Perth Amboy evening news., 1922-12-22
Geographic News
Bulletins BY the
National Geographic Society
THE MARTHA
Bulletins By the

THE MARTHA
THE Martha river, the boundary,
| of the European territory which the
| victorious Turks demanded as DON
| as they drove the Greeks from Asia
| Minor, Is, like the Rhine, between
France and Germany. a symbol and
a bone of contention among Bulgar,
Greek and Turk" says a bulletin of
the National Geographic Society
from its Washington, d. c., head
quarters:
Each of these three peoples has
claimed the Martha Valley as be-
longing to the ethnic grounds" con-
tinues the bulletin, and such is the
racial mix-up in Thrace and the por-
ton of Macedonia which adjoins it,
that each has at least some excuse
for its claims. Thrace-and indeed
ell Of Rumelia or Rumili, as the
Turks called the portions of Europe
which their swords conquered-has
for 500 years been in the anomalous
condition of being a Turkish terri
tory, yet more Christian than Mo-
hammedan more alien than Turk.
Moreover. the non-Turks-non-Mo-
hammedans were more intelligent
and more Industrious than the Mos
lens, a fact which has heightened
the non-Turkish aspect of the coun-
try in spite of the burden OF
heavy taxation, persecution and mas
sacre which the non-Turks have had
placed on their shoulders.
European Turkey Was Occupied
Territory"
more or less unconsciously the
Turks seem, throughout their tenure
of hall q millennium In Europe, to
have considered themselves engaged
in a military occupation. In the
trade and industry of the towns and
cities they did not and could not
compete with the Greeks and Jews
and Armenians; and in the agri-
cultural pursuits of the country they
were equally outclassed by the Bull
gars and Vlachs and the occasional
Greeks. who are farmers. Many of
the Turks confined their activities
or soldiers. Those who led the lives
of peasants never wholly shook off
their nomadism. They were less eff
icient than their desLfsed Christian
neighbors, q fact which led to many
a pillaging and massacring expedi-
zion; for the Moslems, however
humble their station. were armed,
while the Christians were not.
Eastern Thrace, between the
little value agr!culturally. 1t is an
Lnattractive, dreary. monotonous
plain, with here and there swampy
depressions. Large areas Of the ter
ritory are untitled and in summer
they give the country the appear
ance Of a desert. Furious fighting,
with little quarter. RACED ove this
region during the Balkan war of
.1912-13, as Bulgar and Turkish
arms were alternately successful.
Turkish villages were destroyed first,
I'D znn7 offor ptIlo1 rian villa OlQ
suffered a similar fate. When the
Bulgarians finally controlled the re-
gion many Turks, resigned to fate.
trekked to Asia Minor; and under
the Greek control Of the past few
years that movement has continued.
As a result the Thrace of today is
even more strikingly non-Turkish
than ! nthe past.
Adrfanople First Turk Capital
zone the Martha and in Thrace, |
barely twenty-five miles from the
present Bulgarian border, is Adrian
ople, second city of old European
Turkey, and a strong sentimental
reason for the Turks desire once
more to possess Thrace. Thracian
land was the first In Europe 10 fall
under Turkish sway, and while Con-
stantinople still remained Byzantine.
Adrianople was the Ottoman cap
ital. From there they crushed the
Serbians, and finally, in 1453, seized
the great city on the Straits. There.
though in ruins, is the first Euro
pean palace Of the sultans and the
grave of the first sultan, Murad.
Formerly Adrianople was al
thriving center of trade with the far
flung regions Of Rumili. But as the
European portion OF the Ottoman
empire dwindled, and Bucharest.
Athens, Belgrade and Sofia. released
from Turkish control, grew from
dingy mud villages to .bustling
towns, Adrianople lost ground. The
city still contains about $4,000 in-l
habitants, however, with the Greeks,
Bulgars, Jews and other non-Moslem
peoples greatly outnumbering the
Moslems."