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George Horton's

TURKEY : THE BLIGHT OF ASIA

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EXCERPTS FROM TURKEY - THE BLIGHT OF ASIA

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Page 22

From THE 50-50 THEORY

    ONE of the cleverest statements circulated by the Turkish propagandists is to the effect that the massacred Christians were as bad as their executioners, that it was "50-50." This especially appeals strongly to the Anglo-Saxon sense of justice, relieves one of all further annoyance or responsibility, and quiets the conscience. But it requires a very thoughtless person indeed to accept such a statement, and extremely little thought required to show the fallacy of it. [...]

    The conduct of the Greeks toward the thousands of Turks residing in Greece, while the ferocious massacres were going on, and while Smyrna was being burned and refugees, wounded, outraged and ruined, were pouring into every port of Hellas, was one of the most inspiring and beautiful chapters in all that country’s history. There were no reprisals. The Turks living in Greece were in no wise molested, nor did any storm of hatred or revenge burst upon their heads. This is a great and beautiful victory that, in its own way, rises to the level of Marathon and Salamis.

    One naturally asks what other Christian nation could have done any better? In fact, the whole conduct of Greece, during and after the persecution of the Christians in Turkey, has been most admirable, as witness also its treatment of the Turkish prisoners of war, and its efforts for the thousands of refugees that have been thrown upon its soil. I know of what I am speaking, for I was in Greece and saw with my own eyes. No one, I think, will have the courage to dispute these facts.

    Had the Greeks, after the massacres in the Pontus and at Smyrna, massacred all the Turks in Greece, the record would have been 50-50—almost.

 

From ASIA MINOR, THE GRAVEYARD OF GREEK CITIES

    IT IS NATURAL that the archeologists, in their anxiety to obtain permission to work in Asia Minor with safety should be very careful to say nothing that might offend the sensibilities of the Turk. They must use all their diplomacy in dealing with him in order that as much as possible may be unearthed of the treasures of Greek art and wisdom that lie buried beneath the land now in the hands of the Khemalists, still wet with the blood of the last survivors of an ancient civilization. [...]

A writer in a February number of the "Gazetta del Popol", of Turin, Italy, recently returned from Smyrna, says: [...]

    "All forms of activity in Turkey during the past ages were created by non-Turks. There was nothing of theirs except the army. Ruthlessly the Turks condemn to death all enterprise—commercial and industrial—in which they can not themselves succeed."

 

    [Ellopos' note: A recent article of the Turkish newspaper Hurriet (8 Nov. 2003) writes that "according to international standards, 12.2 million Turks live at or below the borderline of hunger. The Turkish National Institute of Statistics confirms these numbers, adding that these individuals, who comprise 17.8% of the population, live on a family income of one dollar per day or less. Another 19.8% of the population, or 13.5 million people, live on a combined family income of two dollars per day. A more 'financially comfortable' segment, comprising 20% of the population, lives on nine dollars and thirty cents per day, whereas the average daily family income is three dollars and eighty cents".
    This seems to confirm Horton to-day, but the reasoning is based on unsafe ground, because economic growth is possible with the import of know-how and the co-operation of the West. The real thing, what is of interest when we think about the possibility of civilization and not just prosperity, is to remember that having spirit is not identical with knowing-how. Turkey may become very rich, with the Turks remaining as barbarous as before -  just as America is rich while stooping to barbarity day by day. With this in mind, we must read the paragraphs that follow. Predictions about Turkey's economic failure, wrong or right, are irrelevant - they have nothing to do with Turkey's cultural development. It suffices to remember what Herodotus said, that always Greece had poverty as a friend. The story of Croesus is also useful in this context.
        Horton observes that "under the rule of its new masters Constantinople was destined to become the most degraded capital in Europe, and became incapable of contributing anything whatever of value to the history of the human race": they don't care not only about Christ and the New Testament, but neither for Homer, Plato, Hoelderlin or Kierkegaard. They don't want us, they don't care in the least about who we are and what we love, they don't care if we live or die, and, of course, they wouldn't beg for our co-operation, if we didn't have money and know-how. It isn't difficult for a person of good will to understand, that even faith in Allah is better than faith in money. This kind of economic growth is something like an attempt of 'inviting conquerors' - and Europe has to realise that such a conquering of Turkey's will mean, without doubt, her own fall too: you can not have slaves without being a slave yourself, Chrysostom says.
        Within the lack of prospect of a real cultural growth of the Turkish people due to Islam and their character, and to the degree that they remain 'faithful' to Islam and maintain the same character, as they did for the past centuries, whatever growth may be achieved by the help of foreign powers, the nature of Turkish muslims increasingly will find 'refuge' to the various forms of nihilism - as is the case also in a West abandoning her faith, one should admit (Horton says this many times - and we live after the second world war).
        Yet Europe may change for the better, while Turkey has to grow economically precisely by ignoring real friendship, and this way her disease becomes the very foundation of her being, so that any anomaly, the most horrible, will be strengthened in the course of time. In my opinion, while other peoples are tortured by their islamic faith and they manage to resist to some degree, the blow of Islam for the Turks seems deadly. For any real European policy (realpolitik) concerning the Turks, the first question should be, can they convert to Christianity? If not, there isn't anything Europe can do to help them, and the more close our economic relations will be, the more the Turks and us will be corrupted].

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