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THE TURCO-ARMENIAN QUESTION
Treatment of the non Moslem in General in the Ottoman Empire
Though sorely embarrassed in her relations with her Christian subjects whose loyalty was never above doubt, Turkey sincerely strove for close upon a century to ensure to the non-Moslem elements under her sway equal treatment and rights with those of the Musulmans. This idea pervades the whole legislation enacted in the Empire since the “Tanzimat” (era of reforms inaugurated by the proclamation of the Charter of Gulhane in 1839) and was in great part realized when Russia, herself more than ever attached to a system of Government by which her non-Orthodox subjects were condemned to a marked state of inferiority in regard to their compatriots professing the state-religion, declared war upon her neighbor in 1876 under the pretext of obtaining its application.
If this work had not been carried out entirely until then, the reason of it is to be found in the fact that the disappearance of Musulman supremacy would have given rise to perpetual conflicts between the different Christian sects whose hatred for one another knew no bounds.(1)
This is how the French diplomatist and historian M. Engelhardt expresses himself on the subject in his book “Turkey and the Tanzimat” “... But in advocating the advantages of a common regime, the Divan was averse to complete assimilation which would have compromised musulman supremacy, in its opinion the only barrier against anarchy. This precaution had its raison d'iêtre in an undeniable fact of the period and one which could pass as axiomatic:...the government which divides the ravahs least is the imisulman”.
And let it not be forgotten that one of the difficulties and not the least encountered by the Sublime Porte in the fulfillment of her task was to he found in the attitude of the Christians themselves who demanded the suppression of the inequalities from which they suffered in certain fields but strenuously opposed the annulment of the privileges they enjoyed in others.
This truth is equally confirmed by M. Eugelhardt in his above mentioned work which refers to it in the following passage:
"This experiment (the assimilation of the non-moslems as regards the blood-tax) carried with it an unexpected teaching: it demonstrated that the Reform, in the measure as it would pass from theory to fact, would be opposed by the very people who were destined to enjoy its first benefits, a difficulty which aggravated in a singular degree the particular problem in whose solution the Powers were more particularly interested."
However, the author commits a grievous historical error in speaking of all the Powers as having at heart the appeasement or satisfaction of the Christian subjects of the Porte by the adoption of measures calculated to place them on a footing of equality with her Musulman subjects.
Russia, whose policy towards Turkey had notoriously aimed for several centuries at paving the way to her conquest of Constantinople by maintaining her neighbor in a state of chronic weakness rendering: her incapable of an effective resistance —tactics which, as a matter of fact, had allowed her to make a considerable approach towards the object of her cupidity — set up for the zealous advocate of the Ottoman-orthodox but, in reality would have been considerably put out if they had been deprived of their grievances against the Porte. Consequently she encouraged them under hand to put forward exaggerated claims calculated to prevent an understanding being reached between the former and the latter.
From the beginning of the XVIIIth century up to the present war Turkey has been, the victim of the determined and persistent hostility of Russia and the obstacles she deliberately put in the way of -her progress account in a large measure for her backward condition of today.
In spite of all Turkey persevered in her task so well that for thirty years and more the distinctions between musulmans and non-musulmans which the prejudices of former ages, common alike to West and Hast, had prompted her to maintain in her national economy have entirely disappeared from it. The assimilation of the “rayahs” to the musulman subjects of the Empire became complete and they had no longer to complain even of that humiliating denomination which was suppressed from the Ottoman Statute Book simultaneously with the discriminations attaching to it.
At the same time as she proceeded to transform her legislation so as to establish equality between all in the matter of general administration. Turkey permitted her non-musulman subjects to retain their organization in separate communities enjoying complete autonomy from the religions, educational and juridical points of view — the latter in so much as questions o f personal statutes were concerned.
Speaking of the privileges of this situation dating from the very morrow of the conquest of Constantinople so far as the Greeks and Armenians were concerned, this is what says M. Philip Marshall Brown, Professor of international law at the University of Princeton (U. S. A.) in his book hearing the title “Foreigners in Turkey — their juridical Statutes” and published in 1914:
"The principal concern of Mahomed the Conqueror after his capture of Constantinople was the establishment of an effective system of administration which should relieve the Government of needless embarrassments and prove suitable to the needs of his newly conquered Christians subjects.
“His idea was extremely simple. He aimed to leave the Greeks, to the fullest practical extent, in possession of their own laws and customs under the responsible control of their Patriarch who should serve as their intermediary or Ambassador before the Sublime Porte... The Sultan assisted himself in state at the investiture of the new Patriarch on whom as the spiritual successor of the Greek Emperors, Mohamed conferred the unusual title of “Millet bashi”. (Head of the Nation). He also granted to the Patriarch and his successors an almost unrestricted jurisdiction over the members of the Greek Nation.
“Unfortunately the original Berat of Mohammed confirming these extraordinary privileges has disappeared. Successive Sultans have most explicitly reaffirmed them, however, and except for certain curtailments which were inevitable in the progress of four centuries and more, these exceptional powers are still asserted by the Greek Patriarch as well as by the heads of other religious communities which later received similar grants.
“Such an abnormal state of affaire — the existence of veritable imperia in imperto — cannot be expected to exist indefinitely. But as concerns those immunities of jurisdiction in matters relating to the personal status of non-Moslem subjects which were granted spontaneously by Mohammed the Conqueror, as an act of constructive statesmanship it would seem likely that such privileges would continue to exist for a long time.
“Thus, while Mohammed may have been actuated by tolerant and statesmanlike motives in according such extensive privileges to his conquered subjects he was also trying to solve a peculiar problem having its origin in the Moslem conception of the identity of the State and religion...
“The essential fact to be noted is simply that the Turks id the midst of a great triumph spontaneously and generously recognized the right of the conquered to be governed by their oron larus and customs in matters held sacred by the Moslems as well as in matters not of ratal interest to the State...
"It vas (this tolerant policy,), in fact, in entire harmony with the Moslem spirit of Jurisprudence and eloquently refutes the universal reputation for intolerance so unjustly attributed to the Turks." (2)
Here is a proof of historical honesty which one is agreeably surprised to meet in a work of occidental origin regarding Turkey. It would be a source of considerable improvement in the relations between the Moslem and Christian worlds if the spirit of fairness and impartiality with which the American author has dealt with his subject was that of all Westerners discussing Turkish affairs.
Freed, on the one hand, from the discriminations which had operated against them in the juridical and administrative fields; maintained, on the other, in their ancient privileges favoring their development on national and cultural lines and safeguarding their religious liberty, the non-musulman peoples under Turkish rule enjoyed a situation which furnishes an unparalleled instance of liberalism in the treatment of conquered races.
Too great stress cannot be laid on the point: a comparison between the history of Turkey and the countries of the West brings into striking evidence the fact that the peoples she annexed by the sword have enjoyed a political, national, religions and social situation incomparably more favorable than those subdued in the same fashion by Europe.
Another important remark to be made in this connection is that the non-musulmans had as much or more to complain of their spiritual chiefs than of the Turkish authorities. To quote M. Engelhardt once more:
“Dating from this period (XVIIIth century) it is a fact that the provinces joined to the Patriarchate of Constantinople had no less to suffer from the oppression of their ecclesiastical Authorities than from the extortions of the Pashas and as they were more directly in contact with them it was the yoke of their own masters which weighed the most heavily on them.”
Such was the situation of the non-Muslims in general in the Ottoman Empire according to historical fact. We would like to believe that the spirit of fairness and the concern for accuracy with which we have dealt with this question will be recognized by the reader and that after having followed us to this point he will admit that Turkey has been shamefully slandered when she is represented as having treated her Christian subjects as pariahs.
(1) To give one instance out of a hundred of this mutual hostility : Orthodox and Catholics and non-Orthodox among themselves waged battle against one another within the very precincts of fhe Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Finally the Ottoman Government was obliged to post a detachment of troops in this, the most sacred temple of Christianity, to prevent the recurrence of the scandalous-sceties wicli desecrated it.
(2) Underlined by the Editor.
Treatment of the Armenians
We will now broach the subject of the relations between Turks and Armenians which forms the special object of this work.
The majority of the latter people live as agriculturists in the Eastern provinces of Anatolia where they are mixed with Kurds and Turks, and in Cilicia where their neighbors are Turks. A considerable minority of them are settled in the big towns of the Empire, principally Constantinople. where their avocations are those of bankers, merchants or artisans.
Up to the reign of Abdul-Hamid they had no special complaint to formulate. On the contrary. Enjoying the confidence and esteem of their rulers, who employed them as their agents and advisers in their private and official affairs, they had special opportunities for exercising their talents and attained in this fashion a degree of material prosperity and political influence which gave them a privileged situation in the Empire.
As regards their relations with the Kurds, contrary to the general opinion on this subject, they had been ...
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