Mugurdich Chojhauji Gabrielian

“ The Armenians of Van knew that the same fate would soon come to them. What should they do? Be loyal, submissive, passive, be butchered by the Turkish soldiers and by their inveterate enemies, the Kurds? Or should they make an attempt of self-defense, and let it cost the Turks and Kurds something more than the mere time, labor and ammunition to massacre the Armenians of Van? And that even if they should be declared rebels against the lawful authorities by the Prussian and Turkish officials? ”

“ Plunder! and pray for the sultan!’ What inducement had they to cease from murder or from prey! The reward of piety lay before their eyes, for all that they could seize and carry away was to be their own.... The monotonous work of dragging hundreds of defenceless Armenians out of their homes and hiding-places merely to behead, stab, throttle, hang, or beat them, soon palled. The merry mob wanted variety. Simple murder became dull, and the business must now be made more amusing. How would it do to light a fire and roast the wounded at it? To gibbet a few head-downwards? Drive nails into others? ”

“ The Mohammedan government would not say—for she had no regard for the truth—that she was torturing and slaughtering the Armenians because they were Christians. It is perfectly natural for a corrupt and depraved heart to falsify and declare to those, who ask the reason of her murdering the Christians, to say that she is suppressing a revolution. But for any so-called Christian nation and government, like that of England, accepting Hamid’s excuse and explanation, and declaring that to the world was plainly protecting and defending the criminal at the bar of justice and humanity. ”

“ Six to ten thousand persons met such a fate as even the darkest ages of darkened Africa hardly witnessed, for there women and tender babes might at least have had a chance of a life of slavery, while here womanhood and innocency were but a mockery before the cruel lust that ended its debauch by stabbing women to death with the bayonet, while tender babes were impaled with the same weapon on their dead mother’s breast, or perhaps seized by the hair to have their heads lopped off with the sword. ”

“ Christianity has failed as a religion, or as a civilizing force. It is not the fault of Christianity, it is the lack of it. As it is now, so it was in the past. Had the Greeks the true spirit of Christianity, or even had they some far-sighted statesmen, they would have encouraged and strengthened the Armenians on the east, instead of weakening and hastening the overthrow of the Armenian independence. They could have made them like a strong stone wall against the Mongolian hordes, who not only swept over Armenia, but within a short time swept and reduced the Eastern empire. ”

“ Since the spring of this year, the Russians have been occupying the country, and the fate of Armenia is still uncertain, but the hope and the prayer of all good people is that Armenia will be free from the yoke of the bloody Turk, whose reign in western Asia and in eastern Europe has been a curse to humanity in general and to the Armenians in particular. ”

“ But the right is more precious than peace, and we shall fight for the things which we have always carried nearest our hearts—for democracy, for the right of those who submit to authority to a voice in their own governments, for the rights and liberties of small nations, for a universal dominion of right by such a concert of free peoples as shall bring peace and safety to all nations and make the world itself at last free. ”

“ The inhabitants of Sivas surrendered on his solemn promise that “no soldier of his will lift up the sword on them.” He was true to the letter, but not to the spirit of his promise. Four thousand soldiers were roasted to death, and as many were buried alive, and thousands of the very young and old whose hands and feet were tied, were thrown together and trampled under the hoofs of the horses. The spot upon which this barbarous mode of massacre took place, to this day, bears the name of Sev Hokher, signifying in the Armenian language the “Black Plains.” ”

“ A new and a more formidable force than Zoroastrianism made its appearance in the form of a religion in the East. Western Asia seems to have been made for a theater and almost all the great actors in the annals of the dramatic history of the world enacted their roles there. Towards the close of the sixth century the sunny and sandy plains of Arabia became the home of a male child who was to be a hero, a warrior, a law-giver, and the founder of a new religion which shaped the destiny of millions of human beings and flooded many a country with the blood of its inhabitants. ”

“ Again, in spite of the horrors of this World-War and the greatest calamity which ever fell upon the loyal and innocent Armenians, men, women, and children, there are some positive signs that the dawn of liberty is at hand. That soon will the morning light break upon the suffering humanity. There is the liberation of 175,000,000 Russians from the tyranny of autocracy. Here America’s inexhaustible sources of wealth and power, both material and moral, are also thrown against the Turco-Teutonic barbarism. ”

“ If it was indeed here that men set foot again on the unpeopled earth, one could imagine how the great dispersion went as the races spread themselves from these sacred heights along the courses of the great rivers down to the Black and Caspian Seas, and over the Assyrian plain to the shores of the Southern Ocean, whence they were wafted away to other continents and isles. No more imposing center of the earth could be imagined. ”

“ What answer will those Christian Powers make who, eighteen years ago (1878) , stretched a protecting hand over Armenia and presented her with paper reforms, signed and sealed in the name of the Almighty? But enough of this, for there is yet another page of horror to be disclosed.
“‘Kill the men! Their wives, their daughters, and their property are ours.’ That was the watchword with which the soldiers of Cæsarea urged on the armed mob to murder, plunder, and outrage. And this watchword was heard and obeyed in all the hundreds of towns and villages where the work of murder was carried out. ”

“ Why have the Armenians been so cruelly persecuted, oppressed, tortured and butchered? Why were their beautiful daughters abducted, their wives ravished, they themselves massacred by the Kurds, Circassians, and Turks? Not because they belong to a different nationality—though they do—but because they belong to a different religion—they are Christians. So I beg the reader to bear in mind that the real trouble or the Armenian question, at the bottom, is the old conflict, first between Christianity and Paganism, then between Christianity and Mohammedanism, and now with Pagan-Mohammedanism. ”

“ Within the last few years Armenia has been attracting the attention of the civilized and Christian world. Those parts of Armenia, which were in the Turkish and Persian empires, have been turned by the devotees of the Mohammedan faith into altars upon which human sacrifices have been offered. Yea, not only the Turkish and Persian Armenia but also the whole of Asia Minor, and in fact every city, town, and village in the Turkish Empire where Armenians were found, the high priests and low priests of Islam were intensely engaged in the slaughter of the Christians as sacrifices acceptable to Allah. ”

“ Behold, we have all many wounds and scars upon our persons, and great must have been our bravery to have won these great marks of honor. But useless and empty I deem these exploits whereby we have received these honorable marks, for they pass away. If, however, you have done such valiant deeds in obedience to a mortal ruler, how much more will you do them for our immortal King, who is Lord of life and death, who judges every one according to his works. ”

“ We feel it our duty to call the attention of the foreign office to the fact that our school work, the formation of a basis of civilization and instilling of respect in the natives will be henceforward impossible if the German Government is not in a position to put an end to the brutalities inflicted here on the exiled wives and children of murdered Armenians. In face of the horrible scenes which take place daily near our school buildings, before our very eyes, our school work has sunk to a level which is an insult to all human sentiments.... ”

“ In all some 1000 Armenians, to whom generally the alternative of Islam or death was given, were most cruelly slain. Children were disemboweled, and the dissevered heads of men and women were kicked about by the soldiers as balls or were carried on pikes through the streets. And this dire work of murdering, robbing and burning was done, not by Kurds, but by the regular soldiers of the Ottoman Government, assisted by the Moslem population of the city, and here, as in so many other places, the Armenians were utterly passive victims, without arms or possible means of self-defense. ”

“ Even to-day the best intellects of the Armenian church, the educators and lovers of reform and the purity of the Church and the people have been butchered by the unspeakable Turks with the consent of their allies or have chosen voluntary exile. Certainly these circumstances will not justify the condition of the church, but they ought to modify the severity of our judgment and fill us with a deeper sympathy, with a truer Christian love and activity for its reform, purity, and spiritual prosperity. ”

“ In such a country as Turkey, where justice is unknown, and for a Christian to protect his property, home, and life from plunder and violence is considered a “political offense” against the State, how could Christians dare to come forth and testify against the officers and the government, to whose cruelties and murderous propensities they were again to be left, when the European representatives departed? Even if they did dare, the testimony of the Christian is worthless against the faithful followers of Mohammed, who were the defendants in the case. ”

“ Before the coming of the missionaries into the East, and the medical missionaries following them, there were some native physicians, mostly Armenians, in the country. But their knowledge of the art of healing must naturally have been in a crude state. It is no wonder when we remember the fact, that though the East, especially Western Asia, has been the seat of ancient learning, yet it has been for over five hundred years under the rule of the tyrants, the sultans, who delighted more in injustice, cruelty, and sensuality than in learning. ”

“ The most prolific source of all evil influences and hindrances against the progress of reformation in the East is the Mohammedan Government. Prof. Vambery’s words might have been heeded twenty-five or thirty years ago, and many hundred thousands of lives would have been saved:
“The conviction is inevitable that until the power of Islamism is broken the true reformation of this land is an impossibility. At whose door shall we lay the blame of cherishing such a viper? That the solution of the vexed question of the political status of Turkey involves great difficulties cannot be denied. ”

“ But shouldst Thou require something beyond this great testimony, behold our resolution; our bodies are in Thy hands—do with them according to Thy pleasure; tortures are thine, and patience ours; Thou hast the sword, we the neck; we are nothing better than our forefathers, who, for the sake of their faith, resigned their goods, possessions and life. ”

“ The establishment of a Christian empire, in the West by the Greeks, would most naturally force upon the Persians the idea that these two nations now united by a common faith will be their formidable enemies. But how naturally do the heathen think, and how unnaturally do the so-called Christians act, is shown by the succeeding events of the conflicting forces in Western Asia. It was perfectly natural for the Persians to think, that a common religion or faith should produce a harmonious relation between, and a united action of, these two nations. ”

“ There was no possible excuse for such barbarities to be poured upon the Armenians. Had there been any excuse the German, American, and Swiss missionaries, and the consuls of the neutral nations who witnessed these atrocities would have pointed it out. In fact, the whole civilized world stood “with shuddering horror pale, and eyes aghast” at the unparalleled savagery of the Turks, except those who were intoxicated with Prussian militarism, the advocates and defenders of the booty-loving and obscene Mohammedan fiends. ”

“ No Mohammedan can be expected to be any better than Mohammed himself; that he was a sensual, cruel and bloodthirsty man, and a relentless enemy to Christianity, Christians and the Jews, is manifest from the facts of history, his life and his teaching. “Christianity finds its ideal man in the Christ of the Gospels; the Moslem finds his in the Prophet of the Koran and the traditions.” ”