There are about two millions of Armenians in Armenia Proper, and
another million scattered through the rest of the empire. The absurd
figures given by some writers, making them greatly less than this (one
magazine editor got it down to 300,000! It is significant that he was
a strong apologist for the massacre, and laid all the blame to the
Armenians) result mostly from taking the official statistics of the
Turkish government. Now, there are three reasons why these are always
grossly wrong; of no more value than the weather predictions in an
almanac, and always wrong in the direction of understating the numbers.
One is that it is the Sultan's interest to make them as small as
possible, that the Armenians may not be considered to have the right
to autonomy as a nation; the fewer they are, and the more outnumbered
by the Turks, the less right they seem to have. "An independent
Armenia?" shriek the Turkish ministers and officers. "Why, there are
only a few hundred thousand Armenians in their so-called country, and
even so, there are three Turks to one Armenian in that very district!"
The second is that in an Oriental country a census is not a means
of knowledge but an engine of taxation. The ruler has no care for
information on the subject for his own sake, as Western governments
have. What he wants is to see how many people and in what places he
can screw more taxes out of. The people know this as well as he, and
use every effort to outwit his agents, and prevent them from knowing
their numbers. This is why even civilized governments ruling over
Oriental nations can rarely get any nearer than a rough guess at the
numbers of the nation; the inhabitants are suspicious, and resort to
falsehood. In the case of the Armenians, remember what I said in the
first chapter about an Armenian being taxed for every male child he
has, every year as long as the child lives; naturally, he will not
tell the number of his children unless he has to. Here is a practical
illustration. Some years ago I was in an Armenian village when the
Sultan's officers came to take the census. There were about 300 persons
in the village; the officer wrote 200, because only a few names of boys
were given him out of the whole. The tax is based on the registration,
and if you can keep off the registers you can escape the tax.
The third is the gross incompetence, the corruption, and the
drunkenness of the officers. The Turkish officials, governors,
mayors, clerks, generals, soldiers, all drink any sort of liquor
they can lay hands on, and are drunk as often and as long as sober;
they are so ignorant that they cannot do their work decently even
when they are sober; and they are utterly venal, without the least
sense of official obligation. What sort of a census is likely to be
taken by these ignorant, whiskey-swilling, venal barbarians? One of
these officials, whom I know well, once came to a village to take
the census. The Armenians got him so drunk that he barked like a dog,
bribed him, and he put down about half the number of the population.
How, then, do I know the correct number? From a knowledge of the
districts, the numbers of villages, and statistics resting on a better
foundation than the above. I do not pretend that the number is exact;
but it is near enough for practical purposes.
The Armenians in Turkey are divided into four classes. The first
comprises merchants and bankers. The second is the professional class:
physicians, professors, teachers, and preachers. The third is that
of artisans: weavers, blacksmiths, copper, silver, and gold smiths,
tailors, shoemakers, etc. The finest Oriental rugs are made by the
Armenians, and there are weavers of silk and cotton goods, and all
kinds of hand-made embroidery. There are no factories in Armenia. The
fourth class is that of farmers, a pure, simple, industrious class,
with beautiful farms, vineyards, and orchards, whose products I
have described.
One-tenth of all the Armenians in Turkey are in Constantinople. Many
of them are poor, in the nature of things; but the leading bankers,
merchants, and capitalists there are Armenians, surpassing even
the Greeks and Jews. I give a few representative names: Gulbenkian,
Essayian, Azarian, Mosditchian, Manougian, Oonjian. The physicians in
largest practice are Armenians: Khorassanjian, Mateosian, Dobrashian,
Vartanian, etc. The Sultan's personal treasurer is an Armenian,
Portukalian Pasha. The chief counselor in the foreign office
in Constantinople is an Armenian, Haroutiune Dadian Pasha. The
greatest lawyers are Armenians: Mosditchian, Tinguerian, etc. The
chief photographers of the Sultan are Armenians, Abdullah Brothers
and Sebah, the former considered one of the best photographic firms
in the world. The personal jeweler of the Sultan is an Armenian,
Mr. Chiboukjian. For all his hate of the Armenians, he has to employ
them, for no others are competent or trustworthy. The best musicians
are Armenians: Chonkhajian Surenian, Doevletian, and an Armenian young
lady named Nartoss, who often plays the piano before the Sultan. The
greatest orator in Constantinople is an Armenian and a professor in
Robert College, Prof. H. Jejizian, to my thinking, superior to either
Beecher, Wendell Phillips, or Robert Ingersoll, all of whom I have
heard. Finally, the Armenians, as a whole, form the best "society"
in Constantinople, and their modes of living, dress, houses, and
ways are precisely like those of Americans or Europeans. These are
Mavroyeni Bey's "Indians"!
Smyrna is a city of 150,000 or more population. About 80,000 are
Greeks; you may call it a Greek city. The Armenians there number about
8,000, or one-tenth of the Greeks, but are ten times richer than all
the Greeks together. The principal buildings are owned by Armenians;
the business is in the hands of the Armenians. The chief business men
are well-known in Europe. Mr. Balyivzian owns many steamers which ply
on the Mediterranean. Mr. Spartalian is another very rich and very
benevolent man; he built a magnificent hospital at Smyrna. In Samsoun,
Marsovan, Cesarea, Adana, Amassia, Tocat, Sivas, Harpoot, Mesere,
Malatia, Diarbekir, Arabkir, Oorfa, Aintab, Marash, Tarsus, Angora,
Erzeroun, Erzinghan, Moosh, Bitlis, Baiburt, Trebizond,--in a word,
everywhere it is the same. Go where you like in Turkey, you find the
Armenians at the top.
When I say they are the richest, I mean until early in 1894 they
were the richest. But now, in many cities of Armenia proper, since
the recent atrocities, they have become the poorest.
Leading citizens, and the fathers of families, for the reasons I have
mentioned, were specially singled out for vengeance. Their stores,
banks, and houses were plundered and then burnt, their money and
jewelry taken from them, and then they were murdered wholesale. Now
the Turks and the Kurds for a time are rich with Armenian property;
wearing the gold watches of Armenian gentlemen, their women wearing
the jewelry of Armenian ladies.