In Europe the Turk, child of the ungrateful Asiatic steppeland, has always been the heartily despised intruder. He has shown himself incompetent to follow up the task of conquest by assimilating the peoples he subdued. Perhaps his lack of national ideals lies at the root of his failure. The language he imposed on his Christian subjects never replaced their vernacular. It was spoken only by the males of the subdued populations. Only in rare instances did it penetrate within their households. Hence, Turks never felt at home in Europe. They knew that their nomad’s tent was pitched only for a while on the continent in which they sojourned as conquerors and as strangers. They were emigrants who had lost all memory of their land of origin and who nevertheless could not adapt themselves to the land which their bravery had won. The state they founded had a weak head and no heart whatever. Under these conditions the expulsion of Turks from Europe could always be foreseen in spite of the weary years it took to accomplish it.
Every boundary revision that marks the successive shrinking of Turkish territory in Europe has been attended by wholesale emigration of Mohammedans from lands reclaimed by Christians. Immediately after the Balkan wars of 1913 about 50,000 Turks voluntarily departed for Asia Minor from territory allotted to Greece. An equal number left sections of Macedonia taken over by Serbia, while about 25,000 abandoned land annexed by Bulgaria.
The historical fact is that Turks have never consented to live in a land governed by Christians. In 1882 Thessaly was annexed to Greece by a decision of European powers. No armed conflict between Greece and Turkey took place on that occasion and racial hatred had not been increased by the horrors of war. The Greek government at that time offered special inducements to the Turkish inhabitants of the ceded territory to remain on their land and continue their agricultural pursuits. The Turks, however, preferred to emigrate to the Sultan’s domain.
When Crete was awarded to Greece over 50,000 of the 80,000 Turkish inhabitants of the island abandoned their homes and decided to settle in Asiatic Turkey. This exodus took place in spite of the perfect security of life and property that had prevailed in the island since its administration was taken over by a committee of Europeans in 1877. This tendency of Turks to forsake Christian countries is observable even in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where the Austrian government has shown decided favor toward Mohammedan inhabitants, considering them more loyal than other elements of its southeastern population.
The Turk’s last stand in Europe marks the final stage of his colossal struggle to retain mastery over the Dardanelles and Bosporus to which the highways of Europe and Asia lead. The Bosporus is the junction of two important world routes. One of these connects the peoples of central Europe with the crowded settlements of British India. The other is the line of communication between the commercial ports of the Mediterranean and the caravan terminals on the Black Sea coast. Each of these highways has constituted a channel through which the trade between eastern and western lands has been directed from the very beginnings of commerce. The narrowness of this Eurasian waterway permitted continuous travel between two continents, while the straits allowed uninterrupted maritime travel from Black Sea harbors to distant seaports of the western world. Modern railway communications have benefited by the former circumstance. The sea commerce of medieval days thrived on the latter.
The entire European coast of the elongated waterways which connect the Ægean and Black seas is inhabited by peoples speaking languages each of which symbolizes conflicting aims and aspirations without being strong enough to silence its rivals. From the political standpoint the linguistic factor appears to be of slight value in this case. Economic needs, to the exclusion of other considerations, will probably determine the destiny of this region.
The relation of a region to the world depends in general upon its economic value. The importance of this southeasterly strip of the Balkan peninsula is therefore affected by its central location with reference to the continents of Europe, Asia and Africa. Between Paris and Bagdad, or the Cape of Good Hope, the overland route is continuous save for a short mile of water at the Bosporus and an equally insignificant crossing at the Isthmus of Suez, in the case of African travel. Herein lies the economic relation of this portion of the Balkan peninsula to the rest of the world. But the European coastland of the intercontinental strait separating Europe from Asia does not constitute a complete region. The Asiatic coast of the waterways must be taken with the European and a single district formed out of the Dardanelles, the Sea of Marmora and the Bosporus with their coasts and shores. This region is the threshold of Asia and conversely the entrance to Europe from the east.
A Balkan zone of depression extending west and south of the Balkan uplift affords natural access between the valley of the Danube proceeding from the heart of Europe and the Dardanelles-Bosporus passage. This convenient gap is provided by the wide valley of the Morava and the narrower Nishava course which lead to the Sofia basin, whence penetration into the Thracian plains is obtained by the Maritza valley. The corresponding function for the Asiatic shore is performed by the valley of the Sakaria and in a less degree by the Pursak river depression—both trending westward from the high plateau of western Asia.
The main roads from the Bosporus and the Dardanelles to the Sakaria river valley skirt the shores of the straits of the Marmora, as they follow a coastal lowland which fringes the Dardanian and Bithynian heights. At Panderma however the old highway strikes inland slightly south of east to Brusa in order to avoid the elevated plateau intervening between the Marmora and Lake Abullonia. Thence, still following a line of least elevation, it winds towards the small harbor of Ghemlik (the Cius of Graeco-Roman times) until beyond Isnik (ancient Nicaea of ecclesiastical fame) it debouches into the waters of the Sakaria.
These natural features connect the heart of Europe with the high plateaus of western and central Asia as well as with the fertile Mesopotamian lowland and the Indian peninsulas. The silk sent to Europe from eastern Asia in medieval days followed this road. The route has declined since the construction of the Suez waterway. Railway lines planned to connect Channel ports with the Gulf of Persia will restore the commercial value of the region. The value of the Bosporus as an avenue of trade remains unimpaired in modern days. It is the only maritime outlet for the export of the cereals and farm products of southern Russia and the oil of the Caucasus.