Who are the Armenians? The average American knows very little about
them, while few even of the educated classes have much knowledge of the
race or its history. Many people regard them as barbarians, partially
Christianized. Some think them of Chinese type; most often they are
considered as Turks because the chief portion of Armenia is part of the
Turkish Empire; every Armenian feels justly indignant at the latter
classification. The old story applies of the Irishman who refused to
consider himself an American though born in America, on the ground that
"being born in a stable did not make one a horse"; we know that the
Scotch and English in Ireland do not consider themselves Irish; we
know it would be worse than absurd to call the English children born
in India Hindoos. When the missionaries of the American Board first
went to Turkey, the people there supposed from the name American,
that they must be Indians, and crowded to see them out of curiosity,
but they were much surprised and probably somewhat disappointed when
they found them very like themselves. In the same way, being born in
Turkish Armenia does not make one a Turk. The Turks are one race, the
Armenians a totally different one, and different in the very foundation
type. The Turks are Turanian, the Armenians Aryan. The Turks belong
to the Turko-Tataric stock; they are kinsmen of the Tartars.
The primal origin of the Armenians will be found in Genesis,
Chapter 10,--from Togarmah, the son of Gomer, the son of Japheth;
the Armenians are sometimes called the Sons of Togarmah. Togarmah
had a son named Haig (the Armenian records tell us), and Armenians
call themselves Haigian or Haigazian from him; and the land of
Armenia is called Hayasdan or the land of Haig. He was a powerful
warrior and the founder of the Armenian Kingdom, which began 2350
B.C., and ended with Levon VI., 1375 A.D.; thus lasting 3725 years,
though with intervals of extinction. Their own kings did not always
reign in Armenia; sometimes other nations ruled over it; by way of
compensation, sometimes the Armenians ruled over other nations. The
people never call themselves Armenians, or their country Armenia;
they use the name simply for the sake of foreigners. But where did the
name come from? Of course as with many very old ones, the origin is
somewhat a matter of guesswork. Some derive it from the great King,
Aram, the seventh from Haig; some from Armerag or Armen, the eldest
son of Haig,--the more probable supposition of the two; still others
connect it with the Hebrew Aram (Aramea), the district of Mesopotamia
and North Syria, and derive both from a word meaning "man," most old
names of nations having meant that originally. Whatever its origin,
it is certain that the Armenians are a very ancient nation,--as
ancient as the Assyrians or Persians.
The people belong to the stock formerly known as Japhetic, later as
Caucasian (from the Caucasus Mountains on the north of Armenia), then
as Indo-European, now as Aryan; the most advanced type of mankind,
and the most physically beautiful. And what are the people of the
United States? Hamitic or Negroid? Of course not. Semitic (Arab,
Jew)? Certainly not. They are Japhetic or Aryan too--exactly the same
as the Armenians. Indeed, the type of face is the same, and the type
of character. The Armenians are often called the Anglo-Saxons of the
East; they are the same blood, features, religion, and civilization
as those of the West, and are true brothers and sisters, though the
opportunities of the latter have been greater; however, the ancestors
of the former were Christians in Asia before those of the latter were
in Europe, and they kept the mother land faithfully while the others
ran away.