PERSECUTIONS OF THE GREEKS IN TURKEY SINCE THE ...

PART I
WORK PREPARATORY TO THE EXTERMI-
NATION OF THE GREEK POPULATIONS
IN TURKEY.
CHAPTER I
THE ABOLITION OF ECCLESIASTICAL
AND OTHER PRIVILEGES OF THE
GREEKS IN TURKEY
THE Turco-Germans attempted first to shake the very
foundations of enslaved Hellenism. They knew that
Hellenism had been saved in its days of dark and harsh
slavery, owing to the existence of these ecclesiastical and
other privileges granted to it, by virtue of which alone
the Greek language and the sacred traditions of the race
had been preserved. They decided therefore immediately
to attack these privileges which they mistakenly
regarded as a complement to the Turkish capitulations.
The privileges which the Christians enjoyed differ in
this particular from the capitulations, inasmuch as they
constitute a sacred obligation on the part of the conqueror
towards the conquered on account of the difference
of religion, an obligation which all the civilized
Christian nations recognize toward the Mussulmans in
those countries under their control in which the Mussulman
element exists in large numbers, such as Algeria,
Tunis, India, Caucasus, etc. Germans and Turks attempted
to abolish this privilege gradually because they