Daybreak in Turkey / Second Edition

by James L. Barton

This is the constitution to which the thoroughly alarmed sultan turned as the demand came up from his trusted troops, beloved Albanians and faithful Moslems in Macedonia, for immediate and effectual reforms.

To this he solemnly swore fidelity in the most sacred way known to the Moslem, namely, upon the Koran. The Sheik-ul-Islam, the supreme high priest of the Mohammedan faith, exhibited to the people in Constantinople the book upon which this oath was taken, and made public declaration that it is the purpose of the sultan faithfully to carry out his pledge. He even went further than this and said that it is the spirit of Islam to give the fullest religious freedom to all subjects of the empire and to guarantee constitutional justice and liberty. All this committed the sultan to the constitution far more irrevocably than he was committed in 1876. It made also the Sheik-ul-Islam witness and sponsor to the people of the sultan’s promise.

The announcement that a constitutional government was granted was wired to the impatient leaders in Macedonia and published in the papers in Constantinople. The result was unparalleled in the history of any country in any age. All Turkey gave way to a carnival of joy. An order was issued abolishing the secret service, and freedom of the press was guaranteed by the constitution. All political prisoners were released and those in exile were invited back to their homes. Incidentally the prison doors were thrown wide open and the criminal shared the common joy of all. The occupation of the censors of the press was gone and every paper in the empire spread the glad news that a new day had dawned. New papers started like mushrooms in a night. Representatives from the committee in Macedonia proceeded to Constantinople and apparently came to an understanding with the sultan as to the situation. He was plainly told, it is persistently rumored, that if he did not appoint as ministers men of their choosing, his only safety would lie in abdication. The old members of the cabinet, representing the régime of oppression, disappeared or were imprisoned, and the new men quietly stepped into their places. Isset Pasha, the much hated secretary of the sultan, in spite of efforts by the new party to retain him, succeeded in boarding a British vessel at Constantinople and escaping to England.

The people of Turkey, with centuries of repressive discipline in the political school of the empire, were supposed to have lost the faculty of spontaneous exultation or general demonstration of joy. But impelled by a sense of liberty never before experienced, the entire population broke into an outburst of appreciation for the new order of things such as Turkey had never before witnessed.

The people gathered by thousands and by tens of thousands in the public squares of their cities to listen to the proclamation of liberty and the firing of salutes in honor of the occasion. These crowds were composed of Christians and Moslems, who only a few days before had seemed to hate each other with deadliest hatred. Now they clapped their hands and joined their voices in shouting “Long live the Fatherland,” “Long live the People,” “Long live Liberty,” “Long live the Constitution.” Christian and Moslem leaders embraced and kissed one another in public while tears rolled down the cheeks of thousands as they took part in the festivities. Great assemblies were addressed by Mohammedan and Christian speakers, all of whom exhorted the people to unity and the maintenance of order, declaring that religious distinctions were now done away, as all pledged their allegiance to the new constitution and to the Ottoman empire. In an immense procession in Salonica a float was drawn upon which rode a girl dressed as the Goddess of Liberty. At Constantinople in one of the large Gregorian churches, the assembly was addressed by both Mohammedans and Christians and the Moslem band played the Armenian national air. For an Armenian to have sung this air one month before would have meant exile or death.

In one of the principal mosques of the capital a memorial service for the Armenians slain in the massacre of 1896 was held in which Moslems and Christians fraternally joined. This was followed by a similar mass meeting in an Armenian church in memory of the Mohammedans who had laid down their lives for the freedom of their country. All united in the declaration that the massacred Armenians and the Moslems dying in exile were brothers in their common sacrifice for the freedom of Turkey.

These scenes of spontaneous celebration enacted in the great centers of population indicated the universal readiness of the people for the proclamation and their unanimity in the reforms. It is indeed an uprising of the people for liberty and, by meeting their demands, the sultan, for the time, has made himself the most popular ruler sitting upon any throne. The carnival of joy gives hint of what their disappointment will be should there be any breach of good faith in securing to them all the privileges granted by the constitution. Not the least of their joy is in the marvel that this revolution has been brought about almost without the shedding of blood. A few in Macedonia who hesitated to join the new party were executed, but in Constantinople there was no loss of life in completing the transfer from the old to the new régime.

The masses of Turkey know little of the duties and responsibilities of a parliament. They are launching out upon an experiment, unknown and untried. It remains to be seen how they will meet their own expectations in the measure of self-government which the constitution grants. There are many able, educated men among the Turks, Armenians, Greeks, Bulgarians, and Albanians. The question is: Will these, laying aside all national and religious jealousies, be able to work together in the creation of a new government, and all under the leadership of Sultan Hamid? It is also an open question whether the sultan himself, after a life of absolutism, can adapt himself to the new order and execute it in a way to insure a sympathetic following and substantial success.

There is danger that the people may be unreasonable in their demands and rebel against the collection of taxes adequate for the proper conduct of the government. Only a beginning has yet been made. Much remains to be done.

In all the history of Turkey a reform has never been inaugurated with the same solemnity and religious sanction that attended the recent declaration of constitutional government. The highest sanction of Islam has been accorded it, and, so far as we can see, the sultan could not materially alter his course without bringing himself personally in the eyes of the people into open conflict with his own religion and the faith of the great majority of his subjects. It is conceivable that, if he should find it impossible faithfully to carry out the provisions of the constitution, he will be asked to step aside and permit his constitutionally proclaimed successor to fulfil his oath of loyalty.