Of all the peoples upon whom this war has brought calamity and
suffering, the Armenian people have had the most to endure. Great as has
been the misery inflicted by the invaders upon the non-combatant
populations of Belgium and Northern France, upon Poland, upon Serbia,
the misery of Armenia, though far less known to the outer world, has
been far more terrible.
When the European War broke out, in 1914, the Government of the Turkish
Empire had fallen into the hands of a small gang of unscrupulous
ruffians calling themselves the Committee of Union and Progress, who
were ruling through their command of the army, but in the name of the
harmless and imbecile Sultan. By means which have not been fully
disclosed, but the nature of which can be easily conjectured, this gang
were won over to serve the interests of Germany; and at Germany's
bidding they declared war against the Western Allies, thus dragging all
the subjects of Turkey, Muslim and Christian, into a conflict with which
they had no concern. The Armenian Christians scattered through the
Asiatic part of the Turkish dominions, having had melancholy experience
in the Adana massacres some years previously of what cruelties the
ruling gang were capable of perpetrating, were careful to remain quiet,
and to furnish no pretext to the Turkish authorities for an attack upon
them. But the rulers of Turkey showed that they did not need a pretext
for the execution of the nefarious purposes they cherished. They had
formed a design for the extermination of the non-Mohammedan elements in
the population of Asiatic Turkey, in order to make what they called a
homogeneous nation, consisting of Mohammedans only. The wickedness of
such a design was equalled only by its blind folly, for the Christian
Armenians of Asia Minor and the north-eastern provinces constituted the
most industrious, the most intelligent, and the best-educated part of
the population. Most of the traders and merchants, nearly all the
skilled artisans, were Armenians, and to destroy them was to destroy the
chief industrial asset which these regions possessed. However, this was
the plan of the Committee of Union and Progress, and as soon as they
began to feel, in the spring of 1915, that the Allied expedition against
the Dardanelles was not likely to succeed, they proceeded to execute it.
They first disarmed all the Armenians in order to have them at their
mercy; and in some cases, in order to make it appear that the Armenians
were intending to take up arms, they actually sent weapons into the
towns and then had them seized as evidence against the Christians. When
such arms as the Christians possessed had been secured, orders for
massacre were issued from Constantinople to the local governors. The
whole Armenian population was seized. The grown men were slaughtered
without mercy. The younger women were sold in the market place to the
highest bidder, or appropriated by Turkish military officers and civil
officials to become slaves in Turkish harems. The boys were handed over
to dervishes to be carried off and brought up as Muslims. The rest of
the hapless victims, all the older men and women, the mothers and their
babes clinging to them, were torn from their homes and driven out along
the tracks which led into the desert region of northern Syria and
Arabia. Most of them perished on the way from hardships, from disease,
from starvation. A few were still surviving some months ago near Aleppo
and along the banks of the Euphrates. Many, probably thousands, were
drowned in that river and its tributaries, martyrs to their Christian
faith, which they had refused to renounce; for it was generally possible
for women, and sometimes for men, to save themselves by accepting
Mohammedanism. By these various methods hundreds of thousands--the
number is variously estimated at from 500,000 to 800,000--have perished.
And all this was done with the tacit acquiescence of the German
Government, some of whose representatives on the spot are even said to
have encouraged the Turks in their work of slaughter, while the
Government confined its action to propagating in Germany, so as to
deceive its own people, false stories which alleged that the Armenians
had been punished for insurrectionary movements.
All these facts, with many details too horrible to be repeated here, are
set forth in the Blue Book recently published in England, containing
accounts based upon incontrovertible evidence, and to which no reply has
been made, though some denials, palpably false, have emanated from the
Turkish gang, and some others from the German Government.
The victims who have thus been put to death, a large part of the whole
Armenian people, belong to what is one of the oldest nations in the
world, which has been Christian and civilized ever since the third
century of our era. If any people ever deserved the sympathy of the
civilized world, it is they who have clung to their faith and the
traditions of their ancient kingdom ever since that kingdom was
overthrown by the Turkish invaders many centuries ago. They now appeal
to the Allied Nations who are fighting the battle of Right and Humanity
against the German Government and its barbarous Turkish allies, asking
that when the end of the war comes their case may be considered and
they may be for ever delivered from the Turkish yoke. Nowhere is their
hard case better known than in the United States, for it is the American
missionaries who have, by their admirable schools and colleges planted
in many cities of Asiatic Turkey, done more for them than any other
country has done, giving them light, consolation and sympathy.
The author of this little book is an Armenian gentleman belonging to a
family originally from Ispahan in Persia, but now settled in England. He
speaks with intimate knowledge as well as with patriotic feeling, and
states the case of his countrymen with a moderation well fitted to
inspire confidence. Upon the arguments he puts forward I do not venture
to express any opinion in detail. But those who know something of
Asiatic Turkey will recognize with him that the Armenians are, by their
intelligence and their irrepressible energy, the race best fitted to
restore prosperity to regions desolated by Turkish oppression. The
educated Armenians, notwithstanding all they have suffered, are abreast
of the modern world of civilization. Among them are many men of science
and learning, as well as artists and poets. They are scattered in many
lands. I have visited large Armenian colonies as far west as California,
and there are others as far east as Rangoon. Many of the exiles would
return to their ancient home if they could but be guaranteed that
security and peace which they have never had, and can never have, under
the rule of the Turk. May we not confidently hope that the Allied Powers
will find means for giving it to them at the end of this war, for
extending to them that security which they have long desired and are
capable of using well?