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YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

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THE LIBRARY OF THE
DIVINITY SCHOOL

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THE DAY MISSIONS LIBRARY

ARMENIA:
PAST AND PRESENT.

ARMENIA:
PAST AND PRESENT
A STUDY AND
A FORECAST

W. LLEW. WILLIAMS ...
Formerly Editor of " The Sunday Strand.'
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY
T. P. O'CONNOR, M.P.

LONDON
P. S. KING & SON, Ltd.
ORCHARD HOUSE, WESTMINSTER
J9I6

J. B. Clay & Allan, Ltd.,
printers,
blackfriars, london, s.e.

INTRODUCTION.

By Mr. T. P. O'Connor, M.P.

I gladly write a few -words of introduction to
this interesting and important statement of the
Armenian case. Mr. W. Llew. Williams, the
author, has been known as a well-informed and
thoroughly sympathetic writer on Armenian sub
jects for years ; and when I have had to deal, either
in writing or in speech on Armenian questions, I
have found him a valuable source of information.
I need say but little of the subject of his book ;
it deals not only with the history of Armenia, with
its long martyrdom, reaching its climax within the
months of this war ; but also with its aspirations
and with the various methods suggested- for dealing
with its problems on modern and^permanent lines.
Armenia has always appealed to the generous
sympathy of all the British peoples, and, indeed, of
all the civilised world outside Turkey's confederate,
in the recent massacres ; but Germany no longer
counts . among the civilised nations of the world ;
its attitude to Armenia is the exception that proves
the rule.

vi. INTRODUCTION.
But I have always felt that Armenia appealed to
those unacquainted with its history, rather because"*
of its sufferings than because of its character and
history. It is a nation of martyrs, and much of
its modern story is but the record of repeated
massacre. But let us not forget that it is also a
nation of a long and glorious history ; that it was
one of the earliest to create a civilised and cultured
society ; that it was the first practically as a nation
to adopt Christianity ; and that it has adhered to
Christianity for all these centuries through every
horror of massacre and oppression. But even this
is not enough to say of the essential greatness of
Armenian history and Armenian character. It is
necessary to remember that it was, at one period of
its history, the greatest power among the nations
of Asia ; that it governed itself with success and
equity for century after century ; and. that it stood
as the first rampart of Christianity between Asia
and Europe ; and finally, that these traditions of
faith and of patriotism have been carried on
through many centuries and innumerable genera
tions without the religious or the national spirit
suffering the slightest diminution in either its
valour or its tenacity.
This is a noble record — the noblest perhaps in the
history of the human family. But it should be
added again that this national character has all the
best qualities of the civilised and the cultured
races of the world. The brilliant commercial
genius of the Armenian people has made them the
chiefs of commerce even in the lands where their race

INTRODUCTION. Vll.
was proscribed. Their thrift and their industry
have enabled them often to attain prosperity under
every condition that seemed to forbid prosperity.
Their art has flourished even when some of its
noblest monuments fell before the devastating Turk.
Their love of learning is so profound and so wide
spread that they have kept the school going even
in villages where the race had been almost entirely
reduced, by one of the periodical cyclones of
massacre, to ashes and corpses. Members of the
Armenian race sought the highest heritage of
learning in the Universities of Great Britain, of
Germany and of the United States ; and these
students have brought back their conquests in
culture to the schools and colleges of their people.
Such a race is indestructible, is immortal ; it has
risen again and again from its pools of blood and
heaps of ashes. Its blood has flowed, let it be
hoped, for the last time. This great war of libera
tion cannot end, must not end, without giving
liberty to the Armenian race ; and that liberty must
be such as will enable it at last to go along the
lines of its development. Armenia is passing from
the tomb to the resurrection. T. P. O'Connor.

IX.

ERRATA.

For Semetic read Semitic.
For Zisimces read Zimisces.

XI.
CONTENTS.

Introduction by T. P. O'Connor, Esq., M.P.
PART I.

PAGR.

The Land and the People ... ... 3 — 38
(a) Geographical.
(b) Ethnological.
(c) Economic. PART II.
Historical  41 — 143
(a) The Ancient Kingdom of Greater
Armenia.
(b) The Lesser Kingdom of Armenia.
(c) Under the Heel of the Turk.
(d) . The Story of the Armenian Church.
PART III.
(a) The Modern Problem  147
(b) Armenian Aspirations  162
(c) The Present Opportunity ... 175
Appendix : —
Armenians and the Later Roman
Empire  191
Index  203

\

The Ancient Kingdom of Greater Armenia.
The Proposed Autonomous Armenia.

To
My Armenian Friend,
A. P. H.,
Nationalist, Patriot, Democrat.

Part I.

The Land and the People.

THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE.

(A) GEOGRAPHICAL.
The great stretch of country popularly
spoken of as Asia Minor, for centuries under
the yoke of the Ottoman Sultans, contains
within its borders Asia Minor proper, Syria,
Armenia, Kurdistan, Mesopotamia, and the
Arabian province of Hejaz. It includes
about 704,650 square miles of territory. Its
greatest length is found on the northern edge
to be some 720 miles; along the southern
about 650 miles. A line drawn between
Cape Anamur on the southern littoral to
Cape Kerembi in the Black Sea gives the
greatest breadth, viz., 420 miles ; a similar
line drawn from the head of the Gulf of
Alexandretta to the southernmost bight of
the Black Sea at Ordu shows a breadth of
nearly 300 miles. Roughly speaking, the
total area is about twelve times the extent of
England and Wales, three-and-a-half times
the size of Germany, and considerably larger

B2

4 ARMENIA: PAST AND PRESENT.
than France, Germany, and A ustro- Hungary
combined. This vast extent of territory,
which includes some of the richest and most
fertile parts of the earth's surface, is inhabited,
it is estimated, by some 17,500,000 people, or
an average of about 24 to the square mile.
The western portion of Asia Minor was
known in the time of the Byzantine Empire
as Anatolia (the land of " the rising sun "),
and the term was used to distinguish the
peninsular portion of Asia from continental
Asia. From East to West parallel with the
Black Sea and the Mediterranean run two
ranges of mountains at no great distance from
the seas. Between them lies the great elev
ated table-land or plateau from 2,500 to
4,500 feet high, broken up by other moun
tains which give a peculiar character to the
whole country, making it difficult of access,
and tending to keep it what it has been from
the very dawn of history, a pastoral country,
inhabited by a people in the main nomad,
lawless, and intractable. The southernmost
range of mountains are known as the Taurus
and the Anti-Taurus, of which the highest
point is the Akjah-Dagh (11,000 feet). Till

THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE. 5
very recent times, these mountains and the
country generally were little known. They
form the south and south-west boundary of
the six Vilayets or provinces which are known
as Armenia, and it is in their most northerly
reaches that the great rivers Euphrates and
Tigris take their rise. " Both branches of
the Euphrates," says Lynch [Vol. 2, p. 406]
" wind their way by immense stages at the
foot of these mountains, in the lap of these
plains ; the eastern branch, called Murad Su,
rising in the neighbourhood of Diadin near
the base of the Ararat system, and traversing
Armenia almost from one extremity to the
other. The more westerly channel is com
posed in its infancy by two streams . . . one
descending from the Diimlu Dagh, and flow
ing sluggishly through the plain of Erzeroum;
the other springing in the neighbourhood of
the sources of the Chorokh in the elevated
district of Orajik. The Kelkid and Chorokh
are both in their upper courses typical
Armenian rivers. What a contrast," he con
cludes, " between this wealth of waters, many
of which might be rendered navigable, and
the hopeless sterility of great parts of Persia,

6 ARMENIA : PAST AND PRESENT.
from which no river finds its way to the
ocean ! "
It is the mountain systems and the
numerous and fertilising rivers which give
to Asia Minor its striking beauty, its salu-
briousness, its wealth, and its extraordinary
economic promise. " There is nothing
needed," Lynch declares [Vol. 2, p. 405],
" but less perversity on the part of the
human animal to convert Armenia into an
almost ideal nursery of his race. The strong
highland air, the rigorous but bracing winters,
and the summers when the nights are always
cool ; a southern sun, great rivers, immense
tracts of agricultural soil, an abundance of
minerals — such blessings and subtle pro
perties are calculated to develop the fibre in
man, foster with material sufficiency the
growth of his winged mind and cause it to
expand like a flower in a generous light.
One feels that for various reasons outside
inherent qualities, this land has never enjoyed
at any period of history the fulness of oppor
tunity. And one awaits her future with
expectant interest." The country which is
known as Armenia lies in the extreme east

THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE. 7
of the peninsula, south of the Black Sea and
of the Caucasus. Modern Armenia formed
part of the Greater Armenian Kingdom,
which, in its widest extent, stretched from
370 to 400 E. Ion., and from 37^° to 41^° N.
lat. This was in the reign of Tigranes the
Great, " King of Kings," and the mightiest
monarch in Asia. It has long fallen from its
high estate, and its former territory is now
divided between the Empires of Russia*
Turkey, and Persia, whose three frontiers
meet in the vicinity of Little Ararat.
The whole of Armenia is a continuation
westwards of the great Iranian plateau, which
stretches as far East as the Indus River, and
also includes the modern Afghanistan.* Above
the general level of the plateau, some 6,000
feet, rise bare mountains, which culminate in
* " Another great factor in the historical development of
this region is that the broad plains run east and west, and are
easy of access by commerce, ideas, or armies coming either
from Asia or Europe, but not from either Mesopotamia or
the Black Sea. Finally, Armenia has in her mountains three
great refuges — rough, inaccessible districts, where communi
cations are intensely difficult, but where life may be
maintained by agricultural pursuits ; these are the regions of
Hakkiari, the Dessim, and the Zeitun. We may therefore
expect, under such conditions, to find warlike agriculturists
in the refuges, a tenacious but unwarlike race of farmers and
merchants in the plains, and nomads and semi-nomads on the
mountain slopes." (Syke's The Caliph's Last Heritage, p. 7).

8 ARMENIA: PAST AND PRESENT.
the famous Mount Ararat (17,385 feet).
Between these ranges are broad elevated
valleys interspersed with numerous rivers,
which flow through the plateau before they
enter the deep gorges which carry their
waters to the lower levels. Lake Van is the
most important inland water, 5,100 feet above
the sea level, with an area of about 1,300
miles, or, says Lynch : " Six times as great
as Lake Geneva." It possesses two con
siderable islands, on which have stood for
many centuries two Armenian convents.
Other lakes are : Lake Urmia (4,000 feet
above sea level), like Lake Van, a salt lake ;
Lake Sevan (5,870 feet above sea level),
discharging into the Arax ; and Chaldir into
the Kars Chai. The monotony of the plateau
is increased by the treelessness of vast areas.
" There is no reason why this country should
not be strewn with woodlands and her plains
verdant, with a kinder rainfall and an extended
irrigation. Patches of forest, but thin and
miserable, still struggle towards the interior
from the luscious zone in the North. They
are seen on the sides of the passes at a
distance from the villages. But with the

THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE. 9
exception of Kighi and the Dersim and the
slopes of the Goghanlu Mountains, south
west of Kars, the land has been denuded of
any covering as a result of progressive
economical decline. Centuries of unchecked
license on the part of tribal shepherds —
Tartars, Turkomans, Kurds — have brought
about the destruction of a source of salu-
briousness and wealth, which, under any
circumstances, would require careful hus
banding," [Lynch, vol. 2, p. 405.] If the
plateaus are monotonous in their lack of
adornment, on the other hand the gorges of
the Euphrates and Tigris possess a wild
beauty of scenery which is unsurpassed.
The climate varies. On the higher reaches
of the plateau the winter is long and the cold
severe, summer is short, very dry and hot.
The temperature at Erzeroum varies from
220 to 840. Snow sometimes falls in June,
and in July the wells near Erzeroum are
occasionally thinly frozen over. The moun
tain chains with their heavy snow accumula
tions are the sources of the many streams.
But the rainfall is not heavy, and in summer
the plains are scorched and demand irrigation.

10 ARMENIA: PAST AND PRESENT.
The soil shows volcanic products, especially
in the vicinity of Maku, in the narrow valley
which extends from the Araxene plain near
Ararat towards Lake Van ; and also in the
country round Lake Gougeka. In the interior
the few towns there are, lie high — from 4,000
to 6,000 feet above sea level. The villages
are on the gentle slopes, and the peasantry,
as their forefathers did 800 years ago, burrow
in the hill-sides, and find in the excavation
protection against the rigours of the long and
trying winter. Xenophon's description of the
sufferings of the 10,000 Greeks in this climate
is well known.
Both the Taurus and the Anti-Taurus
ranges are crossed at different points by
passes, generally at low elevations and fairly
easy of access. One of the most famous is
the pass of Erkenek, the only one by which
an army could descend from the interior of
Asia Minor towards Syria or Mesopotamia.
An even more famous pass, either from the
military or commercial point of view, is the
Golek Boghaz or " Cilician Gates "* — a deep

* " Happily enough for us . . . the Sahara, the Persian
deserts and the sea, guarded the life centres of Babylonia

THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE. n
gorge, 3,300 feet above sea level, running
about 30 miles north of Tarsus, over the
Taurus and connecting Anatolia with North
Syria and the Euphrates Valley. The width
of the road through the Gates proper is only
25 feet. Through the gorge between walls
of perpendicular rock, rushes a tributary of
the Tarsus River. This famous defile has
been used in all ages by migrating peoples,
traders and conquering hosts. Through it
marched Alexander to the conquest of Persia
and the far-distant East. In more modern
times, Mehemet Ali, in his revolt against the
Ottoman Sultan, twice penetrated through
the " Cilician Gates " into Anatolia on his
march to Constantinople. (B) ETHNOLOGICAL.
The population of Asia Minor, especially
that of Armenia, presents ethnological pro-
and the Nile Delta from the swarming onslaught of sheer
barbarians. There were only two roads by which whole
nations could move towards the Persian Gulf or the Mediter
ranean, either through Thrace and so across the Bosphorus
to the Cilician Gates, or else from the Caucasus and down
the Tigris gorge. The adoption of either of these routes
meant a long period of war and strife with partially- cultured
people before the actual fountain of civilisation could be
reached. And if a barbarous people conquer a civilised
people slowly, they themselves become insensibly civilised
in the process." (Syke's The CalipKs Last Heritage, p. 12).

12 ARMENIA: PAST AND PRESENT.
blems which are almost insoluble. So far as
reliable statistics are available, the total is
about 17,500,000. It has been described as
Proto-Armenian or Armenoid. But as the
original people of what was the Greater
Kingdom of Armenia are quite unknown, the
term does not add much to our understanding
of the ethnological questions involved. They
first appear in history about the 9th century
b.c. It appears pretty certain that the mass
of the population of the whole peninsula were
part of that great family of tribes which,
impelled by economic necessity or by pressure
of other peoples, spread over Western Asia,
and to have had a common Non-Aryan lan
guage. But the process of amalgamation
with the peoples already there speedily
began, and no doubt a strong Semetic ele
ment was present in the resultant population.
In the 7th century B.C., the land was
sufficiently subdued by an Aryan people to
secure the imposition of both name and lan
guage upon the conquered provinces. But
during following centuries Asia Minor has
been invaded from both East and West, and
there have been great movements of popula-

THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE. 13
tion. Conquering races have massacred the
vanquished or forcibly expelled them. Per
sians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Ottomans,
have swept like great tides over the whole of
Asia Minor. In the course of these cen
turies race distinctions have been largely
weakened, if not actually obliterated, by the
fusions of blood. The Armenian race has
not been exempted from the process. The
fact that they became Christians in the Third
Century doubtless has tended to keep them
fairly distinct, because it made them exclusive,
and to have assisted in preserving both lan
guage and racial features from revolutionary
changes. Then the physical features of the
land the Armenians inhabited have operated
in the same direction. Its lofty mountains,
widespread uplands, deep isolated valleys,
afforded unassailable sanctuaries for the
people when invaders swept over the land.
Thus, though Armenia is the highway
between East and West, and the people
exposed to the full influence of alien-race
invasion, the Armenians have succeeded in
maintaining both nationality and faith. The
mountains have always been the home of

14 ARMENIA: PAST AND PRESENT.
a hardy and brave race, who, like the
Zeytoonese, defied the Turk, and kept un
dented both blood and liberty. The physical
effects are marked in these highland
Armenians. The peasants of Mount Taurus
are taller, better-looking, keener-featured,
more active and courageous, than their com
patriots who dwell in Armenia proper or
throughout Asia Minor. These are below
the middle height, thick-set, coarse-featured,
with thick, straight, black hair, and the
hooked nose usually associated with Semetic
peoples. They are almost exclusively engaged
in tilling the soil ; are, for obvious economic
reasons, poor, oppressed, ignorant, and in
many districts are but little removed in
character and habit of life from their
ancestors, living in the same semi-subter
ranean houses their forefathers did 2,000
years ago. A third type is found in the
towns both of Asia Minor and European
Turkey. Generally he is the descendant of
those Aryan and Semetic Armenians who
either emigrated or were deported to Cilicia
and Constantinople when the Arabs and
Seljuks over-ran the whole of Asia Minor.

THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE. 15
He is the shrewd, industrious, persistent,
skilled artisan, merchant, banker, one meets
in the Levant, and it is his enterprising spirit,
unaffected by envy and hatred of Christian
and Turk, which has made him, through his
marked business aptitudes, the industrial and
financial master of the Near East. What
ever faults may be charged against him, his
sobriety, frugality, industry, intelligence,
cannot be denied, whilst his sturdiness of
character and age-long tenacity have, under
conditions unimaginable to the Western
mind, enabled him to preserve nationality
and religion. Intensely conservative in faith,
manners and customs, no people in the East
have exhibited such progressive instincts or
made such willing sacrifices for the spread of
education. On the other hand, their tendency
to jealousy, love of intrigue, greed, have been
fruitful causes of political disaster in the past,
and is one reason of their unpopularity.
Lynch goes so far as to say that many who
only know the Armenians from sad experiences
of a Levant dragoman, would not view the
ruin of this people with regret ; but, he adds,
"for myself . . . I must freely confess exactly

16 ARMENIA: PAST AND PRESENT.
contrary sentiments." One of the undoubted
elements in any opposition which may be
made to the political aspirations and aims of
the Armenian people which must be reckoned
with is this prejudice, dislike, even hatred,
existing among other peoples with whom the
destinies of the Armenian people may rest
in the near future.
It is said that lack of courage, self-reliance
and obsequiousness are conspicuous in this
people, as well as a want of truth and
honesty. Yet in Persian Courts of Justice
it is a common, almost proverbial saying,
that "Armani durugh namuiguyad" — "an
Armenian cannot lie." If they are not honest,
at least as honest as their neighbours and
critics, how comes it that the keepers of the
Privy Purse of most of the Sultans of Turkey
in modern times, including that of Abdul
Hamid II., were Armenians? We admit
that it is not unlikely that six centuries of
Turkish misrule and grinding oppression have
affected adversely the morale of the race.
Let the nation without sin cast the first stone
at this people. The marvel is that it has pre
served any virtue — nay, the miracle is that it
has survived at all in any organised form !

THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE. 17
The Armenian people at the zenith of their
power numbered not less than 30,000,000.
To-day they can boast of but, throughout
the world, under 4,000,000. Unfortunately
there are no reliable statistics of the popula
tion in Turkish Armenia or Persian Armenia.
In 1886, Armenians in Transcaucasia (inclu
ding Russian Armenia) numbered 962,426 out
of a total population of 4, 186, 103. The total
population in 1897 had grown to 4,875,275.
The growth of the different racial elements
were not ascertained when Lynch published
his monumental work on " Armenia," in 1901.
But the Armenian population of the Russian
provinces has enormously increased during
the last 30 years. Not less than 50,000 to
60,000 fled across the frontier during the
massacres of 1 895. To-day there must be in
these provinces, not counting the inflow of
refugees since May, 191 5, an Armenian
population of not less than one-and-three-
quarter millions. What is the population of
Turkish Armenia ?* or what was it before the
*Professor Garton Valran of the University of Aix-in-
Provence in " Le Semaphore de Marseilli " of November 20th,
191 5, declared that "Armenia (viz., The Six Vilayets) had a
population of 5,000,000 at the beginning of the Nineteenth
Century ! " c

18 ARMENIA: PAST AND PRESENT.
war? Here, again, no accurate or even
reliable figures are obtainable. What is
certain is that both Moslem and Christian
agree in understatement because returns are
made the basis of taxation for the Christian
population, and of recruiting from the
Moslem. Take Lynch's figures which he
says were " the outcome of a long and labor
ious investigation pursued in the country
itself." ["Armenia," vol. 2, p. 413]. He
gave the figures (1890) for the five vilayets,
viz., Van, Bitlis, Kharput, Diarbekir, and
Erzeroum, as follows : — Total population,
1,252,841. Of these, 387,746 were Arme
nians. Moslems totalled 853,758. Only in
the vilayet of Van were the Armenians in a
numerical majority. It should be pointed
out that while he declares the figures emana
ting from the Armenian patriarchate* to be
exaggerated, he has to declare of his own
estimate : "I am satisfied that the total
population of the Turkish provinces is in
excess of the figures which I give." [Vol. 2,
P- 415].
* See end of chapter for detailed Armenian Statement of
Population in this same district.

THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE. 19
Admitting that the Armenian element has
decreased, despite their extraordinary fecun
dity, owing to systematic massacre, it must
not be forgotten that, as Lynch points out,
"the importance of the Armenian element
mustv be measured not so much by its
numerical strength as by the solidarity of the
Armenian people when compared to the
peoples among whom they live . . . Should
the Russians become possessed of the Arme
nian provinces of the Turkish Empire, the
most numerous as well as the most solid of
the elements of population in Transcau
casia will be furnished by the Armenian
race." It is just as well to remind those
publicists and politicians who have already
committed themselves to the opinion that the
Armenians would not be able to maintain an
autonomous Armenia, even if the Powers
guaranteed it, of the deliberate judgment of
this British traveller who knew Armenia and
the Armenians better than any man of his
race. In this connection it should also be stated
that all the charges of want of courage made
against the Armenians because they have

20 ARMENIA : PAST AND PRESENT.
not by force attempted to secure freedom, are
made forgetful or ignorant of the fact that
for centuries the Armenians have been for
bidden on pain of death to carry or even
to possess arms ! None the less, in certain
districts they have secured arms, and in
those districts the villagers have enjoyed
immunity from Kurdish attacks. Add to this
the suggestive fact that at the present moment
not less than 100,000 of Armenia's sons are
with the forces of the Allies on both Eastern
and Western fronts fighting as conscripts
and volunteers, and the attempts to fasten a
reputation of cowardice are seen to be futile. *

* Mr. Marmaduke Pickthall, a well-known authority on
Near Eastern affairs, wrote in the "Nineteenth Century"
(February, 1913), referring to the Balkan War : "They (the
Armenians) fought magnificently for the Empire.'' Sir Edwin
Pears, speaking at the Society of Arts (November 24th, 1915),
said : "The Armenians, all things considered, are the manliest
race in Asia Minor." (The " Near East," November 26th,
1915)

THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE. 21

Note on Population of the Six Vilayets.
These figures were supplied by the Patriarchate in
1912, and formed the basis of negotiations between
Russia and Turkey in the first half of 19 14. It was on
this basis that a scheme of reforms was agreed to in
February, 19 14. It entirely contradicts the figures
published by the Porte in the Year-book of 1912,
which coolly states that there were only 1,100,000
Armenians in Turkey in 191 1, of which number some
600,000 lived in the Six Vilayets. It should be stated
that the Armenians have special facilities for arriving
at fairly accurate figures, at least, of their own people.
Registers of Births and Marriages are kept in Armenian
churches, which give the clergy some basis for arriving
at approximately accurate figures. On the whole we
hold the figures in this table to be more trustworthy
than any others we have seen.

22 ARMENIA: PAST AND PRESENT.

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THE LAND AND j THE PEOPLE. 23

(C) ECONOMIC.
For nearly one thousand years Asia Minor
has been under an economic cloud. Mr.
Asquith, in his Guildhall speech, spoke of
the Turkish " blight which has withered some
of the fairest regions of the earth." It was
the earliest centre of the world's civilisation,
learning, commerce, wealth. When the Sixth
Century was closing, Asia Minor was ex
ceedingly wealthy and prosperous. Great
centres of population and commerce existed
along its coasts, and the fame of its cities
and products had spread over the known
world. Its decay began with the invasions of
the Persians (616-626 a.d.), and was has
tened by that of the Arabs in the Eighth and
Ninth Centuries. What Persian and Arab
began, the Seljuk and Ottoman Turks com
pleted. At the latter end of the Fifteenth
Century Turkish supremacy was established,
and then even the Italian trading settle
ments on the coasts, established in the
Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries, were

24 ARMENIA: PAST AND PRESENT.
abandoned. From that time the economic con
dition of Asia Minor has steadily worsened.
The great cities no longer exist. Commerce
languished, and, finally, almost expired. Once-
busy centres of human life and industry are
deserted, silent, nameless. The population
dwindled to insignificant proportions. Enter
prise died under the heavy hand of the Turkish
official. Nomads took possession of and
roamed over the fertile uplands. The soil
ceased to be cultivated. Forests were
destroyed. Roads fell into dis-repair, and
finally were lost. Communication became
difficult, in places impossible. Hence
internal trade decreased. Poverty stalked
through the land. Turkish officials ground
the peasantry into unimaginable depths
of poverty by their assessments and
exactions. Thus one of the most fruitful,
potentially wealthy, parts of the earth's sur
face became barren, economically dead. True
of Asia Minor generally, it is true of the
Greater Kingdom of Armenia, with its capital
of Vagarshapat ; of the later capital of Ani,
and of the Lesser Kingdom of Cilicia. All
shared in and were overwhelmed by the same
disaster.

THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE. 25
For centuries Asia Minor passed out of
the mind of Europe. Other lands were
explored, exploited, developed. Capital
poured into lands with not half Asia Minor's
material wealth. Even now Asia Minor is
to a great extent terra incognita. Its mineral
wealth and possibilities are only just begin
ning to be known. Germany's policy, revealed
in her attempts to secure railway concessions,
shows that she was alive to the economic
value of Asia Minor. She clearly realised
that it would pay her economically at any
cost to secure commercial rights, which she
could exploit at her leisure. Therefore Ger
many's power and credit were behind her
bankers and concession hunters, who were
encouraged, and their hands strengthened,
by the knowledge that she would allow no
considerations of humanity to impede the
attainment of her end. Bismarck, in 1883,
told Great Britain frankly that Germany
cared nothing about Armenian reform, and
that they had better be allowed to drop.
No! Germany was not prepared to risk
defeat of her deeply-laid schemes of political
and economic expansion in the Near East by

26 ARMENIA: PAST AND PRESENT.
any considerations of pity for an ancient race.
In the country was the mineral wealth which
would make Germany independent of the
world. Its fertile soil would grow all the
wheat and cotton Pan-Germans needed, and
its uplands "amply satisfy," as one German
declared, "the needs of our wool industry."
In that single sentence there is expressed
the extraordinary possibilities of Asia Minor
for the Power or Powers that possess it, are
capable of developing its wonderful resources,
and utilising them to the utmost advantage.
That Turkey never attempted. With a
treasure-house within his own territory, he
never attempted to enter it. Wealth untold
to supply all his needs, and he lacked both
the power and inclination to lay hands on it.
Nay, he prevented anyone else from utilising
them. Gold is there, and silver is there ;
coal in abundance; oil equal to any in quality
and quantity the world can offer. Iron is
there in huge masses, and copper ore in
plenty. Indeed, there are few minerals
called for in modern industries which can
not be found in the mountainous districts.*
* bee Note at end of chapter.

THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE. 27
Germany knew this better than any Power in
Europe, and in her ambitious dreams of a
Pan-German Empire stretching from Berlin
to Bagdad, she was perfectly aware of the
economic value of the lands she coveted.
" In the Orient," said Paul Rohrback, in the
New York Evening Mail, "in Asia Minor,
in Syria, in Mesopotamia, in Persia, and the
Balkans, there is abundance of all the raw
material we need."
Nor is it mineral wealth only which the
land offers. It is magnificently watered.
Where irrigation is needed there is no lack
of available supplies, and the results of a
system of irrigation on a large scale in a land
of rich soil and abundant sunshine can be
seen in the region of Lake Van, where it has
turned barren lands into a Paradise. All
that is needed is a population with energy,
industry, intelligence, and a land that has
hitherto been unable to support its scanty
population will make of Asia Minor, and
Armenia in particular, a granary for the
supply of food-stuffs, and a storehouse from
which can be drawn the raw materials needed
by the industrial populations of less-favoured

28 ARMENIA: PAST AND PRESENT.
lands. That population was already on the
soil. Is there need to demonstrate the
economic and industrial possibilities of the
Armenian people in face of what they have
already achieved ? Under kinder conditions
they would develop into a magnificent indus
trial people. The rule of a fanatical, ignorant,
reactionary government alone has kept them
from redeeming the land and the people from
utter economic ruin. Lynch bears convincing
testimony to the economic value of the
Armenian peasant. " Finally, we must not
overlook the high place which the Armenians
already occupy in the economic order of the
country, and the fact that the Armenian
population is capable of very rapid expansion
under kinder circumstances. I have already
had occasion to speak in praise of the
Armenian peasantry ; yet while agriculture
suffers from the disappearance of the Armenian
from the soil, the place which he occupies in
the less rudimentary grades of civilised life
can never be supplied. The worn and crippled
machine of industry functions through him
alone. His advancement means the progress
of the country ; his removal the cause of its
decay." (Vol. 2, p. 425.)

THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE. 29
Turkish domination and methods have
been disastrous by driving off from the soil
thousands of these peasants. The land has
been stripped of its dwellers. Take one
example : The Armenian population in the
United States has increased from a few score
to over 100,000 people. Every successive
massacre has swollen the stream of fugitives
rushing away from outrage and murder. At
the moment of writing, advices from private
sources show that the process of extermina
tion is going on systematically and with
indescribable cruelty. Deportation and flight
account for hundreds of thousands. Refugees
in Russian Armenia number over 300,000,
and the army daily increases. Massacres on
a larger scale and over a wider area than at
any previous period of Armenian history are
of daily occurrence !
Economically, of course, the policy is
disastrous, and even if, as is unthinkable,
Turkey and her allies are victorious, the
greatest asset of Asia Minor in general, and
Armenia in particular, viz., her only intelli
gent, industrious population is being des
troyed. If the policy is carried through to

SO ARMENIA: PAST AND PRESENT.
the bitter end, and the Armenian problem is
solved by the extermination of the Armenians
or the draining of them out of the land, an
economical blow will be dealt Asia Minor
which it will take generations of sane
government to remedy.
But what we see now happening on an
unparalleled scale has been the ordinary,
permanent policy of the Turks through the
centuries. By some inconceivable folly,
which even self-interest should have preven
ted, every natural inclination of the people to
take advantage of the vast resources of the
land, mineral and agricultural, has been
hampered, discouraged, and ultimately, by
official exactions, destroyed. The peninsula
has never had an economical chance for
centuries. There are few native industries,
few handicrafts, and even these are confined
within very humble limits. Wages are low.
Employment is for those needing it uncertain.
Thus poverty pervades the whole of Turkish
Armenia, and under the present regime the
economical outlook presents no hopeful
features. The only chance of a revival, of
any|improvement, lies in a change of rulers.

THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE. 31
Russian Armenians have prospered enor
mously because the elementary benefits of
government — safety of life, honour and
property have been secured. The element
in the population of what is called Russian
Armenia which has contributed most to its
economic development and steady progress
is undoubtedly the Armenian. Let me quote
Lynch on this point, "In order" he says
[Vol. 1., p. 467] "to study this people at
anything like their true worth, one should
study them not in the Levant, with its
widespread corruption, but in the Russian
provinces of Armenia. Here they have most
successfully utilised the interval between the
period when the sword of Russia was the
sword of the deliverer, and the present
period ... I was so surprised at the results
achieved, and by the contrast between the
sterling progress of this newly-emancipated
population and the stagnation and progressive
relapse of their neighbours of different nation
ality, spread over the whole wide area of the
Nearer Asia, that without any certain
previous purpose, I resolved to pursue the
study further and to protract the journey into

32 ARMENIA: PAST AND PRESENT.
Turkish territory. For what was it I saw ?
In every trade and in every profession, in
business and in the Government services,
the Armenian was without a rival and in full
possession of the field . . . Most of the
villages in which you sojourn are inhabited
by a brawny Armenian peasantry . . . As
it is, the Armenian has edged out the
Russian, and if peace was allowed her con
quests, he would ultimately rule in the land."
"Nay, more," Lynch concludes, "he is one
of the only stable native elements of pro
gress in the Nearer East " [p. 469].
There is no reasonable doubt but what,.
with the establishment of good government
in the six vilayets, an economical revolution
would speedily follow. The total area of
these provinces is something like 112,000
square miles, as the following table shows : —

THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE. 33

Extent and Distribution of the Land
in the Six Armenian Vilayets.

Vilayet.
Van Erzeroum
SivasBitlisKharput . . .
Diarbekir

Total area.
sq. miles.
I 7,000
22,15029,000 13,000
14,50015.500

Arable.
sq. miles.
12,000 8,700
plus 3,400
cultivated. l8,000 7.500
7,250 1,000
pasturage. II,8O0

Mountain,
Barren, or
Forest.
sq. miles.
5.000
10,000

II,000 5.500
6,2503.700

III,I50 69,650 41.450

It appears from this survey of the country
that two out of every three square miles are
good agricultural land, only needing an in
dustrious peasantry to make the foundation
of a new economic era in the history of these
war-spent lands. Leaving out of sight the
undoubted mineral wealth that only awaits
development, here is a source of a prosperity
these provinces have been strangers to for
nearly a thousand years.

34 ARMENIA: PAST AND PRESENT.
IS THERE SUCH A POPULATION ?
We have already discussed the question of
the numerical strength of the different ele
ments of population. After all, one fact is
certain, that the density of population per
square mile of territory is lamentably small —
" less than 30 per square mile," says Lynch,
whilst in the adjacent Russian provinces the
percentage is nearly 50. We have to-day to
face the fact that the most recent events in
Turkish Armenia have materially altered the
whole situation. In the absence, therefore,
of the Armenian element, the only element of
economic value, must any hope of an economic
revival be abandoned? It is true that the
Moslems cannot be depended on for aid
under any regime. The majority are nomads
with little inclination for, and less skill in,
even the rudimentary agriculture of the
country. At the moment of writing they are
the chief or only inhabitants of large parts of
these vilayets. But the question which must
be asked, especially in the light of past
experience, is : Are these vital conditions
likely to be the permanent conditions ? Are
we to regard this huge stretch of fertile land

THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE. 35
as finally surrendered to a people incapable
of utilising and unwilling to utilise it ? Such
a policy is unthinkable !
But there is another aspect of the question
which must not be lost sight of or ignored.
Will the Armenian refugees permanently
forsake their native land ? Will there be no
movement back to Armenia on the part of
these masses of the population ? Previous
experience affords grounds for a definite
answer. During the massacres in 1895,
when whole villages were wiped out, 50,000
to 60,000 Armenians fled into Russian
territory from the Eastern Vilayets. But
as soon as these districts resumed their
normal condition — one not favourable to
life, honour or property, thousands flocked
back again to their ruined homes. Good
government as the outcome of this war would
encourage not merely those who have fled
during the last few weeks or months to
return in masses, but the known potential
wealth of these provinces would attract
Armenians from every part of the world
where they are now settled. That fact would
go far to establish a more general level of

36 ARMENIA : PAST AND PRESENT.
equality in point of numbers between the
Christian and the Moslem populations. Then
the Armenians are a most prolific race.
" The fecundity of this people is not less
remarkable than their persistency," says
Lynch [Vol. 2, p. 79]. After a decade of
orderly and settled Governments, every year
would see a marked increase in the numbers
of the Armenian population, and a steady
tendency to decrease the disproportion now
existing. A generation would see the two
elements on a numerical level, and every
decade subsequently would see the propor
tions more surely reversed. This is, at least,
the strong opinion of many authorities —
an opinion based on widespread and pro
longed investigation. The human element
is assured. Thus, however slight the prospect of an
economic development in Armenia is at this
dark and troubled hour, there are ample
grounds for an optimistic view of the
economic future. Capital will be needed to
increase the facilities of communication and
transport, for investigating the mineral wealth
in detail, for the purposes of administration —

THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE. 37
especially for improving methods of agri
culture, and for the proper education of the
children of the people. But no one can
imagine, once settled government has been
established, and publicity secured for the
advantageous employment of Western capital,
that there will be any greater difficulty in
securing this than in other fields demanding
aid for economic and industrial purposes.

38 ARMENIA: PAST AND PRESENT.
Note on Mineral Wealth of Armenian Vilayets.
As yet it is imperfectly known. The following list
is, however, trustworthy : —
Van. — The mountains of Van are rich in various
minerals. Coal has been found at Sivan, near Van ;
at Karasu, Bashkale, Norduz, etc. Lead at the Djula-
merik and Tchukh Mountains. Iron at Ghiavar
and at Ahmali. Copper, borax, etc., have been traced
in various parts. Deep oilfields found {1875-77) at
Kordzot, but the outbreak of the Russo-Turkish War
ruined the works.
Erzeroum. — Gold is found in River Djorokh •
silver in various districts of the North. Zinc and
copper, and also coal, which last has fully supplied
the needs of the vilayet by quantity dug out at
Terdjan — very extensive and deep. Iron is extracted
from soil at Kighi, and sulphur at Bayazid.
Sivas. — There are well-known quarries of white
marble and lignite at Amasia.
Bitlis. — Iron, copper, lead, sulphur are being worked
by the natives at Sasun, and there are traces of gold
and silver at Sairt and Khirvan, iron,, and lead at
Kharzan. There are mineral springs and plentiful
signs of sulphur, iron, and coal.
Diarbekir. — The famous copper mines near Arghana-
Maden, said to be the largest in the world. Lead and
coal in different parts.
Kharput. — Plentiful signs of silver. The mines at
Keban-Maden, on the left bank of the Euphrates, have
been worked from time immemorial.
Further, the possible supply of raw material for
textile work is practically unlimited ; silk, cotton, wool
are all procurable by proper development of sources.
of supply. No effort has been made, e.g., to improve
breed of either sheep or goats.

Part II.

Historical.

Part II.
HISTORICAL.

(A) THE ANCIENT KINGDOM OF GREATER
ARMENIA.
The early history of Armenia is a mass of
traditions out of which emerge two or three
incontestable facts. What is not clear is the
place which the Armenians as a race occupied
in the early history of Asia Minor. That
they played an important part in determining
its political fortunes is beyond question. But
in this brief survey one can only indicate the
fact and pass on to surer ground. When the
race stood in the clear light of history, their
country was partially subject to the kings of
Persia. It is certain that when Xerxes made
his great war on Greece, B.C. 480, a body of
Armenians formed part of his army. Over a
century later Vahey being on the throne of
the Haigs, assisted Darius in his war with
Alexander the Great. Vahey fell in one

42 ARMENIA: PAST AND PRESENT.
of the disastrous battles which ended in
the utter defeat and death of Darius.
Armenia became a Macedonian province
whose first Governor, Mithrines, a Persian,
was appointed by Alexander. Following the
death of Alexander, and the break up of his
vast Empire, Armenia fell to the Selucidae,
but Ardvates (317-284 b.c) threw off the
Macedonian yoke of Neoptolemus, and for a
period of 33 years was an independent king.
For a whole century after his death, Armenia
was under the rule of the Selucidae until the
time when Antiochus the Great (223-137 B.C.)
was defeated by the Romans under Scipio
Africanus near Magnesia in Asia Minor, and
lost all his territory East of Mount Taurus.
Two Armenian nobles, Artaxias and Zadri-
ades, revolted against the rule of the Syrian
kings, and with the consent of Rome became
independent kings of Armenia Major and
Armenia Minor in the eastern and western
sides of the Euphrates respectively. The
latter was ruled by the descendants of
Zadriades till the fall of Mithridates in 66 b.c
Artaxias on the other hand established his
capital at Artaxata on the Araxes. The

HISTORICAL. 43
strongest and most capable of his successors
was Tigranes the Great (94-56 b.c). By
his marriage with Cleopatra, daughter of
Mithridates VI. the Great, he linked his
fortunes with those of this monarch in his con
test with Rome. By successful military efforts
Tigranes extended his power in all directions,
and the kings of Atropatene, Gordyene (the
country of Carducha, now Bohtan), Adiabene
(the former Assyria), and Osrene (Edessa),
became his vassals, and slave-like followed in
his train wherever he went. Parthia was
still further weakened by the loss of Northern
Mesopotamia. Syria was invaded in 83 b.c,
and the last of the Selucidae was defeated
and Cilicia occupied. The Princess Cleopatra
Selene who attempted to restore the Selucid
power was beseiged in Acco, and afterwards
killed. This was the height of this Armenian
king's power. He had become " king of
kings " and the mightiest monarch in Asia
[Ency. Brit. vol. 26, p. 969]. He founded
"a new Royal City, Tigranocerta, on the
borders of Armenia and Mesopotamia,
between Mount Masius and the Tigris, where
he accumulated all his wealth, and to which

44 ARMENIA: PAST AND PRESENT.
he transferred the inhabitants of twelve Greek
towns of Cappadocia, Cilicia, and Syria.'
His success was his undoing. He aroused
the enmity of Rome, who saw in Tigranes a
rival, and so in 69 b.c, Lucullas attacked
Armenia. Twice was the Armenian king
defeated, at Tigranocerta, in 69 b.c, and at
Artaxata, in 68 b.c His son's revolt further
weakened him at a critical period, and when
Pompey joined forces with those of the
rebels, Tigranes surrendered to the Roman
General (66 b.c). On payment, however,
of an indemnity of 6,000 talents he was per
mitted to remain on his throne as the vassal
of Rome. After ten years of vassalage he
died in 56 b.c His son, Artavasdes, suc
ceeded him. Thus Rome and Parthia were
brought into direct contact. Parthia was the
great rival of Rome in the first century b.c,
and though Armenia was closely " connected
with Parthia by geographical position, a
common language and faith, intermarriage
and similarity of arms and dress," it was
politically dependent upon Rome. Hence
the land became for centuries the field upon
which East and West strove for mastery.

HISTORICAL. 45
The Parthian Kingdom went down before
the Persians in 226 a.d., and the fate of
Armenia was sealed in 232 a.d., when it
was conquered by Ardashir, the first of the
Sassanidi kings of Persia. In this contest
with the growing power of Persia, under the
rigorous rule of Ardashir and his successors,
Armenia had the aid of Rome, who saw in
Persia a more dangerous rival than Parthia
had ever been. The contest was embittered
by the religious factors which now began to
be a potent element in the relations of the
different States. Christianity had made
remarkable headway in Armenia since the
first preaching of the Apostles Thaddeus and
Bartholomew. Indeed, the student is almost
shut up to the view that the new faith had
permeated every rank of society and had won
disciples in the most influential circles.
Ardashir was Zoroastrian, and was deter
mined that it should be the only form of
religion tolerated through his dominions.
The Christians, therefore, were severely per
secuted during his reign. His son, Shapur I.
(240 a.d.), one of the most forceful of
Persian monarchs, was too deeply engaged

46 ARMENIA : PAST AND PRESENT.
in extending his empire, to persecute
Christians in Armenia ; but in the reign of
his grandson, Shapur II. (309-380), it was
resumed more fiercely than ever. The reasons
were not obscure. The political revolution
which had overthrown the Arsacidian dynasty
in Persia and placed on the throne the
Sassanides, did not affect the occupants of
the Armenian throne — Arsacidian though of
Parthian origin. It was necessary, however,
to ensure the security of the new dynasty by
overthrowing that portion of the old dynasty
still in power and defiant. But the army was
the obstacle ; it was not on the side of the
Sassanides. Anak, an Arsacide prince,
volunteered to assasinate Chosroes, king of
Armenia, a near relation of his own. He
carried out his plan in 240 a.d., but he him
self, in the same year, fell a victim to
the vengeance of the Armenian satraps.
Chosroes son, Tiridates, spent thirty years
with the Romans, who placed him on his
father's throne in 287. It was then he came
in contact with his kinsman Gregory, the son
of Anak, who had been brought up a Christian
at Cssarea. On learning the facts about

HISTORICAL. 47
Tiridates, he seems to have returned to the
Armenian capital and entered his service.
But when his faith was disclosed he was cast
into the dungeon and allowed to remain there
for fifteen years. His subsequent release,
and the conversion of Tiridates, read like
some elaborate romance. But it was a fact.
With all the zeal of a convert, Tiridates
insisted on Christianity becoming the faith of
the State (301 a.d.) ; and Gregory and
Tiridates, the Saint and the Ruler, went
through the land destroying the symbols of
heathenism and overturning its temples.
Thus the new faith established as the religion
of a minor State was a distinct challenge to
the Persian monarch. He entered on a
course of persecution which involved him in
war with the Christian Emperor Constantine
the Great — a war which lasted for more than
one generation. It was the long struggle for
the mastery in the Near East, which had as one
result the partition of Armenia between Rome
and Persia (^87 a.d.), the Western portion
being joined to Pontus, the Roman province,
whilst the Eastern was taken by Persia, and
as Pers- Armenia became a vassal State, with

48 ARMENIA: PAST AND PRESENT.
an Arsacid prince, until 428. Subsequently
it was governed by Persian and Armenian
noblemen selected by the " Great King," and
entitled "Marz&ans." Thus the Greater King
dom of Armenia was divided, and for a period
of many years bitter persecutions and sanguin
ary wars were normal conditions. Again and
again the Armenians revolted against the
tyrannous rule of the Marzbans, against the
enforced conversions. In 451 a.d. the great
battle of Avarair was fought, when 66,000
Armenians defeated 220,000 Persians. Ulti
mately the Persian King Valarse recognised
the futility of the policy, proclaimed full
religious liberty to Armenians and all other
Christians in his dominions, and made the
leader of the Armenian forces, Vahan
Mamikonian, Governor-General of Armenia.
For a while the land knew civil and religious
peace. But whilst these violent changes marked
the life of the Armenian Kingdom and
divided the country in its political allegiance,
there had been introduced into the life of the
Armenian people factors which counteracted
these disastrous political changes. The

HISTORICAL. 49
danger was that the people, under varying
political governments — Greek, Roman, Per
sian — would lose all national consciousness
and sentiment. Their new faith became a
bond of union which successfully resisted all
the efforts of non-Christian kings and govern
ments to break. The Armenians began to
realise that they were a people with a definite
spiritual ideal, which separated them from all
the pagan races by whom they were sur
rounded. The invention of the alphabet,
the translation of the Bible into the language
of the people, were events of more importance
in the formation of a national sentiment, and
in drawing the people together, than they
realised at this period of their history. Their
mother-tongue became the language of the
sanctuary, and exerted an immense and
enduring influence in sustaining the national
life and consciousness under conditions likely
to have been fatal to both. Religion, lan
guage, and literature were the binding forces
which kept solid the national life. So firm a
grip did these take on the people as a whole
that the national life survived those political
changes which slowly deprived them of any
separate political existence.

SO ARMENIA: PAST AND PRESENT.
Nor must it be forgotten that, losing inde
pendent political existence, and having their
fortunes and destiny linked with one or
other of the great Empires of Persia, Greece,
or Rome, they never lost a great measure of
autonomy. After the partition in the last years
of the Fourth Century, right up to the last de
cade of the Sixth, this autonomy was possessed
by them, and their immediate rulers under
the "Great Kings" were largely men of
Armenian blood and sympathies. Towards
the end of the Sixth Century two families
emerged— the Jewish Bagratids and the
Persian Mamegonians. One of the latter
family, Vartan, made himself (571-578), with
Byzantine aid, independent. At this period
the Greek Emperors and the Persian monarchs
were almost continually at war. In 614 Persia
invaded the Greek Empire, and actually
carried away from Jerusalem the relic of the
Holy Cross ; in fact the Persians fought their
way to the walls of Constantinople. Roused
by the imminence of the danger, the Emperor
Heraclius exerted himself and engaged in a
struggle with Chosroes II., which ended in
the complete defeat of the Persian enemy.

HISTORICAL. 51
In this great struggle the Armenian troops
under Megege Gnouni were largely respon
sible for the success of the campaign, which
finally ended with the capture and sack of the
Persian capital (627). It was the beginning
of the end of the Persian Empire. Weakened
by civil war, it was in no condition to with
stand the invasion of the Arabs, and in 651
the last of the Sasanian monarchs fled from
his native land.
The victory of Heraclius left Armenia in
the possession of the Byzantines. But it was
for a very brief period. In 636 the Arabs
swarmed over Armenia. In an incredibly
short time it was wholly in the hands of the
Caliphs, who appointed Arab and Armenian
governors (Ostikans). Here is seen again
the same instinctive grasping at some political
hold on their native land, made under identical
conditions two centuries before. There was
the same resolute determination not utterly
to lose control of affairs out of Armenian and
friendly hands. The great nobles, supported
by the obstinate patriotism of the people
generation after generation, sustained a con
flict with their foes East and West, Arab or

52 ARMENIA: PAST AND PRESENT.
Greek. These centuries are filled with the
sounds of war. Through all, " we can dis
cover," says Lynch [Vol. i., p. 336] "the
fervid self-assertion which has enabled this
strange people to preserve, in the face of
odds which appear to us to have been over
whelming, the inflexible individuality of their
race." One of these governors appointed by the
conquering Arabs, the Bagratid Ashot I.,
was even crowned King of Armenia by the
Caliph Motamid (885 a.d.). It was the
revival, after 450 years, of Armenian royalty.
It was the founding of the Kingdom of Ani —
the Armenian Kingdom of the Middle Ages.
Ashot I. was worthy of the post he held.
"In the flower of his age he exhibited the
union of imposing physical qualities with
habits of mind which gave peculiar weight
to his counsels, and with a natural suavity of
disposition and expression. An agreeable
face, in which, however, the eyes, with their
heavy black eye-brows, were shot with blood,
like a speck of red upon a pearl, was set
around with a magnificent beard, and sprang
from broad shoulders, in keeping with his

HISTORICAL. 53
fine stature." Nor was he less attractive
intellectually and morally. " Whatever defects
might belong to such an exterior were com
pensated by the habitual purity of his life.
The prince was missed at the sumptuous
banquets of the rich, but his presence was
felt by the poor in every action of their daily
life. He once said: ' The service of humanity
was a life-long service.' This precept was
illustrated by the example of his own long
life." Such was the first king of the Bagratid
dynasty, who ruled at a time when the short
lived empire of the Caliphs was in process of
dismemberment, and when petty Mussulman
dynasties were exercising in adjacent lands
their uncertain powers. Ashot's capital was
Bagaran, on the banks of the modern
Arpa Chad, south of the later capital Ani.
Sembat I., his son and successor (890-914),
largely increased the area of his kingdom on
the west. His authority was acknowledged
as far as Erzeroum ; on the north-east and
east it reached to the foot of the Caucasus
and the shores of the Caspian Sea ; whilst he
appears to have succeeded in dominating as
far west as the country of Taron (the modern

54 ARMENIA: PAST AND PRESENT.
Mush), and as far south as Mesopotamia.
But the enmity of his Moslem neighbours
and the treachery of his kinsmen of Vas-
purakan (Van) at length overwhelmed him.
"We see," says Lynch, "the Artsrunian
prince of the extensive province of Vaspurakan
turning his arms against his own countrymen
and their Bagratid king, and in active alliance
with the enemies of his religion and race."
Sembat's end was tragic. Defeated and made
prisoner, along with his queen (914 a.d.), he
was barbarously tortured in public, and when
he was dead, his body, nailed to a stake,
was exposed to the public gaze.
His son's (Ashot II.) reign (915-928) wit
nessed frightful sufferings on the part of his
people at the hands of their Moslem foes. The
whole country was given oyer to war. The
alternative offered to the Armenians was
apostacy or the sword. They remained faithful,
accepting any sufferings rather than deny the
Lord who bought them with His blood. " We
are Christians," cried a young nobleman in the
presence of the Mohammedan ruler Yusaf,
" we believe in God Who is Truth, and Who
dwells in the midst of Light without limits."

HISTORICAL. 55
Overawed by the strength of the Moslem
forces, even their Christian neighbours with
held aid. The land was reduced to beggary
and ruin. Disunion within, and ever fresh
inroads of the Moslems from without, make
up the weary story of these years. Abbas
(928-951) succeeded Ashot II., enjoying a
larger measure of quiet and prosperity than
the dynasty had hitherto known — a period
employed by the king and his court in
adorning the land with churches and monas
teries. It was during the long reign of his
successor, Ashot III., that the dynasty reached
the height of its power and glory. A great
victory which he won (960) over an Arab
Mussulman gained him the act of coronation
ten years after he had ascended the throne —
an act in which the rulers of adjacent States,
Christian and Moslem, actively assisted.
A subsequent alliance with the Emperor
Zisimces, an Armenian, sealed by the gift
of 10,000 Armenian troops, by whose aid
the Christian forces gained signal victories
over their foes, further secured for him
from the Emperor the title of Shahinshah
of Great Armenia. It was Ashot III. who

56 ARMENIA: PAST AND PRESENT.
transformed Ani from a fortress into a mag
nificent capital, which was further adorned
by Sembat II. (977-989) and Gagik I. (989-
1019). The kingdom, however, was dis
tracted and weakened by the dissensions
which followed on the death of Gagik I.
His two sons became rival claimants for the
vacant throne, and their claims were only
adjusted by a device which still further
weakened their forces, now on the eve of
that trial which within a few years destroyed
their kingdom and dynasty. Civil war
between the sons of Gagik, who shared the
divided kingdom, left them incapable of
effectually resisting the advance of the new
Moslem invaders, the Seljuk Turks, who
now appeared on the stage of Armenian
history. The opening years of the 1 1 th Century
found these barbaric hordes swarming over
the land, plundering, destroying, putting the
inhabitants to the sword. Gagik II., suc
cessor of John Sembat and Ashot, defeated
them near Erivan in 1042. It was but a
momentary repulse. They were in no con
dition to resist. United as a race, and with

HISTORICAL. 57
the aid of the Caesars, they might have been
an effectual barrier to the tide of barbaric
invasion. Unfortunately the Armenian
sovereigns of Georgia and Ani had taken
up arms against the Emperor, thus depriving
themselves and their people of the only
effectual aid they could summon. Gagik II.
was induced to visit Constantinople, and was
kept captive, being given territory in Cappa-
docia and a palace in the Imperial City. Ani
was made a part of " the Roman Empire,
along the valley of the Araxes and round the
shores of Lake Van."
Thus the protagonists in Armenia were
now face to face — the Byzantine Empire at
the seat of the last Armenian kingdom, and
the barbarians who eventually submerged,
first, this outpost of Christianity and, ulti
mately, the very capital of the Empire itself!
Just a glance at the Armenian Kingdom
of Vaspurakan, of which Van, the ancient
city on the lake of that name, was the famous
capital. In the 9th Century the princely
Armenian family of Artsruni, claiming descent
from one of the Assyrian kings, had attained
great wealth and territory in the south of

58 ARMENIA : PAST AND PRESENT.
Armenia. They drew their name from the
lofty office bestowed upon an ancestor of
bearing before the Arsakid king the emblem
of the golden eagle — "an emblem cherished
to this day by the Armenian inhabitants of
Van as the distinctive ensign of their city
and province." The Caliph Moktadir elevated
Gagik (908), the Artsrunian princelet, to the
throne of the province, and thus began a
dynasty which lasted in the Kingdom of Van
till 1080. Its history is largely that of the
neighbouring Kingdom of Ani. It had its
periods — short at the longest — of repose and
prosperity. War was its normal state with
local Arab potentates, and not seldom with
the sister kingdom of Ani. It also was
weakened by this internecine war, which left
it an easy prey for the Seljuks, who ravaged
the Vaspurakan Kingdom in the first decades
of the nth Century. Indeed, it was upon
the Kingdom of Van that the brunt of the
Mussulman and Turkish invasion had fallen.
Senekerim was the occupant of the throne
when the storm broke. His son David was
overwhelmed by these wandering shepherd
soldiers about 1018. The defeat broke the

HISTORICAL. 59
king's faith and courage, and "his despon
dency," says Lynch [Vol. i, p. 357] "was
confirmed by the recollection of a prophecy
in which St. Nerses, the fifth successor of
St. Gregory, had foretold the advent of great
calamities at the hands of a barbarous people
a thousand years after the divine mission of
Christ." Panic-stricken Senekerim sent his
son to Constantinople, and laid his kingdom
at the feet of the Emperor Basil II. It was
a stupendous gift. It included no less than
72 fortresses, 4,000 villages, and 8 towns.
All were surrendered without a blow. He
received in exchange a safe retreat within
the Empire — the city and territory of Sivas
(102 1 a.d.) — and a representative of the
Byzantine Emperors hastened to take posses
sion of a large and populous realm. No
single act of any Armenian monarch is
regarded with so intense a loathing as this
cowardly act of cession of his dominions by
Senekerim. In the cloisters of Varag, near
Van, his remains lie. Over his tomb had
been erected a wooden canopy decorated in
a manner befitting royal rank. But that any
honour should be paid so unworthy a monarch

60 ARMENIA: PAST AND PRESENT.
shocked the soul of Catholicos Khrimean
(1893- 1 907). He stripped the tomb of all
its trappings and ornaments, and the structure
stands bare to this day.
From this time forward the kingdoms of
Van and of Ani were involved in a common
ruin. The famous Toghrul Bey appears as
the leader of the invading hosts about 102 1,
and though they were repulsed on more than
one occasion, they returned year by year
strengthened in numbers, and conquering
ever wider areas of these unhappy lands.
Kars was sacked and its people massacred in
1050. The territory of Mush was overrun
in 1058. Their forces even reached the city
of Sivas, the quiet haven of the cowardly
Senekerim, and his sons fled for their lives.
The city was stormed and given over to
indiscriminate massacre. The plain of Sivas
was deluged in blood. No concerted defence
was attempted by the Armenians ; nor was
there any union of forces between the
Christian States of Armenia and those of the
mighty monarch of Constantinople. " That
Empire," says Lynch [Vol. 1, pp. 359-60],
" so greatly respected by the Mussulmans as

HISTORICAL 61
the realm of the Romans, was an object of
particular aversion to the Armenians as the
home or the prey of the hated and unorthodox
Greeks. On every page of Armenian history
is written large the mutual suspicion which
envenomed the relations of the two races . . .
The judicial historian will perhaps conclude
that the blame must be laid upon wider
shoulders — upon the Pan-Greek policy of the
Byzantine Caesars and their masterful hier
archy, and upon the perversity of two cultured
and Christian peoples, who, rather than com
pose or postpone their quarrels, threw this
culture and this religion into the maw of
savages." John Sembat, the King of Ani, in 1022,
voluntarily ceded his dominions to the Chris
tian Emperor Basil. The Emperor forcibly
occupied his territory on John's death (1040).
But even the faet of actual possession did not
lead to the adoption of any wise policy of
conciliation towards the Armenians. " The
safety of the provinces was made subordinate
to the interests of the great hierarchy ; the
Armenians were irritated by renewed attempts
to bring them over to Byzantine orthodoxy ;

62 ARMENIA: PAST AND PRESENT.
and their resistance was punished by the
removal of their strongest characters from the
native seats, for the defence of which they
would have given their lives. The new
territory was handed over to Greek eunuchs,
to whom was entrusted their administration
and defence." A policy of this character made
the issue inevitable. The task of the invaders
was rendered easy, the conquest of the whole
country was a mere matter of time.
Toghrul Bey was succeeded by the famous
Alp Arslan. He appeared before Ani in the
middle of 1064. An enormous population
was gathered within its walls. It was popu
larly supposed to be impregnable. Its one-
thousand -and -one churches were crowded
day and night, whilst mass was sung. In
twenty-five days it had fallen. With a knife
in either hand, and a third between the teeth,
the victors entered the city. The garrison
took refuge within the citadel. Then began
the massacre of the helpless population.
When it was ended, the glory of Ani and of
the Armenian Kingdom of the Middle Ages
were ended also. Kars surrendered without a
blow, and the defeat of the Emperor Romanus,

HISTORICAL. 63
in 1 07 1, finished a struggle which had lasted
for generations. The Moslem has triumphed !
Ani had a return of prosperity even under
the Seljuks. It was held again by the
Armenians through the aid of the Bagratid
King of Georgia, David II., and the cathe
dral which had served as a mosque was
restored to Christian worship and consecrated
anew (n 24). But the following year it was
again besieged, and again was in the hands
of the Kurdish dynasty. Captured and
recaptured, it was still rich and prosperous at
the beginning of the thirteenth century. But
on the appearance of the Tartars, in 1239,
the city was ruthlessly sacked by the hordes
under Jenghiz Khan ; and an earthquake in
1 3 19 finally completed what the fire and
sword of barbaric peoples began. To-day
there is nothing left of Ani but imposing
ruins which tell the traveller what a civilisa
tion, and wealth, and culture, have been there !

64 ARMENIA: PAST AND PRESENT.

(B) THE KINGDOM OF LESSER ARMENIA.
At this distance of time it is difficult to
reconstruct the life of the Armenian people
in those centuries when they were fighting
innumerable foes for a national and political
existence denied them by other races inferior
in brain power, culture, in the arts and
sciences, or by a world-power dominated
unhappily by a fanatical and narrow-minded
hierarchy intent on enforcing their dogmatic
beliefs on a weak and struggling people. It
is as difficult to do this from the scanty
records of that vanished past as it would be
to reconstruct that great city (Ani), rivalling
the Byzantine capital itself for artistic treasures,
from the ruins which mark its site and speak
eloquently of its extinct and forgotten glory.
It is as though some irresistible hand had
swept from the face of the earth all that had
been, and left of both the people and their
civilisation but the debris of their former life.

HISTORICAL. 65
Two things are certain. Those centuries
of incessant warfare between rival petty
potentates and contending States lessened
the population in point of numbers, and,
secondly, interfered greatly with that natural
growth which must have marked so alert,
strong, progressive, a people as the Armenians
undeniably were. Under Tigranes the Great
the population of Armenia was at least
30,000,000. When the Kingdom was divided
in the 4th Century a.d. it had greatly
diminished. What it was when the Seljuks
obtained the supremacy in Armenia we have
no means of learning. But the wars, the
indiscriminate slaughter, must have vastly
decreased the population despite the fact
that the Armenians were, and are, a most
prolific race. Beyond all doubt these con
ditions and continued emigration led to that
decrease in the population which has left the
Armenian nation but the shadow of its former
self. Equally certain is it that the natural
development of the Armenian people, their
growth in the intellectual and cultural life
peculiar to them, came to a sudden stop.
How could it be otherwise ? They were

66 ARMENIA: PAST AND PRESENT.
scattered abroad like the sheep of some
panic-stricken flock. Their institutions were
broken up. The only stable institution left
to them in any organised form was their
Church, and that was the object of the envy
and hatred of their most powerful Christian
neighbours, East and West. The roots of
their national life were ruthlessly torn up and
scattered to the winds. How could any
distinctive intellectual life withstand the shock
of such a national catastrophe ?
Perhaps even more disastrous was the
destruction of the political existence of the
Armenian people. It is pathetic, even to-day,
to note how helpless they were in that great
sea of contending races. A people inordin
ately proud of their independence, always
striving amid political disaster to retain, at
least, the semblance of it, the sport of Arabs
and Kurds and Seljuks ! A people whose
intellectual supremacy cannot be denied —
Lord Cromer calls them to-day " the in
tellectual cream of the Near East" — the
subjects of races of which it would be absurd
to postulate any intellectual life, whose
superiority lay in mere numbers, and in the

HISTORICAL. 67
subserviency of masses to a cunning brain,
which made them in turn an effectual weapon
to beat down any opposition.
The process of national deterioration once
begun could not be arrested. The economic
and social conditions steadily grew worse.
" For more than three centuries after the
appearance of the Seljuk, Armenia was
traversed by a long succession of nomad
tribes, whose one aim was to secure good
pasturage for their flocks on their way to the
richer lands of Asia Minor. The cultivators
were driven from the plains, agriculture was
destroyed, and the country was seriously
impoverished, when the ruin was completed
by the wholesale butcheries of Timur. Many
Armenians flew to the mountains, where they
embraced Islam, and intermarried with the
Kurds, or purchased security by paying
blackmail to Kurdish chiefs." [Ency. Brit.,
vol. 2, p. 566.J Such of the Armenians as
were able emigrated to more distant parts of
Europe and Asia. The best of the popula
tion left the war-scourged land. Thousands
emigrated to Poland, Moldavia, Galicia, to
Astrakhan, on the northern shores of the
F2

68 ARMENIA: PAST AND PRESENT.
Caspian Sea, and thence to the Crimea. It
was an impoverishment of the Armenian
nation from which it has never recovered.
In these distant countries they established
flourishing colonies, grew rich, and contentedly
settled down, to the great advantage of the
people among whom they dwelt. " Many of
these colonies have endured to the present
day. Some among them were permitted to
retain their own laws ; and the jurisprudence
of the Armenian kings figures in the code of
Colony of Lemberg, which was administered
by Armenians with the express sanction of
the Polish kings, and which has been pre
served to the curiosity of our own age."
[Lynch's "Armenia," vol. i, p. 367. J The
emigrants fled from the wrath to come. But
the Armenians who, willingly or unwillingly,
remained, deprived of the presence of their
leaders and nobles, uninspired by the example.
of those to whom they had been accustomed
to look for guidance, found themselves exposed
to malign influences each succeeding genera
tion found it harder to resist. Then began
the martyrdom of the Armenian race in their
native land — a martyrdom which has no

HISTORICAL. 69
parallel in the history of the human race.
Still the amazing fact stares the world in the
face to-day that, despite all, they have main
tained their identity, their faith, and, though
pitiably reduced in numbers, are still the
strongest coherent racial unit — or were before
the " Reform " policy of the " Young Turk "
party assumed the form of a policy of exter
mination of Armenian Christians in Asia
Minor. With the capture of Ani by Ars Asplan, in
1 07 1, and the end of the Armenian Kingdom
in the East, there began that movement of
the Armenian notables and their followers to
which we have already referred. They went
north and south. Those who took the road
north were to all intents and purposes
absorbed by the peoples among whom they
found a refuge and made a new home. But
they left unmistakable marks of their presence
and genius in almost every walk of life, especially
in the arts and sciences. Take one example :
Armenian architects found in Constantinople
constant employment. One of the most
perfect specimens of Byzantine architecture,
built in 1 5 17-1526, at Curtea de Argesh in

70 ARMENIA: PAST AND PRESENT.
Rumania, was [see Ency. Brit., vol. 2, p. 388]
the work of one of these able men.
Those who went south followed a more
romantic and adventurous path. In 1080,
Rhupen, a kinsman of the last king of Ani,
founded the settlement, at first nothing more,
in the heart of the Cilician Taurus which,
after an exciting period of strife, ultimately
blossomed into the kingdom of Cilicia, known
as the kingdom of Lesser Armenia. It was
a Christian State in the midst of Moslem
States. Through the whole course of its
history it had to maintain one long struggle
for existence. Its natural enemy was, of
course, the Seljuk, who made repeated
attempts to overthrow the little principality
established in the most mountainous portion
of Southern Asia Minor. Against these foes
they sought to find allies in the Christian
powers whether of Syria or of the West. It
was this policy of conciliation of the Christian
powers which led them to extend aid to the
Crusades which form the outstanding feature
of this period. Gostandin I. (1 095-1 100)
ascended the throne of Lesser Armenia in the
very year the first Crusade was decreed by

HISTORICAL. 71
Pope Urban II. He generously assisted the
leaders as they took their way to Antioch,
and when Jerusalem was taken in 1099,
Gostandin was knighted, and subsequently
was created a marquis. A century later the
identical policy was followed by one of the most
astute and able rulers the Cilician kingdom pro
duced, Leo " the Great " ( 1 1 85- 1 2 1 9) — during
the third Crusade led by the Emperor Bar-
barosa, Philip of France, and Richard Cceur-
de-lion, kingof England. Owing to dissensions
among the leaders it was a failure, and was
abandoned, in 1192, when the Sultan Saladin
agreed to allow pilgrims free access to the Holy
Places. Leo found his opportunity in the
want of harmony among the leaders and
rendered effective service. Beyond all doubt
his aim was to secure for his little State the
assistance, political and military, which would
have enabled him to extend his dominions
and heighten the status of his dynasty. He
actually succeeded in winning the consent of
the emperors of the East and West to the
elevation of his State into a Kingdom, and to
the bestowal of a crown upon the astute
Armenian leader.

72 ARMENIA: PAST AND PRESENT.
But during the whole of this century the
Armenians had found the Byzantine Empire
unfriendly, and on occasion openly antago
nistic. The cause is to be found in the
antipathy which existed in the Greek hier
archy towards the independent Armenian
Church. Through all political vicissitudes
the Armenians clung to their ecclesiastical
freedom, and strenuously resisted the domin
ation of the Orthodox Church. Continuous
and determined attempts were made to bring
about the subjection of the Armenian Church.
This explains the policy of the Armenian
leaders in turning to the West, and by
negotiations with Rome, endeavouring to
secure its countenance and support. On more
than one occasion the little State found itself
at war with the Byzantine Empire. Greeks
and Armenians came to blows during the
reign of Leo I. (i 1 23-1 137), and, as a result,
the Armenian prince was captured, and the
country occupied till his son Thoros II.
ascended the throne (1144). Even when it
seemed as though political differences had
been overcome, and when the friendship of
the Emperors had been won by the distin-

HISTORICAL. 73
guished services of Leo II. during the third
Crusade, the opposition to his advancement
offered by the Roman Church, on the other
hand, was successful in putting off his corona
tion for a period of two years. Rome
demanded the submission of the Armenian
Episcopate to the rule of the Supreme Pontiff,
and Leo was forced to produce a document
which made such concessions as satisfied the
Roman legate. It may be said with absolute
truth that the chief difficulty encountered by
this tiny Christian State, this outpost of the
Christian Church, during its whole career
arose from the determination of the two
Christian organisations in the East and West
to absorb this national Church which clung
so obstinately to its own creed, and to its
separate and independent existence. When
after 300 years of struggle against foes within
and without the Lesser Kingdom of Armenia
disappeared and the political existence of this
people vanished, it was in a large measure
owing to the ecclesiastical intrigues incessantly
carried on by the Roman and Greek Churches.
They weakened and rendered impotent the
State at a moment when'unity was called for,

74 ARMENIA: PAST AND PRESENT.
and the whole strength of the people was
needed to meet their Moslem foes thundering
at their gates.
Leo II. not only secured the crown, but he
extended his borders beyond Mount Taurus,
gradually making his rule felt even to the
Mediterranean. It was during his reign that
the Italian colonies multiplied in Cilicia,
greatly to the commercial advantage of Leo's
subjects. At the same time many Armenian
colonies were established in Italy. The closer
relations which naturally followed strengthened
the bonds with Rome, and to a corresponding
degree weakened those with Constantinople.
The Latins grew in favour with both king
and people. The union of the two Churches
was constantly discussed, and only the bitter
hostility the Armenian bishops in the east of
Asia Minor showed prevented the consum
mation of this union.
Leo "the Great" died (12 19) leaving no
male issue. His daughter Zabel succeeded
him, and her second husband, Haithon II.
(1226- 1 269), was strongly pro- Latin in his
sympathies, political and ecclesiastical, but he
was astute enough, whilst promoting the most

HISTORICAL. 75
cordial relations with Rome, not to neglect
securing the support of the G reeks. Persistent
negotiations were maintained, and if they had
no definite purpose, and aimed at no decisive
result, they at least prevented the Eastern
Power from being cast into the scale against
the little State. It- needed at this time all the
support it could command from any quarter.
The Turkish power was steadily growing in
Asia Minor, and its pressure on the frontiers
of the kingdom was increasingly felt. At
least that fact may be urged in extenuation
of the double game they played with their
Christian neighbours.
Levon III. (1270-1289) and Haithon II.
may be said to have been moved by opposite
principles. The former, whilst maintaining
friendly relations with the Latins, had as his
basic principle the independence of his kingdom
ecclesiastically and politically. Haithon II.,
on the other hand, heartily supported the
party which desired ecclesiastical union with
Rome whilst maintaining the political inde
pendence of the country. How far it would
have been possible to have surrendered the one
without sacrificing the other only experience

76 ARMENIA: PAST AND PRESENT.
could have shown. Had the Lesser Kingdom of
Armenia survived the attacks of its Moslem
foes in the 14th Century, union, both ecclesi
astical and political, might have become a
condition of survival in any form. But it was
not allowed to make the experiment. When
Levon V. died (1342), the last of the
Latinophile kings of the family of Korikos,
John of Lusignan was chosen king as
Gostandin IV. Of this house, five short
lived kings ruled in the last thirty-three years
of its existence. " They were," says Stubbs,
" Latin exiles in the midst of several strange
populations, all alike hostile." The hostility
was natural. They were not merely Latin,
but pronouncedly Roman Catholic, and during
the whole of their reigns they exercised the
full weight of their influence and power to
force confirmity to Rome on the Armenians.
They alienated their subjects by giving all
posts of honour to their friends. Dissensions
sprang up on every side, and the power of
the State to resist attack steadily became
smaller. Ormanian, in his " Church of
Armenia," sums up the political situation at
this period, which, he says (p. 70), " in the

HISTORICAL. 77
interior, being at the mercy of disturbing
elements, was extremely critical. The
Armeno- Latin understanding had excited the
suspicion of the Tartars, the Turks, and the
Egyptians ; and while the Armenians still
reckoned on the protection of the Christian
Powers, Europe, exhausted and enfeebled,
was losing ground in Asia." There was no
avoiding the inevitable catastrophe. The
Mamelukes of Egypt invaded the kingdom
in 1375, taking prisoner Leo VI., the last
king of Armenia. After a long captivity he
was released, and wandered as an exile
through Europe, dying at last in Paris,
in 1393, where he lies buried in the Church
of St. Denis.
Thus ignominiously did the political inde
pendence of the Armenian people pass away.
Henceforth through all the succeeding cen
turies they are seen as the sport and playthings,
the victims and slaves, of an inferior race.
Deep in their nature was the love of liberty,
and all through their stormy history the
value they placed on their independence
shines like a star in the night. Even when
the might of Islam had extinguished their

78 ARMENIA: PAST AND PRESENT.
liberty, and left them powerless to resist
injury or resent insult, the determination to
be free showed itself. Into the recesses of
Mount Taurus a body of Armenians withdrew,
and there formed a community which, from
the end of the 14th century to the present
day, maintained an almost complete indepen
dence. The Armenians of Zeytoon never
paid taxes to the Turkish Government and
never gave recruits to its armies. With
valour and determination they met their
enemies, and for over 500 years, with occa
sional reverses, preserved intact their freedom.
Proudly they called .themselves " The British
of Asia Minor — unsubdued and unsubduable."
Every man was a warrior, and the women of
the community were the equals of their
husbands and sons in desperate valour. Their
bishops carried into modern times the ideal
of a mediaeval bishop — the soldier-priest as
ready to lead in the fight as to lead in prayer.
The heroic feats of their women-folk were
occasionally amazing — a mingling of courage
and cruelty. Isolated, the little community
were forced to rely upon their own ingenuity
and mechanical skill for their arms. In the

HISTORICAL. 79
recesses of the mountains they found the raw
materials from which they fashioned their
weapons. Thus the hardy mountaineers defied
the foes who sought to bind the yoke upon
their necks. One would wish it had been
possible to say that even through this World
War they had kept inviolate their mountain
home. When the war broke out the able-
bodied Zeytoonlis were bidden, by the
Turkish authorities to comply with the
mobilization order and join the army. They
well knew the bitter hostility of the Central
Government towards themselves, and realised
that once the men of Zeytoon were lured
into the ranks of the Turkish army not a
man would return. Besides, whom were
they asked to fight against ? Their British,
French, and Russian co-religionists. It was
preposterous ! They refused to submit to
the mobilization orders and prepared to
resist. So successful was this resistance
against the local forces that at length two
complete divisions with artillery were detached
from forces designed for operations on the
Suez Canal in order to deal with these
persistent Armenian mountaineers, thus weak-

80 ARMENIA: PAST AND PRESENT.
ening the attack on the Egyptian front.
Even with this large and well equipped force,
no headway could be made against the
Zeytoonlis. But what force could not effect,
cruelty and fraud achieved. The threat was
made that unless the Zeytoonlis surrendered,
the whole Armenian population of Cilicia
would be "rounded up" and "wiped out."
To prevent so hideous a crime the majority
surrendered. The minority, 1,000 to 1,500
fighting men, are said to have withdrawn to
the loftier recesses of the mountains. Then
Turkish ferocity was seen in all its appalling
manifestations. Men, women and children
were separated. The males were marched
off north — to join the forces of the Sultan,
it was said. They have never been heard of
since. The women, children, and old men
were driven to the Mesopotamian desert
with the accompaniment of a ruthless bar
barism, the story of which, as told by Lord
Bryce and others, has sent a thrill of horror
throughout the civilised world. Here in the
20th century we have an example of the
methods of the "gentle Turk " — the methods
he has strictly followed during the whole time

HISTORICAL. 8l
of conquest and domination. A community of
over 20,000 people ruthlessly torn up, scat
tered to the winds, destroyed ! In its
destruction there vanishes the last fragments.
of that ancient Armenian life characterised by
its aggressive love of liberty, its determination
to be the master of its own destiny.

82 ARMENIA: PAST AND PRESENT.

(C) UNDER THE HEEL OF THE TURK.
" The disappearance of the Lesser Kingdom
of Armenia ended the political life of the
Armenian people. Henceforward for cen
turies they had no place in the mind of
Europe. Their existence and conditions were
matters of no importance to Christendom.
Armenia was lost sight of save as a geographi
cal term. The conquest by the Ottomans
steadily went forward in the years following
1375. War was almost incessant, not only
between Turk and Persian, but between the
feudal lords — Kurd, Arab, and Armenian —
whose rivalry and feuds kept the whole
country in a constant state of war. To re
construct the life lived by the people is
beyond the imagination of any man. Life
itself was held on the most uncertain tenure.
Industrial life of any and every kind decayed.
The invasion of Tamerlane, in 1401, had left
Asia Minor a hideous wreck, and the rule of
the Turk was not calculated to restore the

HISTORICAL. 83
shattered fabric. The great campaign, in
1 5 14, of Selim I., dispossessed Persia of her
Armenian territory, and the policy of settling
Kurds on the rich arable land was not a
happy one for the remaining Armenian popu
lation. The power of the Kurds gradually
spread over wide areas. But their aversion
for any form of industrial life, even for rudi
mentary agriculture, turned whole tracts of
valuable land into mere grazing grounds for
their flocks. Still, once the question of
Turkish supremacy had been determined, the
land had in these years a time of comparative
rest. But it was short-lived. Armenia was still
the object of Persian desire, and was invaded
in 1575, and again by Shah Abbas in 1604.
From the valley of the Araxes the Persian
monarch transported a whole colony of
Armenians to the suburbs of his capital,
Ispahan. It is said he penetrated as far as
Kars, and the ancient capital of Armenia, the
City of Van, fell into his hands. By this
time the period of conquest by the Turkish
Sultans was practically ended, and the first
signs of the decay of their power were visible. C2

84 ARMENIA: PAST AND PRESENT.
It is certain they found it impossible to retain
their hold of the Armenian province of Erivan,
in which is situated Etchmiadzin, then, as now,
the ecclesiastical, and in a sense political, centre
of Armenian life. It was ceded by Treaty
to Persia in 1639, and .remained in her hands
till 1828, when, by the Treaty of Turkman-
Chai, it passed into the possession of Russia.
This is the only part of Armenia which can
be said to have any history during all these
years. These lands happened to be between
the territories of three Powers which seemed
fated to come into collision sooner or later.
The country North and East of Lake Van
was the inevitable battle-ground. Russia,
extending her territories south of the Caucasus,
finding two decadent Powers barring her
way, flung herself against them, and possessed
herself of lands they had held for centuries,
misgoverned, and left in political and economic
ruin. The origin of the Russian advance is
graphically described by Lynch [Vol. 1,
p. 446]. "The solid block of territory over
which Russia now rules on the table-land of
Armenia is neither a new acquisition nor the

HISTORICAL. 85
fruit of a single conquest. At the commence
ment of the last (19th) Century she gained a
foothold upon it by the voluntary accession of
the Georgian Kingdom, and its constitution
into a Russian province in 1802. This event,
the outcome of the folly of the Mussulman
Powers, who had driven the Christians into
despair, was followed by the rapid expansion
of the Northern Empire in those countries as
the result of successful war. Karabagh was
taken from Persia in 1813, and the important
Khanate of Erivan in 1828 ; from Turkey the
district of Akhaltsykh in 1829, and the
fortress and province of Kars in 1878.
Appearing as the deliverer of the Christian
peoples, and profiting by their aid, Russia has
succeeded in advancing her border beyond
the Araxes and to the threshold of Erzeroum,
and in establishing herself behind a well-
rounded frontier, which comprises the vene
rated mountain of Ararat, as well as the seat
of the supreme spiritual government to which
the Armenians bow." That phrase, "the
folly of the Mussulman Powers who had
driven the Christians to despair," crystallises
into a few words the whole tragedy of the

86 ARMENIA: PAST AND PRESENT.
Armenian people throughout these centuries.
First of all they were despised if not actively
hated as Christians ; then they were treated
as beings of an inferior order — maltreated,
denied justice, robbed by lawless Kurds and
equally dishonest tax-gatherers. They were
ground between the upper millstone of
religious bigotry and the nether millstone of
official injustice and oppression. The State
would not defend them. They were forbidden
to defend themselves. To carry or even
possess arms was punishable by death. To
suffer injuries was the Armenian's duty — in
person, honour, goods ; to resent them was
to deserve and receive punishment. Life was
cheap, and long-continued unchecked exercise
of power made the Kurd or Turk insensible
to the cruelty inflicted upon, and the suffering
borne by, his helpless, unresisting victim.
Even at the beginning of the 19th Century,
at Constantinople, a Mussulman could very
well stop a Christian in the street, and calmly
behead him, in order to test that his sword
was in good condition. The rayahs were
obliged to carry a special handkerchief to
wipe the shoes of a Mussulman in the

HISTORICAL. 87
streets at the least sign that he wished it
done. If that was done at Constantinople,
what would be the condition of the Armenian
peasantry under the even more bigoted,
fanatical, rule of the utterly ignorant Asiatic
Turk or nomad Kurd ?
Is it any wonder the Armenians turned to
any quarter for succour, or that they wel
comed the advent of Russia as the dawn
of a new day ? The prevalent idea of the
Armenian as a quiet, inoffensive, much-
enduring, rather cowardly man, is a strange
one in the light of the history of this people.
Russia does not entertain this conception of
the Armenians. They flocked to the standard
of Holy Russia, and it was the valour and
military capacity, amounting to genius, of
their leaders which gave Russia her territories
south of the Caucasian mountains. The secret
of the decline of Turkish power in Armenia,
and the narrowing of her borders, is explicable
only by the stupid folly of her rulers — their
incapacity for government, their lack of any
community of feeling with or sympathy for
subject peoples. It is to be noted that this
earlier period was not marked by wholesale

88 ARMENIA : PAST AND PRESENT.
massacres. Sporadic murder was indulged
in by raiding Kurds, women were never safe
from outrage, kidnapping, and enforced con
version. Armenian property was regarded
as really belonging to their political masters.
But conditions did not even faintly resemble
what we have come to regard as normal
in more recent times. "The Armenians
and Kurds have lived together from the
earliest times. The adoption of Islam by the
latter and by many Armenians divided the
people sharply into Christian and Moslem,
and placed the Christians in a position of
inferiority. But the relations between the
two sects were not unfriendly previously to
the Russian campaigns in Persia and Turkey.
After 1829 the relations became less friendly ;
and later, when the Armenians attracted the
sympathies of the European Powers after the
war of 1877-78, they became bitterly hostile."
[Ency. Brit., vol. 2, p. 567 note].
On the same authority we learn that "when
Abdul Hamid came to the throne, in 1876,
the condition of the Armenians was better
than it had ever been under the Osmanlis."
That may be accepted as on the whole true,

HISTORICAL. 89
though it must not be forgotten that our
ignorance of actual occurrences in the remote
parts of Turkish Armenia may very easily
lead us to assume " better conditions " than
the Christian population really enjoyed. Still
there can be no doubt on the main fact
indicated in the closing words of the preceding
paragraph. The Russo- Turkish War of 1877
won freedom for the Bulgarian people, and
ended the reign of the Turkish terror in
Bulgaria. But the Treaty of San Stefano
went further. It stipulated (Article 16) that
Turkey should "carry into effect, without
further delay, the improvements and reforms
demanded by local requirements in the
provinces inhabited by Armenians, and to
guarantee their security from Kurds and
Circassians." (Subsequent massacres form a
striking comment on this Article.) That
stipulation drew Armenia and the Armenians
into the orb of European politics and policies.
It was bitterly resented by the Ottoman
Government, especially as it was accompanied
by a provision that Russian troops should
occupy territory in Turkish Armenia until
these reforms should be fully carried out.

90 ARMENIA: PAST AND PRESENT.
The war cost Turkey Kars and the territory
known as Turkish Armenia. But Turkish
diplomacy supported by the Western Great
Powers succeeded in overthrowing the
San Stefano Treaty, and in substituting for
it the Treaty of Berlin (July 13th, 1878).
The six Signatory Powers were substituted
for Russia, and her troops were to be with
drawn before the period of reform began !
Great Britain went further. By the secret
Cyprus Convention (June 4th, 1878), the
Sultan promised to introduce necessary
reforms " for the protection of Christians and
other subjects of the Porte " in Asia Minor.
As the price for guaranteeing the integrity of
Turkish territory in Asia Minor, Cyprus was
ceded to Great Britain. It was a rebuff for
Russia. It was then regarded as a diplomatic
triumph for this country. Time and events
have shown it to be one of the gravest
diplomatic blunders in our annals. But what
were its immediate practical effects ? It
encouraged the Armenians to look to the
European Powers and not to Russia alone for
protection ; and the Convention, which did
not mention the Armenians, was regarded as

HISTORICAL. 91
placing them under the special protection of
Great Britain. It was a betrayal of the
Armenians by the Power to which they were
bidden look for deliverance from the basest
and cruellest tyranny. It closed the door
against the only Power which had shown the
faintest interest in the improvement of their
conditions, or made the slightest effort and
sacrifice to secure this improvement. Has
anything more futile in the region of diplomacy
ever been witnessed than the efforts of the
Powers to enforce the reforms in Asia Minor
to which the Treaty of Berlin solemnly agreed
and undertook to carry out ? Effort after
effort by the Concert of Europe was nullified
by Turkish diplomacy, and when, in 1883,
Bismarck told the British Government that
Germany cared nothing about Armenian
reforms, it was evident that any relief from
this quarter was hopeless. The ill-fated
Treaty of Berlin had altered Russia's
policy in the Near East, and the hope
of succour from that quarter for the
Armenians was abandoned. Great Britain's
attempts single-handed to effect the long-
delayed reforms were vain. It was highly

92 ARMENIA: PAST AND PRESENT.
embarrassing for some of the Powers — for
Great Britain especially. But it was fatal for
the Armenians. The Sultan was furious with
them because their question had been forced
to the front, and their social and political
conditions revealed to the eyes of the civilised
world. The reply of the Turkish Government
the whole world knows. Then began the
series of massacres, organised deliberately and
carried out by the regular and irregular forces.
For forty years those periodical slaughterings
of an unarmed, helpless, unoffending people
have continued. Sir Edwin Pears declares
that in the years which have elapsed no less
than 500,000 have been sacrificed. During
the Erzeroum massacres in 1895-6 alone, at
least 100,000 were sacrificed. No possible
excuse was forthcoming. There was no local
disturbance, much less any organised revolt.
The Balkans, in 1876, were in open revolt.
There the people had arms and munitions,
and were incited to use them by friends and
sympathisers. On the other hand, the
Armenians were isolated, a minority in every
one of the so-called Armenian vilayets save
that of Van. The utmost in the way of dis-

HISTORICAL. 93
turbance was the revenge taken by some
exasperated and despairing rayah for some un
usually brutal outrage or intolerable exaction.
The Turkish Commission sent to Armenia in
November, 1894, did not allege any revolt
which would justify the action of the authori
ties. Notwithstanding this, officials implicated
in the infamous Sasun massacres were deco
rated and rewarded. It was a despairing
people who lent their ears to the emissaries of
revolutionary propaganda. Secret societies,
such as the Dashnaktsutioun and Hunctakist,
were formed. Armenian leaders, clergy, and
and American missionaries, openly opposed
the whole movement. It afforded, they held,
the Government the very excuses they desired.
The very list of organised massacres is
appalling.* They culminated in 1896, when, after an
attack on the Imperial Ottoman Bank, Con
stantinople, by armed revolutionaries, " the
rabble, presumably armed and instructed,
were turned loose in the streets." Under the
*Here is an incomplete list: — Mush, 1893; Mush, 1894;
Trebizond, October, 1895; various places, 1896 ; Van,
Egin, Niksar, June 14th to 22nd, 1896 ; Constantinople,
August 26th, 1896 ; Mush, 1904 ; Van, 1908 ; Adana,
1909

94 ARMENIA: PAST AND PRESENT.
very eye of the Sultan and of the representa
tives of the Powers, some 6,000 or 7,000
persons were slaughtered ! Equally ruthless
butcheries took place at regular intervals over
the six vilayets, and in certain other districts.
They were confined to Gregorian and Protes
tant Christians. Any attempt at self-defence
was met with more extended slaughter. The
only successful defence was that made by the
gallant Zeytoonlis, who for three months
fought with the courage born of despair, and
won for themselves honourable terms. During
all these years of deliberate massacre no single
official was punished, whilst many were openly
rewarded for participation in them. How
could the Government punish for carrying
out its fixed policy ? It was the Sultan's
personal plan. " The only way of ending the
Armenian question," said Abdul Hamid, "is
to put an end to the Armenians " ! Even
while the "Young Turk" propaganda was
going forward the massacres continued —
notably at Mush (1904) and Van (1908J.
The Adana massacres in 1909 rank among
the most terrible even in the blood-stained
records of Turkish history.

HISTORICAL. 95
Any attempt to influence the policy of the
Sultan only inflamed his anger against his
victims, only led to an increase of the area
and the severity of the massacres. The total
effect upon the country was disastrous in the
extreme. The peasants in a steady stream
flowed over the Russian frontier. At least
100,000 went to the United States during
these years. By massacres and emigration
the estimated Armenian population, in 1878,
was reduced 50 per cent. Nor was this the
only impoverishment the country suffered.
" The destruction of property was enormous,
the hardest-working and best tax-paying
element in the country was destroyed or
impoverished, and when the bread-winners
were killed the women and children were left
destitute." [Ency. Brit., vol. 2, p. 568].
That Armenians sympathised with the
"Young Turk" Reform movement is well-
known. At Constantinople, and in all
parts of European and Asiatic Turkey, they
warmly supported and financed the move
ment. No one rejoiced more heartily when,
in 1 908, the Constitution was granted. They
hailed it as the dawn of a new day. The

96 ARMENIA: PAST AND PRESENT.
" Young Turk " leaders boldly proclaimed
equal rights and privileges for all creeds and
every race. Armenians freely took service
for the State in the cause of Reform. The
whole movement was hollow. The reforms
were but "paper reforms." The Adana
massacres in 1909 ought to have opened the
eyes of the Armenian people as to what they
might expect. The " Young Turk " party
came into power simultaneously with this
organised massacre, yet they allowed the two
chief culprits to escape. It was prophetic of
the conduct of the " unscrupulous gang," to
use Lord Bryce's words, who had snatched
at the reins of government in the Ottoman
Empire. They reproduced the worst methods
of the government they had overturned when
they suppressed the Albanian revolt in 191 1.
To retain and maintain the power they had
wrested from other hands, they were, and
are, willing to use any weapon, however
blood-stained. Their conduct in Armenia during these last
months is too notorious to call for lengthy notice.
Lord Bryce, in his speech in the House of
Lords (October 6th), indicted the Turkish

HISTORICAL. 97
Government, which boasts as moving spirits
such perjured politicians as Enver Pasha and
Talaat Bey, before the civilised world. These
men have out- H eroded Herod. Humanity
stands aghast at the enormity of their crime—
the unparalleled extent of their butcheries.
Even the blood-curdling atrocities of Tamer
lane are rivalled by the men who are fit allies
of the German Huns! It cannot be doubted
but that from 800,000 to 1 ,000,000 Armenians
in Turkish Asia Minor have been murdered,
outraged, deported, under circumstances of
unimaginable cruelty, to desert places where
they can only die from hunger and thirst !
The roads which lead to the deserts south of
Diarbekir and Bitlis were crowded with old
men, women, and children, driven by Kurds,
unfed, waterless, robbed by their brutal
guards of their poor possessions — the women
even of their clothes ! Their path is indicated
by the bodies of the dead. Exhaustion,
hunger, thirst, have exacted terrible toll.
The body of the newly-born child lies there —
thrown aside by its demented mother! Thou
sands have sought in self-inflicted death
escape from the horror and dishonour. In

98 ARMENIA : PAST AND PRESENT.
very truth it seems as though Talaat Bey's
threat that he would " deal the Armenians
such a blow as would stop them talking of
autonomy for fifty years" has been literally
fulfilled. Remonstrances, protests, appeals
from the United States, from Rome, have
been contemptuously ignored. Meanwhile
Count Reventlow, the uncompromising apolo
gist for every extreme measure adopted by
the German Huns and their Allies, proclaims
to the world that the treatment of the
Armenians is the sole concern of the Turkish
Government, with which the rest of the world
has no right to interfere. Some Armenians
have taken up arms against the Turks, there
fore the " Young Turk " party may treat
all other Armenians, including women, chil
dren, and new-born babes, as cruelty and
lust dictate !
So the regime of the Turk in Armenia,
which began in blood, has been blood-stained
through all the weary and shameful years of
his domination, closes amid scenes of carnage
which stagger humanity. But Turkish
domination closes !

HISTORICAL. 99

(D) THE STORY OF THE ARMENIAN CHURCH.
The descriptive term " National Church "
is more truly applicable to the ecclesiastical
institution of the Armenian people than to
any other of which we have knowledge.
The terms " Nation " and " Church " are
almost interchangeable. The history of the
one is largely the history of the other. That
does not imply that every Armenian is in
dogmatic agreement with the Church's
standards or in sympathy with its polity.
There are dissenters. But they recognise
the peculiar and exceptional character of
their national Church, and fully admit the
extraordinary part it has played in the
national life, love it for its work's sake, look
up to it, and, in an astonishing degree, are
guided in matters, social and political, by its
supreme head. The most critical student of
Armenian history must admit that no other
Church in Christendom has given such
valuable services to its adherents, played so

H 2

100 ARMENIA : PAST AND PRESENT.
potent a part in the people's life, imparted
such wonderful dynamic to the national will,
as this most ancient, most persecuted Church.
It has had its periods of degeneracy. No
State Church escapes them. We shall note
them in this brief survey of its history. None
the less we shall clearly realise the value of
this Church to the people through the
centuries of their martyrdom, realise how
fully it deserves that unbounded confidence,
enthusiastic reverence and love entertained
for it not only by Armenians at home but also
by Armenians of the dispersion.
The origin of this Church is clearly dis
cernible. It was beyond doubt Apostolic.
Primitive and unvarying tradition agree in
regarding St. Thaddeus and St. Bartholomew
as the first preachers of the Gospel in
Armenia, and as the founders of the Christian
churches in the land. These two are spoken
of as First Illuminators of Armenia. St.
Bartholomew's labours and martyrdom in
Armenia are as well authenticated as any
facts in the history of the founding of the first
churches during the great forty years after
our Lord's ascension. Concerning Thaddeus

HISTORICAL. 101
there is less certainty. Some affirm him to
be Thaddeus Didymus brother of the
Apostle St. Thomas, whilst a second tradition
sees in him the Apostle St. Judas Thaddeus,
surnamed Lebbeus. The details are lost, but
the broad fact remains that the earliest
preaching was by these two men, and that
the first communities of Christians in Armenia
were gathered from the mass of heathendom
as the result of their labours. Beyond these
facts we know little or nothing. The primitive
era is shrouded in darkness. But the work
did not cease when the Apostolic workers
received the crown of martyrdom. The best
guarantee for the spread of the Gospel was
the missionary zeal of the first converts. The
Armenian Church grew in numbers, influence,
endured persecution, and had its martyrology.
There are records of religious persecutions by
King Artaxerxes (c. 1 10 a.d.), by Chosroes
(c. 250), and by Tiradates (c. 287). It is
permissible to argue that had the Christians
been small in numbers, and of small social
importance, they would have escaped per
secution. The fact points to the existence of
a large body of Christians. I ndeed, only on the

102 ARMENIA : PAST AND PRESENT.
supposition of a widespread acceptance of the
faith can the almost instantaneous conversion
to Christianity of the whole land in the first
years of the Fourth Century be explained. It
had already taken deep root in the life of the
nation when the events occurred which issued
in Armenia becoming the first Christian
State. That event took place in 301 a.d. Con-
stantine followed the example of his Eastern
ally in 313 a.d., and Christianity became the
State religion of the Roman Empire subse
quently. The instruments of this wonderful
conversion of the Armenians were Gregory
the Parthian, surnamed by the Armenians
Lusavoritch, the Illuminator, and the King
Tiradates. The two men were blood rela
tions. Gregory's father had killed the father
of Tiradates, and a blood feud between the
two families existed. Gregory, saved from
the slaughter of his family, was brought up
at Caesarea, in Cappadocia, as a Christian.
When Tiradates came to the throne Gregory
took service with him. Subsequently he was
cast into the dungeons for his faith, and re
mained a prisoner for about fifteen years. Only

HISTORICAL. 103
was he released when Tiradates, in the grip of
some grave malady, sought his aid, and in a
miraculous manner was healed by him. Tradi
tion, which the Armenians fervently accept,
tells the romantic story of Ripsime, the
Christian virgin, who, pursued for her beauty
by the Emperor Diocletian (284-365), fled
from Rome, and finally took refuge in the out
skirts of the Armenian capital, Vagharshapat.
Here she was discovered by the servants of
Tiradates who immediately sought to ruin
her himself. She resisted and fled, was
captured and murdered with her companions.
Because of his treatment of the Christian
virgin, the vengeance of Heaven fell upon him,
and only by the intercession of Gregory was
the anger of God pacified. On the spot
where Repsime and her friends found refuge
Gregory had a vision of Christ. There
where the Son of God descended Gregory
built the Cathedral of Etchmiadzin, and on
the spot which drank the blood of the
martyred virgins the churches which com
memorate for all time the holy women who
resisted evil to the death. Tiradates and his
people became Christians, and such was the

104 ARMENIA: PAST AND PRESENT.
king's zeal that nothing less than the proclama
tion of Christianity as the State religion
would content him. By the end of the year
301 a.d. the religious aspect of Armenia
was completely altered. The worship of the
gods had almost ceased, and the practice of
Christianity was general. The most conclu
sive proof of this is found in the statement of
Eusebius who says that, in 311, the Emperor
Maximianus declared war against the
Armenians on account of their recent conver
sion. The advent of Constantine to the
imperial throne averted the war, and there is
reason to believe that both Gregory and
Tiradates went to Europe and saw Constan
tine, concluding with him a treaty favourable
to the Armenians.
Gregory at the time of the conversion was
but a layman. Not till 302 a.d. did he receive
episcopal consecration from Leontius, Arch
bishop of Caesarea. Subsequently for a
quarter of a century he controlled the
Armenian Church giving it the constitution
and form which it retains to-day. His-zeal
was unbounded, his labours incessant.
Georgia was evangelised by his efforts, as

HISTORICAL. 105
was Caspian Albania and Atropatene. Full
of years and honour he died in 325 — the
year of the first General Council at Nicea.
For a century the patriarchate remained in
the family of the Illuminator which was
loaded with lands and honours. Their con
duct added to its lustre, and gave it a hold
upon the imagination of later generations
such as no other ecclesiastical office commands.
St. Nerses I. (357-373), the great grandson of
the Illuminator, developed the hierarchial
government, whilst Sahak (Isaac the Great,
387-439) gave the people an alphabet of their
own. Hence he made possible a version of
the Bible, and a ritual in their own language.
Further, he opened the doors of learning to
his countrymen. Gregory established schools,
but Armenia lacked native teachers. But
when Mesrop, in 404, succeeded in forming
an alphabet adapted to the genius of the
Armenian language it became possible for
their own tongue to be the instrument of
learning. The Bible, the first book tran
slated into the vulgar tongue, was finally
completed in 433. Then followed liturgies,
hymns " which ring as an echo of the old

106 ARMENIA : PAST AND PRESENT.
national songs," and finally, this primitive
literature of the Armenian race and Church
contains translations of the Greek fathers,
some of which only survive in these transla
tions, e.g., Eusebius' histories. There were
but few original works, and these mainly
historical. Sahak 's long patriarchate closed in ever-
deepening darkness. Politically Armenia
was divided between Greeks and Persians.
Persian Armenia was distracted by intrigues
and quarrels. The Armenian satraps
secured the removal of the Armenian King
Artarches, and tried by promises and threats
to secure the influence of Sahak. He wisely
refused to be drawn into the web of intrigue.
They then accused him of plotting with their
king against the Persian sovereign, who
exiled the Patriarch in 428 a.d. For
four years he resided in Persia, during which
time rival patriarchs occupied the office and
enjoyed the emoluments. But the people
and their religious leaders loyally stood by
Sahak, and were guided by him. He died
in 439. Then calamity followed calamity for
the unhappy nation and Church. The Persian

HISTORICAL. 107
King, yielding to the importunity of the priests
of the Zoroastrian religion, endeavoured to
compel the Armenians to abandon their Chris
tian faith, and to adopt the worship of sun and
fire. Accordingly, in 449, he decreed the
religion of Zoroaster binding upon all his sub
jects. People and episcopate stood firm.
Twelve months had been granted for the
change to be made. At the end of the year the
whole nation took the field against the Persian
Empire. At the battle of Avarair (May 26th,
451), 66,000 Armenians defeated 220,000
Persians, despite the treachery of some of
their own people. The Armenian leader and
over a thousand of his followers perished.
Then ensued a period of disorder which
culminated in St. Joseph, the Patriarch, being
arrested and deported to Persia, where with
many others he suffered martyrdom (454).
For nearly fifty years the land groaned
beneath the evils of persecution and war.
Undaunted, the Armenians maintained the
conflict. Finally, the new Persian King,
Valarse, recognising the futility of this policy,
abandoned it and proclaimed religious liberty.
For a short space of time the nation and

108 ARMENIA: PAST AND PRESENT.
Church had civil and religious peace during
which time the Patriarch John led them in
earnest efforts to repair the injury caused by
the prolonged war.
The Armenian Church and the Schism
in Christendom.
Whilst the nation and Church were engaged
in a life and death struggle with paganism
events were taking place in Christendom
which profoundly affected the Latin and
Greek Churches, and ultimately led to the
rupture which shattered Christian unity.
That Christian doctrine would have to be
defined was inevitable. The restless human
mind, especially the abnormally restless Greek
mind, would not permit Christian doctrine to
remain in vague, undefined form. Till the
Fourth Century the Church was outwardly in
complete fellowship in faith and charity.
But during the Fourth Century heresy arose
in the East on the question of the nature of
Christ. Was Christ a creature or was He
uncreated ? Was He God, or one of the
works of God? At Nicea, in 325, the
Bishops declared that Jesus Christ was " Son

HISTORICAL. 109
of God, of one nature with the Father, who
came down from Heaven, and took flesh and
became man." Subsequent Councils at Con
stantinople (381), and Ephesus (43 1 ) generally
confirmed the decisions of the Council of
Nicea recognising, in the words of Cyril of
Alexandria, " One nature united in the
incarnate Word."
Of course, besides the dogmatic interests
at stake there were other interests also
especially the interests of the rival
patriarchates of Alexandria, Rome, and Con
stantinople. Athanasius and Cyril were
identified with Alexandria, and dominated
the Councils of Nicea and Ephesus. Hence
Leo of Rome was probably as much impelled
by the natural desire to assert and justify the
supremacy of the Roman patriarchate in the
eyes of the world as to serve the interests of
orthodoxy and Christian truth when he per
suaded the Emperor Marcian to summon the
famous Council of Chalcedon (45 1 ). It ended
in a compromise which allowed, in the course
of the next half century, the unfolding of
declarations of the most contradictory type
on the authority of the Council of Chalcedon.

no ARMENIA: PAST AND PRESENT.
Now the Armenian Church was formally
represented at only the Council of Nicea.
Circumstances already described prevented
formal representation at Constantinople and
Ephesus. But she recognised and loyally
accepted the decisions of the first three
general councils. The Council of Chalcedon
was not convened until after the great battle
of Avarair. Armenia was in no condition to
take action in ecclesiastical matters. " The
patriarchs and bishops were either in prison
or in exile ; the satraps were persecuted or
dispersed, the militia disbanded, and the
people terrorised. Under these circumstances
it can well be imagined that wranglings about
dogma failed to arouse the people's attention."
Nearly forty years elapsed before the
Armenian Church and people felt any interest
in the Council of Chalcedon or in its
decisions. But their attitude was never in
any doubt. Compromise on doctrine they
never assented to. The Synod of Armenian,
Georgian, and Caspio-Albanian bishops which
met at Douine (506) emphasised its accept
ance of " the profession of faith of the
Council of Ephesus, and rejected everything

HISTORICAL. iu
that was Nestorian or savoured of Nes-
torianism including the acts of the Council of
Chalcedon. Far, indeed, from adopting the
doctrine of Eutychus, his name, together
with those of Arius of Macedon, and of
Nestorius, was officially condemned." That
attitude of ultra-conservatism which the
Armenian Church then took up she has
stedfastly maintained. For the Armenian
Church there are but three general councils,
and where they have declared truth she
unfalteringly accepts it ; where they have not
spoken she sees and declares liberty to her
adherents. That attitude separates the
Armenian Church from the Churches both of
the East and West. For her the general
councils (so-called) held subsequent to
Chalcedon are vain. " As to the expression
of dogmas," says Ormanian (p. 109*), " this
Church holds strictly to the ancient formulae;
she, therefore, no more admits the addition of
the Filioque, the particular judgment, the
pains of purgatory, the immediate beatific
vision, than she does transubstantiation, the
* [Ormanian's "Church of Armenia,'' translated by Lt.-Col.
G. M. Gregory, V.D. ; Mowbray, Ltd.]

112 ARMENIA: PAST AND PRESENT.
indulgences, and the papal theory. All
these innovations have been accepted by the
Latin world by an improper interpretation of
the practice of the primitive Church."
From that day to the present she has gone
her own way, yielding nothing of her claims,
resisting every influence whether from friends
or opponents which would draw her from the
position she took up in the Fifth Century.
Such attempts were made continuously. Let
it not be forgotten that Armenia had lost
political independence and passed successively
under the rule of Persians, Greeks, and
Saracens. The policy of each dominant
power was determined by their religious
profession. For the occupants of the Pat
riarchal chair, situations perplexing and
difficult constantly arose. It is not hard to
believe that these sorely tried men wavered
in their policy because they wished to secure
at once their political interests and yet not
compromise their faith. We have seen how
the Persians sought to coerce them and
failed. The Emperor Heraclius having
driven back (623) the invading Persians
from the walls of Constantinople, after a

HISTORICAL. 113
struggle in which the Armenians played an
heroic part, sought to impose upon the
Armenian people an agreement with the
Greek Church. The Patriarch Yeze and his
bishops yielded, but the people and the episco
pate as a whole fiercely protested. A similar
attempt was made (c. 650) by the Emperor
Constantine, who, entering Armenia at the
head of an army, sought to force a union
of the two Churches. It was in vain. The
Synod of Douine (645 a.d.) re-affirmed its
adhesions to the first three councils and its
rejection of all added subsequently. But by the
middle of the Seventh Century, the Saracens
had become the dominant power, and thus all
ecclesiastical disputes lost their importance,
especially as the Caliph's policy was to
encourage the Armenians in their attitude of
resistance to Greek influence and ideas,
political or religious. For two centuries the
Armenian Church enjoyed peace under the
mild rule of the Caliphs, and even a measure of
administrative autonomy was conceded them.
During the whole of this period the Greek
Church could only claim one substantial
success as the result of all their political and

ii4 ARMENIA: PAST AND PRESENT.
ecclesiastical effort. The Georgian Church,
in 609, under its Patriarch Kurion, seceded
from the orthodox Armenian Church,
definitely accepted the Chalcedonian faith,
and became part of the Greek Church. It
was a fatal decision, though its most disastrous
results were not seen till the Russian con
quest of the Caucasus in the early years of
the Nineteenth Century. Then the Georgian
nation and Church were utterly submerged
by Russia. " To-day everything in Georgia
is Russianised ; hierarchy and clergy, liturgy
and language, the Exarch himself and the
bishops of Georgia are recruited from the
Russian clergy." The passionate clinging to
their own independent Church which has
marked the Armenian people has alone saved
them from a like fate.
The political privileges granted by the
Caliphs were not wholly advantageous to the
people and Church. In time minor princi
palities were formed, each governed by a
feudal lord supervised by Saracen high com
missioners. Towards the close of the Ninth
Century the whole country was convulsed by
local wars. After the collapse of the Greater

HISTORICAL. 115
Kingdom of Armenia in the middle of the
Fifth Century, the official residence of the
Patriarch was moved from Etchmiadzin to
Douine (484). There it remained for nearly
four centuries. But the disorders at the
later period necessitated further changes, and
finally it was fixed at Ani in 992. When the
Kingdom of Ani fell, and the Bagratidae
dynasty ended, the patriarchs followed the
emigrants to Cilicia, and in that Western
Armenian Kingdom; first, at the monastery
of Schoughr in the mountains of Amanus,
and finally at Sis, the capital of the new State,
they established the ecclesiastical centre.
Here it remained till this last kingdom of
Armenia fell. Then it was again transferred
to its original seat, Etchmiadzin, ' after an
absence of 540 years (901 -1 441). There it
has remained till the present time.
These changes had one important result.
It removed the Armenian Church from the
direct influence of the Eastern Church, but in
doing so it brought it within the equally
adverse influence of the Western Church.
Having resisted the attempts of the Greek
Orthodox Church to force a union, which J2

116 ARMENIA: PAST AND PRESENT.
really meant absorption, it exposed itself
to similar attempts on the part of the
Roman Church. Rome was equally jealous
of its independence, and sought in every
possible way to bring it under the rule of
Roman pontiffs. Now, the Armenian Church
has never been averse to the idea of Christian
union nor unwilling to discuss it. But it was
always union she contemplated, not absorp
tion by some vaster organisation. " The
Armenian Church," says Ormanian, "has
always understood the meaning of union in
the true and strict sense of the term. She
has desired to see its establishment on the
basis of a spiritual communion between
the Churches, of mutual respect for their
several positions, of liberty for each within
the limits of its own sphere, and of a spirit of
Christian charity over-ruling all. She has
never tolerated that union should take the
guise of domination, nor be mistaken for
proselytism. Unfortunately the Greek and
Latin Churches, on the strength of their
political and social status, have always been
disposed to imagine that it was only possible
to realise the union of the Churches by

HISTORICAL. 117
bringing them under thraldom. To be more
precise in our remarks, we would add that
the spirit of domination holds the first place
among the Latins, and that of proselytism
among the Greeks."
If it were possible within the limits of this
brief review to detail the facts in this connec
tion it would be seen that during the whole
of the period which followed the conquest of
Armenia by the Tartars, negotiations went on
with these great rival Churches almost
unceasingly, on the part of the Armenians
doubtless from the natural desire to obtain
the protection of other Christian States against
the invaders. The Armenian hierarchy
during the existence of the Lesser Kingdom
of Armenia (1080- 137 5) undeniably leaned
towards the Western rather than towards the
Eastern Church. The Crusades drew both
Christian Churches into closer contact. It
was very natural that Armenian Christians
should aid their fellow Christians in their
attempts to recover the holy places from the
hands of the infidel Turk. That aid they
loyally gave. It cannot be doubted they
were profoundly impressed by the Western

118 ARMENIA: PAST AND PRESENT.
Powers and led to entertain hopes of effectual
political aid. Further, during this period the
Patriarchate was filled by a succession of
men personally favourable to union with the
Latin Church. They saw more clearly than
the bishops and people in Eastern Armenia
the social and political advantages of such a
union. Therefore they threw the whole
weight of their influence on the side of their
kings who, both of the family of Korikos and
that of Lusignan, were whole-heartedly pro-
Latin. The motives animating both dynasties
were unquestionably political. They intrigued
with Rome solely in the interests of their
dynastic and personal ambitions. As we have
pointed out in the survey of the history of
the Lesser Kingdom of Armenia it was on
this rock that the political independence of
the race was lost. But it is well to remember
that Armenians strenuously deny that these
negotiations with Rome led to any final and
binding conclusion. They maintained their
independence, and to-day they declare that
any suggestion that they, at any time, gave a
complete adherence to Roman Catholicism
goes far beyond the evidence. They point

HISTORICAL. 119
out that during this period similar negotia
tions steadily went forward with the Greek
Church. In both cases the main aim was to
secure political aid for their State in their
struggle with the advancing Moslem power.
It is possible to level a charge of duplicity
against the Armenian hierarchy ; but it is
not possible to indict it with the surrender of
the ecclesiastical independence of their people
and Church.
Never did the Church sink so low as in the
early years of the Fifteenth Century. The
moral and spiritual life of the Church may be
gauged by the fact that the six patriarchs
following the break-up of the kingdom of
Minor Armenia (1377-1432) "had only
gained the pontificate through the assassina
tion of their predecessors and through
resource to bribery. In order to recoup
themselves for the outlay, they did not shrink
from resorting to extortions of all kinds.
They set little value on purity of doctrine,
and were ready to submit to any com
promise whereby profit might be gained."
("The Church of Armenia," p. 71). Roman
Catholicism made headway, and one party of

120 ARMENIA: PAST AND PRESENT.
Armenians despatched a delegate to the
Council of Florence (1439) to negotiate a
union. That was the last attempt in this
direction for with the return to Etchmiadzin
the question of union dropped out of sight.
The prospect of peace which then opened was
not realised. Personal ambitions and party
passions destroyed any hope of permanent
tranquillity. Patriarch succeeded patriarch,
but not one of them was equal to the task of
restoring order or subduing the evils arising
from the clashing of rival ambitions. Their
Persian rulers exploited the disorders, and
gave their influence and power to " the
highest bidder, and when no bidder was
found they subjected the patriarchs to bodily
torture until the necessary contributions were
levied." Of all the thirty patriarchs who
came and went after the return to Etchmiadzin
only one stands forth as worthy of mention,
Mikael of Sebaste (1 542-1 564-1 570). He
was strong enough to deal with ambitious
dignitaries, and enterprising enough to
inaugurate a new era for Armenia. The
institution of printing is due to him, and so,
indirectly, the beginnings of that Reform move-

HISTORICAL. 121
ment which marked the Seventeenth Century.
But the intervening years were dark indeed.
The West gave no light, no aid to the
Armenians. Roman pontiffs had no gifts
for a Church which rejected its demands
for complete submission. The unhappy
Armenians had no rest from persecution at
the hands of their Moslem rulers. How they
survived the extraordinary conditions of life
imposed on them for generations is a
mystery. The Eighteenth Century is chiefly dis
tinguished by Roman attempts to overcome
the resistance of the Armenians to that
policy of absorption which they had adopted
towards the Armenian Church. They
possessed one immense advantage in the
possession of facilities for the acquisition of
knowledge. The passionate desire for
learning led many able and ambitious
Armenians to join the Roman communion.
Perhaps the most distinguished was
Mekhitar of Sebaste whose services to
Armenian literature entitle him to perpetual
remembrance. But before he could proceed
with his work he had to yield to the Roman

122 ARMENIA: PAST AND PRESENT.
Catholic demands. The monastery he
established at Venice for educational and
literary work is famous all over Europe, and
the Mekhitarists in this way have placed the
whole Armenian nation under permanent
debt. Another movement was that of the
Antonine Society which founded on Mount
Lebanon a monastic institution. But these
efforts whilst advancing ecclesiastical aims
did not strengthen the nation. On the
contrary they weakened it by driving asunder
a people already reduced in numbers and
wealth by long-continued oppression. Ortho
dox Armenians naturally hold the view " that
the results were in no way commensurate
with the efforts made or with the means
employed." (" Church of Armenia," p. 87).
None the less by the very friction between
the two parties a force was generated which
undeniably advanced the cause of education
among a people ardently desirous of obtaining
it. It is this which gives distinction to the
Eighteenth Century. The Patriarchate was
held by a succession of undistinguished men
whose sole virtue was their devotion to their
office. Simeon of Erivan (1763- 1780) is

HISTORICAL. 123
regarded as the outstanding figure of the
century. A man of untiring energy, bound
less courage, fertile in ideas, he did a great
work for his church and people. He organised
a college, introduced printing, and created a
paper-mill. Wisely he foresaw the advantage
of close association with Russia as the coming
Power in the Near East, and intercourse with
Russia is due to him. In the years imme
diately following his death, Armenians, sick of
oppression by Persian and Turk, in ever
increasing numbers sought a refuge over the
Russian frontiers. Naturally they were
warmly welcomed by the government of
Catherine II. (1762-1796), and that of the
Emperor Paul (1 796-1 801), and they repaid
their welcome by greatly aiding Russia in
her conquest of Caucasia.
With the acquisition of Georgia, in 1801,
Russia came more closely into touch with
Armenia and with the Armenian subjects of
Turkey and Persia. The war with the latter
Power in 1828-29 gave into her possession
the whole of Persian Armenia which included
the ancient seat of the Church at Etchmiadzin.
It not only considerably extended Russia's

124 ARMENIA: PAST AND PRESENT.
territory south of the Caucasus but largely
increased the number of her Armenian sub
jects. But it brought the hierarchy face to face
with new problems. First of all, it placed the
Catholicos himself in an entirely new position.
He was a Russian subject, and held his
ecclesiastical office and exercised his duties
under Russian control. In 1836 the Pologenia
(Regulations) was issued. It involved an
invasion of the independence of the Armenian
Church for it carried with it control of the
patriarchial administration, opening, as
Ormanian admits, " very wide the door for
the interference of the political authority."
Under it the election of bishops, and of the
Catholicos himself, rested finally with the
Tsar. The Catholicos submits two names
for any nomination to a vacant bishopric for
the Tsar's final choice ; whilst at the election
of the head of the Church the Assembly
presents to the Tsar two names. But what
is more significant is that the minutes and
decisions of the Synod or inner Council of
the Church must be submitted to the Russian
authorities for confirmation, and when issued
they are headed, says Mr. Lynch, " By order

HISTORICAL. 125
of the Emperor of Russia." Restrictions are
placed upon the personal movements of the
Catholicos, and upon his official acts also.
Russian officials and Russian troops must be
present at every public function. Mr. Lynch
gives a vivid account of the intrusive presence
of both at the investiture of the late Catholicos,
Mekerlich Khrimean, in 1893. ll is evident
that the smooth working of the Regulations
of 1836 depends upon the personnel of the
Russian staff. Reasonably and sympatheti
cally administered they need not embitter the
relations of the Government and the
Armenian Church. Any reactionary adminis
tration can create disaster. Such was the
action of the Viceroy Galitzin in 1903. He
forcibly confiscated the revenues and property
of the Church, breaking into the cathedral
and treasury, carrying away coin and plate.
These deplorable acts aroused the deepest
feeling. Churches were closed. The teachers
in the schools struck work. Neither threats
nor bribes could move either. For nearly a
whole year this deadlock continued. Then
the late Viceroy Vorontsov-Daskkov was
appointed, and the whole policy reversed.

126 ARMENIA: PAST AND PRESENT.
Property was restored, and the freedom of
the Church guaranteed. One may hope that
with the growth of constitutional government
in Russia, and the increasing power of the
Duma, there will be no repetition of such a
policy. But so long as attempts to curb
or crab a sister-church in the interests
of the Orthodox State Church are possible,
so long will the Armenian Church in Russian
territory be open to flagrant and indefensible
ill-treatment. The second problem grew out of rapid
increase of the Armenian population in
Russian territory. The Russo-Turkish war
of 1877 resulted in the annexation of a large
part of Turkish Armenian territory in the
neighbourhood of Kars. Prior to the
flight of over 300,000 Armenians into
Russian territory during these recent months
the Armenian population on Russian soil
exceeded that of Turkish Armenia. Neces
sarily they are under Russian influence,
political, social, and ecclesiastical. There
are strong grounds for believing that the
policy of Russification, which has been so
strenuously enforced in other parts of the

HISTORICAL. 127
Empire, will now be abandoned finally. Still
the hierarchy cannot lose sight of the possi
bility that large numbers of Armenians, not
closely in touch with their Church and
people, may be lost both by the nation and
the institution.
The sweeping changes in the internal
Government of the Church which the first
half of the Nineteenth Century witnessed
have all been to the good. These changes
were first made in Constantinople, the greatest
centre of Armenian life in the Turkish
Empire. They severely limited the hitherto
unrestricted authority of the Patriarch.
Councils were established, first (1841) for
financial control solely, but, later, for general
administration especially charged with the
duty of supervising education. The Council
consisted of fourteen ecclesiastics and twenty
laymen. It received the sanction of the
Ottoman Government in 1863, when it
approved the Armenian Statute. In Europe,
at least, improvement followed in every
department. The change resulted in a
" better instructed clergy, more suitable
buildings, larger offerings, more solemn

128 ARMENIA: PAST AND PRESENT.
ritual, more edifying sermons." (" The
Church of Armenia," p. 94). These changes
were welcomed by the clergy. Indeed,
Ormanian declares (p. 94), "that the movement
towards civilisation, progress, and liberty,
which has stirred in the breast of the Armenian
nation in Russia, in Turkey, and even in
Persia, in modern times, is in a great measure
due to the action of her clergy." The most
remote parts of Armenia were affected by this
progressive movement. Education was
making rapid progress, and the interest of
the Church was demonstrated by the labours
of the clergy of all ranks and grades on its
behalf. The conditions of the Armenian
population in European and Asiatic Turkey
were such, during the closing years of Sultan
Abdul Hamid's reign, that had there been an
entire cessation of educational work no one
could have blamed the Armenian leaders. But
whilst the assassin stalked through the land both
clergy and people strenuously exerted them
selves to maintain unimpaired their educa
tional work. What are the facts? In 1902
the Patriarchate in a Report stated that there
were no less than 1,200 Armenian schools

HISTORICAL. 129
throughout Turkey with an attendance of
1 30,000 scholars of both sexes. Out of this
number about 550 were in Armenia proper
and Cilicia, with 45,000 pupils of both sexes.
When the revolution took place in 1908,
educational work received a great impetus.
Societies which had been closed down by the
Sultan were resuscitated, and their beneficial
labours resulted in schools being opened even
in the remotest corners of Armenia. Take
one example. The Armenian Bishop of
Kharput reported in 19 13, that the number
of schools in his province had grown from
73 in 1907, to 220 in 191 3, and scholars from
5,658 to 28,500 — practically one in six of the
entire Armenian population (stated by the
Patriarchate to be 1 68,000) was in attendance,
i.e., the same proportion of scholars to popula
tion as obtained in England and Wales in
191 2-1 3! Yet Kharput had known trouble
during those years, despite which this educa
tional work steadily went forward. It reveals
the passion of the Armenian for education. It
shows also how the Church has bent its every
energy to the task of intelligently preparing
the members of its flock to take the utmost

130 ARMENIA: PAST AND PRESENT.
advantage of the better days and richer
opportunities it discerned ahead. These
schools are maintained by endowments, fees,
and voluntary contributions. With the
exception of tiny grants by the Government
in 1 91 2- 1 3 no aid has been received from this
quarter. On the other hand Turkish schools,
some 150 in Armenia with 17,000 scholars,
mostly boys, are generously aided by the
State, and yet fall far short of the Armenian
schools in number and efficiency. The
Kurds do not possess a single school any
where. What are the Distinctive Claims of
the Armenian Church ?
(1) It claims to be Apostolic.
That is, in origin it claims a place along
side the proudest Churches in Christendom.
Hence it is equal in point of antiquity and
authority with any Churches of the East or
West which make these the indispensable
notes of a true branch of the Catholic Church.
" The Apostolic origin of the Armenian
Church," says Ormanian, " is established as an
incontrovertible fact in ecclesiastical history.

HISTORICAL. 131
And if tradition and historic sources which
sanction this view should give occasion for
criticism, these have no greater weight than
the difficulties created with regard to the
origin of other Apostolic Churches, which are
universally admitted as such." (" The Church
of Armenia," p. 5).
(2) It claims to be Independent.
The dominant Churches of the East and
West repudiate this claim, and affirm that
the Armenian Church owns allegiance to
them. It is certain that through long and
troubled centuries both Churches have made
endless and forcible attempts to assert their
mastery over this small national Church.
These efforts to bring her into a state of
dependency and submission the Armenians
have resisted with all the strength, energy,
and passion of their nature. Deprived of
political independence they have clung all the
more tenaciously to the integrity of their
Church, whatever may have been the grounds
upon which these attacks have been made.
(3) It claims to be National.
This claim rests equally upon an unassail
able basis of historical fact. Through the

K2

132 ARMENIA: PAST AND PRESENT.
ages whilst every other bond has been broken
save that of language, the Church has knit
the scattered units of the nation into one
indivisible whole. Its head has stood for
each succeeding generation as the symbol of
the national life. Deprived of a political
head and even a political capital the people
have, for at least five hundred years, looked
to Etchmiadzin as the home of their people,
the centre to which they looked for guidance,
unfailing sympathy, and practical aid. It is
" National " in a more complete sense than
any other Church in Christendom which
employs the term. Two facts emphasise its
national character. First, wherever are
members of the race, whatever may be their
dogmatic creed or ecclesiastical polity,
Etchmiadzin and the Catholicos are still the
representative of their race, the depository of
their traditions, and the fountain and centre
of their hopes. Secondly, for perfectly
obvious and adequate reasons, the Armenian
Church commands no adherents outside the
limits of the nation. Moslem, Orthodox
Greek, Roman Catholic, and Evangelical
Protestants have all in turn proselytised,

HISTORICAL 133
weakened her still further by drawing away
from the national fold members of the flock.
She herself has proselytised no Church or
nation. The missionary spirit which in the
earliest days of its history drove heroic men
far and wide in the Caucasus, and steeled
them to win the crown of martyrdom has
vanished under the oppressive regimen of
successive conquerors. Whether under the
happier conditions which will follow this
world-war, this spirit will not again lay hold
of a race eminently aggressive and enterpris
ing, is a question those who know Armenia
best will have no difficulty in answering in
the affirmative.
(4) It claims to be Democratic.
It is also episcopal. In other Churches
the hierarchical principle has to a greater or
less degree banished the democratic principle
and shown itself opposed to the democratic
spirit. "Among the Armenians," says
Ormanian (p. 151), "the clergy are not
looked upon as absolute masters and owners
of the Church. The Church since its
institution has belonged as much to the
faithful as to the ministers of worship. In

134 ARMENIA: PAST AND PRESENT.
virtue of this principle, and apart from
sacramental acts, for the performance of
which ordination is indispensable, nothing is
done in ecclesiastical administration without
the co-operation of the lay element."
Logically it follows that every ministering
servant at its altars occupies his place from
the highest to the lowest by the free choice
of the people. Equally the pastor of a
remote village, and the Catholicos who
addresses Popes and Potentates as " Dear
Brother," are where they are by virtue of the
power exercised by the laity. The village
priest is elected by the people, often one of
their own number, and his support is from
their free-will offerings. The head of the
Church is similarly elected by an assembly of
delegates who are first elected by their various
dioceses. The check upon the election of
the Catholicos does not invade this prin
ciple in any vital degree. In a word, so
far as representation and administration go,
the Armenian Church is an ancient and
successful blend of two opposite principles of
church government, viz., the Congregational
and the Episcopal. Further, the democratic

HISTORICAL. 135
principle has been applied from most ancient
times not only to government but also to the
determination of doctrine. " The Armenian
Church is the one wherein the democratic
spirit," says Ormanian, "excels in all vivid
ness and truth .... the leading men and
the deputies, in a word, the representatives
of the people, have ever continued to take
their place, side by side, with bishops and
doctors in the Council. They are known to
have taken an active part in all discussions
bearing on questions of doctrine and dis
cipline, and have set their sign manual at the
foot of deeds and canons as effective members
of councils!" It is, therefore, not to be
marvelled at that "clericalism" is unknown on
the one hand, and indifference on the other.
(5) It claims to be Liberal.
Not for a moment must that be confused
with lax views or with vagueness of belief in
Christian dogmas. Her liberalism arises
from her historical attitude towards that
development of Christian doctrine which it
has been the function of Church councils to
mark, stereotype, and make binding upon the
consciences of the faithful. The Armenian

136 ARMENIA: PAST AND PRESENT
Church has limited that function to the lowest
possible degree by strictly limiting the
number of Councils she recognises. Each
successive Council has added to the number
of dogmas which must be received under
penalty of forfeiting eternal salvation. The
Latin Church recognises twenty ; the Greek
Orthodox Church admits seven ; the Armenian
Church only three, viz., Nicea, Constantinople,
in the Fourth Century, and Ephesus in the
Fifth Century. " The Armenian Church . . .
has thought it her duty to look upon the
Council of Ephesus (431) as the last whereby
the unanimity of the Church was maintained,
in the conviction that we have in it the true
traditional ground work of the universal
Church .... The essential truths, on which
were based the dogmatic constitution of the
Christian mysteries, i.e., the Trinity, the
Incarnation, and the Redemption, had been
perfected by the definitions of the three
Councils." (" The Armenian Church," p. 104).
On these three cardinal truths the Armenian
Church is adamant, and her conception of
liberalism in the domain of religious thought
does not permit these dogmas (upon which

HISTORICAL. 137
the earliest councils were united) to be loosely
held, much less called in question. She
emphasises the principle of the early father
" Unitas in necessariis. " But having done
this she affirms with equal emphasis that each
one is at liberty to differ on points of secondary
importance. Further, it is pointed out that
the policy followed by the Latin and Greek
Churches of increasing the number of dogmas
declared by councils as authoritatively binding
upon the faithful is harmful. " Every dogma
with its mysteries," says Ormanian (p. 102),
" constitutes a difficulty for the human under
standing. And seeing that the Christian
religion, which we profess, imposes on it such
a difficulty to which it is our duty to submit,
it is but wise that we should never overtax
the difficulty." To adopt the contrary policy
is to court disaster. First, it increases the
difficulties felt by honest minds in accepting
the Christian system. Secondly, by stereo
typing Christian truth it sets it in opposition
to the natural progress of thought which the
ages abundantly manifest, and antagonises
precisely those minds which most profoundly
realise that in apprehension and expression

138 ARMENIA: PAST AND PRESENT.
truth must be constantly changing. It forces
on what should be a living and progressive
spiritual organism the limits of a past and
undeveloped age, forces the Church of to-day
to be obscurantist. Thirdly, such a policy, as
Church history fully proves, shatters the unity
of the Church of Jesus Christ. The divisions
which unhappily mar Christendom are the out
come of that multiplication of dogmas which
has been the only product of the Councils sub
sequent to the Council of Ephesus (43 1 ). On
the other hand the Armenian Church by the
contrary policy of theological and ecclesiastical
liberalism is preparing " a wayfor Christianity
in the future" (p. in) by which Ormanian
means she is preparing a base for the recon
ciliation of antagonistic Churches. " It will
be to her a lofty title to glory if ever she be
the means of tendering to Christianity the
possibility of a reconciliation — a contingency
which is ever probable." (p. 113.)

In order to remove some erroneous im
pressions as to the real character of the
Armenian Church, we add a brief statement

HISTORICAL. 139
on its attitude towards other Churches and
on the distinctive marks of its worship and
practice. First of all, as against the Latin
and Greek Orthodox Churches, it proclaims
toleration and denies " that any particular or
national Church, however vast she may be,
has the power to arrogate to herself the
character of universality " ; in other words,
she rejects the intolerant axiom of the Roman
Church that whoso is beyond its pale has no
part in eternal salvation. On the other hand
she separates herself from the Greek Ortho
dox Church, which refuses the sacrament to
any who are not in strict conformity with
her practices. Lynch commits himself to the
statement (Vol. 2, p. 94): "The Armenians
are scarcely less Protestant than [the Protes
tant missionaries] themselves in their attitude
towards the Church of Rome." It is certain
that they cultivate friendly relations with the
members of the American Mission, and
invite their ministers to preach in the parish
churches. They differ from the Roman
Church in various and important particulars.
The doctrine of the seven sacraments is not
accepted by the Armenian Church. But with

140 ARMENIA: PAST AND PRESENT.
the exception of extreme unction they are
practised. Baptism of infants is by immer
sion complete and horizontal. Sprinkling is
only resorted to if absolutely necessary. Con
firmation and the communion immediately
follow baptism, and therein is the complete
ness of baptism demonstrated. The sacra
ments of confirmation and communion need
not be delayed to be administered by a
bishop. The sacrament of communion re
cognises no distinction of age. It is adminis
tered in both elements by means of pieces
of consecrated wafer dipped in wine. The
wafer is in a single piece, unleavened, circular,
stamped into a cross. The wine must be
pure, i.e., without water. The communicants
stand up, and the priest breaks off a bit of
wafer, soaks it, and places it on the tongue.
It is customary to reserve the sacrament for
the sick and others.
Confession is usual before communion, is
general, and no examination by the priest is
permitted. A few days interval occur
between confession and absolution to permit
suitable preparation for the communion. The
sacrament of holy orders is by the imposition of

HISTORICAL. 141
hands, and the gift of appropriate badges for
each order. Extreme unction is only given to
the priesthood, episcopate, and Catholicosate,
and then only after death. The sacrament
of matrimony is known under the name of
the sacrament of the crown (Psak). Divorce
is canonically permitted, and is pronounced
under the authority of the Catholicos or
Patriarch. The clergy are married and
celibate. The married (secular) are the
parish priests, and marriage must precede
ordination. Widowed clergy cannot re-marry
unless they relinquish orders. Usually a
year elapses between marriage and ordina
tion. The celibate (regular) clergy are
trained chiefly in the monasteries. The
Armenian monastic system has nothing in
common with those of the West. " The days
of anchorites and contemplative monks have
irrevocably passed." Armenian monasteries
simply exist to prepare the higher (celibate)
clergy. The rule as to Sunday follows
primitive custom. It begins on Saturday
and is from sunset to sunset. It must be
kept holy, i.e., free from toil for gain. Work
may be done, however, for charity or piety.

142 ARMENIA: PAST AND PRESENT.
Ancient custom prescribes that the sacraments
of confession and communion should be
recognised on the occasions of the five great
festivals of the Theophany, Resurrection,
Assumption, Transfiguration, and of the Exal
tation of the Cross. Days of abstinence are
frequent. Fasts are rare, and are a work of
supererogation. In the East the separation
of the sexes in sacred edifices is invariable.
In the West the rule no longer exists.

Note as to Numerical Strength of the Armenian
Church.
The following Statistical Table is taken from the
invaluable and authoritative book on " The Church of
Armenia'' by the former Armenian Patriarch of Con
stantinople, Malachia Ormanian. It may, therefore, be
taken as an approximately accurate estimate of the
numerical strength of the Armenian Church in 1913-14,
when the volume was published.

Patriarchate.

00
¦g cS
1 p-l

PQ

no
o
-l-i

oa
-*» o

oa
3

2

H 3
'g-a
II

BQ
a>
M 09
¦§P-i

SQ
-81

03
-1

Protestant Armenians

Constantinople

1

14

27

6

1
3

1,390,000

1,778

1,634

58,500

25,500

Jerusalem . .

1

—

—

2

7,000

10

18

500

a
to H

Cilicia . . .

1
Catholicos

2

10

— —

—

284,000

267

214

18,000

O
16,400 &
o

Aghthamar. .

1
Catholicos

1

1
9

—

95,000

194

272

—

>
500 r

Etchmiadzin .

1
Catholicos

7
23

12
50

7
11

—

1,696,000

1,660

1,650

51,400

7,500

Grand Totals

5
Patriarchs and
Catholicoi

2

3,472,000

3,909

3,788

128,400

49,900

Part III.
(a) the modern problem.
(b) ARMENIAN ASPIRATIONS.
(c). THE PRESENT OPPORTUNITY.

Part III.
(A) THE MODERN PROBLEM.
The problem confronting the Powers to
day does not differ in essence from the pro
blem of Armenia any time since 1878, when
the land and people definitely came within
the scope of European politics through the
Treaty of San Stefano. To-day it differs
only in magnitude and urgency. Note the
outstanding fact of these last forty years of
Armenian History — the depopulating of the
country either by massacres, deportation, or
by the natural flight of the inhabitants
from absolute insecurity of life, honour,
and property. Let me again remind readers
that, at a moderate estimate, 500,000 lives
had been sacrificed in a single generation
before the shameful holocaust since the out
break of the war ! Further, a steady
stream of emigration has flowed Northward L2

148 ARMENIA: PAST AND PRESENT.
and Eastward to Russian Armenia or West
ward to the United States. The fact
need not be laboured. The land has
been denuded of population. That is the
incontestable fact ! The policy was sheer
madness. The only asset of Turkish
Armenia, so far as the Turkish Government
was concerned, was the taxable population.
Voluntarily it cut off the only source of profit
to the Government which it was capable of
utilising. Despite grinding exactions by tax-
gatherers, receipts from these vilayets steadily
decreased. On the other hand the condi
tions of the population, who braved massacre
and outrage year by year, became more
desperate. As we have reminded readers
again and again, the vast majority of the
Armenians are agriculturists. But even the
primitive industry demands at least two
things — adequate labour and a prospect. of
adequate reward. With the ever-increasing
attacks on the adult male population over
ever-widening areas labour became scarce,
and when emigration drained still further the
ranks of those who tilled the soil the industry
dwindled perceptibly. Then the poor crops

THE MODERN PROBLEM. 149
of the peasant farmers were mercilessly
seized by rapacious officials. An unpaid
soldiery recouped itself for the loss of pay by
plundering peasants, and to crown all hordes
of Kurds in the winter quartered themselves
on the Armenian villages, despite the law
forbidding the practice, and, when they could
not obtain the supplies demanded, outraging
and murdering, unchecked and unpunished,
even encouraged by the authorities. For
the last forty years that has been the
normal experience of the peasantry. Eco
nomically and socially the conditions grew
more appalling — the people poorer, the pro
spect of improvement or deliverance more
distant. Sooner or later a crisis would have
arisen in the ordinary course of events. Even
the worm will turn, and the most despotically
governed and cruelly repressed people will
not always give the cheek to the smiter.
Secret societies, though frowned upon by the
clergy and missionaries, gathered strength
and influence, not only among Armenians
who had left their native country, but in the
vilayets themselves. It is not improbable
that, goaded beyond further endurance, en-

ISO ARMENIA: PAST AND PRESENT.
couraged and armed by the revolutionaries,
a rising might have taken place which would
have produced unexpected results.
The war in which the " Young Turk "
party have elected to stand in with and share
the fortunes of the Central Powers has pre
cipitated the crisis. There is good reason to
believe that leading Armenians strained every
nerve to dissuade the Young Turks from
taking an active part in the war. They
pointed out, what they saw clearly, that if
Turkey joined in, she was bound to lose
whichever side came out victorious. They
also foresaw the peril of their own people in
the event of Turkey going to war. Their
counsels, in which many experienced old
Turks concurred, fell on deaf ears. Turkey
entered the war, and simultaneously began
an organised massacre of Armenians all over
the territory it still governed. It is the avowed
purpose of the gang who govern at Constan
tinople to "rid themselves of the Armenian
question by ridding themselves of the
Armenians." Their official paper, the
" Tanine " openly advocated the extermina
tion or forcible conversion of all Armenian

THE MODERN PROBLEM. 151
women as " the only means of saving the
Empire."* "The Great Assassin" con
ceived the policy, but he had neither the
capacity nor the willing instruments to secure
its complete application. But to-day all that
was ever attempted during the regime of the
Sultan Abdul Hamid is easily surpassed by
the cool, calculating, reckless crowd who
direct the policy of the Turkish Empire in
Europe and Asia Minor. Where Sultan
Abdul Hamid slew tens they slay hundreds,
where he slayed hundreds they slay thousands.
The world has never seen anything like the
extent of it, the horror of it, since the days of
Tamerlane. It is obviously impossible to indicate by
statistics the extent of this wholesale butchery
of an unoffending, unarmed population. But
we venture here to make a digression for the
purpose of saying that any reliable evidence
received hitherto does not offer positive proof
of direct German complicity. Indeed, the
protests presented to the Chancellor indicate
that these horrors are not approved of by the
^Quoted in "La Guerre Sociale" (Paris), Thursday,
September 16th, 191 5. No. 439.

152 ARMENIA : PAST AND PRESENT.
whole German nation. His previous records
in Greece, Chios, Bulgaria, Macedonia,
Sassun, Adana, etc., leave no room for the
belief that the Turk stood in need of any
tuition in " frightfulness " from his Teuton
ally. Nevertheless, the German Government,
with the influence it wields in Constantinople,
had it undoubtedly in its power to hold the arch-
assassins — its Young Turk allies — in check.
By failing to do this the Kaiser's Govern
ment must for ever bear a large measure of
responsibility for the blood of these hundreds
of thousands of innocent victims — an awful
responsibility before God, civilisation, and
history. Why did the rulers of Germany remain
callous spectators of the most stupendous
crime in history ? The reason is not far to
seek. It suits German schemes of colonisa
tion of Asia Minor by Germans of which a
beginning was made long before the war both
in the Adana district as well as in the Caucasus.
It will be a surprise to many in this country
to learn that there are already several
German villages in the Caucasus — Annenfeldt,
with a population of some three thousand

THE MODERN PROBLEM. 153
Germans, being the most important settle
ment. Professor Garton Volran, of the
University of Aix-en- Provence, deals ably
with this aspect of the Armenian question in
an article in " Le Semaphore de Marseille "
(Nov. 24th, 191 5), "Armenia 'cleared' of
Armenians," the only element in the country
capable of disputing the economic domination
of the future German colonists, would offer a
clear field for the prolific Teuton who, in
a generation, would be in a position to exploit
the vast natural resources of the country to
the incalculable benefit of German industry.
It would go a long way to realise the German
dream of freeing their industries from depen
dence on the British Empire for its supply of
raw material. But it is the political aspect of
such German colonisation of Armenia that
would be fraught with the most far-reaching
consequences to the detriment of British and
Russian interests of the first importance. A
strong and growing German settlement in the
Armenian highlands would dominate both the
Northern route from the Black Sea via Tiflis
and Julfa to Persia, and the Mesopotamian
plains on the South, including the now

154 ARMENIA: PAST AND PRESENT.
famous Bagdad Railway. A German colony,
if allowed to take root and grow in these
regions, would be a dangerous centre of
intrigue among the neighbouring Moslem
peoples — Tartars, Persians, Afghans, Arabs,
and even the turbulent tribes on the Indian
frontier. What are the inevitable results of this ruth
less policy in Asia Minor ?
(i) The denudation of the whole of Asia
Minor of its Armenian population, i.e., the
best and most capable of its inhabitants. The
process is made the more revolting by the
means employed.
(2) The complete ruin of any remnant that
may escape — socially and economically they
are to be in such a position that they will
have no political existence or significance.
(3) The consequent ruin of a vast, fertile,
country which would be left entirely in the
hands of the very worst human elements
within its borders. This is the modern
problem confronting the civilised world.
Now, Europe is affected by this policy.
The very fact that humanitarian sentiment
will not allow Armenia to perish without

THE MODERN PROBLEM. 155
some costly attempts to prevent so hideous a
crime, or to mitigate the sufferings, to pour
oil and wine into her wounds, imposes upon
Great Britain, France, Russia, and even the
United States, financial burdens of no ordinary
character and magnitude. This most brutal,
most irrational policy of the Turkish Govern
ment places upon the civilised world a bur
den for which its colossal folly is directly and
solely responsible.
It affects certain Powers even more vitally.
Just as the Turkish misgovernment of her
Balkan provinces made them a menace to the
peace of Europe, a storm centre from which
at any hour a gust of passion might blow
which would — eventually did — involve Chris
tendom in a strife of unparalleled dimensions,
so the conditions of Asia Minor in general,
and Armenia in particular, were a menace to
the peace, tranquillity, and good government
of adjacent states. It was impossible for
Russia or Great Britain to remain indifferent
spectators whilst Turkish Asia Minor was in
a constant state of turmoil and unrest. To a
lesser degree that was true of every State
which had commercial or territorial interests

156 ARMENIA: PAST AND PRESENT.
in Asia Minor. The Treaty of Berlin is
sufficient proof of the signatory Powers' con
sciousness of duty in this regard. Russia in
the San Stefano Treaty had gone further.
She was prepared to undertake the duty of
securing good government for the Christian
population of Asia Minor, was prepared to
secure it by occupying Turkish territory till
the reforms were accomplished facts. The
Russo-Turkish Agreement was set aside.
It was a stupendous blunder for which Europe
pays dearly to-day. Great Britain in accord
ance with her treaty obligations, and in
pursuance of the policy embodied in the
Cyprus Convention, again and again sought
to affect the reforms to which Turkey had
solemnly pledged herself. It was in vain.
Russia stood aside. Germany openly sup
ported Turkey. Great Britain alone was
Impotent to coerce Turkey, to secure an im
provement of conditions which were a
standing menace to the peace and tranquillity
of the Near East. These considerations
have become more vitally important since
the war began, more urgent because this war
offers an opportunity of putting an end to

THE MODERN PROBLEM. 157
conditions which have been a disgrace to
civilisation for half a century, and which, if
allowed to continue, will remain a perpetual
menace to the future peace of Europe.
It may, however, be urged that the pro
blem is simplified now by the fact that the
Armenians are no longer a factor in the
situation. Diminished by massacre and de
portation, they can now be dismissed from
consideration of the wider problem of Asia
Minor. That is a hasty and ill-founded
conclusion. At a moderate estimate, 500,000
Turkish Armenians are safe in the parts of
the vilayets of Van and Erzeroum, now in
Russian occupation, and as refugees in
Russian Armenia and Azerbijan.
Of this great number of refugees the
vast mass will return to their homes. Is it
suggested that they are to be left under the
old conditions ? Is there to be no attempt
on the part of the Powers to compensate
these peasants for the mental and moral
suffering of the last few months, for the eco
nomic losses ? We suggest that, so far from
that being the case, upon the Powers rests
the duty and responsibility of re-establishing

158 ARMENIA : PAST AND PRESENT.
upon more tolerable conditions — political,
social, and economic — the Armenian popula
tion of the six vilayets, nay, of the whole of
Asia Minor.
Further, all over the six vilayets and Cilicia
there remain, hidden in the mountain fast
nesses, tens of thousands of Armenians — in the
gross a total neither small nor unimportant —
who will venture out when this time of bitter
persecution is past — a remnant of the race
clinging to the soil of their Homeland with
the same tenacity they have displayed
through the centuries of Turkish misgovern
ment. Have they no claim upon the Powers?
Is nothing to be done for them ? Are they
again to be left to the tender mercies of Kurds
and Turks ?
Thus the Modern Problem confronting the
Allies for solution appears to be threefold,
viz. :
(a) Political, that is, to secure for the
Armenians, as for all the inhabitants of Asia
Minor, good Government, under which life,
property, and honour will be secure. This
involves, by general agreement, the termina-

THE MODERN PROBLEM. 159
tion of the Turkish regime and the establish
ment of some other Government from which
the Turk will be excluded. Whatever would
have been the political condition of the
Turkish people in Asia Minor had they been
driven out of Europe by the United Balkan
States — an event very imminent at one stage
— their policy and conduct since War began
definitely fixes their political fate. The
authority and power they have abused must
pass from them for ever. Henceforth they
must be under authority, not exercise it.
This is work solely for the Governments of
the Allied Powers.
(b) Social — the repatriation of the Arme
nian population on their ancient land under
conditions which will enable them to enter
upon a new stage of their national life — con
ditions which will ensure in the future the
realisation of their ideals of individual life,
their aspirations as a people. Here the
Powers can find in the co-operation of the
Church, the national societies and institutions,
and well-affected individuals, powerful assist
ance in this difficult but indispensable task.

160 ARMENIA: PAST AND PRESENT.
(c) Economic. — This is perhaps the biggest
task, but it is not the most difficult. It is to
secure for this population an opportunity of
developing their industrial capacities and the
economic possibilities of their land — its vast
mineral wealth, its agricultural possibilities,
etc. Here experienced advisers and the
financial aid of the Powers will be necessary
for an indefinite period. But as the undoubted
wealth of the country becomes better known
in Europe, and especially by the Allies, this
ought to be easily obtained. In this task
the Government can join hands with private
enterprise and private effort. The opening
up of ways and means of communication,
railways, telegraphs, etc., are tasks for which
the Powers would be responsible in the first
instance. The operations by private indi
viduals can be encouraged and facilitated,
and thus the necessary capital could be
attracted to the country. At the same time
it will be the duty of the Powers or of the
new Government to save the wealth of the
land from greedy exploiters who aim at their
own immediate enrichment at the cost of per
manent economic injury to the people as a
whole.

THE MODERN PROBLEM. 161
In other words, the modern problem before
the Allies with regard to this land and people
is the establishment of an Autonomous
Armenia under conditions which open to the
New Armenian State a vista of settled,
ordered, and progressive national existence.

M

i62 ARMENIA: PAST AND PRESENT.

(B) ARMENIAN ASPIRATIONS
The soul of Armenia is not crushed, much
less dead, despite the wounds inflicted and
the ignominy heaped upon her people. Nay,
so far from being prostrate, it shews itself
to-day insurgent, active, combative. Nothing
is more sure. Nothing is more amazing.
Armenia is at once illustration and proof of
the impossibility of destroying a people or
even of permanently injuring, maiming its
life. Through all these centuries of cruel
misgovernment, the Armenian people never
for one moment lost their consciousness of
separate national existence. Politically en
slaved by a people inferior in every regard
save numerical strength and brutal force, they
kept their soul free. They were not only
" obstinate nationalists," they were nationalists
who cherished the hope of a national revival, and
passionately clung to the one institution, their
Church, which reminded them of a glorious

ARMENIAN ASPIRATIONS. 163
past. It was the prophecy of an equally
glorious future. No minor nationality in all
the world was so conscious of its past, prouder
of it, more willingly dwelt in thought upon it,
in a word, lived more in the past, than did
the Armenian people. But it is equally true
to say that no nation was so intent, absorbed,
fascinated, by its future. It was that vague,
dimly seen, future which sustained the Arme
nian people through the long-drawn years of
their bitter servitude.
In this connection it is well to mark the clari
fying effect upon their dreams of the future
produced by the prosperity of their compat
riots in Russian Armenia. Released from
the evils and ignominy of Turkish rule, they
became new men, springing up into political
manhood in a day. Further, it clearly indi
cated the road along which, first, emancipation
from their present servitude, and then,
the realization of their fondest aspirations could
be secured. They must escape the " rule "
of the Turk, that was the immediate objective.
How strongly this was realised may be seen
in the growth of revolutionary societies, viz :
the Dashnaktsutioun and Hunchtakist, within M2

164 ARMENIA: PAST AND PRESENT.
and without the Empire. The clergy opposed
the movement fearful lest it should awaken
the resentment of a fanatical government sus
picious of any signs of unusual vitality on the
part of their Christian subjects. The outbreak
of war takes from Armenian propagandists
any initiative, any power to directly affect
their political future, and leaves it in the
hands of the Allied Powers. No one more
clearly recognises this than the leaders of
these societies. Their influence and energy
are now employed in strengthening the
Russian forces operating on the Eastern
frontier of Turkish Armenia. But the move
ment supplies irresistible proofs of the wide
spread aspiration of the people for the end
of the reign of terror, and for the advent of
a new day of freedom. Other aspirations
may have been and are undoubtedly cherished
by different sections of the Armenian race.
The dominating, universal, aspiration was the
end of Turkish mis-rule which had long
become intolerable. Every sign of honour
able prosperity discerned among their com
patriots across the frontier, every report of
prosperity among those who had ventured

ARMENIAN ASPIRATIONS. 165
further afield sharpened the edge of their desire
for, at least, some approximation of their condi
tions to those enjoyed by Armenians under
other rule. The revolutionary movement not
only embodied Armenian aspirations but made
Armenians, at length articulate. Their press
was the vehicle through which they voiced
their demands, uttered their determination
to be free. Then was seen by all who cared
to observe this forgotten race, the gaunt,
tattered figure of Armenia, bleeding, tragic,
with outstretched hands appealing to the
heart and conscience of the civilised world.
The soul of Armenia was indeed not dead.
It was alive, and " thenceforward there was a
nation demanding to be united in a State —
a soul, as it were, wandering in search of a
body in which to begin life over again. [Lord
Acton : " History of Freedom," p. 276.]
It is necessary to be extremely explicit
as to the nature of Armenian aspirations.
They have been grotesquely misrepre
sented by a Turkophile press. It is
necessary to declare, first and foremost, that
Armenians do not aspire to a restoration of
the ancient Kingdom of Armenia. Mr.

166 ARMENIA: PAST AND PRESENT.
J. B. Firth in the May (191 5) issue of the
" Fortnightly Review," after declaring that
the Armenians " as a race have no political
aptitude," goes on to declare that " there
is not the faintest hope of reviving the
ancient Kingdom of Armenia, which was a
decaying Power, even in Roman days." If
this aspiration was seriously entertained it
would go far to establish Mr. Firth's assertion
" that as a race, the Armenians have no
political aptitude." On the contrary, that
aspiration is regarded as fantastic and im
possible. One of the leading Armenian
writers, Archag Tchobanian, in a lecture
delivered in Paris, said definitely, " Arme
nians do not ask for the restoration of their
ancient Kingdom. They are conscious that
under existing conditions such an end is
unrealisable." Could Mr. Firth produce a
single recognised leader of Armenian opinion
who entertains any project for reviving the
ancient Kingdom of Armenia ? This con
fusion of two distinct things is calculated to
prejudice Armenia's case, to arouse opposition
to the aspiration she does entertain for auto
nomous national existence. That is a well-

ARMENIAN ASPIRATIONS. 167
grounded, practicable, andlegitimate aspiration
entertained by the people as a whole.
Equally, is it a misepresentation of Arme
nian aspirations to depict Armenia as enter
taining thoughts of future domination over
other races in Asia Minor. Representative
Armenians indignantly repudiate any such
idea. On the contrary, they hold that any
domination by one race of other races is
illegitimate, morally detrimental, and polit
ically unwise in the highest degree. They
aspire to equality. They recognise that in
their national conditions are seen the most
damning indictment of any political and
social domination. In. their own life is
seen its most fatal fruits ! They aspire to be
the instruments of regenerating not merely
their own beloved Armenia but the whole of
Asia Minor. They fondly believe that to be
their national mission, and they are prepared
to undertake it. Says Tchobanian ["The
People of Armenia," p. 20] " all those popu
lations and all those races . . . need the
regenerating influence of the breath of
modern life." Is there any other race in Asia
Minor more qualified to give that to peoples

168 ARMENIA: PAST AND PRESENT.
"steeped in ignorance"? On this point Lynch
[Vol. i, p. 465] says: "In the Armenians we
have a people who are peculiarly adapted to
be the intermediaries of the new dispensation.'
Without aspiring to any domination which
can only be harmful to both parties, the
Armenian people see clearly that they can
exercise a beneficent role in Asia Minor among
races ignorant, forgotten, despised.
Still less do the Armenians look forward
to a day and a power of revenge on their
oppressors. They have no revengeful feelings
or desires against either Turk or Kurd.
They are prepared to let bygones be bygones.
Tchobanian proudly declares that "Armenians
do not ask for so much as a new crusade ;
they in no way contemplate reprisals against
those who have oppressed and humiliated
them for centuries. Not the slightest spirit
of religious fanaticism exists in the aspirations
and claims of the Armenians." ["People of
Armenia," pp. 63-4]. Perhaps the best proof
of their good-will is seen in the fact that they
have opened their schools — the best in
Turkish Armenia — to the children of the
Kurds, the very people who have been the

ARMENIAN ASPIRATIONS. 169
instruments employed by the Turkish Central
Authority in the unspeakable massacres that
have stained the page of history any time
these last forty years.
In what then are seen the aspirations and
fondest hopes of the Armenian people ?
First and foremost is the claim for
Armenian Autonomy — Home Rule for the
six vilayets, viz., Bitlis, Diarbekir, Erzeroum,
Kharput, Sivas, and Van. In addition they
claim the vilayet of Adana or Cilicia as it is
best known in Armenian history.
They ask for an administrative autonomy,
" for a rule of order and of law, to be estab
lished in all earnestness, under the direct and
effective control of the Powers, in those
provinces where their race has dwelt, toiled,
and yielded the fruits of their labour for
thousands of years. They desire to be
allowed to live and to grow under normal
conditions, under conditions which will permit
them to play, unfettered and for the good of
all, their role of workers in the cause of civili
sation " [" People of Armenia," p. 64]. This
was written in the early days of 19 14, before
the present calamity befell Europe and

170 ARMENIA: PAST AND PRESENT.
Armenia. In the main it may stand unchal
lenged. The only alteration which the
present situation suggests is one which, though
debatable, will, one feels convinced, commend
itself to the matured judgment alike of the
Allied Powers and of the Armenian people.
The larger portion of the Armenian race are
now in Russian territory. Under the wise and
tolerant rule of the late Viceroy Dashkoff
they progressed exceedingly and are con
tented. Would it be wise to separate the
other portion of the Armenian race from their
brethren under the Russian Flag ? Why
not put the new autonomous State under the
immediate protection of the Allies, with
Russia as their mandatory ? That would
give a semblance of unity to the whole
race, especially as their Ecclesiastical Head
at Etchmiadzin is already a Russian subject
and exercises his office under Russian protec
tion. The addition of Cilicia is vital. Whilst the
concession of self-government in the six
vilayets — the area most associated with the
history of the race, and where they, at least,
before the recent wholesale massacres and

ARMENIAN ASPIRATIONS. 171
deportations, preponderated as a single
coherent racial unit — would gratify national
sentiment, there are other considerations
which must not be overlooked. Would it be
wise or politic to leave the new autonomous
State without an outlet on the Mediterranean?
It may be objected that to give Adana to the
Armenian State would clash with French
interests in North Syria or with Italian
interests in Adalia. Not necessarily, and
unless it was the deliberate judgment of the
Allied Powers — an inconceivable judgment —
that the interests of the two Powers must
have priority over the interests of the new
State, it ought to be possible to reconcile all
legitimate and reasonable claims to this part
of Asia Minor. Armenia's claim is particu
larly strong. Historically it was the territory
which formed as we have already shown, the
Lesser Kingdom of Armenia, which lasted to
1375 a.d. Geographically it would be the
natural commercial outlet for the new State,
and unless it is to be put in the same situa
tion as Serbia, " tied up in a sack," to its
economic and commercial detriment, Cilicia
must be conceded to the new autonomous

172 ARMENIA: PAST AND PRESENT.
State. Otherwise Armenia would be depen
dent upon some adjacent State for facilities in
communicating with the outer world. Failing
this, it is certain that, however the new State
acquiesced at the beginning, in her case, as
in the case of Serbia, it would be an unfailing
and fruitful source of discontent, agitation
and strife.
Further, it is essential to include this area
in the new State in order that again they may
realise to the full their nationality, the unity of
their race, their place among other races. It is
not too much to say that this aspiration has
been the one passion of the Armenian
people ever since they lost, in 1375,
their separate political existence. Even the
most casual study of the history of the
Armenian people shows this idea as the
golden thread running through and linking
up the life of each succeeding generation. It
has illuminated the people's life in their
darkest, most tragic hours. One may be
sure it has not abated one jot by the recent
awful catastrophe. Again one quotes Lynch's
phrase, " the most obstinate nationalists the
world has ever seen." The unanimity of the

ARMENIAN ASPIRATIONS. 173;
people in pursuing this aim even now when
the careless world thinks they are no longer,
is startling. The "grit" which Lynch
affirms to be the secret cause of the persist
ency of the race is seen most convincingly in
the tenacity with which even now they cling
to the aspiration of a revived national exist
ence — self-governed, free to aim at and
achieve their own political, social, and
cultural life, and work out their own salvation
on the lines dictated by their instinct and
genius. With this aspiration and this claim
the Allied Powers must reckon.
Armenians may be given credit for knowing
the economic possibilities of their own land.
None know it better — not even the Germans,
But they realise that only as a self-
governing people can they secure the utmost
industrial results the natural wealth and
fertility of the country offer to wise and
industrious use of both. Self government,.
if granted, would allow them to devote
their energies and genius to the economic
development of the country, otherwise both.
would be dissipated in political agitation for
the autonomy claimed but withheld. The

174 ARMENIA: PAST AND PRESENT.
history of the Balkan States affords an example
and a warning ! Only since full autonomy
was secured have the Balkan States made
any economic progress. Would it be wise to
postpone the immediate concession of a
legitimate claim the Powers may have to con
cede later, after a period of unrest, agitation,
possibly strife. The resources of the Armenian
people are slender — too slender to permit of
waste upon objects which might and ought
to have been secured at the outset of
their new era of national existence. The
task before autonomous Armenia will be
herculean in character for a numerically small
and impoverished people, even if all the aid,
financial and administrative, they may require
is generously forthcoming. But if their
legitimate claims are conceded, they will be
free to devote themselves to it with un
divided minds, with an enthusiasm not chilled
by the consciousness of rights withheld. They
will be sustained by the knowledge that every
•difficulty faced and overcome, every obstacle
surmounted, every problem solved, leads
them perceptibly nearer to their economic
and industrial regeneration.

THE PRESENT OPPORTUNITY. 175

(C) THE PRESENT OPPORTUNITY.
No one can doubt for a moment that the
future of Asia Minor has been discussed, and
in principle settled by the Allied Powers. The
partition of Asia Minor is not a new idea in
modern politics. It has been forced upon
progressive States by the unprogressive
peoples who dominate the vast territory to its
undoing, political, social, and economic.
Turkish mis-government, sooner or later,
would have forced the Powers to take action.
They must have intervened to secure decent
conditions for the population — at least safety
of the honour, life and property of its Chris
tian population. Whether that would have
meant in Asia Minor what it meant in the
Balkans may be debatable, but, it is certain,
in the end Turkey would have emerged with
loss of territory. Not that partition would
have greatly mattered in that region. No
territory on earth has been so frequently cut

176 ARMENIA: PAST AND PRESENT.
up and distributed among rival and antagonis
tic states. For at least 3,000 years it has
been the battle ground of contending nations
and races, and every fresh conquest has
involved the whole land in revolutionary
changes. The map of one century is totally
misleading for the next. We have already
referred to the article on the partition of Asia
Minor in the May issue of the " Fortnightly
Review." There the author declared that
partition would not outrage any national
sentiment — adding that there was none to be
outraged. That may be true of the majority
of the nations having representatives in its
cosmopolitan population. But it is not
universally true. It may be true, for example,
of the Greeks of whom there are large num
bers in Asia Minor. Partition would arouse
curious interest as to their new masters. It
would in no sense be a national concern.
They would quietly accept any arrangement
which appeared just and wise in the eyes of
the Powers.
But, it must be emphatically said, this is
not true of the Armenian population. We
assume that at the close of the war the

THE PRESENT OPPORTUNITY. 177
Allied Powers will have definite possession,
and will exercise the authority the war has
placed in their hands. It will certainly not
be' used to re-establish the Turk in Asia
Minor. No one will be bold enough to
propose, after the astounding events of the
last six months, that, driven from Europe,
Turkey, by the action of the Powers, should
find his authority set up again in the lands he
has deluged in Christian blood ! The issue
of the war, we are confident, will bring to
naught Germany's ambitious schemes. The
concessions obtained from Old Turk and
Young Turk will be null and void. Turk
and German being no longer in Asia Minor
as factors in the situation, the Allied Powers
will be free to re-organise the political con
dition of the whole of Western Asja^
Here will be the opportunity for the
Powers to do justice to Armenia. Hitherto
the opportunity has been lacking. Nothing
but an international agreement to coerce
Turkey would have succeeded. That was
never within the bounds of possibility, if
only because of Germany's attitude.' . Nor can
we forget that by the Convention of Cyprus

178 ARMENIA : PAST AND PRESENT.
Great Britain had bound herself to maintain
the territorial integrity of Turkey in Asia
Minor. But now the road is clear. It is
open to the Powers to attempt reparation for
the suffering directly entailed on the Armenian
population of Asia Minor by the inaction and
indifference of Europe these last forty years,
and thanks to the Treaty of Berlin which has
proved itself the most disastrous blunder of
modern times. The war has wrought
immeasurable evils in the life of mankind. It
has done one good thing — it has made
possible for the remnant of the Armenian
people deliverance from the bloody rule of the
Turk. In the past even sympathetic Powers
could protest, not the want of will, but the
absence of opportunity. They cannot now, for
it is to their hands. Obviously it is for Great
Britain the opportunity she should eagerly
recognise and thankfully accept. We go
further, and declare that it is an opportunity
all her past efforts on behalf of the Armenians
pledge her to grasp and use. Not to do so
would be to stultify her past endeavours,
stamp them as insincere as well as futile.
Lord Salisbury has made open confession of

THE PRESENT OPPORTUNITY. 179
our past sin. " We put our money on the
wrong horse." Confession is not reparation.
If we have done nothing more than make con
fession of the blunder which was worse than a
crime, it is because we have lacked oppor
tunity. At the victorious end of this war,
upon this country, and upon her Government
will rest the responsibility of securing com
plete justice for the people who have suffered
so terribly as the direct result of our action at
Berlin in 1878. No, not merely justice, but
some compensation also for the unimaginable
suffering and loss they have endured. The
only reparation we can offer which the
Armenian people can accept, is the gift of
autonomy — guaranteed by the Powers, and
actually established by their aid, financial and
administrative. Further, the substantial agreement of the
Entente Powers, not merely in principle, but
in actual practical details, shows that the
opportunity for decisive action has arrived.
Hitherto that has not been attained. But the
war has forced these Powers to fall into line
on the question of Asia Minor. The old
obligations and traditional policies were
N 2

180 ARMENIA: PAST AND PRESENT.
rudely pushed aside, nay, destroyed by the
action of the Turk. He definitely committed
himself to the policy of the Central Powers.
Therefore, by the very force of political
circumstances, Great Britain, France, and
Russia are driven into one line of action. It
is no longer the contention of humanitarians
in this country and France merely that
Armenia must be saved. Statesmen in these
two countries realise that the hour has come
for recognising, frankly and fully, that Russia's
policy in 1877 is the only possible policy.
That was to take Armenia out of the power
of the Turk. It is an immense gain for
Armenian nationalism. It brings the race
to the very verge of their hopes and aspira
tions. In the agreement of the Allies is to be
based the confident expectation that, given the
success of the Entente Powers, and failure is
not conceivable, the concession of autonomy
to the Armenians in the six vilayets and
Cilicia is a foregone conclusion.
The pledges given by the Allied Powers to
the small nationalities are surely the most
solemn guarantee that the interests of
Armenia will not be forgotten or ignored.

THE PRESENT OPPORTUNITY. 181
For millions of men throughout the civilised
world the main justification for this war lies in
the avowed purpose of the Entente Powers to
secure for minor nationalities the rights and
liberties for which they contend. Its appalling
costs in blood and treasure are only justifiable
on the ground that at length these peoples are
. to be free, and that every system of govern
ment which impairs, limits, or suppresses that
freedom must be destroyed. At long last
it is being recognised that the world cannot
afford to do without her small peoples who
must be either independent or autonomous if
they are to find adequate expression for their
national genius, if they are to obtain tolerable
conditions " to think, live, love, and labour
for the benefit of all." [" War and Demo
cracy," p. 49]. Can we guarantee them
that freedom ? Certainly, if responsible
statesmen are honest in the definition of their
policies, sincere in the public expression
of their aims. Take, for instance, this
definition of the objects for which the
Allies are fighting, made by the Prime
Minister in the middle of October last. Mr.
Asquith sent a message to a meeting addressed

1 82 ARMENIA: PAST AND PRESENT
by Professor Masaryk on " The Problem of
Small Nations in the European Crisis," in
these terms : — " First and foremost the Allies
are fighting for the liberties of small nations,
to the end that they be left in future free from
the tyranny of their more powerful neighbours
to develop -their own national life and
institutions." Of course, if pledges are " mere
scraps of paper " to be torn and flung to the
winds when the occasion which called-them
forth has passed, this specific and solemn
pledge of Mr. Asquith's has no value what
ever. But we refuse, and the Armenian
people the world over will refuse to take so
cynical a view of the Prime Minister of
England's solemn declaration. Upon that,
and upon equally solemn and binding declara
tions made by the leading statesmen of
our Allies, Armenia bases her strong hopes
of the realisation of her racial and political
aspirations. Nor do we think Armenia
will be disappointed.
The following remarkable story which has
appeared in the Russian press shows that
the Turks, apparently under German inspira
tion, recognised the time had come for

THE PRESENT OPPORTUNITY. 183
a revolutionary change of their policy in
dealing with Armenia and the Armenians.
It is an extract from an article in the " Rurki
Viedomosti " [No. 205], by M. Oganovski,
entitled " Armenia without Armenians." In
the early days of the war the Turks, probably
under German influence, in order to incite the
frontier provinces against the Russians, hoped
that the Armenians would make common
cause with them against Russia. The diary
of a Turkish officer killed in the recent
fighting contains the following: — "If our
Armenians had been with us we should have
defeated the Russians long ago." Repre
sentative Armenians who were at Van at
the outbreak of the war with Germany,
relate that Tahsin Bey, the Governor of Van,
and Naji Bey, a prominent Young Turk,
sent with a special mission to Van, anticipating
Turkey's entry into the war, were inducing
the Armenians to join the Turks and form
raiding bands. No limit was put to
numbers. They offered to form hundreds of
bands, and arm and equip them on their own
account. They made no secret of the moral
and political value of .the Armenians joining

184 ARMENIA: PAST AND PRESENT.
hands with the Turks. As a reward for the
desired co-operation Naji Bey held out bright
prospects of the results of the " War of
Liberation." The Young Turks, confident of
victory, hoped to drive the Russians over the
Caucasus mountains and form the Trans-
caucasian provinces into a Georgian, an
Armenian, and a Tartar Autonomous State.
They promised to extend the autonomous
Armenia by including in it parts of the vilayets
of Van and Erzeroum.
Assuming that this extraordinary offer was
made to the Armenians, their response was
what we should expect a shrewd people would
give. "In vairf is the net spread in the sight
of any bird." Promises the Turks have made
to the Armenians profusely. This was only
one more. Supposing, however, the Arme
nians had been foolish enough to have
been caught by the plausible Young Turk
emissary ? What was the utmost infamy they
could have dreaded ? That having used
them, and found, his purpose served, the Turk
would ignore his promises and withhold his
rewards. That is the utmost infamy of which
the Entente Powers can be guilty. We refuse

THE PRESENT OPPORTUNITY. 185
to believe that such immeasurable guilt will
be theirs.
Supposing, however, Armenia is cruelly
defeated in her hopes. Supposing, and the
supposition is not an impossible one, that no
help came to Armenia from Europe. It may
be that at the Peace Congress the assembled
statesmen of Europe in hammering out terms
of peace may see fit once again to sacrifice
Armenia and the Armenians to their own
apparent interests — that, despite all their high-
sounding declarations, at the last moment
they may ignore them, not discerning where
their true interests, the interests of peace lie.
Once before Armenia in her sore need
turned to Europe, sought from the Chris
tian Powers aid against the advancing
Moslem hordes, and found no response.
They were utterly subdued, and for centuries
lay forgotten beneath the yoke of the
oppressor. That has not destroyed the
people, nor extinguished their " obstinate
nationality," nor weakened their persistent
demand to be free. If Europe decrees that
Armenia must be dealt with as a pawn in the
diplomatic game, be moved hither and thither,

186 ARMENIA: PAST AND PRESENT.
given to this Power or the other, that will not
end the Armenian question. It will still
remain to be faced. Prof. Masaryk reminded
his audience at King's College that the small
nations of the Slav race " continually striving
and fighting for liberty and independence . . .
confronted the statesmen of Europe with the
problem of the small nations. (The Times,
Oct. 20th, 191 5). It was this perpetual
unrest, this "striving and fighting" which
made the Balkans the storm-centre of Europe.
To deny Armenia her legitimate rights, is to
thrust the Armenians back upon the same
course of action the Christian subjects of
the Porte adopted, in other words, to trans
plant the Balkan question from Europe
to Asia Minor. There in the heart of Asia
Minor will be a Christian people, virile,
intelligent, prolific, with an abnormally
developed capacity for intrigue — the result of
centuries of oppression and suppression —
above all conscious of the wrong done her by
the Powers after their solemn promises.
What are the prospects of peace in Asia
Minor for the States which after the
partition will have territorial interests there ?

THE PRESENT OPPORTUNITY. 187
Very remote. The storm-centre will be Asia
Minor, and probably the end of a long period
of disturbance, local strife, arrested material
and social progress, will be a disastrous and
impoverishing war for another generation to
wage. Will the Powers lightly face that pros
pect ? The interests of peace after this world-
war will be supreme. The nations will need a
prolonged period to recover, heal the wounds
inflicted, repair the incalculable damage
wrought. Peace can only be established on
Righteousness. Justice and Right demand
that Armenia shall be satisfied — shall, after the
centuries of darkness and sorrow, know a new
day of light and joy.

APPENDIX.

APPENDIX.

ARMENIANS AND THE LATER
ROMAN EMPIRE.
F. W. Bussell, in his essays on the Constitutional
History of the Roman Empire [Longmans, 1910],
devotes Part 2 of Vol. II. to an examination of the
connection of the Armenian people with the Later
Roman Empire. It is one of the most remarkable
chapters in history. Yet it is one- of the least
known even to students. Gibbon in his great work
was either totally ignorant of it or ignored it as a
matter of no real importance: Later research has
brought to light the facts and revealed their im
portance. In his elaborate sketch of the relations
during a period of about 600 years, from 520 a.d.
onwards, Bussell invites adhesion to the following
conclusions : —
" (1) That the Armenians succeeded to the place
and functions of the Pannovian or Illyrian sovereigns
(250-678), and became the defenders of Imperial
"frontiers in the East. (2) That this race— strenuous,
prolific, and feudal — formed a compact military
party, in whose eyes the prestige of the Empire and
the survival of Roman culture depended on the
generous nourishment of national armies and
defence. (3) That to the scanty and precarious

192 ARMENIA: PAST AND PRESENT.
barbarian levies of the time of Belisarius succeeded
a native force of provincial militia, recruited in the
countries they defended (during the development of
the thematic system, c. 650-800). (4) That the
vitality of the Empire was due not so much to the
useful role of the civilian prefect and judge (a class
almost extinct by 650) as to the new vigour and
loyal allegiance of the Armenian immigrants and
settlers. (5) That this warrior class, handing on
military skill and valour from father to son, main
tained a silent but tireless conflict with Greek
orthodoxy, monachism, and the civilians who
starved the war chest. (6) That later Byzantine
history becomes an interesting spectacle of the
vicissitudes of this conflict, and culminates (it may
be said) in the scandalous treatment of Romanus IV.
(1071). (7) That the whole spirit of this invading
race was " feudal," that is, attached great weight
to descent, family connections, landed possessions,
and vassals. (8) That feudalism infects (or trans
forms) the Roman institutions, presenting us with
the .glorious epic of Phocas, Zimisces, and Basil,
and the constant pretensions of certain noble
families, if not to sovereignty, at least to actual
and responsible control. (9) That while as a rule
nationality and local prejudice vanish in the lofty
atmosphere of the throne, Byzantine monarchs are
Armenians in actual birth or unmistakable sym
pathies. (10) That the strong armies of the Eastern
frontier are the chief (if not the invariable) arbiters
of the succession, and are seen to dictate heirs to a
falling, or policy to an incompetent, dynasty from
700 to the accession of the Comneni."

APPENDIX. 193
Remarkable as are these conclusions, they are
more than justified by the facts. Of these three,
at least, are vital to an understanding of the
extraordinary position and influence won by the
Armenian race in Byzantium. First in order of
time is the collapse of the Greater Kingdom of
Armenia, about 385 a.d., after an existence of
nearly seven centuries. The second fact is the
wave of emigration from Armenia of the feudal
lords and their followers to Byzantium., Numerous
cadets of great feudal families emigrated. Nothing
was more natural. Life in a conquered province
held out few and insignificant prizes to bold and
capable men. Partly to escape prevalent condi
tions, partly attracted by the prizes Byzantium
held out to capacity and strength — these were
the motives which compelled them in ever
increasing numbers to make Byzantium their
home, and the arena in which they sought
fame and fortune. By the end of the 7th and the
beginning of the 8th Century, they were there
in such numbers that Armenians, who could claim
" to be amongst the oldest and most illustrious
families in Christendom, eclipsed the moribund
traditions of Greece and Rome." It is indisputable
that from 750 to 850 the Armenian influence is
continuous and consistent, and what is perhaps
strangest of all, Armenian birth seems to have been
the chief recommendation. The third fact enables
us to understand the second, strange as it may
appear. Byzantium was scourged by the Great
Plague, which was epidemic during these centuries,
viz., from 550 to 750. All classes suffered, and

194 ARMENIA : PAST AND PRESENT.
the aristocracy did not escape. It "halved the
population of the capital, and made the Peloponnese
a desert." [Bussell, " The Roman Empire," Vol. II.,
p. 114.] "With the rapid extinction of the former
social order, the welcome extended to exceptional
courage, adroitness, or servility, the pure Asiatic
invasion of high places under the Isaurians — the
plague contributed both in capital and provinces to
hasten the change and transform the face of the
country. In the former the effects were more sudden
and more serious." [Ibid, Vol. II. , p. 145.] The
native aristocracy having been decimated, these
representatives of noble houses of a Christian people
in Asia were eagerly welcomed, and found ample
scope in the military and political needs of the
Empire for their undeniable courage and genius.
In the 7th Century the Byzantine Empire seemed
hastening to decay. If its final break up and dis
appearance was postponed for seven more centuries,
if, in the 9th and nth Centuries, there was a mar
vellous recovery in the life and strength of the
Empire, it was largely due to the valour and
genius of these emigrants from Asia Minor.
This is seen unmistakably in two directions ; (1)
in the military predominance of Armenians in the
Bryzantine armies. The most conspicuously able
generals from the 7th Century onwards are
Armenians. Bussell says that an army list of
Justinian's later years would show in convincing
fashion the predominance of the Armenian. The
loyal service of Armenians far from their homes
more than compensated for the failure of the Italian
wars. On the Euphrates, Sura's garrison was com-

APPENDIX. 195
manded by an Armenian in 540, and in the year
following the fleet of Thrace by another. Promi
nent military names like those of Narses of the
Camsar clan, Isaac, brother of Adolius, Gitacius
" who knew nothing but his native tongue,"
Pacurius, son of Peranes, Varazes " with a little
cohort of 80," were all Oriental officers serving in
Italy in 543. In the 6th Century also when
Chrosoes, Shah of Persia, began a pagan persecu
tion of Christians in Pers-Armenia, they joined the
Roman forces, and in 550 John Gazes loses his life
at Petra ; in 551 Avatius (Arsacid and Camsar)
commands the Armenian and Illyrian troops, whilst
Armenians command in the punitive expeditions
against the Misimians (Caucasus) and the dis
orderly Tzanin. In the 7th and 8th Centuries
Armenia, deprived of local political life, poured
the treasures of her warlike and feudal temper
into the Empire, and contributed largely to its
internal history. The flower of the armies of the
Empire were the mercenary troops sold by their
princes (like Hessians, says Bussell, in the 18th
Century), and their loyalty and courage could not
be denied. Tiradates at Modruna loses his life,
and his troops refused quarter after his death, and
died fighting. Their obstinate valour was a serious
loss to the Empire. An Armenian military leader
John Curcusas was the hero of the 9th Century.
From a mere sergeant of gendarmerie he had risen
to high place, and had never lost a battle. His
troops were reckoned the most efficient in the
Empire. He really began the great work of con
solidation of the Eastern frontier. The son of a
02

196 ARMENIA: PAST AND PRESENT.
soldier himself, born in Lesser Armenia, he was the
father of Romanus Curcusas, a captain of distinc
tion in the reign of Nicephorus. It was John
Curcusas who prepared the way for the more
familiar achievements of the Phocas and Zimisces.
It was during this period that the great Armenian
families of Maleinus, Curcusas, Phocas and Argyrus
became prominent and powerful, emphasising the
ever- increasing influence of the emigrant nobles dur
ing the reigns of Constans VII., and his son. Basil II.
angry with the Armenian race and Church, forced
many of the people to settle in Macedonia. Despite
this act of arbitrary power he had strong Armenian
support, and showed a noble confidence in Armenian
loyalty, e.g., Gregory the Taronite was in command
at Thessalonica. Later we find that this steady
growth in Armenian influence raised deep feeling
at Court against the race. Through all their
relations with the Byzantine Empire they and the
civilian party had been antagonistic. It was
always a silent struggle between two forces — the
court representing civilian government, and the
Armenian feudal aristocracy, the military. The
Armenians were always suspect in the eyes of the
Court party. It is not surprising, therefore, to find
that in the nth Century the Court "decided to
annihilate the entire Armenian race," and this too
when the Armenian Catacalon, the most able leader
of the Empire, was making brave efforts to save
Armenia from the Seljuk Turk. Only the action of
the Emperor saved the Armenians, and he showed
his sense of their worth by elevating the Armenian
Basil the Patrician to a dukedom, and in promoting

APPENDIX. 197
Catacalon to the dukedom of Antioch — the highest
honour in his power to confer.
In the nth and 12th Centuries the same dominance
of Armenians in military affairs is seen. The rise
of the Comnenian clan marks the triumph of a
vigorous policy, and of the feudal aristocracy.
" The Armenian race's firm native qualities im
pressed the Empire with their own ineffaceable stamp
and enabled the great feudal revival of the Comneni
and Paleologi to continue the Roman sway for 500
years." In these centuries also Armenians are promi
nent in the Imperial armies. The most trusted
generals were of the race, e.g., Nicolus " Branas " or
Varaz, and Pasurian, Taticius, and others. In
fact Bussell declares that " feudalism gave the
Empire a long respite and a glorious sunset."
During these centuries " the heart and vigour of the
policy of Rome lay solely in the Armenian moun
tains, and the true inner history of the Empire
should be written from some frontier citadel of the
East rather than from the palace of the capital.''
The writer amply demonstrates that it was
Armenian valour and military skill which kept the
Empire on its feet during the last centuries of its
existence. Nor was it only brave troops and brilliant leaders
Armenia gave to the Empire. The throne of the
Caesars was aimed at and won by members of this
race again and again during these centuries. It is
customary to speak of Leo V. " The Armenian " as
though he was the only member of the race to
occupy the throne. On the contrary, whilst pre
tenders of Armenian stock were numerous, many

198 ARMENIA: PAST AND PRESENT.
undoubted Armenians won the supreme post of the
Empire. Maurice, who was crowned Emperor in
582, is claimed by Armenians as a fellow country
man. Probably he was born in the province of
Ararat or " connected with that district which gave
strength and military leaders to the Empire after
the failure of the Balkan or Illyrian stock. He may
well have belonged to one of the families who
migrated into Roman territory after a persecution."
His murder in 602 was the sequel for that disastrous
war with Persia which left both Empires exhausted.
Later, in 668, Mejej a handsome Armenian, " for a
brief season tasted the cares rather than the delights
of sovereigity. Phillipcus was the first undoubted
Armenian Caesar (711). If Leo III. was not actually
Armenian his early experiences and success attest
his Armenian connections. It is incontestable that
he represented Armenia in character and creed, that
his chief allies and relatives came from this nation,
that he believed himself closely linked with it.
Leo the Armenian was displaced by another
Armenian — Michael the Amorian (821-3).. Basil
the Macedonian (Armenian and Arsacid), the hand
some groom, was elevated and crowned in 867, and
with his two sons, Leo VI. " The Wise," the more
prominent, occupying the throne for 45 years
(867-912). The 10th Century witnessed the triumph of
Phocas and Zimisces, although those great Arme
nians " do less for the Commonwealth," says
Bussell, " in the purple than as simple generals in
the East." With the overthrow of the Armenian
Kingdoms of Ani, in 1064, and, later, that of

APPENDIX. 199
Vaspuracan by the Seljuk Turks, the political centre
of Armenian life is found Westward in the minor
kingdom of Cilicia, founded in 1080, by the
irreconcilable patriots under Reuben, but whilst
" the new kingdom enjoyed a prosperous develop
ment .... the captains and pretenders of the
of the Empire, those who defended and those who
sought to destroy, will be found still to belong to
the constant rival of the Greek nationality and
religion." In the light of this historical evidence may it not
be affirmed that the modern contention that the
Armenians as a race have no political aptitude should
be dismissed as utterly baseless, as baseless as the
contention that autonomy, if given by the Allied
Powers, would find this people incapable of main
taining it against the forces in Asia Minor, with
which they have striven for the last six centuries ?
Again their success in administration, in politics, in
commerce in modern times, is not one whit more
remarkable than the unanimity with which the
manhood of the race has thrown itself into the
world-war now being waged. Does that support
the view that the ancient valour of the race is
extinct ?

INDEX.

INDEX.

Acton, Lord, quoted 
Alp Arslan 
Alphabet, Armenian, influence of 
Ancient Kingdom of Armenia, Restoration not
Ani, Kingdom of ...
„ Capture of 
Antonine Society ...
Ararat, Mt 
Armenia, and the Later Roman Empire
,, Area of 
„ Arab invasion of
„ Autonomy, the only solution ...
„ Christian and Moslem in 
„ Cleared of Armenians, German Policy
„ Concert of Europe and
„ Condition in the Eleventh Century
„ Disappointed, the storm-centre
Asia Minor ...
„ Early history of. 
„ Ethnological problems of
„ The first Christian State
„ Geography of ...
„ Impoverished by emigration
„ Lack of trees ...
„ Lesser Kingdom of
„ Major Kingdom of
„ Mineral Wealth of
„ Population of 
„ Russian advance in

desired

Page. 165 62 49
165 24
62
122

191 et seq,
...32-33 ... 51
161, 179
... 88
... 153
... 91
64, 65, 66
186-7 41 12
102 7
68 8
64 7
38 (Note) 17,34 85

204 ARMENIA: PAST AND PRESENT.
Armenia, Safety of, subordinated to ecclesiastical ends 61
„ Sykes, Sir Mark, on  7
„ Tigranes, the Great, under  43
„ Turkish misrule in ... ... ... ... 86
Armenian aid in Russian conquest of Caucasia ... 123
„ Aspirations centre in autonomy ... ... 169
„ Church, distinctive marks of its polity,

practice, and worship ...

130 et seq.

J)

„ Denies " Universality '' to

any

single Church 

... 139

11

„ Numerical strength of

... 142-3

))

Statute (1863) 

... 127

tl

Byzantine Monarchs ... 

... 192

,,

Families, Rise of Great 

... 185

,,

Mercenary Troops 

... 195

t>

Military Predominance in Byzantine Empire 194

Armenians, Character of ... ... 

... 16

it

Courage of 

16, 19, 20

11

Divisions of ... ... 

56,57

11

in America, Number of

... 29

11

Mr. Lynch on ... 15, 19, 28

,31,32, 52

11

Prolific 

... 36

tr

the Defenders of the Eastern Frontiers ... 191

11

Transported by Shah Abbas

... 83

Welcome Russia's advance

... 87

11

and the " Young Turk" Movement

... 95

Artsruni,

Armenian family of

... 58

Asia Minor, Climate of 

... 6,9

n »*

Comparative Size of 

3

n "

Countries within 

3

t> 11

Domination of, not desired by Armenians 175

11 M

Decay of its Age-long Prosperity...

23 et seq.

11 11

Economic Possibilities of 

26 et seq.

It 11

Extent of 

3

11 It

Germany's Policy in

25 et seq.

11 >'

„ „ and British Interests, 153

11 11

Mountains of

4

INDEX. 205
Asia Minor, Partition of, inevitable  175
„ „ Population ... ... ... ...4, 11 et seq.
„ „ Rivers of ... ... ...  5
„ „ Storm-Centre, the — A Disappointed
Armenia  186, 187
Asquith, Mr., on the Turkish Blight  23
„ Solemn Pledge to Small Nations ... 182
Autonomy, Armenian  50
Avarair, Battle of  48,107
Bagdad Railway  154
Balkan, Problems transferred to Asia Minor  186
Bagratid Kings of Armenia  50 et seq.
Berlin, Treaty of, and Armenia ... ... ... ... 90
Bismarck and Armenian Reforms ... ... ... 91
Bryce, Viscount, on Ottoman Government ... ... 96
Bussell, quoted  191 et seq.
Byzantine Empire and the Armenian Church ... ... 72
„ „ at War with Lesser Kingdom of Cilicia, 72
„ Court Plot against Armenians ... ... 196
„ Empire Sustained by Armenian Valour and
Genius  197
„ Monarchs, Armenian  192, 198
Cape Anamur  3
„ Kerembi ... ... ... ... ... ... 3
Catacalon, Great Armenian Leader  196
Catholicos, election of, under Russian rule ... ... 124
Chalcedon, Council of  110
Church, Armenian —
„ „ and Greek, mutual suspicions ... 61
„ „ and learning in Armenia  106
„ „ and the schism in Christendom, 108 et seq.
,, „ Decline of, in the 15th Century ... 119
„ „ Distinctive claims of ... 130 et seq.
„ „ its negotiations with Latin and
Greek Churches  118, 119

206 ARMENIA: PAST AND PRESENT.
Church, Armenian, its services to the nation  99
„ „ its origin  100,101
„ „ Modern Reforms in  127
,, „ Persecution  101
„ „ Under Russian rule... 124,125,126
Churches of East and West, attitude to Armenian
Church ... ... ... ...  116 et seq.
Cilicia, Armenian Kingdom of ...  70
„ and the Crusade  ... ... 70,71
„ Modern, necessarily included in the New
Autonomous State  169,170,171,172
„ the Centre of Armenian Nationalism in the
Middle Ages  199
Cilician Gates  10
Colonies, Armenian, Lynch on  68
Collapse of Greater Armenian Kingdom, Effects of, on
Byzantium  1.94
Commission, Turkish (1894)  93
Compensation, Question of, for Armenian Peasants ... 157
Concert of Europe and Armenia  91
Constantinople, Council of  109
Councils, Oecumenical  108,109
Crusades, The, influence of on Armenian relations
with Christian States  117
Curcasao John  196
Cyprus Convention  156
Dashnaktsutiouni, Secret Society  163
Divorce and the Armenian Church  141
Douine, The Synod of  113
Economic Decline of Armenia  67
„ Possibilities of Asia Minor  26 et seq.
„ Revival following Good Government ... 32
„ Ruin consequent on Turkish Misrule 23 et seq.
„ Value, Armenian only element of  34
Education, Armenians and  128 et seq.

INDEX.

207

Emigrants, Armenian 

67, 148

Encyclopaedia Britannica, quoted

... 67, 88, 95

Entente Powers, in principle agreed on

Armenian

Autonomy ...

 179

Enver Pasha 

...

.. 97

Erivan, in Persian hands 

.. 84

Erkenek, Pass of 

10

Erzeroum, Massacres at 

.. 92
Etchmiadzin 
...
.. 84
„ Return to, effect of,
.. 115
Euphrates, Source of 
...
5
Europe, Concert of, and Armenia
91
Fanaticism, Religious, non-existent amongst Armenians 1 68
Festivals, The Five Great, in Armenian Church Year... 142
Feudal System, Armenian  192
Feudalism and the Byzantine Empire  197
Firth, J. P., Fortnightly Review, quoted ... 166, 176
Forests, Destruction of  9
Galitzin, Viceroy of Transcaucasia, and the Armenian
Church  125
Georgian Church, Secession of  114
German Policy, as it affects European Powers... ... 155
„ Results of in Asia Minor ... ... 154
„ Prof. Garton Volran , on  153
Gostandin I., King of Cilicia ...  70
Greek Orthodox Church and the Lesser Kingdom of
Armenia ... ... ... ...  72
Gregory the Illuminator  102 et seq.
Services to the State 104-105
Heraclius, The Emperor  50-51
„ „ Seeks to coerce the Armenian
Church  113
History, Outstanding fact in Modern Armenian ... 147
Hunchtakist, Secret Society  163
208 ARMENIA: PAST AND PRESENT.
Immediate Objective, Armenian  163, 164
Jenghiz Khan  63
Kurdish Power, Increase of  83
Lake Sevan  8
„ Urmia... ... ... ... ... ... ... 8
„ Van  8
Lesser Kingdom of Armenia  ... ... 70
„ „ and Byzantium  72
,, ,, Extent of  74
„ „ Kings of, friendly to Rome 75
„ „ Looks Westward ... 72
Leo "the Great"  71
Leo VI., last King of Cilicia  77
Lusignan Kings of Lesser Kingdom of Cilicia  76
„ „ Stubbs on ... ...  76
Lynch, H. F. B., quoted ... 5, 6, 8, 15, 18, 19, 28, 31, 34, 52,
54, 60, 68, 85, 124, 139, 168
Mamegonians  40
Mameluke Invasion of Cilicia  77
Masaryk, Professor, on Problems of Small Nations,
quoted  182, 186
Massacres, during the World- War  97
„ Effect on Population  95
„ German responsibility for Armenian 151, 152
Massacres, List of  93 (Note).
Marzbans, Armenian  48
Megege Gnouni, Armenian leader  51
Mekhi tar of Sebaste  121
Mikael of Sebaste  120
Menace, The, in a disappointed Armenia  186
Modern Armenian problem, threefold  159, 160
Monasticism in Armenian Church  141
Nation, Armenian, absorbed by its future  163
National Church of Armenia  9.9

INDEX. 209
Nationalists, Armenians obstinate  162
Nicaea, Council of  108,109,110
Nestorius, his heresy condemned by the Armenian
Church  Ill
Opportunity, The Allied Powers, in Asia Minor ... 177
Ormanian summarises the political situation in Cilicia 76
„ quoted, 111, 116, 119, 122, 124, 128, 130, 131,
133, 135, 136, 137, 138, 142 (Note).
Ottoman Bank, attack on (1896)  93
Parthia, the Rival of Rome  44
Parthia's Downfall  45
Partition of Asia Minor, Armenia's claims ... ... 176
„ „ inevitable  75
Patriarchs, Peregrination of  115
Pears, Sir Edwin, on Armenian Manliness  20
,, „ „ Massacres  92
Persian Empire  23,45
,, Invasian of Greek Empire  50
„ ,, „ Armenia under Turks ... ... 83
,, Persecution of Christian Armenia ... 47,107
Pickthall, Marmaduke, on Armenian Courage  20
Pologenia (Regulations) of 1836  124
Population in the Six Vilayets (Tabular)  22
Powers, Entente, Agree in Principle to Armenian
Autonomy  179 et seq.
Powers, Entente, Must reckon with Armenian Aspira
tions and Claims  173
Powers, Entente, Solemn Pledges to Small Nation
alities  180 et seq.
Problem, Modern Armenian, threefold  159, 160
Restoration of Modern Armenian Kingdom, not desired 1 65
Revenge, Not sought by Armenians  168
Reventlow, Count, and Armenian Massacres  98
Revolution, Armenian, not alleged by Turkish Com
mission ... ... •••  ••• 23

210 ARMENIA: PAST AND PRESENT.
Rhupen founded the Lesser Kingdom of Armenia ... 70
Ripsime and the Christian Virgins  103
Roman Church and Armenian Church  73
„ Church's friendship sought by Armenian
heirarchy  74
,, Church, Intrigues with by Armenian Ecclesi
astics  73
,, Church, Union with, desired by Armenian
Kings and Ecclesiastics  75
„ Church innovations, Armenian repudiation of... Ill
,, Church, jealousy of Armenian Ecclesiastical
independence  116
Church tries to overcome Armenian resistance
in the 18th Century  121
Russia and the New Autonomous State  170
Russian advance in Armenia  '  84
interference with Armenian Church  124
Russification, Policy of, abandoned  126
Russo-Turkish war, its Effect on Armenia  89
Sahak the Great's long patriarchate  ... 105
Salisbury, Lord, his belated confession  179
San Stefano, Treaty of  89
Saracen Power, The rise of  113
Secret Societies in Armenia ...  93, 149
Self-Government, Armenian, the basis of Economic
Progress  173, 174
Selim I. destroys Persian Rule in Armenia  83
Seljuk Turk, First appearance of  56
Sembut I., King of Ani  53
Senekerim, King of Vaspurakan  58,59
Simeon of Erivan  122,123
Soul of Armenia, not dead  165
Stubbs quoted  76
Sultan's reply to Armenian publicity  92
Sunday, rule regarding, in Armenian Church  141
System, Armenian Feudal  192

INDEX. 211
Talaat Bey's Threat  98
Tamerlane's Invasion  82
Tchobanian, Archag, quoted  166, 167, 168, 169
Ten Conclusions, Bussell's  191 et seq.
Thematic System  191
Tigris, Source of River  5
Tiradates, King, Conversion of and Service to Christ
ianity  102 et seq.
Tiradates, King, relations with the Emperor Con-
stantine ... ... ... ... ... ... 104
Threefold Problem, Modern Armenian  159,160
Toghrul Bey  60
Turk, Seljuk, First Appearance of  56
Turkish Authority Ended in Asia Minor  177
Overtures to Armenians  ... 183, 184
Union of Armenian Church with Greek and Latin
Churches  120
Union of Christendom and the Armenian Church ... 138
Van, Lake 
Vaspurakan, Armenian Kingdom of  57, 59
Vilayets, Note on Population of  21
,, Area of, Statistical Table  33
„ Mineral Wealth of  38 (Note)
,, Patriarch's Statistical Statement
Volran, Prof. Garton, on German Policy in Armenia..
Vorontsov-Daskkov, Viceroy
" War and Democracy," quoted ...
World- War, The, made Armenian Freedom Possible..
" Young Turks " and the Central Powers 
Young Turks' Official Paper and Armenian Exter
mination
" Young Turk " Reforms and Armenians

22
153
125 181
178 150
150 95
Zimisces, Byzantine Emperor   55
Zeytoon, Last Refuge of Armenian Independence 78, 79
P 2

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