TERRIBLE CONDITION OF ASIATIC TURKEY

Seventh-Day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Thursday, May 20, 1880

FromThe Review and Herald, Vol. 55, No. 21

TERRIBLE CONDITION OF ASIATIC TURKEY.

Two months ago I wrote of the Armenian question and alluded incidentally to the present condition of Asia Minor, but it is too terrible a story to be passed over in this way. If any one would know what it is to live amid the crumbling ruins of a falling empire let him come now and take up his abode in Asia Minor. He will never cease to pray that no such calamity may befall his own native land. It is not simply the Christians who are suffering, but the whole population. Famine, in its most terrible forms, rages over whole provinces, coming almost within sight of the gilded palaces of Constantinople. There is a province not so far from us as Albany is from New York, which is not unknown to those familiar with the missionary work in Turkey, which ought to be famous as the first place where the Armenian Protestants voluntarily undertook to support their own pastor, who joyfully endured great privation to enable them to become independent. This is Adabazaar, near Nicomedia. Into this small province the Turks sent 40,000 armed Circassians, giving them nothing to live upon and taking no means to protect the inhabitants, who are both Turks and Armenians. For a year past the people have been appealing in vain to the Turkish government and to the foreign ambassadors for protection. Deputations have come, consuls have been sent there to investigate, but nothing has been done. First came the reports that all the horses and cattle had been stolen by the Circassians; then that robberies and murders took place every day; that the people did not dare to leave their villages; then that hundreds were dying of starvation; now that these Circassians have seized the cultivated fields for themselves, and that there is a probability of a massacre of the helpless unarmed population. All this time the government has been forcibly collecting taxes, but has done nothing else. The people are in utter despair, and well they may be. What can they do but lie down and die? Nor can one altogether blame the Circassians. They are savages; capable of civilization but uncivilized. They have nothing to eat; they have arms in their hands, and they cannot be expected to sit down and starve so long as there is anything for them to plunder. Even civilized men under such circumstances would be very likely to practically adopt the theory of the survival of the fittest and judge themselves to be of that class who ought to survive. The real fault is with the Turkish government; first in sending the Circassians there, second, in making no provision for their support and no attempt to keep them in order. If such things happen within a hundred miles of Constantinople, what may be expected in distant provinces?

The Turkish population is suffering everywhere from losses occasioned by the war. Of the million of able-bodied men, most of them married, who were drafted during the war, not more than one-third have lived to return to their homes. All of these were Turks, and their families have been left as a charge upon the villages. The government has paid nothing for the services of these soldiers, pays no pensions, and exacts with an iron hand the same taxes as before. They have repudiated first the paper money, then the copper, and now they have by decree reduced the value of all the other money in circulation in Asia Minor one-half. This loss has fallen most heavily upon the poor Turkish population. In any other country they would long since have risen in rebellion and driven the Sultan from his throne, but they have no leaders. The old Beys who used to oppress but protect and lead the people are all gone, and there is no one to raise the standard of revolt. The long-suffering Moslems accept the decrees of fate and calmly starve to death. Men, women, and children are dying thus by hundreds all through Asia Minor. They are not a race who ought to be left thus to starve, these Anatolian Turks. They are the best that are left of the old Osmanlis and Seljuks, and under a good government would be the best possible subjects. They have many good qualities to command the sympathy of the world, but the world seems to care very little for them.

The Armenians, especially in Armenia itself, are dying of famine in great numbers. The ecclesiastical authorities, the American missionaries, and the consuls have proclaimed their sufferings to the world and appealed for aid. Considerable sums have been subscribed here. But that which is most distressing in regard to this famine is the fact that it results rather from misgovernment than from natural causes, although these have aggravated it. The Kurds have been suffered for more than three years to ravage these provinces. The people have been crushed at the same time by unbearable taxation, and officials have combined with the rich to lock up what food there is. The same stories come from Mesopotamia. Everywhere there is greater oppression, heavier taxation, more misrule, and less protection than ever before, and everywhere the people are starving. The English consuls report imminent danger of terrible massacres throughout the country, and letters from the famine-stricken districts report that the people who are living on roots and grasses and earth are dying of a disease which resembles the plague. Should this dreadful “black death” once gather strength among the dying population of Asia Minor it would inevitably sweep over the world, and thus execute divine judgment on the people of Europe who have chosen for their own selfish interests and jealousies to maintain “the integrity and independence of the Ottoman empire.” It is at least one consolation, however, to know that we are to have no more Beaconsfield reforms in Turkey; that the English people have improved the first opportunity to repudiate the policy of the man who declared that the speeches of Mr. Gladstone were a greater crime than the Bulgarian massacres. I only wish that he might be doomed to spend the rest of his days in Asia Minor, which has been since 1878 under his special protection. He is a great, a wonderful man. I have no wish to deny this; but he has been an unmitigated curse to the people of the East. I believe that he intended in the end to annex Asia Minor to the British empire. Had he done it when he had the power, the people would have forgiven the past; but, as it is, his name will be cursed in the East for many generations to come.

Other parts of Asiatic Turkey are in a state of anarchy bordering on revolution, and it is the opinion of the embassies here that the Arab population of the empire may be the first to throw off the yoke of Turkish bondage. There is, no doubt, at the present moment a great conspiracy extending from Arabia to the Kurdish Mountains which may result in open rebellion any day. In fact, Arabia is already in rebellion, and Syria is all ready to follow. These Arabs far surpass the Turks in intelligence, and hate them with intense hatred. They have long been waiting for a leader to raise the standard of revolt. Midhat Pacha, now Governor of Syria, hopes to take advantage of this feeling and secure Syria for himself. This is well known at Constantinople and in Europe; but it is very doubtful whether he can secure the sympathy of the Arabs. He is himself a native of Bulgaria, and I believe, a Slavic Mussulman; but there he is looked upon as a Turk, and his chief hope of success lies in the reputation which he has gained in Europe; but this is rather popular than official. The European governments have no great faith in him. Still he has a certain chance of securing some European intervention in his favor, as he is the actual ruler, and Europe has no wish to see anarchy prevail in Syria.

At Constantinople all is quiet. The Sultan has managed to concentrate the whole government in his own hands. No minister has any power, and even ordinary police regulations must go to the palace to be examined and approved by the Sultan himself. This has caused a complete dead lock in the government. The council of the ministers has now some 4,000 items of unfinished business on hand, and the number increases every day. There is much distress among the common people, and a complete stagnation of business. Robbery and murder are every-day occurrences, and it is unsafe to go far outside the city, but there are no signs of any active discontent. People use very violent language, even in public places; but we have 40,000 troops in the city, and no one seems inclined to stir up rebellion. Government officers are not paid, but most of them manage to live on plunder of some kind, and they submit to their fate. Still there is a general feeling of uneasiness, and there is an impression that we shall have a European intervention within a few months.—Correspondent of the Christian Union, Constantinople, April 6, 1880.