File No. 763.72119/479
[Enclosure—Translation]
The Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs
(
Halil) to the American Ambassador (
Elkus)
No. G1
No. S1
Constantinople,
January 19,
1917.
Mr. Ambassador: The Imperial Ottoman
Government has received through the intermediary of the
Government of the United States of America the reply of its
adversaries to its note dated December 12 last, by which in
agreement with its allies it had proposed the immediate entering
upon negotiations of peace, so as to spare humanity a further
effusion of blood and new sufferings.
The governments of the Entente have refused this offer of peace
and of concilation with the pretext that it is lacking in
sincerity and does not possess any base in fact.
[Page 59]
The tone in which the governments of the Entente have thought fit
to formulate their refusal dispenses the Imperial Government of
any need to reply. However, it desires to set forth and to
render more precise, before the governments of the neutral
powers, its manner of viewing the situation.
The entire world recognizes that the proposal of the Quadruple
Alliance, clearly formulated in a spirit of moderation, rests,
on the contrary, upon a solid base: as for its sincerity, this
has been sufficiently established in the reply which the four
allied powers gave to the proposal of the President of the
United States of America.
In their reply the governments return to the question of the
responsibility for the present war and strive to justify
themselves by vain and pompous words which do not agree with the
reality of the facts.
The assertions of the powers of the Entente—always the
same—having been refuted on many occasions, it would be tiresome
to reply to them again. Nevertheless the Imperial Government
considers it useful to point out here that the Central powers
had no reason to let loose the war, and Turkey had no motive for
participation therein—without being compelled—for the simple
reason that none of them entertained aspirations to the
detriment of the powers of the Entente, which is not the case
for these latter.
In reality, who does not know the aims of France upon Syria and
Alsace-Lorraine, of Italy upon the southwestern provinces of
Austria, of Russia on Constantinople, the Straits, and a large
part of Anatolia, and of England upon Mesopotamia and Arabia?
Who is not aware of all the intrigues of these powers to prevent
the natural development of the Ottoman Empire, so as to some day
be able to realize their project of division and that in spite
of the principles of nationalities which they always advance,
with the evident object of impressing public opinion in their
own and in neutral countries? For, in reality, they themselves
pay but slight attention to these same principles when they are
not in conformity with their own interests: the proclamation of
an English protectorate over Egypt, the population of which has
no relation with the English race, the annexation of Cyprus
where nothing is English, the occupation of Tripoli by Italy
where the Italian is only an intruder; the wild project of
wishing to accord to Russia Constantinople together with the
basin of the Marmara where the great majority of the population
is of Turkish race and Moslem, are so many violations of the
principle of nationalities of which our adversaries seem to make
themselves the apostles so as to justify their desire of
vengeance and of conquest.
[Page 60]
Turkey has thus been forced to take up arms with her allies for
the defense of her existence, of her liberty and of her
independence. However, she is of the opinion, together with her
allies, that to-day this aim has been attained. On the contrary,
the enemy powers are at this moment farther than ever from the
realization of their plans and it is precisely because of this
that they nervously refuse a loyal proposal and thus
deliberately assume the responsibility of continuing the
effusion of blood.
In speaking of the protection of the rights of small nations, the
powers of the Entente forget too much that independently of the
peoples whom they have subjected by violence and whom they crush
under their yoke, it is exactly they who so far have caused the
misfortune and the ruin of more than one small nation. The
example of Serbia whom Russia drove into not accepting in its
entirety the Austro-Hungarian note after the horrible crime of
Sarajevo, of Roumania whom they drew into their toils by
intrigues and by corruption, of Montenegro whom they deceived,
and finally of Greece whom they wish to draw into the war by
unwarranted proceedings, hitherto unknown in the annals of
history. The world which judges governments by their acts, will
not be able to discover in the demands of the powers of the
Entente the sincerity which these latter refuse to recognize in
the proposal of the four allied powers. Besides, it will judge
that the alleged violations of international law which are
attributed to the four allies can not furnish a ground for
complaint to those who, from the beginning of the war, have
trodden under foot this law and have torn up the rights upon
which it was based. The numerous protests which the Sublime
Porte and its allies have been obliged to address since the
commencement of hostilities to the governments of the Entente,
through the intermediary of the powers charged with the
protection of their interests, and of which the neutral states
have often received copies, do not permit any doubt to remain
concerning this matter. The Ottoman Empire and its allies have
made a sincere effort to put an end to the human sufferings
resulting from the war; their adversaries have refused the same
without any plausible motive.
Consequently the responsibility for the continuance of the
struggle falls upon these latter.
Confident in the justice of their cause, the four allied powers
shall continue the war until there shall be a peace which
guarantees honor, existence, and the free development of their
peoples, and which brings to all nations a durable peace,
permitting them to devote themselves in perfect harmony to the
progress of civilization.
Please accept [etc.]
