Greece to roman road

On June 28, Prime Minister Venizelos took the cruiser Esmeralda, escorted by two destroyers along the way, across the Aegean Sea and arrived at Constantinople.

After arriving on the evening of the 29th, Venizelos stayed at the Greek Embassy in Constantinople.

"Ambassador Amensperger, can you tell me about the current situation of the Ottoman Empire? Especially in terms of politics, what is the current situation of the High Gate (the name for the Ottoman government)?" Venizelos asked the Greek Ambassador to Constantinople Amansperger said.

The poor Ottoman Empire experienced a revolution and three large-scale external wars in just five years, each of which was a complete defeat. Such tragic results triggered a series of internal chaos.

This long-established empire is now in turmoil.

Venizelos thinks that the current situation of the Ottoman Empire should be at its extreme.

With a visit scheduled for tomorrow, Venizelos wanted to learn more about the situation in the Ottoman Empire from the Greek ambassador to the Ottoman Empire.

"The current high school is very chaotic. Unionists and liberals are fighting against each other." Ammannsperger thought for a while, organized his words, and said carefully.

“Not long ago, when the news of the Ottoman Empire’s army losing Edirne in Thrace reached Constantinople, it shocked Gaomen greatly. The Bulgarian army cut off Edirne’s food supplies, causing the defenders to The Ottoman soldiers finally surrendered"

"After the failure of the last war (referring to the First Balkan War), the Ottoman Empire lost almost all of its Balkan territory"

"Compared to losing remote desert provinces like Libya, losing Albania, Macedonia, and Thrace is a much more serious loss."

"Since the Ottoman Empire captured these European territories from Byzantium five centuries ago, they have been the administrative and economic center of the empire since then, and they are the most prosperous and developed place in the entire Ottoman Empire."

"After losing the revenue turned over by these places, the Ottoman Empire's fiscal revenue received a heavy blow."

Venizelos listened carefully to Ambassador Ammannsperger's introduction, and thought about how this information could be used in the subsequent meeting with Ottoman officials.

"In addition, continuous wars have produced thousands of refugees. Along with the refugees, there are lingering infectious diseases."

"Not long ago, shortly after the signing of the Treaty of London ceding Edirne, Mehmud Surfkot Pasha was assassinated outside the High Gate."

"The Young Turks should take advantage of the murder of the Grand Vizier and turn it into their political advantage. Using this as an excuse, they began to eliminate dissidents and carry out purges. Now the Unionists have already established themselves in the political arena of the Ottoman Empire. "Stand firm on the ground"

Hearing this, Venizelos asked curiously: "So who is the new Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire now?"

“A few days ago, the Sultan just appointed royal member Said Halim Pasha as the new Grand Vizier (Prime Minister).”

Venizelos couldn't help but frowned when he heard that the person he would meet with tomorrow would be a member of the royal family.

The purpose of this diplomacy is to encourage the Ottoman Empire to attack from the flanks and contain the Bulgarian army. According to the current situation of the Ottoman Empire as stated by Amans Gebe, a grand vizier who was born in the royal family may not have the courage to take decisive military measures.

After all, the Ottoman Empire suffered disastrous defeats in three wars in a short period of time. One can imagine how low the morale of the people within the Ottoman Empire is now!

At this juncture, it would be too difficult to persuade the leaders of the Ottoman Empire to send troops again.

As far as the Ottoman Empire is concerned at this time, it is too late to seize the time to take a breath and repair. How can it still have the courage to start a war again?

A grand vizier born in a royal family will naturally not have much responsibility without the torturous training of his manager.

Having said this, Amansgeber seemed to have noticed the Prime Minister's dull expression and said: "Your Excellency, Prime Minister, if you want to achieve the purpose of persuading the Ottoman Empire to send troops, it is best not to meet the trusted Grand Vizier."

"You should directly visit the three giants of the current Ottoman Empire. In my opinion, these three should be the real leaders of the high gate," Amansgebe said.

"They are Enver, Talat, and Cemal. They are the top leaders of the Young Turks."

"Talat Pasha was appointed Minister of the Interior, Enver Pasha, the most popular general in the army, was appointed Minister of War, and Cemal Pasha was Governor of Constantinople"

Venizelos asked: "Your Excellency Ambassador, based on your experience, which pasha has the strongest will to fight?"

Amansgeber was silent for a moment, and after thinking carefully in his mind, he slowly said: "War Minister Enver Pasha"

"What's the reason?" Venizelos said cautiously.

For Greece now, the most important thing is to end this war quickly. Every day of delay costs Greece tens of millions of drachmas.

"Enver was a soldier and a staunch militant in the Ottoman Empire. Enver participated in each of the three recent wars in the Ottoman Empire."

“During the Italian-Turkish War, Enver, as the Sultan’s son-in-law, traveled thousands of miles to Libya to command the Ottoman soldiers in the war.”

"After returning from Libya, when the Ottoman Empire was fighting fiercely in Thrace and Bulgaria, due to the unfavorable war situation, the former Grand Vizier, the liberal Cemil Pasha, planned to sign an agreement and agreed to cede Edirne to foreign domination"

"After learning the news, Enver took extreme action. He led more than ten soldiers into the high gate. They rushed into the cabinet meeting room and directly killed four people including the Minister of War Zinamu Pasha. "high official"

"According to what I heard, Enver directly pointed a pistol at the head of Grand Vizier Kamil and asked the Grand Vizier to resign. This all happened within 15 minutes."

"After this, Enver went directly to the sultan's palace, reported the operation, and asked the sultan to appoint a new grand vizier."

Well, Venizelos listened and analyzed again and again. He had an outstanding reputation in the army and had a strong sense of patriotism. He also served as the Minister of War and actually controlled the military control of the Ottoman Empire.

"This Enver Pasha is just 34 years old this year, very young," Amansgebe said.

Venizelos's eyes lit up when he heard this. He was thirty-four years old, which was very young for a politician. No wonder he was so energetic.

"Then let's visit Enver Pasha tomorrow and try to open a breakthrough from him." Venizelos also believed that such a high-ranking official with a military background was indeed a suitable role from Armansperger's introduction. .

"Mr. Prime Minister, you" Ammannsperger hesitated.

"What?" Venizelos asked in surprise.

"Prime Minister, the relationship between Greece and the Ottoman Empire is not good. After all, the war between us and the Ottoman Empire has just ended a few months ago. Greece also took away large areas of land from the Ottoman Empire, including islands in the Aegean Sea. , almost entirely occupied by Greece,” exhorted Ambassador Amans Geber.

"You'd better not make a big deal about your trip tomorrow, otherwise if the news of the Greek Prime Minister coming to Constantinople is leaked, then I'm worried that some extremists will be unfavorable to you."

It seems that the Ottomans also have resentment towards Greece, Venizelos thought to himself.

For Venizelos, persuading the Ottoman Empire to send troops to Thrace was only one of the purposes of this visit.

Easing the tense relationship between Greece and the Ottoman Empire was also an important goal for Venizelos.

After all, after the Balkan War, the situation in the Balkans changed dramatically.

As the Ottoman Empire lost important territories including Thrace and Macedonia, Greek territory was no longer directly bordering the Ottoman Empire, which meant that the possibility of direct conflict between Greece and the Ottoman Empire was very small.

Instead, Greece's former allies Bulgaria and Serbia have become the biggest and most direct threats to Greece on land.

The armies of Greece and Bulgaria are now engaged in a bloody battle in Macedonia.

Then Greece and the Ottomans, who were still at war not long ago, can naturally become allies.

For those engaged in diplomacy, flexibility in stance is a skill that must be learned, and Venizelos is an excellent foreign minister.

As the saying goes, there are only eternal interests between countries, but no permanent friends.

There were many practical reasons for Greece to ease its relations with the Ottoman Empire.

First of all, the Ottoman Empire is still Greece’s largest export market so far.

With the advantage of geographical location, although the political relationship between Greece and the Ottomans has always been bad, the economic ties between the two countries have always been close.

The Ottoman Empire had always been the largest exporter of Greek goods.

For example, in textiles, Asia Minor on the Aegean coast produces a large amount of cotton. Greece's well-established textile industry needs to import cotton from Asia Minor every year.

The cotton produced in Asia Minor not only supported tens of thousands of cotton textile workers in Greece, but was also the main income of hundreds of thousands of Ottoman cotton farmers.

Primary agricultural products such as palm oil and sugar cane produced in the Congolese colonies were shipped to Greece for processing, supporting sugar, soap and other industrial products and exported to the Ottoman Empire.

Secondly, the Greeks were the largest Christian population in the Ottoman Empire.

For a long time, these Greeks living in the Ottoman territory have been like some hostages, making the Greek government afraid to take extreme measures to treat MSL in Greece.

For example, after Bulgaria and Serbia occupied Macedonia, a large number of MSLs were expelled from Macedonia, and as many as 300,000 refugees flowed into Asia Minor.

Especially for Bulgaria, after unifying the province of Eastern Rumelia in 1881 and acquiring Thrace in 1813, Bulgarian soldiers and people expelled almost all MSLs, and all property and land were directly confiscated.

The Greek government has never intervened to take such extremely drastic measures. The reason is that there may be as many as two million Greeks living in Asia Minor.

As mentioned earlier, Greece and the Ottomans have always maintained close economic ties, and this is due to the contribution of the Greeks living in the Ottoman territory.

Many Greeks still living in the Ottoman Empire are successful merchants, small shopkeepers, and craftsmen, such as tailors.

Due to the extremely backward education in the Ottoman Empire, the MSL illiteracy rate in the Ottoman Empire was extremely high. The official Arabic alphabet used by the Ottoman Empire was also very complex and difficult to read, which further exacerbated the difficulty of popularizing the text.

The Greeks living in the Ottoman territory attached great importance to education, so many Greeks were able to work in relatively high-end professions such as teachers, lawyers, doctors, translators, and bankers.

Due to national sentiments, these people also tended to import goods from their fellow Greeks.

The natural sales channels provided great convenience for the circulation and sales of Greek goods in the Ottoman Empire.

For these reasons, Venizelos, who was a diplomat, also visited Constantinople with the purpose of easing the tense political relations between Greece and the Ottoman Empire.

According to Venizelos, there would be no war between Greece and the Ottomans for a long time after the territories were no longer bordering each other.

That being the case, why not build a good relationship with Greece’s largest commodity export market?

This would also protect the two million Greeks living within the Ottoman Empire.

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In the residence of the Minister of War, the Greek Prime Minister Venizelos quietly visited Enver Pasha together with the Greek Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire Amans Gebe.

In the back garden, Venizelos met this upstart on the Ottoman political scene.

Thirty-four-year-old Enver is very young and looks heroic in a khaki military uniform.

"I can't believe that three bandits had just joined forces to rob, and then turned around and started fighting over the uneven distribution of the spoils," Enver said to Venizelos in a mocking tone.

Enver, who was deeply worried about the loss of East Thrace, had been paying close attention to the development of the war after the news of the war between Greece and Bulgaria came.

Naturally, Venizelos knew the purpose of his visit.

Thinking of the abominable Greece, which also seized a large amount of territory from the Ottoman Empire, I was very angry.

Venizelos shrugged, took off his black bowler hat, placed it on the table, and said in a deep voice: "Enwe Pasha, you are now a politician, and you need to adapt to the change in status and the relationship between countries. That’s it, revolving around profit.”

"If you are here to want the Ottoman Empire to send troops to help Greece solve its troubles, there is no need to say anything. Greece and the Ottoman Empire do not have such a close relationship," Enver said coldly.

Venizelos didn't care and just said to himself: "How many important Balkan territories did the Ottoman Empire lose in just a few decades? Romania, Serbia, Albania, Bulgaria, Eastern Rumelia, Thrace, Macedonia."

Venizelos didn't say a name, and Enver's face turned cold.

"These places are the most prosperous and prosperous places in the Ottoman Empire. They are important food producing areas and have always been the main source of taxes for the Ottoman Empire."

"Now these places are all lost."

“Bulgaria’s new border is only 49 kilometers away from Constantinople, the capital of the Ottoman Empire.”

"In just two years, the Ottoman Empire lost two wars"

Enver's face was ashen, and Venizelos didn't say a word. It was like a knife had been stabbed in the body of this patriotic general.

Armansgeber, who was fighting on the sidelines, was very worried that Prime Minister Venizelos's merciless ridicule of the Ottoman Empire would anger Enver.

"Bulgarians, Serbs, Greeks, Ottoman subjects for 500 years, you have never taken it seriously, but now you have defeated the Ottoman Empire. I am afraid you never expected this cruel reality in your dreams."

Enver's chest heaved violently.

Venizelos didn't care, and said to himself: "Losing to Italy, a young country in Europe, is already a huge blow, but now we are losing to the small Balkan countries that were once affiliated with the Ottoman Empire. , the Ottoman army and people cannot accept it in any case.”

"Envi Pasha, the biggest problem for the Ottoman Empire today is actually public morale, which has dropped to an extremely low level."

"The Ottoman Empire has never been in such urgent need of a victory to prove itself as it is today."

After that, Venizelos picked up his hat, put it on, turned and left.