Islam, Turkey, and Armenia, and How They Happened/Chapter XXIV
CHAPTER XXIV.
THE CAUSES THAT LED TO THE ARMENIAN MASSACRES.
Two of the fundamental causes which underlie every Turkish massacre have already been discussed in the previous chapters namely: The anti-Christian spirit of Islam and the savage nature of Tartaric blood. Besides these general causes, there were some special motives which led "The Gracious Father of the Ottoman Empire" to these late deeds of unparalleled devastation and death.
1. The Multiplication of the Armenians in the Empire Excited the Jealousy of the Turks. The last and careful census made about twelve years ago perplexed the Turkish Government over the unexpected and sad condition of numbers of the people. Armenians, as Christian and civilized people, live a moral life, regarding also the physical and hygienic laws; on the other hand, the Turks were not only slow in increase, but were found diminished in numbers. This decrease was due to several reasons, such as the practice of polygamy, vice of abortion, constant supply of military troops and loss of life in wars, ignorance and carelessness in respect to the laws of health, and fatalistic refusal of preventive and curative means in times of epidemics, which are frequent in Turkey. Besides, a goodly portion of the country was severed from the empire since the last Russo-Turkish war, which caused considerable decrease in the number of the Mohametan element. All these things were facts which the Armenians could not help, and the Turks would not stand indifferent. It was repugnant and alarming to the haughty Mohametan to see the multitudes of Christians in the streets on Sundays and young "infidels" crowding the roads on their way to and from schools every day.
According to the last "Scheme of the Armenian Reforms," prepared by the representatives of the six great Powers and forcibly signed by the Sultan, the governors in the six provinces should be elected in proportion with the numbers of two parties. This would create a great change in the fabric of the old despotism, securing some Armenian governors to the first position. Hence the question of numbers was the crisis of "To be or not to be" in the palace and the porte.
2. Turks were Jealous of the Increasing Wealth of the Armenians. As a reaction of the Armenian dark ages, which continued from the middle of the fourteenth to the middle of the nineteenth century, these last forty to fifty years offered a better chance for commercial movements, especially to those who live in large towns and seaports where there was more safety and freedom. The long suppressed business ability of the Armenian race showed itself in the banks and commercial circles of the capital and provincial centers; extending its branches also in every commercial city of Europe and of the United States. Even the greatest distance of the British colonies could not prevent them from the search and accumulation of wealth. They transported the silky wool and superior hides of Armenia to the markets of Egypt, and brought the costly indigo blue to the doors of Armenian dyers. They put the delicious pistacio nuts in the French confectioneries, and exchanged the money for delicate European dry goods; hunted all the old rugs from the oriental parlors and furnished the halls of the United States with them. The Armenians of the Harpoot district, mostly common laborers in the New England factories, were known to send to their friends $5,000 weekly to purchase acres of land from their Turkish and Kurdish neighbors.
There was a commercial revival among the Armenians. The young men, more vigorous than their conservative fathers, took out the buried treasures and began a strong competition with the Moslems, and succeeded. The big-turbaned Turk and the ragged Kurd, together with the barefooted Arab, began to ask the way to the Armenian banks to borrow money for their antediluvian plowing work, at the same time sighing in their souls and murmuring in each other's ears, "I wish I had the giaour's mind and wealth."
The young Armenian minds enlightened with "the modern civilization," began to think that the gunpowder stores of the Turk were emptied, and that the sharp teeth of Tartaric brutality had becomes dull, and especially that the originators and protectors of the modern civilization would never allow the repetition of the old barbarities against the honor of humanity and glory of Christianity. Relying on these realities, which soon proved to be mere dreams of delirious minds, they dared to show their heads out of the dark cellars of their ancestors, and began to build good houses and live as honorable men among degenerate semi-barbarians.
3. The Progressive Schools of the Armenians Made the Turks very Jealous. In one of the previous chapters the reader had a description of the Turkish schools. The late changes are not radical, and cannot be under the circumstances. Now we are in an Armenian school; it is the examination day; the governor of the city, with all his turbaned and military companions, is invited (as should be done), and held the best seats in the clean and quiet hall. The teacher calls a boy, not more than twelve years old, and asks him how many hours are in a week. He answers at once, 168. The teacher asks again, how many minutes are in a week; the child finishes the problem quickly, and says 10,080. The governor looks around at his subordinates and expresses his wonder for the smartness of that "one inch tall" boy. The teacher gives a third question: "How many seconds are in a year?" The governor calls aloud to the cadi (Turkish judge), asking whether he could find that out; he says, "Not indeed, by prophet." He asks the chief clerk of the court, and he answers, "No, sir, by Allah." The governor says to the judge and the clerk: "If I order a donkey's head cooked, can you eat it all?" Before the clerk gives his answer to this complimentary question our boy reads his figures on the board with a clear voice and pronunciation. The Turkish officers are ashamed of themselves; but this feeling does not produce in them a true competition, but a jealous spirit to retard the one who is making progress.
Science and education are always held in great esteem by every Armenian, but there never was a time in their history more noted for rapid and brilliant progress than these last thirty or forty years. Almost in every town numerous and graded schools were established and managed by competent principals, mostly educated in European or American schools. Armenian literature has got a new life, and journalism, even in its narrow space, made remarkable progress. Several daily papers were full of articles about the living questions of Christian civilization and progress. French has become almost common in the schools. English is highly cultivated, especially in the Protestant institutions, which are not few in number or inferior in grade. The Russian, German and Italian languages have had their entrance among the Armenians, who have a proverbial name of being linguists.
Armenians gave also a remarkable impulse to Turkish literature. Muhendisian made the best and most varied types of Turkish letters, and saved the reader from the unendurable troubles of the old style cryptograms. Arakel, Caspar and other publishers contributed marvelously to the production and circulation of Turkish books. Some eminent teachers, as Apikian and Bogos, prepared the best grammars and dictionaries of the Turkish language. This, too, made the Turks jealous that giaours were better acquainted with their business and books than themselves. In an old style Turkish school the Arabic grammar was a life work, while in the Armenian schools the necessary principles of that language are simply a few months' work. Many poor and honest Armenian young men gain name and position through education, while hosts of Turkish boys are loafing in the streets and stepping over wild street dogs and building a character worse than dogs.
4. Armenians, Noble Aspiration for Christian Liberty Excited the Wicked Turk. In spite of continuous and severe persecutions of ages the fire of freedom was never quenched in the soul of the Armenian. The exiled young professor's last sighs from the depths of Siberian gloom have always and everywhere found their echo in the hearts of his countrymen: "I will be true to thee till death; yea, even upon the gallows' tree the last breath of a death of shame shall shout thy name, O Liberty!" Their contact with the civilized part of the world and their enlightenment by the dawn of Christian education added much upon this natural and holy aspiration. Aided by the American and English Bible Societies, they translated the Holy Scriptures and some other books into the Turkish language, and in some parts of the empire they evangelized and baptized the dialect of the oppressor, with the long-cherished aspiration of evangelizing them, too. When the British Ambassador said, "Soon the Christian will be able to preach the gospel in Mohametan pulpits," there was a general shouting of jubilee, not that the Armenians would have a chance to slaughter Turks in their mosques, but that they would have the freedom and privilege of bringing their neighbors to the knowledge of true salvation. They did not take any aggressive course against the Turks or other Moslem communities, but rather, taking the favorable proclamations of the Sultan as sincere, cherished the expectation that both parties, hand in hand, would try to elevate the country to the level of European prosperity.
While the Armenians were thus hopeful and aspiring, the fanatic Turk kept swinging his head and sighing, "Alas! Islam lost its power and glory; the field remained in the hands of giaours!" The deep-rooted enmity that drew this exclamation out of the bigoted Turk was not idle, but by a gradual advance prepared and accomplished horrors too terrible to describe and too deep to realize.
