Istanbul (Turkey) -- Description and travel; Istanbul (Turkey) -- Social life and customs
Pasha was too modest to add what everybody knows: that he came out the
victor, having turned the tables on Venizelos to such a degree that the
Greek statesman came away from London with his reputation as a diplomat
greatly imperilled.
Unfortunately, subsequent events had put back Venizelos to the fore,
and after numerous shifts of policy the Greeks had succeeded before
our arrival in having the great powers present to Turkey the terms of
the Treaty of Sèvres. Naturally, past, present and future politics
were the subject of all conversations. Feeling was running high in
Turkish circles. Every one was incensed both against the Allied
powers and against the Turkish Government of the moment. The Grand
Vezir, or Prime Minister, was being severely criticised and accused
of trampling on the dignity of the nation by accepting the Treaty of
Sèvres. The Nationalist movement had already started and while the
Turks remained stoically calm in Constantinople for fear of reprisals
by the Inter-Allied fleets upon the innocent population of the city,
the tide of despair was rising in Anatolia. The Nationalist movement
was as yet not thoroughly organized. But the set purpose of preventing
the application of the terms of the treaty was already noticeable in
the activities of the Turkish Nationalist bands who had sworn to die
rather than to lose their independence. They have, since then, stuck
most efficiently to their patriotic aim.
During those critical days following the publication of the terms of
the Treaty of Sèvres, and during the first weeks of the conception of
the Turkish Nationalist movement, many a time have we watched from
Prinkipo the smoke of firearms indicating encounters between Turkish
Nationalist bands and British Colonial troops, on the hills dominating
the nearby shores of Anatolia. Once we witnessed a big forest fire
engineered for the purpose of destroying the hiding-places where
the Nationalist volunteers would take refuge after their successful
raids against the armies of occupation. These Anatolian hills lie to
this day, their once smilingly green slopes bare--a silent example
of the work of destruction undertaken in the name of civilization by
the western powers who champion the rights of certain small nations
by destroying the properties of others. These Anatolian hills are at
this day, desolate and sad--but a proud monument commemorating the
unsuccessful attempt of the so-called civilized governments to pass a
death sentence upon a small nation whose will to live independently
could not be conquered either by fire or by blood. The prologue of the
greatest crime perpetrated in history since the partition of Poland was
thus gradually unfolding itself almost under our very eyes, while the
Turkish circles of Prinkipo and Constantinople--prisoners in their own
capital--had to watch, aloof. It was an edifying show of real Oriental
restraint to see all these people stand stoically and without a murmur
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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