Greece’s Roman Road

On June 28, Prime Minister Venizelos took the cruiser Esmeralda, escorted by two destroyers along the way, and crossed the Aegean Sea to reach Constantinople.

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

"Ambassador Amansperger, 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 (as the Ottoman government is called)?" Venizelos asked the Greek ambassador to Constantinople. Aman Sperger said.

The poor Ottoman Empire, in just 5 years, experienced a revolution and three major foreign wars, each of which was completely defeated. Such a tragic record caused a series of internal chaos.

This historic empire is now precarious.

Thinking about it in Venizelos, 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 Ottoman Empire from the Greek ambassador to the Ottomans.

"The high gate is very chaotic now, and the United faction and the liberal faction are attacking each other." Aman Speger thought for a while, organized the language, and said carefully.

"Not long ago, after the Ottoman army's concern about losing Edirne in Thrace was passed to Constantinople, the high gate was greatly shocked. The Bulgarian army cut off the food supply of Edirne, causing the defending city's Ottoman soldiers finally disarmed and surrendered"

"After the defeat of the last war (referring to the first Balkan war), the Ottoman Empire lost almost all Balkan territories"

"The loss of Albania, Macedonia, and Thrace is much more serious than the loss of a remote desert province like Libya."

"Since the Ottoman Empire seized these European territories from Byzantium five centuries ago, they have been the administrative and economic center of the Empire, the most prosperous and economically developed place in the entire Ottoman Empire"

"The Ottoman Empire's revenue has been hit hard by the loss of the revenue that these places turned in"

Venizelos listened carefully to Ambassador Aman Sperger's introduction, and pondered over and over how these materials could be used in the next meeting with Ottoman officials.

"On top of that, the continuous wars have produced thousands of refugees, along with them, and lingering infectious diseases."

"Not long ago, shortly after the signing of the London Treaty to cede Edirne, Mahmoud ~ Sefkot Pasha was assassinated outside the High Gate"

"Young Turks should take advantage of the murder of the Grand Vizier to turn them into a political advantage. Using this pretext, they began to purge their dissidents and conduct purges. Now the United faction is already on the political stage of the Ottoman Empire. stand firm"

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

"The Sultan has just appointed the royal family member Saeed Harim Pasha as the new Grand Vizier (Prime Minister) a few days ago"

Hearing that the meeting tomorrow would be a member of the royal family, Venizelos could not help frowning.

The purpose of this diplomacy is to instigate the Ottoman Empire to attack the Bulgarian army from the flank. According to the current status of the Ottoman Empire as stated by Amans Geppe, the Grand Vizier, a member of the royal family, may not have the courage to take decisive military measures.

After all, the Ottoman Empire was defeated in three wars in a short period of time. It is conceivable how low the morale of the people within the Ottoman Empire is now!

At this juncture, it is too difficult to persuade the rulers 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 recuperate, how can there be the courage to fight again?

A grand vizier from a royal family, without the tortuous tempering of a manager, naturally would not have much responsibility.

Speaking of this, Amans Gepe seemed to notice the dull expression of the Prime Minister and said, "Your Excellency Prime Minister, if you want to achieve the goal 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 rulers of the high gate," said Amans Gepe.

"They are Enver, Talat, Jamal, and they are the top leaders of the Young Turk Party"

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

Venizelos asked: "Your Excellency Ambassador, from your experience, which Pasha has the strongest will to fight?"

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

"The reason?" Venizelos said cautiously.

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

"Enver is a soldier from a military background and is a staunch advocate of the Ottoman Empire. In the three recent wars of the Ottoman Empire, Enver participated in each of them."

"During the Italian-Turkish war, Enver, as the son-in-law of the Sultan, traveled thousands of miles to Libya to command Ottoman soldiers to fight."

"After returning from Libya, when the Ottoman Empire fought fiercely in Thrace and Bulgaria, due to the unfavorable situation of the war, the former Grand Vizier, the liberal Jamie Le Pasha, had intended to sign an agreement to cede Edirne to foreign domination"

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

"According to what I have heard, Enver pointed a pistol directly at the head of Grand Vizier Camille and asked the Grand Vizier to offer his resignation. All this happened within 15 minutes."

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

Well, while listening and analyzing, Venizelos has a high reputation in the army, has a strong patriotism, and at the same time serves as the Minister of War, who actually controls the military control of the Ottoman Empire.

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

Hearing this, Venizelos' eyes lit up. He was thirty-four years old. As a politician, he was very young. No wonder he was so energetic.

"Then let's visit this Enver Pasha tomorrow, and try to open a breakthrough from him." Venizelos also believed that such a high-ranking official with military background is indeed a suitable role from the introduction of Aman Sperger. .

"Mr. Prime Minister, you" Aman Sperger hesitated.

"What's the matter?" Venizelos asked in surprise.

"Prime Minister, the relationship between Greece and the Ottoman Empire is not a good one. After all, our war with the Ottoman Empire has just ended for a few months, and Greece has also taken a large tract of land from the Ottoman Empire, the islands in the Aegean Sea. , almost all occupied by Greece," said Ambassador Amman Skoppe.

"For your trip tomorrow, you'd better not make too much fanfare, otherwise if the news of the Greek Prime Minister's visit to Constantinople is leaked, then I'm worried that some extremists will be against you."

It seems that the Ottomans also hold grudges against Greece, Venizelos thought secretly.

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

Easing tensions between Greece and the Ottoman Empire was also an important goal of Venizelos.

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

As the Ottoman Empire lost important territories including Thrace and Macedonia, the territory of Greece did not directly border the Ottoman Empire, which means that the possibility of direct conflict between Greece and the Ottoman Empire is very small.

Instead, it was Bulgaria and Serbia, former allies of Greece, who became the biggest and most direct threat to Greece on land.

Greece and Bulgaria, and now the two armies are fighting **** Macedonia.

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

For those who are engaged in diplomatic work, flexibility of position is a skill that must be learned, and Venizelos is just an excellent add-on officer.

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

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

First of all, the Ottoman Empire is still by far the largest export market for Greek goods.

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

The Ottoman Empire has been the largest exporter of Greek goods.

For example, in textiles, Asia Minor on the coast of the Aegean Sea produces a large amount of cotton. Every year, the perfect textile industry in Greece needs to import cotton from Asia Minor.

The cotton produced in Asia Minor not only feeds tens of thousands of cotton textile workers in Greece, but also provides the main income for 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 industrial products such as sugar and soap, and exported to the Ottoman Empire.

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

For a long time, these Greeks living in the Ottoman territory were like some hostages, and the Greek government was afraid of taking extreme measures to treat msl in Greece.

Like Bulgaria and Serbia, after the occupation of Macedonia, a large number of msl were expelled from Macedonia, and as many as 300,000 refugees flowed into Asia Minor.

Especially in Bulgaria, after the unification of Eastern Rumelia Province in 1881 and the acquisition of Thrace in 1813, Bulgarian soldiers and people expelled almost all the msl from the country, and all property and land were directly confiscated.

The Greek government has not intervened to take such extreme and drastic measures, because the number of Greeks living in Asia Minor may be as high as two million.

As mentioned earlier, Greece and the Ottomans have always maintained close economic ties, which is due to the contributions of these Greeks living in the Ottomans.

Many of the Greeks still living in the Ottoman Empire were successful merchants, small shopkeepers, 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, and the official Arabic alphabet used in the Ottoman Empire was also particularly complex and difficult to identify, which made it even more difficult to popularize the text.

Greeks living in the Ottomans attach great importance to education, so many Greeks can work as teachers, lawyers, doctors, translators, bankers and other high-end occupations.

For reasons of national sentiment, these people also tended to use goods imported from their fellow Greeks.

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

It is for these reasons that Venizelos, a diplomat, also has the purpose of easing political tensions between Greece and the Ottoman Empire on this trip to Constantinople.

In Venizelos' view, there will be no war between Greece and the Ottomans for a long time after the territories are not bordered.

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

It would also protect the two million Greeks living in the Ottoman Empire.

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 Gepe.

In the back garden, Venizelos met the Ottoman political upstart.

Thirty-four-year-old Enver was very young, wearing a khaki military uniform and looking vigorous.

"I can't believe that the three robbers just joined forces to rob, and they turned around and fought because of the uneven distribution of stolen goods," Enver said to Venizelos in a mocking tone.

Enver, who was bitter about the loss of East Thrace, had been closely monitoring the development of the war since the news of the war between Greece and Bulgaria.

Naturally, he knew exactly why Venizelos came to visit.

Think of the abominable Greece, which also grabbed a lot of territory from the Ottoman Empire, and was very angry.

Venizelos shrugged, took off his black bowler hat, put it on the table, and said in a deep voice, "Enwei Pasha, you are now a politician and need to adapt to the change of identity and the relationship between countries. That's it, revolving around interests"

"If you are here to send troops from the Ottoman Empire to help Greece solve the trouble, you don't need to say anything. Greece and the Ottoman Empire don't have such a close relationship," Enver said coldly.

Venizelos didn't care, just said to himself: "How many important Balkan territories have the Ottoman Empire lost 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 production areas and have always been the main source of taxes for the Ottoman Empire."

"Now these places are all lost"

"Bulgaria's new border, the closest distance to Constantinople, the capital of the Ottoman Empire, is only 49 kilometers"

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

Enver's face turned ashen~www.wuxiax.com~ Venizelos didn't say a word, as if a knife had been stabbed in this patriotic general.

Amans Gepe, who was on the side of the battle, was very worried that Prime Minister Venizelos' merciless taunting of the Ottoman Empire would anger Enver.

"Bulgarians, Serbians, Greeks, the subjects of the Ottomans for five hundred years, you have never paid attention to them, but now they have crushed the Ottoman Empire. This cruel reality, I am afraid you have not dreamed of it."

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 it is losing consecutively to the small Balkan countries that once belonged to the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman army and the people are unacceptable in any way."

"Enwei Pasha, for today's Ottoman Empire, the biggest problem is actually the public morale, which has been extremely low."

"Never before has the Ottoman Empire desperately needed a victory to prove itself"

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