FIRST STEP IN YOUNG TURKS’ PROGRAM
(1908-1911)
To comprehend this narrative thoroughly, one must remember that the East
is unchangeable. The Turks of to-day are precisely the same as those who
followed Mohammed the Conqueror through the gates of Constantinople on
May 29, 1453, and they have amply demonstrated that they do not differ
from those whom Gladstone denounced for the Bulgarian atrocities of 1876.
Those who are building hopes on any other conception will be deceived;
they will be painfully deceived if they make treaties or invest large
sums of money on Western ideas of the Oriental character.
I am neither “pro-Greek,” “pro-Turk,” nor anything except pro-American
and pro-Christ. Having passed the most of my life in regions where
race feeling runs high, it has been my one aim to help the oppressed,
irrespective of race, as will be shown by documents submitted later, and
I have won the expressed gratitude of numerous Turks for the aid and
relief I have afforded them on various occasions.
I am aware of the many noble qualities of the Turkish peasant, but I do
not agree with many precepts of his religion, and I do not admire him
when he is cutting throats or violating Christian women. The massacres
already enumerated are a sufficient blot upon the Turkish name. They were
made possible by the teachings of the Koran, the example of Mohammed,
lust and the desire for plunder. They sink into insignificance when
compared with the vast slaughter of more recent years, conducted under
the auspices of Abdul Hamid, Talaat and Company, and Mustapha Khemal.
It should be borne in mind, however, that it was not until after the
declaration of the constitution that the idea “Turkey for the Turks”
took definite shape and developed into the scheme of accomplishing its
purpose by the final extinction of all the Christian populations of that
blood-soaked land—a plan consistent with, and a continuation of, the
general history of Mohammedan expansion in the ancient home lands of
Christianity.
At the time of the declaration of the constitution in 1908, I was in
Athens. My first intimation of the event was a procession of Greeks
carrying Hellenic and Ottoman flags, marching through the streets on
their way to the Turkish legation, where they made a friendly and
enthusiastic demonstration.
The idea in Greece and the Balkans generally was that the constitution
meant equal rights for all in Turkey, irrespective of religion—the dawn
of a new era. Had this conception proved true, Turkey would to-day be
one of the great, progressive, prosperous countries of the world. The
weakness of the conception was that in an equal and friendly rivalry,
the Christians would speedily have outstripped the Ottomans, who would
soon have found themselves in a subordinate position commercially,
industrially and economically. It was this knowledge which caused the
Turks to resolve upon the extermination of the Christians. It was a
reversal of the process of nature; the drones were about to kill off the
working bees.
During these days a member of the Turkish Cabinet made a speech at
Saloniki, advocating the closing of all the foreign missionary schools,
as well as native Christian, arguing: “If we close the Christian
institutions, Turkish institutions will of necessity spring up to take
their place. A country must have schools.”
Immediately after the fall of Abdul Hamid, I was transferred to Saloniki.
There was great rejoicing over the fall of the “Bloody Tyrant,” and the
certainty prevailed that the subjects of Turkey had at last united to
form a kingdom where all should have full liberty to worship God and
pursue their peaceful occupations in security. The fall of Abdul Hamid
had been made possible by the cooperation and aid of the Christians.
But the latter—Greeks, Bulgars, Serbs—were soon cruelly disillusioned.
A general persecution was started, the details of which were reported
to their various governments by all the consuls of the city. This
persecution first displayed itself in the form of sporadic murders
of alarming frequency all over Macedonia, the victims being, in the
beginning, notables of the various Christian communities. A favorite
place for shooting these people was at their door-steps at the moment
of their return home. It became evident that the Turkish Government, in
order to gain control of the territory, was bent upon the extermination
of the non-Mussulman leaders. Many of those murdered had been prominent
in the anti-Abdul movement.
From the extermination of notables, the program extended to people of
less importance, who began to disappear. Bevies of despairing peasant
women who had come to visit the _vali_ (Turkish governor) and demand news
of their husbands, sons or brothers, appeared on the streets of Saloniki.
The answers were usually sardonic: “He has probably run away and left
you,” or “He has probably gone to America,” were favorite replies. The
truth, however, could not long be hidden, as shepherds and others were
soon reporting corpses found in ravines and gullies in the mountains and
woods. The reign of terror, the Turks’ immemorial method of rule, was on
in earnest, and the next step taken to generalize it was the so-called
“disarming.” This meant, as always, the disarming of the Christian
element, and the furnishing of weapons to the Turks.
An order was issued that all persons must give up their guns and other
weapons, and squads of soldiers were sent out through villages to put
this edict into effect. That the object was not so much to collect
hidden arms as to terrorize the inhabitants was soon made evident from
the tortures inflicted during the search. Bastinadoing was a favorite
measure. The feet of the peasants, accustomed to going barefoot, were
very tough; they were therefore tied down and their toes beaten to a pulp
with clubs.
Another form of torment frequently resorted to by the “Government of
Union and Progress,” was tying a rope around the victim’s waist and
slipping a musket between the body and the cord and twisting until
internal injury resulted. Priests were frequent victims of this campaign
of terror and hate, the idea being to render them ridiculous as well as
to inflict hideous suffering. The poor creatures were made to stand upon
one foot while a soldier menaced them with a bayonet. If the priest,
finally exhausted, dropped the upraised foot to the ground, he was
stabbed with the bayonet.
The prisons were bursting with unfortunate people existing in starvation
and filth. An American tobacco merchant related to me that a prominent
Greek merchant disappeared from the streets and for several days screams
were heard issuing from the second story of a certain building. This
Greek was not killed, but was finally released. He showed the American
round pits all over his body. He had been tied naked to a table and hot
oil dropped on him. When he had asked, in his agony, “What have I done?”
his persecutors replied, “We are doing this to show you that Turkey has
been freed for the Turks.” He was doubtless let go to spread the glad
news.
A well-known British correspondent, a pro-Bulgar, stated that he had
sent reports of these persecutions to the British press, but could not
get them published. He had the obsession that the reason was because the
whole British press was owned by Jews, but it is not easy to follow him
in this deduction. The true reason is to be found in some government
policy of the moment.
It was this indiscriminate persecution of Greeks, Bulgars and Serbs which
drove them into the same camp and enabled them to chase the Turk out of
Macedonia, even though they did fall at one another’s throats as soon as
they got rid of the common enemy. Any one inclined to doubt the veracity
of the above description must understand, if he knows anything of Balkan
matters, that it needed a pretty serious state of affairs to cause Greek
and Bulgar to fight on the same side.
The persecution to which all the races in the Empire were subjected, with
the exception of the Turks, is well-depicted in the following article
in the _Nea Aletheia_, a conservative journal published in the Greek
language, in Saloniki, which used all its influence in favor of harmony
and moderation. The following is from the issue of July 10, 1910, or
about two years after the declaration of the famous “Constitution”:
“Before two years are finished a secret committee is unearthed
in Constantinople, with branches all over in important
commercial towns, whose intentions are declared to be
subversive of the present state of affairs. In this committee
are found many prominent men and members of Congress. All
discontent seen in the kingdom has its beginning in this
perverted policy. Our rulers, according to their newly adopted
system of centralization upon the basis of the domination
of the ruling race have given gall and wormwood to all the
other races. They have displeased the Arabs by wishing them
to abandon their language. They have alienated the Albanians
by attempting to apply force, though conciliatory measures
would have been better. They have dissatisfied the Armenians
by neglecting their lawful petitions. They have offended the
Bulgarians by forcing them to live with foreigners brought
purposely from other places. They have dissatisfied the
Serbians by using against them measures the harshness of which
is contrary to human laws.
“But for us Greeks words are useless. We have every day before
us such a vivid picture of persecution and extermination that
however much we might say would not be sufficient to express
the magnitude of the misfortunes which since two years have
come upon our heads. It is acknowledged that the Greek race
ranks second as a pillar of the Constitution and that it is the
most valuable of those contributing to the prosperity of the
Ottoman fatherland.
“We have the right to ask, what have we, Ottoman Greeks, done
that we should be so persecuted? The law-abiding character of
the Ottoman Greeks is indisputable. To us were given promises
that our rights would remain untouched. Despite this, laws are
voted through which churches, schools, and cemeteries belonging
to us are taken and given to others. Clergymen and teachers are
imprisoned, citizens are beaten, from everywhere lamentation
and weeping are heard.
“With what joy we Ottoman Greeks hailed the rise of the 10th
of July! With what eagerness we took part in the expedition of
April, 1909! With what hopes we look forward even to-day to the
future of this country! It is ours, and no power is able to
separate us from it.
“The Greeks are a power in Turkey; a moral and material power.
This power it is impossible for our compatriot Turks to ignore.
When will that day come when full agreement will exist between
the two races? Then only hand in hand will both march forward,
and Turkey will reach the height which is her due.”
The following is from my Saloniki diary, dated December 11, 1910:
“Wholesale arrests, in some of the towns all the prominent
citizens being thrown into jail together.
“Series of assassinations of chiefs of communities, in broad
day, in the streets. Fifty prominent Bulgarians thus shot down,
and many Greeks.
“The following figures were obtained from a report of the
Turkish Parliament and locally confirmed:
“In the Sandjack of Uskub, 1,104 persons bastinadoed; Villayet
of Monastir, 285 persons bastinadoed; Saloniki, 464 persons
bastinadoed; (of these 11 died and 62 were permanently
injured.) Casas of Yenidje-Vardar, Gevgeli, Vodena, 911 persons
were bastinadoed.
“All the prisons are crowded with Christians; many have fled
into Bulgaria and thousands of men, women and children are
hiding in the mountains.”
This was the state of affairs two years after the declaration of the
Constitution, and it was this common suffering which Greeks, Bulgars
and Serbians endured, which drove them together and forced them to
declare the First Balkan War, in October of 1912, in which the Turk was
practically driven out of Europe until Christian statesmen of the Great
Powers brought him back again. Turkish power has always been built upon
Christian dissension and aid.
In the (at that time) pro-Turk _Progres de Salonique_, a journal
published in the French language at Saloniki, appeared an article which
expresses a state of feeling among Oriental peoples which has taken
great distension since the date of the article (July 22, 1910). What
was then a fire bids fair now to grow into a general conflagration, due
to the building up, by Christian powers, of the sinister puissance of
Mustapha Khemal:
“In the space of three years,” says the article, “the Orient,
twice and from its two extremities, has marvelously astonished
the civilized world: first, by the great victory won by the
Japanese over the strongest of Occidental peoples, and next by
the wonderful revolution in Turkey! In fact, it is a marvel
which is being accomplished to-day! There is no comparison
between the Orient of to-day and that of ten years ago. What
is more curious is that this Oriental movement has taken the
form of two separate currents, which, starting from the two
extremities of the Orient, are going to meet and their points
of junction will be, in all probability, India.
“At the head of these movements will be found the peoples
belonging to the same race—the Mongolian. Each one possesses
the unquestionable title to the moral and intellectual
supremacy of the great countries over which their influence
extends.
“The Japanese are incontestably at the head of the peoples
professing Buddhism, the doctrines of Confucius, etc.; the
Turks, defenders of Islam for centuries, are the incontestable
leaders of the people professing Islamism. Therefore, the two
movements, starting from the two extremities of Asia, from the
Bosphoros and Tokio, go spreading, each one in an appropriate
field prepared in advance by history itself to accept it, then,
since they are essentially the same, they will unite at their
point of junction, to form a common and formidable Asiatic
current. With this in view, the Occident is feeling uneasy and
agitated.”
Immediately after the reestablishment of the Constitution, then, the
first step of the dominant race was to solidify its supremacy by measures
of suppression, oppression, and murder. The Turks also deliberately
undertook to force all the non-Turkish races to become in language, laws,
habits and almost all other particulars, “Ottomans.”[2]
It is exactly this policy, in operation, which is referred to in the
clipping from the _Nea Aletheia_, quoted above. A more foolish project
was never conceived by the mind of man—that of forcing whole nations to
change their languages and habits overnight. The impossibility of this
scheme becomes all the more evident when the reader reflects that an
inferior civilization was attempting to impose itself upon a superior
one. The Turk never had any intention of giving equal liberty to all
the peoples who were so unfortunate as to be in his power. Failing to
“Turkify” them, as it has been called, his only next alternative was to
massacre and drive them out, a policy not long in developing.