Treaty of Sèvres (1920); World War, 1914-1918 -- Territorial questions -- Turkey; World War, 1914-1918 -- Turkey
The eviction of the Turks from Constantinople, which the British
wished for but which they dared not carry into effect, does not thwart
the scheme of the Turkish Nationalists; it can only bring about a
reaction of the Moslem populations against foreign intervention, and
thus strengthen the Pan-Turanian movement. Though this movement cannot
carry out all its aims, the eviction of the Turks obviously must urge
those populations to constitute a State based both on the community
of religion and the community of race of its various elements, and
from which all alien ethnic elements would be expelled—viz., Slavs,
Armenians, Greeks, and Arabs, who were all an inherent source of
weakness to the Turkish Empire. This new State would include Anatolia,
Russian Azerbaïjan, and Persian Azerbaïjan, the Russian territories
in Central Asia—viz., Russian Turkistan, Khiva, Bokhara—the whole of
the region of the Steppes; and towards it the Tatar populations of
the Volga, Afghanistan, and Chinese Turkistan would necessarily be
attracted.
As to the Arabs, the Turks have never been able to gain their
friendship, though they have done their best to do so, and have drawn
but little profit from the money squandered plentifully in their
vast deserts. And the Russians have always stood in the way of an
understanding between Turkey and the Arabian territories, because
it would have benefited the cause of Islam and therefore would have
hindered both their own designs on the territories of Asia Minor and
the ambitions of the Orthodox Church. Yet to the Turks as well as the
Arabs—and even to the Europeans—it would be a great advantage not to
injure the understanding and goodwill that Islam engenders among these
peoples, since its creed has both a religious and a political aspect.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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