Hear Both Sides Of Balkan Fight

New York Times 100 years ago today, March 16, 1913:
Speakers Representing the Turks and the Allies Explain Causes of War at Republican Club.
SLAV FEDERATION REALIZED
Allies Would Resurrect an Organization That Died 500 Years Ago, Prof. Pupin Says.
    The Balkan war was discussed by speakers representing the allies and the Turks at a meeting held yesterday afternoon at the Republican Club, 54 West Fortieth Street. Prof. Michael J. Pupin of Columbia University, who is a Serb, explained the cause for which the Balkan nations were fighting. Vahan Cardashian, who told the gathering that he was an Armenian, presented the side of the Turks. The other speakers were Frederick Palmer, the correspondent of The New York Times in the Balkan struggle, and Prof. Richard Gottheil of Columbia University.
    Before introducing Prof. Pupin as the first speaker, Edward Kellogg Baird, Chairman of the meeting, assured those present that hostilities had been suspended. and that the speakers would strive not to forget it.
    "It is not necessary for me to tell you what the Turks are fighting for." said Prof. Pupin. "because Prof. Gottheil will tell you that, but the Southern Slavs and Greeks have certain definite, National aspirations, the same that inspired the Italians under Garibaldi, and the Germans under Bismarck. What they wish to do is to free the Serbs, Bulgarians, Montenegrins, and the Greeks from Turkish rule, and establish a union among themselves. If they succeed they will have the same kind of kingdom that existed 500 years ago. They will eliminate the foreign element and have three great kingdoms standing together.
    "The present Balkan Federation has for its aim the resurrection of an organization that died 500 years ago. I use the word "resurrection " because it is really a miracle — the same kind as the biblical miracle — that has been at work for the last 500 years and has resulted in the present federation.
    "You know that when the Moslems conquered the Bulgarians 500 years ago the Bulgarians lost everything. They became Moslem slaves politically, economically, and otherwise, and they were cut off from their great historical past. The name Bulgarian was practically eliminated from the European vocabulary until the beginning of the nineteenth century.
    "The Moslems objected to the formation of a strong orthodox Church such as the Bulgarians believed in, so they devoted themselves to the construction of wonderful religious customs that were strictly observed, and they needed no ecclesiastical worship. The religion of the Balkan peoples became a part of their social life — a national religion. The religion of the Serbs and the Bulgarians, though they were of the same Church as the Russians, was not the same as the Russians' religion The Southern Slav has always been tolerant."
    Another way in which the Southern Slavs led an inward life, Prof. Pupin said, was in their literature. For 400 years, he Said, these peoples had been reminded of the glories of their past by the traveling minstrels, or jouslars, who fired their hopes by telling them that they could reestablish their empire.
    "The Turk has been eliminated, and if everything goes well we shall have three great and independent kingdoms founded on democratic principles. So far as I can see now, they have succeeded in that, provided no other power, no other enemy, opposes them.
    "But it seems that there are such powers. Austria is putting up all kinds of objections. Above all, Austria is afraid that if the nationalistic wave gets too strong in the Balkans she will lose her south Slavonic possessions, peopled by race that has the same aspirations as the Serbs and the Bulgarians. But you must remember that it is the same Austria that fought against the united Italy and a united Germany and was beaten. To-day I think it is the same old treacherous Austria that is fighting against the Bulgarian union, and I am sure Austria is going to meet defeat again.
    According to Frederick Palmer, the war correspondent, the Balkan question was settled in two weeks after hostilities began. He said that since Nov. 16, when Lule Burgas was captured, all the fighting had been to no purpose. He described the characteristics of the Turkish soldiers, and attributed their failure to the fact that they were poorly officered. He said he had learned from many of the other correspondents who were at the front that the Turkish officers would frequently travel by train and leave their forces to hold the positions.
    "The young Turkish officers have ceased to believe in Allah," added Mr. Palmer, "and they say that the officers are not responsible for their men. They are intellectual rather than practical." The trouble with the Balkan nations, according to Prof. Gottheil, was that they went to sleep in the fourteenth century with problems in their minds unsolved by the methods of their time, only to wake up in the nineteenth century facing problems that exist to-day. He said that while the war had gone against the Turks, it would be wrong to think it had gone altogether well for the Balkan allies. There were many questions still to be settled, he said, among them the allotment of the territory which the Serbs and Bulgarians had gained in Macedonia and Thrace, and the question of giving to Albania an autonomous government. Together with all this, he said, must be considered the alignment of the European powers.
    "And so, gentlemen of the Republican Club, it looks almost as if we really stood in the shadowof Armageddon." he said in conclusion. "We are face to face with that which every lover of mankind must look at with horror."
    In the opinion of Prof. Gottheil, a great European conflict would he staved off by the international bankers, who he said were "the greatest staying and steadying power that we have to-day."
    Mr. Canrashian said that the war in the East was not between the Balkan nations and Turkey, but between the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance. He explained that a military Government had been forced on the Turkish Empire by reason of the fact that the Turkish Empire had a population composed for the most part of aliens, whose Political ambitions had to be subdued. While Turkey was building a military Government, he said, these alien races had been left free to develop social and economic institutions.
    At the end of the discussions motion pictures received from the Balkans were exhibited and explained in detail by Mr. Palmer, who had never seen the reels before, though he was able to recognize the places where they were taken.