TURKEY. 



ployments. The hostility and jealousy between the 

 70,000 Mussulmans and 270,000 Christians is 

 stronger than like passions in other parts of the 

 Turkish Empire because the adherents of both 

 creeds are of the Greek race. The organic law of 

 1867, granted at the instance of the powers, en- 

 dowed the island with nominal autonomy. In 1878 

 the Halepa pact, which was the outcome of recom- 

 mendations made at the Berlin Congress, bestowed 

 on the Cretans a liberal measure of self-govern- 

 ment. The General Assembly, in which Christians 

 and Mussulmans were represented in the proportion 

 of 49 to 31, was elected by universal suffrage and by 

 ballot, and the administrative offices were divided 

 between the two creeds. The island soon fell a 

 prey to party politics and intrigues. When the 

 Conservative party was defeated in 1888 it fomented 

 a revolution. The result was the dispatch of Shakir 

 Pasha with 20,000 men. the proclamation of a state 

 of siege, and the withdrawal of most of the privi- 

 leges conferred by the pact of Halepa. Chronic dis- 

 content, fostered by the advocates of annexation to 

 Greece, has prevailed ever since. The Porte has 

 spent 14,000,000 since 1867 in putting down dis- 

 turbances in the island. The renewal of the Cretan 

 movement led to the dispatch of re-enforcements 

 to the island at the beginning of 1896. Karatheo- 

 dory Pasha, the Governor General, resigned and 

 Turkhan Pasha, a Moslem, was appointed to the 

 place on March 7. A general amnesty was pro- 

 claimed in the island. The agitation for the res- 

 toration of the charter revoked in 1889 increased. 

 The new Vali endeavored to curb the turbulent ele- 

 ment which his predecessor could not master. The 

 Mohammedans began to assume an arrogant de- 

 meanor, and the hostile bearing of both sections of 

 the population led to conflicts. Turkhan Pasha 

 had 100 persons arrested and banished the most ac- 

 tive agitators, 10 Mohammedans and 4 Christians. 

 Outward quiet was restored, but the revolutionary 

 Christians continued their preparations, and a 

 counter-movement for reviving the old Mussulman 

 ascendency was secretly encouraged by Turkish of- 

 ficers and notables. Delegates were elected by the 

 Christians in all the districts of Crete to form a 

 General Assembly, representing the body that was 

 dissolved by the firman of 1889. The Christian Re- 

 form Committee sent out a circular appealing to the 

 Greek race everywhere for moral and material as- 

 sistance. The elected delegates from the western 

 half of the island met at Kurna. near Apokorona, 

 on April 12. On the same day their armed follow- 

 ers became involved in a fight with the Turkish gar- 

 rison near Episkopi. The Reform Committee and 

 an armed force took up a strategic position in the 

 district of Hagion Vasileon. They refused to dis- 

 band when Turkhan Pasha summoned them to do so, 

 offering amnesty, and, when a military expedition 

 was sent against them, they withdrew to the moun- 

 tainous district of Snhakia after a fight at Selia, 

 in which 10 Turks were killed. The Vali postponed 

 the meeting of the regular General Assembly till 

 August in consequence of the refusal of the Reform 

 Committee to accept the proffered amnesty. The 

 committee demanded the restoration of the Consti- 

 tution on May 6, the date for the regular meeting 

 of the Assembly. The Greek Government entered 

 into negotiations with the Porte for the restitution 

 of the privileges of the island and requested the 

 leaders to lay down their arms, but they refused. 

 The Russian and French and afterward the Austrian 

 and English ambassadors made representations to 

 the Porte on the subject of the disturbed state of 

 Crete. The Christian deputies met at Canea and 

 drew up a formal protest against the postponemeiit 

 of the convocation of the Assembly, which all signed 

 except four friends of the Reform Committee, who 



favored more radical measures. The Christian 

 population of Vamos rose on May 17 against the 

 garrison of 1,300 men, blockaded it in its quarters, 

 and fired on re-enforcements sent by steamer, pre- 

 venting them from landing. The Reform Commit- 

 tee issued a general appeal to the peasantry to join 

 the movement, which they did. The Cretan com- 

 mittee at Athens furnished money and arms. The 

 insurgents, whose ranks were swelled by amnestied 

 malefactors and constant accessions from the agri- 

 cultural population, held a Turkish garrison be- 

 leaguered at Yoxaris after killing 18 soldiers, arid 

 fought a detachment at Dramia, killing 10. The 

 Turkish force in Apokorona was beleaguered like- 

 wise. The insurrection extended to the pastern 

 part of the island. The Turkish rural population 

 fled to Retimo, Candia, and other towns. Turkhan 

 Pasha, who had offended the Mussulmans by his 

 harsh measures against disturbers among them as 

 well as the Christians by his refusal to convoke the 

 Assembly, was recalled and Abdullah Pasha, an Al- 

 banian acquainted with the Greeks and their lan- 

 guage, was appointed Vali on May 21. The Porte 

 yielding to representations of the Hellenic Govern- 

 ment, supported by the powers, summoned the Gen- 

 eral Assembly to meet at Candia on May 28. Has- 

 san Tansin Pasha, the military governor, who was 

 compromised by his relations with the Mohamme- 

 dan committees, was also relieved. On May 21 the 

 insurgents defeated the strongest force that could be 

 sent to the relief of the Vamos garrison. On May 24 

 a conflict broke out in Canea between the Moham- 

 medans and Christians in which 6 of the former 

 and 10 of the latter were killed, including the ka- 

 vassas of the Russian and Greek consulates. The 

 murder of Mohammedan women in the neighboring 

 village of Semprona exasperated the Mohammedans 

 and led to the riot. Some of the soldiery joined in 

 pillaging shops. The disturbance was renewed on 

 the two following days. Foreign men-of-war then 

 arrived in the harbor. The Turkish Government 

 resolved to dispatch 16 battalions to reduce the 

 Cretans to submission. Abdullah Pasha .arrived 

 with fresh troops on May 29. Learning that the 

 insurgents had rejected an offer of the surrender of 

 the arms and stores at Vamos if they would allow 

 the starving garrison to withdraw, the new Govern- 

 or General sent 3,000 men, who succeeded in dis- 

 lodging the force that blocked the road at Tsivara 

 after a stubborn fight in which 75 Turks were killed, 

 and then raised the siege on May 30. At various 

 places Mohammedans held Christians and insur- 

 gents Turkish troops besieged. Murder and pillage 

 were committed by both parties in all parts of the 

 island. At Retimo the Mohammedan refugees seized 

 the houses of Christian citizens and committed depre- 

 dations. A detachment of 85 men was annihilated 

 by insurgents while removing war material from 

 Vamos. The troops relieved Mohammedan villa- 

 gers beleaguered at Semprona and Bukolies after 

 encounters with the insurgents at Polemarki and 

 Amygdalo. Another detachment rescued Christians 

 beleaguered at Perivolia. An expedition was sent 

 to the western district, where all the Mohammedans 

 had been expelled by the Christians. The troops 

 burned villages and added to the devastation al- 

 ready widespread, for where Christians expelled 

 Mohammedans houses and olive groves were de- 

 stroyed. The insurgents, who were well supplied 

 with Martini rifles but lacked ammunition, retired 

 to the mountains of Apokorona. The Reform Com- 

 mittee demanded the economic independence of the 

 island, half the customs duties, and the nomination 

 for five years under the guarantee of the powers of 

 a Governor General chosen by the Cretans, he alone 

 to have the entire civil and military administration 

 and the right of veto over the acts of the Assembly. 



