The Contemporary Review, Volume 36, September 1879Various
History
The Contemporary Review, Volume 36, September 1879
Various
Arts -- Periodicals; Literature -- Periodicals; Political science -- Periodicals
Greece, which, more than all the other Eastern races, had always the
_pre-eminence_ intellectually and morally, might, in concert with the
West, and making herself, so to speak, the organ of its views in the
East, become a powerful barrier against that torrent of Slavism which
for some time past has threatened to overwhelm the Balkan peninsula.
In that ethnological pandemonium, which is called the Peninsula of the
Balkans, of which so many nationalities dispute the possession, to the
exclusion of the only possessors whose rights are consecrated by
history, Greece seems to be the only nationality which, better than all
the other races,--most of which lack historic traditions and a true
national consciousness,--is capable of realizing the views of Europe for
the fulfilment of which, on the initiative of England, the European
Congress was convoked at Berlin. It was, doubtless, these principles
which inspired the Congress when, in Article 13 of the Treaty, it
ordered the annexation to Greece of the bordering provinces of Epirus
and Thessaly; this was a reparation of the political fault committed at
the time of the creation of the new kingdom. However, a dishonest policy
on the part of Turkey delays up to this moment the accomplishment of the
Treaty fulfilled by her in its other Articles. She has reaped its
advantages, but she seems not to wish to submit to its sacrifices. We
cannot conceive what benefit the Sublime Porte derives from this vain
delay. It ought to understand that it will not gain anything from this
continual paroxysm with which it finds itself struggling since the last
Eastern crisis. And we see with satisfaction that public opinion in
Turkey has already acknowledged that an enlargement of Greece, even at
the expense of Turkey, is not contrary to the interests of the two
races, whose common peril from the Slavs is indisputable. Turkey must
seek the centre of her activity and power in Asia, where she may play an
important part, and not in Europe, where she has always remained a
stranger, and has never succeeded in creating an indigenous and national
civilization. It will one day depart from Europe, this Mussulman race,
which for five centuries has only encamped in Europe, without leaving
any memorial of civilization or morality, except a few pages of military
history. It can carry European civilization to the nations of Asia,
initiating them into its mysteries, by means of a wiser government and a
more enlightened activity. This is the true and just policy of Turkey in
the future. By the cession of the provinces where the Turkish element is
_nil_ she will gain much more strength than by their retention, which
cannot be of any profit to her.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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