The New York Times

HOW TURKISH EMPIRE SHOULD BE MADE AFTER THE WAR

January 24, 1915

Written for THE NEW YORK TIMES BY A STUDENT OF TURKISH AFFAIRS.

Turkey has the second largest share of responsibility in the outbreak

of the
war,for the reason that her unspeakable system of rule forced the
Balkan war,
which resulted in the Austro-Servian controversy. Her continued
hopeless
incapacity in the government of her extensive territories excited the
greed and
ambitions of the powera and made her a bone of contention among them.
It is a
well-known fact that the maintenance of the Turkish political entity
for the
last 200 years has been made possible by the rivalry of the Great
Powers. The
history of the Turk has been uniformly marked with blood, fire and
destruction.
His success was imposaible from the very beginning of his power. During
the
chaos and anarchy incident largely to religious dissensions, crusaders'
movements, political upheavals, to which the Eastern World was
subjected in the
Middle Ages he emerged from the confines of Central Asia a primitive
barbarian,and having been converted to the faith of Islam, he carried,
wherever
he went, the green flag that rejected all compromise and defied all
canons of
Germany and, in his irresistible sweeping march, conquered a dozen or
more
principalities. His power in Asia,in Africa,and in Europe rested on the
cruel
support of his sword. The civilization of his subject races he could
not
comprehend so he left them separate and distinct in the administration
of their
church and educational affairs. But the very moment he saw signs of
progress in
the activities of his subjects and a revival of national aspirations,
he
adressed himself to the support of steel and powder. Once he reached
the height
of his power and his rule seemed to be secure from external aggression,
he
reverted to his natural life of last and sonseous indulgence. Utterly
devoid of
the sense of justice and wanting in administrative knowledge, the rule
he
inaugurated has always been characterised by official indolence and
incompetency
and shameful graft and corruption. Always in the minority, without any
social
system of his own, with a religion in eternal conflict with that of his
subject
races, sensuous, lustful, indolent, deceitful, and incorrigible, ge was
doomed
to utter failure from the very beginning.

Without going very far back, if we review tersely the nature of the
Turk's
existence in the twentieth century, we can easily gain a sufficient
grasp of his
character. The intolerable nature of his rule forced the Servian
insurrections
in 1804 and 1817, the Grecian massacres in 1821, and the Russo-Turkish
war in
1828, when Greece, a wretched Turkish province, broke loose from the
Turkish
rule and Servia became autonomous; the massacres of Maronite Christians
in1860;
the massacres of Christians in Bulgaria , Bosnia-Herzegovinain 1877;
the
Armenian massacres in 1894 and 1896; the Greco-Turkish war in1898; the
Macedonian massacres in 1903 again Armenian massacres in Cecilia in
1909, during
the power of Young Turk, present sufficiently the ghastly picture of
what the
Turk has been. He not only smothered the economic and intellectual
sources of
the East, but he became imprenetrable barrier between East and West.TO
the
humiliation of Christendom, it should be said that the Turkish nuisance
would
have been impossible wereit notfor the cruel diplomacy of Great Powers
of
Europe, whose diplomacy has been influenced not by human
considerations, but by
considerations of national gain and prestige. And this despite the fact
that the
senselessness of this sort of diplomacy was proved in many instance, in
that no
one power could maintain a long lease of power at Constantinople
without being
betrayed at the psychological moment in favor of another power.

Only recently, in the course of conversation with a leading member of

the
Turkish Cabinet, I expressed by serious doubt if the Turkish Empire
could ever
be reformed through the Turkish element. It is to be noted that, out of
an
estimated population of 20,000,000 in the Turkish Empire not over
6,000,000 to
7,000,000 are Turks. In European Turkey and Anatolia, where the bulk of
the
Turkish element is to be found the Turk is in the minority. The Greek
and the
Armenian, who combined are about five millions. In equal number are
admittedly
superior to the Turk morally and intellectually. They are consummate
merchants
and financiers, industrious, and progressive. The Jew And the Christian
Arab ,
known to us as the Syrian , are the poers of the Greek and the
Armenian. The
Greek and the Armenian represent about 25%. of the population of
Turkey. They
control about 70% of its commerce, whereas the Turk constitute about
30% of the
population of Turkey and he controls about 10%of its commerce. In
education,he
is incomparably far behind the Greek and Armenian. As a Mohammedan , he
he does
not intermingle socially with the Christian race, and therefore, he
cannot
assume his rightful place in the leadership of the social system.

It is hard to see how a proud German Empire could engage in serious

business
with this adventurers, upstarts, deceitful and crafty visionaries, who
in the
course of seven years, plunged their country into four foreign wars,
and lost
one-fourth of their possessions, and now give excellent promise og
reducing the
once gigantic Turkish Empire into a miniature principality in this
momentous
conflict, for centuries a source of perpetual international
complication and
unending human sufferings, the Turkish Empire should be apportioned
among the
principle race that inhabit it, which, by tradition history, and their
known
fitness for self- government, are entitled to recognition among the
Great
Powers, who in the course of centuries, have fixed for themselves by
common
consents pheres of influence. To wit:

TURKEY
Square
Miles
Ismid 3,100
Bigha 2,600
Brussa 25,000
Castamuni 20,000
West Angora, West Kizil Irmak 12,000
West Koneih 21,500
East Smyrna 6,000
______
Total............................................................
. 92,050

GREECE
West Smyrna 15,000
 ARMENIA
Harpoot 12,500
Sivas 21,500
East Angora, East Kisil Irmak 13,350
East Konieh 18.000
North Aleppo, North Aintab, inclusive 3,700
Adana 15,500
______
Total............................................................
. 90,200

SYRIA, FRENCH PROTECTORATE.

Aleppo south of Beilan on the east,
inclusive, and south of Urfan on
the west, inclusive 22,500
Beirut, exlusive of Palestine 3,200
Syria, north of Damascus, inclusive 15,000
Lebanon 1,160
Zor, west of Euphrates 11,000
______
Total............................................................
. 52,860

JUDEA
Beirut, south of Lebanon 3,000
Syria, south of Damascus 22,000
Jerusalem, exclusive if city and en-
virons 4,500
______
Total............................................................
. 29,500

INTERNATIONAL COMMISSION
Jerusalem and environs 2,000

ENGLAND
Bagdad 42,500
Basra 54,000
Hejaz 97,000
Yemen 75,000
Zor, or Mesopotamia,
west of Euphrates 20,000
Moussoul, south of Little Zab 15,000
______
Total............................................................
. 303,500

RUSSIA
Trebizonde 13,000
Erzerume 19,300
Van 15,000
Bitlis 10,500
Diarbekir 15,000
Moussoul, north of Little Zab. begin
ning from east of Tigris 20,000
A strip begining of the western angle
 of Diabekir and bounded on the north
by Euphrates and on the south by a line
north of Urfah, then running wester-
ly to Alexandretia 5,000
______
Total............................................................
. 97,600

DARDANELLES
Especially the Straits of the Darda-
nelles should be of fortifi-
cations: they should not be used as
a naval base by any power in the
time of peace or war ; the merchant
and war vessels of all nations should
have the rightof the Dardanelles
on equal conditions.

I will now offer brief explanations for the reasons of the territorial
adjustments proposed above.

The part of Turkey in Europe allotted for bulgaria, and the proposed
arrangement
for the remaining portion of Turkey in Europe, including
Constantinople, require
no explanation.

As for the territories to be assigned to an independent Turkey, the

following
reasons should be sufficient:

More than fifty per centum of the Turkish element in the Turkish Empire
are to
be found within the boundaries of the territories assigned for Turkey.
The first
two capitals of the Turks are to be found within its borders. For
cemmercial
purposes, the ?? are unexcelled, in that they command extensive
frontages on the
Black Sea, and of the Mediterranean. The soil of every foot of the land
assigned
for Turkey is excellent for agriculture.