OUT OF THE DEPTHS.
“Oh that my head were waters and mine eyes a fountain of tears,
that I might weep day and night for the slain of my people.”
A book has been written and published in Japan, its title “Niku Dan”
translated into English, reads, “Human Bullets.” This little book, a
narrative of the siege of Port Arthur, after being read through the
length and breadth of the empire, found translators to translate it
into the best known of languages; and its young author, himself an
actor in the siege, was summoned to the presence of his sovereign to
be thanked and praised. The book is a graphic narrative of the most
terrible siege in history, wherein is vividly portrayed the deadly
struggle of the besiegers. It contains as an acknowledgement of its
merit, a page on which is recorded the Field Marshal’s appreciation,
and another page bearing the Commanding General’s commendation.
In simple narrative the author carries the reader through appalling
scenes of horror, and as we read we are made to realize the slaughter
of the enemy’s machine guns, of their ground-mines, electric-wire
entanglements, and exploding shells; we are made to hear the roar of
the artillery fire dealing death and destruction, and there rises
before us the mental vision of the fierce hand to hand conflict, and
the dead and dying lying thickly in the dark ravine.
“For hill and battle plain,
With dying men and slain,
Grew mountain heights of pain,
And mine is boundless woe.”
The grim warrior who stormed and took the most impregnable fortress
in the world gives expression to his feelings on his own great
achievement, in saddest words.
“And mine is boundless woe,”
For the grim warrior’s heart is cleft in twain for the human bullets
that under his command hurled themselves to their death.
In the world’s greatest war, human bullets were sacrificed for the
protection of hearths and homes and a nation’s existence, moreover the
human bullets were made of men who fought and died for sovereign and
country.
But there is a counter picture of horrors in which also there has
been a sacrifice of human bullets, made not only of men but of women
and children, human bullets, not of soldiers, themselves fortified
and equipped with instruments of slaughter for fighting and grappling
with the foe, but human bullets of unarmed men, of helpless women and
children, of youth and old age, caught like rats in a rat-trap; and
these human bullets have been sacrificed to the savage lusts of murder
and plunder of the world’s fiercest oppressors, and to the political
and commercial interests of civilized nations.
In the first decade of the civilized twentieth century, a horrible and
wanton slaughter of unarmed men, of helpless women and children has
been perpetrated with all the accessories of cruelties unsurpassed for
their fiendishness: whole towns and villages have been desolated, homes
pillaged and destroyed, not only men, but women and children subjected
to hideous deaths and nameless horrors, which no pen could depict in
their true realism, and the details could never go into print, and
this wanton slaughter, even as the many of a similar nature that have
preceded it, has come and gone like a ripple on a smooth sea.
No cry of horror has risen from the hearts of civilized nations! Turkey
can butcher the helpless victims of her greed and carnivorous instincts
with impunity, since Christendom and Civilization are busy only with
Turkish concessions, with land grabbing and money making.
“Human Bullets”! “Human Bullets”! here are human bullets of heavier
rain than at the world’s grimmest siege; here are “sure death
detachments” hurled to a more pitiful fate; and the civilized world
does not care, for Armenian Massacres come and go, and the civilized
world is getting used to them. But in the eternal order of things, a
Nemesis follows human actions, be they of individuals or of nations.
Material Prosperity is a great and good thing, but Moral Prosperity is
greater and better. The Armenians may be done to their death, the last
remnants of an ancient civilization may be exterminated and consigned
in their blood to oblivion; but to the nations grown great in material
prosperity that for their own selfish interests can allow and condone
this hellish extermination, history teaches a mighty lesson. The moral
cancer eating into the moral sense of nations, saps moral prosperity
which in its turn undermines material prosperity. Great Empires once
flourishing have decayed through moral poverty. History repeats itself.
WHAT THE TURKISH CONSTITUTION MEANS FOR THE ARMENIANS.
A year has passed since the inauguration of the Turkish Constitution;
since the first glad cries of “liberty, fraternity, equality” were
resounded as heralds of the peace and prosperity that were to follow;
but although a whole year has passed, the Turkish Constitution, thus
far, has only paraded itself as a spectacular effect, and as a panorama
on shifting sand.
A whole year has passed and the liberal Turks have produced neither a
Prince Ito nor an Abraham Lincoln, though both were urgently needed to
meet the pressing exigencies and heavy responsibilities of the times;
and we may well ask now, Where is the man who is to hold the helm of
the Constitutional ship and steer it over the turbulent waters?
The task of the new régime was the most difficult that could have
fallen to any administration. Beset on the one hand by the jealousies,
rivalries, and political intrigues of European Powers; on the other, by
the machinations of that “Red Beast” the ex-Sultan and his murderous
and corrupt clique, by disappointed plundering pashas and officials
(compelled to grant their arch enemy the ex-Sultan a lease of life
through fear of a fanatical populace), the liberal Turks on their
own part have not brought to bear upon their work any administrative
ability, when extraordinary powers of governing and the highest and
strongest genius for administration were absolutely needed. The Turk
has always shown to the world that he is a born fighter, but a puerile
administrator.
For the Armenians the Constitution has resulted in two
conditions--Massacre and Oppression; their hopes and aspirations have
ended in the death throes of, as some accounts give, thirty thousand
and others fifty thousand of their unhappy race, in homelessness and
precipitation into absolute destitution of a few more thousands,[11]
and in insecurity for the nation at large. An unarmed population
scattered and dispersed among a hostile, murderous and fanatical
populace; their position even under the new régime is to be compared to
that of herbivorous animals standing at bay in the midst of ravening
wolves.
His spiritual interests call upon the Moslem Turk and the Moslem Kurd
to murder the Christian Armenian; his material interests to plunder and
enrich his own idleness with the worldly goods the other has acquired
by his industry and toil, and the prosperity and well-being that the
Armenian labours to bring to the fairest provinces under the sun are
swooped upon and devastated by the brigandage of his enemies. Religious
fanaticism and lust of plunder have always been governing elements in
the Turkish massacres, and against these same religious fanaticism and
lust of plunder, the Armenians stand to-day in deadly peril under the
new régime.
What more is to follow? Our hearts sicken to forecast, and our
minds tremble to foresee. Are the balance of our striplings and our
greybeards, our pen-men, and our ploughmen to be made to rot in
Turkish dungeons, condemned to such loathsome horrors as can only be
perpetrated in Turkish prisons? Are the balance of our women to be
subjected to agonies so hideous and revolting that death at the fiery
stake or on the iron rack were mercy and bliss? Are the balance of our
babes and children to be exterminated like vermin? Are the balance
of our people, the industrious, intelligent, clean, self-respecting
element in the Turkish Empire, to be yet again hunted like wild beasts
and killed like rats and flies?
We are not wild and lawless descendants of Jenghis Khan and Tamerlane:
we are peace-loving, law-abiding citizens, lovers of language and
literature, of the arts and sciences, energetic traders, hardworking
tillers of the soil, industrious artizans and labourers, producing in
ourselves all the elements that constitute the society and well-being
of civilized man; and as the oldest Christians, we ask of Christian
nations, if we are to be trodden out?
On the soil of our fatherland we are surrounded by a murderous,
marauding, religion-frenzied populace, and neither Humanity nor
Christianity will hold out to us a helping hand.
If nothing else were done for the Armenians, at least Christian
governors should be appointed over the provinces inhabited by them:
we do not expect the Turkish Government to do this of their own
initiative, but we have a right to expect the European Powers that were
signatories to the Treaty of Berlin to compel the new régime to do
it. Since the signing of the famous Treaty of Berlin thirty-one years
ago, the history of the Armenians has been written in blood and tears,
as the history of no other nation has been written before or now; and
we ask, How long? How long will the Christian Powers stand silent
witnesses to the work of slaughter and oppression carried on under
their eyes?
Alas! the weight of the Turkish bonds is too heavy in the scale, and
Armenian life too light; the selfish interests of the European Powers
involved in the Turkish Empire cannot be endangered to save the blood
of three or four millions of Armenians, and the death warrant of an
oppressed and bleeding nation can find no place on the table of the
Hague Conference of Peace and Civilization.
THE ARMENIAN QUESTION.
In the closing pages of “Twenty Years of the Armenian Question”
published in 1896, its distinguished author,[12] one of the greatest
authorities on the subject, makes the following notable comment on the
character and fate of the Armenian race.
“They had maintained their nationality from immemorial times, before
history began to be written. They had clung to their Christian faith,
under incessant persecution for fifteen centuries. They were an
intelligent, laborious race, full of energy, and increasing in numbers
wherever oppression and murder did not check their increase, because
they were more apt to learn, more thrifty in their habits, and far less
infected by Eastern vices than their Mahommedan neighbours. They were
the one indigenous population in Western Asia which, much as adversity
had injured them, showed a capacity for moral as well as intellectual
progress, and for assimilating the civilization of the West. In their
hands the industrial future of Western Asia lay, whatever government
might be established there; and those who had marked the tenacity and
robust qualities of the race looked to them to restore prosperity
to these once populous and flourishing countries when the blighting
shadow of Turkish rule had passed away. But now, after eighteen years
of constantly increasing misery, a large part, and, in many districts,
the best part, of this race has been destroyed, and the remnant is
threatened with extinction.”
These remarks made in 1896 by a great and disinterested authority with
a profound knowledge of the subject he was writing about, stand as true
to-day as when they were written. From 1896 onwards, events following
in succession one upon another have proved the truth and soundness of
his opinions.
Can the Armenians hope now for any change in their condition under
Turkish rule? To this question, we must answer an emphatic No!
The causes that must operate against any change are many and
deep-seated. In the first place it cannot be expected that a few Turks
of liberal ideas (or it may be French polished) at Constantinople,
are going to change the thought and character of the nation. The
characteristics of a people change very slowly, if they ever change at
all, and the predominant national traits of the many-blooded modern
Turk have been shown to the world to be, cruelty and fanaticism,
combined with a fierce sensuality; and what is more than all, and which
has to be remembered most, is, that they are a people accustomed to the
unbridled gratification of their worst passions.
The ethnographic traits of the Turkman which history bears out, are
wildness and fierceness, and it would not be incorrect to argue that
with the instincts of his primitive ancestors have been assimilated the
many cross currents that run in his veins, into all of which has been
infused the doctrines of the religion of the sword, a religion which
does not make for the peace or well being of mankind; a religion, also,
which assigning one of the two sexes to the degraded position of being
created solely for the gross pleasure of the other, does not make for
the exaltation of mankind.
To quote again the eminent authority previously referred to: “No
Mahommedan race or dynasty has ever shown itself able to govern well
even subjects of its own religion, while to extend equal rights to
subjects of a different creed is forbidden by the very law of its
being.”
Not the Jewish conceit proclaiming itself God’s elect and chosen, and
originating the name “heathen” which it scorned. Not the Christian
conceit emanating from the Jewish source, and laying the flattering
unction to its soul of superiority over the “heathen” of its own time.
Not the unbending caste exclusiveness of the Brahman across whose
path even the shadow of the despised Sudra falling would be deemed
defilement. Not any of these, can equal the intolerant religious pride
of the Mahommedan, or reach the pinnacle of religious self-sufficiency
on which he has seated himself. To be a Mahommedan, is enough--_Cela
suffit_.
To any one who has familiar acquaintance with Mahommedans, and intimate
with Mahommedan thought, one fact must strike itself most forcibly, and
that is, the Mahommedan is above all things a Mahommedan. His religion
is the paramount question in his life, and remains its predominating
feature above everything else. This should not be surprising, since to
the “faithful” Paradise is secured, and all crimes and transgressions
against “unbelievers” absolved.
Added to these important factors of racial characteristics, influences
of religion, and long grown habits of the Turk, we have also in
Turkish Armenia another evil, from which the other provinces of the
Turkish Empire fortunately for themselves have been exempt; this
super-added evil, is, the large neighbouring bodies of Kurds and
Circassians, greater marauders and depredators than the Turks, the
regular occupation of whose lives comprises murder and robbery, and who
have through weary centuries unremittingly quartered themselves upon
the industrious christian peasants, and lived on the fruits of their
labour and toil. Indeed as the Hamidieh cavalry which was established
expressly for the Hamidian massacres was composed of these Kurds, it
ought to be matter of speculation what outlet these warriors, trained
and practised in organized murder, can now find for those habits in
which they were encouraged and trained to indulge by the Hamidian
régime.
Under all such conditions no hope of better days can be forthcoming, no
prospect of better times seems possible, for that unhappy portion of
the Armenian race whom force of circumstances keeps on the soil of the
fatherland.
The appointment of Christian governors over the provinces inhabited
by them might ameliorate some of the evils, or the other alternative,
of allowing the use of arms to all alike, irrespective of creed or
nationality, would furnish some means of self-defence against the raids
and barbarities of the oppressors; but even if such concessions were
granted, life for the christian peasant subject to Turkish rule, and
living in the midst of his enemies, must remain one long struggle and
battle against pillage, murder, depredation, and offences of the worst
nature. Not the most fertile soil, not the most favourable climatic
conditions, not the most assiduous industry, not the most peace loving,
law abiding instincts, can bring to the Armenian peasant under Turkish
rule even a modicum of that comfort, happiness, and security of life
and property, which the law of all civilized countries guarantees to
the industrious labourer and tiller of the soil.
OPEN LETTER TO THE HONORABLE PRESIDENT WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT.
EXCELLENT SIR,
You are the President of the mighty Republic of the United States
of America, and I am only an obscure unit of a forlorn and helpless
nation, but encouraged by the intrinsic qualities of your head and
heart, and also by the record of great and noble services rendered in
the cause of oppressed humanity, by certain of your predecessors in the
presidential chair (so encouraged) I venture humbly to address you. The
annals of that presidential chair on which you sit are clear and bright
as the noonday sun; turning over the pages of their brightness, I am
encouraged to address you its present occupant.
Your immediate predecessor rendered a great service in the interests
of Humanity, by bringing a terrible and bloody war to its close. His
staunch strong hand of friendship was held out to the gallant nation
fighting heroically for its national existence, whilst the might of
his iron will strenuously contested and made the peace which will ever
be associated with his name, but there was a peace which his great
heart wished to break but could not succeed in breaking, and which his
upright mind has branded as “infamous”: such are his own words “the
infamous peace kept by the joint action of the great powers, while
Turkey inflicted the last horrors of butchery, torture and outrage upon
the men, women and children of despairing Armenia.”[13] For thirty-one
years the great European Powers kept up by joint action an infamous
peace, and out of regard for their own selfish interests allowed a
corrupt, vicious, gangrened and blood-thirsty power to wreak its
hellish atrocities not only on the men, but on the women and children
of a helpless nation.
These are strong words, but they are true, and you will agree with me
that the meanest and humblest of God’s creatures has a right to speak
the truth, and that greatest is the right to speak the truth, when
it is spoken in the cause of murdered, outraged and misery-stricken
humanity.
The yoke of Turkey rivetted on the necks of the Armenians by England in
1878, was rivetted again by Russia, and yet again rivetted by Germany.
The political interests and the commercial interests of Europe have
trampled us under foot; we have been sacrificed on the altar of the
political animosities of England and Russia, and given over, men,
women and children to butchery, slaughter, imprisonment, torture;
we have been crushed under the iron wheels of the Baghdad railway, a
greater Juggernauth for us, while the ex-Sultan received his payment
and “bartered a kingdom for the Kaiser’s friendship”; and yet again
we have been crushed when British diplomacy checkmated William of
Hohenzollern’s dream.
The death warrant of our bleeding nation has found no place on the
table of the Hague Conference of Peace and Civilization since the
selfish interests of the European Powers would give it no abiding room.
President of a great and free Republic, let it be the work of your
mighty hands to lay it there. The Cabinets of Europe have turned a deaf
ear to the death shriek of our bleeding nation, let our despairing cry
be heard now in the Senate of the United States of America.
It remains for the historian of the future to record the Armenian
Massacres as the foulest blot and the blackest stain on European
Civilization and European International Morality, but in addressing
you now I will turn down the pages of the hideous Past, and humbly lay
open the pages of the Present, on which is clearly written the deadly
peril in which our nation stands: the book is open, and who will may
read. For it is not the goodwill of the new régime that has to be
taken into calculation, as far as the Armenians are concerned, but the
powerfulness or the powerlessness of the new régime to make for their
protection.
How can we forget Adana? A whole town and villages sacked and
desolated; fifty thousand of our men, women and children done to
horrible deaths, and the residue left to homelessness and starvation.
How can we forget that the arch-enemy of Christian and liberal Turk
still lives, dethroned but not executed, and that through fear of his
worshippers and his adherents the liberal Turks are compelled to pamper
and support the monster assassin of the world? When such difficulties
beset the path of the liberal Turks, the rulers, what security is there
for a subject people, alien in race and religion?
President of a great and free Republic, we need a friend, we ask for
your mighty hands to be held out to us in succour, since the number of
our enemies are legion: even Nature has arrayed herself against us in
the inexorable conditions of the physical geography of our country.
Shall the President of a mighty Republic with noble traditions; shall
the christian men and women of the United States leave us to our
terrible fate?
“To serve Armenia is to serve Civilization.” These words were spoken
by a great and revered statesman; the noble handiwork of his Creator
(William Ewart Gladstone), now gone to his honored rest. “Do not let
me be told that one nation has no authority over another” was his reply
to the Armenian deputation which waited on him in 1894. Let his reply
be your answer to us now, President of a mighty Republic; let it be
your answer written in golden letters across the banner of that great
civilization, of which you are the presiding head.
The Republic of the United States of America has been compared to that
grain of mustard seed, which when planted in the earth budded forth and
grew into such dimensions that the birds of the air lodged under the
branches thereof. I pray that the shadow of those branches be extended
over my bleeding nation.
ABDUL HAMID, THE TRIUMPH OF CRIME.
A monster assassin! Has he been brought before the bar of his country,
tried and condemned to the penalty of death, such as in the days of his
power he meted out to hundreds of thousands of innocents? Has he been
cast into a loathsome prison, such as the many in which thousands of
his victims have rotted and died? Nay! not so! it is not so decreed in
Turkey.
In Turkey, a camarilla of murderous and plundering pashas, and a
fanatical and marauding populace stand behind a Padishah who knew how
to furnish gratification for the murdering and marauding instincts of
his adherents. Nay! neither death nor imprisonment for the Padishah
whose sovereignty was the most auspicious for brigandage and murder.
Who dares to slay or imprison the demigod of rapine and despotism? Such
things cannot be done in Turkey.
For crimes that were in comparison as light as air, those puerile
tyrants, Charles of England and Louis of France forfeited their heads.
Poor Charles and Louis! Your heads chopped off and your bodies trundled
away in a cart: no glorifying spiritualized titles of Zeid and Imam
read out in your bills of indictment; such glorifying spiritualized
titles are reserved for monster assassins in Turkey.
In Turkey, a monster assassin whose list of murders rank him as premier
assassin of the world, who under heel of iron and fire annihilated
the rights and liberties of his subjects is pensioned off to live in
purple and fare sumptuously: housed in a luxurious palace, he sits on
carpeted divans, supported by silken and velvet pillows, with eleven
ministering houris, the youngest and fairest of his past entourage,
to solace the “dolce far niente” of his deposed Padishahdom. Ample
leisure, possible opportunities to hatch plots for the subversion of
law and order, and the revival of the reign of plunder and massacre.
But it is so allowed in Turkey. It is enough to be a Caliph and a
Padishah to be able to count victims, not by thousands, but by hundreds
of thousands, and remain immune from punishment for mountains of crime.
What evil, what woe and desolation hast thou not wrought, spiritualized
Zeid and Imam, Caliph and Padishah? And yet thou art allowed to live!
Evil genius of thy people! thou hast worked out their moral degradation
to the lowest depths that a nation could fall; but limitless evil,
supremest woe, hast thou worked over the nation whose country thou
turned into a charnel house of slaughter, and over whom thy reign of
thirty-three years hung like a pestilence. Who can count the multitude
of thy crimes against them, who can measure the height and the depth of
the woe that thou laid over their lives. Hearths and homes pillaged and
desolated, harvest fields turned into rivers of blood, not thousands
upon thousands, but hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children
tortured with devilish ingenuities of torture, imprisoned in loathsome
dungeons, outraged, butchered, slaughtered, hunted like wild beasts,
left to homelessness and starvation.
Enough blood to drown a leprous souled and gangrened souled Padishah
and his gangrened pack of followers! Enough crime to hang a Caliph!
Out with thy Caliphate! even by the law of thy prophet, that fierce
son of the desert, the Caliph is ordained protector of the weak and
helpless; what didst thou with thy thirty-three years of Caliphal
power, except crush the weak and annihilate the helpless.
The very earth has echoed with the dying cry of the least of them,
those “christian puppies” with little bodies piled up one upon another,
and little heads struck off together at one stroke; with the frenzied
shrieks of mothers who have seen with their own eyes the slaughter
of their children, with the anguished wail of women, with the death
groans of youth and old age. Aye! the very earth has echoed with the
dying gasp of that righteous man, the venerable sire of his people, the
renowned nonagenarian whom thou stealthily silenced on a bloody bed
into the sleep of death for trying to save his flock from thy hyena
jaws.
An explosive bomb shattered the life of thy crowned opponent, (a
noble life consecrated to the welfare of his people) but no chance or
opportunity directed any explosive bomb to shatter thy cadaverous body.
No jeweled pistol or secret dagger like the many that have dripped
with the blood of thy victims in thy Yildiz Kiosk, found its way to
thy treacherous heart. No poisoned cup of coffee like the countless
cups brewed in thy palaces trickled down thy throat to end thy vampire
existence.
Thou hast lived! Protected from the Nemesis of thy crimes by the
jealousies and rivalries of great powers which thou artfully played one
against another; by the combined forces of religion and plunder which
thou cunningly wielded into one. Even so thou livest! Peerless living
example in the civilized twentieth century of the Triumph of Crime.
L’AVENIR.
In the foregoing pages I have directed my humble efforts to sketch out
what the Powers of Europe have done in the past, and how their actions
have reflected on my unfortunate race.
It is considered good policy now by a certain class of European writers
to ascribe all the horrors of the Armenian Massacres to Hamid the
despot, to represent him as a tyrant as unassailable and unconquerable
as he was implacable, in short as a sort of superhuman being who swept
everything before him to the consummation of his own despotic will. The
reason for this is not difficult to perceive. They would fain disavow
the part Europe has played in the tragedy, and to do this successfully
it becomes necessary also to present Turkey to the world now as a
paradise (from whence the tyrant once removed) peopled only by saints
and angels; so we have also many roseate colored word pictures of
Constitutional Turkey.
The murders, deportations and imprisonments of the Turkish
revolutionaries, or more correctly reformers, were undoubtedly the sole
work of Abdul Hamid and his palace clique, but Abdul and his minions
could not have carried out that hellish work of wholesale extermination
of the Armenians without the perpetration and participation of the
Turkish people. It is true the massacres were originated and organized
in the Palace, the Palace clique stirred up religious fanaticism and
race hatred, but the co-operation of the people was necessary; and
the people co-operated in order to plunder and enrich themselves with
the worldly goods that the Armenians always knew how to acquire by
their own industry and toil; the appeal to their marauding and bestial
instincts met with a ready response. It was moreover easy work for a
race of brigands, especially as their numbers exceeded their victims by
about ten to one and who were practically unarmed.
The first Armenian Massacres of Abdul Hamid were tentative; he began
by feeling the pulse of Europe; he found that the six Signatories to
the Treaty of Berlin accepted the situation, he was thus emboldened
to carry out that long and awful list of horrors that stands without
its parallel in history. Clearly it was in the power of Europe to have
prevented both the massacres and all the agonizing sufferings that came
in their train, but Europe took no preventive action.
Let us ask the question, Who and what are these Turks, whom Europe for
her own sordid ends has petted and pampered and helped and supported?
and the answer comes with striking force to-day over the lapse of a
century, in the words of one of England’s greatest sons: “I have never
before heard that the Turkish Empire has been considered any part of
the balance of Powers in Europe. They despise and contemn all Christian
princes as infidels, and only wish to subdue and exterminate them and
their people. What have these worse than savages to do with the Powers
of Europe but to spread war, destruction, and pestilence among them?
The Ministers and the policy which shall give these people any weight
in Europe will deserve all the bans and curses of posterity.”[14]
To-day the Powers of Europe are armed to the teeth. To-day they are
groaning under the burden of armaments which they are increasing
with breathless speed although the burden grows heavier. To-day all
Europe is trembling lest the hell-hounds of war be let loose. Has
any political student put his finger on the cause which began, the
beginning and the source of the evil, the Alpha of the Omega. I have
put my finger on it--the beginning and the source--The jealousies and
rivalries of European Politics in the Turkish Empire. According to an
Eastern proverb “The flies are always round the honey,” but sometimes
the flies stick in the honey.
Politicians of the Governments of Europe have said in the pride of
their hearts “There is no God.” Particularly has this spirit of
cynicism and heartlessness governed the actions of Russian politicians
after the death of Alexander II. Since 1881, they have looked upon the
extermination of the Armenians just as the pathfinder in a forest would
look upon a dense forest growth, the clearing away of which would make
out a path for him and lead to running streams and harvest fields. In
the eyes of Russian politicians the unfortunate Armenians have been the
forest growth which has stood in the way of their advance to the South
and into Persia, and they have looked on with intense satisfaction at
the exterminating process of the Turk, which they have regarded as
the helping hand that clears away the difficulty confronting them.
But precisely whether Russia can grow strong by the pouring out of
Armenian blood, and whether her empire will be extended by their
hellish extermination remains to be solved by the future. One thing,
however, the history of the world points out, that iniquity ends, not
in strength, but in dissolution; and “The wages of sin is death.”
Politicians of Europe have, in the pride of their hearts, arrogated
to themselves that power, which appertains to the Creator; they have
imagined that they hold the world in the hollows of their hands, and
the misery or happiness of millions of human beings has weighed as
nothing in their estimation, against the interests of what they have
designated “our sphere of influence,” but they have forgotten what they
need to be reminded that the Creator is mightier than the creature and
that the eternal law of heaven and earth changeth not for politicians.
“And the First Morning of Creation wrote;
What the Last Dawn of Reckoning shall read.”
“Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are
the work of thy hands.
“They shall perish, but thou shalt endure: yea, all of them shall wax
old like a garment; as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall
be changed. But thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end.”
When the heavens and earth shall perish, shall wax old as a garment
and be changed as a vesture; whence shall endure the power and
principalities, the empires and spheres of influence of him who is
called man?
“As for man, his days are as grass; as a flower of the field, so he
flourisheth. For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the
place thereof shall know it no more.”
THE ORIGIN OF THE ARMENIANS--THE INTRODUCTION OF CHRISTIANITY INTO
ARMENIA--DECLINE & GRAND REVIVAL.
“God shall enlarge Japhet and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem, and
Canaan shall be his servant.”
For the interpretation of this blessing of Noah’s to his eldest son,
and of how it may or may not have met with its fulfilment, I shall
leave to theologians to discuss, and only record it here as a quotation
from Genesis. Beyond the story of his connection with the flood, and
this blessing with which his father blessed him, and the genealogy
of his sons, we read nothing more in Genesis, of Japhet, this mighty
father of the Caucasian race.
The genealogy in Genesis runs thus:
“The sons of Japhet, Gomer and Magog and Madai, and Javan, and Tubal,
and Meschech, and Tiras.
“And the sons of Gomer: Ashkenaz and Riphath and Togarmah.
“And the sons of Javan; Elishah and Tarshish, Kittim and Dodamin.
“By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands; every
one after his tongue, after their families, in their nations.”
Only the names of the three sons of Gomer, and the four sons of Javan
are given in Genesis, and by these we are told were the isles of the
Gentiles divided. So much for Genesis.
Later history records that these Gentiles spread themselves over part
of that stretch of terra firma which now goes by the name of Europe,
developing their own families, and their own nations, and originating
their own tongues, and also they spread themselves over other parts of
the surface of the globe, populating where they could, ruling where
they could.
But through the roll of centuries which lost themselves into the flight
of thousand years, one branch of the sons of Japhet kept themselves on
the land where Noah planted his vineyard, and round the base of that
mountain from whence his descendants began to spread and people the
earth.
Tradition has woven a romance round the names of towns and villages
in Armenia. “No aighee” (Noah’s vineyard) is the name of a village
supposed to be the place where the patriarch planted his vine; and
“Nakhitchvan”[15] meaning (first descent) where Noah is supposed to
have descended from the ark; also “Mairand” meaning (mother is there)
where Noah’s wife is supposed to be buried; and “Erivan”[16] meaning
(that which can be seen) supposed to be the land in the distance which
could be seen when Noah descended from the ark.
[Illustration: MINARET AT ERIVAN, ONE OF THE CITIES TRADITION ASCRIBES
TO BE FOUNDED BY NOAH.]
Armenian history begins with Haik, the first chief or king of the
tribe: he was third in descent from Japhet, and fourth in descent from
Noah, and his genealogy is given thus: Haik the son of Togarmah, the
son of Gomer, the son of Japhet, the son of Noah.
“They of the house of Togarmah traded in thy fairs with horses and
horsemen and mules” is the designation given by Ezekiel, 27th chapter
14th verse of the merchants of Armenia trading with Tyrus.
Haik revolting from Belus, the Nimrod of Genesis, the son of Cush and
grandson of Ham, retraced his footsteps from the plains of Shinar,
where he with others had tried to build the tower whose top should
reach into heaven, and with his followers and children settled himself
round the base of Ararat.
Perhaps a nascent fire of patriotism was burning in Haik’s heart as
he retraced his steps to the land of his father’s or grandfather’s
childhood: perhaps owing to the circumstances under which he was
placed, he had not the alternative of another choice.
We read in Armenian history that Belus sent the following message to
Haik:
“Why didst thou go to that cold country? Were it not better for thee to
have moderated thy pride, and submissively dwelt on my territory in any
part thou wished.”
To which Haik replied:
“It is better to die bravely than to bow down in fear to that
presumptuous man who would be worshipped as a god.”
Whatever causes may have influenced Haik, his choice of country was
geographically most unfortunate for the race he founded, and it may
truly be said that owing to its geographical conditions affording
facilities for the march of conquerors, to have been instrumental in
bringing about the overwhelming and unequalled adversities that through
weary centuries have followed like a grim fate the footsteps of his
descendants.
No geographical position on the surface of the globe could have been
more unfortunate, hemmed round by larger territories, with no natural
defences or boundaries, and no outlet to the sea, except the lake of
the Caspian on the one side, and the lake of the Black Sea on the
other, that land on which Haik chose to found a country and a nation,
has been soaked with the blood and the tears of this branch of the sons
of Japhet.
The animosity between Haik and Belus continued, and later, according to
Armenian historians, Belus was slain in battle by an arrow from the bow
of Haik.
We read the following record of Belus in Genesis: “he began to be a
mighty one in the earth.” “He was a mighty hunter before the Lord:
wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the Lord.”
In Armenian history, Haik is depicted as a man of powerful physique
and gigantic stature; no man of his time being able to bend his bow or
shoot his arrow. Moses of Chorene, the chief of Armenian historians,
quoting from the learned Syrian Mar Abbas, writes of him thus:
“He was graceful and well built, curly haired, pleasing in appearance,
and strong armed, and it might be remembered that among the heroes of
his time he was the most remarkable of all.”
However that may be, Armenian history awards to Haik the proud
distinction of having overcome and slain Belus, the mighty hunter
Nimrod.
The people who retraced their steps from the plains of Shinar, and
settled round the base of Ararat called themselves “Hai” after their
chief, and they named their country “Haiyastan,” and these names still
continue to be used in the Armenian, or “Haiyérane” as the Armenians
call their own language.
[Illustration: GREAT AND LITTLE ARARAT.]
I will pass over the periods when the son and grandson of Haik ruled
over Armenia, and only mention that the mountain known to the world
as Ararat was called by the Hai “Masis” after their king Amasia and
great-grandson of Haik. To this day, Armenian peasants and others
dwelling round Ararat, call the mountain “Masis.” I remember in my
childhood having seen an Armenian periodical entitled “Masis,” which
showed that the name had been steadily kept up.
I will again pass over the periods ruled by the successors of Amasia,
and relate the story of King Aram, who ended his brilliant reign in
B.C. 1796 after ruling over Armenia fifty-eight years.
He was a great and powerful prince, and extended his dominions, and
grew to be so mighty in battle that the neighbouring nations called
his country Aramia and the people were called Aramians, such names as
Armenia or Armenians being no doubt later corruptions.
The first victory of Aram was over Neuchar king of Media, whom he took
prisoner and put to death, and made a large part of the country of the
defeated prince tributary to his own. The second victory of Aram was
over Barsham king of Babylon, whom also he took prisoner and put to
death. The next victory was over the king of Cappadocia; the army of
the Cappadocians was pursued to the very shores of the Mediterranean,
and the whole of Cappadocia fell into the hands of Aram B.C. 1796.
Also Ninus king of Assyria, at one time an eager enemy, awed by the
victories of Aram, sought to cultivate his friendship.
No doubt if the volumes and scripts of paper or parchment of the famous
Alexandrian library, which burned for six months as fuel in the four
thousand baths of the city, had escaped that most atrocious act of
vandalism, and been preserved instead, vast treasures of knowledge now
lost to us concerning the ancient kingdoms of Western Asia might be
known in our day; and also when the tide of Islam victory rolled over
the kingdom of Armenia, how much of the story and history of the people
was lost and destroyed along with the destruction of their independence
it would be difficult now to calculate or assert, but in taking up
link by link of whatever knowledge has been left to us, there seems
to be grounds for supposing that the “Aramæans” designated by foreign
writers as “a people of Semitic race, language and religion, coming
from Northern Arabia and settling in the region between the western
boundaries of Babylonia and the highlands of Western Asia” were no
other than the Hai who under their King Aram had spread their conquests
and their kingdom into Mesopotamia and even to the shores of the
Mediterranean.
Herodotus also rather corroborates this conjecture when he includes
Northern Mesopotamia, together with the mountainous country of Ararat,
under the name of Armenia, and in writing of the Armenian boats that
brought merchandise to Babylon, he remarks that they were constructed
in Armenia, _in the parts above Assyria_.
Archæological researches have laid the claim that the modern Armenians
are the descendants of the old Hittites; the modern Armenian being
supposed to be the survival of the ancient Hittite tongue, and it
is asserted almost everything that is known in the Hittite language
is Old Armenian in form: but who these Hittites were, or whence they
came neither historian nor archæologist have been able definitely to
ascertain. In the Armenian version of the Bible, we find the name
“Kethosi” used for the Hittite who were known to the Assyrians and
Egyptians as “Ketha,” but this can have no important bearing since the
Bible was translated into the Armenian language from the Greek in the
fifth century of the Christian era, and the Armenian scribe no doubt
simply translated what he found in the Greek.
According, however, to all known history the Hittites were a warlike
and conquering race and ranked among the foremost of the nations of
Western Asia. The modern historian has come to the following conclusion
concerning them: “Their primitive home is thought to have been in that
part of Armenia where the Euphrates, the Halys, and Lycus approach
nearest to one another; and it is even asserted that the modern
Armenians are descendants of the old Hittites. From this point they
began their career of conquests, probably under the leadership of
some able and vigorous chief, whose ambition overleaped his native
boundaries. One conquest led to another. Their leaders acquired great
armies, and subdued many nations, until the Hittites became one of
the most powerful peoples of ancient times, and their kings were able
successfully to defy even Egypt, at that time the strongest nation on
the globe.”
This description accords with Armenian history; the Hai being known
from time immemorial as a warlike race, and extending their territory
by conquests, until, as I have narrated, under the leadership of Aram
their kingdom spread from the mountains of Upper Armenia to the shores
of the Mediterranean and into northern Mesopotamia, which proves that
almost all of Asia Minor was conquered by them, and according also to
Armenian history the language of the Hai was introduced into Cappadocia
by King Aram.[17]
Allowing, however, for the many obscurities of Armenian history,
confusion comes in, when historians or archæologists ascribe a
Mongolian ancestry to the Hittites, whereas Armenian history holds its
unquestionable ground firmly and decidedly on the Japhetian ancestry;
and the peculiar physiognomy of the Armenians; the oval contour of
face, the distinctive, prominent nose, large eye, and well marked arch
of eyebrow do not show any traces of Mongolian ancestry. It follows
therefore that if the Armenians are the descendants of the Hittites,
then the Hittites were not of Mongolian ancestry. If the Hittites were
the Hai, the name must have undergone corruption during the course of
centuries and it is reasonable to suppose that they shared the fate of
all conquerors, and after a period of power, were driven back from the
shores of the Mediterranean to their own native home.
Aram was succeeded by his son Ara, a prince of such singular and
surpassing beauty that he was surnamed “Ara the Beautiful.” The
famous Semiramis, wife of Ninus king of Assyria, attracted by his
great personal beauty offered him her affections and her throne after
the death of her husband, but her proffers of love were scornfully
rejected by Ara, who according to the story related of his own love
was passionately attached to his queen Nuvard. The proud Semiramis,
scorned, enraged and mortified, declared war against Ara and entered
his country with her armies; a battle was fought in which Ara leading
his army was slain, although Semiramis had given special instructions
to her troops to be careful of his life and bring him to her a living
prisoner.
The death of Ara was evidently a grief to Semiramis, for she
established his son Kardos on his father’s throne. She also built a
town and fortress on the shores of Lake Aghthamar, now called Van,
the battlefield on which the beautiful Ara pursued by her fatal love
lost his life. The town and fortress were named “Semiramakert” meaning
“built by Semiramis.”
The name of the highest mountain in Armenia which the people of the
country called “Masis” came to be known as Ararat, it is supposed to
be derived from the Armenian words “Ara-i-jard” meaning “the defeat
of Ara” or “the undoing of Ara.” If this version is correct, the name
is likely to have been used in derision by the Assyrians. According
to another version the name of Ara was converted into Ararat, and the
country called after him. Thus we read in the account of the flood
given in Genesis:
“And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the
month, upon the mountains of Ararat.”
In the Armenian version of the bible, we read “on the twenty-seventh
day of the month,” but likewise as in English “upon the mountains of
Ararat.” This is not surprising since the designation “thaghavoroothune
Araratian” meaning “the kingdom of Ararat” is in use in the Armenian
language.
I have alluded to the reigns of Aram and Ara to show how the Hai have
come to be called Armenians and how their country has come to be
named Armenia; also whence the name, Ararat; and as I purport here
only to treat of the origin of the Armenians, I shall now pass on to
the no less interesting period of their history: THE INTRODUCTION OF
CHRISTIANITY.
When that great event bearing the message “on earth peace, goodwill
toward men” celebrated throughout the Christian world as the divine
birth, took place in the city of Bethlehem; Abgar the son of Arsham
reigned in Armenia.
That country was now broken in strength, the severe blows dealt on the
one side by the Roman Empire, and the incessant warfare of the Persian
on the other, had greatly curtailed her former independence and power;
the talons of the Roman Eagles were already felt in her vitals, and the
king of Armenia subsisted under the favor of the Roman Emperor, whilst
it became necessary for him to cultivate the friendship of his powerful
neighbour, the king of Persia.
Whilst in Persian territory, whither he had gone to settle the dispute
that had arisen on the death of the Persian monarch between his sons,
Abgar had contracted a severe disease, evidently leprosy.
[Illustration: ABGAR KING OF ARMENIA.
Converted to Christianity in A.D. 34. Baptised by the Apostle Thaddeus.]
The wonderful cures and miracles of Christ were reported to him by the
representatives he had sent to the Roman General Marinus in Jerusalem.
These representatives had gone to refute the charges brought against
him by King Herod, and to propitiate the Roman Power; they came back to
tell what they had witnessed in Jerusalem, of the singular wisdom and
wondrous works of a marvellous man named Jesus, who was of Nazareth,
but whom his own followers persisted in calling the Son of God.
The story relates that Abgar was deeply impressed by what he heard,
and expressed his own belief that man could not do such wondrous
works as were related of this Jesus the Nazarene. Thereupon the King
sent messengers to Jerusalem with a letter to Jesus. What a touch of
human nature is here displayed; the king is suffering from a loathsome
disease, the medical skill of his country and of neighbouring countries
has been exhausted, all in vain; the royal heart is stricken as well
as the royal body, for his disease is so loathsome, that although he
is king, his subjects would rather shun than approach him; he hears
of this wonderful man Jesus, his representatives have come back from
Jerusalem to tell him that “he cleanseth the lepers.” Hasten to him,
said the king, take unto him my greetings, carry my messages and my
letter and bring him unto me that I might honor him and if so be that
he may heal me.
The messengers of Abgar were headed by Anany the Greek scribe of the
king and they are supposed to be present in the procession of Christ’s
entry into Jerusalem. The twentieth and twenty-first verses of the
Gospel of St. John are adduced by Armenian historians as corroborative
testimony:
“And there were certain Greeks among them that came up to worship at
the feast;
“The same came therefore to Philip, which was of Bethsaida of Galilee,
and desired him, saying, Sir, we would see Jesus.”
Anany and his companions are supposed to be the “certain Greeks” who
came to Philip asking to see Jesus. And here I have to explain that the
letters of the Armenian alphabet were invented by St. Mesrope in the
beginning of the fifth century of the christian era; previous to the
time of Mesrope there were no special Armenian letters, and as this
invention was hailed as a signal national boon we have to conclude that
there was no written Armenian language previous to the fifth century.
One thing however must be certain, that this letter carried by the
king’s Greek scribe, the leader of the messengers, must originally have
been written in Greek. This letter has already been translated from the
Armenian into English; the translation reads thus:
“Abgar the son of Arsham, Prince of Armenia, sends to Thee, Saviour and
Benefactor, Jesus, who didst perform miracles in Jerusalem, greeting.
“I have heard of Thee, and of the cures wrought by Thee without herbs
or medicines; for it is reported that Thou restoreth the blind and
maketh the lame walk, cleanseth the lepers, casteth out devils and
unclean spirits, and healeth those that are tormented of diseases of
long continuance, and that Thou also raiseth the dead:--hearing all
this of Thee I was fully persuaded that Thou art the very God come down
from heaven to do such miracles, or that Thou art the Son of God and
so performeth them; wherefore I write to Thee to entreat Thee to take
the trouble to come to me and cure my disease. Besides, I hear that the
Jews murmur against Thee and want to torture Thee. I have a small and
beautiful city--sufficient for us both.”
The story goes on to relate that among the messengers was an artist by
the name of John who had been commissioned by the king to bring back a
portrait of Christ; the artist however failed in his efforts to portray
the divine features, whereupon Christ gave him a veil which he had laid
to his face and on which his features had become imprinted, to carry
back to his master.
We are also told that the apostle Thomas was commanded by Christ to
write a reply to Abgar. The reply has also been translated into English
and the translation reads thus:
“Blessed is he who believes in Me without seeing Me, for it is written
of Me that they that see Me shall not believe, and they that have not
seen Me shall believe and be saved. As concerning the request that I
should come to thee, it becomes Me to fulfil all things for which I was
sent, and when I have fulfilled those then I shall ascend to Him that
sent me; but after my Ascension I will send one of my disciples, who
shall cure thee of thy disease and give life to thee and to all those
that are with thee.”
Two stories are given of the cure of Abgar. According to one version he
was healed on receiving the veil, according to the other, the apostle
Thaddeus on coming to Armenia laid his hands on the king and cured him.
This story of the veil has been treated by certain scholars as a
legend, especially as the Roman church has also got a somewhat similar
story. We are of course not in a position to vouch for its truth
or incorrectness, but it seems to me if all the miracles of Christ
as related in the gospels are to be credited, this one also can be
regarded as one out of many. If according to the gospel story water
was turned into wine at the marriage feast in Cana, what is there
incredible about the imprint of the divine features on a veil; and
if the gospels assure us of the healing of many lepers there can be
nothing astonishing in the healing of the king of Armenia.
I was however much interested when I came across the following passage
in the history of the “Spread of Islam”:
“To the east they advanced to the banks and sources of the Euphrates
and Tigris; the long disputed barrier of Rome and Persia was forever
confounded; the walls of Edessa and Amida, of Dara and Nisibis, which
had resisted the arms and engines of Sapor or Nushirvan, were levelled
in the dust; and the holy city of Abgarus might vainly produce the
epistle or the image of Christ to an unbelieving conqueror.”
“The long disputed barrier of Rome and Persia” which was “forever
confounded” was of course Armenia; and “the holy city of Abgarus” the
historian evidently had in his mind must have been Edessa, whither
Abgar had removed his seat of government. To Armenians, however,
Edessa has never been “the holy city,” if they had a holy city, they
would prefer to name Ani, the city of a thousand churches, or on
account of its peculiar associations Etchmiatzin the ecclesiastical
metropolis.
It was in Anno Domini 34 that the apostles Thaddeus and Bartholomew
went to Armenia, where they were warmly welcomed and received with
great reverence and respect by the King, who accepted the christian
faith at once, himself and the royal household being baptised by the
apostle Thaddeus.
Thaddeus and Bartholomew continued their preaching in Armenia,
converting and baptising the people; churches were raised up, bishops
consecrated, and the christian religion established in the country.
It might have been a matter of wonder to us why Saint Paul did not
address an epistle to the Armenians as he addressed to other nations;
but I think the 20th verse of the 15th chapter of his epistle to the
Romans clearly explains the reason why there was not an epistle written
to the Armenians also:
“Yea, so have I strived to preach the Gospel, not where Christ was
named, lest I should build upon another man’s foundation.”
Clearly then no epistle was written to the Armenians because Christ
was already named among them, and Paul did not wish to build upon the
foundation of Thaddeus and Bartholomew who had laid the foundation of
Christianity in Armenia at a time when Paul himself was persecuting
Christians. Thaddeus and Bartholomew left behind no epistles, and we
have only Armenian history for the record of the work they did in
Armenia.
Abgar died soon after his baptism and conversion, and was succeeded
by his son Anany who tried to revive the old religion, which was
something similar to the worship of the Greeks and Romans. The people
of the country however had in large part accepted Christianity, and
the revival of the old religion was consequently met with disfavour,
but before their discontent had time to assume active tendencies Anany
met his death by an accident; the people thereupon immediately invited
Abgar’s nephew Sanatrook to occupy the throne, taking a pledge from
him that he would not interfere with their religion. The pledge was
readily given by Sanatrook, but once secure on the throne he proved a
cruel and merciless despot: the remaining sons of Abgar were killed,
and his daughters and widow Helena banished, but the crowning act of
the tyrant’s wickedness and infamy was the martyrdom of the apostles
Thaddeus and Bartholomew. Thus Christianity continued its struggles in
Armenia, persecuted and declining, but still enduring.
About Anno Domini 260 the king reigning in Armenia by the name of
Terdat, persecuted Christianity. He had regained his throne through the
support of the Roman Army, and to celebrate his accession he offered
thanksgiving and sacrifice in the temple of the goddess Anahid, which
was no other than the goddess Diana of the Romans, but the fathers of
the Armenian church in their christian zeal have reversed the name of
the goddess, made a topsy-turvy of it, calling her Anahid, and so the
name has remained in the Armenian language to this day.
This occasion of the king’s worship and thanksgiving in the temple of
Diana, marked the beginning of the persecution of Gregory, afterwards
known as Gregory the Illuminator and the patron saint of Armenia. The
childhood of Gregory had been shadowed by a parent’s guilt: his father
Anak having treacherously assassinated the then reigning king Khosrov
the Great, the whole family was exterminated, only two sons escaping
death, one of them, Gregory, was secretly removed by his nurse to
Caesaria, and kept in concealment, until in the course of years the
father’s crime having been forgotten, all danger for the life of the
son was supposed to have passed away.
[Illustration: SOORB GREGORE LOOSAVORITCH.
(St. Gregory the Illuminator)
Patron Saint of Armenia. Revived Christianity in Armenia in A.D. 276.]
Gregory’s christian faith however now became the cause of his
misfortunes; the king called upon Gregory to assist in the worship
in the temple of Diana, but he firmly refused and boldly avowed his
christianity, which so incensed the king that he ordered frightful
tortures to be inflicted upon him, but as the tortures had no effect
and Gregory remained firm to his faith, the king ordered him to be
thrown into a dry well. The story goes on to relate that Gregory lived
for fifteen years in this dry well, food and drink being conveyed to
him secretly by a woman, herself a christian. On this spot is built the
famous monastery of “Khorvirap” meaning “deep well.”
A beautiful Roman maiden by the name of Rhipsimè fleeing from the
addresses of the Emperor Diocletian sought refuge in Armenia; she
was accompanied by a friend, a woman of maturer years of the name of
Caiana, and some other christian maidens, all fleeing from persecution
in Rome.
Rhipsimè’s rare beauty had captivated the Roman emperor, and she had
sought to escape from his passion by flight, but a crueller fate
awaited her in Armenia, for king Terdat in his turn smitten by the
exquisite beauty of her face offered to make her his queen, and her
refusal to accept his throne and his love so exasperated the king that
he ordered her beautiful head to be cut off. Thus Rhipsimè with Caiana
and their young companions were cruelly martyred. Rhipsimè and Caiana
were later beatified as saints in the Armenian church.
The king however did not escape the Nemesis of his diabolical crime,
the memory of the beautiful Rhipsimè haunted him; remorse took the
place of the ferocious anger that had doomed his hapless victim to
her cruel death and the king lost his reason. The king having become
incapacitated, Gregory was released from his underground prison by the
king’s sister Khosrovidookt, and as the malady of the king was mental,
remorse for his own crime having overturned his reason, it became
the peculiar office of Gregory to minister to the king, and by his
spiritual ministrations to effect the restoration of the royal mind.
Terdat recovered his reason and as a broken-hearted penitent accepted
the religion of Gregory and the beautiful Rhipsimè.
Gregory now freely preached Christianity in Armenia. It was a grand
Revival; the temples of Anahid were turned into the churches of
Christ, and the whole nation accepted Christianity, which became the
established religion in the country.[18] The name of Gregory has been
handed down to posterity as Soorb Gregore Loosavoritch (Saint Gregory
the Illuminator). “Illuminator” is the generally accepted English
translation of the Armenian term “Loosavoritch,” but it is true
nevertheless that neither the term “Illuminator” nor “Enlightener”
suitably conveys the definition of its meaning; sometimes modes
of expression are so difficult to translate from one language into
another, and it can be said that the term “Illuminator” is used for
want of a better word in English. The Armenians call their religion
“loois havat;” the word “loois” means “light” and “havat” means “faith”
or “religion,” but if I translated the two words as “enlightened faith”
or “enlightened religion” the translation would not suitably convey the
meaning of the original.
[Illustration: THE CATHEDRAL OF ETCHMIATZIN.
(Only Begotten Descended).
Seat of the Supreme Patriarch. The foundation stone was laid by St.
Gregory the Illuminator who built the Church in the third century of
the Christian era.]
The cathedral of Etchmiatzin is identified with Gregory; its name
“Etchmiatzin” means in the Armenian language “the only begotten is
descended,” and the story attached to it is, that in a vision Christ
appeared to Gregory descended in light; Gregory built his church on
the spot where the vision had appeared to him, giving it the name of
“Etchmiatzin” (only begotten descended). The cathedral also gives its
name to the town Etchmiatzin, the ecclesiastical metropolis of Armenia.
Since the time of Gregory, Christianity has been the national religion
of the Armenians, and they have clung to their christian faith through
unremitting persecutions and martyrdoms such as no other christian
people have been called upon to endure.
The cathedral of Etchmiatzin built by Gregory still stands to-day; it
has constantly been repaired and rebuilt in some part or other, until
perhaps little of the original building may be left, but it still
claims to be the church built by the patron saint of Armenia. I shall
here quote a passage from “Historical Sketch of the Armenian Church,”
written by an Armenian priest:
“Owing to political circumstances the Armenian Patriarchate had at
times to be transferred to metropolises and to other principal towns of
Armenia. In the year A.D. 452 it was removed to Dwin, in 993 to Ani, in
1114 to Rômklah, and in 1294 to Sis. The Kingdom of Cilicia becoming
extinct, and, we having no more a kingdom and no longer a capital town,
it was natural and proper to re-transfer the See to its own original
place, as the entire nation unanimously desired it. Accordingly, in the
year 1441, it was decided by an ecclesiastical meeting that the seat
of the Catholicus should return to Holy Etchmiatzin, where to this day
has been preserved the proper unbroken succession from our Apostles and
from our holy Father, St. Gregory the Illuminator.”
I read the other day in one of the foreign papers published in Japan,
the following piece of news:
“An Armenian Church pronounced by experts to date from the second
century of the Christian era, has been discovered in a fair state of
preservation in the neighbourhood of Bash-Aparnah.”
Perhaps the excavations in Armenia which Professor Marr is now
conducting might lead to throwing more light on Armenian history.
FOOTNOTES
[1] In a recent publication “Fifty Years in Constantinople,” the
author Dr. George Washburn, ex-President of Robert College, estimates
the number that were slaughtered in cold blood in the streets of the
city as 10,000. Dr. Washburn adds the following: “The massacre of the
Armenians came to an end on Friday, the day after the soldiers came
to the College; but the persecution of them which went on for months
was worse than the massacre. Their business was destroyed, they were
plundered and blackmailed without mercy, they were hunted like wild
beasts, they were imprisoned, tortured, killed, deported, fled the
country, until the Armenian population of the city was reduced by some
seventy-five thousand, mostly men, including those massacred.”
[2] “Transcaucasia and Ararat: Twenty Years of the Armenian
Question.”--JAMES BRYCE.
[3] “Our Responsibilities For Turkey.”--Argyll (note to 2nd printing).
[4] In 1826 the Russian General Paskevitch defeated the Persians at
Elizabetopol and in the following year 1827 he seized the monastery of
Etchmiatzin (the seat of the Armenian Patriarch) and Erivan one of the
great towns of Armenia and gained for himself the title of Erivanski.
By these successes Russia advanced as far as the line of the Araxes and
wrested from Persia the provinces of Erivan and Nakhitchvan. The Treaty
of Peace was concluded between Russia and Persia at Turkmantchai on the
22nd of February 1828.--Note to 2nd printing.
[5] Commenting on the effect on Abdul Hamid of the indignation aroused
in England over the massacres, Mr. James Bryce writes, “The indignation
expressed in England exasperated him; he passed from fear to fury, and
back again to fear; and went so far as to beg, and obtain, the friendly
offices of the Pope, who, through the Government of Spain, asked the
British Government not to press too hardly upon the Sultan with regard
to the Armenians.”--Note to 2nd printing.
[6] “Transcaucasia and Ararat: Twenty Years of the Armenian
Question.”--James Bryce. Note to 2nd printing.
[7] “Abdul Hamid Intime,” Georges Dorys. In the Preface by Pierre
Guillard to the same book, there occurs the following passage:
“Gladstone dénonça le Grand Assassin; M. Albert Vandal flétrit le
Sultan Rouge; M. Anatole France fit trembler dans l’antre de Yildiz le
Despote fou d’épouvante et d’autres le traitèrent de Bête Rouge et de
Sultan blême.
“Cependant aucun de ces termes excessifs en apparence n’est encore
satisfaisant et n’exprime en toute son horreur le caractère d’un être à
face humaine, tel, disait récemment un haut exilé ottoman, qu’il n’en
existe point de semblable, qu’il n’en a jamais existé de pareil et
que selon toute probabilité, il n’en pourra dans l’avenir exister un
second. Les conquérants assyriens qui se vantent dans des inscriptions
lapidaires d’avoir exterminé les peuples rebelles et tendu de peaux
écorchées les murailles des villes prises, Néron, Caligula, Timour,
Gengiz Khan, les inquisiteurs catholiques et les tortionnaires chinois,
aucun tueur d’hommes n’égala Abdul-Hamid.”--Note to 2nd printing.
[8] “Abdul Hamid Intime,” Georges Dorys.--Note to 2nd printing.
[9] Nicholas C. Adossides [Youngest Son of Adossides Pasha] in the
“Cosmopolitan” for July, 1909, (“Abdul the Dethroned”) writes as
follows:
“I remember the following incident which depicts the official Russian
attitude: One night, while dining at the Russian legation in Bern,
Switzerland, many Russian officials being present, the conversation
was directed to the ever-engrossing Eastern question. A diplomat from
St. Petersburg expressed his admiration of Abdul Hamid, praising
his extraordinary intelligence and diplomatic skill. ‘Besides,’ he
continued, ‘he is not so black as his enemies have painted him.’
“Not being able to restrain my indignation at this, I protested, saying
he was an arch assassin. ‘Not to speak of his innumerable cruelties and
many villainies,’ I said, ‘can you deny, Sir, that he instigated and
accomplished the annihilation of 360,000 Armenians?’
“The admirer of the Sultan smiled, but before he could answer me, the
military attaché of the legation, who was sitting next to me, exclaimed:
“If you condemn the Sultan for that, you astonish me. The Armenians?
Bah! They ought to be exterminated _en masse_, and the Sultan did an
excellent piece of work when he got rid of them. I have no use for
them. Besides,’ he continued, ‘can’t you see that a free Armenia would
be a serious obstacle to Russian expansion and to our advance to the
south and into Persia? Abdul Hamid has proved himself a very valuable
ally of Russia. He is the best Ambassador at Constantinople that we’ve
ever had.”--Note to 2nd printing.
[10] This statement is corroborated by Dr. George Washburn in his
account of the Constantinople Massacre: “But the Concert of Europe
did nothing. It accepted the situation. The Emperor of Germany
went further. He sent a special embassy to present to the Sultan a
portrait of his family as a token of his esteem.”--“Fifty Years in
Constantinople,” George Washburn. (Note to 2nd printing.)
[11] Since these lines were written later accounts show that over
a hundred thousand have been precipitated into homelessness and
destitution, and this misery is growing greater every day.--Note to 2nd
printing.
[12] “Transcaucasia and Ararat: Twenty Years of the Armenian Question,”
James Bryce.--Note to 2nd printing.
[13] “The Strenuous Life: Expansion and Peace,” Theodore
Roosevelt.--Note to 2nd printing.
[14] Edmund Burke--Speech in Parliament in opposition to Mr. Pitt,
1791.--Note to 2nd printing.
[15] Nakhitchvan--Invaded and seized by the Persian Monarch Shah Abbas
in 1603. Taken from Persia by Russia in 1827.
[16] Erivan--Invaded and seized by the Persian monarch Shah Abbas in
1603. Taken from Persia by Russia 1827.
[17] The Hittites flourished in the sixteenth and fifteenth centuries
B.C. King Aram completed his conquest of Cappadocia in B.C. 1796.
[18] The orthodox church of Armenia is the church founded by Gregory.
Since the loss of their independence, persecution has scattered and
dispersed the people, thousands fleeing from their native home sought
refuge in other countries and in some cases they or their descendants
have come under the influence of other churches; thus the Mukhitharian
monks of the monastery of St. Lazar in Venice have been drawn into
the Romish Church and their influence has been extended over a small
minority of laymen; also the influence of the American Missionaries in
Asiatic Turkey has drawn others into Protestantism, but the bulk of
the nation has remained Gregorians. It is well to remark here however
that the orthodox Church, although calling herself “The Holy Catholic
and Apostolic Church” has devoted her energies mainly to upholding the
essential principles of Christianity and has not concerned herself
much about dogmas. As for the modern Armenians of the Gregorian Church
their religious views are characterized by liberalism, they look to the
central figure of Christianity and regard dogmas as immaterial: their
jealousy of their church is only actuated by the passionate feeling of
preserving nationalism. They regard their church as the ark in which
nationalism may be preserved until the dawn of better days.
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