out; boards with public police warnings in
French were either removed altogether or replaced by unreadable Turkish
scrawls; the street indications were simply abolished. The authorities
apparently thought it preferable that the Levantine public should get
into the wrong tramcar, should break their legs getting out, pick
flowers in the parks and wander round helplessly in a maze of unnamed
streets rather than that the spirit of forcible Turkification should
make even the least sacrifice to comfort.
Of the thousand inhabitants of Pera, not ten can read Turkish; but
under the pressure of the official order and for fear of brutal assault
or some kind of underhand treatment in case of non-compliance, the
inhabitants really surpassed themselves, and before one could turn,
all the names over the shops had been painted over and replaced by
wonderful Turkish characters that looked like decorative shields or
something of the kind painted in the red and white of the national
colours. If one had not noted the entrance to the shop and the look of
the window very carefully, one might wander helplessly up and down the
Grand Rue de Péra if one wanted to buy something in a particular shop.
But the German, as simple-minded as ever where political matters
were concerned, was highly delighted in spite of the extraordinary
difficulty of communal life. "Away with French and English," he would
shout. "God punish England; hurrah, our Turkish brothers are helping us
and favouring the extension of the German language!"
The answer to these pan-German expansion politicians and language
fanatics, whose spiritual home was round the beer-tables of the
"Teutonia," was provided by a second decree of Talaat's some weeks
later when all German notices had to disappear. A few, who would not
believe the order, held out obstinately, and the signs remained in
German till they were either supplemented in 1916, on a very clear
hint from Stamboul, by the obligatory Turkish language or later
quite supplanted. It was not till some time after the German had
disappeared--and this is worthy of note--that the Greek signs ceased to
exist. Greek had been up to that time the most used tongue and was the
commercial language of the Armenians.
Then came the famous language regulations, which even went so far--with
a year of grace granted owing to the extraordinary difficulties of
the Turkish script--as to decree that in the offices of all trade
undertakings of any public interest whatsoever, such as banks,
newspapers, transport agencies, etc., the Turkish language should be
used exclusively for book-keeping and any written communication with
customers. One can imagine the "Osmanic Lloyd" and the "German Bank"
with Turkish book-keeping and Turkish letters written to an exclusively
European clientèle! Old and trusty employees suddenly found themselves
faced with the choice of learning the difficult Turkish script or being
turned out in a year's time. The possibility--indeed, the necessity--of
employing Turkish hands in European businesses suddenly came within
the range of practical politics--and that was exactly what the Turkish
Government wanted.
The arrangement had not yet come into operation when I left
Constantinople, but it was hanging like the sword of Damocles over
commercial undertakings that had hitherto been purely German. Optimists
still hoped it never would come to this pass and would have welcomed
any political-military blow that would put a damper on Turkey's
arrogance. Others, believing firmly in a final Turkish victory, began
to learn Turkish feverishly. Be that as it may, the new arrangements
were hung up on the walls of all offices in the summer of 1916 and
created confusion enough.
Many other measures for the systematic Turkification of commercial life
and public intercourse followed hard on this first bold step, which I
need scarcely mention here. And in spite of the ever-growing number of
German officials in the different ministries, partly foisted on the
Turkish Government by the German authorities, partly gladly accepted
for the moment because the Turks had still much to learn from German
organisation and could profit from employing Germans, in spite of the
appointment of a number of German professors to the Turkish University
of Stamboul (who, however, as a matter of fact, like the German
Government officials, had to wear the fez and learn Turkish within a
year, and besides roused most unfavourable and anti-German comment
in the newspapers), it was soon perfectly evident to every unbiased
witness that Germany would find no place in a victorious Turkey after
the war if the "Committee for Union and Progress" did not need her.
Some sort of light must surely have broken over the last blind optimism
of the Germans in the course of the summer of 1916.
Hand in hand with the nationalistic attempt to coerce European
businesses into using the Turkish language there went more practical
attempts to turkify all the important branches of commerce by the
founding of indigenous organisations and the introduction of reforms
of more material content than those language decrees. These efforts,
in spite of the enormous absorption of all intellectual capabilities
and energies in war and the clash of arms, were expressed with a truly
marvellous directness of aim, and, from the national standpoint, a
truly commendable magnificence of conception.
This latter has indeed never been lacking as a progressive ethnic
factor in Turkish politics. The Turks have a wonderful understanding,
too, of the importance of social problems, or at least, as a sovereign
people, they feel instinctively what in a social connection will
further their sovereignty. The war with its enormous intellectual
activity has certainly brought all the political and economic resources
of the Turks--including the Young Turkish Government--to the highest
possible stage of development, and we ought not to be surprised if
we often find that measures, whether of a beneficent or injurious
character, are not lacking in modern exactness, clever technicality,
and thoroughness of conception. Without anticipating, I should just
like to note here how this change appears to affect the war. No one
can doubt that it will enormously intensify zeal in the fight for
the existence of the Turkey of the future, freed from its jingoistic
outgrowths, once more come to its senses and confined to its own proper
sphere of activity, Anatolia, the core of the Empire. But, on the other
hand, iron might and determined warfare against this misguided State
are needed to root out false and harmful ideas.
If, after this slight digression, we glance for a moment at the
practical measures for a complete Turkification of Turkey, the
economic efforts at emancipation and the civic reforms carried
through, we find first of all that the new Turkey, when she had thrown
the Capitulations overboard, then proceeded to emancipate herself
completely from European supervision in the realm of trade and commerce.
A very considerable step in advance in the way of Turkish sovereignty
and Turkish economic patriotism was the organisation and--since
September 1916--execution of the neo-Turkish autonomic customs tariff,
which with one blow gives Turkish finances what the Government formerly
managed to extract painfully from the Great Powers bit by bit, by
fair means or foul, at intervals of many years, and which with its
hard-and-fast scale of taxes--which there appears to be no inclination
in political circles at the moment to modify by trade treaties!--means
an exceedingly adequate protection of Turkey's national productions,
without any reference whatever to the export interests of her allies,
and is a very strong inducement to the renaissance of at any rate the
most important national industries. The far-flung net of the "Djemiet"
(whose acquaintance we have already made in another connection),
that purely Turkish commercial undertaking with Talaat Bey at its
head, regulating everything as it did, taking everything into its own
hands, from the realising of the products of the Anatolian farmers
(and incidentally bringing it about that their ally Germany had to pay
heavily and always in cash, even although the Government itself owed
millions, to Germany and got everything on credit from flour out of
Roumania to paper for their journals) to the most difficult rationing
of towns, forms a foundation for the nationalising of economic life of
the very greatest importance.
The establishment of purely Turkish trade and transport companies,
often with pensioned Ministers as directors and principal shareholders,
and the new language regulations and other privileges will soon cut the
ground away from under the feet of European concerns. Able assistance
is given in this direction by the _Tanin_ and the _Hilal_ (the
"Crescent"), the newly founded "Committee" paper in the French language
(when it is a question of the official influencing of public opinion
in European and Levantine quarters, exceptions can be made even in
language fanaticism!) in which a series of articles invariably appear
at the founding of each new company praising the patriotic zeal of the
founders.
Then again there are the increasingly thinly veiled efforts to
establish a purely Turkish national banking system. Quite lately there
has been a movement in favour of founding a Turkish National Bank with
the object of supplanting the much-hated "Deutsche Bank" in spite of
the credit it always gives, and that international and preponderatingly
French institution, the "Banque Impériale Ottomane," which had already
simply been sequestrated without more ado.
The Turks have decided, too, that the mines are to be nationalised, and
Turkish companies have already been formed, without capital it is true,
to work the mines after the war. The same applies to the railways--in
spite of the fine German plans for the Baghdad Railway.
All these wonderful efforts at emancipation are perfectly justified
from the patriotic point of view, and are so many blows dealt at
Germany, who, quite apart from Rohrbach's _Welt_-_politik_, had at
least hoped to find a lucrative field of privileged commercial activity
in the country of her close and devoted allies the Turks. It is of
supreme significance that while the war is still at its height, while
the Empire of the Sultan is defending its very existence at the gates
of the capital with German arms and German money, there is manifested
with the most startling clearness the failure of German policy, the
endangering of all these German "vital interests" in Turkey which
according to Pan-German and Imperialistic views were one of the most
important stakes to be won by wantonly letting loose this criminal war
on Europe.
No doubt many a German was only too well aware of the fact that in
this Turkey suddenly roused by the war all the ground had been lost
that he had built on with such profit before, and many an anxious face
did one see in German circles in Constantinople. I need not tarry here
over the drastic comments I heard from so many German merchants on
this subject. They show a most curious state of mind on the part of
those who had formerly, in their quest for gain and nothing but gain,
profited in true parasitical fashion from the financial benefits of
the Capitulations and had seen nothing but the money side of this
arrangement which was, after all, entered into for other purposes. It
was no rare thing and no paradox to find a German company director say,
as I heard one say: "If things went against Turkey to-day, I would
willingly shoulder my gun, old man as I am."
No thinking man will expend too much grief over the ruthless abolition
of the Capitulations, for they were unmoral and gave too much
opportunity to parasites and rogues, while they were quite inadequate
to protect the interests of civilisation. They may have sufficed in
the time of Abdul-Hamid, who was easily frightened off and was always
sensible and polite in his dealings with Europe. For the Turkey of
Enver and Talaat quite other measures are needed. One must, according
to one's political standpoint, either recognise and accept their
nationalistic programme of emancipation or combat it forcibly by
introducing full European control. And however willing one may be
to let foreign nations develop in their own particular way and work
out their own salvation, one's standpoint with regard to a State so
behindhand, so fanatical, so misguided as Turkey can be but one: the
introduction and continuation at all costs of whatever guarantees
the best protection to European civilisation in this land of such
importance culturally and historically.
Not only were Europeans, but the natives themselves, affected by the
series of measures that one might class together under the heading of
Turkish Internal Colonisation and the Nationalising of Anatolia. The
programme of the Young Turks was not only a "Greater Turkey," but above
all a purely Turkish Turkey; and if the former showed signs of failing
because they had over-estimated their powers and their chances in the
war or had employed wrong methods, there was nothing at all to hinder
a sovereign Government from striving all the more ruthlessly to gain
their second point.
The way this Turkification of Anatolia was carried on was certainly
not lacking in thoroughness, like all their nationalistic efforts. The
best means that lay to hand were the frightful Armenian persecutions
which affected a wonderful clearance among the population. "The
properties of persons who have been dispatched elsewhere" within the
meaning of the Provisory Bill were either distributed free or sold
for a mere song to anyone who applied to the Committee for them and
proved themselves of the same political persuasion or of pure Turkish
or preponderatingly Turkish nationality. The rent was often fixed
as low as 30 piastres a month (about 5_s._ 8_d._) for officials and
retired military men. In the case of the latter, Enver Pasha thought
this an excellent opportunity for getting rid, through the medium of a
kindly invitation to settle in the Interior, of those who worried him
by their dissatisfaction with his system and who might have prepared
difficulties for him. This "settling" was carried out with the greatest
zeal in the exceptionally flourishing and fruitful districts of Brussa,
Smyrna-Aidin, Eskishehir, Adabazar, Angora, and Adana, where Armenians
and Greeks had played such a great, and, to the Turks, unpopular part
as pioneers of civilisation.
The semi-official articles in the _Tanin_ were perfectly right in
praising the local authorities who in contrast with their former
indifference and ignorance "had now fully recognised the great national
importance of internal colonisation and the settling of Mohadjirs
(emigrants from the lost Turkish territory in Bosnia, Macedonia,
Thrace, etc.) in the country." There is nothing to be said in favour
of the stupid, unprogressive character of the Anatolian as contrasted
with the strength, physical endurance, intelligence, and mobility of
these emigrants. The latter had also, generally speaking, lived in more
highly developed districts.
The great drawback of the Mohadjirs, however, is their instability,
their idleness and love of wandering, their frivolity, and their
extraordinary fanaticism. As faithful Mohammedans following the
standard of their Padishah and leaving the parts of the country
that had fallen under Christian rule, they seemed to think they
were justified in behaving like spoilt children towards the native
population. They treated them with ruthless disregard, they were
bumptious, and, if their new neighbours were Greek or Armenian, they
inclined to use force, a proceeding which was always possible because
the Government did not take away _their_ firearms and were even known
to have doled them out to stir up unrest. It has occurred more than
once that Mohadjirs have crossed swords even with Turkish Anatolians
living peacefully in their own villages. One can then easily imagine
how much more the heretic _giaurs_ ("Christian dogs," "unclean men")
had to suffer at their hands.
I should like to say a word here about these Greek persecutions in
Thrace and Western Anatolia that have become notorious throughout the
whole of Europe. They took place just before the outbreak of war, and
cost thousands of peaceful Greeks--men, women, and children-their
lives, and reduced to ashes dozens of flourishing villages and towns.
At the time of the murder of Sarajevo, I happened to be staying in
the vilajet of Aidin, in Smyrna and the _Hinterland_, and saw with
my own eyes such shameful deeds as must infuriate anyone against the
Turkish Government that aids and abets such barbarity--from old women
being driven along by a dozen Mohadjirs and dissipated soldiers to the
smoking ruins of Phocæa.
Everyone at that time, at any rate in Smyrna, expected the immediate
outbreak of a new Græco-Turkish war, and perhaps the only thing
that prevented it was the method of procrastination adopted by both
sides, for both were waiting for the Dreadnoughts they had ordered,
until finally these smaller clouds were swallowed up in the mighty
thunder-cloud gathering on the European horizon. Only the extreme speed
with which one dramatic event followed another, and my own mobilisation
which precluded my writing anything of a political nature, prevented me
on that occasion from giving my sinister impressions of Young Turkish
jingoism and Mohadjir brutality. Even if I had been able to write what
I thought it is extremely doubtful if it would ever have seen the
light of day, for the German papers were but little inclined, as I had
opportunity of discovering personally, to say anything unpleasant about
the Young Turkish Government, whose help they were already reckoning
on, and preferred rather to behave in a most un-neutral manner and keep
absolutely silent about all the ill-treatment and abuse that had been
meted out to Greece. But I remembered these scenes most opportunely
later, and that visit of mine to Western Anatolia was certainly most
useful in increasing my knowledge of Young Turkish methods of "internal
colonisation."
But all the methods used are by no means forcible. Attempts are now
being made--and this again is most significant for the spirit of the
newest Young Turkish era--to gain a footing in the world of science
as opposed to force, and so to be able to carry out their measures
more systematically and give them the appearance of beneficent modern
social reforms. So it comes about that the Turkish idea of penetrating
and "cleaning-up" Anatolia finds practical expression on the one hand
in exterminating and robbing the Christian population, while on the
other it inclines to efforts which in time may work out to be a real
blessing. The common principle underlying both is Nationalism.
Anatolia was suddenly "discovered." At long length the Young Turkish
Government, roused intellectually and patriotically by the war and
brought to their senses by the terrible loss of human life entailed,
suddenly realised the enormous national importance of Anatolia, that
hitherto much-neglected nucleus of the Ottoman Empire. Under the
spiritual inspiration of Mehmed Emin, the national poet of Anatolian
birth whose poems with their sympathy of outlook and noble simplicity
of form make such a warm-hearted and successful appeal to the best
kind of patriotism, men have begun since 1916, even in the circles of
the arrogant "Stambul Effendi," to take an interest in the _kaba türk_
(uncouth Turk), the Anatolian peasant, his needs and his standard of
civilisation. The real, needy, primitive Turk of the Interior has
suddenly become the general favourite.
A whole series of most remarkable lectures was delivered publicly in
the _Türk Odjaghi_, under the auspices of the Committee, by doctors,
social politicians, and political economists, and these were reported
and discussed at great length in all the Turkish newspapers. Their
subject was the incredible destitution in Anatolia, the devastation
wrought by syphilis, malaria, and other terrible dirt diseases,
abortions as a result of hopeless poverty, the lack of men as a result
of constant military service in many wars, and they called for
immediate and drastic reforms.
It is with the greatest pleasure that I acknowledge that this first
late step on the way of improvement, this self-knowledge, which
appeals to me more thoroughly than anything else I saw in Turkey, is
probably really the beginning of a happier era for that beautiful land
of Anatolia, so capable of development but so cruelly neglected. For
one can no longer doubt that the Government has the real intention of
carrying out actual reforms, for they must be only too well aware that
the strengthening and healing of Anatolia, the nucleus of the Turkish
race, is absolutely essential for any Turkish mastery, and is the very
first necessity for the successful carrying out of more far-reaching
national exertions. With truly modern realisation of the needs of
the case, directly after Dr. Behaeddin Shakir Bey's first compelling
lecture, different local government officials, especially the Vali
of the Vilajet of Kastamuni, which was notorious for its syphilis
epidemics, made unprecedented efforts to improve the terrible hygienic
conditions then reigning. Let us hope that such efforts will bear
fruit. But this will probably only be the case to any measurable extent
later, after the war, when Turkey will find herself really confined to
Anatolia, and will have time and strength for positive social work.
In the meantime I cannot get rid of the uneasy impression that this
"discovery" of Anatolia and zealous Turkish social politics are no more
than a cleverly worked excuse on the part of the Government for further
measures of Turkification, and the cloven hoof is unfortunately only
too apparent in all this seemingly noble effort on the part of the
Committee. One hears and sees daily the methods that go hand in hand
with this official pushing into the foreground of the great importance
of the purely Turkish elements in Anatolia--Armenian persecutions,
trickery, expropriations carried out against Greeks, the yielding up
of flourishing districts to quarrelsome Mohadjirs. So long as the
Turkish Government fancy themselves conquerors in the great war, so
long as they pursue the shadow of a "Greater Turkey," so long as Turkey
continues to dissipate her forces she will not accomplish much for
Anatolia, in spite of her awakening and her real desire for reform.
Finally, in this discovery of Anatolia, in this desire to put an end to
traditional destitution, this recognition of the real import of even
the poorest, most primitive, dullest peasant peoples in the undeveloped
Interior, so long as they are of Turkish race, in this sudden flood
of learned eloquence over the needs and the true inner worth of these
miserable neglected Turkish peasants, in this pressing demand for
thorough reforms for the economic and social strengthening of this
element--measures which with the present ruling spirit of jingoism
in the Government threaten to be carried through only at the expense
of the non-Turkish population of Anatolia--we see very clear proof
that the neo-Turkish movement is a pure race movement, is nothing but
Pan-Turkism both outwardly and inwardly, and has very little indeed to
do with religious questions or with Islam. The idea of Islam, or rather
Pan-Islamism, is a complete failure. This we shall try to show in the
following chapter.