THE ENEMY AT HOME AND ABROAD

Over the centuries tsarist Russia had resorted to various measures to stem the influence of Turkey in its own Muslim regions. The year 1913, when Turkey was waging against Bulgaria and its allies [Serbia, Greece, Montenegro - tr.]. This war has gone down in history as the First Balkan war, and at the beginning of the military operations the allies had the advantage. They were even able to take the town Andrianople (now Edirne - author's note), which was not only of strategic significance to the Turks, but was also of symbolic importance. The Armenians with their numerous societies and newspapers were the loyal servants of the central and krai [administrative division] authorities in Transcaucasia in combating Turkish propaganda. In doing this, they tried not to act openly and straightforwardly, apparently attempting to avoid damaging relations with the indigenous population, the Azeris. They frequently resorted to subterfuge and acting behind people's backs.

In 1913 and the Armenian (although it was not identified as such, but this is of no consequence - author's note) newspaper, "The Baku", was published, edited by the Armenian Vermishev. A notice headed "Combating Turkish propaganda" was printed in issue No. 90 on 24th April. It stated the following: "People at the Interior Ministry are focussing attention on the notice in the right-wing press about an official trip to Russia by secret emissaries of the Young Turks' Committee of Union and Progress aimed at spreading pan-Muslim ideas among Russian Muslims and collecting money for a holy war fund. In a conversation with senior officials at the Ministry V. A. Maklakov said he was convinced that the latest dispatches were well-founded and, owing to the additional dispatches received on special committee documents being sent to the Volga provinces, the Caucasus and Central Asia, he had taken measures to check the reports that had come from the provincial administration. A special meeting is to be held in the immediate future to organise measures to combat the committee's anti-state propaganda among the Russian Muslims. V. A. Maklakov fears that direct investigative activity by the police department at Muslim educational institutions, charitable and educational societies would be unlikely to yield positive results and might well cause animosity among the loyal majority of Russian Muslims and drive these agitators into hiding among the ignorant fanatical mass of the Caucasian and Volga Tatars and Sarts in Central Asia. A meeting of senior Muslim clerics is expected to be convened at the Department of Religious Affairs to make clear to them the issues worrying the government and propose that they should bring their influence to bear on the mullahs and teachers in the public Muslim schools in order to involve them in the government's campaign against the pernicious agitation of the Turkish emissaries among the public.

There is clearly nothing reprehensible in this notice, from the newspaper's point of view. The newspaper was only reporting the information it had obtained on the events worrying the state's leading ministry. It would have been quite possible to ignore this notice, had it not been for two other publications in the next day's newspaper. They were in the column with the title "Muslim Life". In the first one headed "Literature News" it stated: "The Caucasian Muslims had hardly any literature of their own before 1905 and were influenced by Persian [Iranian - tr] literature and language. But now the foundation has already been laid for the Caucasian Muslim's own literature and the Persian influence has declined considerably. At that time, in 1905, textbooks, surviving to this day, for Russian-Tatar primary schools were being published, while only Persian books and textbooks had been used before that. Apart from the individual publishers, there are two independent publishing houses in Baku today belonging to the Orucev brothers and Isabay Asurbayov. Over the last few years the Orucev brothers have published the following new books, primarily fiction: "Zavalla Cavad", a novel by the outstanding novellist Latifbayov; "The Letters of Seyd bay" by S. M. Qaniyev; "Hop-hop nama", a collection of comical verses by the poet Sabir, "The Mighty Days of the Ottoman Empire", a history of Turkey in two volumes, containing a complete history of the Ottoman empire up to our time. The latter is a large and valuable contribution to the literature of Caucasian Muslims."

In the second notice which was headed "'Waterfall' magazine", the author writes: "The literary and scientific journal "Salala" ("Waterfall"), edited by I. Asurbayov, is known to have been published since the beginning of 1913; it undoubtedly deserves the attention of Caucasian Muslims who are striving to broaden and enrich their knowledge of science. The magazine is the only source of intellectual information for  a certain circle of Muslim readers who are trying to gain access to new literature and knowledge. But this journal does not serve or satisfy the aesthetic and intellectual requirements of a wide circle of Muslim readers, who speak everyday Azeri, because it is published in literary Turkish and is considered "serious literature". On the other hand, the journal devotes much more space to Turkish affairs and events in the Balkans than it should. It shows no interest in needs of the administrative district or the local population. A young Turkish publicist, X. Sabribayzada is in charge of the journal, and his colleagues are in the main Turkish journalists."

Be it as it may, "in looking after the needs of the administrative district and the local population", the Armenian newspaper "Baku" let the authorities know about the "harmful nidus" of creeping Turkish influence.

It must be admitted that the Turkish authorities had always taken an interest in Russia's Muslims. Back in 1891, the first secretary of the embassy of the Ottoman empire [Turkish embassy - tr.] in St. Petersburg, Said Abdul Baki, pointed out in a dispatch to the sultan that, although the Russian state did not appear to oppress Russia's Muslim subjects, in  actual fact discrimination was being practised with regard to Muslims and efforts were being applied to russify them.