Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-07-10
ARMENIA, OLDEST CHRISTIAN LAND
E. curtis.


e. CURTIS.
and the Chicago Record Herald.
population lived pastoral lives, caring
nothing for the rest of the world. with
out any ideas Of constitutional freedom
or national independence. many Of the
young men drifted to the cities. where
they prospered and became prominent and
influential. They are thrifty and shrewd
in trade. 1t is a common saying that II
takes two Jews to cheat one Greek and
two Greeks to cheat one Armenian: but
as a. rule the members of that race have
high reputation for integrity, as we'll
as sagacity, and the late sultan himself,
their bitterest enemy. trusted his finances
to Armenians, as he trusted his life to
Afbanians in preference to Turks.
~
Gradually the mercantile affairs, the
manufacturing, the banking and other
lines Of business in the
successful principal cities of Turkey
T-.l.-, have become absorbed by
Armenians, Greeks and
Jews. for the Turk is no trader, and the
Armenians are the most enterprising and
successful Of all. There was no act Of
dfsloyalty until they recognized the sig
nifcance of the persecution of their peo-
pie at home. They accepted their long
years OF agony and despair as the pen
atty of their religion. but when Ameri-
lean missionaries planted schools and
colleges In Turkey and began to educate
the Armenians a new spirit of national
Pride ghd and hope gradually developed.
thousands of Armenians. and among
them some OF the ablest leaders and
most influential thinkers, received their
nrst impulses and aspirations for civil
ana religious liberty at Robert College.
AmoNcQn In r.
rus, and In other colleges Of the American
board of foreign missions in different
parts of Asia Minor. This racial pride
and spirit first found expression in. at
ditlon of their own people; in the eman-
c1pation OF their women; in a revival
of the use Of the Armenian language,
which had been very largely superseded
by the Turkish, and the enlightenment
OF the common people as to the rights
and privileses to which all human beings
are entitled.
Having the example of Bosnia and Bull
garia always In mind. the sultan un-
doubleday suspected that the Armenians
were preparing. for a struggle for free
dom. and determined to check it by ex-
termination II necessary. His intentions
soon became known. When an Arme-
nian was murdered or robbed his assail-
ant was rewarded, and the more Chris
tians the Kurdish chiefs could kill, the
more rapid was their promotion.
-
The prisons were filed with innocent
men. the schools were closed, the Ar
menian language was
AbduPS forbidden. Arm e n n
Cruelties. books were seized and
missionaries were prohibited from teach
ing anything that suggested freedom.
Their text books and newspapers we're
censored and suppressed II they were
found to contain a sentence or even a
word that could be construed to reflect
upon political conditions. One newspaper
was suppressed because it mentioned the
dog star in scientific article on as
tronomy. This was considered an in
suit to the sultan, because Yildiz, the
name for his palace. Is the word for star.
Everything that related to Armenia,
Macedonia and other Christian provinces
was stricken out; hymn books and even
Bibles were censored: two professors in
the Missionary College at Marsovan were
accused of teaching treason and con-
demned to death. but were rescued by
of the scafold. All reference to the as
sassination of President Mckinley was
forbidden lest it might suggest a similar
fate for the sultan.
Armenians in other parts Of the world
organized revolutionary societies, pub
lished revolutionary documents and held
conventions to consider revolutionary ex-
pedients. This defiance Of his authority
exasperated the sultan, and furnished the
pretext for more violent prosecutions and
more slaughter. Being unable to reach
the revolutionary organizers in other
countries, he punished their relatives,
friends and former townsmen by i'm
prisonment and death, and finally, after
many years of atrocious and barbarous
treatment, he conceived a ffendish scheme
of general massacre, which was carried
out by his officials with fanatical zeal
under his directions.
One OF his ministers remarked to a
European diplomatist in Constantinople
that according to his
determination majestys> notion the
rs best way to get rid of
"'oAe"' the Armenian question
is to get rid Of the Armenians."
In order that they might do their work
more thoroughly the half-savage, nomadic
| bands of Kurds were organized into COM
panies by Turkish officers. equipped with
modern weapons and turned loose upon
with orders to provoke the Armenians to
resistance, and thus furnish an excuse
LUZ d ScllCI dI 6iduSutcE Ecll-QeIcnSG was
always treated as rebellion The butch
ers who hunted helpless men and women
like wild beasts and killed them on the
| roadside or in the brush where they had
| taken refuge. who looted and burned
their homes and butchered their wives and
children. were promptly rewarded. and
no one was ever punished.
A succession Of massacres occurred all
over Armenia. in almost every case begun
with a signal by a trumpet from military
headquarters. The soldiers not only par
ticipated in the slaughter. but burned the
homes of their victims after plundering
them, and both civil and official repre-
| sentatives of the government directed the
work of the mob.
In many cases these men were after
| ward called to Constantinople and deco
| rated by their sovereign for the energetic
manner in which the work was done.
Prominent men were offered their lives
If they would renounce their religion. and
some Of them did so. but very few. The
great mass of the Armenians who died in
those massacres were martyrs to their
faith. Special efforts were made to force
priests to apostasy. An official investiga-
| ton showed that ITO Armenian clergymen
I