Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1940-10-13
Turkey Stands Firm

"This road across Anatolia Is
guarded by two million bayonets!"
That is the defiant highlight of an
official broadcast from Ankara, the
Turkish capital, warning Germany
that the land route through Asia
Minor to the Near East is barred and
we'll guarded.
This warning is no idle boast.
PreSent-day Turkey, created by the
genius of the late Renal Ataturk
and his talented colleagues, is
probably the most successful ex-
pertinent in nation-building which
our times have seen. Rising like the
tabled phoenix from the ashes Of
the old Ottoman Empire consumed
in the fires of the last war, Tur-
key emerged literally transformed.
Frankly renouncing the imperial
past this New Turkey had no de-
sire to win back lost provinces in
habited by alien and rebellious peo-
pies. Indeed, with a fierce yearn-
ing to be solidly Turkish, Renal and
his fellows deliberately expelled large
Greek and Armenian minoritieS.
Rough and cruel surgery, perhaps,
yet the goal of national unity was
thereby attained. Recalcitrant mi
norities were the chief weakness of
patchwork states like Rumania and
Czecho Slovakia, and may soon prove
to be Yugoslavias undoing. Com
pared to those jerrybuilt national
structures, solidly Turkish Turkey
stands like rock. Nazi propaganda
can find no minority cracks in that
edifice.
Furthermore, New Turkey has
abundantly proved its right to ma
tionhood by the amazing internal
transformation that has taken
place. In less than twenty years, a
seemingly backward Oriental peo-
pie has not merely adopted but sue
cessfully adapted much of our
Western civilization. Turkey today
is progressive and fairly prosperous
nation, fully abreast Of its Balkan
neighbors and probably ahead Of
some of them. This successful ex-
pertinent has, in turn, inspired its
Asiatic neighbors-Iran Persia), the
Arab countries, and even distant
Afghanistan. New Turkey has
thus proved to be a cultural bridge
between East and West. The states
manlike vision of Renal Ataturk
strove also to make his country the
sheet-anchor of political stability
throughout the whole Near East by
a series of pacts providing for nom
aggression and for common defense
against outside interlopers. Had
not the present conflagration up
set everything, those treaties might
have borne lasting fruit.
When Renal died two years ago,
his work was carried on unbroken
by his able right-hand man, Ismet
Inonu This seasoned diplomat has
pursued wary course throughout
the present war. At the start, he
made a defensive agreement with
Britain and France, then dominant
in the Near East, yet with an escape
clause" against being involved in
war with Russia, Turkeys giant
neighbor to the northWard. The
collapse of France and the accession
of Italy to Germany'S side caused
Inonu to assume more effectively
neutral attitude. The recent ag-
gressive policies of the axis powers in
the Balkans have naturally thrown
the whole situation into a state of
fux, and Russia's silence makes it
still more unpredictable.
Turkey is unquestionably the most
solid element in the entire Near East,
and desires above all else the main
tenance of peace and stability. I'm
fortunately, its power is limited. A
medium sized country with popu-
lation of 100000, which in two
decades has built itself up literally
from scratch, cannot be expected to
turn back single-handed the full
force of totalitarian blitzkrieg. Tur-
keys fate is bound up with the larger
question of the Near East. But it
can be counted on to play manly
mart