Constantinople

Constantinople BY DR. JOSEPH M. TANNER

What would the fall of Constantinople mean to Europe? Europe is divided politically, nationally, racially, and it is divided religiously. In Europe there are three great religious divisions the Roman Catholics, the Greek Catholics, and the Protestants. Among them there is considerable antagonism. The Catholics and Protestants do not easily unite, and there is always friction between the Greek and the Roman Catholic churches. The difference in numbers among them is not very great. Rome is the heart of the Catholic world. The Protestant churches have neither head nor heart; and the Greek Catholic church has a heart but no head. It « has not even a central point, although the greatest stronghold of Greek Catholicism is in Russia. Constantinople would be to the Greek world the new rallying point. It would have about it a certain neutrality that would make possible a unification of Greek Catholicism among the Russians, among the Slavs and the Balkans, and among the Greeks. Nom- inally today the head of the Greek church is the patriarch of Constantinople. This patriarch has always been more or less dominated by the Turks, and his influence over the Greek world has never been very great. Russia leads politically among the Greek Catholics. It is quite natural, therefore, that she should be ambitious to be the head religiously of the Greek church. If she wins her point her influence in Constantinople will be paramount, and it is just likely that the relations of Greece and the Balkans and Russia might be completely changed. I know scholars on the subject of Greek unity will be very skeptical about such a state- ment. They will point out the impossibilities of such a union, but they may be mistaken. They were mistaken when they said that political union in the Balkans was impossible because of the re- ligious hatreds there within the Greek church itself. They demonstrated to their own satisfaction the absurdity of such a thing as a union between Greece and the Servians. All these hatredsit is true have been strong but political necessities have

overcome them, and if Russia should offer liberal terms to the weaker powers no one can say how tremendous her power may become from a religious point of view over the entire Greek Catholic church. I put the religious phase of the fall of Constanti- nople first, because I think it most important. It was originally the center of Greek Catholicism its great church of St. Sophia ;

was the central shrine of the eastern church in the early centuries after Constantine the Great. When Constantinople fell into the hands of the Turks, the Church of St. Sophia became a Turkish mosque. Next to the Mohammedans in Constantinople the Greek Catholics are the most numerous. A strong nation in possession of Constantinople might domi- nate politically western Asia. Across from this great historic city is an undeveloped empire — Asia Minor. The resources of this vast country including the Valley of the Mesopotamia are beyond the wildest dreams of man. We know in ancient times how wonderful they were but since the country came under the domination of the Turks the whole country has sunk into desola- tion and ruin. In the midst of these ruins the unprogressive Turk has settled down in indolence. The question will here be asked, if the Allies succeed will they take the whole Turkish empire, the Asiatic part as well as the European? The probabilities are they will. In the first place if Constantinople is taken and along with it such sea ports as Smyrna and Beirut it is not unlikely that the Turks will become so enraged that they will begin a general massacre of all Chris- tians, and at any rate it may be safely said they will consider it a sacred obligation to kill every Greek that can be found within the empire; and the western part of Asia Minor, and especially the seaport towns, have many thousands of Greeks in them. The fall of Constantinople would be the greatest event of the war. It would mean practically the surrender of the Turks, as it would likely lead to a revolution against further participation in a war that has not been at all to the liking of perhaps a majority of the Mohammedans within the empire. With the Turks out of commission through the fall of their city and a terrible revolu- tion that would stop their further participation in the war, the hundreds of thousands of soldiers now operating within the Turk- ish empire would be set free to participate in the conflict with Germany and Austria. The third effect of the fall of Constantinople would be to place an enlarged army with the Allies in Galicia where they could co-operate with the Russians in overrunning Austria. Austria- Hungary will have to be overcome, and its support to Germany broken down, before the Allies can make much headway against the German empire. Such a condition would permit an army to attack the Germans from the south from the direction of Cracow. This advantage in the fall of Constantinople would be further promoted by the almost absolute certainty that the success of the Allies against the Turks would bring both Italy and Greece into the war. Lastly, the fall of Constantinople would have an exhilarating effect upon all Christendom. The fall of the Mohammedans in

Europe, and the collapse of their empire, would be hailed with de- light throughout the Christian world, not only in Europe, but in America. There has been for centuries a deep-seated antagonism toward the Turks not that as Mohammedans they are any worse ;

than the Mohammedans of India, but because they have been the most aggressive and most successful in their wars against cer- tain Christian nations of Europe. The fall of Constantinople would, therefore, be the most picturesque climax in all the pres- ent great European war.