THE LYNCHING OF A GREEK IN CONSTANTINOPLE.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR:1
Si,—In the last editorial paragraph of the first page of your issue for October 17th you give the impression that the sole cause for the horrible lynching of a Greek in Constantinople, and the rough treatment of the Moslem woman whom he was intending to marry, was the hostility of Turks to the emancipation of women. As one who has long lived in different parts of Turkey, allow me to express the conviction that this was the least of the reasons for the act of the mob and the indifference or inefficiency of the police and troops. There are no qualms of conscience against the freedom of women to choose in the many cases where Christian girls and women have been taken into Turkish harems. It is a matter of religious bigotry. It is the same spirit which in Sir Stratford de Redcliffe's day publicly executed a Christian because, after once having embraced Islam, he returned to his former faith. It is all right for Christians to be forced wholesale into accepting Islam, but for one Mohammedan voluntarily to give up his faith and accept that of the Giaour,—never ! I believe this to be the whole crux as to whether the new regime will succeed or not. Will a Mohammedan Government be able to grant equal rights to non-Moslems ? In the district of the interior province where I now reside all three of the Deputies elected to the new Parliament are Turks of the bigoted, reactionary type. Though the Armenians constitute one-third of the population, there will was overruled and they secure no representation. In the recent campaign in Upper Mesopotamia against the notorious Koordish chieftain, Ibrahim Pasha, the Turkish troops did not confine their attacks to his followers in arms, but aided and abetted Koords of other tribes in the work of rape, looting, and massacre of Christians and Yezedees, whose only fault was that they dwelt in that region. When such an incident as you refer to can happen in Constantinople before the very eyes of Europe, you may imagine what happens in the dark corners of the interior. A large district is now devastated, and at least twenty thousand men, women, and children who have survived fire and sword are in danger of starvation. I believe in the sincerity of the Young Turks, and yield to no one in my admiration for what they have so far accomplished.
I hope they will gain still greater success and go from strength to strength ; but I cannot close my eyes to the great mass of Mohammedan bigotry with which they have to reckon. Give the new Government every fair chance to work out its own salvation, but provide proper guarantees that the non-Moslems shall not be treated with unfairness. It will take at least a generation to get even a tolerable amount of fair play as between Moslem and non-Moslem, and that under the eyes of benevolent umpires. To withdraw the Capitulations or to repeal Article LXI. of the Berlin Treaty before that time would be to court disaster.—I am, Sir, &c.,
INTERIOR RESIDENT.
Previous page
