Chapter XIX: , page 276 (8)

According to all accounts of the time, the feeling evoked by
the announcement of a constitutionalized government—as soon as
the long oppressed people could be persuaded of its actuality
—was quite extraordinary, and it swept away temporarily, at
least, the enmities of religion and race to a remarkable
extent. What occurred, for example, at Beirut, in Syria, as
described by a missionary, was probably not exceptional in
that place. "Men gathered," he says, "in large groups.
Audiences and orators sprung up like mushrooms. The torrent of
eloquence that poured forth there was such as would put
Niagara to shame. There were people mingling together there
who during the past years had been bitterly antagonistic to
each other, but who now were showing their friendship in
public; Greek Orthodox and Mohammedan priests were embracing
each other; branches were cut down from the trees; rugs were
brought out from the houses; the streets were lined with
people offering their hospitality to their new-found brothers;
everywhere, even among the criminal classes, there were these
evidences of good fellowship."

_Howard S. Bliss,
Address to National Geographic Society,
December 18, 1908._

On the night of the 26th of July the Sultan received a
deputation, headed by the Sheikh-ul-Islam, who petitioned for
the removal of certain obnoxious favorites of the "Palace
camarilla," and especially for the dismissal of the notorious
Izzet Pasha, one of his secretaries, who was hated and feared
above all. Abdul Hamid refused at first; but three days later
he ordered Izzet Pasha into exile and disgraced Ismail Pasha,
his Aide-de-camp, who was said to be the chief spy of the
military schools. Izzet succeeded, a few days later, in
escaping from the country, and so, undoubtedly, saved his
life.

On the 29th of July the British Ambassador at Constantinople,
Sir G. Lowther, sent the following telegram to Sir Edward
Grey:

"The Sultan has sworn on the Koran, as Caliph, not to repeal
the Constitution, and the Sheikh-ul-Islam has officially
notified the oath, which was registered at his Department, to
the people. It religiously binds not only Abdul Hamid but also
his successors in the Caliphate to govern in accordance with
the Constitution, and becomes part of the Sheri law. This step
was demanded by the Young Turkey and Constitutional party, in
order to prevent the Constitution being put aside, as was that
of 1876." On the 31st, announcement was made in the morning
papers of Constantinople that "a Hatti Humayun which is
binding on the successors of the Sultan will be publicly read
at the Porte confirming the Constitution." Subsequently, on
sending a copy of this instrument to his Government, Sir G.
Lowther remarked that "a Hatti Humayun is the most binding
form of legislation in the Ottoman Empire." In the present
case it seems to have supplemented as well as confirmed the
original Constitution, pledging equality of freedom and of
rights to all subjects of every race and religion; supremacy
of law; inviolability of the individual domicile;
inviolability of the Post; freedom of the Press; freedom of
Education, etc., etc.

The ministers and spies of the old regime of despotism and
corruption were now proceeded against with celerity and vigor.
Some escaped, some were imprisoned, some were killed by
enraged crowds of people. The latter was the fate of Fehim
Pasha, who had been at the head of the secret police. At the
same time exiles of an opposite character were returning to
their country and meeting with excited welcomes as they came.

Kiamil Pasha took his proper place as Grand Vizier on the 7th
of August, and formed a new Cabinet, with Tewfik Pasha as
President of the Council of State and Minister of Foreign
Affairs. In announcing the composition of the Cabinet,
Ambassador Lowther remarked: "Kiamil Pasha appears very wisely
to have taken the League of Union and Progress into his
counsels in forming his Ministry, all of whom were
incorruptible opponents of the old regime, while two of them
are Christians, in accordance with the principles of the
Constitution."

While practically dominating the Imperial Government on one
hand, the ruling Committee of the League was likewise bringing
to terms the lawless Bulgarian, Greek, and other bands which
had tortured and terrorized Macedonia so long, and was
respectfully but plainly intimating its expectation that
foreign management of the gendarmerie and the finances of that
region would soon be withdrawn. Already, as early as the 25th
of July, M. Isvolsky had withdrawn, for the time being, at
least, his project of further intervention, saying that
"Russia will follow with the most sympathetic attention the
efforts of Turkey to insure the working of the new regime. She
will abstain, for her part, from all interference calculated
to complicate this task, and will exercise all her influence
in order to obviate and prevent all disturbing action on the
part of the Balkan States." Of course the British Government
was moved by the same feeling, and, as the new order in Turkey
gave more and more promise of stability, the willingness to
suspend the foreign organization of gendarmerie in the
Macedonian provinces became general among the Powers. A
collective note, accordingly, was addressed to the Sublime
Porte in September, asking if the Imperial Government had any
objection to a provisional suspension of its contract with
foreign officers, with leave of absence to them _sine
die_. The Porte promptly acquiesced and the Macedonian
intervention came to an end.

Preparations for the election of representatives in the new
Parliament became active in October, the League of Union and
Progress sending agents into the provinces to give much-needed
instructions to officials and people as to what they must do
and how. The elections were conducted under a complicated
electoral law. Excepting foreign residents, natives in foreign
service, soldiers not on furlough, bankrupts, criminals, and a
few other classes, all male tax-payers twenty-five years of
age were made "electors in the first degree." By their vote
they chose, not the parliamentary representative, but
"electors in the second degree" who would meet subsequently
and make that choice. At the preliminary elections 250 to 750
voters were entitled to one elector; 750 to 1250 to two, and
so on. The representation in Parliament was by one Deputy for
25,000 to 75,000 electors of the first degree; two for 75,000
to 125,000,—and further at that rate. Candidates for
Parliament were to be not less than thirty years of age.

{658}

According to the Constitution the chosen Deputies to
Parliament were to assemble at Constantinople on the 30th of
October, old style; but inevitable delays in the elections
postponed the meeting of Parliament until the 17th of
December, on which day it was opened by the Sultan in person,
good order prevailing in the city. In a written Speech from
the Throne, read by his First Secretary, he offered as an
explanation of the long suspension of the Constitution of
1876, that, in consequence of the difficulties encountered in
operating the parliamentary system thirty years ago, it was
thought best that "the execution of the said Constitution
should be postponed until, by the progress of instruction in
my Empire, the capacity of my people should be brought up to
the desired level." As this was now believed to have been
accomplished, he had "proclaimed the Constitution anew without
hesitation, in spite of those who hold views and opinions
opposed thereto." With marked abruptness the Sultan’s speech
was then turned to some recent occurrences which have not yet
been touched in this narrative of events. Its reference to
them was in these words: "Whilst the Ministry formed under the
Presidency of Kiamil Pasha, to whom the office of Grand Vizier
was intrusted upon this change in the system of
administration, was occupied with organizing the new
Constitutional Administration, Prince Ferdinand, Prince of
Bulgaria and Vali of the Province of Eastern Roumelia,
departing, for whatever reason, from the loyalty due to our
Empire, proclaimed the independence of Bulgaria; and
immediately after this the Government of Austria-Hungary also
announced to the Porte and to the Cabinets of the other Great
Powers that it had decided to annex to the sphere of its
dominion Bosnia and Herzegovina, which were subject to the
temporary occupation and administration of Austria in
accordance with the Treaty of Berlin. These two important
events, which are prejudicial to existing legal rights and
relations, are occurrences which have moved me to very great
regret, and our Ministers have been intrusted with the task of
taking the necessary action consequent on these encroachments
and of safeguarding (he rights of the State. In regard to this
matter, and under all circumstances, the help and support of
Parliament are desired."

The concluding words of the Sultan’s brief speech were these:

"I open the Chamber of Deputies to-day with prayers for the
happiness and prosperity of our Empire and country. I am happy
to see in my presence the Deputies of my nation. My intention
to govern our country under the Constitution is absolute and
unalterable. Please God our Chamber of Deputies will
accomplish good work for our Empire and our nation, and our
fatherland will attain to happiness of every kind. May God
make us all the objects of His divine grace!"

TURKEY: A. D. 1909.
American Mission Schools.

See (in this Volume)
EDUCATION: TURKEY AND THE NEAR EAST.

TURKEY: A. D. 1909 (January-May).
Wise Moderation of the Young Turks.
Gathering of Opposition to them.
The Counter-Revolution of April 13.
Treacherous Agency of the Sultan in it.
Quick Recovery of Power by the Young Turks.
Battle in Constantinople.
Moslem attack on Armenians in Asiatic Turkey.
Deposition of Abdul Hamid.
Mohammed V. placed on the Throne.

The declaration of Bulgarian independence and the Austrian
annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, protested against by the
Sultan in his Speech from the Throne at the opening of the new
Parliament, on the 17th of December, are recounted at some
length in another place, with notice of the prolonged
anxieties they produced in Europe at large.

See (in this Volume)
EUROPE: A. D. 1908-1909 (OCTOBER-MARCH).

In Turkey itself the feeling roused by these offensive
proceedings was overborne to a great extent by increasing
excitements in home politics at the time. The first unity of
welcome and support to the revolution, as organized by the
League of Union and Progress, was now being broken, as always
happens in such movements, by conflicts of ambition and
differences of opinion and aim. In other words, contentions of
party and faction were coming into play. The Young Turk
leaders of the League had manifestly conducted the whole
movement of revolution with extraordinary ability,
self-effacement, and restraint. The President of Robert
College, at Constantinople, Dr. C. Frank Gates, who must be
accounted a trustworthy observer of events in the Ottoman
capital, writing in _The Outlook_, November 7, 1908, of
"Turkey under the New Regime," paid this high tribute to its
chiefs:

"One of the most striking features of this movement to those
who have lived long in the country is the moderation shown by
the Young Turks. The regime which has been overthrown was
oppressive in the extreme, and all the people had suffered
terribly from it. The Turks have often said, ‘We suffer more
than the Christians.’ Many have predicted a day of terrible
retribution, when the old regime should fall into the hands of
its victims. But there have been no reprisals. Officers of the
army were killed in order to gain control of the army, a few
spies fell into the hands of the people and were killed, the
notorious Fehim Pasha was torn to pieces by the mob at
Broussa, but most of the rascals have been held for regular
trial, and the leaders of the new movement have firmly
insisted that it is no time for vengeance or for the
gratification of personal animosities; only one consideration
can be admitted, and that is the good of the country. Their
eyes are upon the future, not upon the past. This is
wonderful. If one could have expected a reign of terror
anywhere, here was the place to expect it, but it has not
come.

"The Young Turks have shown a practical wisdom in dealing with
the various parties and in solving the questions which have
arisen which commands the admiration of all. A friend who is
very well acquainted with the leaders in this movement said
the other day, ‘The most wonderful thing of all is the
committees.’ Properly speaking, there are no committees and no
tangible organization. There are men who stand behind the
present Government and practically guide and control it, but
they are content to be unknown and to work in silence. They
say, ‘It is the work of God,’ 'Do not congratulate us: thank
God.’

{659}

"The difficulties which these men have to face are enormous.
There is the difficulty of financing the Government, which is
aggravated by the fact that some of the provinces have
understood liberty as meaning freedom from taxes. Then there
is the difficulty of forming a programme for the new regime.
There have been two parties among the Young Turks, the
Committee of Union and Progress, and the Party of
Decentralization headed by Sebaheddin. … Sebaheddin has been
explaining his programme to popular audiences. His plan is to
have local assemblies in the provinces, to which shall be
relegated many of the functions which have been centralized in
Constantinople under the old regime."

The working of the new machinery of government went smoothly,
in appearance, for some weeks after this was written. On the
1st of January the Sultan gave a banquet to the Deputies of
Parliament at the Yildiz Kiosk, sitting with them at table and
speaking to them with eloquent piety and patriotism;
subsequently permitting a general kissing of his hands, which
performance of affectionate reverence was much disapproved by
some of the Turkish journals next day. A fortnight later Mr.
Hagopian, special correspondent at Constantinople of the New
York _Evening Post_, seemingly intimate in acquaintance
with the inner circles of parties, began to be sharply
critical of the Committee of Union and Progress, saying that
their "arrogant programme" "has led more enlightened Turks to
organize a new party, the Sons of Liberal Ottomans." Then he
speaks of what appears to be another party, "the association
of ‘Fedakiarans’ (Confederates), composed of all former
political exiles and prisoners who became free after the
establishment of the new regime. On the surface their aim is
said to be to assist all their unfortunate members who have
been brought to poverty, or disabled by the tortures of prison
and exile. Their membership within the last four months has
reached twenty thousand. …

"The mistake which the Young Turks committed in opposing
Kiamil Pasha, and in persecuting the Confederates," this
writer goes on to say, "has strengthened the cause of
Sabakheddin Bey and his followers. All the oppressed Christian
races, who welcomed the inauguration of a liberal government
in Turkey, were alarmed when a part of the young Turks came
forward as champions of Panislamism, and to-day they are
inclined to be in the rank and file of this new liberal
movement. The Young Turkish Parliament has shown a tendency to
be a Moslem institution."

A fortnight later Kiamil Pasha, the Grand Vizier, or Prime
Minister, as he preferred, it is said, to be called, dropped
Ali Riza Pasha, Minister of War, and Aarif Pasha, Minister of
Marine, from his Cabinet, appointing them to other posts,
which they declined; and this completed his breach with the
Committee of Union and Progress. Mr. Hagopian, in his next
letter to the _Evening Post_, averred that the Grand
Vizier had discovered a plot, organized by the Young Turks, to
dethrone the Sultan and proclaim Youssuf-Izeddin, elder son of
Abdul Aziz, the murdered former Sultan, and that he defeated
their project by the sudden change he made in the Ministries
of War and Marine. Other reporters from Constantinople to the
Press do not seem to have given credit to this explanation.
Whatever the inner facts may have been, the Young Turk
Committee proved stronger than the Grand Vizier, and they
forced his resignation on the 13th of February, by an
overwhelming vote in the Chamber of Deputies, 198 to 8, that
he "no longer possesses its confidence." He had commanded
foreign confidence more, perhaps, than any other Turkish
statesman, and his overthrow gave a serious shock for the
moment to the hopefulness with which the Turkish
constitutional experiment had come to be quite generally
regarded.

Hilmi Pasha, who had been Minister of the Interior under
Kiamil, was now called by the Sultan to be Grand Vizier, and a
new Cabinet was formed, Ali Riza Pasha resuming the portfolio
of the Ministry of War, and with it that of the Marine. The
administration was now entirely in harmony with the Committee
of Union and Progress. During the next two months there was
not much in Turkish affairs to command attention abroad. But
political hostility to the Committee of Union and Progress was
evidently increasing. The correspondent of the London
_Times_ wrote to his paper from Constantinople in March
that "one of the most perplexing and disquieting features of
the situation since the fall of the late Cabinet has been the
persistent manner in which the Committee have denied that any
extra-Parliamentary pressure was employed to effect that
change, or that, since it was accomplished,
extra-Parliamentary forces have exercised any influence on the
conduct of affairs. Had they frankly admitted that such
influences had been, and were still, brought to bear—as,
indeed, the speech of the President of the Chamber implicitly
acknowledges—but that such interference was justified by
circumstances and would continue to be exercised until the
country had safely emerged from the critical period through
which it is passing, many who are now falling away from them
would have been found to agree, and few persons capable of
forming an unbiased opinion would have ventured to declare
that their contention was altogether unreasonable and
unjustifiable. By adopting a different course they have
alienated much of the sympathy and confidence they hitherto
commanded, and given rise to suspicions, quite possibly
unfounded, as to the purity of their motives, with the result
that the country, which needs and will long continue to need
the united energies of all its ablest and most enlightened
citizens, for the tremendous task of regeneration and
reorganization, is now weakened by a fierce party struggle,
and that many competent observers regard a fresh Ministerial
crisis as an event which cannot be delayed for many weeks."

The anticipated crisis came about four weeks after this had
been written, in a form much more serious than that of a mere
Ministerial collapse. It was precipitated by excitements that
followed the murder, on the 6th of April, of a political
journalist, Hassan Fehmi Effendi, editor of the
_Serbesti_, the organ of the Liberal party. As the
murdered man had been a vigorous critic and opponent of the
Committee of Union and Progress, that organization was accused
at once of having brought about his death.
{660}
This gave the start to agitations and demonstrations that were
secretly pushed for several days, until they culminated, on
the 13th, in an outbreak of soldiers and city mobs which
reversed for a time the Young Turk revolution of the previous
July. That the crafty Abdul Hamid had more than lent his hand
to the reactionary outbreak was universally believed; but when
it had accomplished the overthrow of Hilmi Pasha and his
Ministry the Sultan did not venture to call creatures of his
own to take their place. On the contrary, he gave the office
of Grand Vizier to Tewfik Pasha, one of the most respected and
independent of the elder officials of the Empire, charging
him, in an imperial rescript, "to form a Cabinet to conform
more directly to the sacred law and to maintain the
Constitution and guard public order." These words are
indicative of the nature of the hostility to the regime of the
Young Turks which had been worked up. Formerly, as appears in
one of the quotations above from Mr. Hagopian, the Young Turks
had been accused of being "champions of Pan-Islamism," and
their Parliament of showing "a tendency to be a Moslem
institution." Latterly, Moslem orthodoxy had been appealed to
against them on the charge that they were unfaithful to "the
sacred law" (the Sheriat), and that they were making the
Constitution a mere cover for designs that boded evil to
Islam. A fair inference from the contradictoriness of the
charges brought against them is decidedly favorable to the
party of the Young Turks.

At the outset of the revolutionary riot in Constantinople a
few murders were committed and some fatal shooting at random
was done, the victims including the Minister of Justice, an
Albanian Deputy and a few officers of the riotous soldiery;
but the mob-rising, as a whole, appears to have been kept
under singular restraint. No important members of the League
of Union and Progress are reported to have been killed. Those
who were in Constantinople escaped, and their ruling Committee
was soon established in activity at Salonika again, taking
measures which resulted quickly in the recovery of more than
the power that they had seemed for the moment to have lost.

That no reaction of substantial influences at Constantinople
against constitutional and representative government was
signified by what had occurred there was made plain by an
important proclamation, issued on the 16th of April, by the
Committee of the Ulema, the Moslem Doctors of the Sacred Law.
It was addressed to the Deputies and the Nation, in these
words:

"We are informed that certain Deputies, fearing for their
lives, wish to resign, while, on the other hand, the public
fears the return of despotic rule. The Committee of the Ulema,
which has never doubted that the Constitution is in entire
conformity with sacred law, and has not forgotten the burning
of Islamic books at Gulhaneh in the days of absolutism, will
defend the Constitution, which is in conformity with the
Sheriat, to the last, aided by the army and Parliament. Its
members consider it to be a religious duty to sacrifice their
lives for this end. They and the nation preserve the
confidence of Deputies, Moslem and non-Moslem alike, save such
as have resigned, or have fled and are thereby considered to
have resigned. Deputies, therefore, are informed that
henceforth those who resign will be considered traitors. Let
them do their duty justly and honourably, and they may be sure
of the support of the nation and the spiritual aid of the
Prophet. We beg the glorious army to maintain order and
discipline, following the counsels of the Ulema, for it is
thus that the Almighty will grant salvation to the country and
happiness in this world and the next."

But Asiatic Turkey was easily made distrustful and suspicious
of a change in government which appeared to lower the
authority and dignity of the Sultan-Caliph; and news of the
seeming triumph of that sacred sovereign in what had happened
at Constantinople must have had not a little to do with the
sudden outburst, on the 15th of April, of Moslem hostility to
the Armenian Christians in parts of Asia Minor and Syria. The
fighting and massacre then begun, and which continued for many
days, was most fiercely carried on within a circle of towns at
the corner where Syria and Asia Minor touch, and where the
Gulf of Iskanderun runs far into the land. On the northern and
western side, this piece of the Turkish dominion was the
ancient province of Cilicia, which Pompey added to the empire
of Rome; in which St. Paul was born, and which received its
modern name of Adana from Haroun al Raschid, the most famous
of the Caliphs of Bagdad,—thanks to "The Arabian Nights." In
and around its three principal towns, of Adana, Mersina, and
Tarsus, the first and worst of the atrocities occurred.

The League of Union and Progress had given way for an instant,
only, to the outbreak at Constantinople, which must have taken
its leaders by surprise. But the momentary reverse was a gift
of opportunity, in fact, to prove the astonishing energy of
ability that was in this remarkable body of men. They had been
betrayed by a considerable part, at least, of the division of
the army which garrisoned Constantinople, and which is said to
have been heavily bribed with money that must have come from
the Sultan’s purse. But the Second and Third Corps of the army
in Macedonia were unshaken in fidelity to them and their
cause. It was on Tuesday, the 13th of April, that their
opponents at the capital had their triumph; on Wednesday, the
14th, the two trusted corps were under orders from Salonika to
march on Constantinople. Nine days later Mahmud Shevket Pasha,
who commanded the movement, was in full possession of the
city, with the Sultan a prisoner, and the victorious general
was about to publish the following brief report of what had
been done in the interval:

"Our Second and Third Army Corps," he wrote, "being the
nearest to Constantinople, undertook as the executive power of
the whole Ottoman nation to shed the last drop of their blood
in defence of the Constitutional _régime_. Having
therefore taken counsel together and organized a force
sufficient for the purpose, they marched to Constantinople, in
order to counteract the effects of the despotic blow recently
struck at that _régime_, to subdue and chastise the
guilty, and to take the necessary measures for the prevention
of similar attempts in the future. Leaving Salonika on
Wednesday, I arrived the following day at San Stefano and gave
orders for a general movement preparatory to entering the
capital on Friday.
{661}
The troops quartered at the Ministry of War were compelled to
surrender before they had time to defend themselves. Only the
mutinous troops at Taslikishla and other barracks in Pera
offered any resistance to the army of occupation. These
barracks were accordingly bombarded and destroyed, their
garrisons being disabled or forced to surrender. As our heroic
army began operations at night and entered the town at dawn,
and as the inhabitants remained in their houses and the shops
were closed, there were no deaths in the civil population and
no disorder took place. The losses on both sides were heavy,
but the numbers are not yet known. I pray God that the hearts
of all Ottomans may rejoice at the news of this great victory
and that it may prove the dawn of a great future for our
country."

Military observers who accompanied Shevket Pasha and his army
are said to have been profoundly impressed by the masterly
handling of the whole operation, from start to finish. His
fellow Constitutionalists were equally impressed by the
qualities that he had revealed. A Press despatch to New York,
from Constantinople, April 26, reported:

"Schefket Pasha, commander of the Constitutional army, is the
man of the hour. The leading civilian members of the Committee
of Union and Progress desire him to be grand vizier in
succession to Tewfik Pasha, and he has been assured that a
majority of Parliament would gladly support a ministry under
his leadership in succession to the Tewfik ministry, which
resigned to-day. In reply to these proposals Schefket Pasha
said that the premiership afforded such a splendid opportunity
to assist in the political development of the country that he
would have rejoiced to accept the honor had it come to him
under any other circumstances, but that he could not accept it
while still leader of the army. To do so would not accord with
his ideas of civil and political liberty of action." This
seems to have been a true exhibit of the fine spirit and
intelligent patriotism of the man, and it added much to the
hopefulness of the regenerative undertaking of the Young
Turks. Shevket is an Arab, from Bagdad, who had his training
as a soldier in Germany and had lived in Europe twelve years.

What to do with Abdul Hamid was a question over which the
Committee of Union and Progress wasted very little time. He
became their captive on the 24th. On the 26th it was known
that he would be deposed and exiled to Salonika. His falsity
in all that he had professed of a willing adoption of
constitutional government, and his treacherous engineering of
the conspiracy against it, were believed to be open to no
doubt. It was probably not easy to save him from the doom of
death which he feared: but the men of calmly tempered mind and
will who had ruled the revolution from its beginning were
still in control. On the morning of the 27th a _fetva_ or
formal decision by the Sheik-ul-Islam, authorizing the
deposition of Abdul Hamid from the Ottoman throne, was sent to
the National Assembly and read. It was in the form of a
question from that body, answered tersely by the supreme judge
of the law of Islam,—as follows:

"What becomes of an Imam [the title of the Sultan of Turkey as
head of the Orthodox faith] who has destroyed certain holy
writings, who has seized property in contravention to the
Sheri laws, who has committed cruelties in ordering the
assassination and imprisonment of exiles without any
justification under the Sheri laws, who has squandered the
public money, who, having sworn to govern according to the
Sheriat, has violated his oath, who, by gifts of money, has
provoked internecine bloodshed and civil war, and who no
longer is recognized in the provinces?" To this the
Sheik-ul-Islam replied: "He must abdicate or be deposed." At
once, by unanimous vote, the deposition of Abdul Hamid and the
succession of his younger brother, Mohammed Reschad Effendi
was pronounced by the National Assembly. The new Sultan was
proclaimed with impromptu ceremony in the afternoon, at the
Seraskierat, to which he went in the plain costume of a
Turkish gentleman. He was received by Mahmud Shevket Pasha and
his staff in the central court. The Grand Vizier, the
Sheikh-ul-Islam, Said Pasha, President of the Senate, and
Ahmed Riza, President of the Chamber, stood at the foot of the
stairs. All kissed hands, and the whole group, headed by his
Majesty, proceeded to a reserved chamber, the gallery above
the court being in the meantime crowded with Senators,
Deputies, officers, journalists, and ordinary sightseers. The
Deputies and Senators were then admitted to kiss hands, and a
prayer was recited. This ended the simple ceremony of the day;
but one of more solemnity occurred on the 10th of May, when
the Sultan received the sword of Osman—the equivalent of a
coronation—in the Mosque Ayub, which Christians are never
permitted to enter, and was conducted in an imposing
procession through the streets of the city.

Mohammed Reschad Effendi, who reigns as Mohammed V., was in
his sixty-fifth year when he came to the throne. Until the
revolution of the previous July he had been practically a
prisoner in one of the palaces on the Bosporus, surrounded by
the creatures of his jealous and suspicious brother, without
whose permission he could not leave the palace grounds.
Latterly he had enjoyed some degree of personal freedom, for
the first time in his life. An anonymous contributor to the
_London Times_, who had had an opportunity to meet him
since the revolution broke his bonds, wrote thus of the
interview:

"I had the privilege of a long conversation with Reschad when
I was in Constantinople in the autumn, on condition that the
visit should be conducted with some secrecy and should remain
secret until the return of Hamidianism was beyond the range of
possibility. I believe I was the first European whom he had
seen since the revolution of July mitigated the severity of
the reclusion enforced for 30 years by Abdul Hamid. The Heir
Apparent was still living in the Palace adjoining Dolma
Baghche, which had been his prison throughout the reign,
jealously guarded by the Sultan’s Pretorians at the entrances
from the main road, and by a gunboat moored in the Bosporus
opposite the water approach. …

"His Highness talked slowly and hesitatingly, often lowering
his voice to a whisper and casting furtive glances round the
room as if he was still haunted by the fear of spies, but he
listened eagerly while I told him of my own many journeyings
in Turkey, whose people I had known since the beginning of the
Hamidian _régime_, occasionally interrupting me with an
apposite remark, or asking for an explanation which showed
both interest and intelligence.
{662}
There was something strangely pathetic in this desire for
information about his own country, over which his Highness was
soon destined to reign. A full hour’s conversation left the
impression that, given favourable circumstances and good
advisers, the Prince was well qualified to preside over a
period of peaceful transition."

Punishment of the authors of the counter-revolution followed
quickly on the reestablishment of constitutional authority,
and it was sternly meted out. As Mr. Hagopian expressed the
feeling of the Young Turks, in his letter of April 26 to the
New York _Evening Post_, they "could not afford to be
lenient. The conspiracy of April 13," he added, "was no longer
a secret. In the last two days 15,000 soldiers and 6,000
_hodjas_ and spies had been arrested. In their possession
over half a million dollars had been found. Where had this
money come from? Who could deny any longer that Abdul Hamid
drew from his bank about ten million dollars a month ago? His
favored son, Burhaneddin Effendi, went from barrack to barrack
and distributed the money among the soldiers. Former spies,
disguised in Turkish clergymen’s garments, went among the
troops and won them over with the Sultan’s bribes. Soldiers,
when arrested, were found to have an average of one hundred
dollars; some had two hundred, three hundred, and even five
hundred. Indeed, Abdul Hamid was the head of the conspiracy,
and the massacre in Adana was instigated by his emissaries
sent from Constantinople. The old and the new Yildiz cliques
were not less responsible." By the 12th of May thirty-eight
executions had been reported, most of them by hanging in
public places. "A member of the court-martial that sentenced
these men to death explained the reason of the public hangings
by saying that Constantinople was such a city of rumor and
traditions of corruption that, had the announcement been made
that these men had been executed in private, it would not have
been believed by the masses. It was desired to impress the
people with the fact that the guilty had been punished."

TURKEY: April-December.
Outbreak of Massacre in Southeastern Asia Minor.

The first news of the outbreak of massacre in southeastern
Asia Minor came to Europe and America in a telegram from
Constantinople, dated April 15, saying: "A massacre of
Armenians is in progress to-day at Mersina, a seaport of Asia
Minor on the Mediterranean." In this report the outbreak was
ascribed to the provocation of a murder of two Moslems by an
Armenian; but nothing that appeared subsequently gave any
confirmation to this. The Sultan has been accused of having
instigated the rising, as a means of starting complications
which might check the Young Turks; but that remains unproved.

Mersina, from which the first report of massacre came, is
thirty-six miles by railway from Adana, the capital of the
vilayet of that name and an important missionary station of
several American missionary organizations. Adana was a city of
about 45,000 inhabitants, mostly Mohammedans, but with
Armenians in considerable numbers and a few Greeks. The
Christian missions included important schools. In this city
the murderous mob had begun its work on the 14th of April, a
day prior to the Mersina report, and it is found to have been
the center of the deadly outbreak throughout. The Moslem fury
was directed against the Armenians, and, though two
missionaries were among the killed, they do not appear to have
been objects of attack, but to have suffered incidentally to
the efforts they made for the protection of their Armenian
neighbors and their schools. There were Turkish troops in the
city from the beginning of the slaughter, but they did nothing
to stop it for five days. According to some accounts the vali,
or governor, kept them shut up in quarters; according to others
they took part in the massacre. The Reverend Stephen
Trowbridge, who was in Adana during these terrible days,
declared a little later: "One man is responsible for the
disorders here. This is the vali himself. He had it in his
power to suppress lawlessness and massacre, but deliberately
refrained from doing so. He said simply: ‘We are not
responsible.’ The better class of Turks in Adana," Mr.
Trowbridge continued, "the members of the Committee of Union
and Progress, are deeply grieved and saddened at these
dreadful events. Some of them are ready to join us in relief
work for the Armenians. One Bey already has opened his house
to refugees." This gives color to the belief that the outbreak
was not mere mob-madness, but captained in some way from a
higher center of Turkish authority. Such, indeed, was the firm
conviction of many who were witnesses of what occurred.
Writing on the 24th of April from Tarsus, which bore its share
of the widespread attack, another missionary said: "The
massacres all began on the same day, Wednesday, the 14th,
showing, were there no other proof, that they were inaugurated
by telegraphic orders from Adana, probably from
Constantinople. The only places where the Christians took up
arms for a short time to defend themselves were Adana, Hadjin,
and near the battle-field of Issus; at the latter place they
are still holding out. The statement by Turkish officials that
there was an Armenian insurrection, that Turks were massacred,
and houses burned by the Christians, etc., etc., are simply
abominable lies. This cannot be put too strongly. … During
fifty long hours, while battle and murder and burnings were
going on all around our school and residence in Adana, the
vali, though he had hundreds of soldiers at the Konak, sent
not one to protect us and our property."

According to a report made some months later, after
investigations under the new Turkish regime, and quoted from a
Turkish newspaper, the number killed in all parts of the
province was 20,008; 620 were Moslems, and the remaining
19,400 were non-Moslems. Of the non-Moslems killed, 418 were
Old Chaldeans, 163 Chaldeans, 210 Armenian Catholics, 655
Protestants, 99 Greeks, and the remainder Gregorian Armenians.
The same report estimated the destruction of property as
having been equal to two-thirds of the entire wealth of the
province. The appearance of Adana and of the surrounding
country after the massacres were stopped was described by one
who made the journey from Tarsus to Adana, and who wrote:

{663}

"Leaving behind us the ruins of Tarsus, and the hundreds of
weeping widows and orphans there, we came by train to Adana.
Near the city the road runs for miles through vineyards and
gardens, in former days a beautiful sight. But now it is a
waste of desolation; all the houses of the Christians are
heaps of ruins; in and around those houses more than five
hundred were slain during the three terrible days of April.
The houses of Moslems have not been injured. We noted a like
contrast as respects the numerous farms on the plain between
Tarsus and Adana. And yet the charge is made, and believed,
that the Armenians were the aggressors!

"In the once prosperous Adana, nothing but ruins; it is like
the pictures I have seen of Pompeii. The wretched survivors
wander by twos and threes around the places where once stood
their happy homes; they look more like ghosts than human
beings, these pale, dejected, barefooted widows and orphans."

On the 12th of May, after the Young Turks had recovered power
at Constantinople, the Turkish Embassy at London gave out the
following announcement: "Order and tranquillity prevail
throughout the Sanjak of Djebel-i-Bereket. Troops are arriving
gradually and are being distributed according to the
necessities of each place. The local authorities at Adana are
about to proceed at once to confiscate stolen property and to
disarm Musulmans and non-Musulmans alike. This measure will be
adopted generally in the other parts of the vilayet as soon as
the troops which are coming from the various places have
reached the positions to which they have been assigned. The
authorities are very busily engaged in finding homes for
people who are without shelter and in supplying them with
food. A Commission for that purpose has been appointed at
Adana."

A Court Martial and a Parliamentary Commission were now sent
to Adana to investigate the massacre and punish the guilty.
Their work was soon showing results. On the 24th of May a
report came from Constantinople that "Ferid Pasha has informed
a representative of the Tanin that several of the soldiers who
took part in the recent massacres in Cilicia have been
arrested. Nine persons have already been condemned to death by
the Court-martial. With regard to the responsibility for the
outbreak, the Minister said that, while he could not
definitely ascribe it to official promptings, certain
officials had failed to do their duty, among them the
Mutesarrif of Jebel Bereket, who had been imprisoned pending
an inquiry into his conduct. The reactionaries had certainly
played a part in fomenting the outbreak, but other
elements—which the Minister did not specify—had contributed
thereto."

On the 13th of July it was reported that "an Imperial Iradeh
has been issued ordering the arrest of the ex-Governors of
Adana and Djebel Bereket, the commander of the Adana garrison,
and a number of notables of Cilicia, among whom is the editor
of the Itidal, the notorious Baghdadi."

Two days later it was said that "the ex-Governors of Adana and
Djebel Bereket have been sent to Adana under a strong escort.
Some 20 leading Moslem notables of Adana who have been
arrested will be immediately brought before a Court-Martial.
The Grand Vizier has given orders for a manifesto to be
prepared by the Sheikh-ul-Islam, demonstrating by means of
texts from the Koran and the Traditions that the duty of all
good Moslems is to treat Christians with justice and to regard
them as fellow-citizens with equal rights. It is to be
distributed by the kadis, muftis, and hodjas in every town and
village of the empire, and the most learned ulema are to take
it as their text in the sermons to be preached during next
Ramazan."

July 18th the court-martial was stated to have made a report
which concluded as follows:

"‘Fifteen persons have been already hanged, 800 deserve death,
15,000 deserve hard labour for life, and 80,000 deserve minor
sentences. If it is decided to proceed with the punishment, we
will draw a cordon around the town and deal expeditiously with
the matter.’ In view, however, of the general reconciliation
between the various elements, the Court-martial recommends a
general amnesty on the occasion of the National Fête."

The 11th of August brought accounts of the publication of a
declaration by a Commission of three ministers in the Turkish
Cabinet appointed to prepare it, acquitting the Armenians of
all responsibility for the outbreak at Adana. This
declaration, drawn up after a careful examination of the
reports of the members of the Parliamentary Commission on the
massacres and approved by the Council of Ministers, ascribes
the massacre to the ignorance of the population. "In the reign
of Abdul Hamid the people had become imbued with the idea that
every Armenian was a separatist at heart, and were therefore
averse from equality with the Armenian community. They had
become in consequence the tools of religious or political
agitators. The declaration censures severely the local
officials for their failure, not only to quell the outbreak,
but to warn the Government that the situation in Cilicia was
critical."

One of the Deputies of the Parliamentary Commission which
investigated matters at Adana gave, perhaps, a more distinct
idea of the causes that worked to produce the massacres, in an
interview published during August, when he said:

"The massacre in Adana had two strong causes: reaction and
tyranny. The joy of the July demonstrations [of 1908] had
scarcely passed when, at the beginning of August, tyrannical
tendencies began to appear. The former Mufti of Bakhcheh went
hither and thither declaring that liberty and the constitution
were the work of the Christians, that the constitution was
contrary to the Sheriat. In this way he stirred up Moslems
against the Christians and the constitution. In place of the
joy which appeared among all classes during the first days of
the constitution, a spirit of revenge and enmity against
non-Moslems began to spread."

Evidently the amnesty recommended by the Court-martial in July
was not granted; for the following telegram was sent from
Constantinople on the 12th of December to the London
_Times_: "Twenty-six Moslems, who were sentenced to death
in connexion with the Adana massacres in April last, were
executed at Adana yesterday and to-day. Order was maintained,
although the population was much moved, the women relatives of
the condemned publicly manifesting their grief. One Armenian
is awaiting execution."

{664}

Nevertheless the Armenians have not been satisfied with the
punishments inflicted, and the Armenian Patriarch resigned in
September, as a mark of protest, maintaining that the real
instigators of the massacres went unpunished.

TURKEY: A. D. 1909 (May-December).
Hilmi Pasha, Grand Vizier.
Parliament opened by the new Sultan.
Constitutional Amendments on Religion and Education.
The Committee of Union and Progress.
Change of Ministry.

From the 1st to the 5th of May Tewfik Pasha was Grand Vizier,
by appointment from the new Sultan. Then, as had been
expected, Hilmi Pasha was called to his place, and remained at
the head of the Government until the last week of the year. On
the 20th of the month the Sultan in person opened the session
of Parliament, and, after a speech from the throne had been
read by the Grand Vizier, pronounced the following words: "I
have sworn to respect the Sheriat and the Constitution in its
entirety, and not to transgress for one instant from
safeguarding the national rights and interests of the country.
You must now in return take the necessary oath." The oath was
then taken by the Senators and Deputies in turn, his Majesty
watching the proceedings from the Imperial box. On the 24th
the Grand Vizier announced the programme of measures and
general policy to be undertaken by his Ministry, and received,
after debate, a vote of confidence by 190 to 5. The
reconstituted Government was now a fully organized fact.

Questions concerning the attitude of the State towards
religion and education, as it should be defined in the
Constitution, were among the earliest of high importance to be
brought before the Parliament. On the 8th of June it adopted
an amendment to the article in the Constitution of 1876
reading as follows:

See, (in this Volume)
CONSTITUTION OF TURKEY.

"Islam is the State religion.

"The State, while safeguarding this principle, guarantees the
free exercise of all cults recognized in the Empire, and
maintains the religious privileges granted to divers
communities, provided public order and morality be not
infringed."

On the subject of education the Constitution was amended to
read:

"Education is free.

"All schools are placed under the control of the Government.
The necessary measures shall be taken to assure to every
Ottoman subject a uniform system of education. There shall be
no interference with the religious education of the different
communities."

The Christian communities, especially the Greek, objected
strenuously to this, fearing that governmental control would
be found to mean the imposition of the Turkish language in all
schools, as an instrument of nationalization.

Another proposed amendment, making members of the Chamber of
Deputies eligible for the posts of Parliamentary
Under-Secretaries of State, failed to secure the requisite
two-thirds majority, and this was regarded as a defeat of the
civilian leaders of the "Young Turk" Committee of Union and
Progress, who were supposed to be desirous of holding the
posts in question, while sitting also in the Chamber.

The firm control of affairs which the Committee in question
had exercised throughout the revolutionary movement, while
keeping itself mysteriously anonymous in the background, had
been extraordinarily successful, indicative of high wisdom and
a very genuine public spirit. But the forces thus handled by
the Committee, especially in the military element of the
revolution, were growing restive, it would appear, under the
feeling of too much subordination, and gave increasing signs
of discontent with the invisibility of the wires by which they
were pulled. Without doubt, it was evidence of this which led
the Committee, at a meeting at Salonika, in October, to
resolve and announce that their organization should no longer
be a secret society, but open to public knowledge and directed
henceforth by a responsible executive. Whether the Committee
did or did not strengthen itself by thus coming into the open,
it has maintained its ascendancy and still exercises a
controlling power.

The second session of Parliament was opened by the Sultan, on
the 14th of November, with a speech of roseate contentedness
in its contemplation of Turkish affairs. Late in December a
change of Ministry occurred, in somewhat obscure connection
with a consolidation of steamer lines on the Euphrates. A
British line of steamers, known as the Lynch Line, which had
been running on that river since 1860, was being consolidated
with a Turkish line that the Turkish Government controlled,
and something in the transaction which raised an issue between
Parliament and the Grand Vizier. Hilmi Pasha, led the latter
to resign December 28. Nobody seems to have doubted, however,
that the real cause of his leaving office was in the
willingness of the Committee that he should do so. General
Mahmud Shevket, the able military leader of the Revolution,
was invited to form a Cabinet, but declined, as he is said to
have done before. The high office was then conferred on Hakki
Bey, Turkish Ambassador at Rome, and Mahmud Shevket Pasha
accepted office in his Cabinet as Minister of War.

TURKEY: A. D. 1909 (October).
Railway and Irrigation Projects in the Tigris-Euphrates Delta.

Sir William Willcocks, the British engineer who has been
engaged for some time past in surveys for the Turkish
Government, having reference to irrigation and railway
improvements for the reclamation of the great Mesopotamian
region, made a report to the Ministry of Public Works at
Constantinople in October, 1909, of which the following
account was given to the Press through Reuter’s Agency:

"Sir William Willcocks advocates the construction of a railway
from Baghdad to the Mediterranean. The proposed railway would
start from Baghdad, cross the Euphrates at Feludia, and follow
the Valley to Hit. At Hit the line would take the Euphrates
Valley and traverse the flat desert in a straight line to El
Kaim, near Abu Kemal, the northern limit of the cataracts.
From El Kaim to Der Zor, the Euphrates has no cataracts, and
the river Khabour, which joins the Euphrates at Mayadin, the
ancient Rehoboth, is, like the Euphrates, navigable during the
whole year. These parts of the Euphrates and Khabour could be
extensively developed and all their products transported to El
Kaim by boat and thence by rail. From El Kaim the railway
would proceed to Tidmor (Palmyra) and follow the old trade
route over a flat desert supplied with water. From Palmyra the
line would go either to Homs or Damascus. The total length of
the railway from Baghdad to Damascus is placed at 880
kilometres.

{665}

"The report next deals with the works of irrigation to be
undertaken at once. These consist of barrages of the Hindich
canal, dams on the Habbania and Sakhlawia, and works for the
navigation on the Tigris. The total cost of the entire works
on the Euphrates is estimated at £T1,034,000, while that of
the works on the Tigris is placed at £T1,110,480. The cost of
the works to be undertaken forthwith attains the following
figures:—

On the Euphrates, £T822,700;
on the Tigris, £T710,000;
total, £T1,532,700.

The railway could be built in two years, while the irrigation
works would take eight years to complete. To begin with, one
million hectares of land would be restored to its former
prosperity out of five million hectares which comprise the
Tigris-Euphrates delta."

----------TURKEY: End--------

TUSKEGEE INSTITUTE:
Its Twenty-fifth Anniversary.

See (in this Volume)
EDUCATION: UNITED STATES: A. D. 1906.

TWEEDMOUTH, LORD:
First Lord of the Admiralty.

See (in this Volume)
ENGLAND: A. D. 1905-1906.

TWO-HUNDRED-AND-THREE METRE HILL.

See (in this Volume)
JAPAN: A. D. 1904-1905 (MAY-JANUARY).

TWO POWER STANDARD, NAVAL.

See (in this Volume)
War, The PREPARATIONS for.

TURNEY, DANIEL BRAXTON:
Nominated for President of the United States.

See (in this Volume)
UNITED STATES: A. D. 1908 (APRIL-NOVEMBER).

TYRREL, Father George:
Writer of a Famous Letter on Questions of Religion.
His death.