The dominion of the Ottoman clan, which should have been a mere passing phenomenon, like the similar dominion of another Tartar clan in Russia, owes its continuance, as we read its history, to three causes, two of them intellectual. The first is the extraordinary, indeed the absolutely unrivalled force displayed through ages by the descendants of Othman, the Tartar chief from Khorassan. The old line, “An Amurath, an Amurath succeeds,” has been substantially true. Sprung originally from a stock welded into iron by the endless strife of the great Asiatic desert, mating always with women picked for some separate charm either of beauty or captivation, the sultans, with the rarest exceptions, have been personages, great soldiers, great statesmen, or great tyrants. Mahmoud the destroyer of the Janissaries, who only died in 1839—that is, while men still middle-aged were alive—was the equal in all but success of Amurath I, who organized, though he did not invent, that terrible institution; and even the present sultan, in many ways so feeble, is no Romulus Augustulus, no connoisseur in poultry, but a timid Louis XI, who overmatches Russians and Greeks in craft, who terrifies men like his Ottoman Pashas, and who is obeyed with trembling by the most distant servant of his throne. The terrible emir of Afghanistan, whose satraps, while ruling provinces and armies, open his letters “white in the lips with fear,” is not regarded with more slavish awe than Abdul Hamid, the recluse who watches always in his palace against assassination or mutiny. We have only to remember what the Hohenzollerns have been to Prussia, to understand what the family of Othman, defended as they have been against revolution by the Mussulman belief that “when Othman falls Islam falls,” has been to a fighting clan.
—Meredith Townsend
in “Asia and Europe.”
[Pg 23]
The countries under Turkish rule are lands of real resource, and yet a superficial view of the greater part of the Turkish empire gives one the impression of extreme poverty. Throughout most of the country the hills have been denuded of timber, and trees are found only where they are cultivated. There are still some forest lands bordering on the southern shores of the Black Sea, especially towards the east. In Armenia, the region in which the Tigris and Euphrates rivers have their rise, even the roots of the scrub-oaks that grow upon the low mountains and high plateaux are dug up for fuel. The crops, in large part, are raised by the most primitive methods of irrigation, although in the western part of Asia Minor, as well as in other sections, considerable high land crops are produced. These are uncertain, owing to frequent failure of the rains. There are other large sections, like the plains to the north of the modern city of Diarbekr—the ancient city of Amida upon the banks of the Tigris—where for lack of surface water a large area of the richest arable land lies waste, except as flocks and herds roam over it during the rainy season in the spring.
Yet there are few countries in the world that can boast of richer or more productive soil than can Turkey. There are desert regions in Arabia, but these are not as extensive as we have been wont to suppose. Turkey exports more foodstuffs than she imports, although her agricultural resources are but slightly developed. The method of farming is entirely antiquated, the same primitive plow being in [Pg 24] constant use to-day that was employed by Abraham in the fields of Haran. In spite of this fact, wheat of excellent quality, barley, rice, millet, cotton, tobacco, the opium poppy, and almost all kinds of vegetables, as well as grapes, plums, cherries, olives, quinces, oranges, lemons, figs, and pomegranates are produced in great abundance. The mulberry-tree flourishes in many regions. Sheep, goats, and a stunted breed of cattle and the water-buffalo, donkeys and horses thrive in most parts of the country, while as beasts of burden the camel and mule are found in all sections of Asiatic Turkey.
The country is also rich in minerals, but the mines are undeveloped. By the laws of the land, all minerals belong to the government, hence no private mining enterprises are permitted. Coal is found in many parts of the country, but being a mineral, by government classification, it cannot be mined except officially. Copper, silver, and lead abound, but the few mines worked by the government have not been paying enterprises except to the official in charge.
In a word, Turkey is naturally a rich country, with boundless resources now largely undeveloped, with undreamed-of possibilities of increased production under modern methods of agriculture and mining. It is probably true that the empire includes some of the very richest land and ore deposits in the world.
Exportation from Turkey is limited to the coast borders and to the proximity of the few railways that exist. Railroads are confined to the European district and the eastern section of Asia Minor, with a short line reaching to Tarsus and Adana from Mersin and one from Joppa up to Jerusalem. New lines are under construction intending to connect Damascus with Mecca. Railroads cannot long be kept out of the interior of the country. There are but few made wagon roads, nearly [Pg 25] all of which have been constructed since the Crimean war in 1854. One of the most noted of these few roads over which wheeled vehicles can pass extends from Samsoun upon the middle southern coast of the Black Sea, through Marsovan, Tokat, Amasia, Sivas, Malatia, Harpoot, and Diarbekr, ending at Mardin, a distance of nearly six hundred miles. Some of the bridges planned were never built, and many were washed away soon after construction. Another highway of a similar nature extends from Trebizond to Erzerum. Others have been recently built in Northern Syria. These roads never fail to be in poor repair. But the ordinary roads are worse, being in all parts of the empire mere bridle-paths, often worn deep in the solid rock by the hoof-beats of the caravans of fifty centuries.
These conditions necessitate in the interior the transportation of all freight by horse or camel, thus discouraging commerce and trade, increasing the price of imports and making export practically impossible. This explains why a famine may prevail in one part of the country when at the same time, less than three hundred miles away, the crops are abundant. A good system of railroads would revolutionize everything. There is an abundance of foreign capital ready to construct such roads. Some fifteen years ago the plan was practically consummated to build a railroad from Samsoun through Asia Minor down across northern Mesopotamia to Bagdad. At the last moment the plan was thwarted by the sultan himself. In conversation upon this matter with an intelligent Mohammedan official who had been educated in England and France, the writer asked him if he did not understand that such a road would bring much wealth into the country, and at the same time develop far more wealth in the country itself. He was asked if he had studied [Pg 26] the railroads of America and Europe and observed the great value they were in every way in those countries. His reply was characteristic. It was in substance, “I know well that all that you say of the value of railroads to a country is true. You have not overstated it. At the same time I know, and so does my master, the sultan, that every dollar of foreign capital that comes into this country under concessions as an investment, curtails by so much the authority of the sultan in his own domains. Such capital always brings with it foreign protection. If his imperial majesty should change his mind, as he has full right to do at any time, in regard to any of these concessions, he is at once confronted by the protests of that country to which the capital belongs, demanding that he adhere to the original agreement or pay damages. The ruler of the Ottoman empire will never willingly submit to such humiliation. When railroads are built through Turkey, his majesty will construct them himself.”
This explains why foreign capital is not building railroads, developing mines, and constructing factories in that country. It explains why, in this respect, Turkey is still in the depths of the dark ages.
The telegraph system of the country is entirely in the hands of the government and reaches every city of any considerable size. This became necessary to the sultan in order to carry on the processes of government. Telegrams are carefully censored; cipher despatches, when known to be such, are not accepted except from ambassadors and from foreign powers to their chief at the Porte, or vice versa. The postal system is antiquated, irregular, and uncertain, reaching only the large towns upon the limited cross-country routes. Telephones are strictly prohibited. [Pg 27]
In Constantinople and in several of the port cities like Smyrna, Trebizond, etc., there are foreign post-offices supported and conducted by foreign countries and using foreign stamps. These became necessary because of the unreliability of the Turkish offices. The local government has made several attempts to abolish the sale and use of foreign postage-stamps in the country, but has failed of accomplishing it because the representatives of the leading foreign powers are unwilling to trust their mail to Turkish supervision and control.