Two war years in Constantinople : $b sketches of German and Young Turkish ethics and politicsStürmer, Harry
History
Two war years in Constantinople : $b sketches of German and Young Turkish ethics and politics
Stürmer, Harry
World War, 1914-1918 -- Turkey
The military director of the Turkish Press said to me once: "We
are only waiting for the first 'gaffe' in his paper to get this
filthy creature hunted out of his lair," and one day when through
carelessness a small uncensored and really quite harmless military
notice appeared in print (everything is submitted to the censor),
the Turkish Government gave it short shrift indeed, and banned _sine
die_ this "Ottoman" paper which lived by Krupp and the German trade
advertisements, and had become an advocate of the German Embassy,
because it was paid in good solid cash for it. The paper was replaced
by a new one in Turkish hands, called _Le Soir_.
I could go on talking for ages from most intimate personal knowledge
about this man, superb in his own way. His doings were not without
a certain comic side which amused while it aggravated one. I could
mention, for example, his great lawsuit in Germany in 1916, in which he
brought an accusation of libel against some German who had called him a
blackmailer and a criminal who had been repeatedly punished. He managed
to win the lawsuit--that is, the defenders had to pay a fine of twenty
marks, because the evidence brought against Zekki could not be followed
up to Egypt on account of England's supremacy on the sea, and also no
doubt because the interests of Krupp and the German Embassy could not
have this cherished blossom of German propaganda disturbed! So for him
at any rate the lack of "freedom of the seas" he had so often raged
about in his leading articles was a very appreciable advantage.
The last time I remember seeing the man he was engaged in an earnest
_tête-à-tête_ about the propagation of German political interests by
means of arms with the Nationalist Reichstag deputy, Dr. Streesemann, a
representative of the German heavy goods trade and of German jingoism
who had hastened to Constantinople for the furtherance of German
culture. Most significantly, no doubt in remembrance of his days in
Buenos Ayres, Zekki had chosen for this interview the most private room
of the Hôtel Moderne, a pension with a bar where sect could be had;
and the worthy representative of the German people, probably nothing
loth to have a change from his eternal "Pan-German" diet, accepted his
invitation with alacrity. I followed the two gentlemen to make my own
investigations, and I certainly got as much amusement, although in a
different sense, as one usually does in such haunts. It was really
most entertaining to watch Nelken the ex-Jew and Young Turk, with his
fez on his head, nodding jovially to all the German officers at the
neighbouring tables, and settling the affairs of the realm with this
Pan-German representative of the people.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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