THE
possibilities
of Asia Minor for Aryan civilization are better understood when one casts an eye
back on that country to the period when it was covered with teeming millions and
dotted with cities that were mothers of art, literature, philosophy, industry
and all that is most useful and beautiful in human development. All this has
been repeatedly swept over by Asiatic and Mongol invasion and is now covered
with the Turkish blight.
In
a paper read in December, 1922, by W. H. Buckler, of Baltimore, the well-known
diplomat and archeologist, he calls attention to the great wealth of opportunity
for archeological research in New Turkey, and he urges American scholars to
concentrate their attention upon Anatolia and its new capital, Angora, and he
expects that “the development of towns, roads, etc., will be much more rapid
than formerly, and this change will be most marked at Angora, which, from a
village must shortly transform herself into a metropolis.”
It
is possible that a few new buildings may be put up at Angora in the near future,
but the process of reasoning which connects the carrying out of massacres
on a hitherto unprecedented scale with a freshly acquired ability for
administration, agriculture, commerce and finance is
incomprehensible.
On
this point, precisely, Sir Valentine Chirol, already quoted, very opportunely
says:
“The
Turk’s only real business was, and always has been, war. But it is
difficult to see how far Turkey has profited by exchanging a narrow religious
fanaticism for an equally narrow racial fanaticism. All we need consider is what
Turkey is to-day. Her population is estimated at between six million and eight
million decimated by the war and believed to be shrinking as it was already
doing before the war, from congenital disease. It will, it is true, be for
the first time, an almost purely Turkish population, for of the Greeks and
Armenians who in 1914 still numbered some three million in Asia Minor, only the
scantiest remnants are left. Yet they were the most intelligent and
economically valuable communities of the old Ottoman Empire. She (Turkey)
can hardly aspire to a much higher position than that of a third rate power
barely equal in general resources to any of the Balkan states over which she
used to rule, and she has herself abdicated the prestige and influence which the
possession of the Khalifate had conferred upon her.” (Chirol, “Occident
and Orient”, pp. 65-67)
But
the very learned and accomplished writer, Doctor Buckler, brings out some facts
of stupendous importance and significance. To quote his
words:
“The
range of Anatolian historical monuments and documents covers about five thousand
years. The periods represented by remains extend from the third millennium B.
C., with its South Cappadocian Cuneiform tablets to the fifteenth century A. D.,
with its Seljuk architecture and inscriptions. Among the subjects of history on
which Anatolian remains throw light are: Law, politics, economics, education,
art, (including sculpture) philosophy,
literature.”
He
goes on to say that the term “Anatolia,” as here used, covers all of Asia Minor
lying west of a line running north from Alexandretta to the Black Sea, and a
list of ancient cities and towns having mints of their own in the fourteen
classical districts included within that area, works out as
follows:
Lycia,
Pamphylia and Pisidia
95 towns
Lycaonia,
Isauria and Cilicia 82
towns
Phrygia
and Galatia
61 towns
Bithynia,
Paphlagonia and Pontus
34 towns
Ionia,
Lydia and Caria
84 towns
_________________________________________
Total
356 towns
Among
the sites already excavated, or earmarked for excavation, he mentions Pergamon,
Miletus, Sardis, Colophon, Priene, Cnidus; and among those partly spoiled for
excavation by their mere existence as modern towns, are Smyrna, Halicarnassus,
Adalia, Philadelphia, Thyatira and Ankyra. The last named is now the Turkish
capital, Angora. The most, if not all, of the cities mentioned by Doctor
Buckler were centers of Greek or Christian culture, or
both.
It
is natural that the archeologists, in their anxiety to obtain permission to work
in Asia Minor with safety should be very careful to say nothing that might
offend the sensibilities of the Turk. They must use all their diplomacy in
dealing with him in order that as much as possible may be unearthed of the
treasures of Greek art and wisdom that lie buried beneath the land now in the
hands of the Khemalists, still wet with the blood of the last survivors of an
ancient civilization.
We
have then, the following classes who find themselves in the same situation with
regard to the Turk, that is to say, who are prevented from saying anything that
might offend him: Certain missionaries; the business men with interests still in
Turkey; the concession hunters; the diplomats; the archeologists. I
believe that many of these are sincere in their admiration of the Turk, founded
on the supposition that his crimes have been greatly exaggerated and were more
or less justified.
This
conviction I do not share and I am convinced that it would have been better for
the whole Western world and the Turks as well, if the non-Moslem minorities had
been protected, and Christian civilization given a chance to develop in the
Ottoman Empire.
As
to the great commercial and industrial activity, which Professor Buckler foresaw
in 1922, the two following extracts from the press of 1925 are apropos. A writer
in a February number of the “Gazetta del Popol”, of Turin, Italy,
recently returned from Smyrna, says:
“The
appearance of Smyrna is tragic. Even two years and a half after the tragedy the
ruins are untouched. For two kilometers along the quay stretch the skeletons—the
ghosts of houses. And behind are more miles of streets, lined by other phantom
houses, like an endless morgue.”
“This
phantom city is a terrible symbol of all Turkey. That which above all attracts
attention is the disappearance of the Greeks, swept out, extirpated from that
city, which was their metropolis in the Levant and where they dominated all
forms of activity. The Armenians have also completely disappeared. The Jews
endure with difficulty the handicaps which they undergo in their sphere of
life.”
“The
Europeans try to make the best of a bad situation, but those who are not
supplied with ample capital, sufficient to allow them to face a thousand daily
vexations, which the authorities inflict, are faced with the necessity of
themselves retiring.”
“All
forms of activity in Turkey during the past ages were created by non-Turks.
There was nothing of theirs except the army. Ruthlessly the Turks condemn to
death all enterprise—commercial and industrial—in which they can not themselves
succeed.”
“At
present Turkey has only three custom houses—Constantinople, Smyrna and Messina.
Since the first of January of this year, when the law concerning the customs
went into effect, all other ports have been obliged to suspend entirely their
traffic. It is not possible for commercial activity to exist in them any more;
traffic with Europe has practically ceased entirely. All goods shipped to and
from Turkey must be unloaded at one of these towns; go through the vexatious
customs formalities, and be reloaded and reshipped to their
destinations.”
(This system of concentrating the business of the country at these three places
creates the fictitious appearance of increased activity at these ports, at the
expense of al1 the others. Macri, which formerly had fifteen thousand
inhabitants, has now a miserable two thousand survivors. The same is also true
of Adalia, formerly important, and now completely dead.)
“The
rug industry no longer exists. The Armenians and Greeks, who were its personnel,
have fled and settled in Rhoades, Piraeus, and some at Bari. There no longer
remains any one in Smyrna who knows how to make
carpets.”
“Ten
years ago, by the Armenian massacres and deportations, Asia Minor was laid
desolate. To-day, the industrious and productive portion of its
population has completely disappeared. It will soon become, if not a desert, a
wilderness. Everywhere along the coast are cities, which were abandoned to
the Turks two years ago and are now completely depopulated. The tillers
of the soil have become shepherds and nomads—the land no longer belongs to any
one. Within a few years, if God does not work a miracle, and endow the Turks
with gifts which they have always lacked, Asia Minor will become a desert in the
heart of Mediterranean civilization.”
And
a writer in a recent number of
“Le Tempt” of Paris says:
“Constantinople
is a dying city. The Bosphorus, once thronged with the world’s shipping, is now
all but deserted; the offices of foreign business houses are winding up their
affairs; the banks will loan money only at the most exorbitant rates. The
troubles with the Greeks and Armenians have resulted in the expulsion en masse
of those peoples. Even the Turkish population proper is emigrating in the hope
of finding brighter commercial prospects.”
“As
the prosperity of the great city declines, its ancient rivals, Alexandria,
Beirut, Saloniki and Piraeus are receiving the benefits of its former
trade.”
How
can it be otherwise!
Efficiency
to massacre does not mean ability in industry and commerce, and the fanatical
destruction of great industrial masses has always proved a serious blow to the
prosperity of the country where the crime has occurred, as witness the
persecution of the Huguenots in France. In Turkey it has meant
ruin.
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