UNDER THE HEEL OF THE TURK 



A Land with a Glorious Past, a Present of Abused Oppor- 

 tunities, and a Future of Golden Possibilities 



By William H. Hall 



FROM whatever angle one views 

 the Empire of Turkey, he beholds 

 a land of unusual fascination. To 

 the historian, the archeologist, or the 

 geographer it is a storehouse of wealth, 

 worth a lifetime of exploration and study. 

 To the romancer it gives again its thou- 

 sand and one tales of the Arabian Nights. 



Mythology and legend not only come 

 from its past, but are found today on the 

 lips and in the lives of its common people. 

 Poetry and proverb are in the daily 

 speech, while monasteries and mosques 

 proclaim from every mountain top and 

 market-place that religion is a part of 

 the very life of the land. 



If one could only turn aside from the 

 horrors of the present, with its black cur- 

 rent of misrule, its injustice, its deporta- 

 tions, massacres, and famines, and out of 

 a wonderful past could construct a vision 

 of a more glorious future ! For, in spite 

 of four centuries and more of retrogres- 

 sion under the rule of the Turk, there 

 is promise of a golden age for the gen- 

 eration about to come. 



THINGS FROM THE PAST 



The land of Turkey looks out on the 

 present from a historic past that is the 

 study of all ages. The epics of Homer 

 are concerned with events on the plains 

 of Troy, at the mouth of the Dardanelles. 

 Along the shores of Asia Minor sailed 

 Perseus, and the Argonauts sought the 

 Golden Fleece on the southern coast of 

 the Black Sea. 



Croesus obtained his fabulous wealth 

 by sifting the river sands that brought 

 down grains of gold from the mountains 

 back of Smyrna. Alexander the Great 

 defeated the Persians in northern Syria, 

 and Babylon, on the Euphrates, was the 

 capital that proved his undoing. 



Chaldea and Babylonia, richest and 

 most powerful nations of antiquity, were 

 the lower Mesopotamia of today. Their 

 wealth did not consist primarily in trib- 

 utes levied on subject nations and in 

 plundered temples, but in the riches of 

 the soil of the Tigris and Euphrates 

 Valley. The land of the Nile has always 

 been famed for its marvelous produc- 

 tivity, but its soil is no more fertile and 

 its fields only one-fourth as extensive as 

 those of Mesopotamia. 



Wonderful systems of irrigation once 

 watered the plains and made Babylon 

 and its territories the granary and the 

 garden of all the eastern world. When 

 the distinguished engineer, Sir William 

 Wilcox, was called upon to survey this 

 region for present irrigation development, 

 his final report contemplated little more 

 than a rehabilitation of the ancient sys- 

 tems of the Babylonian days. 



The power of the city of Antioch 

 reached north and south and east. It 

 was, perhaps, the most beautiful city of 

 Hellenic times and certainly the most 

 luxurious. After the Scipios broke its 

 power in Asia Minor and Rome ruled 

 the world, Antioch became the vice-re- 

 gent for Rome, ruling over all the east- 

 ern world. It was known as "The Gate 

 of the East," through which flowed the 

 Roman conquering legions and from 

 which eastern luxury undermined the 

 foundations of western power. "The 

 waters of the Orontes contaminated the 

 Tiber," as one ancient sage observed. 



THE INFLUENCE OF CONSTANTINOPLE ON 

 WORLD EVENTS 



On the banks of the Bosphorus Con- 

 stantine founded his world capital, and 

 from that day to this the Byzantine and 

 Turkish city has figured in all great world 



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