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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