'HISTORY OF THE GREAT WAR BASED ON OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS. THE CAMPAIGN IN MESOPOTAMIA 1914-1918. VOLUME I.' [‎19v] (43/454)

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HISTORY OF THE WAR : MESOPOTAMIA
places of administrative importance there existed a small
number of purely civil police, whose authority, however, did
not extend beyond their own centres. Every Turkish official,
from the Vali downwards, was assisted by a civil administra
tive council, of which he was ex officio president, composed of
officials and non-officials. These councils had only advisory
powers and met but seldom. In certain towns also there were
municipal committees, who had no more power than the
administrative councils. Secret service agents, or spies,
abounded and reported direct to Constantinople.
In considering this centralised system of government it has
to be borne in mind that the Turkish constitution, brought
into being in 1856 after the Crimean War, had been completely
nullified in 1878 by Sultan Abdul Hamid II. He then
prorogued Parliament indefinitely and governed through the
Palace and the Porte for over thirty years. Although the
laws of Turkey guaranteed freedom of religious worship and
perfect equality among all Ottoman subjects, in the greater
part of their dominions Christians and Jews were without the
security which the intervention of the Shaikh-ul-Islam and the
College of Ulemas obtained for the Sultan’s Moslem subjects.
In Mesopotamia, however, there appears to have been little
persecution of Christians or Jews : this was probably due to a
great extent to the fact that animosity between the two chief
Moslem sects—Sunnis and Shiahs—was more marked than
between Moslems and non-Moslems. Relations with Persia
were indifferent, owing chiefly to boundary disputes, which
were a constant source of strife ; and the hostility between
Sunnis and Shiahs became invested with a political character,
aggravated by the attitude of the Turkish authorities towards
Persians in Turkish territory, particularly the pilgrims to
Karbala and Najaf, the holy cities of the Shiahs.
The Furkish revolution of 1908 was welcomed by the majority
of the population ; but the chauvinist policy of the Young
Turks disappointed the hopes that had been entertained. They
governed by putting the Chamber of Deputies under the
shadow and terrorism of the secret court martial. The pro
ceedings of this Court were manipulated by the central office
of the irresponsible Committee of Union and Progress, who
established branches in all the provincial centres to control
the action of the official local authorities. As the Central
Court Martial was composed of officers who—either from having
studied in Germany or for other reasons—were under German
influence, the German Ambassador and his military attache