No More Learning

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? " The present War undoubtedly
was largely a war for the control
of Asia Minor. " -- Nineteenth
Century, June, 1916.
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? TURKEY AND
THE WAR BY
VLADIMIR JABOTINSKY
(War Correspondent of the " Russkia Vedomosti " of Moscow).
LONDON
T. FISHER UNWIN, LTD
ADELPHI TERRACE
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? First published in igiy
[All rights reserved']
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? D
It is my pleasant duty gratefully to ac-
knowledge that -- so far as the linguistic
form of this essay is concerned -- the follow-
ing pages were written with the friendly
and constant collaboration of Miss Violet
Ross- Johnson.
v. J.
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? Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2013
http://archive. org/details/turkeywarOOjabo
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? CONTENTS
PART I : THE AIM OF THIS WAR
PAGE
I. AIMS AND CAUSES 13
II. THE ALLEGED AIMS OF THE
WAR :
(a) FREEDOM OF SMALL
NATIONALITIES . . 25
(b) ALSACE-LORRAINE . . 28
(c) MILITARISM 35
III. ASIATIC TURKEY . . -49
IV. PARTITION AND WAR . . 65
PART II: THE INNER STATE OF
TURKEY
V. AFTER SIX YEARS OF CON-
STITUTION . . . 77
vii
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? CONTENTS
PAGE
VI. THE YOUNG TURKS . . . 85
VII. THE TURKISH MINORITY IN
TURKEY . . ' . . 105
VIII. ILLUSIONS AND DISAPPOINTMENTS 121
ix. "est delenda" . . . 135
PART III : CONTROVERSIAL POINTS
OF THE PARTITION SCHEME
X. A LIST OF CLAIMS . . . 149
XI. THE STRAITS . . . . 165
XII. SYRIA AND PALESTINE . . 187
XIII. THE ARABS . . . . 213
XIV. THE GERMAN CLAIM . . 233
PART IV : SOME MILITARY ASPECTS
XV. THE MAIN FRONT . ? n 249
viii
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? PART I-- THE AIM OF THIS WAR
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? I-- AIMS AND CAUSES
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? I
Aims and Causes
This little book is an attempt to define
the real aims of the present war. That
is to say, we presume that there may be a
difference between what people, even people
in leading positions, suppose to be the aim
of the war, and what it really is. The
current formulas on this subject circulated
in this country may prove, on more atten-
tive analysis, to reflect popular feelings
rather than immanent realities of the
universal situation. Mr. Asquith's well-
known statement, twice repeated in 1914
and 1916, is perhaps one instance. Noble
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? TURKEY AND THE WAR
in spirit and energetic in form though it
be, it cannot pretend to give a full enumera-
tion of all the problems involved in the
actual conflict. Even more : some points
upon which it dwelt are, perhaps, not so
important as other points which it did
not mention.
To be sure, popular feeling plays a great
role in every war. The masses of a belli-
gerent country must have before them a
clear goal for which they think it worth
while to fight ; and this constitutes, as
a German would say, the " subjective "
aim of the war. But besides this, perhaps
above this, there is the " objective " aim.
It is, in some way, independent of the
people's mood or inclination. It is in-
herent in the situation, produced and
imposed by the force of things.
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? AIMS AND CAUSES
What is the way to find out these
" objective " aims in the intricacies of the
present conflict ? First of all, by defining
its causes. That is to say, from among
the different things which are generally
quoted as " causes of the war " we must
separate those which made the war in-
evitable. Analysing the different factors,
we shall easily see that many of them
would not have been able by themselves
to provoke so enormous a conflagration ;
they may have added fuel, but did not
make the fire ; whilst a few of them, or
perhaps just one of them, would inevitably
have produced the conflict even if the
others had not existed. The removal of
these essential roots of the struggle is the
natural immanent aim of the war. With-
out this, the settlement would not be
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? TURKEY AND THE WAR
effective even if the secondary causes were
removed, and a new and perhaps more
terrible war must follow.
In dealing with this analysis we must
ignore every sentimental consideration.
Some battlecries which excite our greatest
sympathies may prove, on test, to be of
secondary importance ; in that case we
shall have to accept the truth and to draw
from it the necessary solutions, however
unpalatable they may be.
Again, what
our inquiry ascertains to be the " real
aim " may not in itself inspire us with
enthusiasm : but we must submit to its
imperative necessity and carry it through
To make our meaning still clearer lei
us have recourse to an old-fashioned bul
still useful device : to the parable. Imagine
an old town in which an epidemic disease
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? AIMS AND CAUSES
suddenly breaks out. People are naturally
mxious to discover the source of the scourge
md to remove it. Some think that the
:ause lies in the absence of vegetation ;
others say that the streets of the town
ire too narrow and the houses too dark,
others again insist on the necessity of
mproving the underground drainage,
rhus a complete scheme of reconstruction
3f the old town is formed, which attracts
sympathies and excites enthusiasms. It
works its own way further : Mr. Somebody
s suddenly reminded of his own old feud
with his neighbour, a field-boundary dis-
pute unjustly decided by the court, and
ie goes around saying that there can be
10 health where there is no justice, and
that a radical struggle against the disease
mplies a reform of the tribunals -- and
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? TURKEY AND THE WAR
the revision of some old quarrels. But
the Doctor knows that the real cause of
the epidemic is the bad quality of the
potable water, because the source from
which it comes is infected ; and to dis-
infect it the picturesque beauty of the
river-margin must be deformed by a plain
but hygienic embankment. That is the
difficulty, because many of his fellow-
citizens love the romantic river-side in
its wildness. So the Doctor says : " Your
scheme is very good. I grant you, green
spaces are necessary : wide streets and
bright houses are healthy : a more perfect
drainage is of the greatest importance. I
even agree with the desirability of a
reform of the courts. Try it all if you
can. I shall be glad if you succeed. But
don't forget that even if you succeed in
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? AIMS AND CAUSES
all this you don't destroy the root of our
plague, and it will persist. If you want
to get rid of it you must embank the river.
That is the main thing -- that is the thing
to be done. I know you don't like it ;
but I can't count with your nice feel-
ings in this question. Drop the whole
scheme if necessary, but remember the
river. "
The popular list of the " aims of the
war " includes the freedom of small nation-
alities, a fair solution of the Alsace problem,
and what people call the destruction of
Prussian militarism. We intentionally ab-
stain from mentioning such axioms as the
restoration of Belgium : it is a holy and
imperative duty of the Allies, but the
redressing of a consequence of the war
cannot be considered as one of those aims
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? TURKEY AND THE WAR
which determine or underlie human con-
flagrations. Nor will we indulge in such
beautiful ideals as the " prohibition " of
wars and the creation of a compulsory
International Tribunal -- we are dealing
with plain realities, not with ideals. On
the other hand, the three points mentioned
just above are certainly within the bounds
of practical politics. Everybody to whom
freedom is not merely an empty word
must fully recognise that their realisation
would be a blessing for humanity ; and
he will encourage the Allies to insist, cost
what might, upon this noble platform.
Its fulfilment, we hope, will be the conse-
quence of the war ; but we are now
concerned with the causes. Let it there-
fore be said at once, without further pre-
amble, that the present war owes its birth
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? AIMS AND CAUSES
directly and beyond doubt to the problem
of the Near and Middle East.
We strongly reject every suspicion that
we are underrating the great value oi
such principles as protection of the smaller
nations, the re-annexation of Alsace-Lor-
raine, and the taming of the shrew whose
name is German Junkerdom. It would
indeed be a heavy disappointment, perhaps
a moral disaster for the civilised world if
these goals could not be attained in con-
nection with this war. But the root of
the present plague is in Asia Minor, and
the first and last aim of the war is the
solution of the Eastern question.
In the following chapters we shall try
to recall the facts and arguments which
led us to this conclusion.
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? -THE ALLEGED AIMS OF THE WAR
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? II
The Alleged Aims of the War
(a) Freedom of Small Nationalities
Is the establishment of the freedom of
small nations an indispensable aim of the
war, a conditio sine qua non of peace ?
This question is tantamount to another
one : was it the absence of such freedom
that caused the war ?
Let some serious and unsweetened words
be said on this subject. The list of
small nationalities to whom freedom is
denied is very long. It includes not only
the Slavs, Roumanians, Italians of Ger-
many, Austria and Hungary, not only the
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? TURKEY AND THE WAR
Armenians of Turkey. It includes also the
Finns, Poles, Ukrainians, Jews and many,
many other small peoples -- Armenians not
excepted -- in Russia. Some malignant
people may add that it includes so far the
Irish nation which has no more autonomy
than Poland. And, since we place among
the oppressed nations the Czechs, who
possess two Universities where their lan-
guage is predominant, it may be worth
while to mention the Flemish of Belgium
for whom the " flamandisation " of the
Ghent Academy is still only a hope of the
future. We do not inquire who was right
and who was wrong in all these cases.
We do not even intend to repeat, " Phy-
sician, heal thyself. " But one thing is
obvious : the sufferings of the smaller
nationalities, taken alone, could not have
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? THE ALLEGED AIMS OF THE WAR
provoked a European conflict. Our sym-
pathy with them does not go so far -- and
none of the greater belligerent countries
ever seemed disposed to draw the sword
for their sake. Italy was the ally of the
ruler of the Trentino and Istria ; Austria,
where the Poles were all-powerful, was the
ally of Germany where Polish children were
forbidden to pray to God in Polish ; and
the sincerest sympathy with the descend-
ants of Kosciuszko did not prevent France
from concluding the alliance with Russia
and from keeping silence over every-
thing that happened in Warsaw. It is
useless to insist further upon this point,
except to say that the status quo of many
small nationalities could have yet lasted
for years and years without provoking a
conflict between Great Powers. The recog-
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? TURKEY AND THE WAR
nition of this truth compels us to conclude
that even after this war a quite durable
peace could be signed and kept without
implying any radical improvement in the
condition of subject peoples. This plain
truth is so well understood elsewhere that
the French insist upon " freedom of small
nations " with much less emphasis than
the English, and official Russia with still
less.
(b) Alsace-Lorraine
The Great War has shown that France
keeps the memory of Alsace-Lorraine with
a freshness almost unaffected by time.
For many observers this fact seemed little
short of a revelation. Andr6 Lichten-
berger, in a book on Alsace published in
1912, told us how a French captain had
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? THE ALLEGED AIMS OF THE WAR
asked fifty recruits : " What is Alsace ? "
Thirty-eight of them had answered " a peu
pres convenablement," whilst twelve- -- that
is a quarter of the whole -- " ignoraient de
quoi il s'agissait. " On the other side,
the younger generations in the annexed
provinces passed through the German
schools, while they were artificially severed
from any French influence ; considerable
numbers of German " immigres," especi-
ally from Prussia, had been poured into
the country, so that Metz, for instance,
had in 1907, out of 6,450 electors, 4,300
immigrants and only 2,150 natives. The
psychological effects of these circumstances
seemed to be undeniable ; and we have
only to recall Rene Bazin's novel " Les
Oberle " in order to remind our readers
that indifference towards France and
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? TURKEY AND THE WAR
inclination to a lasting settlement with
Berlin were not limited exclusively to
the new-comers, but showed themselves
even amongst the old Alsatian families.
The political elections gave what seemed
even a more striking test of this change
of spirit. In 1887 all the fifteen deputies
which the annexed provinces returned to
the Reichstag belonged to the Alsace-
Lorraine party ; in 1912 only nine re-
mained faithful to the old banner of pro-
vincial particularism -- the other six seats
were conquered by different Imperial
parties. These figures seem to speak very
clearly, especially if compared with the
numbers of the Polish club in the same
Reichstag which, from thirteen in 1887,
rose to eighteen in 191 2 -- in spite of a
German immigration to Posen far more
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? THE ALLEGED AIMS OF THE WAR
formidable than that to Alsace. Even
after the war began the Temps, discussing
the probabilities of a referendum in Alsace-
Lorraine on the question of re-annexation,
seemed to be not completely sure of a
unanimous reply.
But the apprehension on both sides
proved rather groundless. The Prussians
themselves had the happy inspiration,
through the famous incident of Zabern
which happened just on the eve of the
war, to refresh and strengthen all the
grievances and bitternesses of the Alsatian
heart, and it is now officially admitted in
Germany that the attitude of the native
population in the Imperial land is " not
satisfactory. " Alsace has not forgotten
France.
Nor has France forgotten Alsace. The
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? TURKEY AND THE WAR
war has at once revived the old love that
slept, but was alive ; and to-day, if any
fifty recruits were asked " What is
Alsace ? " every man would reply : " It
is what we are fighting for. "
This mutual faith after half a century
of severation is one of the most impressive
features of this war. But in trying to
weigh the exact part it plays in the present
conflict we must be careful to avoid any
exaggeration. Now that France is at war,
she wants to recover her own fringes
whose children long to return home. But
it would be a striking injustice to demo-
cratic France, even an outrageous calumny,
to say that France would have ever will-
ingly provoked the war, even for that
holy cause. None of her enemies, cer-
tainly none of her friends could admit
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