Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 216, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 September 1917 — GREEKS OF ASIATIC TURKEY [ARTICLE]

GREEKS OF ASIATIC TURKEY

Occupy Only a Small Part of the Coast and Away From It Lose Their Racial Instincts. The only part of Asiatic Turkey where Western civilization has made at least some serious headway is the well-watered coastal belt which fringes Asia Minor and is chiefly Greek and Christian. The true Greek is only found within reach of the sea. He Is by instinct fisherman, sailqfc; and trader, eventually developing into wholesale merchant and banker. After leaving the coastal belt, he gradually loses his racial characteristics, merging with the Turkish-Mahometan pop: ulation of the interior. It must be noted, however, that the designation “Turk” has, in those regions. no racial significance proper. The pure Tartar vagrant is in the minority. The Asiatic nomads penetrating, to this day, Asia Minor in irregular Immigration waves, hail mostly from the Kirghiz steppes, and the principal purpose of their immigration is the desire to embrace the Mahometan religion. Similar is the reason for the steady emigration to Asia Minor from the vartbus Balkan states.