The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 21: The Recent Days (1910-1914)
History
The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 21: The Recent Days (1910-1914)
World history
"Foreseeing the danger of allowing the alien elements to be further
strengthened, many patriotic Turks have demanded that a vigorous
Conservative policy should be pursued which will abolish the national
differences among the alien races and between the alien races and the
Turks. They demand that a Turkish national policy should be initiated,
that the aliens should be nationalized in Turkish national schools,
that Turkish shall be the language of Turkey, that the Greek,
Bulgarian, and other schools shall be closed. Will Bulgaria, Greece,
and Servia quietly look on while the work of a generation is being
undone? Will the Greeks, Serbs, and Bulgarians residing in Turkey allow
themselves to be denationalized more or less forcibly? Besides, can
they be denationalized against their will except by destroying the
Parliamentary and democratic Government, the Constitution of yesterday,
and by reintroducing the ancient absolutism in an aggravated form? Two
hundred years ago the Turks could easily have nationalized the alien
races by means of the church and the school, but it seems that it is
now too late to make an attempt at turning the subject races into
Turks.
"In endeavoring to settle the conflicts among the alien nationalities
and between the aliens and the Turks, the path of the new Turkish
Government will scarcely be smooth. _The Balkan States_ are watching
events with attention. Although they congratulated the new Turkish
Government, they have no interest in Turkey's regeneration, and they
are bound to oppose the Ottomanization of their compatriots in Turkey.
Therefore, they _may be expected to draw the sword and to face Turkey
unitedly if they see their plans of expansion threatened by the
nationalization of the alien elements in Turkey_."
Unfortunately, my forecast has come true in every particular. The
failure of New Turkey was natural. It was unavoidable. Ancient States
are ponderous and slow-moving bodies. Their course can be deflected and
their character be altered only by gradual evolution, by slow and
almost imperceptible changes spread over a long space of time.
Democracy, like a tree, is a thing of slow growth, and it requires a
congenial soil. It can not be created over night in Turkey, Persia, or
China. The attempt to convert an ancient Eastern despotism, firmly
established on a theocratic basis, a country in which the Koran and the
Multeka are the law of the land, into a Western democracy based on the
secular speculations of Rousseau, Montesquieu, Bentham, Mill, and
Spencer was ridiculous. The revolution effected only an outward change.
It introduced some Western innovations, but altered neither the
character of the Government nor that of the people. Turkish
Parliamentarism became a sham and a make-believe. The cruel absolutism
of Abdul Hamid was speedily followed by the scarcely less cruel
absolutism of a secret committee.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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