Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1899-05-05
OUR MISSIONS IN TURKEY
Minister Angels Impress
sious of the Turks.
SAYS THEY ARE NOT INT0LERANT.

"Thc Ordinary Turk IL Good. Honest
Fellow, but Capable of Great Fanat-
misunderstanding of Turks Against
Armeniaus Akin to That In Europe
Against jews.
James B. Angel, former minister t.,
Turkey and now president Of the Mich
igan university, addressed an audience
in the Central Congregational church ia
Brooklyn the other night on Turkey and
Armenia, The meeting was in the in
terest of the American board of foreign
missions. Mr.. Angel described the
work of American missionaries there,
particularly what they had done and
were doing toward the education of the
Turks. He told how the massacres Of
1884 came about. The general belief
here has been that Turkey was very in
tolerant toward any religion save the
Mohammedan. Mr.. Angel said that the
reverse was the fact. He said that in
Turkey the various religious organiza-
tions practically had all of the freedom
in religious matters they could ask for,
and in addition they had a measure of
civil government that denominations
have nowhere else.
An Armenian who dies leaves a will.
That will doesn't 60 to any probate
court of the empire, but to the patriarchs
of the church, and they administer the
estate. In various other matters of civil
government also the heads of these &c.
olesiastioal organizations have extensive
powers. One of the results of this was,
Mr., Angel said, that the population
wa divided into many societies. Each
society kept more or less to itself, and
because of this there were naturally a
good deal of friction and a want Of
unity.
Of the Armenians, he said that for
100 years they had been in subjugation,
and they had acquired the characteris-
tics of a servile people. They had been
oppressed to an extraordinary degree by
the mountain Turks or Kurds, who
would swoop down on their villages and
carry away their property and often
their wives and daughters. That was
one complaint the Armenians had, but
there was another quite as serious. In
Turkey no one is allowed to be a sol
dier unless he is a Mohammedan. A
Greek or al Armenian is not permitted
to serve in the army nor to have any
firearms in his possession. While the
Armenians couldn't be soldiers, Mr.,
Angel said, they developed a tremen-
dous natural gift for mechanical and
mercantile pursuits.
The natural consequence of the Ar
menians devoting all their talents to
business was that many Of them grew
rich. They held mortgages on land
owned by the Turks, and because as
they grew rich the Turks grew poorer
there was a feeling growing in Turkey
akin to that feeling in Europe against
the Jews. MIR. Angel said that the op-
preston from which the Armenians suf-
fered led a percentage of them to emf
CRATE to another country, where many
were converted to anarchism. The
young men saw only in anarchy their
deliverance from the oppression of the
Kurds. Just previous to the massacre in
Constantinople about 20 of these young
men came to Constantinople imbued
with the idea that they would relieve
their countrymen by blowing up build
ings and killing people. They did blow
up the foreign office and other buildings.
The Ottoman government then let it
be understood, Mr.. Angel said, that
those who cared to could slay Arme-
mans and escape punishment, and it
came about the next day that the city
was full Of young Turks, each of whom
carried a club. They went through the
streets, and whenever they met an Ar
menian they beat him to death. This
went on for three days. Mr.. Angel
said there could be no denying this. As
to the number of persons who were
killed in the city he said that oonserva-
tive estimates placed it at from 5000 to
6 5000. His predecessor on one visit to
the Armenian cemetery saw in Il night
700 bodies brought in and piled up.
What happened in Constantinople hap
pened in other parts of the empire, and
anywhere from 100, 900 to 200, 900 per.
sons were killed, all told, in some places
the whole population being gathered in
churches and burned.
Nj. Angel said that after the mas
sacre the Ottoman government charged
that the American missionaries were
teaching the natives revolution. The
sultan called on the minister of foreign
affairs and directed him to present the
matter to the American minister. Mr..
Angel said he knew that the charges
we're false. The specifications that were
brought forth one at a time to prove the
charge, he said, he had investigated
carefully, and be found that every com
plant originated, not with the Turks,
but with some one of the rival e%cclesi.
astical organizations. He reported his
discoveries to the Turkish government,
and that ended tho matter.
He said there had been no trouble in
Turkey with missionaries during the
past year. From his personal knowledge
he did not believe that the Turkish gov
eminent aver bothered the missionaries
any more than it bothered other travel
ers. So far as he had seen all people
we're treated alike. If the missionaries
had troubles, they had no more than other
people. He said that the ordinary Turk
was a good, honest fellow, but that he
was capable of great fanatioism when
aroused and Of great cruelty, but no
more Of either than the average Asiatic.
The missionaries, he said, got some fa-
vors from the Turks that other people
didn't. He thonuht IN was IN the crpdit