Asomura Nogales

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Rafael Nogales Mndez beneath the Crescent1915~1918

Ethnic Questions in the Ottoman Empire during the World War I

witnessed by a Latin American Officer

1

ASOMURA I. Tomoko

Lecturer, Gakushuin Womens College, Tokyo

1. Introduction

2. The Life and Thought of Rafael Nogales Mndez

(1) Historiography and Sources

(2) Short Biography of Rafael Nogales Mndez

(3) Geopolitical View of the World of Rafael Nogales Mndez

3. Ethnic Questions in the Ottoman Empire

(1) Features of theFour Years beneath the Crescent

(2) Muslims and the Christians in the Ottoman Empire

(3) Armenian Questions in the Caucasus and Deportation(4) Question of National Identities in the Old World

Conclusion and Post scripts

1. Introduction

After the fall of the Berlin Wall and the ringing declaration of the end of the Cold War in 1989

by both of the heads of the two confronting poles, peoples in the world once bore the expectation for

the advent of more peaceful and orderly world in the years to come. This rosy picture, however, was

bitterly spoiled shortly by the outbreak of a number of regional armed conflicts in the Balkans, the

Middle East and many other parts of the world2

1 First published inAd honorem Josef Poliensk 1915-2001, Univerzita Palackho v Olomouci, Filozofick faculta,

2007.2 World Bank Policy Research Report informs us of the fact that the overall incidence of civil wars rose in 1950 and

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Under such circumstances, the concept of the clash of the civilizations advocated by Samuel

Huntington, U.S. political scientist attracted world-wide attention and a great deal of discussions on

this subject has been globally going on. Huntington listed up eight different civilization spheres andunderlined the danger of the fault lines between them as the most sensitive and critical zones of

potential armed conflicts3.

The Balkan disturbances between Muslims and Orthodox Christians and those between

Orthodox and Catholic Christians that occurred in the last decades of the twentieth century seem to

make Huntingtons hypothesis further plausible to the general public. Are the cultural, religious, or

ethnic differences destined to cause incessant local conflicts? Arent we overlooking some other

more important elements behind them4 ?

It is with the above-mentioned questions in mind that the present author is going to analyze the

observation of the ethnic questions presented in the Four Years beneath the Crescent5 by Rafael

Nogales Mndez, a memoir published by a Venezuelan officer who, with special arrangement,

served in the Ottoman regular army during World War I.

The Ottoman Empire, one of the greatest multinational and multi-religious rgime with its

territory extending far and wide over a part of Europe and the Middle East until early twentieth

century, was then on the verge of disintegration into pieces and suffering from the transformation

from traditional Islamic hegemony to a modern secular nation state after the model of the modern

Western nation states under the leadership of the Young Turks (Committee of Union and Progress).

The detailed description and comments on the local situation in the Ottoman Empire by Rafael

Nogales Mndez, a Venezuela-born intellectual who was educated in the Belgian military academy,

bears a unique character, especially because it was the report from the inside of the Ottoman system

and because of the authors personal contacts with the core members of the Commission of Union

and Progress in the Sublime Porte.

Also from the viewpoint of Latin American history6, writings of Rafael Nogales Mndez are

worthy of academic note and analysis, since his memoirs and articles seem to serve as a case study

2000, and it peaked around 1990 (Cf. Breaking the Conflict TrapCivil War and development Policy,The WorldBank & Oxford University Press,2003, p.94 Figure 4: Global incidence of civil warfare, 1950-2001.3 HUNTINGTON, Samuel P.: The Clash of Civilization and the Remaking of World Order. A Touchstone Book,Simon & Schuster, 1996.4 NOGALES, Rafael de: Four Years beneath the Crescent, Charles Scribners Sons, New YorkLondon,1926.Nogales Mndez, Rafael, Cuarto Aos bajo la Media Luna, Lit.y Casa de Especialidades, Caracas, 1936 (Translatedfrom the English version by Ana Mercedez Prez.) The present author could not find the original version supposedlypublished in Buenos Aires.5 Popular name of the political party, Commission of Union and Progress (or Society of Union and Progress).6 In this article, the present author applies the definition of Latin America commonly used between the middle of 19 thcentury to 1960s. That is to say, it includes twenty countries which embrace the Latin cultural tradition such as

eighteen Spanish speaking nations together with Brazil and Haiti.

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for the process of the formation of Latin Americanism, a concept which goes beyond Venezuelan

nationalism and forms part the theoretical background of regional cooperation in the area. Rafael

Nogales Mndez developed it through his personal involvement in the resistance against U.S.advancement into Central as well as South America on one hand, and through his own experience in

the Ottoman Empire where he faced the vigorously emerging nationalism, often rising to their

extreme.

In this article, the next chapter deals with the biography of Rafael Nogales Mndez based on the

sources published by him as well as by others. This is followed by the introduction of his view of the

world concerning the international relations before World War I. The third chapter then proceeds to

the analysis of the Four Years beneath the Crescent, which covers the period 1914~1919 (Nogales

rendered his service to the Ottoman regular army between January 1915~December 1918), with

special attention to his statements about the ethnic questions. His comments and opinions on the

disturbances concerning ethnic, religious and national consciousness and identity in the Balkans and

the Middle East will be carefully examined.

In the conclusive part, the life and thought of Rafael Nogales Mndez and his opinions with

regard to the questions of conflicts related to ethnicity, culture, religion and civilization in the

Ottoman Empire are to be reviewed based on the information in theFour Years beneath the Crescent.

The observation of Rafael Nogales Mndez leads us to realize, among all the entangled factors, the

seriousness of the influence and impact the modern idea of nationalism exercised by which the

Ottoman government was much tossed and of which European Powers often took advantage to

promote their own national interests.

2. The Life and Thought of Rafael Nogales Mndez

Historiography and Sources

Rafael Nogales Mndez (hereafter Nogales), although born in Tchira , North West of

Venezuela, spent most of his youth and middle age abroad. In the meantime he went back to

Venezuela only twice. It was not until his last days that he returned to his homeland and settled there.

In spite of his long absence from Tchira, however, his unique career never failed to attract the localhistorians. A number of biographies were published in Caracas7. Nogales himself also published four

memoirs which cover different periods of his life.

Almost all of these biographies are, however, of modest quality mainly because of the

7 ROSALES, R.M.:Rafael Nogales Mndez (1877-1937), Imagen del Tachira, Caracas, Bibilioteca de Autores yTemas Tachirenses, 1990, pp.335-344. LA TORRE, P.S.: Rafael de Nogales Mndez: Un General sin Fronteras,Caracas, 1987. Prez Jurado, C ., Sntesis bibliogrfica del general venezolano Rafael de Nogales- Mndez, Caracas,1975. PRES, Ana Mercedez, Nota Preliminar, Memoras de un Soldado de Fortuna, Caracas, Fundacin Ford,2nd ed. Biblioteca Ayacucho, 1991.PARILLI, Maldonado: Gente de Venezuela, Caracas. Talleres de Miguel Angel

Graca, Vol II, 1992, pp.1159-1161.Universidad Simn Bolvar Instituto de Altos Estudios de Amrica Latina, UnVenezolano SingularHomenaje al General de Nogales Mndez(Coleccin el Libro Puntual No.1), Caracas, 1997.

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limitation of reliable sources for a certain period of his life. Ana Mercedez Prez (1910-1994), a

writer and the daughter of Jos Eugenio Pres, the then Consul-General to Great Britain and Ireland,

can be regarded as an exception. Among various authors of Nogales biographers, she alone haddirect contact with him while he was in Europe. She also possessed original sources concerning

Nogales, including personal letters and photographs.

One of the most serious defects of the publications common to those biographies,

including that of Ana Mercedez Prez, is ascribed to the almost complete lack of objective sources

for a certain period especially, his early period when Nogales was moving around the continents. It

seems that most of the local authors had to depend either on publications or narratives of Nogales

himself to fill the blanks. His memoirs are divided into two categories: The first two books are of

reportage nature.Four Years beneath the Crescent(1924) falls into this category as does The Looting

of Nicaragua (1928)8, a report about the anti-American struggle led by General August Cesar

Sandino (1926-1928). Nogales statements in the two books are well supported by the other

documents of the same period9.

Books in the second category include such works as Memoirs of a Soldier of Fortune

(1932) and Silk Hat and Spurs (1934)10, both of which are filled with adventurous and interesting

episodes that might as well be appropriate for relaxed talks in the social salons in London or Paris

where Nogales spent most of his fifties. These memoirs cover the years from 1901 to 1922, and

consist of stories of relatively entertaining nature. Personal experiences in the Russo-Japanese War

(1904-1905) as an intelligence officer (indirectly hired by the Japanese government through a British

agent in Manchuria, according to Nogales) truly draw attention. It would be quite an interesting

subject for research if only some sources other than Nogales monologue were available.

Though quite limited in number and quantity, the documents in the archives of the

Venezuelan government during the period of President Vicente Gmez are an important source. They

cast light on the relations between the central government headed by President Gmez and Nogales

and also on the latters political commitment in Venezuela in the beginning of 1910s11. A number of

political articles written in the various newspapers, especially during his second stay in Venezuela,

can also be considered the first-hand sources12. All those materials are accessible at the NationalArchives of Venezuela in Caracas.

8 NOGALES Mendez, Rafael: The Looting of Nicaragua, Write and Brown, London, 1932.This book was firstpublished in New York in 1928 but soon the circulation was prohibited. Under such circumstances, the second editionwas published in London in 1932.9 For example: DAVIS, E: Foreword inFour Years beneath the Crescent, op. cit. p. vii-xix.10 NOGALES, Rafael de:Memoirs of a Soldier of Fortune, Harrison & Smith, New York, 1932. NOGALES, Rafaelde: Silk Hat and Spurs, Write and Brown, London, 1934.11 The present author could only refer to the collection of articles signed by R. de Nogales Mndez. It is difficult toknow how widely these articles were circulated and how influential they were in those days in Caracas.12

Repblica de Venezuela Secretaria de la Presidencia, Documentos para la historia del Partido LiberalNacionalista,Boletin del Archivo Histrico de Miraflores, Ao VI, No.31, Julio-Agosto 1964, pp.177-182.

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Lastly, the only contemporary academic author dealing with Rafael Nogales Mndez, to

the best knowledge of the present author, is George Nweihed Kaldone, Venezuelan professor of law

who wrote an article on the vision and concept of Latin America in the thought and action ofNogales Mndez primarily relying on the articles in newspapers13.

In sum, a comprehensive, well-balanced biography of Rafael Nogales Mndez is difficult

to find, mostly because of the inability of the first-hand sources concerning his youth and early

middle age days. Nevertheless, it seems to be worthwhile to review Nogales whole life in order to

better understand his profile.

(2) Short Biography of Rafael Nogales Mndez14

Rafael Ramn Nogales Mndez was born on October 14, 1877 in San Cristbal city in

Tchira district, the Andes region in the North West of the Republic of Venezuela 15. His original

name was Rafael Ramn Intxauspe (or Inchauspe) Mndez. Don Felipe Intxauspe de Nutrias,

Nogales father, is the descendant of Colonel Pedro Luis Intxauspe, one of the descendants of early

settlers in Venezuela from the Basque region of Spain. He is known as one of the active participants

in the independent movement of Venezuela which started in 1821. Intxauspe means walnut in

the Basque language and Rafael translated his Surname into Spanish and called himself Nogales (or

de Nogales) instead of maintaining Intxauspe.

Doa Josefa Mndez Brito de Barinas, Nogales mother, is thought to have been the

descendant of Captain Diego Mndez (or Diego de Mndez), a Spanish member of Christopher

Columbus crew, who first arrived in Venezuela from Europe. Both his father and mother are of

prestigious and well-off families possessing large estates in the region of Tchira. Their primary

economic sources were income from the export of coffee beans raised in their estate to Europe. In

those days the Venezuelan economy was, in general terms, closely tied to that of Great Britain. In the

case of Tchira, however, its commercial relations were historically tied to Germany.

Historians agree that one of the noticeable features of the movement of Venezuelan

Independence from Spain, which was finally achieved in 1830, was the exclusive initiative taken by

the criollo class, privileged landowners who were born in Venezuela. As is shown in the historicalprofile, the Nogales family on both sides belonged to this class, as in the case of Smon Bolvar, the

father of Latin American independence.

It is also worth adding that this criollo class seems to bear the identity in their

13 NWEIHED, Kaldone G., El Pensamiento Poltico del General Nogales Mendez (1877-1937), Anuario (Institutode Estudios Hispanoamericanos) 2.Etapa No.6, Universidad Central de Venezuela, Caracas, 1994 and Visin yconcept de Amrica Latna en el Pensamiento y la Accin de Nogales Mndez, Mundo Nuevo, XX-No.1,Enero-Marzo, Caracas,1997.14

The above-mentioned publications were utilized to make the present biography.15 There are some discrepancies concerning Nogales year of birth (1877 or 1879) among the Venezuelan biographers.

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conceptual mixed-bloodness. This means that their self-consciousness was knit with their conviction

of their idea of ethnic and cultural and racial mixture regardless of the actual composition of their

blood or race

16

. Nogales himself proudly declared himself a Venezuelan of Spanish and Indianstock17. It is understood that by these words, Nogales tried to demonstrate his attachment to his

America, or the New World, which was often contrasted in his writings with the Old World.

The mountainous Andes region, where the Tchira district is located, enjoys comparatively

mild weather in spite of its low latitude, thanks to its considerable high altitude. Its leading product

was coffee beans. When Rafael Nogales was born, San Cristbal, his home town together with the

neighboring Ccuta city in todays Columbia, exported a large amount of coffee beans from the port

of Maracaibo to Hamburg in North Germany and in return imported various kinds of goods from

Europe. Because of this traditional connection with Europe, the leading class in the city was under

European, particularly German influence18.

Nogales received distinguished education, even considering that he was a member of an

influential family in Venezuela. His parents invited private teachers from Germany and Belgium in

his infancy. When Nogales reached the primary school age, his parents decided to move to Germany

for his and his two sisters education. While happily growing up in Germany, immersed in German

cultural atmosphere, Nogales often visited Barcelona in Spain where his relatives were living. As for

higher education, he joined the military academy in Belgium and at the age around seventeen, he

became a warrant officer. He attended lectures at the universities in Brussels and Louvain. He also

attended various lectures in Barcelona where his mother lived until 1897. His wide knowledge on

archaeology and strong interest in cultural heritage in the Orient shows that certainly he received not

only a military but also a liberal arts education.

The Movement for the Independence of the Cubans against Spain soon brought the United

States involvement which transformed itself into the U.S.-Spanish War. Nogales, without loosing

time, joined the Spanish army in 1898. This fact indicates that, at this stage, Nogales identified

himself more with the Spanish than with the Cuban culture and population, that is, he was more

attached to Europe than to Latin America. The experience in Cuba, however, awoke him to the

self-consciousness of the New World that had not been identified in his mind.The following years are the period of the grand tour over four continents. Nogales also

visited his homeland, Venezuela, in 1902, but Cipriano Castro, the then president of Venezuela and

dictator did not welcome him, considering him the bearer of dangerous liberal thoughts. Nogales

therefore continued his trip and went as far as Northeast Asia, where he was involved in the

16 It is well-known that Smon Bolvar, emphasized his blood mixture by saying that in his babyhood he was broughtup by the black nannys milk and thus there run also the African blood in his vein.17 NOGALES, Rafael de: Four Years beneath the Crescent, p.1.18

It was not until 1920, that petrol was found in the Bay of Maracabo and that it became the leading internationalincome sources not only for the region but also for Venezuela.

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Russo-Japanese War on the Chinese Continent. He was also involved in 1906 in the Mexican

revolutionary movement under General Flores-Magn .

In 1909, upon the fall of Cipriano Castros government, Nogales returned to Venezuela. Atthe beginning, Nogales kept good relations with the regime of President Juan Vicente Gmez, who

was also from the Andes region. Nogales was allowed to contribute to Venezuelan newspapers such

as El Tiempo, mainly giving his comments on the world situation and diplomacy. This friendly

relationship with the government of President Gmez lasted for no more than a year. In 1911,

Nogales went to Tchira and joined in the preparation of the declaration demanding the autonomy of

the Andes region. If Nogales had been successful in organizing the caudillos, powerful local clans of

the Andes region both in Venezuela and Columbia, it would have been a hard blow to the

government of Gomz19. Such a plan, however, was never realized and Nogales was obliged to hide

himself in the frontier region between Venezuela and Columbia.

In September 1914, upon the outbreak of World War I, Nogales left Latin America for

Europe with the hope of joining the Belgian Army. His offer of serving in the War on the side of the

Triple Entente, while preserving his Venezuelan citizenship, was not easily accepted by any of the

members of the Entente. Nogales moved from Western Europe to the Balkans seeking possible

employment on the side of the Triple Entente but found himself eventually hired by the Ottoman

government (thus on the side of Turkish-German Alliance). In January 1915, Nogales headed for

Constantinople20 in order to have an interview with Enver Pasha, Secretary of War (War Minister)

and Generals von Liman and von Brontsart from Germany. His first mission was to fight against the

Russians in the Caucasus region as a senior officer in the Ottoman regular army. He traveled from

Constantinople through Konya, Kaiseri and Erzurm to reach Van in April, 1915.

The highlight of the first half of his memoir is the Siege of Van where the heavily armed

Armenian extremists rose against the Ottoman authorities with the expectation of Russian military

interference. Deserted by the Russian Army, however, they finally confined themselves to the city of

Van to fight to the end. The central government took the position that the revolutionary extremists

and the innocent Armenian citizens in Van were to be differentiated from each other and to be treated

accordingly, or at least Nogales was brought to believe so at the outset of the campaign. Eventually,however, Nogales came to observe the occurrence of the indiscriminate massacres of the Armenians

and the deportation of the Armenian population to the deserted areas that also resulted in genocide en

masse. Learning from personal information sources, he later became confident in the organized

involvement of the political center of the Ottoman Empire in this Armenian Question, which

brought about the drastic liquidation of the Armenian and other Christian populations from the

19 Repblica de Venezuela, op.cit.20 Nogales distinguishes the terms Constantinople from Stamboul. The former is meant by him to be the capital of

the Ottoman Empire (Todays Istanbul) while the latter seems to be bigger Constantinople or part of it mainly residedby the Muslims. As for the usage, see: Chapter 3(2) of the present article.

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North-Eastern part of the Ottoman Empire.

Since then, as the sole Christian witness of the tragic incident, Nogales was incessantly

troubled by the menace of assassination under the command of the Turkish authorities. The latterhalf of his memoir is tinted with his persistent anxiety and strong wish to safely return to

Constantinople to be released from the Ottoman Army. Since Enver Pasha insisted on his remaining

in the Army as a guest at least until the end of the World War, however, Nogales then continued to

serve in the Second Army in Palestine and the Sinai, and finally in the First Regiment of Lancers,

which did the guard duty in the Imperial Palace of Doma Bagtche in Constantinople. After various

adventurous experiences to be mentioned below, he officially retired from the Ottoman Army on

December 31, 1918. Upon his retirement, Nogales was decorated by the Ottoman government with

the Star of Knight ofMedchedieh and later, was nominated honorary Lieutenant-Colonel of the

Ottoman Army21.

In 1927, Nogales went to Nicaragua in the midst of the Nicaraguan anti-U.S. struggle, this

time as a journalist and stayed there for four months. He was successful in interviewing General

Sandino, who led the revolutionary guerilla movement.

In his fifties, Nogales seemed to be enjoying a comfortable life at the residence of

Magdalena Ana Maria Nogales de Westerhoie, his youngest sister who married a German count.

There remain several photos which show how Nogales would socialize himself and give lectures to

well-dressed audiences in the big cities in Europe22.

He never gave up, however, going back to Venezuela. Therefore, when he learned that the

government of Vicente Gmez had been taken over by that of Lpez Contreras, a liberalist, he

returned immediately to Caracas. Nevertheless, Rafael Nogales Mndez was by then almost

forgotten in Venezuela and the new government offered him a minor position as the head of a local

tax office. Nogales accepted it but soon retired from this assignment. Then, he was assigned to a post

researching the police system in Panama. During his stay in Panama, he got an insignificant illness

but after the operation of his throat there, he suffered pneumonia which took his life on July 10, 1937.

At the funeral held in Caracas, a huge garland supposedly sent by Wilhelm II, deposed German

Emperor, impressed the Venezuelan attendants immensely.Nogales was a member of the American Geographic Society of New York, the Royal

Geographical Society of England andDie Gesellschaft fr Erdkunde zu Berlin and was recognized

as a unique intellectual of international scale. From the episodes and the inserted phrases of

conversation in his writings, we understand that he could communicate properly in German, French

and English. His mother tongue being Spanish, he mostly wrote in this language. But those who met

Nogales personally in his advanced age would say that his Spanish didnt sound like that of a

21

NOGALES, Rafael de, op.cit. p.403. Also exhibited in the Nogales portrait.22 Photographs in the collection of Ana Mercedez Prez.

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Venezuelan, and note that with a strong accent he looked like a foreigner. He often wrote in English,

as well. His memoir (hereafter meaning the Four Years beneath the Crescent) indicates that in spite

of the fact that he didnt know any word of Turkish when he left Kadi-ki, opposite ofConstantinople for Anatolia on February 12, 1915, he was already capable of fully understanding

conversations conducted in Ottoman Turkish by February 191623.

(3) Geopolitical View of the World of Rafael Nogales Mndez

Articles contributed to newspapers during his stay in Caracas around 1910 express his views of

the world political order. Nogales original idea was that of clear dichotomy. He thought that Western

civilization (Civilizacin occidental) was divided into two groups, that is, that of the Latin race

(Raza Latina) and the Anglo-Saxon race (Raza Anglosajona). Spain, France and Italy belonged to

the former, which Germany, England and North European countries belonged to the latter.

Confrontation or competition between these two groups had its origin in the Roman period and was

reshaped in the New World in the form of the confrontation between South and North America 24.

His ideas, however, went through certain modification in the face of the gradual decline of

Spanish power vs-a-vs U.S. expansion and the rise of local identity which can be named as Latin

Americanism, the idea quite distinguishable from the original Latin identity. In the case of Nogales,

he seemed to cherish brotherhood feeling with the other members of his region through his

experience of joining in the anti-U.S. struggle in Nicaragua and Mexico. Since then, he started

consistently to advocate the solidarity of Latin American peoples to preserve their own cultural

identity against the imperialistic expansion of the United States. This sort of Latin Americanism

itself was then not particularly novel. His uniqueness lies, however, in his insistence that to this end

Latin America should cooperate with Japan, the rising star in the Far East25.

To conclude, Nogales thought may be summarized as follows:

Firstly, to the end of his life he remained an ardent patriot of Venezuela, in a nationalist posture

imbued with Bolivarian and democratic inspiration. Secondly, he made the emphasis on the identity

of the whole Latin American race as his regional platform, while preaching regional integration in

the face of the United States and Europe and proposing a strategic and economic alliance betweenLatin America and the recently emerging power in Asia, Japan. He was absolutely against the

totalitarianism. He fought with pen against colonialism and expansionism, especially against the

expansionism of the United States towards Lain America. Above all, he was a cosmopolitan and

strongly believed in the possibility of universal understanding of human being26.

23 NOGALES, Rafael de, op.cit.,p.247.24 NOGALES Mndez, R:La intervencin Norte-Americana, Serie de Artculs, Caracas, 1910, pp.4-7.25 NOGALES Mndez, R.: Los Estados Unidos y el Japn in the paperVerdades, Serie de Artculs, Caracas,1910,

pp.8-12.26 NOGALES, Rafael de: op.cit., p.404.

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3. Ethnic Questions in the Ottoman Empire

(1) Features of theFour Years beneath the Crescent

Four Years beneath the Crescentwas first published in Spanish in Buenos Aires, then

translated into English by Muna Lee and published from Charles Scribners Sons in New York and

London in 1926 with the warmest foreword by Lieutenant-Colonel Edward Davis of the United

States, formerly military observer with the British Forces in Palestine and Mesopotamia. This

English version was retranslated into Spanish by Ana Mercedez Prez in 1974 with her long

introductory note and published in Caracas. The second Spanish version was reedited and included

in the collection of La Expresin Americana in Caracas in 1991.

The introduction by Lieutenant-Colonel Davis in the English version gives an account of

the nature and the quality of this publication. By describing various aspects of the books value,

Davis says He (Nogales, note by the present author) offers unbiased and ruthless comment as to

racial antipathies and clashes in the Near East and Middle East, and Especially illuminating are

his observations as to the Armenian massacres several of which he witnessed27.

Lieutenant-Colonel Davis, a U.S. senior officer, was fighting on the opposite side of

Nogales during World War I. After the War, he became the first U.S. military attach to Mexico.

Muna Lee considers him the Dean of U.S. Army Foreign Service. It was in 1925 in New York,

according to Lee, that Nogales and Davis met face to face for the first time after having been on

opposite side in practically every war of the last twenty-five years. Davis, while praising the book,

expresses his personal impressions as follows:

the Bey (Nogales, note by the present author) has given us a complete and unrevised

revelation of what our then enemy believed to be the situation. Knowing the intent and the

significance of our own operations, we have here in several instances an amazing picture of

how different it seemed to the other side28.

In spite of the fact that Nogales narrative includes many critical comments toward the

Ottomans, his book was also translated, though partially, into Turkish and published.

To sum up, although his whole career is somewhat in the myth, the descriptions in theFour Years beneath the Crescent which covers the period 1914~1919 can be regarded as an

informative, rare wartime reportage. In addition, because of his third party standpoint, we can expect

to hear the opinion which would hardly be obtained by the other nationals whose governments were

directly involved in the War.

(2) Muslims and the Christians in the Ottoman Empire

27

DAVIS, Edward (Lieutenant-Colonel),Forward, in NOGALES, op.cit.,p.VIII28 ibidem, p.VIII

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Nogales was a Catholic by religion and his cultural background was overwhelmingly

occidental. Apart from being a trained military officer, Nogales also was a connoisseur of

archaeological and historical sites and monuments in the Orient. While serving in the Ottoman army,he never lost time to visit historic sites and monuments with ardent enthusiasm. He confesses My

favorite diversion is studying the historical monuments. After visiting Homs, Palmyra and the

Temple of Heliopolis in Mesopotamia, he was totally enchanted by them and wrote as follows29:

This entire group of remarkable and indescribably beautiful fragments, which are

quite the equal of those of Amaan and Maan in Palestine and Arabia Petra which I also had the

opportunity of examining carefully, represent to my mind the most conclusive proof that world

civilization goes from east to west-tail like the sun, dragging a lustrous comet-tail of ruins and

storied monuments, such as those that are scattered by the thousand over the arid steppe sand

deserts of India on both banks of the Ganges and throughout the Near East.

Apart from the interest in physical monuments, Nogales enormously enjoyed the travel to the

Orient by conducting the ethnological and anthropological observations. When he first visited

Kara-su (Kaesareah, todays Kaiseri) in central Anatolia on February 18, 1915 , he was much

impressed by the hospitality given to the guest (musafir) and spiritual loftiness of the Muslim

population there30:

Those who desire to know the soul of the Mussulman should not seek for it in

Constantinople, but in the capitals of the province of Anatolia, where men are not yet ashamed

to set the spiritual above the material, where the ideal is still quality rather than quantity. Those

who believe the cities of the Near East to be less cultural than the European are mistaken. If the

superiority of modern civilization consists in producing freight, then there can be no doubt that

the Oriental is less civilized than the Occidental. But les cultured? Never!

This first impression of the Muslim world remained the same in Nogales until the last days

of his stay in the Ottoman Empire. While taking rest in the capital in September 1918, Nogales

expresses his way of enjoying holidays in Constantinople31:As was to be expected, I spent most of my free time in examining the mosques and

minarets and other beautiful historic monuments of Stamboul; and in seeing as much as I could

of the truly Turkish life of the city and its suburbs. I wished to avoid the error of most

foreigners who believe, because they have passed several weeks in the European quarter of Pera,

--- that they know Turkey or at least Constantinople. ---They do not realize that the

29 NOGALES, Rafael de:op.cit. pp.184-185.30

NOGALES, Rafael de:op.cit, p.32.31 Ibidem, p.384.

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stroke-keepers, coachmen, and guides of Pera are not as a rule even Mohammedans, but

Armenians, Greeks, and Levantines, expert in the art of frisking the tourist. For one to know the

soul of Constantinople, he should first lose himself among the narrow centric street of Stamboul,visiting the cafs and restaurants and tasting the native cooking and observing the courtesy of

the Mussulman servant, who always regards and treats the customer as a musafir, or guest.

While appreciating and enjoying the existence of different cultures of various ethnic

groups in the Empire, Nogales doesnt forget to underline the latent dangers of their confrontations.

Nogales considered the city of Kaiseri in the central Anatolia one of the most delicate spots of the

Ottoman Empire32:

Besides being a very important commercial center, Kaiserieh is the ethnical

frontier of Asia Minor, which is inhabited toward the east by the Lazand the Armenians,

descendants of the ancient Hittite-Alardic race (intermingled with Kurds, Monglos, and

Semites in the south; and in the west, with Greek and Levantine elements). This

extraordinary mixture of nations and remnants of races, of different tongues and

established customs ----is divided into two sections. One of them, the Mohammedan,

embraces eighty per cent of the population, the remaining twenty percent being composed

of Orthodox Greeks, Armenians, Syrio-Chaldeans, Jacobites, Nestorians, and a series of

infinitesimal semi-pagan sects; as, for example, the Jesidas or Devil-worshippers, the Ali

Ahali, Baktash, Kisilbash, etc., etc.

On the day when the central power of Constantinople fail them, this mosaic of

the residue of nations and ethnical nuclei, different in origin and rivals in religion, will lose

no time in converting Asia Minor into a second Macedonia or a new Balkan;

As regards the conflicts between the Muslims and Christians in the Balkans, however,

Nogales severe criticism is directed to the European powers. For instance, when he encountered

the bloody brawls between Christian and Mussulmans which took place in the streets of that city

almost nightly, and which resulted in more death from fright than from bullets, in Scutari (todaysSukodar, Albania), he analyzed the situation as follows33:

The truth of the matter is that the Melisors, protected by Austria, and the Mohameddans,

protected by Italy, purposely connived at those squabbles in order to continue receiving the

subsidies of money, arms and munitions which those two rival nations kept lavishing with a

prodigality not far removed from waste.

32

Ibidem, p.33.33 NOGALES, Rafael de:op.cit., p.8.

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What we can synthesize from his description is that Nogales had the view that ethnic and

religious mlange in the Balkans and the Middle East was the remnant of the regions long and

turbulent history and that it alone could not be counted as the primary cause of armed conflicts.Nevertheless, whenever the central government failed to handle it properly, or when an intervention

was made by the external powers, the mlange and its relevant issues could easily turned such a

region as the Balkans into an explosive warehouse. Besides, more often than not, it was Ottoman

Porte as well as foreign governments that actually had taken measures to instigate the ethnic hatred

in those regions with the view to of promoting their own interests.

(3) Armenian Questions in the Caucasus and Deportation

North East of the Ottoman Empire is another delicate zone in view of the ethnic

composition. It is also a highly sensitive region from the strategic point of view, since it shares the

frontier with Russia and Iran. Mountainous Caucasus has been the homeland of the Armenians and

the Kurds as well. The area seemed to have been much more prosperous and populated before World

War I throughout the Ottoman period. In those areas, the historical richness in cultures also cherished

a variety of ethnic and cultural syncretism and diversity. On May 26,1915, Nogales, accompanied by

his staff and a squadron of mounted gendarmes stayed overnight in one village on his way to Vastan

through the Bervar and Nordoz mountains and he recalls as follows34:

We spent the night in a village called Kisham, whose inhabitants proved not to be Kurds,

as we had first thought, but semi-nomad Israelites, who spoke a language half-Kurd,

half-Armenian, and who practiced polygamy. As soon as we had supped, I had the opportunity

of talking for a quite a while with some of the village worthies who came to welcome me. From

them I learned many curious details, especially with respect to the deportation of the Jews from

Babylonia in the times of Nebuchadnezzar, an event of which they talked to me as familiarly as

if it had happened the day before ---It seems that in addition to Kisham there still exist other

villages of semi-nomad Hebrews situated at the foot of the Mountains of Hartosh and

Djebel-Toura, whose inhabitants live in perfect harmony with the Jesid, Kurd, and Nestorian

population of the savage and partially unknown ranges of the Zagros and the Boltan-Su.

How should these groups of people be identified if they were to belong to a Nation State or any

definite civilization sphere?

On his continuing trip towards Van, Nogales had chances to stay at Kurdish and Armenian

notables. Nogales was quite impressed by the potential Kurdish power35:

According to my way of thinking, the Kurds are the race of the future in the Near East,

34

Ibidem, p.11135 NOGALES, Rafael de:op.cit, p.52.

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because they are not yet atrophied by the vices of the old civilizations, and consequently

represent a young and vigorous nation, which has been gradually conquering Northern Persia

and the greater part of the southeastern zone of Asia Minor; imposing upon the conquered theirown language and customs, and assimilating all the other semi-barbaric peoples that have come

into contact with them. Many of the Kurds are Christians, belonging to the sect of the

Nestorians; others are Jesidas or Devil-worshippers; but the majority are Sunite and sometimes

even Shiite Mohammedans.

Nogales would have been surprised to find that the misfortunes that occurred to the Kurd

people after World War I have been troubling them even in the 21st century. Here again, we can see

how persistent the tragic remnant of the arbitrary arrangement made after World War I by the

victorious powers.

On April 20, 1915, the previous day of his arrival to Van, the Armenian revolution began. It

was the organized by the Armenian extremists. Many innocent Armenian citizens, including women

and children in the city, were also involved. When the extremists rose up, they were counting upon

the military assistance by the Russian Army in vain.

Armenian questions (organized massacres and deportation) under the Ottoman rule during

World War I have been widely discussed by the diplomats, historians and other specialists only to

produce a big discrepancy on the number of victims and other relevant facts 36. It is beyond this

short article to enter into the details of this historical tragedy. Here, only some unrevised narratives

by Nogales will be presented as a source for further study.

As usual, his criticism is extended on both sides. The observation concerning the cruelty of the

Armenian revolutionaries would help to explain the very complicated nature of the situation. The

first episode is what occurred when Djevded Bey, governor-general of the province, lost hope of

conquering Van by force and decided to bring about its surrender through starvation. An attempt to

save Armenian women and children before taking this measure ended tragically. Nogales, who

happened to watch inside the city from the terrace of the castle, observed that Armenian armed men,

by learning the situation, had not hesitated to shoot their own children and wives in order not toshare food with them37. Nogales was aghast at the scene and said that he had not been able to

believe his eyes. Another episode is about the slaughter of an aged Muslim woman by a group of

36 The estimated number of the Armenian victims during World War I varies from two hundred thousands to 2 million.Nogales estimates that Armenian population in the Ottoman Empire before World War I was around two and a halfmillion and only five hundred thousand (including three to four hundred thousands in Constantinople, who werebetter protected by the European powers) survived in the Empire. The majority of the rest were killed with violence

or perished from illness or starvation. He considers that only exceptionally lucky ones managed to escape abroad.37 NOGALES, Rafael de:op.cit., p.93.

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Armenian soldiers. From what he saw, he concluded38:

There was certainly no mistake about the matter. Judging from the severity of their fire, to

hunt down the life of an old woman interested them even more than killing the half-dozenofficers who were even nearer to them than was she. These and many similar incidents which I

might cite have not failed to influenceit may be, even to poison to a certain extentmy

opinion of the Armenians. Nevertheless I admire many of their traits, even while heartily

disliking others. It is not the same thing to read in newspapers about massacres, cruelties, and

injustice, as to witness these things taking place on both sides, as I did on so many occasions,

without being able to prevent them.

As for the deportation of the Armenians which followed Ottoman armys successful takeover of

Van and the hard blow by the Russians on the North Eastern frontier, Nogales came to the following

conclusion, from what he had learnt of the local information sources. He is convinced that there was

no denying of the serious involvement of the government of the Committee of Union and Progress,

among all, Taalat Pasha, Interior Minister and Enver Pasha, War Minister. The following is the

observation of the whole issue by Nogales39:

The Armenian massacres which took place in Turkey during the World War resulted

chiefly from, and were the natural consequence of, the revolution for emancipation carried on

by the eastern Armenians, headed and directed by the Extremist parties of the Ramgavars and

the Hunshak, who opposed openly and on occasion even with armed force, the efforts at

reconciliation sponsored by the Dashnakist, who favored autonomy.

Perhaps the Committee of Union and Progress was considerably influenced in favor of the

massacres by fear lest the Armenians put themselves in accord with the Germans in order to

form under their protection a League of all Christians. If such a League had come into existence,

it would have neutralized the absolute power which the young Turks had been exercising up to

that time in the Empire, by means of armed force and in the name of Sultan.

As for the reason why the Armenians became the target in the midst of ethnic, religious andpolitical chaos in the Ottoman Empire, Nogales expresses his view40:

---since the Armenians represented---a civilizing nucleus which might have served first as

a bridge and then as a foundation for the pacific penetration of the Near East by Occidental

civilization.

38 Ibidem, p.94.39

Ibidem, p.27.40 Ibidem.

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Nogales statement seems to suggest that it was the penetration of the occidental civilization

into the Ottoman Empire built on the Islamic principle and especially the Commission of Union and

Progress fanatical reaction to this penetration that caused the tragedy of ethnic questions in theOttoman territory. It may apparently seem to be the confrontation between the Oriental (or Islamic)

and the Occidental (or Western) world. In Nogales description, however, as was seen in the above

Chapter 3(1) and (2), the Occidental civilization was strongly characterized by modern materialism

with narrow-sighted nationalism as its ideology.

It goes without saying that there are also deep-rooted seed of ethnic and religious

confrontations at the local level. While visiting historic sites in Mesopotamia, he came to learn the

question of the renegade Christians and seems to have got the truck of the religious antagonisms41:

---the Castle of Tikrit or Virtha-- was for several centuries the capital of an independent

Aran principality and--remained Christian until the middle of the last century. Then it had to

capitulate at last, and was forcibly converted to Islamism by the Turks and Arabs. Since then,

Tikrit has been one of the most fanatically Mohammedan towns of Mesopotamia, corroborating

the old saying that the most believing believers among all believers are renegade Christians

among Musulmans. Therein lies the reason why the most frightful massacres were perpetrated

precisely in the cities of Sairt, Bitlis, Van and Djarbekir, whose population was largely

composed of descendants of one-time Christian Armenians.

The above-mentioned case and other reports concerning the ethnic composition in various

regions of the Ottoman territory indicate the difficulty setting a clear-cut demarcation line with

regard to between Christian and Muslim world. In addition, the cultural syncretism developed

throughout the long history has made the differences rather ambiguous between Muslims and

Christians, especially in the local, mixed areas. Of course, this will not totally deny the conceptual

confrontation between the Islamic world and the rest. Nogales was quite impressed by the ordinary

Muslims disregard of death and their readiness to be mobilized by the authorities under the banner

of Djihad (Holy War), since religious sacrifice is considered the loftiest deed as a Muslim42.

(4) Question of National Identities in the Old World

During his stay in Mosul and on his way back from the excursion to Nineveh in February 1916,

Nogales came across a group of English officers, prisoners, accompanied by a strong escort, on the

great bridge across the Tigris. Seeing their misfortune and their endurance with dignity, Nogales felt

a sentiment of universal brotherhood which every true soldier feels on seeing a comrade, even an

adversary, in the clutch of adversity and wished to be kind to them. He was, however, advised by

the German superior, to refrain from showing it with deeds lest he should be mistaken as a British

41

NOGALES, Rafael de:op.cit., p.219-22042 Ibidem, pp.20-21 & pp.274-275.

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agent. This episode and other cases of the manifestation of nationalism by Europeans made Nogales

feel so uncomfortable that he had the following to say:

It seems that in the Old World the lack of wide horizons, combined with jingoism anda rancid conservatism, have succeeded in confining the word patriotism within such

narrow limits that many people over there, even many of the most brilliant soldiers, seem

still unaware that courtesy in no wise detracts from valor.

Nogales memoir includes a number of heartwarming episodes of friendship, which makes

us understand his posture as freelance soldier and war reporter who is willing to help even the

adversary in the time of danger, no matter how different their nationalities are43.

In April 1919, upon completing his assignment in the Ottoman Empire on December 31,

1918, Nogales left Constantinople for Spain. After all those adventurous experiences in this

oriental world during the War, what he became confident of was the noble qualities which are

the deep currents of universal understanding. He thought this had been exemplified for him by

all those with whom he had cooperated, even though the names of some of them were not

known to him.

4. Conclusion and Postscript

The life of Rafael Nogales Mndez1877~1937 often strays into the nebulosity of myth.

Because of its truly dramatic and romantic nature, we might well have thought he was a fictional

hero largely invented by a story teller unless the narratives by his contemporaries and various photos

of him had been provided as the concrete evidence of his existence.

On the other hand, the vividness and reality of the situation described in his memoir, Four

Years beneath the Crescentpresent a striking contrast to the fantasy surrounding his life. The readers

may be struck by the fact that similar trap mechanism is frequently observed in the areas of local

conflicts even in the post Cold War period. With regard to the issues of ethnic questions, how little

has changed in spite of all the reshaping of political map and world order since the end of World WarI! Possibly the only greatest change since then is a spread of regional (very often intra-state rather

than inter-state) conflicts, from the areas of Eastern Question to the global dimension.

The movement for the regional integration in one way or anther, as is typically shown in

the case of the European Union, seems to be steadily proceeding or at least it is sought for

everywhere in the world including Latin America. In this sense, Nogales may be regarded as the

forerunner of the idea of Latin Americanism, and the regions cooperation based on the common

cultural background.

43 NOGALES, Rafael de:op.cit., p.260.

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Among all, one of the major reasons for the persuasiveness of Nogales narratives seems to

derive from his independent political standpoint. He was a humanist, liberalist and patriot but was

free from any national interest. His idea was never tinted with a particular conceptual ideology.Probably this is why his memoir seems to provide deeper insights than some other official reports.

Lastly, Nogales thought on peace and justice must be taken up. In his narratives, there was

no such expression as the world peace or social justice. However, his words, especially those in the

last part of his memoir are full of his prayer for the repose of the deceased in the War and the

harmonious cohabitation of all the human beings regardless of their ethnic, cultural and religious

differences. Trained as a soldier, he never hesitated to fight courageously. After his experiences in

World War I, however, his conviction of mutual understanding in the humanity and its importance

seems to have been strongly enhanced. This brings us to the realization of a sort of contradiction that

the peace can truly be appreciated only by those who have gone through the cruelty and hardship of

armed conflicts.

Post script

The present author came to learn the writings of Rafael Nogales Mendz during the last

stage of her stay (1994-98) in Caracas, Venezuela. Thanks to the kind cooperation of the staff of

National Library of Venezuela and Professor Nweihed, she was able to collect almost all the written

materials available in Caracas and she is very much obliged to them all for their help. Due to her

time constraint in Venezuela and the new assignment she had in Tokyo, however, it was difficult for

her to further range over literature about this interesting historical character. This short article is

nothing but an introduction of Nogales unique personality and one of his publications.

Aspiring to write Nogales biography well-based on more extensive documents and

sources including those that could possibly complement what she had already collect, the present

author would appreciate it greatly if any of the readers of this work could inform her of the other

sources or works of Rafael Nogales Mndez.

Last but not the least I would like to express again my heartfelt, deepest respect and

attachment to late Professor Josef Poliensky, great historian and a man of integrity.

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Documents

Asomura Nogales