OTTOMAN PROMISES AND THEIR FULFILMENT.
Imperial edicts of toleration, and promises of reform on the part of the
Sublime Porte, have been very numerous, and have served Turkey well as
political expedients. Their value is that of so much dust thrown in the
eyes of Europe when her aid or her mercy was needful. As these reforms
have all been promised under pressure, they have likewise been abandoned
just so fast and so far as the pressure has been removed. In many cases
there has been serious retrogression. The sow that is washed is forever
returning to wallow in the mire. It is as true of the “Sick Man” as of
him out of whom seven devils were cast, that the last state of that man
is worse than the first. This is emphatically so in regard to the
freedom of the press, the curtailment of religious and educational
privileges, and the safety of the lives and property of Christians.
The following is a partial list of Turkish promises which have been
broken in whole or in part, with the circumstances under which they were
made.
1. In 1829, by the Treaty of Adrianople at the close of a war with
Russia, Turkey promised to reform in her treatment of Orthodox
Christians, and acknowledged Russia’s right to interfere in their
behalf.[15]
2. In 1839 Sultan Abd-ul-Medjid, in order to enlist European sympathy
and aid—when the victorious Egyptian army under Ibrahim Pasha was
threatening Constantinople—issued an Imperial rescript, the Hatti
Sherif, in which he promised to protect the life, honor, and property of
all his subjects irrespective of race or religion.
3. In 1844 the same Sultan Abd-ul-Medjid gave a solemn pledge that
thenceforth no apostate from Mohammedanism _who had formerly been a
Christian_ should be put to death. This pledge was extorted from the
Sultan by the Ambassador of Great Britain, supported by those of other
Powers, after the public execution in Constantinople of a young
Armenian, Ovagim, who had declared himself a Mohammedan, but who
afterwards bravely maintained his Christian profession in the face of
torture and death. Since that time many Moslems even have embraced
Christianity, and have been put out of the way, quietly in most cases.
4. In 1850 the same Sultan, on the demand of the same Powers, in view of
the continued and fierce persecution of the Protestant subjects of the
Porte, granted the latter a charter, guaranteeing them liberty of
conscience and all the rights as a distinct civil community, which had
been enjoyed by the other Christian communities of the empire. But to
this day the numerous Protestants of Stamboul have never been allowed to
erect even _one church_, although they have owned a site and had the
necessary funds, and been petitioning for a firman to build for fifteen
years.[16] The Greek Protestants of Ordoo, who have a church, are not
allowed to worship in it. There are many other flagrant violations of
this charter.
5. In 1856, after the Crimean War, Sultan Abd-ul-Medjid, to anticipate
demands which he knew would be included in the Treaty of Paris then
being drawn up, issued the Imperial edict known as the Hatti Humayoun.
This edict not only promised perfect equality of civil rights to all
subjects of the Porte, but also added: “As all forms of religion are and
shall be freely professed in my dominions, no subject of my empire shall
be hindered in the exercise of the religion that he professes, nor shall
he in any way be annoyed on this account.” But as the interpretation and
enforcement of this edict has remained absolutely in the hands of the
Turkish Government, it is needless to add that it has been a dead
letter.[17]
6. In 1878 the Anglo-Turkish Convention, entered into just before the
Treaty of Berlin, included these words in its First Article: “His
Imperial Majesty, the Sultan, promises to England to introduce necessary
reforms, to be agreed upon later between the two Powers, into the
government and for the protection of the Christian and other subjects of
the Porte in these territories [Armenia]; and in order to enable England
to make necessary provision for executing her engagement [the keeping of
Russia out of Armenia], His Imperial Majesty, the Sultan, further
consents to assign the Island of Cyprus to be occupied and administered
by England.” Comment unnecessary.
7. In July, 1878, by the Treaty of Berlin, religious liberty and the
public exercise of all forms of religion were guaranteed in separate
articles to the people of Bulgaria, Eastern Roumelia, Montenegro,
Servia, Roumania, and finally to all subjects of the Porte in every part
of the Ottoman Empire. Cases of glaring violation of the principle of
religious liberty may be found in Appendix C. on _The Censorship of the
Press_.
The Sixty-first Article of the same treaty reads thus: “The Sublime
Porte undertakes to carry out, without further delay, the improvements
and reforms demanded by local requirements in the provinces inhabited by
the Armenians, and to guarantee their security against the Circassians
and Kurds. It will periodically make known the steps taken to this
effect to the Powers, who will superintend their application.”
What the condition of Turkey was three years later, not simply in
Armenia, but throughout Asia Minor, is shown by a report of Mr. Wilson,
British Consul-General in Anatolia.
“There has probably never been a time in which the prestige of the
Courts has fallen so low, or in which the administration of justice has
been so venal and corrupt. The most open and shameless bribery is
practised from highest to lowest; prompt, even-handed justice for rich
and poor alike is unknown; sentence is given in favor of the suitor who
‘places’ his money most judiciously; imprisonment or freedom has in many
places become a matter of bribery; robbers, when arrested, are protected
by members of the Court, who share their spoil; a simple order may send
an innocent man to prison for months; crime goes unpunished, and all
manner of oppression and injustice is committed with impunity. The
Cadis,[18] especially those in the cazas,[19] are, as a rule, ignorant
men, with no education, knowing little of law, except the Sheri, on
which they base their decisions, and sometimes not overmuch of that. As
to the members, it is sufficient to say that they are nearly all equally
ignorant of law, and that probably not twenty-five per cent. of them can
write Turkish, or read the sentences to which they attach their seals.
In the Commercial Courts, the Presidents are frequently entirely
ignorant of the duties which they have to perform. The low pay of the
Cadis, the short term—two years—during which they hold their
appointments, and the manner in which they obtain them, render the
receipt of bribes almost a necessity. The first thought of a Cadi who
buys an appointment in the provinces is to recoup himself for his
outlay; the second, to obtain enough money to purchase a new place when
his term of office is finished. Even under this system men are to be
found who refuse to receive bribes; and there are others who, whilst
giving way to temptation, deplore the necessity to do so.”[20]
The sequel to the Treaty of Berlin is found in the next chapter.
The non-fulfilment of Ottoman promises in regard to Christian subjects,
and the frequent massacres of the latter are an exact fulfilment of
THE OFFICIAL PRAYER OF ISLAM
which is used throughout Turkey, and daily repeated in the Cairo “Azhar”
University by ten thousand Mohammedan students from all lands. The
following translation is from the Arabic:
“I seek refuge with Allah from Satan, [the _rejeem_] the accursed.
In the name of Allah the Compassionate, the Merciful! O Lord of all
Creatures! O Allah! Destroy the infidels and polytheists, thine
enemies, the enemies of the religion! O Allah! Make their children
orphans, and defile their abodes! Cause their feet to slip; give
them and their families, their households and their women, their
children and their relations by marriage, their brothers and their
friends, their possessions and their race, their wealth and their
lands, as booty to the Moslems, O Lord of all Creatures!”[21]
All who do not accept Mohammed are included among “the infidels”
referred to in the prayer.