THE SULTAN ABDUL HAMID.
It does not lie within the plan of this volume to review at any length
the history of Turkey, or to sketch the lives of the Sultans who have
reigned during the century; it will answer, however, to make our work
intelligible and clear, if the life of the reigning Sultan of Turkey,
Abdul Hamid II. is presented briefly.
He is the second son of Abdul Medjid, who was Sultan from 1839 to
1861. He was born September 5th, 1842; and his mother having died
when he was quite young, he was adopted by his father's second wife,
herself childless, who was very wealthy and made him her heir. His
early life was quiet and uneventful; his boyhood was a continual scene
of merry idleness. His education consisting mostly in amusements and
tricks devised for his entertainment by the court slaves: and in an
unusually early and complete initiation into the depravities of harem
life. Indeed up to manhood all the learning he had acquired, amounted
to but little more than the ability to read in the Arabic and Turkish
tongues. His mother had died of consumption and his constitution was
delicate. He had inherited a taste for drink, but his doctor who was
a Greek, assured him it would be his destruction. "Then I will never
touch wine or liquor again," said Abdul Hamid, and he kept his word.
The turning point in his life came, when in 1867 his Uncle Abdul Aziz,
then Sultan, took his own son and his two nephews, Murad and Hamid,
to the Paris Exposition, England and Germany. He saw with a quick and
appreciative eye. He acquired a taste for political geography, and
for European dress, customs and interests. What he then learned was to
modify very considerably the subsequent course of his life. From April,
1876, both he and his brother Murad were kept under strict surveillance
and not allowed to take any part in the political movements going on
in Constantinople.
Abdul Aziz, the reigning Sultan, was determined to defy the Turkish
law of succession and proclaim his son in June, as heir presumptive
to the throne, thus displacing Murad and Hamid, who both were before
him in rights of succession. At this crisis, Midhat Pasha, the leading
and most progressive statesman and strong adherent of Murad, planned
a revolution and Abdul Aziz, was deposed and Murad was proclaimed
Sultan, May 31st, and so recognized by the Western powers: but he
was never girded with the sword of Othman in the Mosque of Eyout,
a ceremony equivalent to a Western Coronation.
His ill-health, increased by excessive use of liquor and the mistaken
treatment of his physician, rendered him mentally incapable of ruling:
though a celebrated Dr. Liedersdorf, sent for from Vienna, is said
to have stated, "If I had Sultan Murad under my own care in Vienna,
I would have him all right in six weeks."
In consequence of this mental indisposition, Murad V. was deposed
August 30th, and Abdul Hamid II. was proclaimed on August 31st, and
girded with the sword of Othman a few days later. He was then living
in a small palace in the Valley of Sweet Waters, which he inherited
from his father. He was very fond of agriculture, and amused himself
by cultivating a model farm. To his mother, who is said to have been
an Armenian from Georgia, in Russia, he owed a quality very rare in
the family of the Sultans, the spirit of economy. He never allowed his
expenses to exceed his income before he came to the throne. In this
charming retreat he resided quietly with his wife and two children,
all eating at the same table, and showing in his dress and surroundings
his preference for European modes of life. The only concession he
made to Orientalism in personal dress, was in wearing the "fez,"
which he disliked, but continued to wear as the necessary token of
his nationality.
Six weeks after he was proclaimed Sultan, it was announced that
a scheme of reform for the whole Ottoman Empire, was in course of
preparation. It was published in January, and while it was a much
less sweeping reform than Midhat wished, it provided for a Senate
and a House of Representatives, which last was to take control of
the finances, the system of taxation was to be revised and better
laws were to be enacted for the provinces.
Election to the lower house was to be by universal suffrage; for the
upper house electors were restricted to two classes: the noble and
the educated.
Abdul Hamid cordially disapproved of this check on the absolute power
enjoyed by predecessors.
He was willing to do justice and to temper it with mercy, but to
be placed in the position of a servant to his people was odious
to himself.
At a council held, when only his other ministers were present, the
Sultan asked, what should be done with Midhat Pasha. Two of those
present said: "Let him die." But Abdul Hamid was not bloodthirsty,
hence he only banished him to Arabia where two years later he was
poisoned.
The Sultan was restive under the constitution and the Pashas, against
whose cruelty and extortion the most of the reforms were aimed,
sided with their sovereign. In 1875, Midhat Pasha had outlined the
situation thus to the English Ambassador:
"The Sultan's Empire is being rapidly brought to destruction;
corruption has reached a pitch that it has never before attained. The
service of the state is starved, while untold millions are being
poured into the palaces and the provinces are being ruined by the
uncontrolled exactions of the Governors who purchase their appointments
at the palace: and nothing can save the country but a complete change
of system."
And the very worst governed portion of all his Empire was Armenia. We
are officially told that its government for the last thirty years
has been horrible.
In an Armenian village recently plundered by bandits, the famous
Hungarian Professor, Arminius Vambery, an intimate friend of the
Sultan, once asked, "Why do you not get help from the Governor of
Erzeroum?" "Because," answered the villagers, "he is at the head of
the robbers. God alone and his representative on earth--the Russian
Czar, can help us." This brigandage, is one of the greatest curses
of the Turkish Empire, exercising a rule of terror and oppression,
and now legalized, apparently, by the transformation of the Kurdish
horsemen--robbers--into the Hamidieh--the Sultan's own Cavalry.
Such being the spirit of the Pashas who had grown rich by plunder
and official theft, of course they were opposed to the Constitution,
and by the will of the Sultan it was abrogated after two sessions had
been held. This was soon followed by the dismissal of the Ministers
who had formed the triumvirate, and the Sultan resumed his despotic and
absolute sway. Assured that England would not suffer the dismemberment
of his Empire we have seen him refusing to guarantee the enforcement
of promised reforms and provoking the war with Russia; but as we have
already told this story, we will give some pictures of the Sultan as
drawn by his admirers; leaving the horrors of the Armenian massacres
to bear witness as to the honesty of his professed devotion to the
welfare of his Christian subjects and his promises to observe the
terms of said treaty in the amelioration of the condition of all who
were suffering under the murderous oppression of Kurds and Circassians.
Professor Vambery, a most remarkable linguist who writes and speaks
all the languages of Europe like a native, spent some time in Turkey
a few years ago and was received into closest conference by the
Sultan.--Here are extracts from what he has written of him:
"I must own that the education of Abdul Hamid, like that of all
Oriental princes was defective, very defective indeed; but an
iron will, good judgment and rare acuteness have made good this
short-coming; and he not only knows the multifarious relations and
intricacies of his own much tried Empire but is thoroughly conversant
with European politics: and I am not going far from fact when I
state that it has been solely the moderation and self-restraint of
Sultan Abdul Hamid which has saved us hitherto from a general European
conflagration. As to his personal character, I have found the present
ruler of the Ottoman Empire of great politeness, amiability and
extreme gentleness. When sitting opposite to him during my private
interviews, I could not avoid being struck by his extremely modest
attitude, by his quiet manners and by the bashful look of his eyes. *
* At his table, though wine is served to European guests, it is not
offered to the Sultan or any other Mohammedan.
"His views on religion, politics and education have a decidedly
modern tone, and yet he is a firm believer in the tenets of his
religion, and likes to assemble around him the foremost Mollahs
and pious Sheiks on whom he profusely bestows imperial favors;
but he does not forget from time to time to send presents to the
Greek and the Armenian patriarchates, and nothing is more ludicrous
than to hear this prince accused by a certain class of politicians
in Europe of being a fanatic and an enemy to Christians,--a prince
who by appointing a Christian for his chief medical attendant and
a Christian for his chief minister of finance, did not hesitate to
intrust most important duties to non-Mohammedans. * * *"
[Doubtless he wanted the best men he could find as his physician and
minister of finance, and these men were found among the Christians. Let
the last year tell whether he be the friend or the enemy of the
Christians.]
"In reference to the charge of ruthless despotism laid upon Sultan
Abdul Hamid in connection with his abrogation of the charter granted
during the first months of his reign, I will quote his own words. He
said to me one day:--'In Europe the soil was prepared centuries ago
for liberal institutions, and now I am asked to transplant a sapling
to the foreign, stony and rugged ground of Asiatic life. Let me clear
away the thistles, and stones, let me till the soil, and provide
for irrigation because rain is very scarce in Asia and then we may
transport the new plant; and believe me that nobody will be more
delighted at its thriving than myself.'"
Thus far the professor. And now, it is to be wondered if he calls
the extermination of the Armenians the clearing away of the thistles
and does he propose to irrigate the soil of Armenia with the blood of
its noblest race. Is he not rather slitting the veins of Asia Minor
and pouring out its heart's best blood?
That the Sultan was a warm personal friend of Gen. Lew Wallace does not
make him any the less a despot; neither because Hon. S. S. Cox, who
succeeded Gen. Wallace was an admirer of the Sultan as the following
quotation will show; does that make him the less a fanatic and the
most remorseless shedder of blood that Europe has seen since the days
of Tamerlane.
"The Sultan is of middle size and of Turkish type. He wears a full
black beard, is of a dark complexion and has very expressive eyes. His
forehead is large, indicative of intellectual power. He is very
gracious in manner though at times seemingly a little embarrassed. *
* *
"As Caliph he is the divine representative of Mohammed. His family
line runs back with unbroken links to the thirteenth century. He is
one of the most industrious, painstaking, honest, conscientious and
vigilant rulers of the world. He is amiable and just withal. His every
word betokens a good heart and a sagacious head. [What a comment the
horrors of the many months just past furnishes to this flattering
estimate a Mohammedian conscience!]
"He is an early riser. After he leaves his seraglio and has partaken
of a slight repast his secretaries wait on him with portfolios. He
peruses all the official correspondence and current reports. He gives
up his time till noon to work of this character. Then his breakfast
is served. After that he walks in his park and gardens, looks in at
his aviaries, perhaps stirs up his menagerie, makes an inspection
of his two hundred horses in their fine stables, indulges his little
daughters in a row upon the fairy lake which he has had constructed,
and it may be attends a performance at the little theatre provided
for his children in the palace. At 5 P. M. having accomplished most
of his official work, he mounts his favorite white horse, Ferhan,
a war-scarred veteran for a ride in the park. The park of the palace
Yildiz where he lives comprises some thousand acres. It is surrounded
by high walls and protected by the soldiery."
But all this does not tell us what the man at heart is any more than
if some flatterer of Nero should expatiate on the esthetic taste
of Nero and his love of the fine arts and his skill as a violinist
when he sat at night in his marble palace and enjoyed the blazing
magnificence of Rome. It is as foreign to the present situation as if
some one should praise the skill of Nero's horsemanship as he drove
his mettled steeds with firm reins along the course lighted by the
blazing torches of the tar-besmeared Christians, whom he accused of
having set the city on fire.
The persistence with which the Sultan has followed out his purpose of
exterminating the Armenians, in the face of a horrified and indignant
Christendom, marks his audacity and contempt of Christians as sublime
in height, as infernal in spirit, and bottomless in its cruelty.
Gibbon in his Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire can scarcely
find polite words enough to express his contempt for the forms of
early Christianity and praised the Turks as possessing the rarest
of qualities when he said: "The Turks are distinguished for their
patience, discipline, sobriety, bravery, honesty and modesty," and
Hon. Sunset Cox echoed the same when he wrote, "It is because of
these solid characteristics, and in spite of the harem, in spite of
autocratic power, in spite of the Janissary and the seraglio that this
race and rule remain potent in the Orient. His heart (the heart of the
present Sultan) is touched by suffering, and his views lean strongly
to that toleration of the various races and religions of his realm,
which other and more boastful nations would do well to imitate."
The facts given in the chapters on The Reign of Terror will be
sufficient commentary on such praise.
Probably no building in all Europe has so many associations with
tragical events as that of the palace of the Sultan of Turkey--the
autocrat whose rule is absolute over more than thirty million
subjects. From this palace go forth the edicts which involve the
death of thousands and which control the governments of distant
provinces. Fifty years ago the Sultans governed a huge territory
in Europe, but one province after another has been freed from their
yoke, until Turkey in Europe has dwindled in size to less than half
its former area. But the Asiatic possession of the Sultan have not
diminished, and the events in Armenia which have recently horrified the
whole world, show what that possession means. Nor are these massacres
a new or unparalleled feature of Turkish rule. Similar horrors have
been perpetrated before under the cognizance of the Sultans and the
only reason why the indignation now aroused on the subject is deeper
and more intense, is that it is now impossible to conceal them, and
in the days of the telegraph and cheap newspapers they are set in the
light of publicity. The Turk is no worse now than he has always been,
and is only trying to govern at the end of the nineteenth century
as he governed in the sixteenth. As an eminent writer has said:
"The Turk is still the aboriginal savage encamped on the ruins of a
civilization which he destroyed."
In some respects Abdul Hamid is better than his predecessors,
and until the reports of the Armenian horrors were published, he
was believed to be a great deal better; but they have proved that
he has the same nature, and is at heart as fierce and relentless
as they. The character of the man is of so much greater moment to
his subjects than in other lands, because of the utter absence of
even the semblance of constitutional government. The government of
Turkey is a despotism pure and simple. It is tempered only by the
dread of assassination or deposition, and even those calamities may
come rather from a wise and merciful policy than from massacre. The
Pashas who surround the Sultan, the successors of those who deposed
his uncle and his brother, applaud the atrocities, and are willing
instruments in the perpetration of them. The danger to the Sultan's
person is far more likely to come through weakness and lack of vigor
in persecution than from indignation at wholesale slaughter. The Sultan
fully appreciates this fact, and lives in constant dread of treachery.
An interesting story of the present Sultan is related by
Mr. W. T. Stead, in an article in his Review of Reviews, which in some
measure explains the singular mixture in his character of fanaticism,
such as that which produced the Armenian massacres, with the marked
ability and intelligence he displays in the conduct of national
affairs. It appears that when he was a mere youth, he was conspicuous
even in Constantinople, which is notorious for its immorality, for the
gross excesses of his private life. There was then little probability
of his ever ascending the throne, and as he was condemned by his
position to a life of idleness, he plunged into all the wickedness
of the capital, and lived a life of debauchery. Suddenly he changed
his course. He quitted his evil ways and became a devout follower
of Mohammed, was attentive at the Mosque and gave all his thoughts
to his religion. From that time until now his religious enthusiasm
has been the most prominent feature of his character. But with the
change came a fierce intolerance, a desire that others should follow
his example and determination, evinced since his accession, that
in his own dominions no enemy of the Prophet, nor any who did not
avow themselves his followers, should have peace or rest until they
accepted the faith. This spirit accounts for the crusade against the
Armenians whom he hates because they are Christians.
The real cause for all the trouble in the Turkish Empire will be found
to lie within the spirit and purpose of the Sultan himself. His conduct
towards the Powers will serve to most abundantly confirm this view.
The condition of Armenia under Turkish rule has for many years been a
scandal to Christendom. After the horrors of the Blood bath of Sassoun
had been made known to the world a commission of the Powers were sent
to investigate and report on the massacres which had been perpetrated.
The investigation of the latest atrocities showed that the Armenians
had been wantonly tortured and murdered, and that indescribable
atrocities had been perpetrated. Men, women, and children were proved
to have been hacked to pieces, and no respect had been shown to age
or sex. Whole villages had been depopulated, and the fact of any
community being Christian seemed to have been sufficient to provoke
the murderous hostility of the authorities. Where the Turks did not
commit the outrages themselves, they remained inactive while the
Kurds committed them, and their inactivity amounted to connivance,
because the Armenians are not allowed to arm themselves for their own
protection. There was legitimate grounds for foreign powers urging
reforms upon the Sultan, as in 1878, when the Berlin Congress was
inclined to strip him of his Armenian provinces, he promised that
Armenia should be governed better than it had been, and England became
sponsor for the performance of his promises. Under those conditions the
Sultan was allowed to retain the provinces, and his failure to effect
the reforms was therefore a distinct breach of faith. The Ambassadors
of England, France and Russia accordingly presented to the Sultan
on May 11th a demand for twelve specific changes in the government
of Armenia. The scheme outlined included the appointment of a High
Commissioner, with whom should be associated a commission to sit at
Constantinople, for the purpose of carrying out all reforms. The full
details of the plan were not made public, but among the suggestions
made were these: The appointment of governors and vice-governors
in six Armenian vilayets--Van, Erzeroum, Sivas, Bitlis, Harpoot,
and Trebizond; that either the governor or the vice-governor of
each vilayet should be a Christian; that the collection of taxes
be on a better basis; with various other reforms in the judicial
and administrative departments: especially that torture should be
abolished; the gendarmérie to be recruited from Christians as well
as Mohammedans, and the practical disarmament of the Kurds. Note
the names of these vilayets as they are the centers of the horrible
massacres that followed the Porte's true answer to all its own promises
of reform.
To this project of reforms the following memorandum was attached:--
"The appended scheme, containing the general statement of the
modifications which it would be necessary to introduce in regard
to the administration, financial and judicial organization of the
vilayets mentioned, it has appeared useful to indicate in a separate
memorandum certain measures exceeding the scope of an administrative
regulation, but which form the very basis of this regulation and the
adoption of which by the Porte is a matter of primary importance."
These different points are:
1. The eventual reduction of the number of vilayets.
2. The guarantee for the selection of the valis.
3. Amnesty for Armenians sentenced or in prison on political charges.
4. The return of the Armenian emigrants or exiles.
5. The final settlement of pending legal proceedings for common law
crimes and offences.
6. The inspection of prisons and an inquiry into the condition of
the prisoners.
7. The appointment of a high commission of surveillance for the
application of reforms in the provinces.
8. The creation of a permanent committee of control at Constantinople.
9. Reparation for the loss suffered by the Armenians who were victims
of the events at Sassoun, Talori, etc.
10. The regularization of matters connected with religious conversion.
11. The maintenance and strict application of the rights and privileges
conceded to the Armenians.
12. The position of the Armenians in the other vilayets of Asiatic
Turkey.
After much delay the Porte replied that it could not accept the
proposals made. Of course not. Why should the Sultan do anything
to favor the Armenians or even to prevent the recurrence of these
terrible outrages unless compelled to do so by something more than
advice! Yet the Sultan would be anxious to know what the three
Powers would do about it. He was not kept long in suspense, so far
as England was concerned. Orders were issued for the English fleet
to proceed to Constantinople, and France and Russia were informed of
the fact. The news reached the Sultan and appears to have convinced
him that it was not safe to trifle any longer with the demands of
the powers. He accordingly telegraphed that he would accede to the
principle of reform outlined for him.
The Sultan, learning also that the British Cabinet had met to consider
Turkey's reply to the plan of reform for Armenia, submitted by Great
Britain, France and Russia, telegraphed to Rustem Pasha, the Turkish
Ambassador in London, instructing him to ask the Earl of Kimberly,
the British Foreign Minister, to postpone a decision in the matter.
The Earl of Kimberly acceded to the request. In the meanwhile the
Porte handed to the British, French and Russian Ambassadors a fresh
and satisfactory reply, acceding to the principle of control by the
Powers, but asking that the period be limited to three years.
While these promises were being so freely made, letters from Armenia,
in July, represented Turkish cruelty as unabated; the position
of affairs never so grave and critical; and the Armenians to have
reached the ultimate limit of despair. Yet in August the world was
informed that Turkey had decided to accept in their entirety the
Armenian reforms demanded by the Powers, and that the acceptance
of these reforms was primarily due to the pressure brought to bear
on the government by Sir Philip Currie, the British Ambassador,
who communicated to the government a confidential note from Lord
Salisbury to the effect that the Porte must accept the proposals of
the powers unconditionally, or England would use sharper means than
those adopted by Lord Rosebery to settle affairs in Armenia.
The summer passed in fruitless and endless negotiations. Later
in September a press telegram from London voiced the situation as
follows:--
"European diplomacy seems already weary of the question, which Turkish
diplomacy has handled with an evident ability, based upon temporization
and inertia, as well as upon its knowledge of the jealousy existing
between the three Powers which proclaim so loudly that they want
nothing else but the happiness of the Armenians.
"The question has not progressed one iota, despite all the
negotiations, memoranda, appointments of commissions, and even the
(awful!) rumor, one month ago, of the assembling of the British fleet
in Besika Bay, at the entrance of the Dardanelles. England, France
and Russia, however, had the way clear before them, if they had been
really in accord and seriously willing to accomplish the humanitarian
mission they pretended to assume. Article sixty-one of the Berlin
Treaty gave the Powers the right to see that the same rights granted to
Bulgaria should be granted also to Armenia. This article has remained
a dead letter in regard to the latter country since 1878. When the
Sassoun atrocities were recently committed, the Powers merely sent
to the Porte a memorandum, requesting it to cease its persecution of
Armenians. During two or three months the European Ministers at Pera
awaited the decision of the Sultan. Whenever they sent their dragomans
to the Foreign Minister, Said Pasha caused his secretary to answer
in the Spanish manner, 'hasta la mañana' (to-morrow a reply will be
given). Finally the three Powers thought of using the rights conferred
upon them by Article sixty-one, and required Abdul Hamid to consent
that a European Commission of Control should be sent to Armenia, in
order to see that reforms be practically applied there. The Sultan
will fight stubbornly before accepting them, which would amount to
the abandonment of a portion of his sovereignty, and it remains to
be seen how much the Powers, jealous of their respective influence
at the Porte, are in earnest and how anxious they are promptly to
enforce the acceptation of their Control Commission."
The Turks continued to play a waiting game in Armenian
affairs. Remembering the treaty of Berlin, they were shrewd enough to
play off one Power against another so as to retain absolute control
over their internal affairs, though they had forfeited all right
to rule by their outrageous and brutal massacres. The Congress of
Berlin was at the time a costly thing to the Eastern Christians but
was destined to prove almost their utter ruin.
The Turks did not find it hard to pick flaws in the plan of
administrative reform when they did not intend to have any reform. The
whole scheme was without any security against the renewal of the
Sassoun massacres. Everybody who was interested in Armenia protested
against the plan, but it was the best that mere diplomacy could do.
Thus the summer passed filled with plenty of promises, but without
any fulfilment, until suddenly the signal was given and the horrors
of Sassoun were reënacted throughout all the provinces of Armenia.
At a mass meeting of Armenians held in New York, free expression was
given to the feeling of horror with which the news of the Turks'
outrages was received there. There seemed to be no doubt in the
minds of these people as to the truth of the reports from Asia Minor,
and many were of the opinion that still more terrible news would be
received. Mr. Dionian presided, and in calling the meeting to order,
said that Armenia and Turkey could never be friends, and that Armenia
must either be liberated or annihilated.
Dr. P. Ayvard also spoke, and then Dr. S. Aparcian offered resolutions,
which were unanimously adopted, saying in part:--
Resolved, That we most respectfully and appealingly
call upon all the great Powers of Europe, and of our
adopted and well loved country of America, to the deplorable
condition of Armenia, and trust that the moral
interests of Europe will demand taking immediate steps
to put an end to this rule of anarchy and lawlessness
prevailing there, and that the United States of America
will give their moral support.
Knowing the Turk as they did, the Armenians in this country were
prepared for the confirmation of these reports. In due time it came.
A prominent Turk laughed when he saw the report, and said it was a mere
fabrication, and that if there was any slaughter it was not committed
by the Turks. As to the Turks being opposed to the Armenians because
of their being Christians, he said: "People who have lived in the
Orient know that to be absurd. We have Christians and Jews among us,
and as long as they obey the laws of the land they are treated the
same as the members of our faith. Of course," he added, "when people
become revolutionists and conspire against our Government, then we
take measures to punish them. The Armenians are revolutionists, and
their revolutionary societies exist in every city in this country,
while the head-centre is at Naples."
The Turk laughed and blamed the Armenian revolutionists. The Porte
denied the outrages at first then charged the trouble to the Armenians,
until the terrible situation at Trebizond and Erzeroum could no longer
be kept from the knowledge of Christendom. The prisons in Trebizond
were filled with wounded and helpless Armenians: the Mohammedans were
well armed and the governor entirely in sympathy with, even if not
the instigator of the outrages.
Meanwhile the European manager of the United Press at Constantinople
gave the first detailed account of the appalling massacres to
which Armenian Christians had been subjected since the Sultan
Abdul Hamid gave perfidious assent to the reforms demanded by the
European Powers. The harrowing and shameful facts were told on the
authority of American Christian men, who witnessed them, and their
narrative had the unqualified endorsement of Mr. Terrell, the United
States Minister to Turkey. In view of such conclusive testimony to
the duplicity and faithlessness of an incorrigible ruler, it seems
incredible that Christian peoples will let their rescuing hands be
stayed any longer by sordid jealousy and greed, or that they will
any longer consent to bear a share of the responsibility for such
crimes against humanity. The blood of the slaughtered thousands of
their fellow Christians in Armenia cries against them from the ground.
By this trustworthy evidence the conclusion was justified that within
the six provinces mainly concerned in the proposed reforms, no fewer
than fifteen thousand Armenians were assassinated, while the number
of those rendered homeless and robbed of all their possessions,
did not fall short of two hundred thousand. The places and dates
exposed the aim of the hellish atrocities committed, and drove
home the guilt to their authors and accomplices. On October 20,
the Sultan authorized Kiamil Pasha, his Grand Vizier, to accept the
reforms proposed for the Armenian provinces by the European Powers,
and to promise that they should be forthwith carried out. On the next
day, October 21, when there had been ample time for the reception of
orders telegraphed from Constantinople, the Kurds and Turks throughout
Armenia, openly incited and assisted by the regular troops, entered
on a scheme of wholesale murder and devastation. The purpose of this
preconcerted iniquity, as disclosed by its disgraceful antecedents
and its horrible results, was to vent upon the helpless Armenians the
venom and the spite engendered by enforced submission to the will of
the Christian Powers. It was to enforce at one vindictive stroke the
programme of extermination devised in 1890, but prosecuted hitherto
with some show of secrecy and caution. It was to make of Armenia a
solitude, and then with satanic mockery, to offer exact fulfilment
of the pledge of peace and of reform.
All the circumstances showed that with this flagitious rupture of the
Sultan's plighted word, the person directly and primarily chargeable
was the Sultan himself. He sanctioned the plot of extermination,
if he did not personally concoct it in 1890, the relentless though
disavowed execution of which at last provoked the interposition of
Christian Powers. No sooner had Kiamil Pasha been reluctantly permitted
to agree to the reforms exacted for Armenia, than he was summarily
dismissed by Abdul Hamid from the Grand Vizierate, lest he should
execute the agreement in good faith. The new Ministers selected by the
Sultan were drawn mainly from the scum of Constantinople, and their
first act was to protest that time must be given to the Porte for the
proper enforcement of the reform project. Time was needed to render
reforms superfluous through the sweeping destruction of its intended
beneficiaries. It was needed to perpetrate the design of annihilation
on a scale of vast proportions. The Sultan well wished to hide his
privity to such a devilish transaction, but he dared not disavow
his agents, lest they should divulge his instructions. Accordingly,
when high Turkish officials, unmistakably implicated in the Armenian
enormities, were subjected to the nominal penalty of a recall at the
imperative instance of England's representative, they were decorated
and promoted by Abdul Hamid, whose secret aims and wishes were thus
betrayed.
On November 10, the Kurds made an attack on Harpoot, but were easily
repulsed. On November 11, a party of the soldiers and leading Turks
met the Kurds in conference, during the progress of which a bugle was
sounded, at which signal the soldiers withdrew. The Kurds thereupon
advanced with yells. There was no effort on the part of the soldiers
and Armenians to resist, and the Turks joined in the killing and
plundering. The Armenian school was burned, and then began an attack
upon the Christian quarter, the buildings in which were also set on
fire. The Christians were without weapons of any sort, and trusted
entirely to the Government to protect them. The Armenians remained
in the girls' seminary until that building was set on fire, and then
they appealed to the Governor for protection. They obtained a guard of
soldiers, all but two of whom afterward deserted. These two remained
and carried out the orders issued to them, to fight the fires which
had been kindled.
The burning continued for three days. The Armenians were stripped
of everything but their clothing. All the Christian villages
around were burned by the Kurds. The outrages continued unchecked
until the Government at Constantinople ordered the troops to take
action. Fourteen Kurds were then shot, when the murders and pillaging
ceased instantly. The districts of Diarbekir, Malatia, Arabkir, Kyin
and Palu were made desolate. Thirty-five villages were destroyed,
and thousands of the inhabitants embraced Islamism in consequence of
the pressure brought to bear upon them.
The Turkish troops which were on their way to Zeitoun to suppress
the trouble there, were concentrated at Marash, where they awaited
the return of the delegation sent to Zeitoun to negotiate with the
Armenians in control there for their surrender.
The Government said they were projecting more extensive relief work,
and would welcome foreign aid through a joint commission.
Despite this promise of greater relief, the Government was bent on
continuing the work of extermination--all promises to the contrary
notwithstanding.
The tidal wave of horror and indignation swept over Europe, and found
expression in most intense and emphatic speech; it was even felt in
the Cabinets of Diplomacy and in Constantinople. There seemed to be
more iron in their blood and energy in their action and purpose in
their speech.
The general situation was not changed, but it was apparent that a
change was about to take place. The representatives of the Powers, some
of whom were awaiting instructions from their Governments in regard
to the matter of sending additional guardboats into the Bosphorus,
seemed to be unanimous in their insistence on the issue of permits for
the admission of such boats by the Sultan, and the Ambassadors held a
meeting to consider the situation as presented by the Sultan's refusal
to permit the passage of the additional boats through the straits,
and to decide on a concerted plan of action.
For several days the wires were hot with the assertion that all
the Powers were united and determined to carry their demands to a
successful termination. The Sultan was unofficially informed that
if he continued to maintain his stubborn attitude, a forced entry of
the Dardanelles would possibly be made.
As previously, and with equal pertinence, at this hour of crisis the
continental press devoted much space to the affairs of the Orient,
and the Sultan was the recipient of much newspaper advice. One
writer in particular urged him to remain master of the situation,
and to show himself promptly disposed to fulfil his engagements. In
that case the crisis would remain an internal one; but if it should
assume an international aspect it would be peacefully adjusted on
the basis of the maintenance of the integrity of Turkey which would
be asserted by France and Russia, the two Pacific Powers. It was also
telegraphed from Constantinople that the Czar, in reply to a personal
appeal from the Sultan, consented to waive the Russian demand for a
second guardship in the Bosphorus. At the same time she was prepared
to resent any aggressive action that England might undertake alone.
The Sultan knew very well that there would be no concerted action of
the Powers--that England and Russia would never agree as to any joint
action, and yet to give color of necessity to his refusal, it was given
out that the Powers had decided to depose him, using for this purpose
the forces aboard the second guardship which they demanded should be
permitted to enter the Bosphorus. This was to stir up the populace
against the Powers. Then to furnish another excuse the report was
circulated that the Sultan was in daily fear of sharing the fate of
Ishmail Pasha at the hands of the Softas and the Young Turkish party.
The Sultan's letter to Lord Salisbury was often quoted as a
confirmation of the report that the Sultan was panic stricken. It
will be recalled that Lord Salisbury in his speech at the Lord Mayor's
banquet on November 9th, declared that, if the Sultan will not heartily
resolve to do justice to them, the most ingenious constitution that
can be framed will not avail to protect the Armenians; that through
the Sultan alone can any real permanent blessings be conferred on his
subjects. "What if the Sultan," exclaimed the British Prime Minister--
"What if the Sultan is not persuaded? I am bound to say that the news
reaching us from Constantinople does not give much cheerfulness in that
respect. You will readily understand that I can only speak briefly
on such a matter. It would be dangerous to express the opinions that
are on my lips lest they injure the cause of peace and good order."
These words seemed to be freighted with some ominous significance,
and they would have been, if there had been any purpose to make them
mean anything.
In a remarkable letter to Lord Salisbury which he read publicly at
a conference in London, the Sultan used a most beseeching tone to
show that the possible dissolution of his Empire was lying heavy on
his mind. It sounded like a most abject plea for mercy, a cry for the
postponement of the fate which the Powers seemed to be preparing for
the terrified monarch. In this note the Sultan said:
"I repeat, I will execute the reforms. I will take the paper containing
them, place it before me and see that it is put in force. This is
my earnest determination and I give my word of honor, I wish Lord
Salisbury to know this and I beg and desire his Lordship, having
confidence in these declarations, to make another speech by virtue of
the friendly feeling and disposition he has for me and my country. I
shall await the result of this message with the greatest anxiety."
It will be noted that the Sultan's communication contained no denial
that there are wrongs to be remedied in the administration of his
government in Armenia and elsewhere. There is no plea that the terms
of solemn treaty obligations have been observed. The letter is a tacit
confession that the interposition of the Powers as far as it had gone
was justifiable and that the reports of the atrocities in Asia Minor,
which were at first strenuously denied by the Turkish Government,
were true.
It was only a shrewd plea of helplessness to persuade the Powers not
to enforce their demands and nothing more. In his rejoinder to the
Sultan's letter, Lord Salisbury substantially admits the hopelessness
of reform under the Sultan's government as now constituted and
administered.
A few days after this correspondence the fear of the Sultan seemed
to have vanished, and he was brave enough to refuse permission to
the Powers to send extra guardboats into the Bosphorus.
At this time it looked as if Sir Philip Currie, the British Ambassador,
would act alone, and that he really meant to force the passage of
the Dardanelles.
But the Sultan knew he would not dare to do it, and he knew also
that the Powers were not agreed to use force. England proved herself
impotent before the crafty diplomacy of the timid Sultan.
It is folly at this day to pretend to believe that the Sultan ever
intended of his "spontaneous good-will" to protect the Armenians even
as human beings from the cruelty of Kurd or Turkish officials.
The horrors of December and January give the lie direct to every
promise made at Constantinople. The Sultan had outwitted England,
if indeed England ever were in earnest, and by circulating a rumor
of a Turco-Russian alliance, most effectually checked all danger
of intervention by force--the only argument to which the Turk will
ever yield--and proceeded to commit yet greater crimes if that were
possible.
Under the very eyes of the Russian, English, and French delegates at
Moush, the witnesses who had the courage to speak the truth to the
representatives of the Powers were thrown into prison, and not a hand
was raised to protect them: and within a stone's throw of the foreign
consuls and the missionaries, loyal Armenians were being hung up by
the heels, the hair of their heads and beards plucked out one by one,
their bodies branded with red-hot irons, and defiled in beastly ways,
and their wives and daughters dishonored before their very eyes. And
all that philanthropic England has to offer its protégés, for whose
protection she holds Cyprus as a pledge, is eloquent sympathy.
She received Cyprus by secret convention, and now holds it as the price
of innocent blood. The rewards of iniquity are in her hand. It was
worse than folly; it was the refinement of cruelty to send a commission
to investigate the outrages in Armenia, thereby irritating the Turk
to the height of possible fury as his deeds were proclaimed to the
world and then leave him free to wreak his compressed wrath upon the
Christians for whose protection no hand would be uplifted. The Powers
saw Armenia in misery, bleeding, dying, and passed by on the other
side, saying, we are bound by the terms of the Berlin Treaty not to
interfere with Turkey in the administration of her domestic affairs;
we are sorry for you; we wish the Sultan would listen to our advice
and not be quite so severe in his chastisement, but really you must
have given him some cause for his anger.
Yes, such provocation as the lamb gave to the wolf that charged it with
soiling the water, though it was drinking much farther down the stream.
The humiliation of England as one of the Great Powers was complete
when in the House of Commons March 16th, in reply to questions that
were put to him Mr. Curzon Under Secretary of Foreign Affairs was
obliged to say that reports received by the Government confirmed
the statements that a great number of forced conversions from
Christianity to Islamism were still being made in Asia Minor. Under
the circumstances of cruelty and systematic debauchery of defenceless
Christian women through the devastated districts of Anatolia, he said,
the British Consuls in Asia Minor had been instructed to report such
cases, and representations in regard to them were constantly being
made to the Government in Constantinople.
Representations were constantly being made! What did the Porte
care for representations? How England was compelled to quaff the
contempt even of the Turk who laughs or sneers as his mood may be
over these representations of English Consuls and missionaries. The
Sublime Porte--which means the Sultan--cabled the Turkish Legation at
Washington to deny most emphatically the statements that appeared in
the American religious press regarding forcible conversions to Islam.
The Sublime Porte affirmed that "the stories related therein are mere
inventions of revolutionists, and their friends intended to attract
the sympathy of credulous people. There is no forcible conversion
to Islamism in Turkey and no animosity against Protestantism." This
is sublime impudence. The statements thus contradicted, represented
conditions certified to by official reports, by careful investigations
made by correspondents of newspapers in England and the United States,
and by hundreds of private letters from persons in the region where
the massacres occurred. Moreover, this declaration of the Sultan
is contradicted by centuries of Mohammedan history, by the ruins of
ancient churches throughout all Asia Minor and Mesopotamia, and by
daily prayer concerning the Christians:--
"Oh Allah make their children orphans, * * give them and their
families * * their women, their children, * * their possessions and
their race, their wealth and their lands as booty to the Moslems,
O Lord of all creatures."
The Softas are, properly speaking, the pupils who are engaged in the
study of Mussulman theology and law in the medresses, or schools
attached to the mosques, the range of their studies, however,
being practically limited to learning to read the Koran. The
Softas take their name from a corruption of the past-participle
soukhte--burned--applied to them because they are supposed to be
consumed by the love of study of sacred things, and devoted to a life
of meditation. The Softas follow their studies in the school building,
sleeping and eating at the imaretts, where free lodgings and food are
provided for them out of the legacies of the pious. If their families
can afford to do so, they furnish them with clothing and bedding; if
not, these are given to them from the same charitable fund. The number
of Softas is very large, for one reason because of their exemption
from military service. After long-continued study of Arabic, and the
Koran and its commentaries, the Softa, after an examination which,
though nominally arduous, is almost invariably passed successfully,
takes the title of Khodja.
The Khodja--khavadje, reader or singer--a scholar who has taken his
diploma in the medresse, teaches for several years, in fact till he
has conducted a class of Softas through the same course he had himself
taken, when, on application to the Ministry of Worship, at whose head
is the Sheikh-ul-Islam, and, after a severe examination, he receives
the title of Ulema. The Mussulman does not arrive at this dignity
until he has reached the age of thirty or thirty-five. It confers
numerous privileges, for those doctors escape military service, unless
in the event of the djihad, or sacred war, and from their ranks are
filled the Judgeships, the curacies (so to speak) of the mosques, the
professorships in the medresses, the trusteeships connected with the
administration of the trust funds for pious and charitable purposes,
etc., etc.
The Imaums--who are the real priests and have charge of the public
religious service--are selected from among the Ulema. The title
of Imaum comes from the Arabic, and is the equivalent of leader
or outpost. There is as a rule one Imaum to each mosque of minor
importance--messdjid--while two, or, at most, three, one of whom
is designated the chief authority, are appointed to the principal
mosques--djamis. Even the Ulema--the word is plural and signifies
wise men--are subject to military duty when a holy war is proclaimed.
The term Softa includes all the grades above mentioned, from the Imaum,
or priest, to the Softa proper, or mere students of the Koran. They
are usually distinguishable in Turkey by wearing a white turban around
their fez, or skull cap. Sultan Abdul Medjid some years ago endeavored
to induce his subjects to wear a European dress, and succeeded so
far that almost without exception every one except the very lowest
in the public service adopted it. But the Softas to a man retain the
old-fashioned baggy, slouchy dress which Abdul Medjid wished to get
rid of.
Who can believe that through fear of the uprising of a few thousand
Softas, the Sultan planned a fanatical uprising of the Kurds in
distant Armenia. How could that benefit the Softas save as it were
permitted them to beat, kill and plunder the Armenians in Stamboul?
If the fear of the Softas prompted it, still what a heartless wretch
to doom seventy-five thousand to death and hundreds of thousands to
starvation and outrage when to admit the fleets of Europe would have
protected him from any possible insurrection in Constantinople.
The Turkish Government itself was directly and actively responsible
for the outrages in Asia Minor; it not merely permitted, but actually
ordered them. But there was in Constantinople itself a most serious
conspiracy against the dynasty, which threatened to turn out the
Sultan and revolutionize the whole form of government. As a sort of
counter-irritant, which haply might cure this, the Government might
have indeed resorted to any extravagance or conduct elsewhere. More
than one monarch has begun a foreign war to quell disaffection
at home. Why should not the Porte think a general harrying of the
Armenians a ready way of allaying incipient disloyalty among the
Faithful?
This conspiracy was made by what was known as the Young Turkey
party. It included most of the Softas, and students in all colleges,
and many lawyers, doctors, officers of the army and navy, and even
civil servants of the Porte. Back of these were multitudes of the
general populace. There were many who denied Abdul Hamid's legal right
to be Sultan while his elder brother was living. There were others,
numbered by millions, who held that the Caliph must be an Arab and that
the Sultan was therefore not to be recognized as the true Commander
of the Faithful. Moreover, many, indeed all the leaders of Young
Turkey, demanded the carrying out of the Hatt of 1877, establishing
a Constitution and Parliament, and denounced the suppression of that
promised system as a gross breach of faith and wrong to the people
of the Empire. It may not be generally remembered; men's memories are
so short; but it is a fact that a constitutional government was once
officially proclaimed in Turkey. The plan was conceived by Midhat
Pasha, then Grand Vizier, and formally approved by the Sultan. A
Constitution was promulgated. A Parliament, consisting of a Senate and
an elective Assembly, was created, and its first session was opened
by Abdul Hamid in person on March 19, 1877. Later in the same year
its second session was opened, and the Sultan publicly declared that
the Constitution should thenceforth be the supreme law of the land,
in practice as well as in theory. But before the end of the year one
designing politician managed to get Parliament involved in a corrupt
job, and then, to avoid investigation, persuaded the Sultan to issue
a decree abrogating the Constitution and abolishing Parliament! It
was a coup d'état, and it was successful; thanks largely to the
indifference of the Powers, and especially of England.
The Young Turkey leaders demanded the restoration of the
Constitution. In order to accomplish that they proposed to get rid,
in some way, of the Sultan who first decreed and then abrogated that
instrument. There were threats of assassination, and something like
a reign of terror prevailed at Yildiz Kiosk. The Sultan took as many
precautions against treachery as ever did the Russian Czar. The man
who brought about the abolition of the Parliament by his rascality
was a cabinet minister. He, too, was threatened with death. The
strictest repression was practiced. The merest hint was enough to
cause a man's arrest and summary execution. But in spite of all,
the revolutionary movement grew. Mysterious placards appeared on the
walls, calling for fulfilment of the Hatt of 1877. The name of Midhat
Pasha, who suffered martyrdom for having given Turkey a Constitution,
was spoken now and then, in whispers only, but in tones of grateful
reverence. A whisper of "The Constitution," too, went round. Army
and navy were becoming secretly leavened with the idea. The Sultan
and his Ministers did not know whom to trust.
And now that we have seen what a fiasco this brilliantly projected
great naval demonstration proved itself to be; and how cleverly the
Sultan played his pawns against Castles and Kings and Queens, and
checkmated all the Powers of Europe, we will leave him in his hell
of infamy bathed in the blood of nearly a hundred thousand slain,
with the voices of agonized and outraged mothers and daughters
raining maledictions upon his accursed head, while we try to be
patient until the rod of the Almighty shall smite the wicked, till
the day of reckoning and of vengeance shall come in the day of the
Lord at hand. We leave the Sultan in his palace to the companionship,
perhaps the guidance, of Khalil Rifaat Pasha, the new Grand Vizier,
the voice of history and the righteous judgments of God, but as for
Islam, as a system of government over Christian populations, we can
but pray daily for its speedy, utter and final overthrow.