East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1915-03-22
CHANCES AT HISTORY
THE RUsSo-TURKISm WAR.

TIE RlSSO-TI IltNlSlI WAR.
Hardly had the last gun been fir
ed in the Franco Prussian war before
the tumultuous Balkans We're aflame
with revolutions. This led to the
RuSso-Turkish war in lS77-7S, which
left heritage OF bitterness between
Austria and Russia as deep as that
engendered between France and Ger
many by the forced cession Of Alsace
and Lorraine The war that is today
making Europe a place OF horrors
has brooded like a terrible spectre
over the continent ever since these
two great conflicts OF 40 years ago.
The Turks had been successful in
putting down a revolution in Servia.
In Bulgaria the merciless maSsacres
of peaceful inhabitants sent thrill
OF horror through civilized Europe.
Disraeli dismissed the protests heard
in England as 'eoffee-house babble,
but Gladstone came back into public
life with the demand that the Turk
be turned out of Europe.
Endless negotiations followed, in
which European statesmen sought to
avert war. less through sympathy
with the oppressed peasants OF the
general war. Russia, however, lost
patience with the repeated promises J
OF the sultan, which were never car
ried out in good faith and declared
war in 1877. Roumania proclaimed
her independence and sent an army
TO join with the Russians.
When the czar's troops moved
into Turkish territory. they expected
to make a triumphal march to Con-
stantinople. Two defeats at Plevna,
however, demoralized the Russians
and had the Turks been led by gen.
erals OF genius 1t is more than prob
able that a vigorous offensive would
have enabled them to dictate favor
able terms of peace. But they al
lowed their opportunities to lapse
and after a siege OF nearly four
months Plevna surrendered.
While the fighting was going on in
what is now Bulgarian territory, Ser
bia and Montenegro had followed
the example of Roumania and had
declared their independence. These
TWO small Slav states have ever since
continued to exercise an influence
upon European development wholly
1ut OF proportion to their size. Their
position. on the boun-
larry OF Austria, and cutting off the
approach of the dual monarchy to
he Aegean sea, have made them dis
urbing factors to the peace OF the
continent.
After the fall of Plevna. the Rus
ians were able to push forward
more rapidly. They crossed the Bal
ians and captured Adrianople. the
city seized by the Bulgarians
nd Serbians during the first Balkan
var, and then lost to Bulgaria dur
ng the war waged by Serbia and
ireece against their former ally.
1t now seemed certain that the :
sussian host could not be halted and
a order to save Constantinople. the :
urks made peace by the famous Z
-eaty Of San Stefano. Turkey agreed :
D pay a large indemnity. to cede to
NuSSld uLSbIlCS IN ASIA WHICH hIe
ow being fought for by Russian and E
urkish armies, and to recognize the
Of Roumania was COM
elled to cede a valuable district to :
ussia and received a strip of coast
n the Black Sea in exchange which =
ley maintained they did not desire. e
his transaction has probably been E
lost responsible for the hesitancy of E
oumania in joining the allies in the e
ar now raging.
Bulgaria remained a tributary state 2
Turkey. and not until 1908 was its z
proclaimed, although =
tile attention had been paid to e
lrkish authority since the libera- e
on of Serbia, Montenegro and Rou- e
ania.