1916-12-14-DK-001

1916-12-14-DK-001

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Source: DK/RA-UM/Gruppeordnede sager 1909-1945. 139. D. 1, ”Tyrkiet - Indre Forhold”. Pakke 1, til 31 Dec. 1916
Edition: Danish diplomatic sources
Departure of telegram: 12/14/1916
Arrival of telegram: 12/30/1916
Embassy/consular serial number: Nr. 173
Translated by: Matthias Bjørnlund
Last updated: 04/01/2012

The minister in Constantinople (Carl Ellis Wandel) to the Foreign Minister (Erik Scavenius)

Report

Nr. 173
Constantinople, 14 December 1916.

Confidential.

Mr. Foreign Minister,

It now turns out that the parliamentary minutes mentioned in my report No. CLXIX (169) of the 8. of this month - or at least the first ones - have been published as an enclosure to the Gazette as usual, and the reason why we have not received them is that they were seized by the police immediately after distribution had begun, and the police also picked up almost all the copies that had already been distributed.

I have, to wit, managed to acquire a copy which has escaped the notice of the police and which contains the minutes of the meeting that took place in the Senate 27 November this year, when the Address Debate was on the agenda.

On that occasion, Senators Ahmed Riza Bey and Mahmoud Pasha [Mahmud Chevket Bey] , former Marine- and War Minister, aired their discontent with the government's policies, particularly regarding Turkey's protection of Persia and the termination of the Paris- and Berlin Treaties [from 1856 and 1878, respectively].

They wanted to know why Turkey champions Persia's independence, whether the Persian government had been consulted and consented, etc., to which the Chairman gave the evasive answer that the Persian Ambassador's remaning in Constantinople was considered tacit consent.

Regarding the termination of the treaties, they said that they did not believe this would benefit Turkey as these were treaties that guaranteed the territorial integrity of the country. They admitted that these treaties had not always prevented Turkey's territorial losses, but they claimed that they still guaranteed the possession of what was left of the territory.

This led Ahmed Riza Bey to condemn the government's ingratitude and its warfare against those countries that had on previous occasions reached out a helping hand in the hour of danger. If these Great Powers had not helped Turkey at Sultan Mahmoud's [Mahmud II] death and Sultan Abdul-Medjid's [Abdülmecid I] accession to the Throne, he said, its dynasty would now be named Mehmed Ali Pacha [Muhammed/Mehmet Ali Pasha] and not Al Osman, and in 1853 it would have become a vassal state of Russia if it had not been saved by the Crimean War and the Paris Treaty.

To this the Foreign Minister [Halil Bey]answered that the Signatory Powers, with the exception of Germany and Austria-Hungary, had long ago decided to partition Turkey, a statement which Mahmoud Pacha protested against, declaring that he did not believe that any group of Great Powers had decided to partition Turkey prior to the country's participation in the war, and that he, in order for him to change his views, would have to demand of the Foreign Minister irrefutable proof of his claim.

Ahmed Riza Bey joined in with Mahmoud Pacha and remarked that it was not accurate to claim that Turkey had fulfilled all its treaty obligations and that it was only the Signatory Powers that had failed to do so.

He emphasized that among the members of the present government there were members of the Committe who had for fifteen years joined him in proclaiming in all sorts of ways that the Turkish government did not fulfill its obligations. They had all been with him in shouting that there were no courts of law in the provinces, no police, no schools, no justice, and no security. Still to this day these things had not been put in order. There were many reasons why the government had not been able to carry out the reforms and fulfill the other obligations. Nevertheless, it is, Ahmed Riza Bey maintained, these treaties which guarantee what is left of Turkish territory.

It is particularly this last criticism that has caused the precautions concerning the parliamentary minutes which I have mentioned above.

With the highest esteem I remain, Mr. Minister, yours faithfully