//Ed. note: A stinging indictment of
Ottoman-on-Ottoman violence and
oppression during the reign of Sultan
Abdülhamid II, which ended in 1908-
1909 at the hands of the 'Young Turks'
of the İttihat ve Terakki Cemiyeti
(Committee of Union and Progress).//
Freedom! Could such a thing as courageous justice, the sacred enemy
of the web of captivity that has strangled our throats with a snake's
cold-bloodedness, happen for Ottomans? The same Ottomans who
have surrendered the virtues nurtured since their founding 600 years
ago to despotism? Were we Ottomans created to cry and moan in
oppresive exile? The same Ottomans who were rousted from their
homes at midnight, bound together, dragged to the sea and
condemned to waste away in wild, desolate places?
Wasn't it these Ottomans who put all sorts of emblems on the sleeves
of 'paşas' (generals, top bureaucrats) to mask atrocities they visited
upon their fellow citizens that would make the Pharaohs, Jhengiz
Khan and the Inquisition blush?
These same Ottomans who, with the wink of an eye, had weeping
and moaning mothers and fathers ruined and even killed for some
insignificant personal gain; who left mothers and their babies out on
the street and, on a whim, wasted women's honor; who broke up entire
families to satisfy some abominable momentary urge; and who made
some number of poor fellows prisoners of despotism.
So where did the word 'freedom' finally come from? It came from the
"rugged rocks of the Salonica Balkans" (Young Turks). Then one day
we got a telegram, saying that the 'Kanun-i Esas' (Constitution) had
been declared and that we should come home to our motherland right
away.
My God! Could this be possible?! My eyes misted over. The world
of torture had ended and been banished to oblivion. It was as if a
star of justice appeared and suddenly the storm of depredation was
broken apart. A light shone from within the darkness and this golden
light gradually rose up. The day came when all the misfortunes and
adversities were blotted out and erased.
The next day I got ready and took to the road, running headlong
toward a new and better world.
23 November 1908
Navy Lieutenant Nureddin Tevfik
//END of PART THREE/FINAL//
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