The Washington herald., 1918-10-20

gether as brothers and sisters There
were cynics who smiled at all these
demonstrations and yet one Develop
ment encouraged even them TO believe
that an earthly Paradise had arrived.
All through the period of domination
only the master Moslem had been per-
mitted to bear arms and serve in the
Ottoman army. To be a soldier was
an occupation altogether too manly
and glorious for the despised Chris
tan. But now the Young Turks en-
couraged all Christians to arm and
enrolled them in the army on an
equality with Moslems. These Chris
tians fought, both as officers and SOL
diers, in the italian and the Balkan
wars. winning high praise from the
Turkish generals for their valour and
skill. Armenian leaders had figured
conspicuously in the Young Turk
movement: these men apparently be-
lieyed that a constitutional Turkey
was possible. They were conscious of
their own intellectual and Industrial
superiority to the Turks, and knew
that they could prosper in the Otto
man Empire If left alone, whereas.
under European control, they would
have greater difficulty in meeting the
competition OF the more rigorous Eu-
rcpean colonists who might cople in.
With the deposition OF the Red Sultan.
Abdul Hamid, and the establishment
OF a constitutional system, the Ar
menians now for the first time in sew
eral centuries felt themselves to be
free men.
But, as ! have already described, all
these aspirations vanished like a
dream. Long before the European war
began. the Turkish democracy had
disappeared. The power of the new
Sultan had gone, and the hopes of re-
generating Turkey on modern lines
had gone also. leaving only a group
of individuals, headed by Talaat and
Enver, actually in possession OF the
! state. Having lost their democratic
aspirations these men now supplanted
lit with a new national conception In
place OF a democratic constitutional
state they resurrected the idea OF
Pan-Turkisn; in place of equal treat
ment Of all Ottomans. they decided
to establish a country exclusively for
Turks. l have called this a new con-
ception: yet it was new only to the
individuals who then controlled the
destiny of the empire, for. in reality.
| II was merely an attempt TO revive
the most barbaric ideas of their an
cestors. 1t represented. as have
said, merely an atayistic reversion to
the original Turk. We now saw that
the Turkish leaders, in talking about
! liberty. equality. fraternity. and con-
/ stitutiOnalism. were merely children
, repeating phrases: that they had used
! the word democracy merely as a
| ladder by which TO climb to power.
After 800 years close contact with
! European civilization. the Turk re-
/ mained precisely the same individual
as the one who had emerged from the
! stepDes Of Asia in the Middle Ages.
| He was clinging just as tenaciously
as his ancestors to that conception Of
state as consisting of A few mas
ter individuals whose right il is to
enslave and plunder and maltreat any
| peoples whom they can subject to
their military control. Though TaIsat
and Enver and Djemal all came of
the humblest families. the same fun
damental ideas OF master and slave
possessed them that formed the state
| craft Of Osman and the early Sultan.
| We now discovered that a paper con-
sttuuon and even fearful visits to
| Christian churches and cemeteries
/ could not uproot the inborn precon-
| Ception OF this nomadic people that
there are only two kinds of people in
! the world-the conQuerinE and the
| conquered.
Approach Pnn-Turki~h Ideal.
| When the Turkish government abro-
/ gated the CapituIations, and in this
way freed themselves from the doni-
nation of the foreign powers, they
were merely taking one step toward
| realizing this Pan-Turkish ideal