p. 10 | PERCY T. MAGAN by Percy T. Magan

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jul 22, 1909

PERCY T. MAGAN

By Percy T. Magan

The Turkish Revolution—No. 3

PERCY T. MAGAN

“Hurriet,” and “How It Came About”

“HURRIET” is the Turkish word for liberty. Until the revolution its use was forbidden. Recently a patriotic play has been upon the boards in the Turkish theaters, bearing the significant title, “How It Came About.” The object of this article will be to tell how Turkish liberty came about, and to outline a few of the most striking features of the revolution.

As a rule, revolutions are not unaccompanied by bloodshed. France, polished and refined, shed blood in torrents. In Turkey, supposedly one of the most barbarous lands in the world, a practically bloodless revolution seems almost inconceivable. We have been wont to hear of the “unspeakable Turk.” Horrible massacres have taken place so often in that unhappy land that minds have become satiated with their scarlet story. We have read of Armenian massacres, and Macedonian massacres, and Bulgarian massacres in an almost unending succession. How then a bloodless revolution in Turkey—Turkey which to most Westerners has seemed the hotbed of all that is fiendish and horrible? Nevertheless such is the fact. There has been practically a bloodless revolution in Turkey.

Last week I traced the story of the rise and organization of the Young Turk party. After a period spent in “educating” the country, this party decided that physical force might be necessary, and so determined to capture the army, and started their work with the Third, or Macedonian, Corps.

This was a wise selection, as the Third Corps in question was quartered in disturbed country, and the men were greatly disaffected on account of being held beyond legal time with the colors, and besides, their pay was constantly in arrears.

It is agreed by almost all authorities that the explosion took place sooner than the revolutionists had planned. The cause of this will be discussed in a subsequent paper. The immediate cause, however, was a flattering invitation to Enver Bey, the prime mover in the plot at Salonika, to visit his royal sovereign in Constantinople. He wisely concluded that his plans had been discovered, and that he had been betrayed to the sultan. He fled to his friend Niazi Bey, the commandant of Resna. This officer had strong Albanian connections. Niazi resolved to act at once, and with a band of picked men threw himself into the hills.

Shenai Pasha was detailed to quell the mutiny. He was murdered. Osman Hydadet attempted in barracks to plead the cause of the sultan, and fell amid a hail of bullets. The Second Army Corps soon joined the Third. Between them they held districts on both sides of the Bosporus. The troops of Anatolia, which were ordered to Monastir, refused to fire on their mutinous comrades. Threatening messages were received from Adrianople.

The army at once demanded the proclamation of Midhat Pasha’s constitution of 1876. The ground was now crumbling rapidly beneath the feet of the supporters of the Hamidian régime. Messages to Yildiz from all parts of the European provinces announced that the game of absolutism was lost. Even the Albanians fell into revolt. All Macedonia was in the hands of the Young Turks. And when the vali of Monastir proclaimed Midhat’s constitution in the presence of the troops, it was felt that the game was up. Then it was that Abdul-Hamid, after a lapse of two and thirty years, proclaimed again the great statesman’s constitution.

The rest we know. In twenty-four hours the press was free. July 25 brought amnesty to political prisoners. By Saturday evening every house was decorated. Side by side with the Ottoman star and crescent was the Greek cross and stripes. The Greek newspaper Proa declared: “The whole nation was drunk, was suffering from headache (kraipale) from the intoxication of joy. Luxuriating in the boundless radiance of liberty and equality, they could only cry, in ecstasy, ‘Long live the friend of liberty, the Sultan Abdul-Hamid.’”

The members of the camarilla and ministers of state who had practised extortion began at once to leave the country. The stories of their exit are somewhat amusing. First went Habili Efendi Melhame. It was said at first that he went on a special mission for the sultan. Maybe—but he went in

his sleeping attire, and with signs of great haste. Next went Selim Melhame, minister of forests and mines. He appears to have been detested on account of his extortions.

“On August 1 it was announced that ‘the chief inspector of military schools, otherwise chief spy, otherwise chief hypocrite, Ismail Pasha,’ having presented himself at the Salamlik, on the previous day, was compelled to retire in disguise, ‘the presence of such miscreants being no longer tolerated.’ Another, ‘most dishonorable of all the spies,’ Kabasıl (Coarse Beard), Mohammed Pasha, who had caused the death of many thousands, having likewise been dismissed from the palace, had gone home on foot and in tears, whence, after saying to his family, ‘This is the consequence of my crimes,’ he took ship for Brusa, accompanied by the execrations of the populace.”—London Fortnightly, October, 1908; Art., “Constantinople at the Declaration of the Constitution,” by D. S. Margoliouth, who was an eyewitness.

One of the greatest causes of joy was the cashiering of the spies. “How large a portion of the public revenue had been annually expended on these persons will perhaps never be known; the lowest estimate placed is about a million sterling. The profession was staffed by persons of varied nationalities and social status; an Englishman is said to have practised it with success till his countrymen contrived to get him exiled. The Armenian Patriarch Ormanian was regarded by his countrymen as a spy, and they clamored for his resignation. He complained to the grand vizier of the language of the press, but was told that the press was now free. He tried to fly with a forty-thousand-pound check in his possession, but was arrested and brought back to the patriarchal palace, where he was kept a prisoner.”

But now these industrious spies were out of employment. On Sunday, August 2, they assembled at the palace door, and demanded that they be given some appointments, that they might “eat a piece of bread.” They were paid what was due them on salary, and sent on their way.

But let us turn to the happier phases of the revolution. I will record some of the scenes which took place, in the language of Englishmen who have made Eastern affairs their lifelong study, and who were on the ground at the time. Here is the record of one of these:—

“An enormous tyranny was swept away. The Hamidian despotism disappeared in a night. Its tools were prisoners or fugitives. Yet only seven lives are believed to have been sacrificed to vindicate passion. Of those one was Fehim Pasha, torn to pieces at Brusa at the end of a career infamous and insolent compared with the worst known even in connection with palace politics in the East. In Macedonia Turkish soldiers make common cause with the insurgent bands, Albanians fraternize with Serbs. With more mental reserve, and yet with as much cordiality as could be expected even in these circumstances, Bulgars and Greeks fall upon each other’s necks. Salonika becomes a picturesque and jubilant Babel, filled not with discord, but with the harmony of the garden of Eden. Brigands of miscellaneous nationality weep for joy. All the fierce figures in romantic costumes, who seemed lately in their passions and their deeds to be the nearest political approach to the limbo of hell, are seen in the streets of Salonika, as one observer puts it, ‘laughing together, dancing together, drinking endless coffees together.’ In Constantinople Turks have kissed the earth which covers the victims of the Armenian massacres, and the Armenians have suddenly acquired an interest second only to that of the Turks themselves in preserving the integrity of the sultan’s dominion. No one in the capital but was moved to the depth of the soul by the calm, serene, yet electrical temper of the crowd, incomparable in its simple dignity and self-control, perfect in its humanity. High and low warned each other against extravagance and excess, against all outbursts whether in word or deed, that might seem unworthy of the new reign of law. The first natural movements of popular vindictiveness were successfully suppressed. All the faults of the sultan’s reign were attributed to his advisers. The padishah was proclaimed the father of his people, as Louis the Sixteenth was for a time proclaimed the ‘restorer of liberty.’

“And across the Bosporus, in the Asiatic dominions of the sultan, there were scenes even more wonderful still, if that might be. Take the picture of what happened at Beirut when the new régime was inaugurated in the closing days of July. Only five years before, the city had been given over to mob violence, the Christians fled for their lives, and only the presence by chance of three American war-vessels prevented massacres. Here the most impressive feature of the present demonstration was the vehemency, the continued reiteration of the sentiment of brotherhood of Moslem and Christian, who were to live together in peace in this new era. No such utterances were ever heard before in Turkish history. Any one predicting such a possibility a month ago would have been treated as a visionary. But here were a hundred turbaned Moslem speakers ringing the changes on this theme, until we seemed like those standing in a dream. Then is described a venerable sheik, who, with green turban and flowing robes, told how, before the Hamidian tyranny, the Christian and Moslem mothers used to nurse each other’s children, and the young men called each other brethren. And now ‘again and again the Moslem speakers gave the salutation, Es salaam alaikum ya akhwy (Peace be with ye, O brethren!), which had been held from the Christians for so many years by all but the most liberal and enlightened Moslems.’ Nor was this all. Many times during the day the people pushed Christian priests and turbaned Moslems into each other’s arms, and made them kiss each other. More still. The Mohammedans, with the commander of the troops, many officers, and the military band, attended the Armenian church, and bewailed that wave of blood by comparison with which St. Bartholomew itself was but a pin-prick.”—The Fortnightly Review, London, September, 1908; Art., “The Turkish Revolution,” by Viator.

That such scenes should take place in Turkey, of all places on earth, is almost beyond belief; for Turkey has to rule over an immense variety of races and creeds. These are all more or less jumbled together in a comparatively small area. Ordinarily these different sects and races agree in nothing except their hatred of Ottoman domination. Worse than this, it is a fact that among themselves there is perpetual bitterness and strife. The Slav has ever loathed and feared the Greek. The Greek views the Slav with the most supreme contempt. The Moslem Albanian holds the Catholic Albanian as one of the most odious of mortals. And so it has been all the way through. How such a medley of peoples, so utterly at variance with one another, could ever have been brought together under the rule of the one they hate most on earth, and this without bloodshed, but in the best of spirit, is almost beyond human understanding.

Nor has the work of the revolution raveled out with time. Many feared that after the first frenzy of fraternization, old passions would arise. But foreign consuls are not reporting that murderers and violators go unpunished. The suppression of crime is the crucial test. If the Young Turks fail here, they know that the confidence of the world will be lost. Already they have hanged Turks for killing Bulgars, and Albanians for killing Serbs. Thus far they have demonstrated that they have the power to keep order. In the Turkey of to-day the peasant can cultivate his fields without fear, and gather his harvests without danger to his life. One year ago there was wholesale emigration to America; already thousands have returned. A year ago the fishermen of Lake Yenidje dared not, for terror of assassination by murderous bands, follow their calling. Now they are back in their boats. For months together during the winter of 1907-08 little children spent the hours of darkness shivering in the fields, for fear they would be attacked in their homes; now this is changed.

Such is the condition of Turkey under the new régime; and the question now arises, What will be the attitude of the Young Turks toward the great powers? and what will be the attitude of the great powers toward the Young Turks? This is the crux of the whole situation. Will the general situation in Europe be rendered better or worse by the change of affairs in Turkey? The discussion of these questions must be left for future consideration. They will be found of vital interest.

Madison, Tenn.