DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4752#0163
IN ASIATIC TURKEY 153
persistently. At the present time it is the interest
of Russia and Germany to support Turkey: Russia
knows that the Sultan has for many years been
steadily undermining British influence in Turkey,
Germany finds that it gains many advantages
from the informal alliance. The " Confederacy
of Europe," while pretending to exist for the
maintenance of order in Turkey, works entirely
for the advantage of Germany and Russia, which
happen for the moment to be identical ; and
the form under which the whole is worked is that
the preservation of the " Concert" is the only way
of avoiding a European war. Undoubtedly, Russia
and Germany would not without war submit to any
action that they would regard as tending to re-
invigorate the waning moral power of Britain in
Turkey. The Armenian movement always aspired
towards the freedom of America and Britain, not
towards the autocracy of Russia ; and therefore
the Armenians must suffer. Russia has learned
that the educated Eastern Christians, even if freed
by her armies and bound by gratitude to her, as the
Bulgarians were, do not love her rule; much less will
she permit that the Armenians should be saved in a
way that they would attribute to English support.
Now it is plain to every one who reads the official
correspondence with any understanding of the situ-
ation, that the proposed action on behalf of the
persistently. At the present time it is the interest
of Russia and Germany to support Turkey: Russia
knows that the Sultan has for many years been
steadily undermining British influence in Turkey,
Germany finds that it gains many advantages
from the informal alliance. The " Confederacy
of Europe," while pretending to exist for the
maintenance of order in Turkey, works entirely
for the advantage of Germany and Russia, which
happen for the moment to be identical ; and
the form under which the whole is worked is that
the preservation of the " Concert" is the only way
of avoiding a European war. Undoubtedly, Russia
and Germany would not without war submit to any
action that they would regard as tending to re-
invigorate the waning moral power of Britain in
Turkey. The Armenian movement always aspired
towards the freedom of America and Britain, not
towards the autocracy of Russia ; and therefore
the Armenians must suffer. Russia has learned
that the educated Eastern Christians, even if freed
by her armies and bound by gratitude to her, as the
Bulgarians were, do not love her rule; much less will
she permit that the Armenians should be saved in a
way that they would attribute to English support.
Now it is plain to every one who reads the official
correspondence with any understanding of the situ-
ation, that the proposed action on behalf of the