“In endeavoring to settle the conflicts among the alien nationalities and between the aliens and the Turks, the path of the new Turkish Government will scarcely be smooth. The Balkan States are watching events with attention.  Although they congratulated the new Turkish Government, they have no interest in Turkey’s regeneration, and they are bound to oppose the Ottomanization of their compatriots in Turkey.  Therefore, they may be expected to draw the sword and to face Turkey unitedly if they see their plans of expansion threatened by the nationalization of the alien elements in Turkey.”

Unfortunately, my forecast has come true in every particular.  The failure of New Turkey was natural.  It was unavoidable.  Ancient States are ponderous and slow-moving bodies.  Their course can be deflected and their character be altered only by gradual evolution, by slow and almost imperceptible changes spread over a long space of time.  Democracy, like a tree, is a thing of slow growth, and it requires a congenial soil.  It can not be created over night in Turkey, Persia, or China.  The attempt to convert an ancient Eastern despotism, firmly established on a theocratic basis, a country in which the Koran and the Multeka are the law of the land, into a Western democracy based on the secular speculations of Rousseau, Montesquieu, Bentham, Mill, and Spencer was ridiculous.  The revolution effected only an outward change.  It introduced some Western innovations, but altered neither the character of the Government nor that of the people.  Turkish Parliamentarism became a sham and a make-believe.  The cruel absolutism of Abdul Hamid was speedily followed by the scarcely less cruel absolutism of a secret committee.

The new rulers of the country were mostly very young men, who were conspicuous for their enthusiasm and their daring but not for their judgment and experience.  They had picked upon the boulevards and in the Quartier Latin of Paris and in Geneva the sonorous phrases of Western democracy and demagogy, and with these they impressed, not only their fellow citizens, but also the onlookers in Europe.  Having obtained power, they embarked upon a campaign of nationalization.  However, instead of trying to nationalize the non-Turkish millions slowly and gradually by kind and just treatment coupled with a moderate amount of nationalizing pressure, they began ruthlessly to make war upon the language, and to suppress the churches, schools, and other institutions of the non-Turkish citizens, whom they disarmed and deprived of their ancient rights.  The complaints and remonstrances of the persecuted were answered with redoubled persecution, with violence, and with massacre, and soon serious revolts broke out in all parts of the Empire.  The Young Turks followed faithfully in Abdul Hamid’s footsteps.  However, Abdul Hamid was clever enough always to play off one nationality or race against the other.  In his Balkan policy, for instance, he encouraged Greek Christians to slay Christian Bulgarians and Servians, and allowed Bulgarian bands to make war upon Servians and Greeks, supporting, on principle, one nationality against the other.  But the Young Turks persecuted indiscriminately and simultaneously all non-Turkish races, Albanians, Bulgarians, Servians, and Greeks, and thus they brought about the union of the Balkan States against themselves.