CONSTANTINOPLE AND THE TURKS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XL, Issue 12538, 8 May 1915, Page 3 (Supplement)

CONSTANTINOPLE AND THE TURKS.

(By -Rev. George F. Herriek, D.D.)

A magnificent city and a wonderful people.. When we read the record of the impress which the Ottoman .Turks have stamped upon the life of the human, race we have to ask ourselves, ''Are we reading history or fiction?" We watch a nation's birth, its growth into the place of supreme power among the nations: then we trace its slow-de-cay, till, subdued and despairing, a negligible factor in the life of the race, it disappears in the, obscurity from which it emerged almost- seven centuries ago. On. the west ■'■ ban- of the Euphrates ■Rivet'in the year 1227 A.D. were grouped four hundred horsemen,, at-, tended by perhaps double that number of women, and slaves on foot. The leader of the band was Ertogrul, who died at the ago of ninety in 1288. He was the father of. Ottoman (or Osman) and the grandfather of Orkhan. These are the three names mentioned with the greatest pride .and reverence by all Ottomans till this day. . Through the 'hospitality of the Seljukian king, .then ruling over, a large part of Asia Minor. Ertogrul and his tribe became peaceably posses-sod of ample space for growth in the very fertile .plains of .Angola. By natural increase of the tribe, by increments from neighboring clans, by tactful agreements, and later on by some vigorous fighting, the Ottoman dominion was extended and strengthened, till, in a hundred years, that is, in 1326, we find there is no longer a- Seljak empire; the Turkish Sultan is firmly established in Brusa. as his capital. The growth had been phenomenally rapid. That was the year when Othman died, after a reign .of thirty-eight years. His son Orkhaii's reign extended to 1359. In .1855'Orkhan, appealed to by a rival of the Byzantine emperor for aid against liis enemy, crossed into Europe. He then .added Gallipoli and the surrounding region to his dominion, and it was but two years after his death in' 1359 that Adrianople was occupied and in 1307 became the acknowledged capital ' of the Ottoman empire, and so remained till the conquest of Constantinople in 1453. There still remain, both in Brusa and in Adrianople, some of the grandest and most beautiful mosques (always the most imposing edifices in Moslem lands) which the Turks have .anywhere possessed. The reign of the illustrious Bavazid, tlie i "Thunderbolt" (1389-1403), and his life's sad ending fall within the period when Adrianople was the Turkish capital. It is_ doubtful if there is to be found in history any parallel to the increase' of the Turks in the number of the people and the expansion of their territorv in the period of a hundred and seventy' years, from 1230 to 1100. We cannot here give even a sketch of Ottoman history during those year.} of rapid conquests in South-Eastcru, Europe. The ftn.il collapse of the already rotten Byzantine empire at the . conquest of Constantinople by Sultan Mohammed 11. the considerateness shown by the conqueror to his Christian subjects, the alternations between mercy and cruel oppression which have characterised Turkish rub? during the centuries of their dominion are all familiar to students of history. The strength and glory of the Ottoman empire culminated during the long reign of ■Suleiman the "Magnificent," 1520-1566. His empire extended from near the border of Germany to the frontiers of Persia. It included, in addition to what we of this and the preceding generation have been accustomed to think of as European Turkey, that is, Serbia, Albania, Bulgaria, Thrace. Macedonia, Montenegro,—the whole Balkan peninsula,-—Greece, Rumania,' and nearly the whole of Hungary also. The empire in Africa also was of-immense extent, covering nearly all of the Africa which was then included'within the zone of civilisation. There was no state then comparable to the Ottoman in extent of territory, in population, and in the number of different, peoples ruled. The Ottoman.' power was the terror of Europe and of Asia, both on land and on the sea. Twice did the armies of the Turks reach the very walls of Vienna. As compared with Turkey how small was England or Franco or Germany! The time since the Ottomans first appeared in human history till now when they seem about to make their exit from the world stage is 688 years. The death of Suleiman falls almost midway ; that is, the periods of growth and of decay are -equal. The break-up of the empire, which we think cf as occurring little by little during the last hundred years, actually began when Suleiman was scarcely cold in his grave. Interna) moral decay set I in, effeminacy in high life, a riot of base intrigue, stdtans deposed by the power of the Janizaries, —picked soldiers of Christian origin, introduced br Orkhan, destroyed by Mahmoud II in 1826, never more than 20,000 in number', —it is a. record of degeneracy from that day to this. When Suleiman died Russia was, in comparison with Turkey, a weak, almost a negligible, power. Compare the two states to-day. IntelligentTurks have themselves been making the comparison, in-keen consciousness of the | height from which-they have fallen, and of the depth to which' they have descended. In profound humiliation they face the record of their national decay. We need not go back quite a hundred years to trace the more rapid break-up of the" Ottoman power. Tins began with the Battle of Navarino, October 20, 1827, when,, as now, England. France, and Russia were found together opposed to Turkey. On that victory 'hung the crushing of the power of Turkey by sea- and the liberation of Greece from Turkish rule. The carving of new states or principalities out of the. body politic of Turkey followed in rapid succession—Rumania, Serbia, the Lebanon, Montenegro, Egypt, Bulgaria, Albania. Before w-e examine more closely conditions within'the imperial city which have made certain, sooner or later, the catastrophe which now fixes the attention of the civilised - world, let us look from without at the city itself. As a site for a great city that of Constantinople is absolutely" unrivalled. Approaching it in the*"early morning, on the -Sea- of Marmora, your course.bears northward as you near Seraglio Point. The sun on your right brings into bold relief the towers, the splendid mosques, and other stately buildings on the, heights -to your left. Now the beautiful Bosphorus opens right before you as you turn westward into the entrance to the Golden Horn. To see the city you have five excursions to make, and when made you seem to have seen five cities, so diverse is the impression made. These five, views are that gained in a ride along the old walls of Theodosius and Heraeiiiis,' reaching from the Marmora to the Golden Horn ; the view from the height 'above the village of Eyub on the Horn; the view, from the hill above Scutari on ' the- Asiatic side; the views requiring a 'full "day-in a sail up the Bosporus and down to the Princes' Islands in the Marmora, and lastly, a eayique ride by moonlight oft a summer ni.ght down the Bosphorus from Buyukdere to the harbor. It is an excursion in paradise. Wc have now to enter the city of Constantinople as students of those factors in human life which make or mar. which build up < ; r destroy, cities, states and nations. Of the sultans who have ruled over the Ottoman Empire during the lasthundred Years, cf onlv one, Mahmoud 11.. can it'he said that he possessed both the ability and the purpose- to govern in the interests of his subjects as he understood what that required. His son Adbul Medjid, 18391861,' was a good-intentioned but weak man. Fuad and Ali Pashas were the 1 able men of the time. Abdul Medjid's 1 brother, Abdul Aziz, 1861-1876, was chieflv famous for expending enormous '.' sjmis'of borrowed money on palaces and '. a useless fleet of ironclads and on lavish gifts to his favorites. j The long scries cf autocratic and irresponsible sultans was fitly closed by one who ruled a third of a century, 18781909, in a manner well known to the whole civilised world. During his ' reign, while everywhere else peoples wore making progress in material welfare and in general education, in attaining the rights and privileges of free men, the neople of Turkey wore sinking ! into hopeless apathy, falling far behind . those peoples west of them, recently freed from the Turkish yoke, in every ' form of human wlel being, or they were ' secretlv plotting against their Gov-

o-rnmeut. Political and politico-ecules-iasiical intrigue, i'or which Constantinople has always been famous, was increasingly prevalent and baleful there and at. the provincial capitals. Spies wrve everywliere, spies upon spies, Abdul Hamid's spies spying upon the people and spying and spied upon by Russian and other spies. Thousands of

good, men were exiled or voluntarily fled the country. The Turkish "genius for governing" by pitting race against race, reached its climax. The very

word liberty Mas banished from the speech of men. in the midst of tho chaos, the Kaiser became the avowed friend of the astute Abdul Hamid, sent- him his congratulations, and a present, over the suppression by a river of blood of Armenian sedition, and gained from the Sultan valuable concessions.

The discontent'over the cruel absolutism of Abdul Hamid suddenly burst into flame in July, 1008. First Enver and Niazi and then Mahmoud Shcvket were the lauded heroes of tho popular movement. The "Voting Turks" at first did excellent work and were applauded all over Europe. Whenever and so. long as the counsels of Kamil and Nazim Pashas, men of sagacity and probity, Turkey's real patriots, were followed by the now leaders, the hope of all friends of the Turkish' people grew into confident expectation of possible icfonn of government administration, and consequent realisation of popular welfare and progress. The causes, the conduct, and the results of the Balkan war are so recent and so well known tiiat we need notdwell upon their harrowing details. After all the calamities the Turks have suffered in the recent years they were making heroic efforts to'realise the hopes and plans with which thev start- i ed six years ago. When in August last- Europe burst into flame Turkey wisely remained neutral. The Sultan, the' heir-apparent, the Grand Vizier, the large majority of the leaders of the people, in and out of office, Mussulman and non-Mussul-man, were for maintaining neutrality, it was obviously the only thing to do. three months this position was maintained: Germany seemed to be everywhere victorious. Enver Bey was, for years before ' the w 4 ar with "Italy, military attache of the Turkish Embassy at Berlin. He distinguished himself in- the Italian and the Balkan wars. He became par excellence the national hero on the retaking of Adrianople. He married into the Imperial family. He became Minister of War. The Minister of Marine readily supported him. Talaat Bey. Minister of the Interior, hesitated, but finally, not without- reluctance, joined with Enver. Already German influence at Constantinople was tremendously strong. The army was drilled' and led by German officers. The Goehen and Breslau, manned by Germans, had replaced the two dreadnoughts built for Turkey in England and retained in the British navy. The pro-German party carried the day. It was Turkey's fatal hour. In Western. Europe nobody doubted what the issue would finally be. As to Russia she was glad that the actual government of Turkey was giving her an open path to the realisation of her hopes, cherished for two hundred years, without her being justly charged with aggression. EXIT THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE. What is now to be? Amid the uncertainties one thing is certain. As an independent power, a state to be reckoned with among world powers, Turkey passes off the .stage. A form of Ottoman government may survive in Asia. For how long? Who can tell? As all modern history shows, any Moslem state is handicapped in the race of human progress by its ancestral faith. It is no better, it is worse off, if its leaders are liberals merely wearing the cloak of Islam. Unhappily while some of the leaders of the Young Turk party were educated in Europe not oin> of them had the training of an American college, as so many of the formers of state of Bulgaria had. How different the result!

To return to Constantinople. What is to be her future? It bow .seems unlikely that Great Britain and Franco will "stand in Russia's way to the full realisation of her long-cherished hope. If that hope is realised Greece will he disappointed and aggrieved. It will be difficult to placate Italy. A proposition will doubtless be made for the internationalisation of Constantinople. The word is very long -and the act will be found extremely difficult. One power must rule there, not two or half a dozen. The final settlement will doubtless be made under some guarantees agreed upon by the Allies. Russia, is not what she was a quarter of a century ago. Liberal ideals have greatly gained in strength among the people, and even in governmental circles in that empire. In any case those straits, the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles will hereafter bo neutral waters.

America's interests in those lands are hnnpily not at all political. They are philanthropic, educational. Christian. They are highly appreciated by all classes and all races. Mussulman and non-Mussulman. American institutions there are many, strategically located, firmly established. The American spirit pervades them. They will remain, and they will grow as the years pass, as the inevitable changes take .place. They will continue their beneficent work for the coming generations of all those races, our brothers, deserving and. destined to share with ns in the blessings of a common heritage. ; ■