Germany -- Foreign relations -- Turkey; Turkey -- Foreign relations -- Germany; World War, 1914-1918 -- Turkey
I answered that I thought that the United States might consent to
abandon the capitulations in so far as they were economic. It was my
opinion that Turkey should control her customs duties and be permitted
to levy the same taxes on foreigners as on her own citizens. So long as
the Turkish courts and Turkish prisons maintained their present
standards, however, we could never agree to give up the judicial
capitulations. Turkey should reform the abuses of her courts; then,
after they had established European ideas in the administration of
justice, the matter could be discussed. Enver replied that Turkey would
be willing to have mixed tribunals and to have the United States
designate some of the judges, but I suggested that, inasmuch as American
judges did not know the Turkish language or Turkish law, his scheme
involved great practical difficulties. I also told him that the American
schools and colleges were very dear to Americans, and that we would
never consent to subjecting them to Turkish jurisdiction.
Despite the protests of all the ambassadors, the Cabinet issued its
notification that the capitulations would be abrogated on October 1st.
This abrogation was all a part of the Young Turks’ plan to free
themselves from foreign tutelage and to create a new country on the
basis of “Turkey for the Turks.” It represented, as I shall show, what
was the central point of Turkish policy, not only in the empire’s
relations to foreign powers, but to her subject peoples. England’s
position on this question was about the same as our own; the British
Government would consent to the modification of the economic
restrictions, but not the others. Wangenheim was greatly disturbed, and
I think that his foreign office reprimanded him for letting the
abrogation take place, because he blandly asked me to announce that I
was the responsible person! As October 1st approached, the foreigners in
Turkey were in a high state of apprehension. The Dardanelles had been
closed, shutting them off from Europe, and now they felt that they were
to be left to the mercy of Turkish courts and Turkish prisons. Inasmuch
as it was the habit in Turkish prisons to herd the innocent with the
guilty, and to place in the same room with murderers, people who had
been charged, with minor offenses, but not convicted of them, and to
bastinado recalcitrant witnesses, the fears of the foreign residents may
well be imagined. The educational institutions were also apprehensive,
and in their interest I now appealed to Enver. He assured me that the
Turks had no hostile intention toward Americans. I replied that he
should show in unmistakable fashion that Americans would not be harmed.
“All right,” he answered. “What would you suggest?”
“Why not ostentatiously visit Robert College on October 1st, the day the
capitulations are abrogated?” I said.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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