'The Turkish and Pan-Turkish Ideal by Tekin Alp' [‎24r] (52/58)

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First, these historical students had to fill many blank leaves of
Turkish history books with the fame of their nation. It may be taken
for granted that, if only the Turks’ national consciousness had dawned
upon them at an earlier period of their historical development, they could
have looked back on an individual civilization in the same way as other
nations, such as the Romans, Greeks, Arabs, &c.
The lack of a national idea has hitherto caused the Turks, even in
the independent Ottoman Empire, to clothe all their scientific and
intellectual work in Persian guise. The Turkish spirit feels itself too
weak to dispense with the borrowed foreign cloak.
If the Ottoman Turks do not become assimilated like their Persian
brothers, the reason lies in the fact that in many places they form the
majority of the population. Another reason is that a high barrier ha^
been formed between the Turks and the Christian nations by various
privileges granted by the different Sultans to the Patriarchs. Close
intercourse between the Turkish subjects and those of other faith was
practically impossible.
On the other hand, the Turks who poured into Persia and subdued
her had once been subdued themselves. The Turkish subjects in Persia
were therefore placed in a very curious position. They speak Turkish, but
always use Persian when writing, as though Turkish were forbidden.
Even the simplest letter is always written in Persian. Although efforts
have recently been made to introduce the use of Turkish in writing they
have not been very favourably received. An attempt was even made
to publish newspapers printed in Turkish. The journals Forad and Suhbet
both had a very limited circulation and a very short life.
In spite of all this, it does not seem too hard a task to win the Turks
in Persia over to the national interest, and give them all a Turkish soul.
It is sufficient that a few obstinate and persevering idealists should
undertake this beneficent task.
To be convinced of this, it is only necessary to glance at the situation
of the Kutzovlachs in Macedonia. The few hundreds of thousands of
Vlachs in Macedonia have, until recent days, been in a far worse situation
than the Turks in Persia. They are Roumanians, and write and speak
Roumanian. From a national point of view they regarded themselves,
nevertheless, as Greeks, and never imagined that they could belong to
any other nation than Greece. Their religious services were performed
in the Greek church and they always made use of Greek priests. At the
same time, the language, race, customs, mode of life, and even dress of
the Greeks were different. And these Vlachs did not confine themselves
to the mere consciousness of being Greeks, but they also opposed Greek
propaganda to that of the Bulgarians.
During the second half of the nineteenth century the first signs of
a national awakening were seen—not among the Vlachs in Macedonia,
but among those living in Roumania and Hungary. Not until the end
of the nineteenth century, when the Roumanians themselves rose to the