(p. 29.)
"The Turanian movement is not the spasmodic effort of a few enthusiasts.
It represents a carefully matured plan most elaborately studied in its
philosophical and practical aspects, and carried out on a vast and
ambitious scale. The spirit of its teaching has been made to permeate
all classes of the purely Turkish population, including women; while, in
the army, it has been taught in the shape of a patriotic creed, and the
force of military discipline has been laid at the service of its
promoters. The movement, therefore, no longer expresses the creed of a
limited number of nationalist fanatics, represented by the Central
Committee of Union and Progress, or the extremist section of it, but of
practically the whole of the Turkish people, backed by the formidable
power of the army. Thus, the view that would represent the Turkish
people as unwitting or unwilling tools in the hands of the Unionist
Government can no longer be accepted. The Turkish race as a whole, with
but few exceptions, stands convicted of indulging in a wanton political
dream, for the realization of which it seized the opportunity of the
world-war to commit most atrocious crimes. It is true that the initial
responsibility lies with the C.U.P., but the whole of the Turkish nation
has since shared the responsibility by its ready response. This is borne
out by the easy success attained by the Unionist Government in
modifying--with hardly a dissentient voice--the system of State
education, embracing even the elementary schools, and in
misappropriating the _Wakfs_ funds.
"Military officers of the higher grades were instructed to pay
periodical visits to the barracks and there deliver lectures of a mixed
religious and racial character, prepared by the Government. Were not the
Turkish heart a ready soil, such sowings would not have yielded such an
early and abundant harvest. In spite of successive admixtures of blood,
the Turks have retained the original instincts of the wild men of the
Steppes, and a creed aiming at conquest and domination through
destruction and bloodshed found eager response in their souls. Islam,
sympathetic as it is, despite its militant character, was sacrificed for
the realization of this widest of human dreams. There was not enough of
'iron and blood' in its teaching. The Turanian creed, framed on the
Prussian pattern of militarism, appealed a thousand times more to the
Turks' savage nature; and the proof is that, without any compulsion
being employed, it quickly supplanted the religious heritage of
centuries. The troops took up readily the heroic Turanian songs in place
of the usual prayers which had, until lately, been compulsory, but are
so no more. The simplest of Anatolians willingly accepted the idea that
the prophet of later days is Enver! The fundamental rules of Islam
became, for them, the Testimony (for the unity of God), Reason,
Character, and the Collection of contributions for the Government and
the War under the Turkish banner."
(From an article entitled "Turanian and Moslem" in _The Near East_,
April 20, 1917.)