Evening star., 1935-03-31
BY RANDOLPH LEIGH.
Special Dispatch to The Star.

BY RANDOLPH LEIGH.
Special Dispatch to The Star.
NKARA.-There are two sides
n to this New Turkey-a state
II ment platitudinous enough to
4 \ apply to any situation. How
ever, the difference in this
case is the extreme to which the
opposing Or contradictory evaluations
can be pushed.
Looking at the bright side one sees,
for instance, regime which, quit
ting the corruption and entangle-
mentS Of one of the worlds Oldest
and most cosmopolitan cities, is max
ing new capital for itself in the
heart of It's own people-a capital,
furthermore, in which the emphasis
is placed on the modern in every
thing.
This new capital is not only physi-
cally Occidental, in buildings, grounds,
amusement places, ETC., but in thought
and attitude. Here plans are being
laid for gigantic university. Here
the most scientific archeologistS are
directing the expeditions which are
going out into the nearby deserts and
uncovering civilizations of more than
5000 years ago. They are doing this,
too, with an understanding of its cul-
tural significance, and of the allure
which it will have for tourists.
Language Being Remade.
Here the language of a people Is
being remade along nationalistic lines
dhe idea being to extirpate foreign
words as much as possible). Here, too,
is concentrated the machinery to
turn an Overwhelmingly illiterate
(about 80 per cent? people into a
nation of readers. For these pro-
spective readers a literature is being
brought together and new Ito them)
alphabet, that of the Western World,
is being made compulsory.
1t is rushing forward with its
plans for universal education. But
some idea Of the distance which it
has to go IS to be found in the fact
that six years ago the amount spent
on education for this entire nation of
$4,000, 900 people was only about 50
per capita pei year. Its present uni
versity plans alone will involve a
greater outlay than that for one years
construction work.
OF course it has very modern and
effective army. In fact, everything
rests on the will of the army, which
is feared abroad as well as at home
Women have been emancipated, 1t no
longer being possible to get rid of
wife for putting too much salt in the
soup. But the abolition of polygamy
has forced many women to seek work
Wealth Virtually Conscripted.
In step with the freedom loving
governments of the West, this gov
ernment has virtually conscripted
wealth by placing the most rigid in
ternal control on money, and by pro-
hibiting its export.
But there is dark side to the pic
ture, though the full responsibility for
1t cannot be placed on Turkey alone.
I refer to the treatment of the
Greeks and Kurds during the period
in which peace has theoretically pre-
vailed in this area. At the end of
the World War there were about
3,000,000 Greeks and 100000 Kurds
in Turkey.
The Greeks cut right across the all
Turk program, and the Kurds (who
are Caucasians, but have been in this
region for 5000 years. were unfortu-
nate enough to be located on top of
one of the greatest oil fields in the
world.
Greeks Ruthless in Invasion.
There IS much controversy over the
Greek matter, and it cannot be de-
MED that the Greeks, who invaded
Turkey just after the World War,
were very ruthless in their treatment
of the Turks, and on at least one oc-
casion maSsacred numbers of them.
1t is also known that about half the
resident Greeks fled from Turkey
when they saw what was developing.
In addition, there has been much
governmental swapping of popula-
tions between Greece and Turkey in
order to dispose of the minority prob
lens.
Making all these deductions, how
ever, it now seems rather well estab-
Ished that about half a million
Greeks have vanished utterly, whether
by flight into unknown regions, by
starvation or by outright slaughter in
clashes with the civil population or
the military.
The most charitable approach to
the matter is to treat it as simply
phase in the intermittent warfare
which has been going on between
Greece and Asia Minor since the
siege of Troy.
The treatment of the Kurds, how
ever, presents an entirely different
problem. In their case one of the
basic principles of the dismember-
ment of Eastern Europe (that of
racial self f-determinism was f1agrant-
ly violated. The Kurds have been
recognized as formidable unit since
the time of the Syrian Empire. One
Of their great leaders was Saladin,
who led the Moslem world in the
great struggle, in which Richard
Occur de Leon was the hero Of
Christendom.
Kurdistan Ruined by Division.
In the final solution Gf, indeed, it
is to prove to be that of the Turkish
question there was a bitter struggle
to take from Turkey the Mosul oil
fields, with England as the chief
aspirant. Kurdistan was finally di-
vided between Persia, Turkey and
Irak, the last named being a phan-
tom government under the thumb
of England and the League of Ma
tions.
This ruined Kurdistan by breaking
its unity and cutting of its trade
with Baghdad by the Tigris River.
Nevertheless, the English Parliament
ratified within five days this pro-
cedure. To deal with the enraged