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TURKEY : THE BLIGHT OF ASIA

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ASIA MINOR, THE GRAVEYARD OF GREEK CITIES

Page 2

    On this point, precisely, Sir Valentine Chirol, already quoted, very opportunely says:

    "The Turk’s only real business was, and always has been, war. But it is difficult to see how far Turkey has profited by exchanging a narrow religious fanaticism for an equally narrow racial fanaticism. All we need consider is what Turkey is to-day. Her population is estimated at between six million and eight million decimated by the war and believed to be shrinking as it was already doing before the war, from congenital disease. It will, it is true, be for the first time, an almost purely Turkish population, for of the Greeks and Armenians who in 1914 still numbered some three million in Asia Minor, only the scantiest remnants are left. Yet they were the most intelligent and economically valuable communities of the old Ottoman Empire. She (Turkey) can hardly aspire to a much higher position than that of a third rate power barely equal in general resources to any of the Balkan states over which she used to rule, and she has herself abdicated the prestige and influence which the possession of the Khalifate had conferred upon her." (Chirol, "Occident and Orient", pp. 65-67)

    But the very learned and accomplished writer, Doctor Buckler, brings out some facts of stupendous importance and significance. To quote his words:

    "The range of Anatolian historical monuments and documents covers about five thousand years. The periods represented by remains extend from the third millennium B. C., with its South Cappadocian Cuneiform tablets to the fifteenth century A. D., with its Seljuk architecture and inscriptions. Among the subjects of history on which Anatolian remains throw light are: Law, politics, economics, education, art, (including sculpture) philosophy, literature."

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