Norwich bulletin., 1916-05-25
THE WAR PRIMER By National Geographic Society


 with which the Russians are meeting in their advance from Trebizond and Erzerum upon Erzingan focuses the limelight of public attention on one of the most fascinatingly interesting cit ies of Asia Minor, from an historical and legendary standpoint, according to the war geography bulletin issued today by the National Geographic so- ciety from its Washington headQuar- ters which says:
 With population variously esti- mated at from 15,000 to 23,000, half of whom are ArmenianS, the town of Err zingan, situated on the right bank of the Kara Su (black river), the western branch of the upper Euphrates, seems destined soon to witness another mo- mentous struggle for race supremacy on it's neighboring plains, a struggle even more bitter than that waged here six and a half centuries ago between the Turkish Seljuks and the Mongols. Two centuries previously, at about the time that William the Conlueror was subduing England, the Seljuks, under their great leader Alp Arslan, had es- tabliShed themselves firmly in Asia
 Minor by the defeat of Romanus Di- ogenes, the Greek emperor whose rise to power dated from the hour when he was being led to execution for treachery. His manly grace awaken | ed the amorous fancy of his empress, who commuted his death sentence to |
 Tn times of peace Erzingan is | tranquil little city, with one wide | thoroughfare and many dirty, unpaved 1 alleys. It is important as a military post, and has clothing, tannery and 1 boot factories in which modern Brit | ish machinery is used. Silks, cotton | goods and copper utensils were
 among it's manufactures before the war.
 '"The fertile, well-watered plains
 surrounding the town are threaded by l fairly good roads extending to four points of the compass-to Trebizond, TO miles by air line to the north: to Erzerum, 80 miles east; to Kharput, l 70 miles south. and to Afiun1- Kara his- sar, 60 miles northwest, the last nam ed noted for it's poppy fields and opi- um trade, as it's name implies (Black Castle of Opium)
 "The most picturesque episode in the history of Erzingan concerns the establishment of the famous Armenian monastery of St. Gregory, eleven miles south of the town. Gregory, the re- puted founder of the Armenian church, 1 and called the Il1uminator to distin- guish him from the great fathers of | the Eastern church of the same name, was the son of a Parthian chieftain | who, in the third century of The Chris tian era, was bribed to assassinate the Armenian king Chosrees. Many years | later, in order to atone for his father s
 treachery, Gregory entered the service 1 of ChorOeS' son and successor, Tiri-
 dates, who had been changed into a
 wild boar, and who had attacked many
 of his subjects. With a sermon ot
 sixty days duration Gregory restored | Tiridates' reason and was proclaimed
 a saint, while the ruler became the | first Christian king of Armenia. One
 of the most interesting features of the l legend is that part of it whidIl con-
 cerns the cause of Tiridates' naina- an aff1iction visited upon him by heaven for his treatment of the beau tiful nun, Ripsime. Ripsime was 6 Christian convert of Rome, who wal so unfortunate as to arouse the ferviC | admiration of the emperor Diocletian Seeing no way to repulSe the mon. l arch's advances, Ripsime fled to Asis 1 Minor with her abbeSS, Gaiana. bio. cletian soon learned of her place O , i refuge and commanded Tirfdates tt seize the girl and return her to Rome But in the meantime Tiridates hat himself succumed to her rare beauty. "Ripsirne, equally cold to the Ar. 5 menian, was seized and tortured tt death by the t1lwarted king, and witt
 her were massacred her thirty six fol lowers.
 :, "One of Gregory's first acts upon hi elevation to royal favor was to built - shrines for the relics of Ripsime ant s Gaiana, the site for these being mi s raeulously selected, so continues th = lengehd, by the Son of Heaven, win q came down from above on path 0 r light and smote the earth with n golden hammer.
 q 'eKaTlcobad I, greatest of Seljul ), princes, illustrious both for his mill t tary prowess and as a patron of Sar
 acenic architecture, won a decisiv e victory on the plains of Erzingan fl q | 1230, a victory, however, which re g suited in the downfall of the Seljuk q thirteen years later, for the vanquish . ed prince, Khwarizm shah Ja,lal, wa : the only buffer between Kaikobad' s Kingdom and the Mongols. Tn 124 al after Kaikobad had been poisoned D o his own son, Kiakhasrau, the Mongel n administered a crushing defeat to thi t, unworthy heir of a great sire, an s peace was purchased only by the pay o menT of heavy tribute.
 : After the Mongols came the Tatar1 5. then the Turxomans, and finally Erzin if gan became a part of the domain ( 1 Nfohammed II in 1473, twenty year g after the establishment of the Mclaam n medan empire at Constantinople. $ Spain has 992 plants for public cleo r tric lighting and 97S for private use