Liberty in Turkey by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Aug 11, 1909

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 36, No. 31.

Liberty in Turkey

By Editor

In our issue of May 19, referring to the revolution in Turkey, we said that the meaning of the Turkish situation was that God would have His everlasting Gospel go to the Turks, and all within the border of Ottoman rule, and that even the meaning of the effort of Abdul Hamid to overturn the revolution was to more fully emphasize the need of reform in the Turkish Empire and to settle more firmly the young Turks in the possession of the government. We said then: “Thank God for the revolution; thank God for the open-swinging doors.”

Everything since that time has tended to confirm the fact that liberty is assured in Turkey. Just recently the publishers of “Pearson’s Magazine” sent the well-known world correspondent and publicist, Mr. James Creelman, to Turkey to investigate thoroughly the conditions there. Mr. Creelman reports fully in “Pearson’s Magazine” for August in an article entitled, “The Moslem Answer to Christendom.”

Mr. Creelman found the greatest liberty accorded to him in his investigations. He reports to us the assurances of the present Sultan, Mohammed V. He interviewed the Sheik-ul-Islam, the ultimate authority among Moslems, and whose decree deposed Abdul Hamid. He interviewed the Grand Vizier Hilmi Pasha, and the commanding general of the Turkish army, Mahmoud Chefket Pasha who captured Constantinople and dethroned Abdul Hamid. He interviewed many others, and all of them speak one and the same thing — that there is absolutely no persecution in the future for Christians, and that the Mohammedan religion does not teach it, that only rebellion and treason will be punished, that the recent Armenian massacres were not a religious question, but were instigated by Abdul Hamid for the purpose of overthrowing the revolution and more firmly establishing himself upon the throne; that the Turkish Parliament contains forty-three Christians and four Jews, and that a Christian and a Jew served on the committee that informed Abdul Hamid of his fate at the time of his dethronement. In the future a proportional part of the army will be made up of Christians. Christians now have the right to carry weapons throughout the Turkish Empire.

Mr. Creelman closes his article by asking us to remember that Sheik-ul-Islam and the ulemus, the strongest and most conservative power in all Mohammedanism, were the ones who deposed Abdul Hamid; and the future safety and liberty of Christians in Turkey is guaranteed as much by these devout, educated, and conscientious men as by the army that is now devoted to the defense of the Constitution and the principle of universal equality without distinction of race or religion.

He declares again:

“After careful investigation I feel no hesitation in saying that the Moslem religion and its real teachers are not to be blamed for the massacres in Asia Minor and that it is reasonably certain that Christians are safe in Turkey at last. The Sultan has said it, the Sheik-ul-Islam and the ulemas have said it, the parliament has said it, and the army has said it. Nobody but a blind bigot can be in Turkey to-day without realizing that a new day has dawned here for Christian and Jew alike.”

And so we say again that the meaning of the Turkish revolution is open doors for God’s work, and we thank God for the revolution; thank God that His hand is still guiding the nations, and that it matters not what they may contrive or plan, He will overrule it for ultimate good.