Mavi Boncuk | [page 254]
"One only needs to cast a glance at the Young Turks who are the leaders of fashion in the "Club de Constantinople"—after the English and French members are absent—with German officers who have been admitted as temporary members at a reduced subscription, and one will find there, as in the more exclusive "Cercle d'Orient," and in the "Yachting Club" in Prinkipo in the summer-time, individuals belonging to the "Committee" whose lowly origin and bad manners are evident at the first glance. Talaat, who is himself President of the Club, knows exactly how to get his adherents elected as members without one of them being blackballed. People who used not to know what an International Club was, and who perhaps, in accordance with their former social status, got as far as the vestibule to speak to the Concierge, are now great "club men" and can afford, with the money they have amassed in "clique" trade and by the famous system of Requisitions, to play poker every evening for stakes of hundreds of Turkish pounds. One single kaleidoscopic glance into the perpetual whirl of any one of these clubs, which used to be places of friendly social intercourse for the best European circles, is quite sufficient to see the class of degenerate, greedy parvenus that rule poor, bleeding, helpless, exhausted Turkey. One cannot but be filled with a deep sympathy for this ..."
Harry Stuermer [1] Zwei Kriegsjahre in Konstantinople, Skizzen Deutsch-Jungturkischer Moral Und Politik | Two War Years in Constantinople: Sketches of German and Young Turkish Ethics and Politics | Published 1917 by Payot in Lausanne [2]
See also: Statuts du Club de Constantinople | Imprimerie Française L.Mourkides, 1912 48 pages
[1] Harry Stuermer (Sturmer) — a German journalist — was the correspondent of Kölnische Zeitung newspaper in Constantinople during the war years of 1915–16.unfortunate land. [2] First published in neutral Switzerland, Germany bought the German language rights, but was unable to procure the translation rights. Consequently, English language (Hodder & Stoughton | Translated from the German by E. Allen and the Author) copies are available, but remain very scarce to the market.