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 POLITICAL PERSECUTION 
 
 ARMENIAN PRISONERS OF THE CAUCASUS 
 [A PAGE OF THE TZAR'S PERSECUTION] 
 
 By 
 
 E. AKNOUNI 
 
 Author of'Vhe Wounds of the Caucasus," "On to Battle," Etc. 
 
 1911 
 
 NEW YORK
 
 POLITICAL PERSECUTION 
 
 ARMENIAN PRISONERS OF THE CAUCASUS 
 [A PAGE OF THE TZAR'S PERSECUTION] 
 
 By 
 
 E. AKNOUNI 
 
 Author of lic Uhe Wounds of Cat Caucasus," "On to Battle," Etc. 
 
 1911 NEW YORK
 
 Translated from the Author's Manuscript 
 by A. M. and H. W.
 
 
 
 AN APPEAL 
 
 To the Intellectuals of America 
 
 With my weak pen, and unflourished words, I appeal to 
 you, intellectuals and writers of the Great Republic — to your 
 tongue, to your pen, and especially to your heart. 
 
 Do not regard as boldness this step of an Armenian writer 
 unknown to you. It is not my modest past, or my weak pen, that 
 entitles me to address you publicly, but the fact that I belong to 
 a persecuted nation, perhaps, alas, the first among the human 
 victims of history, — a nation, small in numbers, but great in 
 suffering; insignificant in its political standing, but worthy of re- 
 spect for the victims it offered to the altar of civilization and 
 freedom. 
 
 It is the grief and the sorrow of the wound-covered and 
 persecuted Armenian people that prompts me, as well as the 
 whole class of Armenian intellectuals of to-day, whose modest 
 soldier I am, to speak, — grief and sorrow that made even the 
 stones cry, and that in the days of unsuppressed rage roused the 
 civilized world from Rome to London, from Paris to New York, 
 and moved even those who have breast, but no heart; head, 
 but no mind. 
 
 Raise your voices, you who have hearts and minds, and as 
 citizens of a free fatherland are duty bound to voice your protest 
 in behalf of "innocent convicts," who, crushed behind prison 
 doors, are anxiously awaiting for signs of sympathy, for a just 
 protest in the name of their ever-tortured people. 
 
 I was often told, both in Europe and this country, that it 
 was useless to appeal to America, that the hope of the perse- 
 cuted was in vain. It was reiterated to me again and again : 
 "America is not the land of succor, but of money. The great 
 American press is not the soldier of justice and ideal, but it 
 serves Mammon, and through Mammon, again to Mammon." 
 
 You know better than I how true this sad accusation is ! 
 But I, who traveled this Republic from one end to the other, 
 from city to city, whatever I saw and observed keeps me in my 
 conviction that America is not merely "the land of factories," 
 but that it is also the land of great ideals.
 
 Yes, a land where the memory of Washington and Lincoln 
 is held so sacred; where monuments of revolution, independence 
 and liberty rear themselves side by side with factory chimneys; 
 where universities and libraries are erected by the side of big 
 stores and pleasant parks; where the democratic spirit demolished 
 the restraining prejudices of the Old World; and where, in the 
 harbor of its Metropolis, burns every night the torch of universal 
 Liberty, — such a land must not and can not desert the Great 
 Ideal. 
 
 The nations of the East do not ask you for "intervention." 
 No, it is not necessary to mix up with the "family quarrels" of 
 other nations. But your Great Citizen, if he was risen from his 
 grave could not pass by a dying sufferer without kneeling by his 
 side; could not witness without just anger the cruelty of an 
 executioner who flogs the bleeding victim. 
 
 No intervention, but protest, when a whole nation or peo- 
 ple is slaughtered; protest in the name of man, whose worship 
 is so great with you; protest in the name of liberty for which 
 you gave so much of your blood in the days of the Great Battle; 
 protest in the name of human community, without distinction of 
 race or religion, the pet idea of your Wonderful Fatherland. 
 
 I know, I feel, you are very far from the Grief-valley of 
 historic Ararat, from the place of tyrannical rule, where so domi- 
 nant are the knout, the yataghan, and the prison. But now, 
 with my ineffective lines, I will essay to bring before you the 
 pale image of horrible tragedy, one page only, one small page of 
 the deep horrors, which are perpetrated behind Closed Doors, 
 whence for years ring the screams of prisoners, and with them 
 the wrath and the protest of all the persecuted. 
 
 Listen to that voice, hear that wrathful scream ; hear and 
 answer what your mind, what your heart, suggests. 
 
 Put some of your heart in your voice, in your protest, in 
 your pen, and strike with thunder. 
 
 Use your pens, writers of all nations ! 
 Use your mouths, orators of all lands ! 
 
 E. AKNOUNI. 
 
 April, 1911, 
 
 New York-
 
 THE WORLD OF CHAINS. 
 
 Searching by night ! 
 
 Imprisonment by day! 
 
 This has been the "political life" in the Caucasus since 
 1908, where, by the regulation of Tzarism, the Armenian 
 people are pronounced dangerous, and out of the pale of law's 
 protection. 
 
 Prison, searching and exile have been of frequent occur- 
 rence in the domains, where the knout of slav despotism is 
 dominant, but what has been taking place in the last few 
 years, even after the Octoberian Manifesto of the Tzar, is 
 exceptionally novel. 
 
 What a bitter irony ! 
 
 While in St. Petersburg speeches flow from the worthy 
 and unworthy mouths of the members of the Duma in the 
 name of political liberty and security, in Poland, Finland, 
 and the Caucasus tongues are tied by the orders of the police, 
 pens are crushed in the office of the censor, and all good citi- 
 zens, physicians, lawyers, teachers, officers, farmers, are led 
 to prisons — political grave-yards, to atone for sins which they 
 have not committed, to suffer tortures which they do not 
 deserve. 
 
 And sitting behind closed doors hundreds of prisoners, 
 subjected to many tortures and deprivations, are wondering 
 and asking themselves : 
 
 "What is our sin?" 
 
 And the unworthy officer of the Russian Court, called 
 Legine, who is actuated more by caprice than justice, and who 
 takes his orders from the Minister of the Interior, answers 
 them brutally: 
 
 "Your sin is that you are Armenians. You are responsible 
 for everything that occurs in the Armenian life. It is neces- 
 sary for us to bury the roaring fire under ashes, to uproot 
 revolutionary movement, to exterminate political parties, and 
 engulf life and energy. Do you want proof? Our caprice is 
 the proof. Do you want documentary evidence? The docu- 
 mentary evidence is the police report.
 
 6 
 
 And Stolypin, the president of the unconstitutional min- 
 istry, a policeman, and not a statesman, detective, but not a 
 man of law, is instructing with word or consent : 
 
 "Crush, persecute." 
 
 And they are crushing! 
 
 And they are persecuting! 
 
 It is night. 
 
 As soon as the lamps burn in the streets which are filled 
 with soldiers, the terrorized "subjects," rich and poor, run 
 home like frightened birds from an imminent, threatening tem- 
 pest. 
 
 Since 1906 when the black terror was organized in Rus- 
 sia, by the efforts of the police, when the criminal-minded gov- 
 ernment armed the dark element, the mob, in order to cover 
 the awakening land with the veil of terror, then nobody could 
 feel safe in the night. Every man was hastening home to be 
 locked behind double-bolted doors, and latticed windows. 
 
 That is the signal of political insecurity. 
 
 The bell rang. 
 
 Everybody is shuddering inside the house. The bell at 
 a late hour! That is a sign of misfortune. And so it is. 
 "Open the door," yell the gendarmes commanding, threaten- 
 ing. 
 
 The doors are opened, and in rush officers, fifteen or 
 twenty, the Chief of Police, his assistants, the prosecutor, 
 spies in multifarous uniforms, several "witnesses" gathered 
 from the street, drunken and vulgar, to identify papers that 
 do not exist, and to sign records which they cannot read. 
 
 This is the police tactics practiced in the land of prisons. 
 
 The order is given, and lo! the doors are closed. The 
 head of the family is put under arrest, and the searching be- 
 gun and carried on in all the rooms, in corners from the 
 kitchen to the sleeping room. 
 
 "My wife is in bed, permit her to dress before you en- 
 ter," observes the victim, humbly. 
 
 "We have no time !" roar the police ironically. 
 
 And the searchers rush into the bedroom of the terrified
 
 Z 
 
 woman, and overhaul everything with the curiosity of scoun- 
 drels and obscene jestures. 
 
 Here is the whole proceeding. Huge axes are produced 
 and the drunken people, dressed in the police uniforms, the 
 poor victims of demoralizing officialdom, are beginning the 
 work of destruction. The axes dart toward the ceilings, to- 
 ward the wardrobes, toward the floors, wherever a hiding 
 place is imagined to be. They smash the doors, tear up the 
 floors, open the walls and spread upon the floor the dresses of 
 the women with obscene remarks. 
 
 The whole night performing that act of "legal" ruin, 
 rest at morn, tired and proud, and collecting all the books 
 beginning from the Bible to the "Cookbook", all the letters, 
 love letters or business letters, even the papers in which not a 
 word is written, the children's exercise book, and new shaped 
 knives, suspicious "machines," even the boiler for sweets, go 
 out of the house taking with them the head of the family, 
 who with tearful eyes murmurs to his children: "Don't be 
 frightened, I will soon be back." 
 
 And behind him ruin, tears, mourning. 
 
 That is the searching. 
 
 They are in the street. 
 
 The prisoner, surrounded with the dreadful soldiers, does 
 not know where and why he is taken. 
 
 "Where are you taking me?" he inquires. 
 
 "To the Chief of Police," answer the officers of law in- 
 differently and calmly. 
 
 And they are taking him to the Chief of Police, and then, 
 in a closed carriage to an unknown office. Everything is un- 
 known and obscure. The "citizen" is moving like a shadow 
 without resistance, speechless and struck with terror. 
 
 Behold an office. What a sight ! Already many prisoners, 
 some known to each other, some strangers, all waiting dispo- 
 sition and instructions. The doors open, and the order is 
 given. Then begins a new search, which is called the "personal 
 search." They search the pockets of the prisoner, the heels 
 of his shoes, his hats and even his beard. 
 
 The "personal search," also, is finished. Now he must
 
 8 
 
 be taken away. But where ? To which prison ? That is known 
 only to the police. 
 
 The exodus begins. The exodus is different for different 
 men. Sometimes, for the purpose of terrorizing the people, 
 the prisoners are conducted in groups in the main streets of 
 the city, surrounded by Cossacks and mounted officers. The 
 mob retreats from the right and from the left. Who dares 
 approach or stand by? The omnipotent lance is ready to be 
 thrust into the loins or the legs of such a bold person. Often 
 they are taken by night, secretly, from their parents and 
 friends, in closed wagons, through byways. Nobody knows 
 where they are taken, how they are taken, or with whom they 
 are taken. A week passes, then a second, friends and relatives 
 are exhausted from waiting at the door of the prefect in the 
 hope of getting some intelligence from the victims. Are the 
 prisoners dead or alive ? The same answer from all lips : "It 
 is not known." 
 
 And quite often the prisoners are led from station to 
 station, from prison to prison, even from city to city, bare- 
 footed, under the rain and snow, subjected to grave dangers. 
 One day two prisoners were led through a muddy street in 
 Tiflis. One a young Armenian writer, the other a gray-haired 
 old man, a rich land owner. It was a rainy day, cold and 
 damp; the way was long and tiresome. The old man, unac- 
 customed to hardship, was exhausted and tottering, unable 
 to walk. 
 
 The young prisoner observed the condition of his aged 
 companion and saw that he was nearly exhausted. So he said 
 to the soldiers : 
 
 "Brothers, I can walk because I am strong, but pity this 
 old man and allow him to ride in a carriage. He is exhausted. 
 He, too, is a man. Pity his old age." 
 
 "Walk, dog," roared the soldier and raising the butt of 
 his gun, "walk and hold your tongue." 
 
 And they walked. 
 
 Behold, also, the prison! 
 
 With an august calmness is opened the famous castle, by 
 the hand of its unavoidable and eternal guardian, and after a
 
 minute a new one is added to the "living dead!" After that 
 moment he is no more a citizen or a man, but a number who 
 will move when they order him, will stand up when they 
 command, entitled to one right only — the right of silence. From 
 the surrounding iron windows which look on the inner court 
 hundreds of eyes are watching the new comer — the eyes of 
 the political hero who faced death for liberty, the eyes of the 
 criminal who, perhaps, had killed his mother, the eyes of the 
 thief, the incendiary, the drunkard, because in that "world" 
 there is everything, greatness and meanness, martyrs and mur- 
 derers. 
 
 They registered his name and led him inside. 
 
 He is already behind the closed doors. He must sit there 
 and wait. Has he bread ? Has he clothes ? Has he any place 
 to rest his head? Are they considering his case? Is he sub- 
 jected to tortures or to cross-examination? Is he dead or 
 alive ? Nobody knows. 
 
 The doors are closed.
 
 IO 
 
 SOME HISTORICAL FACTS. 
 
 The "political" imprisonment of the Armenians in the 
 Caucasus has a history of fifty years behind it. 
 
 The first important political prisoner was the famous Ar- 
 menian publicist and poet, Michael Nalbandian, in 1863. He 
 had committed the crime of writing some soul-inspiring poems 
 which were dedicated to liberty and national regeneration, and 
 while in London, of cultivating friendship with Gerzen, the 
 illustrious Russian leader. Under the infernal conditions of 
 the prison the Armenian prisoner became consumptive, and 
 when the prison authorities saw that death was inevitable — the 
 desire of the police — set him free, that after having "lived" 
 in prison, he might die in "liberty." 
 
 And after a few months Nalbandian died, faithful to his 
 famous words : 
 
 "I will be true to thee till death ; 
 Yea, even upon the gallows tree ; 
 With my last gasp, with dying breath, 
 I'll shout thy name, O Liberty !" 
 
 Almost fifteen years elapsed more or less quiet. 
 
 From beyond the Turkish frontier reached the ears of 
 the Armenians in the Caucasus the shocking news of the crime. 
 The cry of agony of the Armenian people, languishing under 
 the shameful yoke of Hamid, and the smell of Wood reached 
 the plains of Ararat notwithstanding the unsurmountable ob- 
 stacles. It was during that time, 1877, that Alexander II 
 declared war against Turkey in the name of Eastern Chris- 
 tianity. But that war did not justify the hopes of the Chris- 
 tians in Asia Minor; and when the Russian soldiers, after the 
 Congress of Berlin, evacuated the Turkish soil, Hamid decided, 
 and intrigued, to avenge his defeat on the Christian Armenians. 
 The yataghan shone. Armenia was transformed into a sea 
 of sorrow and blood. 
 
 That bloody political catastrophe shocked and moved the 
 Armenians in the Caucasus. Prompted by the sentiment of 
 fraternal assistance, they began to send money to the victims, 
 arms to the defenseless, and men for help. But the govern- 
 ment of the Tzar, which had declared war in the name of
 
 II 
 
 Christianity, suddenly changed its attitude toward the Chris- 
 tian Armenians in Turkey, and opposed every effort to help 
 them. It not only failed to help the persecuted Armenians in 
 the dark days of massacre and terror, but began to punish 
 the Caucasus Armenians, who desired to stretch a helping hand 
 to their suffering compatriots. 
 
 The blow was dealt in 1884. 
 
 In Erivan, to the great surprise of the whole city, houses 
 were searched in groups. That slumberous city of the Orient 
 was upset entirely. For several weeks, especially the nights, 
 many residences of the citizens became a scene of terror. All 
 classes of the Armenian population were affected, and law- 
 yers, physicians, merchants were arrested, men and women. 
 After "expiating their sins in the prisons" they were banished 
 to remote parts of Russia, where they died without seeing 
 their country. 1 
 
 That was the first arrest in groups. 
 
 The next scene is removed to Tiflis. Imagining a "polit- 
 ical bond" between the Armenians of Erivan and Tiflis in 
 undertaking to help the Armenians in Turkey, the police and 
 the gendarmerie searched minutely the residence of Grigor 
 Arzrouni, the famous Armenian publicist, and the founder of 
 Mschak, the Armenian daily paper in Russia. The police search 
 lasted three days. All his papers were sealed and taken to 
 court. The same fate fell to Raffi, the illustrious Armenian 
 novelist, and one of the editors of Mschak. The insensate 
 police force seized the manuscripts of his novels as "documents 
 to prove" his political dangerousness. ' 
 
 That was a menacing sign. 
 
 After searching the effects of these two popular and highly 
 respected journalists, the police force began, unchecked, to 
 do the same thing in the towns, and from that date on the 
 officers of safety adopted another office, the office of search- 
 ing, which became the cause of an ever increasing terror among 
 the patriarchal population. 
 
 1 Among those were Vartanian, a notary ; Egiazarian, a lawyer ; Mrs. 
 Matakian, principal of the Girls' School; Matakian,an officer ;Ter-Zakarian, 
 an officer ; Mherian, an agent ; Chalalian, an attorney ; Tigranian, a phy- 
 sician.
 
 12 
 
 The severity was increased tenfold in 1890. 
 
 When the news from Turkish Armenia became extremely 
 horrible and unendurable, a band of young Armenians, stu- 
 dents, teachers, artisans and peasants, prompted by the desire 
 of an immediate assistance, organized and armed themselves in 
 order to go to Turkey and protect peaceful people against the 
 Kurd and Hamidian murderers. But before crossing the 
 frontier they were surrounded by the Russian soldiers, and 
 fifty of them arrested. They were chained and thrown into a 
 dungeon under the most rigorous regulations. Then they were 
 tried as "political agitators and as demanding freedom for the 
 Armenians." That band is known as the band of Gougounian, 
 by the name of the leader, Mr. Gougounian, a student at the 
 University of St. Petersburg. Some of the prisoners died be- 
 fore the conclusion of their trial, and the rest were sentenced 
 to hard labor for twenty years in Siberia. Some of the young 
 men died before they arrived in Siberia, and the rest were 
 driven to that bleak land to condone their sin in chains and in 
 caves — the sin of desiring to sacrifice their lives for their 
 brothers. 
 
 Gradually the severity of the police force increased, not 
 only against those who desired to help their "living brothers," 
 but against those, also, who wished to bury their "dead broth- 
 ers" with due honor. Even burial became a political crime. 
 
 We had the proof of it in 1892. 
 
 Grigor Arzrouni died. The Armenians of the Caucasus, 
 sad-hearted and affected, desired to show their appreciation 
 of the work of this most popular Armenian publicist. There 
 was a great commotion and preparation for funeral services. 
 From all over the world Armenians sent delegates and dele- 
 gations, four hundred and eighty floral tributes and thousands 
 of cables and telegrams. There was requiem and mourning 
 everywhere. 
 
 It was December 27th. A human ocean was heaving in 
 the Kolovinski street of Tiflis. Sixty thousand people were 
 following the coffin, sad and with low heads. The popular 
 mourning expressed itself in a manifestation of popular respect. 
 The people were silent and respectful. . . . Then suddenly the 
 mounted police force and the infantry appeared and ordered :
 
 13 
 
 "Turn back, and go through the other street, you cannot use 
 this street." The mourners explained to the police that they 
 desired to pass by the family house of the deceased, and as a 
 last respect offer prayers for his soul. They asked and ex- 
 plained, but in vain, the police stood unmoved. Then the 
 patient people pushed forward, the soldiers drew their swords. 
 The officiating Armenian bishop fainted from that unexpected 
 demonstration. . . . But the mourners penetrated the 
 chain of the police and soldiers, and advanced to the cemetery, 
 and the body of the great publicist was laid to rest. . . . 
 
 But the despotic government did not respect this fresh 
 grave, and the same night arrests and searching started from 
 one end of the city to the other. Terror was added to sadness. 
 The delegates departed immediately to avoid imprisonment. 
 And the same night dozens of writers, professors, officers, edi- 
 tors, painters, specialists, were driven to prison as the authors 
 of demonstration against the government, and as dangerous 
 agitators. 
 
 It is incredible, but it is a fact. 
 
 Let us also consider the year 1895, which was the carnival 
 of prisons and cruelties. 
 
 Again the news from Armenia assumed a gloomy aspect. 
 
 Under the blows of revolution, and under the European 
 pressure the Nero of Yildiz agreed to the reforms called "the 
 Scheme of May," but just then, when the agents of the assas- 
 sin autocrat went, under the command of Shakir Pasha, to 
 Armenia to execute the orders of "reform," when the Bishop 
 of Erzroom, encouraged by the promises of the English Min- 
 istry, was announcing the birth of "liberty in Armenia, under 
 the bond of slavery," then rang the alarm of wholesale mas- 
 sacre. Sultan Hamid became reckless more than ever. His 
 bloody hands were indirectly strengthened by the Tzar's Min- 
 ister for Foreign Affairs, Lobanoff, who wished "Armenia 
 without Armenians." The yataghan was drawn with an un- 
 precedented ferocity. . . . And when these massacres 
 shocked the whole civilized world, the government of the Tzar 
 hastened to close the frontiers against the Armenian refugees, 
 and censored the whole Russian press to prevent the Russian 
 Armenians from hearing the death agony of slaughtered peo- 
 ple, and from attempts of help or protest.
 
 14 
 
 The severity was boundless. After a while the Armenian 
 press not only had no right to protest against the monstrous 
 crime, but even to print the words "Armenia," or "Turkish 
 Armenia." A huge wall was erected between the Armenian 
 compatriots of the two empires. Not a relief fund. Not a 
 weapon. Not a sympathetic action. But wholesale imprison- 
 ments in Tiflis, Baku, Erivan, Shoushi, Ganzak. The impris- 
 onments spread to the villages to silence the protests of the 
 revolutionaries. All the Armenian leaders of importance and 
 influence were put under arrest, numbering more than a hun- 
 dred. Many of them were banished to the remote districts 
 of Russia. The rest fled the country. That was a black period 
 of persecution and tyranny in the political annals of the Cau- 
 casus. 2 
 
 This lasted until 1896, when the despotism of St. Peters- 
 burg realized with pleasure and triumph that the Armenian 
 nation was wounded so seriously that it could not survive. 
 
 An American missionary, who had lived in Van for a long 
 time, told once: "When we saw the heaped corpses, the sea 
 of blood, the unutterable horror, the mad flight, we thought 
 the Armenian people was no more!" 
 
 1895-96 was the grave of Armenia. And the "spade of 
 the Tzar" stood foremost. 
 
 What a black honor ! 
 
 : Among the arrested were 22 pedagogists, 7 authors, 10 students, 8 
 government officials, 20 commissioners, 4 clergymen, 21 artisans, 8 mer- 
 chants, 12 professionals.
 
 •5 
 
 THE PRISONERS OF 1908. 
 
 The new days made us forget the old. 
 
 The former imprisonments dwindle into insignificance as 
 compared with the policy initiated in 1908. The wholesale, 
 perpetual and universal arrests, which were inaugurated in 
 1 907- 1 908 were unparalleled in the annals of Caucasus Ar- 
 menians, and, perhaps, of the Russians. There has been forc- 
 ible arrests among the Russians, Poles, Jews, Finns, aston- 
 ishing arrests, but it was never seen, even under Tzarism, that 
 a whole nation, an entire people, with warring classes should 
 be accused as revolutionary, dangerous, and should be tried as 
 such on the bench of criminals. 
 
 But it was so. The arrests of 1908 did not respect any 
 class. People were searched indiscriminately, the office of the 
 Armenian Catholicos the head of the whole Armenian Church ; 
 the author who preached new life and new thought; the most 
 ignorant peasant who cannot even read; the millionaire who 
 enjoys life; the laborer who toils; the merchant who does 
 not recognize any world outside his store; the professor 
 whose activities are confined only to the classroom ; the clergy- 
 men who heartily pray for the permanence of thrones ; the 
 student who is the ensign bearer of revolution ; the physician 
 and the lawyer who have free professions; the mayor and 
 the official who are the servants of the government; men and 
 women, the rich and the poor; the countryman and the immi- 
 grant, the civilian and the farmer; in short, the whole Trans- 
 Caucasus from one end to the other, and the Armenian peo- 
 ple living there, every man, every class. 
 
 That is the characteristic line in this "adventure." 
 
 The first sign was given in December, 1908, in Tiflis, and 
 in the beginning of 1909 reached its highest point. The num- 
 ber of people searched was nearly a thousand. Five hundred 
 were arrested and imprisoned in the Caucasus and in other 
 prisons. 
 
 Among the prisoners were included eight authors, twenty- 
 two Armenian physicians, lawyers and specialists, twenty-four 
 professors and teachers, thirty-four officials and attendants.
 
 i6 
 
 forty-five merchants, seventy artisans, and peasants, laborers, 
 clergymen, women and even students. 
 
 More than three thousand people were under suspicion. 
 Those under suspicion — thanks to the fact that Russian officials 
 sell their secrets — take refuge not only in Europe but, imagine, 
 even in Turkey and Persia, the despotic countries of yesterday. 
 Doubtless, the numerous prisons of the Caucasus, with their 
 hundreds of cells, would not be able to contain those thousands 
 of "guests." 
 
 The distressing part of the arrests was not their quantity 
 but their quality. From the viewpoint of right and law the 
 whole business is corrupted and even based on false data. 
 
 Why? For the simple reason that those arrests are not 
 the result of legal searches and visible proofs, but that both 
 the searchings and the arrests are formerly decided and sug- 
 gested by the central government for political purposes. 
 
 When in St. Petersburg the central government decided 
 for definite political purposes to persecute the Armenians of 
 the Caucasus, it simultaneously sent orders to the Caucasus to 
 unearth an Armenian plot, and to begin the attack. In the 
 Caucasus, as well as everywhere, there still exists proudly the 
 type of Napoleon's Police Minister, "who always carries in 
 his pocket a scheme of any conspiracy." And those ever ready 
 agents, police, soldiers, prosecuting judges, who understand 
 well the signals of the central government, as well as each 
 other, came together and planned and began. The people, 
 two months and two years ago recognized as peaceful, loyal 
 and law-abiding, were declared anti-royalists, revolutionists, 
 and fomentors for Armenian independence. And the blows 
 were showered right and left. 
 
 We have already described the terrifying picture of 
 searchings. It was not sufficient, however, to search and in- 
 timidate; it was necessary, also, to save the honor of the gov- 
 ernment by "manipulating some proof," and the officer of the 
 court himself manipulates those proofs and gives them to spy 
 agents for realization.
 
 i7 
 
 Some examples: 
 
 Searching had started in Erivan. On an ill-omened night 
 the soldiers were surrounding one of the houses. The owner 
 of the house, innocent and ignorant, asked : "But what is my 
 crime ?" And behold, the police found in the basement a very 
 dangerous leaflet as an accusing proof. After many, many 
 bitter days only, a very "dangerous leaflet" was thrown into 
 the basement by the police chief. 
 
 Another night the police entered into the modest house 
 of a man named Kalousdian. They pulled him out of his 
 bed and punished him with a knout, and demanded : "Where 
 is the box, show it. Where did you hide it?" "What box?" 
 murmered the innocent victim ; "spare me, I have not seen any 
 box." Only after several weeks it was found that the whole 
 proceeding was the result of a criminal misunderstanding. 
 The spy informed the detectives that there was a dynamite 
 box at Kalousdian's house. The police rushed and arrested 
 Kalousdian, and then it was discovered that he was not the 
 one they were looking for. 
 
 Another event, again in Tiflis, the capital of the Cau- 
 casus. A sudden order was given to search the house of the 
 poet Isahakian. And what! They find in the court great 
 quantities of cartidges, then his guilt is certain. But this time 
 the author of the crime had performed his work very poorly. 
 The plot was uncovered. The whole of Tiflis heard it, but 
 was not astonished. Is that not usual? 
 
 Proofs of that sort are numerous. 
 
 On account of this wicked and criminal "policy" there 
 was confusion, which was and which will remain the eternal 
 condemnation of the Russian Courts. It is unprecedented in 
 the annals of trials. Innocent ones are arrested instead of the 
 accused. One suffers for the other. The chief of the de- 
 tectives plans to arrest certain Armenians. They cannot find 
 them, then Legine causes the arrest of altogether innocent 
 men who accidentally have the name or the patronym of the 
 suspect.
 
 i8 
 
 Let the proofs speak. 
 
 i. The police were looking for a revolutionist whose 
 pseudonymn was "Prince," and then one day Prince Arghou- 
 tian was arrested and imprisoned in Erivan because, as can be 
 seen, he bore the title of Prince. The man protested, but in 
 vain. Several months later it became known that the "Prince" 
 who was sought was out of the Caucasus, and was known in 
 Van as a political leader. The "Prince," who was in Van, 
 regards it a moral duty to inform the investigating judge, 
 through the Russian Consul, that he is in Turkey and that 
 it is unjust to arrest someone else, but Legine persists in his 
 error and Prince Arghoutian has been suffering in prison for 
 two years — and who knows how long yet! 
 
 2. Another day they arrested Malkasian, a teacher of 
 the Nersessian School. Not only was he not a revolutionist, 
 but an opponent of revolutionary methods. But he was kept 
 in prison for several months because his Christian name bore 
 resemblance to that of a suspected man who was sought by 
 the police. What is the difference, if it be this man or that man? 
 
 3. A man named Kevork Ordoyan was sought in Tiflis. 
 Not being able to find him, the police arrested another Kevork. 
 Kevork Arakelian. The relatives of the former testified that 
 Kevork Ordoyan had been killed in Persia, and that they held 
 his death certificate, signed by the Persian legation. But in 
 vain. The authorities desired to imprison an Armenian, whose 
 name was Kevork. "If Kevork Ordoyan is dead, let Kevork 
 Arakelian serve the former's term," decided the officer of 
 justice. And for three years Kevork Arakelian with an ex- 
 cusable confidence is waiting in the prison .... for justice. 
 
 4. In Batoum the police were looking for an Armenian, 
 Hrant Sarafian, a shoemaker, from Trebizonde, Turkey. He 
 could not be found, as he had departed from that city long 
 ago. But was there not another Armenian named Hrant, in 
 Batoum, thought the investigator? With an unfortunate co- 
 incidence the son of the Priest Melian was called Hrant. 
 They arrested and imprisoned him. And why not? Student,
 
 19 
 
 named. Hrant, and the son of an Armenian priest! The 
 justice of Liegen did not care that this man is Hrant Melian, 
 and not Sarafian; student, and not shoemaker; from Batoum, 
 and not from Trebizonde. It sufficed that his name was 
 Hrant. Let him languish in prison. The world will not be 
 the poorer for it. 
 
 5. The wretched cemetery of Erivan had a guard, old, 
 weak, as harmless as the cemetery. He was named Hagop 
 Avedissian, and born in Caesarea, Turkey. One day that poor 
 old man was dragged to the police court, and then to 
 prison. He could not understand what was happening. He 
 was crying and knocking his head against the wall, and trying 
 to wrench the iron bars off the window with his boney hands. 
 He was repeating all day long: "What is my crime, what 
 have I done." And the innocent guard, of course, could not 
 imagine that he was arrested for another Hagop; Hagop 
 Gotoyan. The latter was from Moush, and not from Caesarea, 
 young and not old, a soldier, and not a cemetery guard. But 
 why these "unimportant" details ! He was a Hagop, that suf- 
 ficed. The poor guard lost his senses, but he is in jail yet. 
 
 6. With the same justice and manner Vram Vahanian 
 of Terbizonde was arrested and imprisoned for Vahan Papa- 
 zian, of Van, now a member of the Turkish Parliament. 
 Karekin Kevorkian was cast into prison for Karekin Mira- 
 kian; Levont Melconian, of Ganzak, was imprisoned instead 
 of Ardashes Melconian, of Tiflis ; four men whose first names 
 are Nicola were imprisoned in Baku for Nicola Der Hovan- 
 nessian who was sought by the Government. They had dif- 
 ferent patronyms, different trades, came from different quar- 
 ters; but as their first names were Nicola, that proved their 
 guilt ! 
 
 And these cases are innumerable and endless. It is only 
 necessary to have heart to record the sad incidents which have 
 plunged many families in unfathomable suffering and 
 lamentation. But enough is mentioned to give a just idea 
 of what mad proportion these ridiculous persecutions have 
 assumed and which persecutions are disguised under the vizor 
 of court examination.
 
 20 
 
 IN THE CELLS. 
 
 Injustice characterized the search — irregularity the 
 method of arrest. But that was not the end. 
 
 The cells themselves were remote from prying inquiry, 
 removed from investigation, dark and hidden as their secrets, 
 an inaccessible world, where no eye can penetrate and no 
 voice reach. And in that "autocratic kingdom" where police 
 tyranny is not only countenanced but encouraged, the torture 
 to which the Russian prisoner has been the slave for so many 
 years, continues. 
 
 "Every means is permissible" was the order of the magis- 
 trate and the intention of that official, though criminal, was 
 to encourage the unhappy prisoners to hatch plots to their 
 undoing and thus magnify "the political affair." 
 
 "The Armenian prisoners in Novotcherkask and Ros- 
 tove," writes one of the prisoners, "are teeming with un- 
 speakable conditions. It is a lie to say that there is no torture 
 in Russia. Yes! It exists. Twenty-five to thirty men are 
 placed in one cell that hardly holds six or seven. There are no 
 bedsteads, not even bedding; and the miserable inmates sleep 
 on the bare ground, huddled under a single blanket, dirty as 
 the filth in which they are compelled to lie. Nor do they give 
 enough food even to the unfortunate, who are able and willing 
 to pay. One slice of bread and some water daily. Reading 
 and writing is forbidden and communication with the outside 
 world prohibited. Should a prisoner, by doctor's prescription, 
 be permitted to have an extra piece of bread, some boiled 
 eggs or a box of cigarettes, the loaf is cut open and the eggs 
 broken to prevent the chance of smuggling even a scrap of 
 paper. ... In the cold cells a loathsome smell prevails and 
 despairing barrenness. The guards are as immovable as the 
 rocks, stern and forbidding, menacing as the lightning. 
 We cannot cry — we are ashamed. We cannot rage and roar. 
 They permit no sound — what shall we do? The walls are 
 thick, the bars strong, and the world remote. What can we 
 do ? We are but waiting "
 
 21 
 
 No sanitary precautions are taken, no care offered. Even 
 the sick beseeching for warmth or clothing are refused. 
 
 In 19 10 Restove was wholly infected with cholera, and 
 throughout the district the "subjects" were dying like flies. 
 Soon the news of this plague reached the prison and deep 
 horror prevailed within its walls. It is not difficult to picture 
 the situation of those who realized themselves helpless and 
 shackled in the midst of this pestilence, devoid of air and 
 light, with virtually no medical attendance or proper disin- 
 fection. Desperate and impotent they could but protest un- 
 availingly against their tragic plight. "What will happen," 
 they cry with one accord, "should the pestilence invade the 
 prison as well?" The authorities were silent and the prison- 
 ers as well as their loved ones at home at last became con- 
 vinced that Legine, the inspector, connected with the gen- 
 darmerie, with diabolical cunning, was deliberately inviting 
 this method of suppressing "the political evil," the life of the 
 prisoners, by means of "the irresponsible evil" — pestilence. 
 
 What a horrible conviction! 
 
 I wonder if it requires great power of imagination to pic- 
 ture the horror of those days and nights spent by the unhappy 
 prisoners behind those iron barred windows when cholera 
 was reigning outside as the sword of the jailer within the 
 locked portals. 
 
 The following year another misfortune befell. 
 
 In the first part of January, 191 1, typhoid fever made 
 its appearance in the prison of Novotcherkask, and soon 
 assumed threatening proportions. That vile dungeon, mis- 
 called a prison, was built to accommodate two hundred and 
 seventy inmates, yet the number crowded in it at this time 
 exceeds eight hundred and fifty people. This condition, 
 coupled with the total lack of sanitary precaution, would 
 naturally hasten the spread of a disease, such as typhoid 
 fever, and, indeed, in March, 191 1, the number of the infected 
 exceeded one hundred and the dead twenty. 
 
 Early in March the Medical Director visited the prison. 
 Let us now listen to the words of his report. 
 
 "The cells of the prison are overcrowded beyond their 
 capacity ; the air vitiated and loathsome. In the cells, wooden
 
 22 
 
 boxes, called parashes, are placed for natural necessities of 
 the prisoners; and these are making the atmosphere more un- 
 bearable, which already was unbreathable enough. Besides 
 these boxes are placed the wooden vessels containing the 
 drinking water for the unfortunates. The prisoners' under- 
 wear is dirty, seldom changed oftener than once in three weeks. 
 
 "Before this, in January, the prison physician wrote to 
 the Governor of the prison, telling him that typhoid fever 
 has appeared in the prison. The Governor, however, faith- 
 ful to the instruction of Taube, the head of the district, for- 
 bade the doctor to communicate anything concerning the dis- 
 ease to the Medical Director, and for this reason, in the ac- 
 counts of the prison, nothing was said of typhoid fever and, 
 in fact, it was said that the prisoners had been ill with ma- 
 teria. 
 
 "In spite of repeated demands from the doctor to impart 
 to the Board of Health the necessary information regarding 
 the typhoid fever the director of the prison, obstinately and 
 deliberately concealed the existence of the malady." 
 
 This criminal official "secrecy" horrified the relatives of 
 the unfortunates shut in this jail at Novotcherkask, and they 
 prepared the following telegram and sent it to the Minister 
 of Justice : 
 
 "In the Prison at Novo Tscheegask, there is now 
 raging a terrible pestilence. More than a hundred 
 prisoners as well as the prison director, three assistants, 
 ten supervisors, six clerks, the prison physician and three 
 assistants are sick. Mortality is assuming alarming pro- 
 portions and among the dead are two of the overseers ; 
 the sanitary conditions are unbearable. The prison built 
 to house only two hundred and fifty inmates now con- 
 tains in excess of eight hundred inmates. The building is 
 located on the lowest ground in the city where fever pre- 
 vails. The floors of the cells are asphalt. Those held as 
 accused of the 'Affair of Dashnaktsoutun' are already round- 
 ing out their third and fourth years of confinement and 
 all are of impaired health. Most of them seriously affected 
 by consumption, others with diseases of bones, nervous dis- 
 orders and eye trouble. Some are affected with palsy and 
 two have lost their hearing and all are now exposed to the 
 dreadful typhoid fever. It is easy to understand how their
 
 23 
 
 impaired constitutions are unable to withstand the ravages 
 of that terrible disease." 
 
 "Taking all this into consideration, we request your 
 Excellency to release them on personal recognizance or 
 light bail; for they being economically as well as physically 
 ruined, are unable to provide large sums of money. The 
 preliminary investigation of this 'Affair of Dashnakt- 
 soutun' is already completed and the families of the prison- 
 ers are almost beside themselves with terror at the peril 
 to which their dear ones are now subjected." 3 
 
 Silence alone from the minister ! 
 
 This was but the natural horror due to natural conditions 
 alone, and yet the agents of tyranny are not satisfied and add 
 to it the artificial, the scourges, the straps and other varied 
 instruments of torture ! 
 
 Let the facts alone speak! 
 
 It was in the prison of Baku, that the agents of investi- 
 gation determined to hear secrets, to have G — M — utter words 
 of things not existing. The youth resisted with constancy 
 and continued mildness — the order was given and his head 
 compressed between clamps until he fainted. This was r e- 
 sumed again and again, while the torturers repeated the fateful 
 words: "You cannot be rid of us, until you confess your 
 guilt." 
 
 In another prison in Tiflis, the poor prisoner G — D — M — 
 was subjected to continuous flagellation with straps for two 
 weeks, while his poor body was covered with the swollen 
 welts, and yet his cruel tormentors would not cease. They 
 were exacting "Confessions!" 
 
 s In consequence of this telegram, so ominous in its portent of dis- 
 aster, one of the St. Petersburg papers, "Rech," published the following: 
 "The condition of the prisoners is indeed appalling and wholly desperate, 
 one cannot imagine how they incarcerate for years, poor wretches wasting 
 with disease in an overcrowded and wholly unsuitable place, casting fifty 
 into a cell and making them sleep on the bare, icy floor. In one corner 
 where Armenians from Hashdaekhan are, the place is called "Blacktown"" 
 on account of the darkness so great that even during day time the inmates 
 cannot see each others' faces without striking matches. Many in this cell 
 where Armenians from Hashdarkhan are, the place is called "Blacktown" 
 entered the prison healthy and strong and now many have their consti- 
 tutions ruined forever, and this is not the punishment of a sentence, but 
 merely preliminary imprisonment before the actual trial which frequently 
 proves them innocent. This is nothing less than the. execution of those 
 not yet convicted. It is not a preliminary incarceration, but a frightful 
 ordeal and a slow and gradual execution and, therefore, far worse."
 
 24 
 
 The prison of Rostove was the scene of more serious 
 cruelties. There was one victim, Mednikian, a lawyer who 
 protested his innocence, demanded investigation, asked for 
 trial. For trial, they gave him the whip, and for investigation, 
 revilings of the foulest language. The unfortunate man, horri- 
 fied and discouraged, went mad — and is now a helpless imbecile 
 wailing his grief. No one cares — "He is mad," they say, and 
 pass him by. 
 
 Insane is his neighbor, too, an exhausted old man, lean as 
 a skeleton, guardian of a cemetery, with no thoughts of this 
 world save the grave. They have arrested him also. He does 
 not know his guilt ; they have thrust him into a cell, he knows 
 not why, and they lashed and tormented him day after day. 
 Why ? God only knows — he scratched the walls with his nails 
 and roaring, raging and screaming, at last lost his mind. Now 
 when with tearful smile he demands his liberty, the jailer points 
 the whip to him. Is he not insane? 
 
 Here is another victim : The Reverend Nicholas Solo- 
 monian, a priest, from the village of Ganzak. They arrested, 
 stripped and tormented him, so that the grief -stricken Father 
 died without even knowing of what he was guilty. The poor 
 priest in his death agony, moaning and sobbing, told his fellow 
 prisoners who were the unwilling witnesses of his torture, that 
 he would soon pass away in death ; wept, begged for fresh air, 
 and uttering his wife's name, wished to kiss his children for 
 the last farewell — these young, inexperienced children who re- 
 ceived their father's dead body could not and never will realize 
 why he was arrested and tortured to death away from them in 
 a prison cell. 
 
 There were two deaths in the prison of Erivan. The vic- 
 tims being young men from Igtire, who died with their glaz- 
 ing eyes fixed on space, and their mute lips questioning "why?" 
 
 In the prison at Vladicaucus, a prisoner in his agony 
 roused his failing strength and said, "I know that I am soon 
 to die, but before I do I wish to know of what I am guilty." 
 
 He died, as did many others, with the question unan- 
 swered, and such will be the sad fate of many more. 
 
 And the survivors! Unfortunate witnesses of these un- 
 earthlv tragedies, viewing with fearful hearts the removal of
 
 25 
 
 the dead bodies from the prison and vowing vengeance, are 
 murmuring dejectedly: 
 
 "Perhaps tomorrow they may carry out our dead bodies, 
 and why?" 
 
 And one day the corpse was carried out. It was in front of 
 the door of the prison. A great multitude had swarmed around 
 since early morning and were now impatiently waiting, people 
 of every class and condition having hastened there. The old 
 village priest, who had come to see his son, the country woman 
 coming on foot from a distant village to enjoy at least a few 
 minutes with the son she had not seen for eight months, the 
 student, who with difficulty had obtained a license to see his 
 brother ; all of them pale, exhausted and weak with the scorch- 
 ing sun. Their hearts and minds all centered on the discolored 
 stones of the prison walls, and all with the same vain hope in 
 their breasts to see the beloved prisoners at least once, and to 
 hear from their lips one hope-inspiring word. 
 And now the doors are opened. 
 
 The crowd with throbbing hearts moved like a rolling 
 wave and presently fell back as if struck by a bolt of lightning, 
 absolutely petrified as there appeared a funeral casket, which 
 was placed in position by order of the priest who recited the 
 prayers, and all eyes were turned to him. 
 
 Who was lying there dead in the casket ? 
 "My son! My son!" screamed a woman from out of the 
 multitude, and the old woman threw herself on the bier like 
 a flash of lightning, with her bony arms embracing the casket 
 and kissing the cold face of her beloved dead son, now raising 
 her head and turning to the people around her and then with 
 yearning eyes turned heavenward, only to repeat her caresses 
 on the dead face before her, the climax of a mother's immense 
 and infinite grief — her cry "my son!" 
 
 That son whom she had come to see and enjoy, and now 
 only his dead body !
 
 26 
 
 THE REASONS. 
 
 I. — Internal. 
 
 Why so great severity, and why this gnashing of teeth 
 against a people who, although crushed in the talons of Oriental 
 despotism for untold years, has always been the pioneer of 
 Russian advancement, and the firm rampart on the two fron- 
 tiers against Mohammedan tyranny ? 
 
 Seek for the explanation in the Metropolis of the North, 
 where the jewels of State impudence are found guarded by 
 the agents of the central tyranny. 
 
 When the Russian throne came out unscathed of the de- 
 vouring flames of the Pan-Russian Revolution, the government 
 of the Tzar, instead of hearkening to the cries and needs of 
 the people, resorted, on the contrary, to a policy of deceit and 
 persecution. 
 
 The deceit is the Duma. 
 
 The persecution is the period of unlimited oppressions 
 under the pretence of the Duma, the like of which were un- 
 known even in the days of Pobiedonostzef under the reign of 
 Alexander III. 
 
 Persecution against individuals under the accusation of 
 being "Revolutionists." 
 
 Persecution against nations, under suspicion of being 
 "Separatists." 
 
 Prison ! Exile ! Gallows ! These were the only means of 
 smothering the liberty-inspiring breath in the North, where so 
 many hopes died unrevealed, and on the shores of the Volga, 
 which became the silent witness of the greatest crimes, at the 
 foot of the Caucasian Mountains where once inspiring songs 
 were written devoted to the White King Gaisson, and in the 
 cities of Poland, the overwhelming grief of which has fur- 
 nished material for long ages of history. 
 
 Finland, that knightly and quiet region, was one of the 
 first to suffer persecution, and in spite of the royal promises 
 the Finnish Constitution was abrogated and trampled upon. 4 
 
 4 We regret that the scope and plan of this booklet does not permit 
 our giving at least a brief sketch of these crimes and horrors of which 
 Finland, Poland and Central Russia were the stage.
 
 2 7 
 
 The Tzar had taken oath to be faithful to the Constitution, 
 and "he now retracts his promise," said the Prime Minister 
 of the Tzar, after which he was obliged to use a handker- 
 chief to wipe off the moisture from his brow, spat upon. 
 
 Then came Poland's turn! Who does not remember the 
 unchronicled terror for three years which scorched and seared 
 this doomed land, and buried in oblivion the date 1863 chron- 
 icled in history — crimes of which no gendarmerie was cog- 
 nizant. 
 
 After silencing these two distant parts, the present agent 
 of autocracy, Stolypin, extended his bloody hand over all Cen- 
 tral Russia — the heartstone of revolution. 
 
 What crimes unheard of ! The sight of the Russian ideal- 
 istic youth, fresh and revolting, hushed the storm and the 
 earth was reddened with their blood. 
 
 Once it was only St. Petersburg that had Petro-Povlovsk. 
 What an honor ! Now every city shares that honor by the Im- 
 perial sacred edict. 
 
 There was a time when execution, by bullet, was re- 
 served for exceptional "sins against the State." Now it is 
 the usual method for the execution of the lacos. 
 
 Once women were exempt from the tortures of imprison- 
 ment, but now the women also are surrendered to the Cossacks' 
 knout, kotard and spor. 
 
 The center was silenced and the Jews learned their "les- 
 son"; then St. Petersburg turned its leopard-eyes towards the 
 South, the foot of Ararat and Kasbik, whence came the ring- 
 ing sounds of the song of freedom, the brotherly echo of the 
 great song of the Pan-Russian Revolution. 
 
 Caucasus, that beautiful cradle of political love and 
 hatred, the scene of long ages of great Mohammedan and 
 Christian encounters, where Ararat, the historic domain of 
 the Biblical Ark, long waited but as yet was denied to enjoy 
 its dream of the emancipation of nations. 
 
 In that country of many languages and races, 5 the gov- 
 
 B In the Caucasus live these nations and races : Georgians, Armenians, 
 Russians, Tartars, Greeks, Kurds, Tats, Assyrians, Utis, Lesgies, Oses, 
 Abaz, Nogei, Avar, Lak, Potlich, Metz, Chechen, Apghaz, Lezgy, Circas- 
 sians, Germans, Moldavians, &c, aggregating ten millions of inhabitants, 
 of which six and one-half millions live in Trans-Caucasus, of whom the 
 principal elements are Georgians, Armenians and Tartars.
 
 28 
 
 ernment endeavored to follow a special programme, mean and 
 really criminal. 
 
 At first it endeavored to alienate the Georgians from the 
 Armenians. To that effect, promises were made to the Geor- 
 gian aristocracy, which unfortunately exerts considerable in- 
 fluence on the people, and they received all sorts of political 
 privileges. As soon as the Georgian community, encouraged 
 by these "special favors," started a small movement in Kauria 
 in the name of liberty, the "friendly" and "co-religious" gov- 
 ernment immediately flooded the unfortunate district with 
 regiments of soldiers and Cossacks, commanding them "to 
 suppress this movement by every means, sparing neither 
 life nor property," which command was effectually carried out 
 with fire and ruin, gun and sword, which killed the small 
 movement in this little unfortunate country completely. After 
 the ruin there came exile, and all throughout Georgia arose 
 the wail of horror. 
 
 Then came the turn to the Armenians ! 
 
 The Armenian inhabitants of Caucasus were the object 
 of the special enmity of St. Petersburg for a long time previ- 
 ously. The Governor-in-Chief, Golitzen, a peculiar type of the 
 unbridled Tchinovink, haughty, "causak" and tyrannical (this 
 was from 1897 to 1904), carried out the scheme; he armed 
 all the Caucasus against each other and disseminated the seeds 
 of enmity among the different nationalities, and, with the 
 willing aid of Von Pleve and Stolypin, succeeded in convincing 
 the central government that the chief controllers of the Ar- 
 menian movement and revolution were the Armenian clergy- 
 men, and that the furnace which furnished the fuel was the 
 Church — a very foolish and unwise idea worthy of its author. 
 The conclusion reached was that it "was necessary to confiscate 
 the property of the Church and thus weaken it." 
 
 On June 12th, 1903, came the supreme order "to confis- 
 cate the riches and property of the Churches and turn them 
 over to the government." 
 
 No petition, no protest, on the part of the Catholicos and 
 the people was of any avail — the tyrant was immovable ! An 
 extra military force was ordered to carry out this base edict 
 and well they did it, breaking in the doors of many churches
 
 2 9 
 
 and robbing them of their treasures. Even in the religious cen- 
 tre of Etchmeadzin, they broke open the safe of the monas- 
 tery. Many clergymen were imprisoned. 
 
 This vandalism, however, was ere long confronted with 
 indignation and bad revolts. The church yards with their moss- 
 covered walls were transformed into battlefields. Blood 
 flowed and corpses piled up around the monasteries, and the 
 spirit of resistance soared above the Armenians. 
 
 The tyrant was forced to yield ! 
 
 Before the end of the year, the property of the churches 
 was returned. The autocrat, however, did not forget his de- 
 feat, but kept it fast in his mind. "Who are these people who 
 dare to resist the soldiers of the Tzar? They must get their 
 'lesson' and they will." 
 
 They were waiting for the opportune moment. 
 
 Two years passed by. 
 
 The fire of revolution had surrounded the Russian do- 
 main and the government of the Tzar had hastened to crush 
 the Armenians as an important factor, so as to render them 
 helpless towards the general revolution now anticipated. In 
 effect, they put into execution a disastrous plan and conspiracy 
 to bring about an Armeno-Tartaric collision, by arming the 
 Tartar hordes and instigating them against the Armenians, 
 thus gaining the favor of the Mohammedan people and on 
 the other hand forcing the Armenian element to self-defense, 
 so that they could not, if they would, join the movement, even 
 with the smallest share. 
 
 This fiendish plot was prepared through the suggestions 
 of Von Pleve, and was entrusted to the agents of the criminal 
 Minister of the Caucasus to be fully carried out. 
 
 On a quiet day in Baku the Tartars, inflamed with the 
 Mohammedan spirit, attacked the Armenian quarters without 
 cause or reason. 
 
 This was on February 6th, 1905. 
 
 General astonishment prevailed. Notwithstanding the 
 supplications and applications for help made by the Armeni- 
 ans, the police remained both indifferent and inactive. In- 
 stead of preventing the bloodshed the police, on the contrary,
 
 3° 
 
 encouraged the Mohammedan Beys and the mob, and the 
 clash of battle extended from one end of the Trans-Caucasus 
 to the other. After Baku, came Erivan, Nakhitchevan, Shou- 
 shi, Ganzak, to be the said scenes of unimaginable misfortune 
 and calamity. 
 
 Once more the blood flowed. 
 
 The cities were reduced to ashes. The roaring of guns 
 filled the villages. The conflagration consumed whole quar- 
 ters. The scythes of the quiet villagers were discarded for 
 swords. On every side ruin and desolation reigned supreme.' 
 
 Once more, however, the bullets failed; again with self 
 devotion defensive ranks were formed. Side by side stood the 
 brave people. More than fifteen thousand men sallied out from 
 their generous bosom and enlisted under the flag of resistance 
 to teach their lesson to the Tartaric invasion. Force, united, 
 with the great idea, carried forward its great role of warning. 
 The conspiring government "held its tongue in leash," while 
 all their sombre forces tried their utmost to drench the quiet 
 fields of labor with the blood and tears of their foes, but when 
 vanquished they became as humble as infants and as soft as a 
 summer breeze, — this was their lesson of the revolution. 
 
 After this sad, fratracidal conflict was over the sealed 
 lips were free and even from among the Tartars themselves, 
 there came out fearless men and good citizens who had the 
 courage to speak out the truth boldly. 
 
 On June ioth, 1906, the governor of Goutsak Alftan went 
 out to visit the ruined places and when in the city of Khozah, 
 
 • In the years 1905 and 1906 at the sad conflicts of the Armenians and 
 the Tartars 286 villages were sacked and ruined of which number 128 
 were inhabited by Armenians, 158 by Turks. The number of injured 
 families was 14760. Of these 7265 were Armenians, while 7495 Tartars. 
 
 The destroyed cities were Baku, Shushy, Ganzak, Erivan, Hin 
 Nakhitchevan, Khazak and Tiflis. The number of injured is again im- 
 mense. 
 
 The number of Armenians killed are the following: Baku, 176; 
 Shushy, 126; Ganzak, 132; Hin Nakhitchevan, 55. The villages around 
 Shushy, 160; Minken, 198. The villages of Ganzak, 212. The villages of 
 Nakhitchevan, 114. 
 
 The number of Tartars killed was still greater, but we have no 
 statistics because the Mohammedans, according to some strange custom, 
 conceal everything pertaining to the number killed and other such infor- 
 mations.
 
 3* 
 
 among the crowd gathered on a public square, a Turkish Bey 
 came forth and addressed the Governor in the following words : 
 
 "Your Excellency is viewing the city of Khazah, 
 which was orderly and populous, seven or eight months 
 ago, but now it is destroyed and ruined, for which we are 
 not responsible ; but the arbitrary Judge Orlov, now stand- 
 ing by you; was the one who induced, nay, forced us, to 
 massacre the Armenians, unsparingly, without distinc- 
 tion of age or sex, telling us that it was the wish of the 
 government." 
 
 In a more severe and scathing language spoke another 
 Tartar, Representative Ziatkhanov, in one of the sessions of the 
 Duma; June 12th, 1906. 
 
 He said : 
 
 "The officers of the government ruined Georgia, that 
 beautiful country; through their soldiers they provoked 
 the Mussulmans and the Armenians, inciting them to 
 massacre each other. 
 
 "I declare from this pulpit that there never had been 
 any enmity between Tartars and Armenians on economical 
 grounds alone, we had been living together as good 
 neighbors and liked each other, there had not been any 
 armed collisions, and if cases of murder happened they 
 were single exceptions, and never assumed any great 
 proportions. 
 
 "Our officials and generals have proved their incompe- 
 tency, for two entire years we have been literally swim- 
 ming in a sea of blood up to our knees, and walking over 
 carcasses. 
 
 "Make them retire, and quit their posts immediately ; 
 we have seen enough of the flames and conflagrations, and 
 we have seen enough of the sad picture of falling bodies 
 and listened to the mourning wails, and sobs, of unfortu- 
 nate mothers. More than enough !" 
 
 What an awful sentence of condemnation! 
 
 Did the government chief blush ? Did his criminal hands 
 tremble, — those hands which signed the decrees of death ? No ! 
 No ! Furious in his defeat, the tyrant roared : 
 
 "It is necessary to beat down that force, to bridle that 
 arrogant people."
 
 32 
 
 II. — External . 
 
 Beginning with 1907, to the internal reasons were now 
 added the external. Political and important changes beyond 
 the frontier in Persia and in Turkey. 
 
 The wave of liberty and a constitution at last reached the 
 doors of the palace of Shahinshah! The slumbering people 
 for ages were now awakening, rebels appeared against the mon- 
 arch of Teheran. The government of St. Petersburg, disturbed 
 by the unexpected awakening on the soil of Persia, sent troops 
 to Salmast, Tauriz and Racht, and agents to Teheran to keep 
 the road of his invasion open to Azerbajan, on which its eyes 
 had been fixed for a century. Meanwhile it endeavored vainly 
 to check the liberal movement, the echo of which was heard 
 with great joy in the mountain chains of the Caucasus. 
 
 In Persia also where the melody of liberty was ringing 
 from the cleft citadel of tyranny, now strong, then sad, there 
 stood against the triumphant soldiers of the Tzar, side by side 
 with the sons of Iran, the Armenian, flag in hand, and with 
 his breast bared to the bullet. 
 
 The Armenians of Azerbajan, although small in numbers 
 and in strength, considered it unworthy of them not to par- 
 ticipate in the movement of freedom, and they sent what aid 
 they could to the army of the constitution. The Armenian 
 revolutionists, with the Mohammedan and Georgian soldiers of 
 liberty from Caucasus, gave not only their money and property, 
 but their very life and blood, and their body to the pedestal 
 of this great monument of Freedom. And even in Teheran, 
 the leader of the Constitutionalist soldiers is a modest Ar- 
 menian, named Eprem, who with the aid of Armenian war- 
 riors is resisting the reactionary army and the foreign in- 
 vaders. 
 
 "Armenians again!" 
 
 The tyranny of St. Petersburg exclaims in a wild fury, 
 and full of venomous hatred : "They must be destroyed until 
 not a trace of them remains!" 
 
 "The Armenians here also!" 
 
 Reports the Russian ambassador of Constantinople, shame- 
 stricken and envious of the fact, that, while on the shores of
 
 33 
 
 the Neva the Duma is but a shadow, in the hands of Cossacks, 
 on the shores of the Bosphorus, yesterday's fortress of the 
 Ottoman Nero, the song of liberty is resounding since the 
 month of July, 1908, and Yeldiz has fallen a captive in the 
 hands of the awakened people. 
 
 Yeldiz has surrendered ! The Parliament is open ! There 
 is liberty of speech and of the press. The criminal is in prison 
 and beside all this, new hopes and labor thrive in the name of 
 the new tomorrow and regeneration. These are facts that are 
 unendurable for the rotten bureaucracy, monarchical, and 
 despotic, to their very marrow. 
 
 The agents of this bureaucracy, some in Constantinople 
 as ambassadors, others as consuls in Asia Minor are insisting 
 obstinately that it is the Armenians who are directing the 
 new regime. It was the Armenian revolution that harmonized 
 all of the various elements and deposed the monarch, and 
 especially it is the Armenians who are propagating and dis- 
 seminating an anti-Russian spirit in the Ottoman Empire. 
 Imbued with this detestable conviction the agents of the Tzar, 
 since 1909, have spared neither money nor medals, to carry out 
 their plots, to rouse the ignorant Turks and Kurds against 
 the Armenians, thus hoping to strike a blow at the infant con- 
 stitution. 
 
 In Caucasus it is the Armenian ! In Persia the Armenian ! 
 In Turkey the Armenian ! It is the diplomatic nightmare of the 
 deplorable government of the North, which exists by "non- 
 existent facts," and which desires to be revenged by destroy- 
 ing and crushing the Armenian heart and mind — the Armenian 
 who has no sin on his head nor responsibility for the past. 
 
 What a change of role ! 
 
 In Constantinople, the cradle of the Hamidian Crime, 
 the stammering voice of freedom is ringing out, while the 
 fatherland of Bushkin, Gertsin, Tolstoi and Karaev, the scene 
 of heroic struggles, is reduced to the place of torture where 
 the prisons are as full as the temples are on festal days. 
 
 In Turkey, yesterday's land of dungeons, there are no 
 political prisoners, while in Russia there is not a single prison 
 that has a vacant cell or corner. Once it was in Caucasus 
 that the Armenians of Turkey sought refuge! Now it is in
 
 34 
 
 Turkey and Constantinople that the Caucasus Armenian seeks 
 shelter to be free from prison and torture; from exile and 
 Siberia. 
 
 There was a time when from St. Petersburg and Cauca- 
 sus went forth protest and contempt against the Ottoman 
 Neroism, and now it is from Byzantium that protest is heard 
 against that crime which means torture and persecution for 
 the Armenian and shame and insult for the Russian mind and 
 name. 
 
 Unfortunate Russia! 
 
 Turkey, that had no credit and benighted Iran, are both 
 constitutional countries and have their own parliament! The 
 Sultan and the Shah are exiled, while great Russia is but the 
 realm of tyranny. 
 
 What an insult! and it is the "different elements of vari- 
 ous races" that are to expiate that insult. 
 
 That is the explanation and also the reason in its brief 
 outline.
 
 35 
 
 THE INVESTIGATION. 
 
 The premeditated "political" system made one predict that 
 this great affair will not be based on serious judicial investiga- 
 tion within the limits of law and conscience, but, on the con- 
 trary, it will be managed from political viewpoints according 
 to the instructions given by the supreme secret police. 
 
 This happened! 
 
 The "affair" was committed to Legine. 
 
 Who is Legine? He is the representative type of the Chi- 
 novnik, having but one purpose, to be exalted; one ambition, 
 to be exalted ; and one way, to be exalted ! An officer of po- 
 lice, but not a judge; a searcher, but not an investigator! He 
 was an insignificant searcher, and was notorious in the affair 
 known as "the Republic of Novorosk," where he forged all 
 the papers, created new writings with capricious additions to 
 existing accusations against the defendants, and for all that, 
 instead of being subjected to condemnation, which was de- 
 manded even from the nostrum of the Duma, he was praised 
 and his work approved by the Minister of Justice, Schteglovi- 
 tov, and he was promoted to one of the pillars of the govern- 
 ment police. Afterwards, when many innocent victims were 
 condemned to the gallows, and others were exiled through his 
 criminal investigation, he was rewarded by being put in charge 
 of the new "political" affair, to prove his zeal. And he hopes 
 through the services rendered to the revolutionary oligarchy 
 of St. Petersburg to rise by the bloody steps to the post of 
 Attorney General, and thence, perhaps, to the Minister's chair, 
 which is star-studded, and so lucrative a post in Russia. 
 
 Many protests were made by the community and the 
 prisoners, against the guilty actions of the police judge, but 
 he remained in his position defended by bands of hired de- 
 tectives and with singular levity and bold manner he is safe 
 in his citadel, surrounded by the police, from where he issues 
 criminal orders, each even worse than the other. 
 
 Here, in the investigation, is it always the same old 
 "comedy," or is it a sad tragedy, performed in the name, but 
 under the mask of justice?
 
 36 
 
 Seated in his great chair, the investigator with inhuman 
 severity presumes that he is the little Tzar of Great Russia and 
 acts the part. Opposite sits an officer of gendarmerie, an ex- 
 pert in plots and arrests. In the corners stand the interpre- 
 ters, with keen scenting noses, and bowing heads, ever ready 
 machines to materialize on paper all sorts of lies, and to com- 
 plete the picture there is the representative of justice, the At- 
 torney General, silent and mysterious as the Sphinx. 
 
 "If I were the minister," roared the investigator, jumping 
 from his chair like a madman, "I would destroy and annihilate 
 the Armenian language; its literature, its church, its theatre. 
 I would scatter the Armenians all over Russia and that would 
 end the Armenian movement, this great danger to the State." 
 
 "It is not you, but we, Mr. Investigator! We the guiltless 
 sinners that are hounded as political plotters and subject to 
 imprisonment and exile, for the mere sympathy we entertain 
 for the just cause of an oft-tormented people." 
 
 The Attorney General interfered and the storm passed by. 
 
 "You are guilty on the following counts" began the in- 
 vestigator resuming his harangue, "You have bought arms in 
 illegal ways; you have armed the people, and have sent part 
 to Armenia, in Turkey; you have organized armed bands; 
 founded a secret printing house and are publishing prohibited 
 papers in the name of your secret society, of which you are 
 a member, and finally you are guilty of a number of terrors 
 aimed at the officials of the State." 
 
 This is a well-known phrase prepared in the offices of the 
 gendarmerie and proposed to every arrested person. Years 
 and years ago, when they pushed to the foreground the awk- 
 ward suspicion that the Armenians were demanding an "inde- 
 pendent kingdom," the government of Caucasus reported to 
 the central government that, Trans-Caucasus was the "heart" 
 of the movement, and that the residence of every young man 
 was a store for arms and headquarters for warriors. 
 
 Orders came from St. Petersburg, and the investigation 
 was started. They were convinced that they would find thou- 
 sands of guns, hundreds of thousands of cartridges and would 
 open up safes of dynamite, secret printing houses, and a strong, 
 organized conspiracy against the State, with a separatistic pro- 
 gram.
 
 37 
 
 The hopes of the gendarmerie were not justified, and hence 
 the source of their entanglement and anger. 
 
 "If you have called us to be tried, Mr. Investigator, simply 
 to pile accusation upon accusation upon us, without listening 
 to our explanations, then all this is of no avail. Shut us up in 
 the prison or send us to exile, as already" 
 
 "Return to prison," the investigator interrupted wildly. 
 "I know that you wish to create an independent Armenia and 
 rule over others as we Russians do. But you seriously mis- 
 take. The friendship of England will not avail you, and we 
 do not wish to give Armenia to you. We are going to possess 
 it and annex it to Caucasus. See ! the railway is ready on the 
 frontier, and we are waiting for an occasion to send troops 
 to Turkey." 
 
 After a short pause, he continued : 
 
 "If you do not confess within three days, I am going to 
 shut you up in the prison for a year, two years, I will deprive 
 you of food and bed. I will not allow any communication or 
 petition or protest to come to me, nor allow any cummunica- 
 tion with your relatives and friends. I will do whatever I 
 wish to do with you to help realize my purpose." 
 
 He attained his desire, and "he magnified the flea to 
 the size of a camel." He manufactured the impossible. He 
 at last wrote a history, each page sadder than the other, and 
 he made up his lines from what did not exist. 
 
 To complete the picture, some more features will be given, 
 taken, as always, from the facts. 
 
 The well-known Armenian writer, Aharonian, was ar- 
 rested and was kept for two years in prison for the reason that 
 as a member of a delegation sent by the Catholics of the Ar- 
 menians, he presented himself to the conference at The Hague, 
 the chairman of which was Count Nelidoff himself, the ambas- 
 sador of the Tzar. 
 
 An Armenian millionaire, Melik Azarian, an old man of 
 sixty, was cast into prison simply for the reason that he had 
 transferred money several times through his business office.
 
 38 
 
 Dr. Atabekian remained in prison two years under the ac- 
 cusation of committing certain crimes in Shoushi although he 
 presented irrefutable proofs that he was in Baku and not in 
 Shoushi at the time. 
 
 A youth, B. M., eighteen years old, is now imprisoned for 
 the "terrors" he is charged with having committed in 1905, 
 when this formidable terrorist was but thirteen years old. 
 
 Ohanjanian, an able physician, has been pining away 
 in prison for three years under the accusation of par- 
 ticipating in a meeting held in Vlatikavkas, notwithstanding the 
 fact that he has never been in that city and therefore could 
 not possibly have had any share in it. 
 
 Tateosian, an officer, was imprisoned two years, for the 
 sole reason that the name Tateosian was mentioned in some 
 suspicious telegram. 
 
 Etgarvian, an old man of seventy, was arrested, confined 
 and tortured in prison, simply because one of his employes 
 was a revolutionist. He was released, under heavy bail, but 
 died soon after. 
 
 We could mention many more instances as sad as those 
 but there is no end to them. 
 
 No alibi! No official, or even conclusive proof, demon- 
 strating that the accused person could not possibly have been 
 in a said place at the said time received any attention from the 
 police investigator who ordered them imprisoned, surrounded 
 by an awesome silence, while his lowering glances looked for 
 some utterance which might be racked from them. 
 
 Indirect prosecutions also were inaugurated. 
 
 In some of the villages of Ganzak they threatened to 
 arrest women if their husbands refused to present themselves 
 to the police. In many places they arrested the innocent bro- 
 ther in order to compel the accused brother to come forward 
 and surrender. A letter, or some incidental writing was a 
 sufficient reason to issue an order for imprisonment. In one 
 of the villages of Erivan a poor man was arrested and pro- 
 nounced guilty for having convoyed a traveller on his horse, 
 because the traveller was suspected to be a "revolutionist."
 
 39 
 
 Here is a characteristic instance. 
 
 One day a young investigator, as yet uncorrupted by the 
 police atmosphere, was conversing with the Governor-in-Chief 
 of Ganzak, regarding the arrest of an Armenian bishop. 
 
 "In the absence of any positive proof," he said, "I am hesi- 
 tating about ordering him under arrest." 
 
 "Is the bishop young?" asked the Governor-in-Chief. 
 
 "Yes, he is hardly twenty-nine years of age." 
 
 "If he is young, he must be guilty, arrest him!" 
 
 Such is the policy of Legine. 
 
 Another example: One night the police rushed into the 
 house of a lady, by the orders of Legine, and for a time the 
 house was in a state of confusion, and children were crying. 
 
 "What do you wish?" asked the lady of these dreadful 
 visitors. 
 
 "Where is your husband, Davtian, we are looking for 
 him." 
 
 Confused, and with tears in her eyes, she answered : 
 
 "Oh, how happy I would be if I could send you where he 
 is! He is in his grave!" 
 
 Davtian had died eight years ago, in 1903. 
 
 But neither this shameful rebuff nor hundreds of similar 
 defeats could halt the investigator in his devilish cunning. On 
 the contrary, he became more haughty and aggressive. He 
 ordered the arrest of the living instead of the dead. The rela- 
 tives instead of the missing ones; this without proof and 
 without proper inquiry. 
 
 Real investigation there was none, but the so-called inves- 
 tigation of Legine lasted over two years and a half, and as a 
 result one hundred volumes were written, with more than one 
 thousand pages to each volume, an eternal monument of lies 
 and deceit.
 
 40 
 
 THE AFFAIR OF DASHNAKTSOUTUN. 
 
 Thus an entire nation composed of various classes is put 
 on the bench of accusation by an unwise government. A singu- 
 lar phase in the annals of political trials, singular in the utter 
 groundlessness of the accusations and even more singular in its 
 external form. 
 
 Be it even the Tsar as the head of injustice, or Stolypin 
 as the inspirer, or Legine as the executor. Bear in mind that 
 to accuse a whole nation is a most unwise and disturbing thing, 
 which puts its author in an untenable position. It is utterly 
 impossible that a revolutionary movement against the State 
 and government should join such elements and classes which 
 in their social position represent diverse opinions and views. 
 
 It is on account of this fact that the group of police 
 judges were obliged to disguise under a party name the perse- 
 cution they had inauguarated against a whole nation; so they 
 called it the "Dashnaktsoutun Affair." 
 
 What is Dashnaktsoutun? 
 
 It is an Armenian revolutionary party, organized in 1890, 
 twenty years ago, having as its aim the political liberty of the 
 Armenians in Turkey, and as means to that end the revolution- 
 ary struggle, and as applied method the solidarity of all the 
 nationalities in Turkey. It was founded in the Caucasus, but 
 it was working for the Armenians in Turkey. Most of its 
 money, arms, and forces were furnished from the Caucasus, 
 but were used in Turkey which was chained by Hamid's hands. 
 
 The Russian monarchical bureaucracy, beginning from 
 1890, often dealt blows to the Armenians of the Caucasus, but 
 the Dashnaktsoutun never deviated from its aim, and did 
 not enter into any conflict with the Russian authorities until 
 1903, when the news of the confiscation of the property of 
 the churches excited and so disturbed the Armenians and com- 
 pelled the Dashnaktsoutun, as a servant of their people, and, 
 as a body born of the people, to stand by them and defend their 
 violated rights. 
 
 Two years later, in 1905, at the period of the breaking out 
 of the Pan-Russian Revolution, when the agents of the Tsar 
 created the Tartar-Armenian collisions, the Armenian party
 
 4i 
 
 participated in that conflict, inevitably, and thus began its ac- 
 tivity in the Caucasus, also, as a revolutionary and socialistic 
 organization. At the convention of the party which convened 
 in Vienna in 1907, their tactics were approved and adopted 
 as a direct result of the severe persecutions to which the Ar- 
 menians in the Caucasus were subjected. 
 
 The October constitution, drawing a veil over the past, 
 officially recognized this situation. The government not only 
 failed to persecute the Dashnaktsoutun and other political or- 
 ganizations, but permitted them to come forward and be rec- 
 ognized politically in the country. 
 
 Thus, in 1905, during the conflicts between the Armen- 
 ians and the Tartars, the supreme authority itself distributed 
 arms through the police-commissioner, Tsis, to the Dashnakt- 
 soutun and to social democrats to defend Tiflis, where the vic- 
 eroy sits, against the invasions of Tartars. 
 
 In 1906, when the representatives of Tartars and Ar- 
 menians convened at the palace of the viceroy, Vorontsov- 
 Dashkov, under the chairmanship of General Malhama, the 
 representatives of the Dashnaktsoutun were invited to the of- 
 ficial convention. 
 
 Beginning from 1905, in the election of the Duma in the 
 Caucasus, the Dashnaktsoutun came forward as a separate 
 body, the government recognized officially their electioneering 
 campaign, and those elected were recognized in the Duma as 
 the representatives of the Dashnaktsoutun and now they form 
 a special faction in the Ottoman Parliament. 
 
 From the same year, 1905, onwards all over the Caucasus, 
 in almost all its districts, the governors, governors-in-chief, as 
 well as the police officials have often entered into official rela- 
 tions with members and the governing bodies of the organiza- 
 tion, and have requested its assistance and advice. 
 
 Thus it remained from 1905 to 1908, after which the 
 attitude of the government changed. They began to perse- 
 cute the Armenian organization not only from 1908 onward, 
 but went back to years past, beginning with 1903, and even 
 further back than that, having forgotten that in the past the 
 same government had itself, on many occasions both officially 
 and unofficially in the life of the State, recognized the activity 
 of the Dashnaktsoutun and its right of existence.
 
 42 
 
 There is, however, a more important point. 
 
 There is a secret which the government of the Tsar wishes 
 to conceal forever in its chambers, but which must be brought 
 out for the sake of those innocent people who suffer in the 
 prisons. 
 
 It was in March, 1908, that a rumor was circulated of a 
 probable war between Russia and Turkey with Bulgaria's par- 
 ticipation. Bulgaria would attack Turkey from Macedonia, 
 while the Russian soldiers would capture the village of Erzroum 
 in Asia Minor. The government at St. Petersburg began 
 sending ammunition to the frontier, and centralized forces near 
 
 Kars. 
 
 In this important moment it was the desire of St. Peters- 
 burg to ascertain what would be the attitude of the Armeni- 
 ans of the Caucasus. For this purpose special military offi- 
 cers were sent from St. Petersburg to the Caucasus, by the 
 military authorities, at the suggestion of the Minister for For- 
 eign Affairs. The mission of these emissaries was to enter 
 into relation with the governing bodies, and the representa- 
 tives of the Dashnaktsoutun, in order to ascertain the attitude 
 of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation in case of war. 
 
 To fulfil this important mission the military and civil rep- 
 resentatives of St. Petersburg made overtures in a very cour- 
 teous manner and did not forget to be very lavish in their 
 sympathy and appreciation and respect for the Armenian 
 people and for their organizations. The Dashnaktsoutun re- 
 plied that its attitude would largely depend as to how the 
 political question of the Armenians should end in Turkey. 
 Fortunately, war was avoided by outside pressure, and the 
 negotiations came to an end. 
 
 Now, the question arises: By what logic does the gov- 
 ernment which in the beginning of 1908 was in amicable nego- 
 tiation with Dashnaktsoutun suddenly turns towards the end 
 of the same year and begins an unutterable and unnatural per- 
 secution, not only for deeds committed during 1908, but also 
 for deeds supposed to have been committed from eight to ten 
 years prior to the negotiations. 
 
 It is a curious and rapid change even for monarchical 
 tactics. It is a mean political conspiracy, the bitter fruits of
 
 43 
 
 which are enjoyed today by the deluded Armenian people. And 
 how serious is the contrast of facts. 
 
 The government which in 1904 returned the confiscated 
 property of the churches, actually confessed the justice of the 
 demands of the Armenians. But in 1908 it imprisoned innocent 
 men with the accusation that they had supported the cause of 
 the Church. 
 
 In 1906 the government, itself, distributed arms to the 
 Armenian organization to defend Tiflis. In 1908 the same 
 men, and many others, who belong to the Dashnaktsoutun, 
 were arrested as authors of illegal and guilty actions. 
 
 In 1906 was held the Central Convention of the Armeni- 
 ans, with the permission of the Catholicos of the Armenians, 
 and with the knowledge of the police. But those who partici- 
 pated in that convention are pursued as dangerous socialists 
 and revolutionists in 1908. 
 
 In the beginning of 1908 the government had entered 
 into secret negotiations with the party for very important and 
 secret affairs of the State, while toward the end of the same 
 year those who belonged and even many who did not belong 
 to the same party are put in chains as dangerous terrorists 
 and political agitators, deserving the gallows and exile. 
 
 The government which negotiated with the socialist or- 
 ganization and the representatives who sat face to face with 
 the delegates of the same party in the Duma in the beginning 
 of 1908, toward the end of 1908 undertook an unprecedented 
 persecution against the Dashnaktsoutun, for the reason that 
 it was preaching socialism and that in the days of affliction it 
 stood by the people, in their defense, resorting even to "ter- 
 rorism," which was necessitated by the bloody and stern real- 
 ities. 
 
 So it was that in the wild outburst in 191 o, youths barely 
 eighteen and nineteen years old today, were accused of com- 
 mitting terrors in 1 903-1 904, when they were mere lads of 
 thirteen and fourteen, playing and catching ball, like school- 
 boys. 
 
 This criminal deceit, practiced for years, and the present 
 persecution, following the policy of deceit, is an indelible stain 
 on the record of even a monarchical government, a black stain
 
 44 
 
 which should be washed out, not by the blood of the perse- 
 cuted and innocent victims, but by the blood of those who are 
 the authors of the criminal policy. 
 
 The great task of rehabilitation is left to the Russian 
 court, which, defective and police-bound as it is, is called upon 
 to uphold the torch of justice and become the shelter of the 
 innocent. 
 
 The court! 
 
 This is what in three years of protest, in tears, in silence, 
 and in vain appeal, has been the constant demand of the Ar- 
 menians behind the locked doors, and the Armenians in the 
 Caucasus and throughout the world. 
 
 There is no court, because the heroes of the sad tragedy 
 know by sad experience that in the court proofs are required — 
 proofs which can stand the inquisition of the law. 
 
 For this reason they are postponing the trial in order .that 
 in the prison cells they may smother the consciences of the 
 revolters, and terrify the whole Armenian people, hoping thus 
 to quench the last breath, which has incurred the hatred of 
 Russian despotism, from Finland to the land of Ararat. 
 
 For this same reason the government police is endeavor- 
 ing to conduct the trial behind closed doors, through which the 
 watchful eyes of the people and especially those of foreign 
 nations, cannot penetrate and disclose the terrible proofs of 
 disturbing justice. 
 
 Will they succeed?
 
 45 
 
 THE MONARCHICAL RUSSIAN 
 BUREAUCRACY. 
 
 There was a time when the Trans-Caucasus was the cen- 
 ter of the Russophile winds. All the races, and all Christian 
 nations turned their eyes towards the Eagle of the North. 
 
 With an inexplicable historic foolishness, the Caucasus — 
 "The Wild Land" — was a place of exile for the Russians in 
 the beginning of the nineteenth century. To the Caucasus 
 were exiled all the undesirable military and civil officials, also 
 those restless poets — Poushkin, Lermondov, to atone for their 
 "sins." And again to the Caucasus, in 1863, were exiled all 
 the political agitators of Poland to bewail their fond dreams 
 of liberty. 
 
 The exile, however, loved the Caucasus instead of hating 
 it. They say the beautiful country, with its charming moun- 
 tains, the stupendous Mount Massis with its white-crowned 
 peak, the proud Kasbek, the penitentiary of invincible Prome- 
 theus, who stole from Heaven the fire of freedom. They saw 
 the ever-smiling Gour, they saw Araxes, with its sad mem- 
 ories! and they saw the land of the nightingale and the rose 
 and they liked it. 
 
 They saw, also, the people of various tribes and languages, 
 who were full of love toward the "White Tzar," and trusting 
 in the northerners, even in the Christian Cossacks. The exiles 
 enjoyed everywhere, in the cities and villages, love, respect, 
 and unreserved friendship. No wedding in the distant village, 
 no ceremony of baptism in the city, no gathering whatsoever, 
 without a blessing and cheering for the Tzar. The aged priest 
 raising the first cup would pronounce the following words in 
 fervent faith : "May God keep firm the throne of the Russian 
 King!" 
 
 But now? 
 
 All is hatred, scorn and vengeance. Hatred toward the 
 Russian Chinovnig, enmity toward the Russian officers, mili- 
 tary or civil, regrets for the past, and revenge for the coming 
 days.
 
 46 
 
 The chief reason for this state of affairs is the destruc- 
 tive spirit of the bureaucracy of the Tzar. Its unrestrained 
 persecution of what is not Russian but local, a spirit which is 
 as narrow as the mind of a Cossack, rude as a soldier and 
 irritating as a master itself — a spirit of incarnate prejudice 
 and partiality, of contempt for local languages, enmity toward 
 their letters, hatred of other nationalities and insult to other 
 religions. 
 
 In addition to this the Chinovnig, great or small, is bribed 
 and is lazy, wanton and wicked ; unacquainted with the country, 
 he is to govern and therefore he cannot but inspire hatred 
 toward what is Russian, and everything concerned with its 
 government. 
 
 The past history of the Russian dominion revealed a bitter 
 truth. The Russian was strong and charming as a military 
 force. 
 
 Situated on the border of two Mohammedan countries, 
 enslaved and oppressed under the tyranny of the Shahs and 
 the Sultans, the Armenians and the Georgians were both as- 
 piring to come under the domain of Christian Russia, under 
 whose sovereignty they thought they would enjoy political 
 peace and rest. And it is not a secret that it was the Georgians 
 of the Caucasus who, with the aid and encouragement of the 
 Armenians, paved the road of the Russian domination toward 
 the valleys of Gour and Araxes. In Tiflis, on the "Temple of 
 Glory,'' which stands in the center of the city, and which is 
 the museum of the Russian Military Victory, the following 
 words are inscribed from the edict of Alexander I, addressed 
 to Georgia in 1801 : 
 
 "It is neither for our own interest, nor for the ex- 
 tension of the limits of our domain, that we undertake the 
 hard task of controlling the Georgian Kingdom. It is 
 humanity and kindness that obliges us to listen to the 
 supplication of the suffering people, and establish in 
 Georgia a just government." 
 
 And in the first period, which was the military period, the 
 Russian government was attractive, the Russian soldier was 
 liked. Military authorities, either to gain a firm foothold in 
 the newly subjugated country, or, perhaps, sincerely respect-
 
 47 
 
 ing the native people of the country, its life and its customs, 
 were trusted implicitly. The central government also, did not 
 miss any opportunity to bring in close relation the remote 
 regions and the center of its domain. 
 
 Alexander I went personally to Etchmiadsin, the relig- 
 ious center of the Armenians, to pay an official visit. There 
 existed a close intimacy in Tiflis between the Georgian aristoc- 
 racy and the royal family. The Armenian Catholicos and the 
 Viceroy of the Caucasus were often most friendly, for in- 
 stance: Nerses and Voronstovo. The Catholicos Nerses himself 
 at the head of the Armenian volunteers, fought against Per- 
 sia in 1827 to extend the Russian dominion as far as old 
 Nakhitchevan and Araxes. 
 
 The Georgians gave to the Russian army brilliant gener- 
 als, whose efforts helped greatly in the capture of the Oriental 
 Caucasus. And from the Armenians sprang forth famous 
 military men: Lois-Melikoff, Lazarian, Der-Ghoukasian and 
 Shekovnikoff who fought against Turkey in the war of 1878 
 and caused her defeat. 
 
 But when the second period arrived, the period of so- 
 called peaceful advancement, the period of the Chinoving was 
 ushered in, when everything was undone. The bureaucracy 
 subverted what the military authorities had built up. The 
 Chinovnig is incapable of creation, and government; he can 
 only command, Russianize, and open an impassable chasm be- 
 tween the various elements. Not only the sword but even the 
 law became a cause of estrangement. The court, the capitol, 
 the police-station, were reduced to places of deceit, bribery, and 
 horror. The people were looked down upon and began to fear, 
 to detest, and hate, and finally to retire. 
 
 Add to this the anti-national, and anti-demotratic spirit 
 which is the core and marrow of the Russian bureaucracy. In 
 Poland they hate the Poles; in Finland they are enemies 
 of the Finns, in the Caucasus they cannot endure the sight of 
 Armenians, and it is this policy, systematically pursued, which 
 has created what we witness now, — enmity instead of friend- 
 ship, hatred instead of sympathy. 
 
 A brief comparison. 
 
 In the old period Voronstov was intrusted with the duty 
 of attracting the local elements, while in the new period
 
 4 8 
 
 Golitzin was commissioned to suppress the local nationalities. 
 Voronstov opened schools. Golitzin closed 260 Armenian 
 schools in one year. 
 
 In the past the government was the connecting link be- 
 tween native races. Now it is a disrupting poison. 
 
 Once officials came from St. Petersburg and Moscow 
 to establish rule and order, now come thousands of spies to fill 
 the dungeons with prisoners. 
 
 Once Armenian and Georgian volunteers were the flower 
 of the army and were assigned the chief place during official 
 receptions, now the police push the people aside, using whips, 
 during the receptions of the Governors-in-Chief. There was a 
 time when all Tiflis rose to receive the Exarch, the head, of the 
 Orthodox Church, while in 1808 the Exarch was assassinated 
 and none but the officials and the police were present at his 
 funeral procession. 
 
 In the olden times men used to run to the police and to 
 the gendarmerie, while in danger, but now they flee away from 
 them, as from a pestilence. 
 
 Up to 1870 Russia was a land of learning and advance- 
 ment but now it is a barrier against, advancement. 
 
 Once the government was a welcome guest. But now ? 
 
 An aged Armenian officer, whose grandfather was for- 
 merly in the Russian army and present at the capture of 
 Garabag, said on his death-bed : 
 
 "I do not wish to die before I see the Russians exit from 
 the Caucasus. Then only can I rest." 
 
 The forefathers invited and welcomed the Russians! 
 
 Their grandsons would rejoice at their absence. 
 
 This is the fruit of the despotic and destructive regime. 
 It made the Russians miserable in their own land — that ocean 
 of grief and oppression; and it spreads poison and hatred 
 among foreign peoples, everywhere wherever reaches the 
 breath of the tyrannical regime.
 
 49 
 
 A VOICE OF PROTEST. 
 
 What tears around the prisons! What sobs and sighs 
 along the roads of exile! What bitter supplications near the 
 walls of police stations! and endless hours of waiting at the 
 doors of the investigator. 
 
 The police and the investigator! 
 
 Each are Tzars, in their circles of influence, silent when 
 they should answer, roaring and raging when they should be 
 silent. 
 
 The same scene everywhere. Wives, sisters, brothers, 
 sons, who have come from who knows from what state nor 
 in how many days and with what bereavement and suffering. 
 One desires to see a prisoner who is sick, wishes to give him 
 some money, clothing, or some food, — he is refused! He 
 wants to exchange a few words of comfort with the prisoner 
 in regard to his condition, even in the presence of the police, — 
 he is refused ! 
 
 Each and all of them are beseeching to see the investiga- 
 tor, to ask him a few questions, to get some information about 
 their friends. His answer is: "Impossible! apply in writing.'' 
 
 They apply in writing and wait for days, weeks, nay 
 months, but get no answer. The little Tzar, surrounded by 
 his group of spies, is cruel, proud, and arrogant. He is proud 
 of the fact that instead of his going where the prisoners are 
 he orders several hundred prisoners brought on a four or five 
 days' journey to the "foot of his throne ;" from the Caucasus 
 to Rostove, and Novotcherkask, with their relatives and friends 
 who, perhaps, have no money for travel, no means of living, 
 and have left their children in poverty. 
 
 Let them wait and suffer! Are they not mere "subjects?" 
 
 Finally, patience and human endurance was at an end. 
 Complaints, dissatisfaction and righteous indignation broke 
 out. The complaints reached the Duma, which though handi- 
 capped, attempts occasionally to raise its voice. There in the 
 "supreme legislative council," several representatives echoed 
 the general dissatisfaction. "It is a misunderstanding," they 
 said, "to imagine a whole body as revolutionists and to perse- 
 cute them so severely."
 
 50 
 
 The Armenian Catholicos also interfered. In July, 1909, 
 when Izmirlian went from Constantinople to St. Petersburg 
 to present himself to the Tzar, he said in his official address : 
 
 "If Your Excellency wishes me to influence and pacify 
 the minds of the Armenian people and bind them to the 
 throne, when I arrive at the Caucasus, then please be so 
 kind as to fulfil my request — give orders to release the 
 Armenian prisoners, and in this way you will have 
 strengthened me to serve the State more efficiently." 
 
 Nicholas II, Emperor of Russia, by the mercy of God, 
 interrupted and said : 
 
 "They will be released before your Holiness arrives at 
 the Caucasus." 
 
 The Catholicos went to the Caucasus, moving from city 
 to city, proud of the imperial promise given him, but found 
 not only that the prisoners were not released but, on the con- 
 trary, their number increased. 
 
 Supplications and protest are not even heard in the do- 
 main of the Tzar. It is therefore natural and the time has 
 arrived that protest and complaints should find an echo 
 outside and beyond the boundaries of Russia, in order to show 
 to the world at least a glimpse of the tragic scenes enacted in 
 the prison of the Autocrat, in whose dominion there is a Duma 
 but no constitution, books of statute laws but no justice. 
 
 Protest. 
 
 Protest, and Sympathy! 
 
 That is the demand of the sufTering Orient. The just de- 
 mand of the warriors of liberty : Russian, Polish, Armenian, 
 Finn, Jew and Georgian, who under chains or on the gallows 
 have but one comfort, — the encouraging word from every 
 tongue which hates tyranny; from every land where the torch 
 of liberty is shining. 
 
 And that protest should be as great as the sufTering, as 
 immense as the oppression, and as international as the perse- 
 cution. The sufferers do not belong to one nation, nor should 
 the protests be confined to one nation either. 
 
 The protest should not be partial but general, from the 
 land of oppression to the remotest regions of Europe, and
 
 5i 
 
 across the great ocean to America, to the very borders of 
 the Great Republic, everywhere, in every country where on 
 the ruins of slavery the flag of civilization now flies. 
 
 Every man who has a mind, every citizen who has a 
 conscience, every being who has a heart, should open his mouth 
 in protest, move his tongue in sympathy, stretch his hand to 
 help, — this is the duty of humanity! 
 
 The suffering men and races in our times belong not 
 only to their race and community but to the whole mankind; 
 and the bodies of men, trampled down by tyranny, are not 
 only a disgrace to that country, but to the entire world. 
 
 "The time has arrived" — says the California Legisla- 
 ture, in its resolution of March 21, "in the affairs of this 
 world for every civilized nation to protest against such 
 conduct on the part of any nation, and we do hereby ex- 
 press our abhorrence of the treatment accorded these 
 men of Armenia because of their political convictions." 
 . . . "The time has arrived when there should be a con- 
 certed action between all nations that lay claim to civi- 
 lization and enlightment to compel the observance on the 
 part of any nation of the laws of humanity and common 
 justice towards its citizens.* ..." 
 
 The protest broke out, despite the endeavors and the 
 obstacles of the agents of the Tzar. It was in Vienna that 
 the socialist party gave the first signal of indignation. Another 
 day in Constantinople — yesterday's fortress of tyranny — 
 Armenians, Turks, Bulgarians, joined hands to brand the 
 brow of tyranny. Another day, in Paris, the adorable cradle 
 of international revolution, the best minds united to defend 
 the persecuted justice, and, lately, on this side of the Atlantic, 
 in fifteen cities of the great Republic of America, where from 
 San Francisco to New York, large mass-meetings were held 
 where resolutions were passed expressing sympathy for the 
 sufferers and contempt for the ghouls who under the name of 
 law and religion are spreading crime over that unfortunate 
 part of the globe which forms the property of the Tzar. 
 
 Let us unite all the voices of protest as the drops of 
 water which form the mighty ocean : and in that union let us 
 
 *See the Appendix.
 
 52 
 
 create a strong and vigorous wave of sympathy and protest 
 to surge over and cool the innocent victims of all nations, 
 giving them new strength and heart, to endure, and to hope, 
 and to love the great ideals of liberty even in the prison where 
 though there is no sun yet there is dream, where the cell is 
 small but the heart large, the body weak but the soul strong. 
 
 In the expression of international sympathy the warriors 
 of all lands find encouragement. 
 
 In the expression of international contempt the tyrants 
 of all lands find the death-poison. 
 
 This is merely a page, a little portion of the terrible 
 political sufferings, just as widespread as the Russian domain 
 itself, endless as the surging billows of mournful Volga. 
 
 "We die with satisfied conscience and without regret," 
 uttered that Russian volunteer for liberty from the scaffold, 
 "with this firm belief that after us will come others, braver 
 than we, greater than their predecessors, until the wave of 
 freedom, fierce and ruthless, uproots and overthrows that 
 bloody tyranny which is the curse of entire Russia and the 
 shame of all humanity." 
 
 They came by the hundred. 
 
 Will come by the thousand. 
 
 This awful suffering is the agony of the unbridled ty- 
 ranny, the portender of the coming Great Day. 
 
 Take courage warriors, — that day is at hand. 
 
 And you, friends of liberty, strengthen the protest, — the 
 victory is certain!
 
 APPENDIX.
 
 54 
 
 RESOLUTIONS. 
 
 In thirty-five cities of the United States and Canada there 
 took place mass-meetings for the benefit of the prisoners of 
 Caucasus. In fourteen cities, New York, Philadelphia, 
 Chicago, Boston, Providence, Worcester, Troy, West Ho- 
 boken, New Haven, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Fresno; and 
 Brendford and Hamilton, Canada; resolutions of protestation 
 were drawn up by votes and sent to Washington, to the 
 President of the Republic, to the Secretary of State, to mem- 
 bers of Congress, and to some of the foreign ambassadors 
 there, especially to that of Russia.* Copies of the resolutions 
 were published in the papers. 
 
 The following are some of the resolutions: 
 
 New York: 
 
 At a mass meeting held by the Armenian residents at Carnegie 
 Lyceum, in the City of New York, on February 5, 191 1, the following 
 preamble and resolutions were adopted : 
 
 1. Whereas, for two years, more than five hundred Armenians, — 
 professors, authors, physicians, lawyers, merchants, artisans and peas- 
 ants — are subjected to unspeakable incarceration in Russia; 
 
 2. Whereas, ten or fifteen are imprisoned in damp and cold cells 
 without bread or food ; 
 
 3. Whereas, this indescribable condition still continues, and their 
 trial is postponed arbitrarily ; 
 
 4. Whereas, the Russian Government tries to punish innocent people 
 for crimes that have never been committed by the accused; 
 
 1. Resolved, that we, the Armenian citizens of this Great Republic, 
 protest against the inhuman attitude of the Russian Government, and 
 demand an immediate and just trial of the innocent victims; 
 
 2. Resolved, that a copy of these resolutions be forwarded to the 
 Government at Washington and request it to please interfere in behalf 
 of these innocent victims as it sees proper; 
 
 3. Resolved, that copies of these same resolutions be sent to the 
 foreign representatives at Washington, and to the American press, re- 
 questing all of them to raise their voices in behalf of justice and in 
 behalf of the political rights of the unjustly prosecuted Armenians in 
 the Caucasus, Russia. 
 
 *The Russian embassy, with strange apprehensions, twice replied 
 that it was not able to receive these resolutions or do anything with 
 them. This is the way they do things in Russia.
 
 55 
 Philadelphia: 
 
 In a meeting of Armenians, held on February 12, in Philadelphia, 
 Pa., where speeches were given in behalf of the political prisoners in 
 Caucasus, the following preambles and resolutions were passed. 
 
 Whereas, the 500 prisoners are merely the victims of the premedi- 
 tated and unjust policy of the Russian Government ; 
 
 Whereas, the prisoners are subjected to unbearable conditions, des- 
 titute of food, clothing and external relation ; 
 
 Be It Resolved, 
 
 1. To protest against the anti-Armenian and unjust persecution of 
 the Russian government, 
 
 2. To demand immediate trial of the prisoners, free from gendarme 
 oppression. 
 
 3. To send copies of this protest to the government at Washington 
 as well as to the ambassadors of other governments. 
 
 On the same occasion the meeting also appeals to the American 
 public opinion and press, asking them to raise their voice in defense 
 of this just cause. 
 
 Boston: 
 
 A public mass meeting was held on the evening of January 8, 191 1, 
 at Paine Memorial Hall, Boston, Massachusetts, where a thousand or 
 more Armenians passed resolutions protesting against the unjust im- 
 prisonment of five hundred or more of their leading countrymen in the 
 Russian prisons. 
 
 The meeting was presided over by Dr. V. H. Kazanjian, and speeches 
 were made by several distinguished gentlemen, including Honorable 
 E. Aknouni, of Constantinople. 
 
 A large collection was made for the benefit of said prisoners, 
 and the following resolutions were adopted, viz. : 
 
 Whereas : The present Russian government has deliberately com- 
 menced a general prosecution against the Armenian people of the Cau- 
 casus, and 
 
 Whereas : Five hundred Armenian men, men of letters, scientists, 
 merchants and others are the victims of the above mentioned prosecu- 
 tion, without any legal or moral justification, be it 
 
 Resolved: To protest against this policy of the Russian govern- 
 ment, which is contrary to the letter and spirit of the constitution, as 
 well as to the dictates of civilization, and be it further 
 
 Resolved: To demand an immediate trial before a just tribunal 
 and to establish their rights as loyal citizens, and it is further 
 
 Resolved : To send copies of these resolutions to the Secretary of 
 State of the United States, at Washington, and to the Russian Am- 
 bassador at Washington, as well as to all other representatives of foreign 
 powers, and be it further
 
 56 
 
 Resolved: To appeal to public opinion in the United States and 
 to arouse a sympathetic movement in behalf of these Armenian pris- 
 oners, whose sole demand in the Caucasus is the right to enjoy the 
 privileges of the constitution and those other rights which belong to 
 every civilized community. 
 
 San Francisco: 
 
 Whereas, it has been made to appear to the undersigned organiza- 
 tions, citizens and inhabitants of the city and county of San Francisco, 
 State of California, by representation of Hon. E. Aknouni, the 
 Armenian writer from Constantinople and other evidence to us sub- 
 mitted by Armenian citizens of the United States, residing in said city 
 and county of San Francisco, that about 260 Armenians of education, 
 rank and standing, are imprisoned in Novo Cherkask, in the monarchy 
 of Russia, for political causes, and have so remained in prison for long 
 periods without any preliminary hearing or other opportunity to pre- 
 sent their cases to any court of justice, which imprisonment is revolt- 
 ing to the sense of justice in any country; 
 
 And Whereas, said Armenian citizens have by resolution duly pro- 
 tested against such imprisonment ; 
 
 Now, Therefore, we, the undersigned, hereby protest against such 
 imprisonment and ask our representatives in Congress to use all lawful 
 and honorable means within their power to bring this condition of 
 affairs to the attention of the government of Russia in such a manner 
 as to lead to immediate hearing and disposition of all these cases in 
 accordance with justice. 
 
 Resolved further that a copy of this resolution be sent to each of 
 the Senators and Congressmen for the State of California, to the Presi- 
 dent of the United States, and to such other persons as may tend to 
 bring about this desired end. 
 
 San Francisco, California., 
 January 17, 1911. 
 
 Providence: 
 
 At a public mass meeting held on the evening of December 25, 1910, 
 in Fay's Hall, Providence, Rhode Island, more than a thousand Ar- 
 menians gathered to protest against the inhuman treatment of five hun- 
 dred or more of their countrymen in the hands of the Russian govern- 
 ment. 
 
 The meeting was presided over by Mr. T. Gelalian and speeches 
 were made by a number of leading Armenians, including the Honor- 
 able E. Aknouni of Constantinople. The following resolutions were 
 
 adopted : 
 
 Whereas: The present Russian government, with deliberate and 
 premeditated policy has begun a general prosecution against the Ar- 
 menian people of the Caucasus, and
 
 57 
 
 Whereas : Five hundred Armenian prisoners belonging to almost 
 every class, teachers, physicians, scientists, men of letters, merchants 
 and others, are the victims of the above mentioned prosecutions without 
 any legal basis and without trial, be it 
 
 Resolved : 
 
 ist. To protest against this policy of the Russian government, which 
 policy is an insult to the constitution, as well as to the idea of civiliza- 
 tion; 
 
 2nd. To demand immediate trial and the discharge of these pris- 
 oners, and the recognition of all of their rights as loyal citizens; 
 
 3rd. To send copies of these resolutions to the United States gov- 
 ernment, al Washington and to the Russian Ambassador, at Washington, 
 D. C. 
 
 4th. To appeal to public opinion of this country and to arouse a 
 sympathetic movement in behalf of these Armenian prisoners, who have 
 no other demands or desires in the Caucasus, except to enjoy the privi- 
 leges of the constitution and those rights which belong to every civilized 
 community. 
 
 Worcester: 
 
 On the fifteenth day of January, 191 1, the Armenians of Worcester, 
 Massachusetts, having gathered in Eagle's Hall for the purpose of 
 signifying their sympathy and aiding financially the five hundred or 
 more Armenian political prisoners in Russia, passed the following reso- 
 lutions : 
 
 Whereas, the five hundred Armenians who are imprisoned in Russia 
 represent politically as well as intellectually the best among the Ar- 
 menians of this generation; 
 
 Whereas, these men have been subjected for the last two years 
 to untold sufferings in the hideous prisons of Russia without a trial 
 and without a legal cause ; 
 
 Be It Resolved : 
 
 1. To protest against the Russian government for its premeditated 
 policy of prosecuting our intellectual leaders. 
 
 2. To demand an immediate trial for these men and the recognition 
 of their legal rights as citizens. 
 
 3. To send a copy of these resolutions to the United States Secre- 
 tary for Foreign Affairs and to the Russian Ambassador at Washington, 
 and to arouse public sentiment and sympathy in behalf of these un- 
 fortunate prisoners. 
 
 Troy: 
 
 A public meeting was held on January 22, 191 1, in Proctor's Theatre 
 by the Armenians of Troy, N. Y. The purpose of the meeting was to 
 arouse public sentiment and sympathy in behalf of the five hundred or 
 more Armenian political prisoners in Russia who are considered as the 
 foremost exponents of Armenian art, literature and science.
 
 58 
 
 The following resolutions were passed : 
 
 Whereas, the Russian government has commenced a policy of prose- 
 cution against the Armenians in the Caucasus ; 
 
 Whereas, this prosecution of the Armenians in the Caucasus is 
 not only contrary to the spirit and letter of the constitution but also an 
 insult to the whole Armenian race ; 
 
 Be It Resolved: 
 
 1. To protest against the Russian government for this unjust im- 
 prisonment and demand through proper channels an immediate and fair 
 trial before a tribunal which is not only competent, but free from mili- 
 tary despotism. 
 
 2. To send a copy of these resolutions to the United States govern- 
 ment at Washington, asking its aid and influence in co-operating with 
 us in this work. 
 
 3. To call on the American public and to arouse public opinion 
 and sympathy against the unjust imprisonment of these men. 
 
 West Hoboken: 
 
 At a great mass meeting held on February 5, 191 1, by the Ar- 
 menians at the Liberty Hall of West Hoboken, N. J., the following pre- 
 amble and resolutions were adopted unanimously: 
 
 Whereas, our compatriots in Russia are subjected to cruel perse- 
 cutions, and five hundred of them, for two years, are tortured in the 
 prisons of Rostov, Novochirgasoff , and other cities ; 
 
 Whereas, the innocent are arrested without any cause; and, not- 
 withstanding their demands, are not still tried; 
 
 Whereas, these arrests by groups are the result of the policy of 
 the Russian government, which ignores all the elemental rights of the 
 Armenians in Russia; it is therefore 
 
 Resolved, that we, the Armenian citizens of New Jersey, protest 
 against the injustice of the Russian government, and demand that the 
 trial should be free of police interference and pressure ; 
 
 Resolved, that a copy of this preamble and resolutions be forwarded 
 to the Secretary of the Interior, and to all embassies at Washington, 
 requesting them to use their good offices in behalf of the prisoners, and 
 be it further 
 
 Resolved, that a copy be also sent to the American press, and an 
 appeal be made to the political writers of this country to exert their good 
 influence in behalf of the five hundred unfortunate Armenian political 
 prisoners in Russia. 
 
 California: 
 
 Whereas, it has been made known to us, the executive officers of 
 the California State Federation of Labor, that five hundred Armenians of 
 education, rank and standing are imprisoned in Rostov and Novocher- 
 kaska, in the monarchy of Russia, for political causes, and have so re- 
 mained for long periods of time without any preliminary hearing or
 
 59 
 
 opportunity to present their cases to any court of justice, which im- 
 prisonment, without trial, is revolting to the sense of justice of all man- 
 kind. 
 
 Therefore, Resolved, that we, in the name of California State Fed- 
 eration of Labor hereby protest against such imprisonment and request 
 the Hon. Hiram W. Johnson, Governor of the State of California, and 
 the legislature of this State, to take such measures by way of legisla- 
 tion or resolution as will bring this condition of affairs most effectively 
 before the government of the United States with a view of having the 
 United States make representations to the Russian government for the 
 purpose of remedying this apparent injustice; and further 
 
 Resolved, that a copy of this resolution be sent to each of the 
 following named persons; the President of the United States, the Sena- 
 tors and Congressmen representing California, the Secretary of State, 
 the Governor of the State of California, and the senators and assembly- 
 men.* 
 
 California State Federation of Labor. 
 San Francisco, 
 
 March 10, 191 1. 
 
 Resolutions of the Legislature of California. 
 
 (Voted in Senate and Assembly, March 21-22, and sent to 
 Washington on March 27th.) 
 
 Whereas, the Russian government has imprisoned hundreds of prom- 
 inent Armenians who are teachers, lawyers and editors, and all of whom 
 are in the forefront of progressive thought and action, in the prisons of 
 Rostove, and other towns in the monarchy of Russia, and has kept these 
 men confined for a long period of time without giving them any prelim- 
 inary hearing or opportunity to present their cases to any court, which is 
 revolting to the sense of justice of all mankind ; and 
 
 Whereas, the said "Russian government has frequently tolerated riot, 
 pillage, outrage and murder of men, women and children by reason of 
 their religious belief;" and 
 
 Whereas, such acts are a disgrace to civilization and repugnant to 
 all people who love justice and fear God; now, therefore, 
 
 Be it Resolved, by the Senate and Assembly jointly, of the Thirty-ninth 
 Legislature of the State of California, that we believe the time has arrived in 
 the affairs of this world when it becomes necessary for every civilized nation 
 to protest against such conduct on the part of any other nation, and we do 
 hereby express our abhorrence of the treatment accorded these men of 
 Armenia because of their political convictions and to other men, women 
 and children because of their religious belief ; and be it further 
 
 Resolved, that in the opinion of the Legislature of the State of Cali- 
 fornia, the time has arrived when there should be a concert of action 
 
 ♦Same resolution has been drawn up by the Labor Council of San 
 Francisco.
 
 6o 
 
 between all nations that lay claim to civilization and enlightenment, to 
 compel the observance on the part of any other nation of the laws of 
 humanity and common justice towards its citizens; and be it further 
 
 Resolved, that copies of this resolution be sent to the President of 
 the United States, the President of the United States Senate and to the 
 Speaker of the House of Representatives, earnestly urging them to use 
 their good offices to secure to the Armenians herein referred to a just and 
 public trial without further delay.
 
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