As To Moslem Unity -nyt19151222b
AS TO MOSLEM UNITY
What Turkey Has Done for the Happiness of Ottomans
December 22, 1915 (10:16)
To the Editor of the New York Times:
I beg to take exception to the statement to the effect that the Moslem world is divided. There is not only a lack of evidence to support this statement, but close followers of the trend of affairs in the East have been struck by the spirit of enthusiasm exhibited throughout the Mohammedan countries since Turkey's entry into the present conflict.
It is true that England, whose policy has always been directed to prevent Turkey from becoming a power strong enough to become a symbol for the progress of all Moslem races, has tried to attain her purpose by "appointing a Sultan" to the Egyptian throne, but this attempt has not only failed to materialize but has had the rather unlucky effect of making the "Arabs furious against the British for having appointed a Sultan of Egypt, which title they claim, is reserved for the Caliph II. Constantinople," as Neufeld, who has just returned from a journey in Arabia, says. The fact that the so-called Sultan has at several times narrowly escaped assassination by the Egyptian themselves indicates that he is not altogether welcomed even by his own countrymen. What has Turkey done to assure the happiness of the Ottoman Empire? To say nothing of the admitted defeat inflicted on the "mistress of the seas" by the "sick man of Europe" in the Dardanelles, we have crushed at least two revolutions, one in Yemen, organized by England for the formation of a new Caliphate under British control, in which England's participation had become an open fact when her former Commissaries, Iman Yahya and Seyid Idris, renewed their allegiance to the Ottoman authorities: the other in Armenia, which was frustrated by virtue of the precautionary measures taken by the Government to the utter disappointment of England and Russia, who had spent millions in carrying out their seditious propaganda.
AHMED SHUKRI
Columbia University, New York, Dec.20, 1915.
A hard copy of this article or hundreds of others from the time of the Armenian Genocide can be found in The Armenian Genocide: News Accounts From The American Press: 1915-1922