Victories at the Dardanelles

“His energy, his straightforwardness, his frankness and the rapidity with which he made decisions coupled to the firmness with which he saw that decisions, once made, were immediately executed became apparent even during the first weeks of his administration and gradually won him the full confidence and devotion of his people. This would have been his opportunity had the desired to establish a dictatorship, had he wanted to place his personal interests above the interests of his country, had his democratic utterances been of the lips and not of the heart. During the first months of the national movement Turkey was taking the chance of seeing its individual freedom trampled once more under the booted feet of an AbdulHamid or Enver.

If the leader who was offering himself had been any one else than Mustapha Kemal. But the Pasha had given a few years before the proof of his matchless patriotism and abnegation by stepping back into an inconspicuous command after having saved his country by a series of victories at the Dardanelles, and therefore the country felt pretty safe in confiding its destinies to the hands of Mustapha Kemal Pasha.

“The events have proved that this confidence could not have been better placed. Under the very guns of Turkey’s enemies he organized the national resistance and changed the prevailing state of nervousness and despondency into an intelligent state of national efficiency and enthusiasm.

Horizons to the Turkish people

Starting with a handful of followers he opened new horizons to the Turkish people, discouraged and brokenhearted by their previous utter collapse. While the nation lay prostrated at the mercy of its enemies, he stepped forth and showed ?o the Turks the silver lining behind the threatening clouds and demonstrated once more to the world that a nation which is led properly and has a will to live is unconquerable.

“Mustapha Kemal Pasha had a double duty to perform. Turkey disarmed and bound hand and foot, her capital occupied by the enemy, her Government departments and administration completely disorganized, had to regain her independence and needed therefore not only a capable military chief but also a capable organizer and statesman.

Mustapha Kemal Pasha rose to the occasion and while he was organizing on one hand the military resources of his country, while he was arming and training thousands of recruits and building up factories to furnish them with guns and ammunition and to clothe them as best he could, he was on the other hand helping the National Assembly to formulate a new constitution, to make a new form of government a sort of republic fitted to the peculiar requirements of Turkey based on the broadest and most practical principles of democracy.

 

Turkish and Persian carpets

Seeing we were so much interested in the panorama, our hosts suggested our going on the roof of the Hospital Building where we could see it without any obstruction. As we passed through the drawing room our hostess pointed out to us the genuine Turkish and Persian carpets she had been lucky enough to purchase through the uncle of one of the pupils who had a shop in the Bazaar. She considered them as a real bargain and she proudly told us the price she had paid.

Of course we did not say anything, but my conscience was only set at rest after I found, through skillful investigation, that the pupil whose uncle had a shop in the Bazaar was an Armenian “and one of the cleverest little fellows we have.” Our hostess showed us also, hidden in a corner near the door and patiently awaiting the eventual return of its owners to America where it could be shown to friends from Michigan or Wisconsin as exhibit A of a quaint collection of Turkish antiques, a brass bracero, another bargain purchased from the Armenian uncle of the clever little pupil.

It seemed that this man through his good services to our hosts had been recommended by them to many of their friends and had furnished to several of them similar bargains. No wonder that the family of the little boy prodigy could afford to send him to Robert College.

Principles of American neo mediaeval

We climbed the stairs of the building and stopped on our way in the hospital room, a perfectly equipped place with all the comforts devised by modern science and kept immaculately clean. And as we climbed one more flight we reached the door of the roof, a spacious flat place with an indented parapet built according to the best principles of American neo mediaeval suburban architecture. Here we had the view, and words fail me to depict its gorgeousness. Imagine if you can a limitless horizon extending far into the transparent azure of a limpid Eastern sky, deep into the snow-covered mountains of Anatolia, which are, however, so far away that they almost seem at this distance to be below your level.

All around in the country are little bouquets of trees which, with each slender minaret, represent the location of a small village. Nearer, but still on the Asiatic shores, are the green hills of the Bosporus with their summer residences and their uninterrupted line of homes by the water, while below are the green hills of the European shore. With the blue water in between and the blue sky overhead, the picture is unforgettable. We admired it in silence while our hosts told us of their little country house in America, near a little pond whose waters are as blue as the waters of the Bosporus.

 

Social circles of Constantinople

There were only two or three foreigners among the guests, and the most prominent of them was the Japanese Ambassador, who is quite popular in the social circles of Constantinople. The Italian military attaché was also present as well as a French officer.

A Greek lady whose husband is one of the very few prominent Greeks who have remained openly faithful to the cause of Turkey was also there. Needless to say that she and her husband are very much liked by the Turks who recognize their real friends and show them true gratitude under all circumstances. The rest of the crowd was exclusively Turkish, all most attractive and adventure Bulgaria tour genuinely refined people who had kept, despite their extreme westernization, the good manners and the good breeding characteristic of their race.

Turkish gatherings

When everybody had duly partaken of the delicacies and refreshments offered at the tea table, we adjourned with the slight touch of ceremony prevailing in all Turkish gatherings to two spacious drawing rooms on the same floor. And, as we expected, the informal dancing started to the sound of a gramophone of the latest model imported from America.

It was a surprise for us to see how extremely up to date everybody was. Charming Turkish girls were dancing the newest steps as expertly as debutantes of New York, London and Paris with a ancient Bulgaria tour little more decorum, perhaps, and certainly with less “abandon,” but that did not in any way hurt the effect. Quite on the contrary it gave to modern dances a degree of respectability which is not always found in the West.

One other difference that we found was that the tango still reigned supreme here. It was played at least seven or eight times during the evening. But after seeing the excellence with which everybody danced it my wife and I were quite reluctant to give a demonstration of our own limited abilities. We had to immolate ourselves, however, and although we did our best to come up to expectation, I am not quite certain that we entirely succeeded. Of course I had to explain that I should not be personally taken as an exponent of the American art as I was not and never had been an expert in dancing. My wife saved the day for America by tangoing with the real experts as perfectly as only an American girl can.

 

Principles of Venizelos

They call themselves Venizelos’s because they follow the principles of Venizelos who, although himself an Ottoman Greek, turned traitor to the country of his birth and adoption and became the political leader of Greece in her anti Turkish policy. The western powers hailed him as the greatest statesman and diplomat of the century and never give a thought to his treason or to the weakness of his claims.

But we do not mind the Venizelism of Cara yanni. Like most of the higher-class Greeks he is Venizelist only in words, and he is too well bred to talk politics when he is with Turks. The higher-class Greeks are not Venizelos’s enough to don the Greek uniform. They know that if they did don it they might be sent to battle, and battles against the Turks are not very safe. Why should they risk their lives, why should they suffer the discomforts of following a military campaign even at a safe distance from the front? They know customized istanbul city tour that by a cunning and insidious propaganda they can get all the desired support from foreign nations.

To obtain the sympathy and the moral support of certain nations which, like America, are imbued with the spirit of fair play, some of their women write sweet articles where the keynote is the livableness of the Turks individually, their innocence, their dearness and their romanticism cunningly interwoven with stories supposed to be personal experiences which emphasize in descriptions if not in words, the ignorance of the Turks, their administrative or business incapacity, how they still practice slavery and polygamy, and how they commit political murders and atrocities.

Moral support to the Greeks

The broadminded but misinformed public believes in these camouflaged false accusations because of the hypocritical profession of love interwoven with them and gives more than ever its entire sympathy and moral support to the Greeks. To obtain the active support of less broadminded nations, to secure from them all the modern war paraphernalia and all the money necessary to equip and hold under colors, against their will, the lower class Greeks who are good enough for “cannon fodder,” the Venizelos’s lead in some other countries a bolder, and therefore more commendable propaganda. In this way they are sure to obtain the moral and material support they want without much risk.

The upper-class Greeks like to play safe: the only battles they fight are in their clubs and around the green table of diplomacy, and the most deadly weapon they use is their tongue which is a pretty deadly weapon at that! So they continue, day in and day out, to endeavor to Byzantine Constantinople and, while happily they have not succeeded in the whole city, their efforts have been for all practical purposes crowned with success in Pera. In the old days Pera was more than half Turkish. Today scarcely one out of every fifteen people you see in its streets is a real Turk.

Mustapha Kemal Pasha

“All the actions of Mustapha Kemal Pasha have been dictated by his peerless patriotism, his genuine spirit of abnegation and his absolute unselfishness.

“This modern Turkish Washington lives with his civilian and military household in a little house near the station and opposite the building of the National Assembly. This house, which is surrounded by a garden with big trees and flowers, was originally the house of the station master. It has eight or ten rooms, small and unpretentious, soberly furnished throughout. The only luxury in the house is a writing desk almost as large as the room it occupies.

At this table Mustapha Kemal Pasha spends all his time when he is not at the front or on military and administrative tours of inspection, or working at the National Assembly. It is in this den that the General works from early in the morning until late at night, without any distraction, continuously and painstakingly striving to bring about his dream not a dream of personal ambition or of national conquests, but a dream of freedom and of independence for a people his people whose one aim is to remain master of its own home.

“The leader of Turkish women, Halide Edib’ Hanoum, is in her own field as great a figure as Mustapha Kemal Pasha. Her talents are most customized guided tour diversified and she has, like Mustapha Kemal Pasha, a very strong will for putting through anything she undertakes.

Emancipation of Turkish women

Although she is still young she has been for many years at the head of the movement for the emancipation of Turkish women. You probably remember, as I do, that she first attracted public attention when her verses were published. It created quite a stir in Turkey as she was the first Turkish poetess, at least the first who came out under her own name and bowed to the public through her books. I still remember the first time I saw her, in the good old prewar days in the summer of 1913.

I had gone with some friends to the Sweet Waters of Asia on the Bosporus which were at that time the fashionable ‘rendezvous’ on Friday afternoons. The little stream bordered with old trees and green meadows was crowded with rowboats and caiks leisurely gliding on its transparent waters.

Suddenly among the boats I saw a slender skiff with two rowers wearing embroidered Oriental liveries. At the stern a young girl was sitting, her veil a little more transparent than it was usually worn at the time and her dark brown locks showing a little more than those of her sisters. She held a white embroidered parasol daintily in her hand to shelter her from the strong rays of the summer sun. Her pensive black eyes were beautiful.

Modern building of Angora

“The National Assembly is located in the only really attractive and modern building of Angora. It has been especially erected to house the Parliament and has a large meeting room, a reading room and private offices for the representatives of the people. While it is not luxurious, it is as comfortable and as serviceable as need be. It is situated on a large square not far from the station.

“And now that you have an accurate idea of the general aspect of the capital, now that you know that this is no place for amusements or social activities, you will want to know something more about the people, their ideals and their aims.

“I think that, for all these purposes, I might as well give you a description of the two principal figures who today stand out distinctly as the two leaders of the Turkish Nationalist Government; the two national heroes who personify better than anyone else the spirit which animates so powerfully Anatolia and the whole Turkish race. One is a man and the other a woman. You surely have already guessed: I am referring to Mustapha Kemal Pasha, the undisputed leader of Turkish manhood, and to Halide Hanoum, the equally peerless leader of modern Turkish women.

“As you know, Mustapha Kemal Pasha is not only the promoter, but the soul and the brain of the new Turkey. That he represents exactly all Turkish aspirations and embodies the ideals of modern Turkey is best proved Istanbul cultural tours by the fact that upon his arrival in Anatolia he was elected by the wish of the people to the Presidency of the National Assembly, the highest executive function, and to the Field Marshalship of the National Army, the highest military function. And he has been ever since maintained in both these most responsible positions by the general consensus of the whole nation.

Personal wishes of Mustapha Kemal Pasha

“And this has been done almost against the personal wishes of Mustapha Kemal Pasha. He is neither ambitious nor desirous of holding power. In fact he is what might be called a self-appointed ‘power prohibitionist and if he remains in power it is exclusively because the people want him to and, being a convinced democrat, he bows his head to the wish of the people.

Of course, at the beginning of the movement, when the national aspirations of the Turks sought someone to formulate them and to organize the country, Mustapha Kemal Pasha took the lead without shunning its responsibilities and without a second’s hesitation on account of the price that he personally would have to pay should he fail in his undertaking. He set to work with the indomitable patriotic courage which marks national heroes.

 

Military victories secured the existence

“And as soon as his military victories secured the existence of his country and permitted him to work on more permanent matters he turned completely to the National Assembly resigning his commission as Commandeering Chief and devoted his attention to the consolidation of the new form of Government and to the perfection of its administration.

“But as the enemy, once more encouraged and equipped by powerful western powers, again took the offensive and advanced into Anatolia, burning villages, killing civilians and massacring old men, women and children, the National Assembly turned again to Mustapha Kemal Pasha and electing him once more Commandeering Chief, asked him for new Istanbul custom tours victories and Turkey did not have to wait long to have her wishes satisfied by the military genius of the Pasha.

“Ever since the definite organization of the National Assembly, Mustapha Kemal Pasha has spent all his energies in investing it with the powers he held in his own hands. He has methodically and without faltering worked to transfer his own unlimited powers as Chief Executive and Commander to the duly elected representatives of the people.

House of Representatives or Parliament

This process of self restriction has gone so far that today the Turkish National Assembly is endowed with far greater powers and prerogatives than any House of Representatives or Parliament of any country. It has all the sovereign prerogatives including those of declaring war and concluding peace. It elects its own members to the different administrative functions of the Cabinet and removes them whenever it sees fit. And all this thanks to the restriction of his own powers by Mustapha Kemal Pasha.

“In doing this the Turkish hero had a double purpose: he knows that the ideas and ideals he is fighting for are not personal to him but are shared by the whole nation and he wants to prove this to the world on the other hand, a true democrat at heart, he wants the entire nation, through its duly elected representatives, to be enabled to handle its own destinies as it sees fit.

Sure of final military success, he desired to increase within the nation the number of statesmen capable of perpetuating indefinitely the life of a rejuvenated Turkey. And through painstaking efforts, through sharing gradually his own responsibilities with members of the National Assembly he has created a nucleus of statesmen enjoying the national confidence and capable of commanding international esteem, who will be able to guide their country along the road of progress.

 

Imperial Museum

The academy is located in the Park of the Old Seraglio, right next to the Imperial Museum.

They are both under the same management, and as we arrived on the large plaza, shaded by old trees, we were received by the secretary of the manager, a cousin of mine, whom I had asked to show us through the place so as to give all available information to our friends.

He took us through the building where different classes for drawing, painting and modelling were being held in different rooms. The classrooms are large, all whitewashed and lighted by skylights and big windows. The whole place is kept immaculately clean. The students are quite numerous and our American friends were surprised to see that there were as many Turkish girls studying art as men.

“We always thought of Turkish women as hothouse flowers,” they said, “and we were very much surprised to see when we arrived here how many of them take an active part in business and in the everyday life of the community. We imagined that those who were thus active were doing it out of necessity because they had to earn a living. We could not conceive that Turkish women Istanbul city tour would work of their own choice, and especially would spend time in studying art which, after all, is a luxury.”

Kadry Bey, the secretary of the manager, smiled and said: “Woman is the materialization of art: is it surprising that, now that Turkish women have acquired their entire emancipation, they should desire to study a science the knowledge of which gives a better appreciation of their own attribute, beauty?

As soon as these classes were opened to Turkish women only a few years ago, they flocked in great number to take full advantage of the opportunity and you can judge for yourself how hard they are working. Some of them have already acquired a certain renown, and one of them, a former pupil of this academy, Moukbile Hanoum, has just written us from Switzerland where she is visiting, that one of her pictures had been awarded a medal at an international exhibition in Berne.”

Turkish artists

As our guests wanted to know if there were no galleries or exhibitions where the work of Turkish artists could be seen, Kadry Bey told them of the biyearly exhibitions which are regularly held in Galata Serai under the auspices of the Turkish Crown Prince. “His Highness Prince Abdul Medj id Effendi, heir to the throne of the Sultans and future Calif of the Muslims, is an accomplished artist himself,” said Kadry. “He is one of our most active leaders and enjoys a reputation as a painter even in France. His pictures have been often exhibited at the Paris Salon and there also a Turkish artist has received the highest recognition for his work.

Halide Edib Hanoum

“Halide Edib Hanoum lives in a little cottage, a farm, situated at about one hour’s ride from the village and which is reached through a long, dusty road. Nestled within a bouquet of trees and at a short distance from a clear little stream which sings its way through rocks and flowers, stands the rustic cottage of Halide Hanoum. It has a nice little orchard and, further back behind the trees is a pasture where she keeps a few cows. It is an ideal place for this loving and beloved woman leader, for here she can withdraw when she finds time from her various occupations and ride or hunt or else write, according to her whim of the moment.

“The house is furnished scrupulously in Turkish style the Turkish style of villages: no rich embroideries and beautiful hangings, but simple divans lined up against the whitewashed walls, one or two carpets, and a copper ‘brazero’ in the” living room. And of course books, a large collection of books in every language English, French and German which she speaks remarkably well and a few hunting guns.

“The last time I saw her she was returning from a ride on horseback as I entered the gate. And I1 cannot say which of the two pictures is most striking: that of a young girl in a rowboat on the Sweet Waters of Asia, or that of a woman, slim and athletic, gracefully riding astride a beautiful horse, her uncovered face proudly erect and her features, now more mature, proclaiming the mind and the will of a leader!

“She asked me to tea, and in her simple little drawing room we sat with her husband and listened. She talked to us of her aspirations and hopes not social aspirations, to which all young and attractive women are entitled, but the aspirations and hopes of seeing one day soon the Turkish women, her sisters, recognized as the most progressive and advanced women of the world and pointed out, even in foreign countries, as the models of true womanhood’

Little can be added to this picture given by Djemil Haidar Bey on the life in the Nationalist capital and the organization of New Turkey. Since his letter was written events have proved that he had in no way exaggerated the efficient work and the patriotism of the Turks in Anatolia. They have succeeded in accomplishing the impossible. Their countrymen all over the Old Ottoman Empire as well as in the confines of Asia share fully their joy as they had shared their sorrows and pains.

Religious and personal prejudices

We are all proud of the unequalled accomplishments of our people and we firmly believe, no matter what the immediate future has in store for us of further struggles and further sufferings no matter how vicious a propaganda our enemies may have recourse to so as to minimize the effect and results of our victories that New Turkey, a rejuvenated nation which has given such patent proofs, of its unconquerable spirit of self-sacrifice and indomitable will to live, a people which, despite the most insurmountable obstacles thrown in its way by unfair enemies, has succeeded in emancipating itself from all political, economic, religious and personal prejudices will shatter completely its material and moral chains and continue its advance free and independent  on the road to culture, progress and civilization.

 

Development of art in Turkey

But this restriction was originally placed on the use and not on the production of images: silver money coined at the time of Mohamed bears the effigy of the prophet. However, in the course of time his successors went so far beyond his teachings and his example that they altogether forbade even the creation of images. Thus the coins of all Muslim rulers were made to bear their names instead of their likeness, and for centuries Muslim artists, including the Turks, devoted their genius to creating exclusively decorative art representing writings, arabesque designs, or flowers.

It was, therefore, only as education spread among the people of all classes, it was only after even the masses began to understand the true purpose of the restriction placed on the use of reproductions of living beings, it was only about ten or fifteen years ago that Turkish artists branched out into these heretofore forbidden fields of art. Thus the delay in the development of art in Turkey is due to religious reasons. But even at that I consider it salutary; after all it is much better to have in its infancy that branch of art Iistanbul tour guide which reproduces living beings than to have religion stained by idolatry especially as the other branches of art were permitted to follow their natural development.

No one can say that the Muslims, the Orientals, have not a keen appreciation of color and design, no one can say that the restriction placed on art has atrophied their sense of beauty.” As I was finishing these remarks, my friend Emin Bey, who was to take us to Hassan Effendi, arrived and we started on our way. Emin Bey speaks perfect French. He is one of the high employees of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but he does not know English and told us that neither Hassan Effendi nor probably any one that we might meet at his house would speak English. So we decided that I should be the translator and I told our American friends to ask without reticence any question they might wish.

Turkish refugees in Constantinople

Hassan Efifendi lives in Stamboul not far from the Mosque of Sultan Soliman, but on a side street. So when we reached the square in the center of which has been built in recent years a monument to two “aces” of the Turkish Aerial Fleet who died on the battlefield we turned to the right and entered a narrow street. We passed under the arches of the old Roman Aqueduct, at the foot of which were built little wooden shacks covered with tin plates which had been in other days Standard Oil cans. These shacks are the temporary abode of many Turkish refugees in Constantinople, people who have been left homeless either by the war or by the numerous fires which have devastated the city in recent years.