In this readable and instructive book Mr. Whitman sum up the experiences which he gained during several prolonged visits to Turkey—both in. Europe and in Asia—from 1896 to 1908.
He mixed freely with all classes of the people, and more than once interviewed the late Sultan. The sultan asked Whitman to resign from the Herald and work for him, but he refused.
His aim is to show that the Mohammedan Turk is "far better than his repute." . His book throws much light on the character of the average Turk, besides relating many striking incidents.
Mavi Boncuk |
Turkish Memories by Sidney Whitman [1]
London: William Heinemann
New York: Chas. Scribner’s Sonslondon:
William Heinemann: 1914
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[1] Sidney Whitman, New York Herald correspondent.
Sidney Whitman, who came to Istanbul in 1896 as correspondent of the New York Herald, and whose career stemmed from his friendship with Bismarck's son, (Ed. he was educated in Germany) leading to audiences with the retired Iron Chancellor, resulting in many books & articles (some incl.) about Germany, Bismarck, and Eastern Europe
Whitman's coverage of the clashes between the Turks and the Armenians was deemed unusually fair (for a Western reporter) by the Sultan, as described in Whitman's book Turkish Memories.
". ... Correspondent Whitman further says that in one hospital he visited he found about forty Turkish soldiers, who were lying there, wounded by Armenian bombs or revolver shots during the street fighting. The same day the police discovered a large quantity of explosive bombs in a Pera house, which, it was said, had been brought there with Russian connivance. Whitman underlines that although foreign correspondents were invited to inspect the find, which was afterwards publicly exhibited at Tophane (Arsenal), such was the general disinclination to admit any fact which could tell in favour of "the great provocation the Turks had received from the Armenian revolutionaries that hardly and publicity was given to this discovery of bombs". Correspondent Whitman tells us that after the news had spread to Europe of the attack on the Ottoman Bank and the events that followed, a number of artists of illustrated newspapers arrived in Istanbul, commissioned to supply the demand for atrocities. But the dead had been buried, and no women and children suffered hurt, and no Armenian church had been desecrated. A certain Melton Prior, the renowned war correspondent of the time, a man of strenous and determined temperament, one who wished to rise superior, "declined to invent what he had not witnessed". Whitman adds: "But others were not equally scrupulous."
[*]The Imtiyaz Medal / Imtiaz Medal (Turkish: İmtiyaz Madalyası) or Nishan-i-Imtiaz (Turkish:Nişan-ı İmtiyaz) was an Ottoman military decoration, instituted in 1882. It was presented in two classes, gold and silver. The gold medal was the highest Ottoman military decoration for gallantry. When awarded during World War I, the medal was worn with a clasp in the same type of metal as the medal. The clasp depicted crossed sabers, with the date 1333 (1915).