Sultan Abdul Hamid’s despotism during his long and bloody reign had
alienated not only all the decent people in his realm, but even some of
the worse classes, who, for their liberal views, not for better lives,
were listed as his enemies. These were not Turks by descent, neither
Mohammedans by choice, but being the children of renegades, whose
forefathers professed themselves Mohammedans in order to save their
lives, their honor, and their property. Thus these European Mohammedans
were largely of Christian extract, and naturally had better chances to
learn from the Western nations, especially the army officers, some of
whom had been educated in military schools in Europe. Others, who were
known and dogged by the numerous spies of Abdul Hamid, fled the country
into Europe, and in Paris and other places, carried on a revolutionary
propaganda.
The leaders of this movement first influenced the army and navy
officers. The latter in turn appealed to their regiments. When they
were sure of success, and everything in readiness, then they demanded
from Abdul Hamid the restoration of the constitution which he had
suppressed in 1877, and other reforms. Their demands were accompanied
by the threat to march upon Constantinople with 60,000 men, if they
were not immediately granted. Abdul Hamid was shocked. Some thought
he would commit suicide. But he was too self-willed and shrewd; and
not without some hope of frustrating their plans. He must act at once.
There was no chance of doing anything by which he could avoid an
immediate disaster. He must have time. He can have it by apparently
and gracefully yielding. He said he was now sure that his people were
prepared for a constitutional government, that he was willing to govern
the nation according to the constitution.
So on the 24th of July, 1908, “by the command of the sultan, telegrams
were sent to all divisions of the army and to the governors of the
provinces announcing that his Imperial Majesty, Sultan Abdul Hamid, was
graciously pleased to proclaim a constitutional form of government. The
people were dazed and bewildered, not knowing what to believe, and when
reassured their outbursts of joy defied description. Turks, Christians,
and Jews joined indiscriminately in their joyful demonstrations.”
The sultan having solemnly sworn that he would rule as a constitutional
king and as he appeared to be doing so, he was permitted to remain
upon the throne. But he made no delay in attempting to overthrow the
individuals and the Parliament as a whole. He used various means by the
hands of his underlings and hirelings--softas and mullahs--to whom
he shipped unlimited sums of money. Within nine months Abdul Hamid
succeeded in inducing half of the garrison of Constantinople, about
12,000 men, to espouse his cause and rise in mutiny.
On the night of April 13th, 1909, these mutinous soldiers did rise
and fall upon their officers. They killed some of them and imprisoned
others; then they marched into the streets, and went over to Stamboul,
and took possession of the House of Parliament. The president of
parliament and the minister of justice escaped with their lives, but
other ministers fell by the assassins’ bullets. Sultan Hamid’s success,
however, was transient. Within a week the Young Turks rallied and
hastened their forces from Albania and Macedonia, some 45,000 men well
equipped with artillery, ammunition, and provisions. On the 23d of
April the commander of the Young Turkey army heard a rumor that Sultan
Abdul Hamid in disappointment and rage had planned on the following day
a general massacre of Christians and his opponents. General Mohammed
Shevket Pasha, the commander, moved his army in the afternoon and night
of the same day.
One division occupied the old city, Stamboul, and the other division
marched around the Golden Horn and moved upon Pera, the European
quarter (on the 24th). Here the defenders of Abdul Hamid showed
considerable resistance and a severe battle followed, but by night the
mutinous soldiers were defeated, and the Young Turkey army surrounded
the hill of Yildiz, situated three-quarters of a mile from the shore
of the Bosphorus and separated from Pera by a valley. He was deposed
from caliphate by the Sheikh-ul-Islam. He was dethroned by a resolution
of Parliament. On the morning of the 27th, the sultan, seeing that
there was no more hope for him, surrendered. “The bodyguard was marched
out and new troops were sent in. That night several young officers
went to the palace of the sultan and summoned him to their presence.
He came in, pale as a sheet, trembling like a leaf, and begging for
his life. He was told that his life would be spared, but that for the
good of the country he must leave the city that night. The Young Turks
dealt mercifully with the cruel monarch and allowed him to choose, as
his companions in exile, eleven women, one child, two eunuchs, and
five servants. These were placed in carriages, and after midnight
were driven to the railway station in Stamboul. From here they were
sent by a special train to Salonica, three hundred miles west, and
were consigned to a strong house prepared for him.”[150] This ended
the career as a ruler of Abdul Hamid, who was distinguished for his
cruelty, perfidy, and infamy.
On the same day (the 13th of April, 1909) that the mutiny took place
in Constantinople, the Mohammedans of the city and province of Adana,
fell upon the Christian inhabitants, and within a few days, they killed
the people and looted and plundered their property. The massacres
were committed in the following places: Adana, Alexandretta, Marash,
Mersina, Hadjin, Kessab, Zeitoon, Kirikon, and all the villages. The
number of the killed was estimated from 25,000 to 50,000. And those who
suffered from diseases and starvation exceeded 150,000.
The following is an extract from a letter written by Mrs. Doughty
Wylie, wife of the British Consul at Adana. It was published in the
_London Daily Mail_:
“We are having a perfectly hideous time here. Thousands have been
murdered--25,000 in this province they say; but the number is probably
greater, for every Christian village is wiped out. In Adana about
5,000 have perished. After Turks and Armenians had made peace, the
Turks came in the night with hose and kerosene and set fire to what
remained of the Armenian quarter. Next day the French and Armenian
Schools were fired. Nearly every one of the Armenian Schools perished,
anybody trying to escape being shot down by the soldiers.
“The Turkish authorities do nothing except arrest unoffending
Armenians, from whom by torture they extort the most fanciful
confessions. Even the wounded are not safe from this injustice. For
fiends incarnate commend me to the Turks. Nobody is safe from them.
They murder babies in front of their mothers, they half murder men,
and violate the wives while the husbands are lying there dying in
pools of blood. The authorities did nothing, and the soldiers were
worse than the crowd, for they were better armed. One house in our
quarter was burned with 115 people inside. We counted the bodies.
Soldiers set fire to the door and as the windows had iron bars, nobody
could get out. Every one in the house was roasted alive. They were all
women and children and old people.”
The following is a portion of a letter, by Stephen Van R. Trowbridge.
It describes the condition of Kessab and the surrounding villages after
the butchery:
“Kessab was a thrifty Armenian town of eight thousand inhabitants,
situated on the landward slope of Mt. Cassius (Arabic, Jebel Akra)
which stands out prominently upon the Mediterranean seacoast, half way
between Alexandretta and Latakia. Kessab is now a mass of blackened
ruins, the stark walls of the churches and houses rising up out of the
ashes and charred timber heaped on every side. What must it mean to
the five thousand men, women, and little children who have survived
a painful flight to the seacoast and now returned to their mountain
homes sacked and burned! There were nine Christian villages which
cloistered about Kessab in the valleys below. Several of them have
been completely destroyed by fire. All have been plundered and the
helpless people driven out or slain.”
One more witness of the crimes committed against humanity and
Christianity may suffice. Rev. Dr. Christie, the President of St.
Paul’s Institute, Tarsus, wrote:
April 24th, 1909.--“I doubt if ever a massacre equal in atrocities
to this has been known in history.... Among the wounded there are
multitudes of men, women and children; we hear of a pastor and his
family, seven people burned together in their house; hosts of young
women have been assaulted and carried away to harems, and their names
changed to Moslem ones. Christian villages like Osmanieh, Baghchi,
Hamidieh, Kara Tash, Kristian Keoy, Kozolook, have people in each,
eighty or so are left, nearly all women and children. It is the same
in the chiftliks (farms); there are hundreds of these on this wide and
fertile plain; in every one that we have heard of in the neighborhood
of Tarsus or Adana there has been unsparing slaughter of the Christian
workers, even the Greeks and Syrians dying as martyrs with the
Armenians.
“The annual (Synodical) meeting was to have been held in Adana. So
the pastors and delegates of the churches were on the road to the
north and east of that city when the trouble began. We have now the
names of twenty-seven killed with the particulars of their deaths.
Twenty-two churches are left pastorless. It is a fearful blow. Our two
missionaries, (Henry) Maurer and Daniel M. Rogers, bring the number up
to twenty-nine.”
There was a general impression at the time of the massacres of Adana,
that the butchery and plunder in the cities, towns, and in the
villages, were due to the reaction, that, “The mutiny and the massacre
were the last stroke of the dying monster Sultan Abdul Hamid.” It
appeared plausible, and it was even probable. But it was and is firmly
believed by others that it was the work of the Young Turks.[151] They
did not dethrone Abdul Hamid because he was too cruel to his Christian
subjects. Oh! no. They dethroned him, because they wanted to have
the glory of finishing the work of the extermination of the Armenian
nation. The Young Turks are the legitimate successors of Abdul Hamid,
so far as the latter’s determination to annihilate the Armenians was
concerned, and this massacre was another step towards their goal. It
may be questioned why they should do such a thing at such a time. The
answer is that, because there was an easy and plausible way of shoving
off the responsibility for the crime on the monster Sultan Abdul
Hamid.[152] We are told that Talaat Bey boasted that he had done more
in destroying the Armenians in thirty days than Abdul Hamid in thirty
years. It is, moreover, stated that when Talaat Bey gave the final
signal for the massacre and deportation of the Armenians in 1915, he
said, “After this there will be no Armenian question for fifty years.”
There would be no Armenian question if the Young Turks intended to
rule and run the government according to the Constitution. Armenians
would have been satisfied even under the monarchy had they received
what was promised to them, namely, religious liberty, the protection of
their lives, honor, and property. These, oft-made promises fulfilled,
there could be no Armenian question. Why should the Young Turks resort
to the cruel process of annihilation of a nation to solve such a
simple problem? We have to repeat Vambery’s words: “The conviction
is inevitable that until the power of _Islamism is broken_ the true
reformation of this land is an impossibility.” (Whether the government
is monarchical or constitutional, it made no difference.) “At whose
door shall we lay the blame of cherishing such a _viper_? (First at
England’s, now at Germany’s.)”