The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-08-20
Is Turkey in Grave Danger?

The easy defeat of the Greeks in Thessaly
and Epirus and the occupation of the
former province by a Turkish force seem
to have excited an undue citation through
out Islam which has been, doubtless, the
main cause of the recent disturbances
among the Mohammedans of India. The
Sultan himself, perhaps, is not unwill-
ing to see some pressure exerted on
Great Britain, which alone of the Eu-
ropean powers, has insisted that Thessaly
shall be evacuated before the promised
indemnity is paid by Greece. Were he
alive to his own interests, however, he
would seize every opportunity of r~eviving
the good will with which the Ottoman EN-
pire was long regarded by England. and
even so lately as the last Russo-Turkish
war. For, If an assertion made in the last
number of the London Quarterly Reric,p be
well founded, the Turks have never been in
greater peril than they are to-day. the one
condition precedent to their expulsion from
Europe, namely, a friendly understanding
between Austria and Russia, having been
at last fulfilled.
The Osmanli owe their retention of Con-
s~tantinople during the last hundred and
fifty years to a cause precisely analogous to
that which enabled the Moorish kingdom
of Grenada to survive for upward of two
centuries the fall of Seville. 1t was the
rivalry OF CASTLE and Aragon for the rem
nant Of the Moorish possessions in Spain
which permitted hat remnant to remain
so long ~unconquered, and the one prop was
withdrawn when that rivalry was extin-
guish"d to a considerable extent by the
marriage of FERDINAND and ISABELLA.
just so the Ottoman power in Europe has
been saved repeatedly from humiliation
ever since Prince EUGENE was, forced, by
the dread Of Russian interposition, to
foreso the fruit of his inal victories upon
the Danube. Up to that time the House
of Hapsburg had been looked upon
in central and western Europe as the
true heir of the Sultan's dominions.
but since then Russia has seemed more
likely to secure the inheritance, and on
three occasions would have lone so hut
for the jealousy with which the Vienna
Government bcheld the progress of the
Gear oward ascendancy in the Balkan
peninsula. Over and over again have the
advisers of the Hapsburg Kaiser suggested
that the same process of partition which
was applied to Poland is equally applicable
to European Turkey, but to those sugges
tions the statesmen of St. Petersburg have
turned hitherto a deaf ear, believing that
II they waited long enough the Who'll.
would be theirs. AS lately, indeed, as 1885
they were disposd to call upon Austria tt
evacuate Bosnia and the Herzegovina
which she has held as a provisional custo
dian ever since the Congress of Berlin.
Now, however. II we may trust the
writer in the Quarterly Revie,o. and 1t II
scarcely credible that an averment SC
categorical and important should not hav,
been carefully verified, the Cars coun
sellers nave made up their minds tina
half a loaf is better than no bread and hav,
the Vienna Government for the partition o
Turkey. According to the plan said t.
have been arranged. Austria is to move for
ward on a line running from Bosni
through Novi Bazaar to Salonica, and |
to acquire all the Ottoman territory ives
of that line, while the section east O
the line, including Constantinople, is t
fall to Russia. A pretext for the stimuli
taneous advance of Austrian and Rus
sian armies will, soon or late, be offere,
through the misconduct of Turkish official
or soldiers in Macedonia and Albania; an,
although the Osmanli would fight wit,
desperation, they could not, II unaided
long withstand the joint forces of tw
great land powers. They certainly canno
Look for any assistance from Franco @
H.s-#N e. He- rH %