reaction reared its head again at the secret instigation of the Sultan.
There was an outbreak in Albania against the Committee of Union and
Progress. The bodyguard of Albanians was won back to the support of
Abdul Hamid by profuse bribery. Disorder broke out in many parts of the
Empire. It was at Constantinople, however, that the gravest dangers
to the new order of things arose. The first act of the new Government
was to dismiss the host of spies, who had been maintained at a cost
of £1,200,000 a year. It was said at the time that if three persons
were seen talking together in the streets one of them was certain to
be a spy in the employment of the Sultan. These people found their
occupation gone. The new ministers also cleared the public departments
of a vast body of superfluous and useless employés, most of them
hangers-on of the palace. These two classes of people made a formidable
body of malcontents, who conceived that their fortunes depended on
the restoration to the Sultan of his old powers of corruption. They
were supported by a small body of fanatical mollahs, who believed, or
pretended to believe, that the new Constitution was in opposition to
the sacred law. But more important than these agencies of reaction were
the personal efforts made by Abdul Hamid to tamper with the fidelity
to the new Government of the troops at Constantinople by the profuse
distribution of money from his private stores. The new ministers had
also made the mistake of releasing from prison, not merely great
numbers of persons imprisoned at the will of the Sultan for political
reasons, but also all the prisoners convicted of serious crimes. These
formed an element of disorder in the city and caused alarm and distrust
among the well-disposed citizens.
On April 13, 1909, nine months after promulgation of the new
Constitution, a revolt broke out among the troops at Constantinople,
and a counter-revolution was proclaimed. It had no ostensible leader of
any repute or influence. Abdul Hamid avoided committing himself openly
to the movement. But for the moment, backed by elements of discontent,
it was successful. The new ministers, the members of the Committee of
Union and Progress, and the members of the new Assembly were compelled
to seek safety by flight. If Abdul Hamid had boldly come forward as the
champion of the reactionaries and fanatics, he might have crushed his
enemies and have restored the old régime. But he lacked the courage for
a desperate game. He contented himself with the secret supply of money
in support of the movement.
Meanwhile the Committee of Young Turks met at Salonika, and determined
to put down the counter-revolution by force. They called on Mahmoud
Shefket Pasha, in command of the 3rd Army Corps, to support them. He
said that he had sworn to maintain the Constitution, and agreed to
march his army to Constantinople. At San Stefano he met the members of
the Assembly and the ministers who had fled from the city. By the 24th
of April the army had overcome the feeble opposition of the rebellious
troops and were in occupation of the most important parts of the
capital. The counter-revolution was suppressed at a very small cost
of lives. The National Assembly met again, and the first question for
their decision was what should be done with Abdul Hamid. They put the
following question to the Sheik ul Islam:—
“What should be done with a Commander of the Faithful who has
suppressed books and important dispositions of the Sharia law; who
forbids the reading of, and burns, such books; who wastes public money
for improper purposes; who, without legal authority, kills, imprisons,
and tortures his subjects and commits tyrannical acts; who, after he
has bound himself by oath to amend, violates such oath and persists
in sowing discord so as to disturb the public peace, thus occasioning
bloodshed?
“From various provinces the news comes that the population has deposed
him; and it is known that to maintain him is manifestly dangerous and
his deposition is advantageous.
“Under these conditions, is it permissible for the actual governing
body to decide as seems best upon his abdication or deposition?”
The answer was the simple word ‘Yes.’
Never was a sovereign condemned by a more emphatic and laconic word.
Upon this the National Assembly unanimously decided on the deposition
of Abdul Hamid. They sent a deputation to the palace to inform him to
this effect. He appears to have taken the sentence of deportation very
quietly. “It is Kismet,” he said. “But will my life be spared?” He who
had been so merciless to others was chiefly concerned now in claiming
mercy for himself. He pleaded that he had not put to death his two
brothers, Murad and Réchad. The question was reserved for the National
Assembly.
Abdul Hamid found himself deserted and friendless. He was execrated by
his subjects and despised and distrusted by all his fellow sovereigns
in Europe, unless it were the German Emperor, who, of late years, had
given a support to him in all his misdeeds at home and abroad. In his
hour of peril the Emperor gave him no support, but the reverse. When
he found how the wind was blowing, William II commenced an intrigue
with the Committee of Union and Progress through Enver Bey, who had
received a military training in Germany and was personally known to
him. It is said that the Emperor insisted as a condition of recognition
of the new order that the life of Abdul Hamid should be spared. There
was another reason for doing so—namely the hope of the Young Turks
to squeeze his hidden wealth from the deposed Sultan. However that
may be, Abdul Hamid’s life was spared. He was deported with a few
of the more favoured members of his harem to Salonika, where he was
detained as a virtual prisoner, but not otherwise maltreated. After
his departure money and diamonds to the value of over a million pounds
sterling were found in his palace, a small part only of his ill-gotten
wealth. Two millions sterling were deposited with German banks and
very large sums were in the hands of the Emperor William. Thus ended a
reign of thirty-three years, more disastrous in its immediate losses
of territory and in the certainty of others to follow, and more
conspicuous for the deterioration of the condition of his subjects,
than that of any other of his twenty-three degenerate predecessors
since the death of Solyman the Magnificent.
XXII
THE YOUNG TURKS
1909-14
MEHMET RÉCHAD was proclaimed Sultan in place of his brother, under the
title of Mahomet V, at the age of sixty-four. He had spent the whole
period of his manhood as a virtual prisoner, the last thirty-four years
of it under the close surveillance of his brother. He was never allowed
to have friends or even to read newspapers. His servants were in the
pay of Abdul Hamid and acted as spies on him. He devoted his life to
his harem. It was not surprising that he lost what little intellect he
was originally endowed with. A diplomatist who had many opportunities
of seeing him since his elevation to the throne thus describes him:—
The very appearance of Mahomet V suggests nonentity. Small and
bent, with sunken eyes and deeply lined face, an obesity savouring
of disease, and a yellow, oily complexion, it certainly is not
prepossessing. There is little or no intelligence in his countenance,
and he never lost a haunted, frightened look, as if dreading to find
an assassin lurking in some dark corner ready to strike and kill
him.... Abdul Hamid hated and despised him, but was afraid to have
him killed—perhaps through fear that a stronger man might take his
place.[47]
The new Sultan had not been a party to the conspiracy which dethroned
his brother. No one in his senses would have entrusted him with so
important a secret. It was said of him that he simulated the mannerisms
of an idiot in order to allay suspicion in the mind of Abdul Hamid that
he took any interest in politics. He lived in constant fear of being
put to death. A portrait of this degenerate would explain better than
words, if it were not too cruel, the depth to which the once proud
race of Othman has fallen. It was probable, however, that the cunning
men who engineered the revolution thought it would better serve their
purpose to have a cipher as the figure-head of the Empire than a man
with a will of his own.
After the defeat of the reactionaries and the deposition of Abdul
Hamid, in 1909, the Young Turks had another spell of power,
during which they had the opportunity of effecting reforms in the
administration of the Empire. They made a bad use of it. It soon became
evident that there were two sections in the Committee in violent
antagonism to one another. That which succeeded in getting the upper
hand was chauvinistic, vehemently national in its objects and methods,
aiming at the enforcement of unity throughout the Empire by Turkifying
everything, without regard to local customs or to difference of race.
They endeavoured to impose the Turkish language on the many subject
races who spoke only their own language. They forbade the teaching in
schools of the Albanian language in Albania, and of Arabic, the sacred
language of Islam, in Arabia. They introduced compulsory service for
the army, and forced the Christians of the Balkan provinces to serve in
its ranks, with the result that thousands of young Bulgarians, Greeks,
and Serbians, inhabitants of Macedonia, fled the country and sought
refuge in the neighbouring States. The Young Turks availed themselves
of the opportunity which this afforded them of strengthening the Moslem
population of Macedonia by inviting thousands of the lowest class of
Moslem Bosnians to migrate there. These men were the cause of grave
disturbance and disorder. No provision was made for their employment.
Committees of Young Turks were formed there, who incited the Turkish
local authorities to deeds of arbitrary tyranny rivalling, if not
excelling, the infamies of Abdul Hamid’s rule. The autocracy of that
tyrant was broken at Constantinople and his system of espionage, which
had caused such indignation, was suppressed, but hundreds of local
Abdul Hamids came into existence in the provinces.
The central Government at the capital followed the method of the late
Sultan in minute interference with every detail of administration.
There can be no doubt that the condition of the Christian provinces
of the Empire became worse than ever. Meanwhile the enthusiasm for
England and for the principles of the British Constitution cooled
down at Constantinople. Whatever may have been the cause, the fact was
certain that British influence at the Porte fell to a vanishing point,
while that of Germany rapidly rose. The military alliance which has
been so valuable to Germany in the existing great war was then formed.
The period was also marked by repeated changes of the Grand Vizier,
according as one or other section of the Young Turks got the upper hand.
It was not long before the process of dismemberment of the Empire was
renewed and the wolves were gathered round it to share in the spoil.
The Young Turks were less successful in resisting them than Abdul
Hamid, who, at least, had kept them at bay by his cunning and shifty
diplomacy during the many years which had elapsed since the Congress
of Berlin, though it may well be said of him that the pent-up evils
of his long misgovernment were in great part responsible for the
dismemberments which followed in the régime of the Young Turks.
Very soon after the revolution of 1908, on October 7th, before there
was experience of the new Constitution, the Austro-Hungarian Government
took advantage of the crisis and proclaimed the annexation of Bosnia
and Herzegovina, in defiance of the treaty obligations imposed by the
Great Powers at Berlin. There was no attempt to justify this. The
annexations made little or no difference to the people of the two
provinces. They were already, for all practical purposes, under the
rule of Austria-Hungary. The main difference was that the Bosnian
soldiers discarded the fez which they wore as the symbol of Ottoman
suzerainty. The annexation, however, caused great indignation among
the Turks, who regarded it as an insult to their Empire. It was also
the cause of ill-feeling in Russia, and did something to bring about
the great war of 1914. The Austrian Government gave up its occupation
of the Sandjak of Novi-Bazar and agreed to take over a share of the
Ottoman debt, to the amount of about four millions sterling. As these
concessions were accepted, the Porte must be held to have condoned the
offence. Prince Ferdinand of Bulgaria very soon followed the example of
the Austro-Hungarian Government. He proclaimed himself an independent
sovereign. This also made very little practical difference to his
subjects. On October 12th the Cretan Assembly proclaimed the union of
the island with Greece.
The next blow to the Ottoman Empire came from a very unexpected
quarter, from Italy, which made a sudden and unprovoked attack on
Tripoli. This province in Africa had never been autonomous. It was
an integral part of the Ottoman Empire, governed directly from
Constantinople. Its population was purely Moslem—Turks and Moors
in the city of Tripoli and other places on the coast, and with
semi-independent Arabs in the hinterland. There was no demand on the
part of these natives for a change of government. Italy had no valid
cause of complaint on behalf of its few subjects who resided in the
province, though it trumped up something of the kind. It was a case of
pure aggression, prompted by jealousy of France in respect of Tunis, to
which, geographically and economically, Italy had a stronger claim. It
may be confidently assumed that the French Republic gave its consent to
the seizure of Tripoli by Italy, and that Great Britain acquiesced in
it, if it did not formally approve.
Up to the end of 1910, the Italian Government had constantly professed
the desire to maintain the integrity of the Turkish Empire. When
rumours arose of an intention to grab Tripoli, its Foreign Minister,
so late as December 2, 1910, emphatically denied them in the Italian
Chamber. “We desire,” he said, “the integrity of the Ottoman Empire and
we wish Tripoli always to remain Turkish.” Nothing had since occurred
to disturb the relations between the two countries. But in September
1911 the Italian Government sprang a mine on the Porte by declaring
its intention to occupy Tripoli. On October 26th it notified to the
Powers of Europe its intention to annex that province. It sent an army
of fifty thousand men for the purpose. Its fleet bombarded the Turkish
town of Prevesa, in the Adriatic, and drove the Turkish fleet to seek
refuge within the Dardanelles. It took possession of several of the
islands in the Ægean Sea.
The Porte was caught at a disadvantage. Abdul Hamid had for many years
completely neglected his navy. He owed it a grudge for having taken
part in the deposition of his predecessor. He feared that its guns
might be trained on his palace. He had allowed the Minister of Marine,
the most corrupt and greedy of all his Pashas, to appropriate to his
own use the money allotted by the budget for the repair of warships.
For many years the battleships never left the Golden Horn. But for this
the Ottoman navy, which in the time of Abdul Aziz had been the third
most powerful in Europe, might have made the landing of an Italian army
in Africa impossible. The garrison in Tripoli, which Abdul Hamid had
always maintained in strength, had been greatly reduced by the Young
Turks. The reinforcement of it after the declaration of war, when Italy
had command of the sea, was a very difficult task, the more so as the
British Government proclaimed the neutrality of Egypt, though it was
still tributary to the Porte, and forbade the passage of Turkish troops
into Tripoli.
In spite of these obstacles, the Porte made a gallant fight for its
African province, with the aid of the Arabs of the hinterland. Both
Turkish and Italian armies committed the most horrible atrocities in
this war, and there was little to choose between them in this respect.
The war lasted till October, 1912, and was only brought to an end when
the Porte found itself confronted by danger from a quarter much nearer
home.
There can be little doubt that the war with Italy, the consequent
engagement of a large Turkish army in defence of Tripoli, and the
blockade of Turkish ports by the Italian navy, making it difficult for
the Porte to transfer its troops from Asia direct to the Balkan States,
precipitated the intervention of Greece, Bulgaria, and Serbia on behalf
of the Christian inhabitants of the remaining provinces of the Porte in
Europe, which were now on the eve of revolt.
The condition of these Christian provinces had in no way improved under
the régime of the Young Turks, but very much the reverse. The governors
and other Ottoman officials were as corrupt, rapacious, and arbitrary
as they had ever been. There was no security for life or property. The
Turkish soldiers plundered the villages of Christians which they were
sent to protect. Bands of brigands, sometimes wearing the uniforms of
Greek, sometimes of Bulgarian soldiers, devastated the country. No
attempt was made by the Young Turks to put in force any part of the
reforms which had been proposed by the Commission appointed by the
Great Powers after the Congress of Berlin.
Lord Fitzmaurice’s scheme remained as much a dead letter as it had been
for over thirty years under Abdul Hamid. The Young Turks had added new
difficulties and more causes of complaint by their attempts to Turkify
everything, and by their extension of conscription to the Christian
population. The physical situation of Macedonia made it impossible
that its people would willingly submit to this continued misgovernment
and tyranny. Their immediate neighbours were Bulgarians, Serbians, and
Greeks, of kindred race, all of whom, with the assistance of Russia
and other European Powers, had obtained freedom from Turkish rule.
The peoples of Greece, Bulgaria, and Serbia sympathized with their
compatriots who were still under the detested yoke.
If ever intervention by neighbouring States was justified for the
purpose of restoring order and securing good government in accordance
with treaty obligations, this was a case for it. The crisis was
precipitated by massacres of Bulgarians at Kotchana, in Macedonia, and
of Serbians on the borders of Montenegro.
Early in 1912 negotiations for armed intervention in Macedonia took
place between the Governments of Greece, Bulgaria, and Serbia, at
the instance mainly of the able and patriotic Premier of Greece, M.
Venezelos. For the first and only time in their history a combination
was effected between these three States against the Turkish Empire.
It will be seen that, though it was most effective for its immediate
purpose of defeating the Turks and expelling them from nearly the whole
of their European possessions, it broke down, with most unfortunate
results, almost immediately after this great success.
On March 18, 1912, a treaty was signed between Bulgaria and Serbia
for mutual military aid to one another in war with Turkey. A secret
clause provided that in the event of any portion of Macedonia being
conquered the parts respectively nearest to the two States should be
annexed to them, and that the intervening territory should be divided
between them by the arbitration of Russia. This clearly showed that the
intervention aimed at territorial conquest. Two months later another
treaty was signed between Greece and Bulgaria, binding the two States
to aid one another if attacked by Turkey, or in the event of systematic
violation of rights by that Power. Nothing was said in this as to the
division of spoil after the war. Montenegro later came into the chain
of alliances, and, in fact, was always eager for war with Turkey.
When it became known to the Great Powers that these alliances were
formed, and that war was imminent, they made every effort to allay
the storm and to maintain peace. A strong protest was addressed, on
September 25th, by Russia and Austria on behalf of all the Powers.
They endeavoured to resuscitate the treaty of Berlin, which had so
signally failed, to secure order and good government in the remaining
Christian provinces of Turkey. They undertook, by virtue of the
twenty-third article of that treaty, to insist on the realization of
the promised reforms in the administration of these provinces, but
with the reservation, which made the promise futile in the eyes of
all concerned, that the reforms should not in any way diminish the
sovereignty of the Sultan or impair the integrity of the Ottoman Empire.
The allied Balkan States, in a very dignified despatch of October 15th,
declined to act on the advice of the Powers.
The Governments of the Balkan States [they said] consider that after
so many promises of reform have been so often and so solemnly given
by Turkey, it would be cruel not to endeavour to obtain in favour
of the Christian population of the Ottoman Empire reforms of a more
radical and definite nature which would really ameliorate their
miserable condition if applied sincerely and in their integrity.
They enclosed a copy of an ultimatum which, on the same day, they
addressed to the Porte, insisting on the carrying out of a series of
reforms specially detailed.
If [they said] the Porte desires to accept these proposals, order and
tranquillity will be reinstated in the provinces of the Empire, and a
desirable peace will be assured between Turkey and the Balkan States,
which have hitherto suffered from the arbitrary and provocative
measures adopted by the Porte to them.
Among the list of reforms insisted on was the ceding and confirmation
of the ethnical autonomy of provinces of the Empire, with all its
consequences. The ultimatum was presented to the Porte, which treated
it as a declaration of war. Its first and most important act was to
come to terms with Italy in order to free its hands for the more
important war at its very portals. A treaty of peace was signed on
October 15th, by which the Porte agreed to withdraw its troops from
Tripoli, and thus virtually recognized the acquisition of that province
by Italy. Italy, on the other hand, agreed to withdraw from the islands
of the Ægean Sea which it had occupied—a promise which, in fact, it did
not perform.
Meanwhile hostilities had already commenced in the Balkans. Montenegro
declared war on October 8th. The three other States followed suit on
October 18th, and each of them sent its army on the same day, or nearly
so, across its frontiers to invade Turkey. Beyond the desire for the
better government of the Christian provinces of Turkey, there were
doubtless _arrières pensées_ on the part of all the allied States.
Greece coveted Crete and other islands in the Ægean Sea, and hoped to
extend its frontiers on the mainland. Bulgaria yearned for the big
Bulgaria as defined by the treaty of San Stefano. Serbia had ambitions
for a revival of its wide boundaries under Stephen Dushan, and aimed
at access both to the Ægean Sea and the Adriatic. Montenegro wished
for a part of Albania and for extensions in the Adriatic. Each State
had large populations of a kindred race beyond its frontier suffering
from cruel misgovernment and tyranny and crying for help. But it seems
improbable that they could have expected to realize their full hopes,
or to achieve such a _dénouement_ as actually occurred.
The allies between them had seven hundred thousand men under arms.
Turkey had no more than four hundred thousand in Europe. It had,
however, great reserves in Asia, and its aggregate force largely
exceeded that of the allies. It was to be expected that the Turkish
armies in Europe would make a good fight, and would at least afford
time for these reserves to come up.
The Greek army, under the command of the Crown Prince Constantine (the
present King of Greece), who had received a military education in
Germany, crossed the northern frontier and, in four days, on October
22nd, encountered a Turkish army, under Hassan Pasha, at Sarandoporus.
The Turks held a very strong position and were little inferior in
numbers. In spite of this, they were worsted, and were compelled to
retreat in the following night. The next day the Greeks renewed
their attack. The unfortunate Turks, disheartened by their defeat at
Sarandoporus and wearied by the long night march, were caught unawares
in a ravine which offered no possibility of defence. Terror-stricken
and demoralized, they fled before their foe. They left behind them the
whole of their artillery and transport.