Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1914-11-20
aA,srellaaeous Readius.
THE FATE OF TURKEY
Viii! Probably be Definitely Settled by
Present War.

Has the hour of doom for the Turk
ish empire in Europe, perhaps even IN
Asia. struck at last? Can it survive
the shock of this last war into when
the Young Turk party, instigated by
Germany, has hurried 1t? we nave
on our hands," said the first Car
Nicholas, when he visited the Engllsh
court after the Anglo Russian entente
of 1914. "a very sick man." But the
sick man has been, like Charles ii,
Ilong time dying. All the resources OF
international medicine have been en-
ployed to prolong his life. One Pow
er or another has felt obliged to keep
the Turk at Constantinople. Last OF
all. the German emperor has conVinc-
ed him that Codlin's the friend, not
Short. So he strikes blindly at his
old enemy, Russia, and her new allies,
regardless of the possibly fatal conse-
quences.
| For a century and a half, indeed,
ever since the treaty of Kuchuk-kaln-
iairi was signed between Russia and
Turkey in 1774, the doom of the en-
pire of Suleiman the Magnificent, has
been freely predicted. Probably the
prediction might have been more
quickly fulfilled but for the number
of claimants to the spoil. Europe was
no longer threatened by the Turk as
il was in the fateful years following
the victories of Mahomet II, but his
fighting power made him still formid-
able. Nor were European jeaiousies
altogether responsible for the tenacity
with which he clung to the remnant OF
his conquests. Racial and religious
conditions in the Balkans have had no
small share in the perpetuation OF
Turkish rule. The history of Bulgar,
| Serb, Greek and Albanian is compli-
Gated and obscure, but the present sit
Iuation cannot be well understood
without some knowledge of 1t. When
the Turk first arrived in the Balkan
lpeninsula he found it divided by strong
Iantagonisms among four races and
three churches. Long before that the
Slavs had been overwhelmed by the
Bulgars. The conquered absorbed the
conoueror, just as the Saxon absorbed
the Norman; but while England be-
came one nation, there has never been,
perhaps there never can be, unity
among the people of the Balkans. The
Germans do not now hate the English
worse than the Albanians hate the
Serbs, or the Serbs the Bulgars. One
after another has tried to establish
settled rule, but it has always been
eventually overthrown. Hatreds that
have survived the menace Of the Turk
may we'll be called ineradicable.
There is nothing surprising, there
fore, in the fact that Bulgaria might
have joined with Turkey for the de-
struction of Servia, or Greece with
Servia for the destruction of Bulgaria.
Nor, although Russia is reckoned as
Slav power, is it difficult to understand
why the Balkan countries might as
lief see the sultan as the czar at Con-
stantinople. They are still essentially
Byzantine, and their position cannot
be understood unless this fact is kept
in mind. If union among them were
possible, that would be the best solu-
ton of the eastern question. 1t should
not be forgotten that Bulgaria, SerVia
and Greece have all made remarka-
BILE peace since the treaty of Berlin,
Il and that Albania might have done
equally as we'll under equally favora-
BILE circumstances. But even such
great man as Stambulov could not
work miracle in the face of COM
mon danger. There was every reason
for harmonious action after the first
Balkan war. Nevertheless the second
war followed. 1t is fair to assume.
therefore, that the Balkan nations Will
not prove an insuperable obstacle to
Russian ambitions If the Turk is de-
feated in this latest struggle and Con-
stantinople is a prize of war to the
victor
At no previous stage of the intermit-
tent conflict has Russia been appar-
emily so near to the accomplishment
| of her long desire. The possession or
IConstantinople and the command OF
the sole outlet to the Black sea, are,
of course, perfectly legitimate objects
of Russian ambition. Since the war
with Japan they are of more conse-
lquence than ever. On dozen or
more occasions since the death of Mus
tafa III. in 1913, these objects might
have been attained had Russia been
Iunhampered by other Powers. But for
one reason or another international
jealousies interviewed to prevent this.
Now Great Britain, now France, now
Austria, separately or in combination
withheld the Russian hand. At the
Congress of Vienna in 1915 it was pro-
posed that the Powers should join in
guaranteeing the integrity of the Otto
man Empire; but the sultan objected
to this humiliation, and Russia main
tained her assertion of right to iso-
lated action. This was the beginning
of the eastern question in modern
lsense.
| The one real hope for Turkey, at
| tnlS time anu llldlly SSalS oiISi' iS'S
in internal reform. The revolt of the
Greeks in 1921 emphasized this fact.
Popular sympathy for the Greek
cause in England found expression in
Canning's recognition of the rebels as
belligerents. This in turn aroused the
suspicious of Russia as to English de-
signs in the Lavant, and led TO an Of
fer of mediation by Russia and Aus
Itria, which the Porte rejected. Egypt
was then drawn into the war, and
Ibrahim Pasha Overran the Morea
lOnce more Russia threatened inter-
vention in behalf of the oppressed
christians; once more Canning acted
to keep the issue in the hands OF the
Powers. Although Austria and Prus-
sia withdrew from the conference.
Great Britain. France and Russia rec
ognized the Treaty of London. in 1921.
the autonomy of Greece under the su-
zerainty of Turkey; but this pro-
gramme was interrupted by the naval
bottla Of Eava riDo at which the COM