Treaty of Sèvres (1920); World War, 1914-1918 -- Territorial questions -- Turkey; World War, 1914-1918 -- Turkey
The condition of the Ottoman Empire, as will be seen later on, when
we shall dwell upon the slow and deep disintegration which had taken
place among the Turkish and Arabian populations, was on the whole as
follows: The Young Turk revolution, on which great hopes were built,
had ended lamentably: the Austrians had wrested Bosnia-Herzegovina from
Turkey; the Turco-Italian war had taken from her another slice of her
territory; then the coalition of the Balkan States had arisen, which
seems to have been prepared and supported by England and by the other
nations which followed her policy. Finally, the treaty of Bukharest
confirmed the failure of the principle—once solemnly proclaimed by
France and England—of the territorial integrity of Turkey. So the Turks
no longer had any confidence in Europe, and, being sacrificed once more
in the Balkan war, and as they could no longer trust England, they were
necessarily thrown into the arms of Germany.
After Abdul Hamid, Mehmed V, with his weak, religious mind, allowed
himself to be led by Enver, and his reign, disturbed by three wars,
cost Turkey huge territorial losses. Mehmed VI, being more energetic
and straightforward, tried to restore order in the State, and to put an
end to the doings of the Committee of Union and Progress.
Then, too, the Crown Prince, Abdul Mejid, a man about fifty, who
speaks French very well, evinces the same turn of mind. After seeing
what Germany could do with the Turkish Empire, such men, who had not
kept aloof from modern ideas, and to whom European methods were not
unfamiliar, had made up their mind that the Turks should not be driven
out of Europe. But Mejid Effendi was soon deprived of influence through
intrigues, and henceforth engaged in his favourite hobby, painting, in
his palace on Skutari Hill, and kept away from politics.
Mustafa Kemal, who had been sent to Amasia as Inspector-General of the
Eastern army, had secretly raised an army on his own account, with the
help of Reouf Bey, once Minister of Marine in the Izzet Cabinet. When
recalled to Constantinople by the Turkish Government in July, 1919, he
had refused to obey, and had proclaimed himself his own master. Though
he had once gone to Berlin with the Sultan, who was only Crown Prince
at the time, the latter degraded him and deprived him of the right of
wearing his decorations—which could only have been a political measure
intended to show that the throne and the Government could not openly
countenance the movement that was taking place in Anatolia.
Mustafa Kemal, brought up at Salonika, had only become well known in
Constantinople during the Revolution of 1908. During the war in the
Balkan Peninsula he had distinguished himself at Chatalja, and after
being promoted colonel he was sent as military attaché to Sofia, and
then charged with a mission in Paris. He came back to Constantinople in
1914, a short time before war broke out.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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