When I was in Constantinople I felt the restless tossings
of long enthralled nationalities awaking to the new
destinies that might be theirs—Armenians thirsting for
their lost country and dispersed people; Bulgarians
panting and striving for freedom in a Greater Bulgaria;
Egyptians claiming independence; Jews praying for a return
to the land of David and Solomon; Greeks dreaming strange
dreams of a greater and united Greece, yes, even of an
eastern empire restored to them, with Constantinople
as its centre. I saw the Turk, still defiant but
apprehensive, dimly conscious that the end is near at
hand, lamenting the sins of his people—such sins as that
the women do not wholly veil their faces, that the men do
not slay the infidels. I discerned the subtle plotting
of diplomacy to guard or gain the Queen City, and so
the empire of the East. Everything seemed then, as now,
uncertain. It might be peace, it might be war; but all
were sure that the old was breaking up, whether to make
way for inrushing floods of destruction, or for better
days and nobler nations, none could tell. Then I went to
the most sacred and vital spot of Stamboul, not to St.
Sophia, which, with all the lights and prayers of Ramazan,
testified only to the degradation and defeat of the purer
by a coarser faith, which had become God’s scourge. I
went to the Bible House, and there first, while all was
shaking about, I felt that I stood upon a rock, the very
Rock of Ages. The old city had fallen because it was built
upon a shut Bible; this city was about to fall because it
was built upon the Koran. But here on the open Bible was
being reared a city which hath a foundation whose builder
and maker is God.
—EDWARD A. LAWRENCE in
“Modern Missions in the East.”
Of all the races and sects of the Ottoman empire, none except the Turks
are so closely identified with the country, its progress and present
conditions, as the Armenians. They have been preeminently the means
and occasion for prosecuting missionary work there, and the Armenian
question has been discussed in the parliaments of all Europe and even
now is far from solution.
The Armenians constitute one of the two distinct Christian peoples in
the empire, the other being the Greeks. They stand with the Greeks,
a keen rival for the honors of antiquity, while from the Christian
standpoint they hold a position entirely unique. Their antiquity,
racial strength, intellectual alertness, large numbers, and importance
in that empire all demand a more extended consideration.
There are two distinct sources from which account of them comes,—one,
their own historians, and the other, contemporary historians. According
to the former, they are the direct descendants from Noah through
Japheth, who was the father of Gomer, the father of Togarmah, who begat
Haig, the father of the Armenian race. It is a fact to be noted here
that they always refer to themselves not as Armenians but as Haiks,
and to their country as Haiasdan. They find no little difficulty in
pronouncing the word “Armenia.” The name “Armenians” was applied to the
race by outside nations because of the exploits of one Aram, the king
of Haiasdan, the seventh removed from Haik, who made many conquests and
impressed the power of his arms upon the weaker people about him. To
these people the Haiks were the followers of Aram and so were called
Armenians. The Armenians claim that their present language, except for
the changes that have crept in through the centuries, was spoken in the
ark. Their traditions blend in the third and fourth centuries before
Christ with many facts of Assyrian, Median, and Greek history, so it
is impossible to differentiate precisely where legend ends and history
begins.
There is no doubt that during the Assyrian and Median period there
was in Armenia, which included the mountains of Ararat, and the upper
Araxes, Euphrates and Tigris rivers, centering perhaps in the region of
Lake Van, a well-organized and powerful monarchy. The ancient Assyrian
records show that this people had to be reckoned with in all plans for
campaigns in the Ararat country, and not infrequently the invaders were
compelled to retire in apparent haste. Well-preserved inscriptions
are found upon the cliffs at Van and in the same language across the
country six hundred miles or more to the east, which show the presence
there (700 B. C.) of a powerful and warlike people. Whether these were
the progenitors of the present Armenian race or whether they were
conquered by some stronger invading force, which completely dominated
the country, is not as yet clear.
The last of the Haig dynasty, Vahe, formed an alliance with Darius III
against the Macedonians. He was defeated by the forces under Alexander
and was slain. The people were without a leader for one hundred and
thirty years, and were trampled upon and plundered by invading armies
from every side. About 190 B. C. two Armenian nobles arose who divided
the kingdom and ruled over it. This divided kingdom was again united
under Tigranes (Dickran II) in 89 B. C. In 67 B. C. the Armenians
became an ally of Rome, and in 30 B. C. were made tributary. For two
and a half centuries thereafter the entire country was again in turmoil
and political disorder. From that time to the present the Armenians
have never represented a political power that needed to be reckoned
with. Their people were scattered with no uniting force, without a
commanding leader or a distinctive country.
A little Armenian kingdom in Cilicia in the Taurus Mountains maintained
an existence until 1375 A. D. Since that time Armenians have had no
political existence whatever. They have been, and are still, a people
without a country, a nation without a government.
As soon as the Mohammedan invasion took place they had no alternative
but to yield to their conquerors or die. It was but natural that they
should scatter from the old ancestral haunts to all points of the
compass, in search of more liberty and a better opportunity to secure
a living. They have gone into every city, if not into nearly every
village of size in the empire. Before the massacre of 1895-96 there
were nearly a quarter of a million Armenians in Constantinople alone.
Their energy and enterprise and industry give them prominence in trade,
in the professions, and in the cultivation of the soil. They have gone
far beyond the borders of Turkey, and are found to-day in nearly every
country in the world. Many hold high and honorable positions in foreign
lands.
Armenians exist in larger numbers still in their old haunts about Lake
Van, where they constitute perhaps a majority of the population. In all
the cities of Eastern Turkey, extending from the Black Sea south into
northern Mesopotamia, westward to the Euphrates river, and beyond, they
hold a prominent place, although they are upon the whole a minority.
The rest of the population are mostly Turks, the ruling body, and the
Koords. These races, especially the Turks and Armenians, live in the
same towns, but never intermarry. The Koords live more by themselves in
the mountains. As we pass on into Asia Minor, the Armenians decrease
while the Greeks increase in numbers and in the importance of the
positions they command.
The Armenians are also numerous in northern Syria, especially in
the region near their last Cilician kingdom. Adana, Tarsus, Marash,
Aintab, Hadjin, Oorfa and many other cities in that region have a large
Armenian population. Their language is Turanian, constructed upon
the Greek model, and is especially rich in its power of expressing
Christian truths and sentiments. The most of the Armenians speak this
tongue, but some in the mountains of Koordistan speak only Koordish,
while the Armenians in northern Syria use the Turkish language. Turkish
is spoken by nearly all Armenians, as well as by all the races north of
Syria.
Religiously, the history of the Armenians is full of interest. Their
histories claim that at the time of Christ their king Abgar, called by
Tacitus the king of the Arabs, resided at Urfa in northern Mesopotamia.
He is reported to have had some communication with Christ, who, at
his death, through the apostle Thomas, sent Thaddeus to preach to
the Armenians. The king and his court were baptized. His successor
apostatized from the faith, and so Christianity was lost to the race
until the fourth century. At the beginning of this century St. Gregory
the Illuminator preached at the court of Armenia with such effect that
from that period to this Christianity has been the national religion.
The Church has held the race together. It is known as the Gregorian
Church, after St. Gregory, while the people themselves always refer to
their church as Loosavorchagan, derived from Loosavorich, meaning “The
Illuminator.” As this is the national Church, all Armenian children are
baptized in infancy and become members.
[Illustration: AN ARMENIAN ECCLESIASTIC