CONSTANTINOPLE, Turkey, Sept. 1- For the first time in Turkish history the Sultan to-day received a deputation of women and promised them that he would do what he could to improve the lot of Ottoman women.
The deputation wore Western European costumes and all its members were heavily veiled.
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Under the red flag, with white crescent and star, the Ottomans of American celebrated last night at a dinner at the Hotel Astor the fourth anniversary of the Constitution under which Turkey began her new regime after Abdul Hamid was desposed. They applauded the speech of Oscar S. Strauss, former ambassador to Turkey, in which he praised the progress of hteir native country since the transition to a parliamentary form of Government. They cheered Mr. Strauss when he lamented the fact that the present war had probably retarded the progress that was being made to close the breach between the Mohammedan and Christian nations.
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Oscar S. Strauss, ex-American Ambassador at Constantinople and a member of The Hague Tribunal, yesterday gave out an interesting statement regarding the deadlock which has arisen in the Balkan situation.
"At the time the Italio-Turkish war began I expressed regret that Italy- which, with Turkey, took a prominent part in the Hague Conference which resulted in the conventions for the peaceful settlement of international disputes and which were ratified by the forty-five leading nations of the world, including, of course, Italy and Turkey- did not bring her casus belli, if such existed, before The Hague Tribunal. While readily acknowleding that Tripoli would be better governed under Italy than if had been under Turkish Pashas, I made the prophecy that Italy's attack upon Turkey would lead to 'woes unnembered' amd that its direct effect would be to discredit if not destroy the efforts of the new Parliamentary regime to rehabilitate Turkey.
Speaking of the men upon whom Turkey's course of action now largely depends, Mr. Strauss said:
"I konw Mahmud Shefket Pasha, who is now at the head of the Turkish Government, very well, and also Talaat Bey. They are both men of wisdom and foresight. Mahmut Shefket Pasha, the hero of the revolution which resulted in the deposition of Abdul Hamid is not only a soldier, but also a statesman; a man of wide experience and education and thoroughly conversant with European conditions. Enver Bey, who played such a prominent part in last week's coup d'etat, is exceedingly patriotic and personally very modest. He is, in fact, a pure patriot without any selfish ambitions.
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Miss Susan H. Olmstead, assistant of Constantinople College, better known as the American College for Girls, in Constantinople has just received a cable dispatch from the President that the college has opened with a full attendance in both the preparatory and college departments.
This comes as unexpected good news as it was believed the war in the Balkans would cause a great falling off in the number of students. There are now in attendance girls from Turkey, Bulgaria, and Servia. It is believed there will be a larger attendance from the latter country when the road between Sofia and Constantinople is opened.
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LONDON, Saturday, Feb.7- The Daily Telegraph's Constantinople correspondent says that the Ottoman Government has decided to admit women to the universities, where a special course of lectures on hygiene, domestic economy, and the rights of women will be deliverd for their benefit.
In enlightened Ottoman circles the Government's new measure is regarde as an appropriate means for regenerating the world of Islam and placing it on a level with the civilization of the West.
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JERUSALEM, Jan. 27- A consession for the construction of a street car line running from Jerusalem to Bethlehem and also for the lighting of Jerusalem by electricity was granted to-day by the Turkish Government to the French bank which supplied to Turkey the money to purchase the Brazilian dreadnought Rio Janerio recently added to the Turkish army.
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LONDON, Monday,March 30- According to The Daily Telegragph's Constantinople correspondent, the Governement has decided that Turkey shall be represented at the Panama Canal opening by the cruiser Hamidieh.
The same warship representes Turkey at the coronation of King George and became famous by her service against the Greeks in the Balkan war.
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PARIS, Oct. 11- A dispatch to the Havas agency from Athens says:
The newspapers here say it is announced from an authoritative source that the Turks are showing much energy in Syria, Palestine, and North Arabia, where thay are concentrating troops at a number of points and fortifying important places on the coast and on routes to the interior.
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ATHENS, Thursday, Dec. 31- (Dispatch to The London Morning Post)- Advices from Constantinople state that the city is being feverishly put into a state of defence, and it is generally anticipated that the Allied fleet will shortly force the Dardanelles.
The German and Austrian embassies have made every preperation to move into Asia Minor.
It is reported that Turkish preparation for an Egyptian campaign are proceeding actively. Nevertheless, the condition and morale of the troops are unsatisfactory, and it is doubtful whether the Beduins will fight.
Three hundred French and forty Russian monks and nuns arrived at Pireus today from Palestine.
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LONDON, Friday, July 9- The growing discouragement of the Turks, both in the field on the Gallipoli Peninsula aand in Constantinople itself, is pictured by the Daily Chronicle correspondent at Mitylene, who sends the following dispatch to his paper:
"The recent fighting in Gallipoli Peninsula has resulted in the capture of a large number of prisoners. I have seen many of them and, though they have been fairly well fed, they are all of one mind as to their good fortune of being rescued, as one termed it, from the inferno which their positions on the Peninsula have been for some considerable time.
It is always essential to discount to some extent the statements of Turkish prisoners, as they generally think it necessary to make declarations by which they hope to find favor with their captors; but, allowing for that, there can be no doubt as to the general reliability of what they say. They all agree regarding the flagging spirit of the Turkish Army. They state that the feeling between The Germans and Turks is becoming increasingly bad, and they tell many tales of Germans being shot in the back in return for the frequent emptying of officers' revolvers into wavering of hesitating ranks.
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LONDON, Sept. 14- The British Army in Mesopotamia, which has been inactive for several months on account of the intense heat, has engaged in a few minor operations recently, which were reported officially today as follows:
On the Tigris line on the morning of Sept. 11, an aerodrome of the enemy was raided by our airmen, who destroyed a small camp. On the Euphrates line on Sept. 9 a reconnoitring party was attacked northeast of Nasiriyoh by Turkish irregulars. Two days later a mixed force from Nasiriveh drove them northward. The operations were most successful. Over 200 of the enemy were kiiled and large quantities of ammunition were captured and destroyed. To the northward, in the Caucasus, Russian operations on a large scale appear to have been suspended fpr the present. The bulletinissued by the War Office at Petrograd today says:"On the Caucasian front, in the region of Kighi, hostile Kurds are showing increased activity. Near Hamadan, in the valley of the river Falplanchai, our detachments as a result of engagements captured camels and cattle from the enemy.
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There may or may not be some men of sense in office in Turkey. If there are, as they watch the swift crumbling of all that remained of the Turkish Empire they must wonder at the fatuity which led them to throw away the fiendship of England, a defensive power, and place themselves under the protection of Germany, and offensive power. The protection which England so long extended them was a disgusted and nauseated sort of protection, and it was not in the least from any love of Turkey, but form the fear of the Czar. It did not aggrandize Turkey in any way; it merely saved her from extinction at the hands of Russian rulers who were determined to act in the spirit of the bpgus "will of PETER the Great." Germany coaxed Turkey into an alliance to conquer the world, and now Turkey lies in ruins.
Now, with Mesopotamia, Palestine, and Arabia lost, and collapse imminent in her whole Asiatic Empire, perhabs Turkey can see her mistake.
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CONSTANTINOPLE, Nov. 16- The Turks are beginning to feel the iron hand inside the velvet glove, and it is hurting them a little. Turkish officials and the press are full of consternation because the Allies found it necessary to occupy certain barracks around Constantinple, as depots for garrisoning the Bosporus forts. They even show chagrin at landing today of 400 men of a Middlesex regiment as an embassy guard.
"We thought," said a high official at the Sublime Porte to me today," "that the Allies were coming here as friends, not as conquerors. But we see troops constantly landing in Constantinople, while the French seized Alexandretta and the British occupied Mosul."
There is no doubt that the Turks counted a good deal, when they signed the armistice, upon the traditional easy-going amiability of the English, which has often let them down gently in the past.
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CONSTANTINOPLE, Feb. 10- In Constantinole as in all capitals of the defeated countries, statesman are trying to convince the Allies that the war was provoked only by the former Government against the desires of the whole country, which was forced to accept an accomplished fact. In support of this the Turkish Govenrnment adduces the fact that the number of deserters from the army exceeds 8000,000.
The Turkish leaders are greatly worried that they are not allowed at present to send unofficial representatives to Paris to prove that they are less guilty that they appear, while other races in the empire are able to put forward claims and more or less to settle the future limits of the country, although the Peace Conference has not yet decided upon them.
An agitation such as that which has been witnessed in Macedonia since 1902 has begun in the interior. It appears from official reports that in Thrace bands have already been formed and are terrorizing the villages and many other regions to which demobilized soldiers have returned with guns and ammunition.
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ROME, March 16- "Enver Pasha's attitude in blindly dragging Turkey to take sides against the free powers of the west, an act which ruined my country, was due to his infatuation for Germany," says Prince Abdul Megid Effendi, heir presumptive to the Turkish throne, in an interview published by Giornale d'Italia. He continues:
After his return from Berlin, he spoke like a German, not like a Turk. When the European war broke out, he kept affirming that France, England, and Russia would be swept away like bits of straw by the overhelming power of Germany, and already then he expounded his imperialistic plans. Unfortunately, at that period, Mahomet V. reigned, a man of weak character, who put up no opposition to the tyranical will of Enver."
Thus it came about that, although the country was averse to war, he drew us into the conflict. Europe must know that the Ottoman people were resolute against participating in the conflict. We had just come through two unfortunate wars, that ot Tripoli and that in the Balkans, and were not, therefore, in a position to enter another terrible adventure. Turkey was united in a desire to keep neutral, which is demonstrated by the fact that even many of Enver's friends resigned their positions as Ministers at the outbreak of the war. I desperately attempted to persuade the Sultan to undo the tragic error,but in vain.
"As long as Russia, our hereditary enemy, stood, our army kept firm, as it felt it was defeneding the sacred soil of the mother country against an enemy aiming to penetrate to the heart of our empire. The moment Russia fell to pieces the war ceased to be. The national army began to break up to the point of there being 160,000 deserters in a few months.
"But that was not all. Officers who had done their duty magnificantly, the moment Russia was eliminated, counseled the Sultan's Government to conclude peace. A typical example was Colonel Jacub Giemil. This officer, decorated several times for valor, who distinguished himself on the battlefield, sent Enver a memorandum wherein he honestly and patriotically advised him to conclude peace with the Entente. Enver had Jacub Giemil called to General Headquarters on the pretext of discussing the memorandum with him. Instead he had him arrested and shot within twenty-four hours for treason. Many other officers underwent the same fate."
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PARIS, June 23- The situation in Asia Minor is serious, according to official advices received by Reuter', Ltd., Bureau today, which state that the Turkish forces outnumber the Greeks four to one and threaten to drive the Greeks out of Asia Minor. The Greek forces are reported to be retreating before the Turks, who are supplied with good artillery and plenty of ammunition.
The Greek General Nide has decided to make his first defensive stand along the line running north and south through Perghanos, Magnesia, Nymthaion, and Aidin. Greek reinforcements are expected to reach him within three or four days. The largest Turkish forces are advancing form Denizlu. Turksih troops have already occupied Nazil and are proceeding against Aidin.
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CONSTANTINOPLE, July 11- Enver Pasha, Talaat Bey, and Djemal Pasha, the leaders of the Turkish government during the war, were condemned to death today in Turkish court-martial, investigating the conduct of the Turkish Government during the war period.
Enver and his two leading associates in the Young Turk Government fled from Turkey several months ago, and theirwhereabouts is uncertain.
Djavid bey, former Minister of Finance, and Akusa Mussa Kiazim, former Sheik-ul-Islam, were sentenced to fifteen yeas at hard labor.
The court-martial acquitted Rifaat Bey, former president of the Senate, and Hachim Bey, former minister of Posts and Telegraph.
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PARIS, July 7- The formation of a seperate Turkish Government in Asia Minor by Mustapha Kemal Pasha and Essad Pasha is indicated as a possibility in dispatches received in Peace Conference circles today from Greek sources.
Kamel Pasha, who is reported to have 40,000 troops, with forty-seven heavy guns and many machine guns, is said to have refused to comply with an order form the Government in Constantinople to return to the capital.
Essad Pashha is understoop to be in Asia Minor, in the territory controlled by Kamel Pasha, and, it is said, is in touch with Kamel, presumably in thhe hope of forming a coalition for a new Government.
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From the point of view of Dr. W. D. P. Bliss of Brooklyn, who has spent the last four years in Europe, principally in Berne and Paris, studying problems of the Near East in which he has a life-long interest, the peace now proposed for Turkey by Mr. Clemenceau and Mr. Lloys george is more likely to drive the Turks to desperation and bring abput a renewal of war.
"Consider what the Turk sees now according to the secret treaty between Great Britain, France and Italy, was to be given to Italy, the exact extent depending upon the area given to Great Britain and France. Italian troops are already in occupation as far north as Koniah, well tpward the centre of Anatolia. The whole western coast of Asia Minor is in Greek hands. Armenia is demanding independence, and all the powers have in principle agreed to this. Even Constantinople, according to the Allies' policy, is to be taken from the Turk. Not unnaturally the Turk is asking what will be left to him."
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ROME, Dec. 23- Mustapha Kemal, leader of the Turkish insurgents in Anatolia and head of the Turkish Nationalist movement in Asia Minor has been assassinated according to a Smyrna dispatch to Le Tempe.
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Under the guns of dreadnoughts the allied troops have occupied Constantinople. This is a demonstration which may or may not impress the Turks. The British, French, and Italian Highh Commisioners accompany the occupation by a proclamation which assures the Turks that occupation is only provisional, that the Sultan's authority is to be strengthened throughout the Empire, that no one should be deceived by the frenzy of evil persons who may destroy the last hope of building up a new Turkey, and that "the Entente Powers persist in their purpose not to deprive the Turks of Constantinople; but if, GOD FORBID, troubles develop and massacres occur, that decision probably will be modified."
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Advices reaching Paris say that Mustapha Kemal, the Turkish Nationalistic Leader, has occupied Ada-Bazaar and has concentrated forces in front of the British troops in the Ismid sector.
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CONSTANTINOPLE, July 17 (Associated Press)- The British and Greeks are preparing to clear the Scutari Peninsula of all nationalists and establish a line from Ismid to Chileh, on the Black Sea, which will control the bandit raids against Bosporus towns and check communication between Angora and Constantinople through the Scutari Peninsula mountains.
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CONSTANTINOPLE, June 30 (Associated Press).- There is a great exultation among the Turks in Constantinople because of the alleged victory of the nationalists over the Greeks in vicinity of Pergama, where Mustapha Kemal Pasha's forces are reported to have putflanked the Greeks and to be moving northward toward Panderma (60 miles southwest of Constantinople on the sea of Marmora), taking several thousand prisoners.
There has been no official Greek communique for two days, and the Turkish papers are not permitted to print news unfavorable to the Greeks, but the Turks generally credit the reports of Mustapha Kemal's success.
The Sultan has communicated with the Heir Apparent, who, in turn, has conferred with the Sublime Porte, asking that protest be lodged with the Entente against suppresion of news favorable to Turkey. The director of the allied censorship has replied that the Nationalists have no direct communication with Constantinople and that therefore reports reaching the city are unreliable.
The alleged Nationalists victory has been widely heralded through posters at Brusa and other Anatolian cities, where the assertion is made that the Greek casualties at Pergama numbered 10,000. These figures are regarded in Constantinople as ludicrous, although Greek silence is creating the impression that the initial Greek success has been checked.
The Nationalists frankly admit that they were surprised by the Greek advance before final action on the treaty. The Greek battleship Kilkis, formerly the Mississipi, and all Greek merchant ships at constantinople have sailed at Constantinople at the Dardanelles. The Greeks are recruiting men of all nationalities, including Turks in Constantinople. Many Armenians are also enlisting.
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CONSTANTINOPLE, Aug. 19(Associated Press)- Two Bolshevist cavalry regiments have passed over Southern Armenia into Turkish territory and linked up with the Turkish Nationalists followers of Mustapha Kemal Pasha at Baiazet, according to advices received here today.
Kiazim Kara Bekir, commanding the Turkish Nationalists at Erzerum, has ordered a general celebration because of the Bolshevist advance. He said it was one of the greatest events of the modern history and the beginning of a movement which would "prevent enforcement of the shameful treaty."
Kiazim declared the Armenians would be unable to advance further against the Nationalists and would be compelled to make peace with the Moscow Soviet, thereby insuring that the Armenians would no longer massacre and plunder Mohammedan villages.
Mustapha Kemal Pasha has sent a message to Nikolai Lenin, the Russian Soviet Premier, thanking him for the assistance rendered his forces.
The Bolsheviki attempted to force the Armenians to permit their advance into Turkey over the Alezandropol- Kars route, but the latter held out against this. The Armenians finally consneted to grant the Bolsheviki use of the Southern route, signing an agreement that the Bolsheviki might temporarily occupy the line of the Zangebur-Karabagh-Nakitcheyan.
Constantinople Armenians today declared themselves dishearted by the news, saying they feared the Armenian Government's yielding to Bolshevist pressure would prejudice the world against the Armenian Republic's aspirations.
Entente circles here also alarmed regarding this convention, which they believe is equivalent to permission by Armenia for the Bolsheviki to cross the country from Baku into Anotolia.
The route through Southern Armenia affords a passage accross Northern Persia into Turkey for Bolshevist forces moving westward form Baku.
The original conscrioted Bolshevist army numbered 60,000 but only one division of 7,000 men is reported en route to Anatolia.