It follows from all this that the Turkish problem, as we have endeavoured to describe it—considering that for centuries an intercourse has been maintained between the Moslem world and Mediterranean Europe, and that a Moslem influence once made itself felt on Western civilisation through Arabic culture—cannot be looked upon as a merely Asiatic problem. It is a matter of surprise that Islam, five centuries after Christ, should have developed in the birthplace of Christianity, and converted very numerous populations, whose ways and spirit it seems to suit. One cannot forget either that Islam acted as a counterpoise to Christianity, or that it played an important part in our civilisation by securing the continuance and penetration of Eastern and pagan influences. So it is obvious that nowadays the Turkish problem is still of paramount importance for the security of Western civilisation, since it concerns all the nations round the Mediterranean Sea, and, moreover, all the Asiatic and African territories inhabited by Moslems, who have always been interested in European matters and are even doubly concerned in them now.[62] Footnotes: 45: Albert Sorel, _La Question d’Orient au XVIIIᵉ siècle_, pp. 81, 85, 277. 46: Albert Vandal, _Une ambassade française en Orient sous Louis XV_, pp. 4, 8, 331, 447. 47: Martens, _Étude historique sur la politique russe dans la question d’Orient_, 1877. 48: Goriainov, _Le Bosphore et les Dardanelles_, 1910, pp. 25-27. 49: See _supra_, p. 114. 50: _Daily Telegraph_, January 5, 1921. 51: _Revue des Deux Mondes_, March 15, 1921, pp. 261, 262: Maurice Paléologue. “La Russie des Tsars pendant la guerre.” 52: _Ibid._, pp. 274, 275. 53: _Revue des Deux Mondes_, April 1, 1921, p. 573. 54: _Revue des Deux Mondes_, April 1, 1921, pp. 574, 575. 55: _Ibid._ 56: _Ibid._, pp. 578, 579. 57: The editor was M. Markine. 58: Now there are about 200,000. 59: August 10, 1920. 60: Von der Goltz, “Stärke und Schwäche des turkischen Reiches,” in the _Deutsche Rundschau_, 1897. 61: H. Rawlinson, _England and Russia in the East_ (1875). 62: The French edition of this book bears the date August, 1920. PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY BILLING AND SONS, LTD., GUILDFORD AND ESHER Transcriber’s Notes: The original spelling, accentuation, punctuation, and hyphenation has been retained, except for a small number of apparent printer’s errors. ‘Ali-Hayar-Midhat’ corrected to read ‘Ali-Haydar-Midhat’ in Footnote 7. ‘General Imail Fazil Pasha’ corrected to read ‘General Ismail Fazil Pasha’ on folio page 185. ‘Abderhaman Youssef Pasha’ corrected to read ‘Abdurrahman Youssef Pasha’ on folio page 343. End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Turks and Europe, by Gaston Gaillard