This 1897 cartoon (source unknown; Punch, perhaps?) has Sultan Abdul Hamid worrying about how the combined might of Europe was eyeing what was left of Ottoman Europe. The note at lower right reads: "Note to the Porte — Autonomy for Crete." The cartoon had a caption which was translated as: "The Europeans are discussing me as if I were a whole. Yet I feel myself as being torn apart." Note this was a year after the 1894-96 "Armenian massacres," throwing light at what was really behind European interests, in stirring the Armenians, and with the Armenians aware that the slightest stir would bring the Europeans in.

When Turkey finally was rid "bag and baggage" from Europe, by the time of the Balkan Wars, it was handled in the most catastrophic manner of "Death and Exile," where the European-backed Balkan nations killed as many Muslims as they could find, in order to force the rest into fleeing. (A practice the Armenians would gladly repeat, in the Anatolian east and elsewhere, in later years.)  The Ottomans suffered a Holocaust, and the Europeans never blinked an eye — then, or now.

With their stressing of the "Armenian Genocide" to this day (along with embracing other ethnic darlings with axes to grind, in order to weaken Turkey), the prejudiced European nations are still engaged — although more covertly — in the process of attempting to split Turkey apart.

 

Europe throws her lap dog, Greece, the Crete bone. The date of this cartoon is March 6, 1897, from a London publication, perhaps the Times.

Today, prejudiced Europeans are still involved in completing the process, by taking Greece's side with the matter of Cyprus. Had Greece succeeded in taking over the island in 1974, exterminating the Turkish population in the process as the coup leader flatly admitted, Europe couldn't have been happier.

 

No matter how many bones Europe throws at Greece, Greece will always want more. In this January 30, 1897 cartoon, European nations France, England and Austria are identified on the dress, with a copy of the Paris Protocol in the pocket; Europe had lovingly given more Ottoman land to Greece, but Greece still wouldn't be satisfied.

This "spoiled brat" characteristic is also shared by the Armenians, as analyzed by Sir Mark Sykes: "The pride of race brings about many singularities and prompts the Armenians to prey on missionaries, Jesuits, consuls and European traveler with rapacity and ingratitude. The poor Armenians will demand assistance in a loud tone, yet will seldom give thanks for a donation. Abuse of Consular officers and missionaries is only a part of the stock-in-trade of the extra-Armenian press."