Independence for Armenia AN APPEAL To the Congress and the People of the United States of America BY JOHN G. MOSKOFFIAN, A. M. Professor of Modern Languages in Defiance College, Ohio WITH A PREFACE BY THE HON. C. J. THOMPSON, Congressman-elect, Fifth Ohio District U. S. A. 1919 GEN. ANDRANICK Independence for Armenia AN APPEAL To the Congress and the People of the United States of America BY JOHN G. MOSKOFFIAN, A. M. Professor of Modern Languages in Defiance College, Ohio WITH A PREFACE BY THE HON. C. J. THOMPSON, Congressman-elect, Fifth Ohio District U. S. A. 1919 HRISTIAN Armenia stood by Christianity and Civilization in Cthe Near East for more than sixteen centuries and now she hopes that Christian America will stand by her for her freedom and independence. PREFACE RMENIA is mostly under the rule of the government A of Turkey, and six provinces and Armenian Cilicia are a part of that country. The Turko-Russian war be­ gan in 1877. It was caused by the repeated outrages and butcheries of the citizens of Christian states then under Turkish rule—such states as Bosnia, Bulgaria, Monte­ negro, and Herzegovnia. The government of Russia served notice on the European powers that she would no longer tolerate such conditions to exist. It was a bloody and hard-fought war, lasting until January 31, 1878, and Russia was victorious. The 3rd of the following March the treaty of San Stefano was signed, making Bulgaria an independent principality, Montenegro, Roumania, and Servia independent states, and a clause was inserted in the treaty protecting the Armenians. After the conclusion of this treaty there was called at Berlin a Concert of Powers. England took the lead in de­ claring that the treaty of San Stefano touched upon ques­ tions which were not only Turco-Russian but European in their nature. The real milk in the cocoanut was jealousy of the growing power of Russia. It was determined that the settlement imposed by the Czar Liberator should be re­ viewed by the Congress of European Powers to be held in the city of Berlin July 13, 1878. The result of the conference was a re-writing and a mutilation of the Ar­ menian clause of the San Stefano treaty that left the Ar­ menians at the mercy of the Turks; the power of Russia as an aggressive champion of the rights of Christian na­ tions was checkmated and the falling fortunes of Turkey stayed. In return for the favor to Turkey by England the British government was ceded the Island of Cyprus; and "reforms" were promised by the Turk again, which, in his mind, meant nothing else but massacres and the anni­ hilation of the Armenians, consequently that of Christ­ ianity, in the Near East. i Preface Gladstone, the great statesman of England, de­ nounced the Congress of Berlin—the so-called Concert of Powers—as "an insane convention." At this Congress of Berlin, Europe had to determine whether she would go forward fearlessly into the domain of human freedom, or whether she would re-establish the shaken tyrannies. She chose the latter course so far as she dared to do so. She gave back Macedonia to the Turks, and so left open the Teutonic road into Asia Minor, and thereby invoked the war just closed and made it certain. It was the source of a mountain stream that was presently to de­ vastate the cities of the valley. An honest statecraft could have averted it, but there was only cowardice, blind­ ness and self-interest. The Peace Conference now in session finds itself con­ fronted with a beaten but an impenitent Germany, the ally of the unspeakable Turk. This is the most immediate and most pressing of its problems. The German people believe themselves to have been overwhelmed by superior and aggressive forces, jealous of German virtues and of their legitimate rewards. There seems to be no con­ sciousness of guilt anywhere, nor a charge of guilt. Germ­ any shows no disposition to search her own heart, or even to admit that her conduct is open to dispute. She boasts that her army was unbeaten, and that she was forced to surrender by her internal necessities. Delay in the Peace Conference in dealing with Germany and her Allies means turmoil, uncertainty—and the Bolsheviki. In dealing with the Turkish question, however, the Peace Conference should not take the path of restoring shaken tyrannies. Prof. Moskofflan, in this book, under the title, "The Turk at His Old Game Again" skillfully points out how the wily Turk has played one Christian nation against another from almost time immemorial. At the Berlin Conference he played with England; later he played with Germany; now he is attempting to play with the United States. In dealing with the Armenian ii Preface iii question, the Peace Conference, and our own country, should insist that it be treated as a part and parcel of the German question with which it was unwillingly allied. Were not the Turks fighting under German officers? Did they not receive their inspiration from the Kaiser at Ber­ lin? While the United States was declaring war against Austria and Germany it should have also declared war against Turkey. Why it didn't, I am not in a position to state. To now dally with Turkey in the peace confer­ ence, at the expense of Armenia, in my opinion, would be dastardly. Armenia should have justice. She has won her freedom ! I most heartily endorse the work of Prof. Moskoffian, and commend his effort to shed the light of truth on the sad plight of the Armenians and the unnecessary despol­ iation of their fair and fertile land by the machinations and "conflicting interests" of a selfish and heartless di­ plomacy. C. J. THOMPSON, Congressman-elect, 5th Ohio District Defiance, Ohio, January 4, 1919. "To serve Armenia is to serve civilization/' WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. Independence for Armenia i Who are the Armenians? "The Armenians are one of the oldest races in History. The earliest Biblical mention of the land occupied throughout their entire historical period is the allusion to Ararat. Later it is re­ ported that the parricidal son of Sennacherib es­ caped after his crime into the land of Armenia. Armenia furnished Tyre with horses and mules as reported by Ezekiel, and the king of Armenia was an ally of Cyrus the Great in the overthrow of the Babylonians in the 6th century B. C. In the inscriptions of the Achemenidae at Persepolis and at Behistan the name Armenia appears re­ peatedly. "Herodotus mentions the absorption of the Armenian Empire in that of Darius 514 B. C, when tribute was exacted. From that period to the present time this ancient race has figured in the history of the country centering in the high plateau from which flow the Tigres, the Euphrat­ es, the Halys and the Araxes rivers. "As a race they have a varied history. They were an ally of Rome in 67 B. C, and in 429 A. D. became again subject to Persia. Their last king­ dom was in the Taurus Mountains, in Northern 5 Independence for Armenia Cilicia, until 1375, when Armenia lost its last vestige of separate national existence. "They were the first race or nation to adopt Christianity as a national religion, and so the Armenian Church is the oldest of all national Churches, dating back to the beginning of the fourth century. It is the Church that has held the Armenians together during the centuries of dispersion, accompanied at times by severe per­ secutions."—JAMES L. BARTON, D.D., L.L.D. Epochs in the History of Armenia (Without mentioning the Kingdom of Urartu (Ararat) and Minni (1000?-323 B. C.) the Ar­ menian history divides itself into five epochs: I. The first epoch of the Kingdom of Ar­ menia, from 323-215 B. C. II. The dynasty of Axtaxias, from 190-1 B. C. III. The dynasty of the Arsacids, from 53- 429 A. D. IV. The dynasty of the Bagratids, from 885-1045 A. D. V. The dynasty of the Rupenians, the last dynasty founded Cilicia in 1080, ended 1375 A. D. The foundation of the Armenian kingdom dates, therefore, from the fourth century B. C. Thus the kingdom of Armenia has had, with a 6 Independence for Armenia few interregnums, more than seventeen centuries of independent existence. After the Downfall of the Kingdom When the Armenians lost their political in­ dependence they evolved a church-government which embraced every activity of Armenian life and which finally crystalized itself into a Consti­ tution in Turkish Armenia and into Bologenia in Russian Armenia. The Catholicos, the Head of All Armenians, is elected by the vote of the people. The Turkish dominion has never been able to penetrate into the life of the nation. All at­ tempts on the part of the Turk to intrude into the sanctum sanctorum of Armenian Social, Relig­ ious, Educational, and Marital life have invari­ ably resulted in conflict. "Nest of Eagles" Altho the kingdom fell the Armenians in their lofty mountains cherished their love of liberty and the hope and dream of regeneration. The "Eagles of Zeitoun", the "Brave men of Sassoun" and the "Meliks (princes) of Karabagh" stood firm in their mountain fastnesses and gave battle again and again to their age-long enemies, the Turks, the Persians, the Tartars and twenty other Moslem races. The "Heroic Defence of Van" and their "Successful Contest of Arms with the Turks on 7 Independence for Armenia Mount Moses", stand as witnesses of their spirit of unsubmission and love of independence.