DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4752#0161
IN ASIATIC TURKEY 151
unwearied carefulness, his prevision, his personal
timidity (which keeps him always a prisoner within
his own palace walls), his fear of the Turks, his
hatred for the Armenians, and the other qualities
already described.
This man, who has played the part of Mithridates
in the nineteenth century and played it with such
skill and success, with scheming head, not with
warlike hands, well deserves the historian's study.
It is a remarkable part that he has undertaken, to
stem the tide of change, which the three previous
Sultans accepted as inevitable, and to stifle the
growth of civilisation in Turkey, which the strongest
part)' in Turkey desired. The task would have
been impossible, had it not been for the resources
that civilisation put in his hands; for, indubitably,
modern inventiveness, by facilitating destruction,
places enormous power in the hands of barbarism.
His ally, without whom he could not have done
nearly so much, has been Germany. It was patent
to every one as far back as 1882 that the Sultan,
feeling he had nothing to fear from German aggres-
sion, inclined to favour that country, which became
immensely influential in Constantinople and has
remained so ever since. Each party had much to
gain: neither had anything to lose. German
capital found an opening in Turkish enterprises;
German officers organised the Turkish army ; Krupp
unwearied carefulness, his prevision, his personal
timidity (which keeps him always a prisoner within
his own palace walls), his fear of the Turks, his
hatred for the Armenians, and the other qualities
already described.
This man, who has played the part of Mithridates
in the nineteenth century and played it with such
skill and success, with scheming head, not with
warlike hands, well deserves the historian's study.
It is a remarkable part that he has undertaken, to
stem the tide of change, which the three previous
Sultans accepted as inevitable, and to stifle the
growth of civilisation in Turkey, which the strongest
part)' in Turkey desired. The task would have
been impossible, had it not been for the resources
that civilisation put in his hands; for, indubitably,
modern inventiveness, by facilitating destruction,
places enormous power in the hands of barbarism.
His ally, without whom he could not have done
nearly so much, has been Germany. It was patent
to every one as far back as 1882 that the Sultan,
feeling he had nothing to fear from German aggres-
sion, inclined to favour that country, which became
immensely influential in Constantinople and has
remained so ever since. Each party had much to
gain: neither had anything to lose. German
capital found an opening in Turkish enterprises;
German officers organised the Turkish army ; Krupp