The refinement of cruelty appears in this, that the Turkish
government has attempted to cover up its hideous policy by the
most colossal lying and hypocrisy. It is true that on Sept. 30,
1895, some hot-headed young Armenians, contrary to the entreaties
of the Armenian patriarch and the orders of the police, attempted
to take a well-worded petition to the Grand Vezir, according
to a time-honored custom. It is also true that the oppressed
mountaineers of Zeitoon drove out a small garrison of Turkish
soldiers, whom, however, they treated with humanity; it is likewise
true that in various places individual Armenians, in despair,
have advocated violent methods. But the universal testimony of
impartial foreign eye-witnesses is that, with the above exceptions,
the Armenians have given no provocation, and that almost, if not
quite, all the telegrams purporting to come from the provincial
authorities accusing the Armenians with provoking the massacres,
are sheer fabrications of names and dates. If the Armenians made
attacks, where are the Turkish dead?
And the dreadful alternative of Islam or death was offered by
those who have dazzled and deceived Europe with Hatti Shereps
and Hatti Humayouns, promulgating civil equality and religious
liberty for their Christian subjects.
Strangest of all, he who is the head of all authority in Turkey,
and responsible above any and all others for the cold-blooded
massacres and plundering of the past two months, wrote a letter to
Lord Salisbury, and pledged his word of honor that the scheme of
reforms should be carried out to the letter, at the very moment
when he was directing the massacres. And the six great Christian
powers of Europe, as well as the United States, still treat this
man with infinite courtesy and deference; their representatives
still dine at his tables, and some of them still receive his
decorations.