Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1915-10-08
SUFFER PERSECUTION
FOR THOUSAND YEARS
Armenians Long the Victims of Mo.
hammedans and Kurds, Geo.
graphic Society Says.

Tried in misery far more bitterly
than any other people which has been
able to survive to some present day
Importance, the Armenians. according
to press dispatches are again suffer-
ing rapine and murder at the hands
of the lawless Kurds,' begins a. bulle-
tin given out today by the National
Geographic Society. Ever since their
appearance on the stage of history.
the Armenian people have been the OBJ
jects for oppression, and worse, by
stronger neighbours, and for the past
thousand years they have been the VIC
Tins of Mohammedan peoples. who set
tied, as neighbors, in Asia Minor, all
through the Armenian land, and north
through the Caucasus. The peculiar
relations that have obtained in the
past between the Ottoman empire and
the great powers have been such that
no power could afford to be the friend
of these much-maSSacred and despoiled
people, who have had to be content
as the helpless pawns of races less
civilized.
Where the Armenians Dwell.
The country which these people in
habit today. their homeland. includes
| the northeast corner of Asiatic Tur-
key; the southern part Of Transcau-
! casia, where Russia rules, and the
northwest corner of Persia. This is
mostly a high tableland. The greater
part of their homeland, 10000 square
| miles, lies in the Ottoman empire, and
| is thickly strewn with tribes of semi
nomadic Kurds The Russian part Is
comprehended in the governments of
Erivan, Yelisavetpol, Tifis and Kars.
Persian Armenia, where Armenians
were settled forcefully by an old-time
| shah, forms the greater part Of the
province of Azerbaijan. Kurdistan ad-
joins. in the south. and cuts deeply
into Armenia.
THE Euphrates, Tigris, Churuk Su
and the Aras-the River Of the Garden
Of Clearwater this territory. Lake
Van, in Turkey, is. with the exception
cal feature. and by the edge Of its
| blue-green waters Armenians have
been martyred wholesale. The climate
is healthy. with severe winters and hot
summers. The soil is fruitful. and mar
BILE, saltpeter, iron. copper. quicksilver.
lead and gold are found in its noun
.tains.
The bulk of Armenians have MI
grated into the Russian province OF
their country during the last 100 years
Here they have been comparatively
safe, though the Tartars of Russian
Caucasia slaughtered and robbed them
almost unhindered not ten years ago
The story of the so-called Armeno-
Tartar feud Is not bright one for
Russia. About 1,200, 900 Armenians live
in Russian Transcaucasia: 1t Is esti-
mated that $4,000 Of them live In
pean Turkey and $4,000 in Asiatie
Turkey. outside of Armenia. Persia has
some 100000 Armenians, and other
larger settlements are found in Ciscau.
casia. Hungary. Transylvania. Galicia
and British India
Dark-Skinned Aryans.
Short, thick-set, dark-skinned Ar.
vans, they seem almost to bridge the
gap between the peoples Of the west
apparently have always lived. In fact
they claim this themselves. asserting
that they are the first people descended
from Noah. who landed on their great.
est mountain. They first appear in his
by the Assyrians. the Medes. by the
Selencid kings, by the Byzantines and
the Persians. They had a brief, uncer-
tain national history until the eleventh
bondage to Mohammedan peoples. under
which they still maintain a precarious
danger-haunted existence. The horrors
| of the Armenian massacres by the
Kurds in 1895 and 1895 stirred the civi.
liked world, but resulted in no future
guarantees. Fearfulness has stalke6
| no other people SO relentlessly. One
result has been that the Armenian's
powers for competition and self -preser.
These people are the traders Of the neal
east, and a saying has 1t that a Jew car
beat three Russians in a deal; a Greek
| two Jews, while an Armenian can sue.
cessfully match his wits against then