GENERAL SITUATION IN 1894.
Terrible Oppression--Exaggerated Reports--Truth Stranger Than
Fiction--Religious Liberty Infringed Upon--Oppressive School
Laws--Rigorous Censorship--General Effort of the Government to
Suppress Christian Development.
The situation in the summer of 1894 throughout the empire was one
bordering on anarchy. From every section of the country came word of
the most atrocious treatment by the Turkish Government of its Christian
subjects. Taxes were imposed in a way that in the already impoverished
condition of the country was simply ruinous. The effect of the action
of the revolutionists in Marsovan had been to arouse very bitter
feeling against them on every hand and to create an impression, even
among those favorable to the nation, that they were chiefly responsible
for the situation. At the same time reports were sent to the European
papers of the most thrilling type. Some of these were true, most were
based upon truth, but there was not a little exaggeration in details.
Great excitement was aroused by the publication in the English
papers of a detailed statement furnished by the Vienna correspondent
of the _Daily News_ as to the treatment of Armenian prisoners in
Central Asia Minor. According to this, hundreds of them were cast into
prison, stripped of their clothes and tortured in the most diabolical
manner. While men were beaten, women were outraged in the presence
of their husbands and fathers, and general atrocities committed that
surpassed in horror those of the invasions of the Goths and Huns.
Careful investigation showed that while these charges were in some
sense correct, the impression made by them in general was often false.
In one case the hundreds dwindled to twenty-eight, and while there was
outrage enough to stir the indignation of every righteous man, there
was exaggeration enough to enable the Turkish Government to represent
that these stories were based upon a general desire to create trouble.
Instances innumerable might be given of the methods adopted with regard
to individuals. A few must suffice. An intelligent Armenian physician
had been practicing for some years in one of the cities in Central Asia
Minor. He had a good reputation, and both Greeks and Turks as well as
Armenians patronized him and urged him to accept the office of city
physician. With some reluctance he yielded. A petition was sent to
Constantinople and he was appointed. He found the drinking water of the
city polluted by the proximity of slaughter-houses and water closets
to the water course. He reported the case to the local government in
accordance with his duty as health officer. As nothing was done by
them he appealed to the Governor-General of the province, but without
any result. Then, following out strict orders from Constantinople
with regard to the prevention of cholera, he reported to the health
department at Constantinople and the headquarters of the army corps
of the district. The Governor-General thereupon received a reprimand,
and in great anger summoned the physician to the capital of the
province. A request to go to his home for warmer clothing, for it was
in mid-winter, was met with stern refusal, and a police force of twenty
men with an officer at their head dragged him through the markets and
the streets for more than half a mile, to the outskirts of the city,
where he lay for half an hour unconscious. When he recovered he was
placed upon a horse, but he could not sit up, and was tied to his back.
The governor, in great rage, said that he should not be allowed to live
in the province at all. Requests of people from another city that he
come there, were not granted.
As another illustration, a photographer of one city presented the usual
charge for some pictures made on the order of an official. The governor
summoned him, and roared out, “Are not you one of those local Armenians
that I can make rot?” So terrified was the poor man that he was glad to
slink away and say nothing about pay.
These are but illustrations of what was done over the whole empire by
the order of high officials, until there became a veritable reign of
terror, and no man felt his life or property, or the honor of his wife
and daughter safe, in any interior city, town or village. Perhaps,
however, the most forcible setting forth of the situation is found in a
statement not in regard to the ordinary brutality of officials, or the
rapacity of Kurds. It had become more and more evident that there was a
general plan of the government to intensify by its oppression, as much
as possible, the recognition on the part of the Christians of their
absolute subordination to Moslems. In response to a special request
from the British ambassador, a statement was drawn up by persons
thoroughly well-posted in regard to the general condition, and from
that statement are taken in considerable degree the facts that follow.
One of the glories of the administration of Abdul Medjid was the Hatti
Humayoun of 1856, the charter of liberty and equality to the Christians
of Turkey. This has already been referred to in preceding chapters,
and needs no further description here, except to recall the statement
that its aim was the carrying into effect of the principle of equality
between the Mussulmans and non-Mussulmans of the empire. During the
remainder of the reign of Abdul Medjid, and to a considerable extent
during that of Abdul Aziz, this principle had been followed.
Soon after the treaty of Berlin, however, there became manifest a
tendency to displace Christians by Moslems in responsible posts in
every department of government in Asiatic Turkey. Some still remained,
for the reason that there were practically no Moslems competent to fill
the positions. Administrative offices were even still to some extent
occupied by Armenians or Greeks, but their number had been increasingly
small. At the time of which we are speaking, 1894, there was in the
Council of State, to which the administration of the interior provinces
belongs, but one Christian member, notwithstanding the fact that
measures affecting the vital interests of the Christian population
were daily subjects for consideration. So also the High Council of
the Ministry of Public Instruction, specially directed by the Hatti
Humayoun to be a mixed council, had but one non-Moslem member, although
it decided upon the interests of all Christian schools in the country.
The Superior Council of Censorship had also a very insignificant
proportion of non-Moslem members, notwithstanding the fact that by far
the greatest number of books for Christians either published in Turkey
or imported from without were by Protestants. Although the proportion
of readers of books in the Protestant communities was far greater
than in any other, there was not a single Protestant on this council,
or indeed in any high council or responsible position under the
government. One result of this was seen in the absurd laws passed by
the Board of Censors with regard to the introduction and publication of
books. Instances of this kind could be given in numbers; thus the word
_Armenia_ was stricken out of every book. A translation of the hymn--
“The children are gathering from near and from far,
The trumpet is sounding the call for the war,”
was forbidden as being revolutionary, and even a number of English hymn
books were detained for weeks and months by the Board of Censors, in
the search for the English version of this same hymn.
One of the special points in the Hatti Humayoun was the suppression
of the ancient custom of making the police agents collectors of taxes.
This had given rise to grave abuses. Little by little the usage was
restored and finally, in the summer of this year, an imperial edict set
aside the work of that charter, by appointing the police throughout
the country to be tax-collecting agents, with a system of rewards to
those officers who should succeed best in collecting money. Torture and
capital punishment were absolutely forbidden by this same charter, yet
in the trials in regard to the disturbances at Angora, in 1893, and at
Yuzgat, in 1894, torture of the most inhuman character was extensively
used in order to force men to testify according to the orders of the
officials. An Armenian at Marsovan was flogged until his back was raw
flesh, to force him to sign a declaration that certain Americans were
plotting with Armenians an insurrection. An Armenian blacksmith, in the
province of Angora, was made insane by the torture inflicted on him in
prison.
Residents in Constantinople and throughout the empire in the early
years of the century had been accustomed to hear the most opprobrious
epithets used to them by Turks of every grade. Under the influence of
Abdul Medjid and the Hatti Humayoun this diminished greatly, and as a
consequence the social relations grew more and more friendly. During
the five years previous to 1894, however, a marked change was noticed
everywhere throughout the empire. There was far more of brutality in
the treatment of individuals; there was an increasing lack of regard
for the customs of the Christians. The governor of Nicomedia, only
sixty miles from Constantinople, ordered a leading Christian merchant
of that place to open his shop for business on Sunday. On his refusal
to do that which his religion forbade, this same officer publicly and
abominably reviled the religion that taught him such a thing. He then
struck the merchant in the face and tried by fierce threats to compel
him to “obey the orders of an officer of the Sultan.” In the province
of Erzrum some soldiers came to a village on Sunday and demanded sacks
to carry grain. They were requested to wait until the close of the
service when the sacks would be furnished. They however entered the
church, bawled out to the preacher to stop the service, and even drew
their swords upon the men who sought to quiet this interruption. An
officer of a Christian community in another city had occasion to go
to police headquarters for a document. He was met with a torrent of
unspeakably vile abuse of himself and the most sacred things of his
religion. There were a large number of officers and privates of the
police present, but not one remonstrated. In no case was there any
possibility of redress, although twenty years before, punishment would
have been accorded promptly to the offending officers.
With regard to the general treatment of the Christian peasants in the
districts of Eastern Turkey, it is impossible to give anything like an
adequate conception of the situation. Not merely were the villagers
subject to open robbery by the Kurds, but to the scarcely less ruinous
extortion carried on by the lower government officials. The outrages
carried on by Kurds under their new semi-military organization, had
given occasion to petition after petition to the Central Government.
No attention, however, was paid to them, and in 1893 orders were sent
from Constantinople forbidding the transmission of any more petitions
against these regiments. But it was not merely the Kurds that the
people had to fear. Reference has already been made to the Circassians
that were brought in in such numbers from the Caucasus. They had spread
themselves over Western Asia Minor, and while at first less bold
became, during the five years under special survey, so arrogant that no
Christian farmer could hope to hold his property if it pleased the eye
of one of these men. A general survey of the whole situation leaves the
inevitable impression of a plan officially adopted to wage an indirect
war upon the whole Christian population by crushing them, reducing them
to poverty, and to clear them off from the face of the land in order to
replace them by a Moslem population.
That this plan was a general one against all non-Moslems is evidenced
by the fact that the oppression and the injustice was by no means
confined to the Armenian villages and towns. The Greek villages
suffered only in a secondary measure, while the Christian population of
Mesopotamia suffered fully as much. In _The Independent_ of New York,
in the issue of January 17th, 1895, was published a long statement as
to the exactions made upon the various villages by the Kurdish chiefs
and also by the government officials. The following is an illustration
of the latter. During the summer of 1894 the government demanded back
taxes from a certain village to a large amount, which according to
the villagers had no foundation in justice. They had already been
impoverished and had no means of paying the tax. Under very heavy
pressure from the government, however, they raised a part of the sum
by mortgaging their fields and future crops, leaving a balance which
they absolutely could not pay. Driven to desperation by the soldiers,
who insisted upon collecting the taxes, they entirely deserted their
village and fled to the mountains. After some months the government
endeavored to induce them to return, and promised redress for their
wrongs. When however they did return, still increased pressure was
brought to bear upon them to secure money. In a number of villages
the people were literally bought as slaves. In some cases the food
supply, beds, household utensils, farmers’ implements were seized by
the collectors in lieu of taxes. These collectors then made false
returns of taxes received, and when the new officials came, using the
incomplete reports of their predecessors they again collected the
taxes, entailing much suffering.
In still further proof of the statement that the situation was the
result of a general plan for the suppressing of the Christians,
attention should be called to a series of facts with regard to
aggressions upon specific religious liberty. Before 1856, an imperial
firman (permit) had been required for all Christian churches, and
worship in any others than those indorsed by the Imperial Government
was absolutely forbidden. After that date the Hatti Humayoun recognized
the right of all people to worship as they saw fit; and while the
construction of churches was especially referred for authorization
by imperial firman, the right to read the Testament, as worship was
called, in private dwellings was fully acknowledged.
From that time until 1891, this liberty was enjoyed throughout the
country. When it became a question of the erection of a large church
to be consecrated for divine service, the imperial permit was always
secured. But there were many cases in smaller villages and towns, and
even in cities, where the community was not large enough to warrant
an expensive building, where the people gathered in a room in a
private house. This served for service on Sunday and sometimes on week
days; also for private schools, and meantime was in many instances
a dwelling place for the family of the preacher or teacher. It was
not until 1891 that the Sublime Porte questioned for the first time
officially the right of Christians to conduct worship in this way in
private houses. In the following year an edict was issued which took
advantage of the fact that in certain cases worship was conducted
in the same room as private schools, and basing its claim upon the
recognized law that schools were under general imperial supervision,
decreed the suppression of worship in schools not formally authorized
and found to be without permits after a stipulated time. When objection
was made to this, the reply was that this was a technical measure,
bringing existing places of worship under regular forms, and promising
that permits would be issued promptly on application. As a matter of
fact several permits were thus issued. But two years later a new move
was made in this same direction and a number of places of Protestant
worship throughout Asiatic Turkey were suppressed, under the claim
that no worship at all could be carried on in any building that had
not received specific authorization by imperial firman. The situation
was explained by a provincial official as follows: “Every place where
a Christian says his prayers is reckoned as a church, and a church
cannot exist without an imperial firman.” The result of this was that
there were numerous cases all over the country, not merely in the
interior, but in Constantinople and in Syria, where the Protestants
were prohibited from worship.
One case deserves special note. For many years the Protestant
community in Stamboul, or the city proper of Constantinople, had
worshipped in a private house under the general permit accorded in
1856. That building became unsafe through age and a new one was
desired. Petition after petition was made, and every conceivable
pretext, and many that seemed absolutely inconceivable, was brought
forward to prevent their securing the right to worship. Similar
instances occurred in Sidon, in Syria, others in the provinces of
Trebizond, Harput, Angora and Adana. In the city of Ordu, not far from
Trebizond, where there was a large Protestant community, effort after
effort was made to secure a building, and one was at last obtained
after repeated applications. Objections, however, were made by local
Greek priests, and the Turkish Government took advantage of this and
stopped the worship. It thus became notorious that the government would
take advantage of every pretext of whatever kind, whether of hostility
on the part of local magnates or of what they considered general
welfare, to check so far as possible the spread of Christian worship.
Of course the regularly authorized churches were not disturbed, whether
belonging to Armenians, Greeks, Jacobites or Protestants.
What is perhaps a still more marked instance of this is found in the
action with regard to schools. According to the Hatti Humayoun the
various communities were authorized to open schools and in the circular
that attended the promulgation of the edict it was said:
“In regard to schools created and erected by the communities, the
most absolute liberty is left to them by the Imperial Government,
which never intervenes save to prevent in cases of necessity the
confiding of the direction of these schools to persons whose
principles are notoriously hostile to the authority of the Imperial
Government or contrary to public order.”
For twenty-eight years this liberty was fully enjoyed by the various
Christian communities. The result was the springing up of a system of
education over the whole country that changed in many respects the
character of the various communities. The dominant cause for this is
set forth in another chapter, that on mission work, and need not be
explained here further than to say that the impulse was given by the
American and English missionaries, but was cordially followed out by
Armenian, Greek, Maronite, Bulgarian and other Christian communities,
and had its effect even upon the Moslems themselves. In Syria in 1882,
and throughout the empire in 1884, the government suddenly commenced
to suppress Christian schools on the ground of lack of conformity to
the school law of 1867. This was news to all. But on examination it
was found that in an obscure paragraph preceded and followed by matter
relating solely to the organization of a governmental system, there was
a single clause touching what are known as private schools. According
to this these are permitted on condition that the course of study,
the books used, and the diplomas of the teachers be submitted for the
approval of the local authorities. For fifteen years this had been
held in abeyance, and was absolutely unknown until some thirty schools
were closed in Syria for disobedience of it. Then followed a series of
negotiations, which resulted in a declaration by the Minister of Public
Instruction that existing Christian schools would not be molested if
they submitted to control in the three points mentioned. Throughout
the country there was general submission to this control, but on
application for permits, the statement was uniformly made that they
could be given to none but new schools.
This again blocked the way. Three years later a large number were
closed for lack of permits. Then followed renewed negotiations; and
a vizerial order was issued in 1889, confirming the declaration of
the Minister of Public Instruction. Again three years later the edict
referred to was issued, ordering the closing of all schools and places
of worship which did not obtain formal permits within a specified time,
though it was left to the will of the officials to issue or refuse the
permits. The situation was then somewhat alleviated, but the next year
a new difficulty arose. The local authorities claimed that the permits
required were not those of the Department of Public Instruction but
an imperial firman, and in 1894, the Sublime Porte declared that no
school of any kind could exist without an imperial firman. Stringent
orders were issued laying heavy penalties upon officials who neglected
to close schools without permits. Teachers were forbidden to allow
addresses to be made to scholars or to have essays read by scholars
at public festivals without first submitting both to the censorship.
No private house occupied by an authorized Christian school was to
be repaired except by special order from Constantinople; houses or
building lots could not be purchased by English, American or French
subjects without a bond promising that the buildings should be razed to
the ground if worship or schools were at any time established in them.
The inevitable result of this was to fill the provincial authorities
with the idea that the Ottoman Government was hostile to Christian
educational institutions.
Another illustration was the requirement by a decree issued in this
same year that all Christian schools were to give considerable
instruction in the Turkish language. Such an edict inevitably closed
the schools in Damascus, in Mesopotamia and in certain portions of
Asia Minor, where neither teachers nor scholars knew that language.
About the same time there came to light the influence of a law issued
in 1892, organizing an Imperial Civil Service school, which forbade
the employment in government bureaus of any one graduating from other
than government schools. Thus again a blow was struck at the higher
education in Christian schools throughout the country.
In the same line with this was the action of the government with
regard to censorship of the press and of books, whether those printed
in the country or imported from abroad. Immediately following 1856,
there was considerable freedom of action in this particular. While
there was a general supervision of everything that was either printed
or imported into the empire, there was manifest an inclination to trust
to the honor of reputable publishers and importers. Occasionally there
was transgression, but as a rule by private individuals. The large
societies or printing houses invariably sought to accord absolutely to
the law, even where they found it extremely irksome. With the advent
of the present Sultan, however, a change became manifest. Constantly
increasing restrictions were placed. Law after law regulating the
sale and publishing of books was issued, each more stringent than its
predecessor. No book was allowed to be printed without carrying on
its title page the permit of the Bureau of Censors, and no book was
allowed to be imported without the stamp of the censors. Considerable
negotiation in this regard resulted in a plan, which while irksome was
not really injurious, and it was thought that everything would move
rightly.
Soon, however, it became evident that still more restrictions were
to be enforced. The existing law was interpreted in the most absurd
ways. As an illustration; a colporteur started out from the city of
Erzrum to carry his books through the villages. He was stopped at the
gate of the city by the police. He showed his traveling passport and
stated that all his books had the permit of the official board of
censors. The officer would accept nothing and insisted upon his going
to the government house. There his books were placed in a room and he
was told to come after a few days. He came but there was no reply;
there had been no time to examine the case. He came again, and at last
by persistence secured the examination by the proper officer. This
examination showed conclusively that everything was according to law,
and the colporteur was permitted to go. He started again to the gate of
the city, and found a new officer on duty. He was again arrested and
sent back to the government house. Again there was a delay, until the
same officer’s attention could be secured. This thing happened several
times and several weeks passed before the man could go on his way.
Instances innumerable of this kind could be given from all over the
country.
The last law gave a list of subjects on which all publications were
absolutely prohibited, so broad that any official might if he chose,
exclude from this province all Christian literature. Any censor in the
capital or in the interior provinces might reject a book if a single
sentence in it appeared of doubtful meaning, and severe penalties upon
the importation, sale, distribution or even transportation of any book
which had not received the censors’ approval, were applied not merely
to dealers but to private owners. The result of this was that again and
again individuals were severely punished for having in their possession
technically unauthorized books; that is, such as had been published
before the existence of these later laws. The effect of this is seen
in the fact that throughout the interior provinces of the empire it
has been of late almost impossible to find any books at all, and the
children of fairly educated parents are growing up in ignorance.
But the animus of the law was seen not only in its application to the
interior provinces, but to the private libraries of foreigners, and
to the local press in the border cities. In few countries has there
been a greater newspaper development than in certain parts of Turkey.
In Constantinople, there are a large number of daily papers in every
language, Turkish, Armenian, Greek, French, English, Italian, Spanish,
Judæo-Spanish (for the large number of Spanish Jews), Bulgarian, Arabic
and others. Over every one of these papers there was exercised the
most rigid censorship; not merely local news, but foreign news was
subjected to the most careful examination, and any item of any kind,
that did not meet with the approval of the officers, was remorselessly
stricken out. More than that, every paper was compelled under penalty
of instant suppression, to publish every item that the government saw
fit to issue to it. The effect of this is seen in the statements in
connection with the massacres. No statement of any kind with regard to
these massacres was allowed, until they became so notorious that it
was simply impossible to absolutely prevent them. Then the government
issued official statements so utterly false, that not even the Turks
themselves would believe them. The following paragraphs, from the paper
referred to above, illustrate very fully the nature of many of these
restrictions:
“The censorship of foreign religious and literary works is so
stringent as to deprive the Christians in Turkey of the ordinary
means of keeping in touch with the advancement of knowledge among
their co-religionists abroad. Such classics of English literature,
for instance, as Shakespeare, Byron, Milton, Scott, are refused
authorization. So with the higher literature of any language. No
standard History, no Encyclopedia, no treatise on metaphysics of any
extended character, no full and extended theology or commentary on the
Bible, can pass the censorship for introduction into the interior of
Turkey. And if any minister or teacher, anxious to fill well his place,
ventures to smuggle such books through or to possess the rudiments of
a library, he is certain sooner or later to fall under the notice of
the paid spy, and then must submit to the condemnation for the crime
which the authorities choose to consider to be ‘incited’ by the history
or theological work concerned. The effect of the refusal to admit the
standard works of Christendom, in keeping teachers of Christian schools
in Turkey down to the level of the primary school, need not be enlarged
upon.
“The censorship of books published within the empire is still more
rigorous, no longer professing to confine itself to politics or to
polemics in religion, but taking hold of and mutilating books designed
for the religious instruction and encouragement of Christians. It is
conceivable that here Mohammedan censors might defend their right
to prohibit, as they do, the publication in Turkish, where Moslems
might see them, of the noble works which have been the inspiration
and the comfort of Christians in all ages. But it is not conceivable
that justification can be found in the case of interference with the
publication of such books, printed, not in Arabic letters that Moslems
use, but in the Christian alphabets which no Mohammedan can read. Yet
the Christian, anxious to aid his fellow-Christians to lead noble and
useful lives, may not publish articles in his own religious newspapers,
which contain, for instance, the quotation of texts of Scripture.
These are commonly prohibited either on the plea that the texts are
not suitable for the common people, or because they contain words
which are forbidden, and cannot be altered by the publisher because
they are the words of the Bible. For instance, a text which alludes to
rising from the dead may not be used because the verb ‘to rise’ in some
other context might mean something else. Any passage from the Bible
is prohibited which contains any of the following words: Persecution,
courage, liberty, strength, rights, union, equality, star (in astronomy
one has to use the word ‘luminary’ instead), king, palace, arms,
bloodshed, tyranny, hero, etc., etc. In fact these words are prohibited
in religious articles in any context whatever. A Christian religious
newspaper may not place before its readers a hymn or other poetry, and
from the hymn books used in Christian worship many of the grand old
hymns of the Church have been expunged, and the suppression sustained
after appeal to the highest authority of the Porte. A Christian
writer addressing Christians who know only Turkish, in the Turkish
language, is constantly forbidden to use words of purely religious
signification which are the words used in the Bible and the only ones
known to the people to express a given idea, because the idea is held
by the censor to belong to Mohammedanism alone. Of such are ‘the
guiding grace of God;’ forbidden, because Moslems do not admit that
Christians can have this grace. ‘Good news,’ the literal translation
used in the Bible of the Greek word ‘Evangelion,’ commonly rendered
in English as the Gospel. The use of this word is prohibited, because
Moslems do not admit that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is ‘good news.’
‘Apostle’ (resoul) is a word found in everyday Turkish law in its
sense of messenger. It is prohibited in the Christian newspaper press,
because it implies that the Apostles of Jesus Christ were sent of God,
which Moslems deny. The same prohibition, for Mohammedan religious
reasons, lies upon the use, in Christian religious books or religious
newspapers, of references to our Saviour as ‘the Saviour of the world’
or to his shedding his blood for the cleansing from sin.
“But aside from these interferences, the censors refuse to allow
certain subjects of religious discourse to be presented to Christians.
Thus the virtues of manliness, of moral courage, or resignation under
affliction, of hope in God under adversity, are all subjects concerning
which Christian religious books may not speak to Christians. The same
is true of exhortations to benevolence, of practical suggestions to
Christians as to means of copying Jesus Christ in doing good to others,
of suggestions of Christian evangelistic work among the ignorant and
degraded of the Christian communities, and of reference to Christian
missions and their operations in other parts of the world.
“Besides all this, Protestant ministers are molested in their
services when they preach upon these normal themes of their religion.
The Protestant pastor of Yuzgat was expelled from the place for no
other offence. The Protestant pastor at Sungurlu was compelled to
leave that town for preaching on the resurrection from the dead. The
Protestant pastor from Gemerek is undergoing imprisonment in the
fortress of St. Jean d’Acre for no other offence, to judge from the
evidence produced at his trial. The Protestant pastor at Chakmak, near
Cesarea, has just been thrown into prison; and those who know his
law-abiding and sterling character, assure us that his efforts to lead
his flock into closer adherence to Bible Christianity are his only
crime. Protestant pastors everywhere declare that they are compelled,
in choosing texts from the Bible, and in framing their exhortations
upon them, to hesitate, and paraphrase, and weigh words, through fear
that if they speak of the consolations of Christianity, they will
be charged with encouraging discontent; if they urge resistance to
sin, they will be condemned for suggesting resistance to the Turkish
Government; or if they speak of the demand of Christianity for pure and
noble character, they will be charged with inciting men to unlawful
aspirations. On complaint being made of such restrictions upon the
legitimate instruction of Christians, officials in high position
have answered that while provincial governors are constantly sending
extracts from the Bible to prove the necessity of suppressing that
book, Christians should be grateful for the privilege of being allowed
to have the Bible, instead of complaining at being restricted in
making or publishing comments upon it. Yet when there has been removed
from the instruction of Christians all reference to the requirements
of Christianity for practical benevolent living and to its abundance
of assurances of the Divine aid in adversity and of the rewards of
resignation, and to the proofs of its power which are found in the
experiences of the Church universal in different parts of the world,
much has been done to prevent Christians from knowing the worth or
experiencing the effects of their own religion in their own hearts.”
It might be said that this whole question of restriction of worship,
schools and the press, is looked at from the distinctively Turkish
standpoint, and the claim made that the government legitimately sought
to protect the Moslems from being infected with Christian ideas. The
answer to this is found in the fact that the restrictions did not by
any means apply merely to publications in the Arabic character, such as
is used by all Moslems, but to publications which no Moslem ever could
or would read, in the Armenian or Greek characters, or even in foreign
languages. In the same line is the fact that attacks upon Christianity
were freely allowed by the Turkish Government, while replies from
Christians were distinctly forbidden. These Moslem attacks were full
of the most scurrilous statements and contemptuous epithets, and were
so maliciously false as to almost overshoot their mark. Still the
authors of these works were decorated by the Sultan himself, and every
effort was made to give to them the widest possible circulation. So,
also, in the Turkish newspapers, attacks after attacks were made upon
the Christian subjects of the Sultan, to which absolutely no reply was
allowed. The paper closes with the following summary:--
“To review the case, we find an increasing stringency in Turkey
directed against Christian education, an increasing tendency to
hinder Christian worship, an increasing hostility to the use of books
by the Christians of Turkey, which result in actually crippling the
intellectual powers of men who would carry their culture along the
lines of the best thought of Christendom. We find an increasing
vigilance to prevent Christians from exercising the injunctions of
their religion in practical benevolence and beneficence among their
own people. And in these later years we find this tendency reaching
a climax of intensity in the rough hands laid upon the exposition of
the Christian faith in a way to prevent Christians from learning the
full value of their religion and to prevent the Christian religion
from producing its full fruit among its followers. In answer to
inquiry as to the meaning of this rapid trend of different lines
of policy converging to one point, we are told that the trouble is
that Christianity tends to make men grow into a better manhood. This
statement is made in various forms of paraphrase by officials of all
grades from Bagdad to the Bosporus, and in answer to all objections,
to the closing of schools, to the suppression of worship, to the
restrictions put upon the use of books, to the elision of words and
subjects from manuscripts in the press, and to the silencing of
Christian ministers. To this declaration we make answer that the
deliberate purpose of the founder of Christianity and of the religion
which He taught is the purpose to take the debased and ignorant, and
to make them men, self-controlled, honest and useful; that the purpose
to elevate man is not a disloyal or seditious purpose; and that any
far-reaching scheme to restrain Christianity from accomplishing its
full fruit in purifying and quickening the lives of its followers, is
war upon the Christian religion itself.”
[Illustration:
GATEWAY INTO THE WAR DEPARTMENT AT CONSTANTINOPLE. The fire tower on
the right. The horses are those used by persons wishing to go about
the city, many of the streets being almost impassable for carriages.
The wagons are what are called “emigrant” wagons, used for cartage by
peasants, who have brought them from European Turkey.]
[Illustration:
THE CITY OF TREBIZOND, on the northern coast of Asia Minor. In the
background is the Black Sea, and in the foreground the only harbor
that there is. This is open to the northeast, so that there is really
very little protection. Trebizond was one of the first cities to
suffer from massacre in the fall of 1895.]