PAGE
YOUR
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
..
Why Turks Kill Christians
operations are to be made with regard Turkish mentality must be referre
to them: to the psychologist and the ethno
"(1) All the Armenians in the cou. ogist. It certainly does not lie i
try who are Ottoman subjects, from lack of opportunity or incentives.
five years of age upwards, are to be Turkish backwardness becomes al
taken out of the towns and slaugh- parent when we contrast the progrel
tered. of Turkey With that of Japan. F(
(2) All the Armenians serving in more than a century and a half ti
the Imperial Armies are to be sepa contacts of Turks with Europea
rated front their divisions without culture have been relatively clos
making any disturbance; they are to The immediate contact of Japan wit
be taken into solitary places away Western culture has lasted bare
from the public eye, and shot. half as long, yet witness the rapidi
of her progress in occidental craf
(3) Armenian officers in the army and learning.
are to be imprisoned in the barracks and tereis e tr
belonging to their regiments until But there is an equally strikic
further orders. contrast when we view side by si
the Turkish and non-Turkish popi
"Forty-eight hours after these three ltions in the same environmen
orders are communicated to the com- The masses not yet reached by edi
manders of each regiment, a special cation are equally degraded; bi
order will be issued for their execu- where occidental education has pen
tion. You are not to undertake any trated you find Armenian, Gree
operations except those indispensable Syrian and Jewish students able t
for the execution of these orders, reach any intellectual level, you fin
"Representative of the High Com- native non-Turkish physicians, de
mand, and Minister of War, ENVER." tists, and other professional me
It would be unprofitable to recall equipped with the latest knowledg
the horrors which accompanied the and methods of European and Ame
destruction of the Armenians and, in ican schools. Where are the Turkis
certain regions, of the Greeks also, be- intellectuals qualified by a like me
fore the Armistice of November, 1918. tal development to grapple with th
Only he can have any realization of problems of their country and guid
what happened who has seen with or restrain the ignorant? Their few
his own eyes the devastated quarters ness only serves to set.out in cle
of Anatolian cities, has looked into ligt the unpalatable -truth.
the faces of thousands upon thou- From this intellectual inferiority
sands of orphans gathered by relief significant result has flowed. In th
organizations in 1918dand 1919, has struggle for existence the Turk h
walked through the dreary lanes of not found it possible to compete su
an encampment of helpless and des- cessfully with his Christian neig
pondent Armenian and Greek refugees
utterly without resource except the
dole of coarse bread furnished each
day by alien hands, and has heard
the story of the deportations from the
lips of survivors. H all e r'S
Other series of massacres in both
ancient and modern times has been ANN ARBOR
systematically planned, but this sur-
passed them all in the number of vic-
tims, which were reckoned by the isHeadquarters for
hundreds of thousands. As indicated
by the dispatches, the work of de- G R
struction throughout was directed by
a strongly centralized government in Verithin and Wrist
Constantinople, which kept constantly
in touch with local centers by tele- W A T C H ES
graph. It followed up its awful task
with a degree of intelligence, skill No. 71N
and persistence that might have been
of inestimable advantage to Turkey in great variety of beau-
if they had followed constructive tiful designs, and sizes,
rather than destructive lines. Yuhv fe edo
Yet theacentral authority responsi- ou have often read of
ble for this wholesale slaughter of Gruen Guild Watches
Christian races was not the absolute Come to
tyranny of Abdul Hamid but the rule
of the Committee of Union and Prog-
ress, or Association (Jemiet), which
in 1909 had dethroned Abdul and had
undertaken to establish a government
based upon representation of local and see them.
units and equality before the law.
The continuance of Abdul's nefarious The mhst extensive line
policy under these changed conditions ofbtiul
makes it sufficiently clear that we C Of
must be careful not to be misled by recognized value and
surface indications. We are brought prestige
face to face with fundamental facts
and conditions.
In the first place, from time im- H l e '
menorial murder by means direct or a le r's
indirect has been . not merely the
Turkish but, generally speaking, the Jeweler
oriental method of- getting rid of any
person considered undesirable. In STATE STREET
Turkey this method has been freely
applied also to unwelcome children.
According to Turkish law all sons of
Moslem fathers are legitimate,no
matter what the status of the mother,
and inherit equally. The fewer the Pure and Delicious, I
children the larger the amount to be Plant, from Fresh Sw
inherited by each. Consequently,,w
"Even now," says Sir Edwin Pears,
writing in 1917, "in Moslem Turkey
infanticide is appallingly common."
The killing of infants has been the
Turkish check upon the results of
polygamy. A mental attitude which
makes this possible dulls the sense of
the sacredness of human life and is
easily directed to persons not of kin,
The Turks as a whole, furthermore,
have thus far shown themselves in-
ferior to the Christian races of the
particularly in the ability to grasp
and to assimilate the better things of
civilization. The reason for what
seems like arrested development of
bors in those occupations in which
mental alertness and skill give the
advantage. Not only banking, which
is under a handicap among Moslems,
but other kinds of business and the{
trades in great part driftd into the"
hands of others, largely Armenians
and Greeks, These chiefly formed the
prosperous and moneyed classes
whom the Turk, politically dominant,;
looked upon as enriching themselves
at his expense. A relatively largey
portion of the Turkish population
have remained as tillers of the soil.
In the past half century this eco-
nomic disparity in the Turkish Em-
pire has become ever greater as the
opportunities for the development of
industries and commerce have in-
creased. It could not even be checked
by the rapacity of public officials; for
under the antiquated system of col-
lecting taxes a corrupt administra-
tion might set no limit to its demands
and exactions. In my student days
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1922
in 1885 I drove in a rustic conveyance
from the coast opposite Mitylene to
the site of Pergamos, where In an-
tiquity was one of the Seven Churches
of Asia. Our road lay in part over a
half-desolate plain that should have
been a veritable garden. We asked
our driver why it was not more fully
cultivated. In a despairing voice he
said that there was no object in try-
ing to raise more grain than one
could use, for under one pretext or
another all the surplus would be
seized by the tax-gather. The case is
typical.
The Turk, again, is emotional. His
impassiveness is only on the surface.
When aroused his passion knows no
bounds. For this reason Turks be-
come the most dangerous of fanatics.
Over against these characteristics
must be set the better qualities of
Turkish character. The average Turk
is trustworthy in the ordinary rela-
(Continued on Page Five)
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