Page:Islam, Turkey, and Armenia, and How They Happened.djvu/133



If the institution of government is based upon the idea of justice, protection and mutual help for human progress, the Turkish rule has no right to claim that title. One of the most evident reasons of this accusation is her tax system, which is nothing less than a highway robbery, a well organized system to suck the last drop of blood from the veins of her subjects, be they Moslems or non-Moslems.

The following taxes and the mode of collection will explain the existing affairs in that country:

1. Taxes on Real Estate. This is about three per cent of the entire value of the property, to be paid every year, the value being determined by the government. The severity of this tax and degradation attached to its collection is more keenly felt in the interior of the empire, especially in small towns and farm villages. There comes a company of ruffians under the title of "Padishah Zabtiehsy" (king's police), numbering five, seven or more, armed to the teeth, tough, ignorant, vulgar and gluttonous men, who stop at the house of the wealthiest, call the leading men of the community and having stated the amount demanded of the town, threaten them in the name and by the authority of the Sultan, "the Father of the Faithful, whose mercy and wisdom fill the