Clemenceau on
Turkish rule
George Clemenceau, a French statesman and Prime Minister
of France from 1906 to 1909, and again from 1917 to 1920, one of the main
architects of the Treaty of Versailles, famously said of Turkey (as quoted in
Margaret Macmillan’s Paris 1919), “There is no case to be found either in Europe or Asia or
Africa in which the establishment of Turkish rule in any country has not been
followed by a diminution of material prosperity, and a fall in the level of
culture; nor is there any case to be found in which the withdrawal of Turkish
rule has not been followed by a growth in material prosperity and a rise in the
level of culture.
Neither among the Christians of Europe nor among the
Moslems of Syria, Arabia and Africa, has the Turk done other than destroy
wherever he has conquered.”
