From: baloglou@panix.com (George Baloglou)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.greek,soc.culture.turkish
Subject: Re: "Adventuring With Anatolia College", 36
Date: 17 Apr 1995 03:07:51 -0400
In article <3ml4t9$b8a@panix.com> baloglou@panix.com (George Baloglou) writes:
[This article is part of a series of 52 largely self-contained
passages from George E. White's book, where Anatolia College's
second president (1913-1933) narrates the cultural circumstances
and historical events related to the college's relocation from
Merzifon, Turkey to Thessaloniki, Greece in the early 20's.]
>
>#36: The final exodus (1921)
>
>[deleted]
>
Most of us made headquarters in Constantinople during the
summer, one and another drifting away as some other opening
for usefulness presented itself, while hopes of soon returning
to Merzifon faded. Miss Antony and Miss Corning, however, by
dint of much patient waiting and many persistent appeals,
received permission to return and share in their interrupted
service. In July came another sad period of bloodshed,
conflagration and spoilation in our old home town, headed
by Lame Osman, news being carefully suppressed for the time
being. About that time the four Greek teachers and two students
arrested and taken from our campus in March were executed."
>
For one or another reason, Anatolia College was never to return
to Turkey; the paragraph quoted above is the last reference to
its "Turkish days" in Dr. White's book, and I find it proper to
discontinue the postings of the series on soc.culture.turkish.
Indeed, except for fleeting references to Turks departing from
Thessaloniki, the remaining 16 segments contain very little of
Turkish interest; interested readers of soc.culture.turkish
can certainly find the remaining segments in soc.culture.greek,
posted at the usual time and days :-) The postings to come will
be of particular appeal to those interested in post-1923 Greece
and, of course, Anatolia College's establishment and early days
in Thessaloniki.
For everybody's information, I would like to mention here that
a WWW site where all 52 segments will be preserved is in the
works. For the time being, I am ready to mail upon anyone's
request two files totaling 2090 lines and covering the first
36 segments: one devoted to Anatolia College's "Ottoman" period
(1890-1908, #1-#19) and another one devoted to its "Neoturkish"
period (1908-1921, #20-#36); a third file covering the "Greek
period" (1924-1931, #37-#52), as well as an "introduction file"
will be ready to be mailed by late May. Meanwhile, those, if any,
who have saved the segments posted so far, might like to add
the following paragraph at the beginning of segment #11 ("Turkish
introspection"):
"Our Turkish friends during these times were rather confused
and unhappy. Business, trade, was developing. There were
more travel, talk, education, and all that, but there was
much perplexity and some doubt. One day as I was riding
with a Turkish wagon driver he turned to me and said, "When
a European king wishes to be crowned, he must first get
permission from our Sultan and then he may be crowned; is
not that the way?" Before I could quite frame a reply that
would be neither impolite nor untrue he answered his own
question, "Yes, of course that's the way. When a European
king wants to be crowned, he must first get permission
>from our Sultan and then he may be crowned". That represents
the old belief of Islam, with its Koran, tribute or sword
alternative, but in these modern days there began to be
doubt, and doubts are painful as well as confusing."
..........................................................
I had chosen to omit that paragraph both when I selected
the 52 segments in January (while vacationing in Portugal)
and on the night #11 was posted; later on I thought that
was rather unfortunate: the above paragraph, representing
simple people's views, is in dramatic contrast with the
rest of #11, where both a mufti and a general seemed to
have grave doubts on the future of the Ottoman Empire.
Delving a bit more into #11, we see the contradiction of
a Turkish general passing through Merzifon on his way to
suppress Balkan revolutionaries and being against the
Balkans remaining a part of the empire at the same time;
or, the huge irony of the mufti himself dreaming of
British rule, something "allowed" only to Armenian
dissidents: as we saw in #6, placards calling for
British control of Turkey and posted (1893) in the
Merzifon region had automatically been blamed on the
Armenians ...
On the Armenian issue and the persecutions of 1895
and 1915, "historian-by-accident" Dr. White gives us
a very interesting, albeit localized, account: we see,
for example (#7), that the "riots" of 1895 took place
right after certain attempted pro-Armenian reforms
(lesson on Turkish reactionaries' ways not to be missed);
even more important, the destruction of the Armenian
cemetery in Merzifon, a couple of months after the
deportation of its Armenians (#25), is a substantial
testimony in favor of characterizing the events of
1915 as a genocide.
War is typically kept in the distant background, but #23
offers a great testimony on the "timely" incitement of
the Turkish masses on August 4, 1914 (WW I), as well as
the immense tragedy of Greek and Armenian students playing
music for the "German-trained general" stationed in Merzifon. Further,
#28 gives a very moving, even if "distanced", view of the
ill-fated/prepared/conceived Turkish campaign in the Caucasus.
Similarly, very little is written on the Greco-Turkish war
of 1919-1922 or even on the reactions of Merzifon Greeks
and Turks to it--save of course for the peaceful coexistence
of Greek and Turkish students (#32), contrasted by the
arrest of some Greek teachers (#35) and the assassination,
apparently by his own compatriots, of a Turkish one (#34).
Dr. White's understanding of that war seems to be both
superficial--when he claims that the Kemalists had plans on
"driving the Greek army and all the Greeks of Turkey into
the Sea, by, if not before, September 1922!" (p. 105, not
posted) and profound ("Its [Smyrna's] military occupation
while the Peace Conference was in session was supposed to
be due to rivalries among the allied powers, who thought the
Turkish Government was down and out"--p. 103, not posted.)
In #33, by the way, Ataturk's ride to British officers, one
month after his "escape" from British-controlled Constantinople,
offers considerable credibility to the theory that he was, in
a way, a British wild card. (Unfortunately, Dr. White wrote
nothing on those "exceedingly interesting" comments made by
the British officers regarding Ataturk and "the whole situation
in Turkey" ...)
Of course, there is much more than war in Dr. White's book
and the posted segments. Interesting insights are given, for
example, on: the poverty, fear and "persistence" of Anatolia's
rural Christians in their final years (#5, #12, #14, #20, #26);
a Christian missionary's intimate view of Islam (#4, #9, #15);
the Alevi Turks and their beliefs, an important issue nowadays
(#16); Dervishes' fire-handling (#17), the Hittites' discovery
(#10), etc. Above all, we witness a dedicated man's agonizing
effort to promote education, peace and Christianity under adverse
conditions; despite the heavy toll exerted on him by the death
and persecution of his Christian associates, he did not lose
his faith in the benign side of human nature and, in particular,
in the humanity of the average Turk (lesson to be learned).
..................................................................
"When peace came, Mustapha Kemal Pasha and his associate officers
began without delay a most astonishing series of reform measures.
Almost more astonishing still was the fact that they confined
their efforts to their own country and people and refrained from
interfering in the affairs of other countries and governments,
once a Turkey for the Turks was agreed to all round. The Turks
manifested wonderful wisdom in stopping when they were done. They
were ruthless toward the Christians of Asia Minor, but they let
alien people go with the provinces which they inhabited."
[From: George E. White's "Adventuring With Anatolia College", p. 187
(Herald-Register Publishing Company, Grinnell, Iowa, March 1940)]
George Baloglou
(broadcasting from the southeastern shores of Lake Ontario)
"thv glwcca mou edwcav Ellhvikh ctis ammoudies tou Omhpou"
(Odysseas Elytis)
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