THE SICK MAN OF EUROPE 133The Allies had embarrassed themselves by having declared themselves
neutral in this Greco-Turkish War. They now intervened and forced the
peace of the Treaty of Lausanne, signed on July 24, 1923. To minimize
problems, the Greeks in Anatolia were exchanged for Muslim Turks then
living in Greek Macedonia. The Greeks in Istanbul and the other Christian
minorities were to have the same rights as secured by other minorities in
Europe under the postwar treaties. This ended the last real invasion of
Anatolian Turkey. The sick man of Europe had mustered the strength
necessary to survive the greatest war in human history. The accomplish-
ment cannot be overstated. The long, hard struggles of the Turkish army
had at last brought the tired, old Ottoman Empire to the point that a proud
modern nation could be built on its shoulders.
During World War I another sad chapter in Middle East history arose
that merits some discussion as well. The “Armenian Question” is a highly
emotional subject, the history of which is laced with considerable con-
fusion and more than a few willful misrepresentations of fact. However,
the fundamental truth of this tragedy is undeniable. Its magnitude is open
to debate and makes an accurate analysis almost impossible.
Armenia lies in the southern part of the strip of land that divides the
Black Sea from the Caspian Sea, below Azerbaijan and Georgia. Its cul-
ture was ancient and predates Christ. Having a Christian prince since 310,
Armenia was conquered by the Seljuq Turks in the twelfth century. It was
eventually assimilated into the Ottoman Empire in the fifteenth and six-
teenth centuries. The Armenians of Anatolia retained a form of unified
administration and representation through the theocratic system of gov-
ernment established by the Ottomans, known as the millet system, for the
control of their subject peoples.
In 1800 the Armenians were scattered within and beyond the region
that now encompasses Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Eastern Turkey.
Despite this dispersion, a limited sense of national identity continued to
exist among the dispersed Armenian subjects of Turkey, Russia, and Per-
sia. In the early nineteenth century Russia began to cast eyes toward Ar-
menia and to expand into the Transcaucasus, the region where the
Armenians lived. When the Russians advanced, the Armenians, co-
religious Orthodox Christians, sided with and actively supported the Rus-
sians. Muslims were displaced from the areas occupied by the Russians,
notably the Circassians, some of whom went to Bulgaria and committed
the atrocities that resulted in the 1877–78 Russo-Turkish war.
In 1878 the Turko-Armenians did not constitute a clear majority of the
total population in any of the six Anatolian provinces where they lived.
This was probably sufficient cause to limit any separatists ambitions that