THE TURKISH EMPIRE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 49, 12 October 1911, Page 2

THE TURKISH EMPIRE.

AN INTERESTING HISTORY 7

THE .MILITARY SYSTEM

The general history of Turkey is very poorly known to most people, and it will be a matter of surprise to many that it is quite a young nation, dating only from the thirteenth century. About the second decade or that period a small tribe fled before its Mongol enemies from its original homo in Central Asia, under its hereditary chief, Suleyman Shah, and wandered through P.ersia into Armenia. The son of Suleyman, Kr '1 oghrul, who succeeded to the chiefship, was one day wandering about with his warriors, wheiii ho came upon a tremendous battle. The contending armies were very ill-matched, and.Er Toghrul joined forces with the weaker party. His action converted a certain defeat into a smashing .victory, and the hordes of, the. enemy were completely routed. The army which had thus been saved in the nick of time from destruction was that of Ala-ed-Diu, a Seljuk Sultan of Asia Minor; and. the enemy was a tribe of marauding Mongols. Ala-edrDin showed his gratitude to Er Toghrul by granting him a strip of land on the Byzantine frontier, including the towns of Sngut and Eski Shebr. Er Toghrul had a son, Osman, whose name is, perhaps, the most famous connected with the Turkish Empire, for he was virtually its./founder, and he was notable for many fine qualities. The very name Ottoman is a corruption of : Osnianli. While still young Osman captured several towns Irom the Gtrceks, and became invested wii’n the title; of Prince. In 1300 repeated Mongol (Onslaughts smashed up the. Seljuk rule, but the conquerors failed to substitute a new control, and in time no less than ton Turkish dynasties arose; that of Osman being one of the lessor of them. These lasted a very short while, and they were all absorbed with the Osmanli. Thus the Ottoman Empire owes its name actually to a series of political events. Osman, who was born in 1258, started a strenuous life. Besides capturing many Greek towns be gave the Mongols plenty of evidence that neither ho nor bis people were to be treated lightly or arrogantly. . Before he died, poor in worldly goods but rich in respect, ho had considerably extended his kingdom. The Ottoman army was thoroughly organised by his successor, who also added greatly to the. size of the Empire. In 1153 Constantinople was taken from the Greeks by moans of a remarkably fine piece of military engineering. The city was unasailable from the fronts presented to the Turks; but they laid a five-mile roadway of timber across 1 a narrow isthmus, apd : transported a number of war galleys overland*Unto an arm of water that commanded the weaker side of the city’, and it fell, in spite of the powerful defence of its Christian people. A hijneired years later the Turkish Army...was the terror of southern Europe. ■ i / ...... The more recent history of Turkey is a tale of * turmoil, misrule, massacres, and oppression, terminating recently in a revolution in favour of constitutional government, the deposition of the Sultan, and the enthroning of his younger brother, Mehmed •V. The Empire is still a military one. Until 1886 military service was compulsory upon all Mussulmans over 18 years of age, and the army was kept up by -15,000 recruits drawn by ballot annually. But at the end of that year universal conscription of all able-bodied men was decreed, and resulted in a permanent army of reserves, numbering a full million. The military headquarters were then fixed at Constantinople, Adrianople, Mouustir, Erzingran, Baghdad, Damascus, and Sanaa. • In Epirus, or Preveza, at the outbreak of■ the Turko-GT'eek war, in 1897, about 15,000 Greeks, including a cavalry regiment and five batteries, the whole under Colonel Mgnos, occupied a lino of defence from Arta to Beta. The Turks, about 28,000 strong, with forty-eight guns, under Achmet Hifsi Pasha, wore distributed mainly at lannina, Pentepagadia, and in front of Arta. On April 18 the Turks commenced a three days’ bombardment of Arta : but successive attempts .to take the bridge were* repulsed, and during the night of April 21 they re.*tired on Priilippiada, 26 miles distant, which was attacked and occupied by Colonel Manos on April 23. The Greeks then advanced to Pentepagadia, meeting with little resistance. Their difliculties now began. After some -skirmishing on April 27 the position held by their advanced force near Ilomupulos was attacked on April 28. The attack was renewed on April 29, and no Greek reinforcements wore forthcoming when needed. A retreat was ordered, which

quickly degenerated into panic-strick-en flight to and across Area. Reinforcements, including 2500 Epirote volunteers, were sent to Arta from Athens, and on May 12 another incursion into Turkish territory' began, '('lie Greeks fought well, and being (reinforced by a battalion from the loft, and for a, time fairly held their own. On the night of May 15 a retreat was ordered, and well carried out. The volunteers landed at the mouth of the Luro were attacked and routed wifh heavy loss.

The campaign in Epirus thus tailed as completely as that in Thessaly. Under the terms of the treaty of peace, signed on September 20, and arranged by the European Powers, Turkey obtained an indemnity of ;£S 1,000,000, and a rectification of the Thessalian frontier, carrying with it some strategic advantage.