Germany -- Foreign relations -- Turkey; Turkey -- Foreign relations -- Germany; World War, 1914-1918 -- Turkey
We arranged that he should call upon Wangenheim and repeat this
statement, and that I should bring similar pressure to bear upon Enver.
From the first, however, the Holy War proved a failure. The Mohammedans
of such countries as India, Egypt, Algiers, and Morocco knew that they
were getting far better treatment than they could obtain under any other
conceivable conditions. Moreover, the simple-minded Mohammedans could
not understand why they should prosecute a holy war against Christians
and at the same time have Christian nations, such as Germany and
Austria, as their partners. This association made the whole proposition
ridiculous. The Koran, it is true, commands the slaughter of Christians,
but that sacred volume makes no exception in favour of the Germans and,
in the mind of the fanatical Mohammedan, a German _rayah_ is as much
Christian dirt as an Englishman or a Frenchman, and his massacre is just
as meritorious an act. The fine distinctions necessitated by European
diplomacy he understands about as completely as he understands the law
of gravitation or the nebular hypothesis. The German failure to take
this into account is only another evidence of the fundamental German
clumsiness and real ignorance of racial psychology. The only tangible
fact that stands out clearly is the Kaiser’s desire to let loose
300,000,000 Mohammedans in a gigantic St. Bartholomew massacre of
Christians.
Was there then no “holy war” at all? Did Wangenheim’s “Big Thing” really
fail? Whenever I think of this burlesque _Jihad_ a particular scene in
the American Embassy comes to my mind. On one side of the table sits
Enver, most peacefully sipping tea and eating cakes, and on the other
side is myself, engaged in the same unwarlike occupation. It is November
14th, the day after the Sultan has declared his holy war; there have
been meetings at the mosques and other places, at which the declaration
has been read and fiery speeches made. Enver now assures me that
absolutely no harm will come to Americans; in fact, that there will be
no massacres anyway. While he is talking, one of my secretaries comes in
and tells me that a little mob is making demonstrations against certain
foreign establishments. It has assailed an Austrian shop which has
unwisely kept up its sign saying that it has “English clothes” for sale.
I ask Enver what this means; he answers that it is all a mistake; there
is no intention of attacking anybody. A little while after he leaves I
am informed that the mob has attacked the Bon Marché, a French dry-goods
store, and is heading directly for the British Embassy. I at once call
Enver on the telephone; it is all right, he says, nothing will happen to
the embassy. A minute or two after, the mob immediately wheels about and
starts for Tokatlian’s, the most important restaurant in
Constantinople. The fact that this is conducted by an Armenian makes it
fair game. Six men who have poles, with hooks at the end, break all the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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