Sri Aurobindo
Karmayogin
Political Writings and Speeches — 1909-1910
Karmayogin: A Weekly Review
Saturday 28th August 1909 — No.10
Facts and Comments
Greece and Turkey
It is not to be imagined, however, that this is the closing chapter.
The question between Greece and Turkey will have eventually to be fought out by the sword.
It is true that the immediate question is for the moment settled and the rest1 in the Cretan patchwork mended.
But that patchwork is not of a kind to last.
The Greek Government is not likely to give up its methods in Crete, the Christian population their desire for union with Athens or the present Cretan administration their secret sympathy with and support of these aspirations.
It would have been a simpler 
matter if the population of the island had been wholly Christian, but there is a Mahomedan population also which is as eagerly attached to the Turkish connection as the others are desirous of the Greek.
The ancient history of Crete supports the sentiment of Greek unity, its later history the sentiment of imperial Ottoman greatness.
And apart from Crete, there are inevitable sources of quarrel in Macedonia.
Some day the Powers will have to stand aside and allow these natural enemies to settle the question in the only possible way.
The result of such non-intervention in an armed struggle could not be doubtful.
The Mongolian is a stronger spirit than the Slav, the Mussulman2 a greater dynamic force than the Christian, and it is only ignorance and absolutism that has for the time depressed the Turk.
The disparity between the Turk and the Greek is abysmal.
The former is a soldier and statesman, the latter a merchant and intriguer.
A war between two such Powers with none to intervene would speedily end with the Turk not only in occupation of Thessaly but entering Athens.