In the early days of August, 1914, when civilized nations took up arms
against the German aggression, only three of the smaller nations of
Europe and the Near East had the courage, from the very first days of
the war, to stand by the Allies without any bargaining or dickering, and
they still stand at their posts on the ramparts, in spite of the immense
sacrifices they have already made.
The first member of this heroic triad was brave Serbia, which was the
first victim of Austrian aggression, and whose sons, after four years of
heroic struggle, are about to regain their lost native land. The second
member was little Belgium, whose three weeks of heroic resistance
delayed the German advance of 1914 and enabled gallant France to crown
with success the historic battle of the Marne. The third member of this
heroic triad was the Armenian people, who for four years and without an
organized government or a national army, played the same role in the
Near East by preventing the Turco-German advance toward the interior of
Asia as the Belgians played in the West by arresting the march of
Germany toward Paris. The Armenians, however, paid a higher price to the
God of War than either the Belgians or the Serbs. Out of four and
one-quarter millions of Armenians living in Turkey and Russia at the
beginning of the war, scarcely three millions remain at the present
time. What were the conditions under which the Armenians sided with the
Allies, and why were they forced to bear so great a sacrifice for their
cause?