Where is Armenia? It seems a simple question, yet during my lecturing
in the United States I have met far more people who did not know than
who did. That is natural enough, for until the late horrors, it seemed
little more than a name of old history, of no present importance; but
there is a further reason. The present Sultan forbids the use of the
name altogether, and insists on the district being termed Kurdistan,
or called by the names of its vilayets, Diarbekr, Van, Erzroom,
etc. Many maps do not have the name Armenia at all. A few years ago,
when the missionaries of the American Board were organizing the college
at Harpoot, now so bloodily famous, they named it Armenia College;
but the Sultan forbade it on the ground that there was no longer an
Armenia, and the use of the name would encourage the Armenians [1] to
revolt. The missionaries were forced to change the name to Euphrates
College. If any Turkish subject uses the word, he is fined and
imprisoned; if it is used in any book, the book is confiscated, and the
author banished or killed. The study of Armenian history is forbidden
to the Armenians; they must be kept in ignorance about their own land,
so that many of them do not know where Armenia was or what Armenia
is. A letter directed to any person or place in Armenia will never
reach its destination; for the Turkish postal authorities recognize
no such address. There is still another cause for the widespread
ignorance concerning Armenia. It has been partitioned between three
different powers, Turkey, Russia, and Persia. The northern part, from
Batoum on the Black Sea to Baku on the Caspian,--the river Araxes being
the boundary to near Mt. Ararat,--belongs to Russia; the southeastern
course of the Araxes from near Mt. Ararat, to Persia; the largest and
most fertile part, the western, from Mt. Ararat to the Black Sea and
the Kizil-Irmak to Turkey. But at the time of its greatest extent and
power, when its people were great and its kings were great, long before
Alexander's conquest,--Armenia covered about 500,000 square miles,
and stretched from the Black Sea and the Caucasus on the north to
Persia, and Syria on the south, from the Caspian and a much smaller
Persia on the east, to Cilicia and far beyond the Halys (Kizil-Irmak)
on the west, but including also old Media and a part of Mesopotamia.
It is one of the most picturesque of countries; travelers call it
the Switzerland of Asia. Its general character is that of a plateau
some 4,000 feet above the sea, a natural garden watered by noble
streams and studded with beautiful lakes; but the mountain ranges
are 7,000 to 8,000 on the average, while that historic land-mark,
the superb snow-capped Mt. Ararat, is about 18,000,--towering toward
Heaven nearly in the center of Armenia, piercing and ruling over the
clouds and the storms.
Armenia is the mother land, the cradle of humanity, and all other
lands are her daughters; but she is fairer than any other. Even her
mountain tops of perpetual snow are a crown of glory; the sun kisses
her brow with the smile of morning; and she supplies the beautiful
rivers, Euphrates, Tigris, Pison, Araxes, and many others from the
jewels of her crown. These rivers penetrate to every corner of the
land; traverse many hundreds of miles to give life to the fields,
the vineyards, and the orchards, to turn the mills, and finally close
their course in the Caspian Sea, the Black Sea, and the Gulf of Persia,
carrying the bounty and good-will messages of the mother land to her
children in remote parts, to Persia, India, and Russia. From the same
inexhaustible reservoir she feeds her noble lakes; Sevan (Gokche),
Urumiah, Van and the rest. Lake Sevan is the only sweet-water lake;
the others are salt. The most important is Lake Van, probably the
most elevated of any large-sized lake in the world; it is 5,400 feet
above sea level, and its area is 1,400 square miles. A few words from
the author's respected teacher, Professor Philip Schaff, will not
be amiss. Schaff's Bible Dictionary, page 68, "Physical Features of
Armenia," says: "It is chiefly an elevated plateau about 7,000 feet
above the level of the sea, the highest peak being Mt. Ararat. The
lower portions of the plateau are broken by valleys and glens,
including the fertile valleys of the Euphrates and Tigris. It is
watered by four large streams, the Araxes, the Kur, the Euphrates,
and the Tigris; also by numerous lakes, one of the largest, the salt
Lake Van, being over 5,400 feet above the sea."