Smyrna times., 1885-10-21
The Balkan Situation.

10 the EdJt0T OF tIte TTeSS.
SIR: What is all this fuss in the So
called Balkan peninsula? Why is Servia
going to war with Bulgaria? What is the
" Eastern Question" anyhow You dis
cuss these things as if everybody knew all |
about them. 1 for one confess don't, and, |
what's more, know plenty of intelligent /
people who can't tell me. IGNoRAMUs.
Let our esteemed correspondent turn
to any map of Europe. A short dis
tance up from the middle of the lower |
border he will find squarish district |
of territory bounded on the North by !
the Danube, on the East by the Black !
Sea and on the South by the Hgean
and the sea of MarmOra. A little
North of the centre this region is ira
versed lOngitudinally by the Balkan
Mountains, which eminent feature fur
nishes the reason why the peninsula
Just bounded is so-called. Before the
Turco-Russian war and its conclusion
by the treaty of Berlin in the Summer
of 1873, this region, as well as neigh
boring territory belonged to the Tur-
kish Empire. Since then the Balkans
have been really the Northern Turkish
bOundry, until the revolution the other
day, by which the Turkish province of
Eastern Roumelia, created by Lord
BeacOnsfeld's influence at the Berlin
Conference, and lying Immediately
South of the range, joined itself to
Bulgaria. which had been made into an
autonomous principality by the same
conference.
The "fuss" is a phase of the long
struggle which the peoples of this and
Of the territory extending West of the
Balkan peninsula as far as the Adriatic
Sea and North as far as the AustrO-
Hungarian frontier have for many
years been maintaining against their
| COnquerOrs and administrators, the
Turks. This struggle, a potent ele-
ment in the great international prob
| lem called the Eastern Question may
be sufficiently described as the problem
of the future of European Turkey.
Over 400 years ago the Turks conquered
ConstantinOple. Two hundred years
ago they were defeated under the
walls of Vienna, and the Eastern Ques-
/ tiOn really, though not historically,
dates from that day. The Turks have
never been a nation. They have been
an army. They never assimilated
their cOnquests, and, therefore, these
! have always remained, 50 to speak, in
a state of hux Their rule has been
abOminably rapaciOus, and, conse-
quently, marked by constant revolu-
tiOns. Some of them have been sue
cessful, as that Of Servia (1804-26), that
of Greece USELESS, and that of Rou-
mania (1861). Turkish territory has
been further steadily reduced by var
ious treaties following wars with the
great European powers.
For the chief nations of Europe
are as interested in the decision of the
great Question as are the natiOnalities
whose chronic uneasiness under the
Turkish yoke creates the Question.
COnstantinople, to found which Con-
stantine deserted the Queen City of the
world, is a prize coveted by both Aus
tria and Russia. Meantime each
wishes to get the largest possible slice
of the territory intervening between
her borders and the BOsphorus when,
or even before, the Turkish breakup
comes. The other great powers are
equally interested in preventing the
expansion of a rival England espec-
tally fears Russian expansion, on ac-
count O her Asiatic interests. Hence
Lord BeacOnsield insisted on the
erection Of Eastern ROumelia into a
province as a buffer against Russia
and the giving over of Bosnia anC
Herzegovina at the other extremity o
; European Turkey to Austria that shC
might be better able to cOunterac
| Slav aggression. England has now il
some measure lost interest in the grea
= question, because she has partially
given over this latter duty into Aus
trials hands. Thus decaying Turkel
: is menaced by the revolutionary popu
) ulatiOn of the Balkan peninsula, sub
r ject, tributary and recently liberated
5 and by the great powers as well, and i
/ only maintained by the timOrous pref
: erence of the latter for the presen
f equilibrium.
e These populations, hOwever-an'
1 this constitutes the important phase o
f the Question which is now uppermOs
Q not only figure as oppressed ma
= tiOnalities," but they are intensely in
' ter-hOstile. They have traditions dat
ing from beyond the Turkish conques
s and they look forward to the Turks
= spoliatiOd in their own interest as
: restoration as we'll as a revolution
AJOA VIA AOA AAASbttuNC1 was BolAb VI
n pOrtant empire in the Fourteenth Cen
: tury and ardently wishes to "regain
f her lost territory. Greece, too, is nc
f at all the country we imagine her t
n be. She takes only an arch8olOgica
n interest in Plato and Perciles, but
1 very vivid one in the Lower Empire
q Of which she esteems herself the in
e heritor. The possession Of CONSTANT
s nople is the dream of every Greek
# Why both countries, therefore, are ex
e asperated at a revolution which muc
d largely increases the Importance G
3 Bulgaria and leaves them out in tn
e cold our correspondent will easily pei
G ceive. He will easily perceive, toe
we trust, that the most superficial rC
view of the great Question sufficient
indicates its vastness, its cOmplexit
e and its difficulty of solutiOn.-PhiLade
!. phiG Press.