Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-10-04
THE GLORY THAT
WAS ONCE ARMENIA
Another Racial Dispersion-A Peo-
pie Without a Country-A
Wealth of Fascinating Ira
dition Lingers Still
BY ELLIS RANDALL

- he e-Nlobt ATUtulHnS Wnonn fAihh"oSoeNA
Morgenthau, according to reports, would help
emlgrate to the United states. There are
nearly 100000 in the world almost as widely
dispersed as the Jews, and like them pos
sessing remarkable tenacity Of race and
faculty OF adaptation TO circumstances
Frugal sober industrious and intelligent
their sturdiness Of character has enabled
them to preserve their nationality and re-
lgon under the sorest trials. They are most
numerous in Asia Minor the seat of their
ancient kingdom. but even In the district
known as Turkish Armenia they comprise
but a NTH part Of the population.
The Glory and the Grandeur
Armenia is at present only an historical
conception, but in that character it is one
of the most interesting countries on the face
of the globe. so closely is It associated with
events narrated in the Bible and in the an
nails of early contacts and conflicts of rival
civilizations. Occupying a high tableland
which lies southwest of the Caucasus and
stretches southwark to the Mesopotamian
valleys and the Garden of Eden, the Armenia
which is now nothing hut name embraces
the northeast corner of Asiatic Turkey, the
southern part of Asiatc Russia and the
northwest corner of Persia, with famous
Mount Ararat at the triple junction of the
frontiers. For long time it endured the
experience of buffer State" the Roman
Empire on one side and the Parthian power
the other and later 1t went through as
often happens with buffer States" long
succession of conquests and partitions. But
before all that it has a history of its own,
to the grandeur and glory of which the dis
coveries of archaeologists. delving among the
ruins of superb palaces and temples, are an
eloquent tribute.
Ancient Armenia. now one with Nineveh
and Tyre. was once peopled by the Hittites,
who battled often and anon with the Baby
lonians and Assyrians and who wrested from
old Rameses the Second something more
than 5000 years ago, that treaty which gave
them possession Of all northern Syria and
which today may be read on the walls of a
temple at Thebes. And these Hittites. before
their effacement from the tablets and scrolls
of history, dominated the peninsula of Asia
Minor and helped in the transmission of ORR
entail civilization from East to West, passing
on what they had learned from their Semitic
neighbors to the Lydans, who in turn COM
municated their culture to the Greeks. For
the Armenlans of a very old branch of
the Aryan STOCK with which in later genera
tions Turanian and Semitic elements have
been mixed.
The antiquity Of the race is unquestioned.
The Armenians Of today trace their ancestry
back to Haig, grandson of Japhet Ararat, in
the time of Noah was the name of Armenia
In Genesis 1t is recorded that "In the sew
enth month, on the seventeenth day of the
month, the ark rested upon the mountains
of Ararat," and on the slope of Mt. Ararat
itself is a village which. says tradition, was
founded by Noah when he landed after his
memorable experience with the flood and the
doves So, says tradition again. this is the
oldest town in existence. Here Noah and his
family made their home, and from this place
his family scattered to obey the divine COM
mand. The of the little village is
Nakhikhevan and It means in the Armenian
tongue, "He descended here"
The Armenians, so beset and prosecuted
now for centuries. have therefore a very old
title to the country which the survivors Of
the massacres OF this and other years may
finally abandon. From the South from
Kurdistan, come their enemies to burn their
houses and to murder. These are the Kurds
not their only enemies by any means, but
their enemies relentlessy on the job The
Kurds are almost the only race left that still
lives solely by the sword. They are nomadic
and not half-civilized, and proudly claim TO
be descendants of the concubines Of Solomon
1t has long been the practice of their
marauding bands to levy tribute on the Ar
menans. breaking agreements over night and
carrying off their property and their wives
and children. They have had all sorts of en-
couragement from the Sultans and the Turk
ish soldiery. as everybody knows, and when
an Armenian was murdered or robbed his
assailant rewarded, The more Chris
tians Kurdish chief could kill the more
aYtd in
Ottoman Porte. In the reign of Abdul
Hamid nearly 100000 Armenian Christians
suffered martyrdom, and 1t is believed that
as many more who fed to the mountains per-
ished from exposure and starvation.
Like the Children of Israel
No people have suffered so much for their
religion, not even the children of Israel as
the Armenans, and the atrocities committed
upon them are the most barbarous that mod
ern history has recorded. The massacres
which Redeemed the years of 1856 and 1903
can never be forgotten. even in the horrors
that have marked the past twelvemonth. The
Armenian outrages have been mostly the
fruit OF Moslem fanaticism, though II must
be said that commercial jealousy has had
something to do with II all The Armenians
who inhabit Asia Minor by the Black Sea
are simple. quiet, primitive people devoted
principally to agricultural and pastoral pur-
suits (under such handicaps as a cruel des-
potism has imposed), but their brethren
who have gone out into the countries round
about have displayed wonderful aptitude
for commercial pursuits and in many cities
Of the Near East they are the chief mer-
chants and money lenders. They have been
more enterprising and successful In Turkey
than the Jews and Greeka THAR urorst