The Reason for Turkey's DebAcle, 



645 



Of course the acts and omissions of 

 these young pohtical champions did not 

 find a special echo among the mass of 

 the Effendi world— that is, among the 

 intelligent class of Turkey. The gentle- 

 men were allowed to do what they liked. 

 But every seriously thinking Turk at 

 the bottom of his heart complained of 

 the actions of the Young Turks, because 

 everybody knew how little the country 

 and the people were ready for such 

 violent reforms. The greater part of 

 the Turkish people to whom the word 

 " motherland " [watan) was so far an 

 unknown word, and for whom Islam and 

 Koran had been the only leading 

 authority, were unable to understand the 

 Constitution, the Turkish " Meschru- 

 tiet." For many people this word even 

 seemed to be the name of the new ruler 

 who had ascended the throne after 

 Abdul Hamid, in the same way as they 

 considered Parliament and Parliamen- 

 tary votes as an idle play which was 

 arranged in Stamboul for his amuse- 

 ment. The effort to give equality of 

 rights of all subjects, whatever religion 

 they might belong to, is certainly ex- 

 tremely humane and commendable, but 

 it was a strong delusion to believe that 

 the bitter enmity, more than 500 years 

 old, between the dominating Mohame- 

 dans and the dominated Christians could 

 be so easily discarded, and that the 

 national political name of " Osmanli " 

 would spring up. Our credulous and 

 inexperienced Europe allowed herself 

 to be easily deceived, but not so the 

 incarnate conservatism of Oriental 

 people. As I could see from the letters 

 •of many of my old friends in Turkey, 

 coming events have been expected with 

 anxiety, and the unfailing catastrophe 



had been foreseen for years. It was 

 noticed that the pubhc administration 

 had become worse every year, and that 

 the idle talk in Parliament had only 

 injured all the branches of public life 

 through helpless neglect, that the dis- 

 order in finances had increased, and 

 that the army, instead of being 

 strengthened and promoted, could not 

 gain anything from the ordinances, 

 however well intended they may have 

 been, because the latter have been 

 taken from a nation having a turn of 

 mind which cannot fit in with the 

 mental world of the Asiatic warrior. 

 But the greatest evil of the new con- 

 stitutional era consisted in the loss of 

 the old deference to law and authorities. 

 The fear of authority which reigned 

 before, especially under the terrorist 

 domination of Abdul Hamid, was now 

 missing. All became entangled and dis- 

 ordered, the old Asiatic routine again 

 increased in a frightful manner, and 

 even a long time before the outbreak 

 of the war a friend of mine wrote to 

 me: "It is a real miracle that we are 

 still able to live in the middle of this 

 chaos and of this anarchy." Well, in 

 the middle of this chaos and of this 

 anarchy war between the Balkan people 

 and Turkey broke out. 



It is scarcely necessary to say that 

 under such circumstances Turkey was 

 not at all prepared for a war, and that 

 a suitable equipment for the troops, the 

 necessary provisions, the means of trans- 

 port, and especially the nervus rerum 

 gerendarum were lacking. The changes 

 which have taken place in the Turkish 

 army during the course of the last decades 

 must not be lost sight of, especially 

 with regard to the disappearance of 



