The Armenian Herald / Armenian National Union of America
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THE ARMENIAN HERALD "The Interest of the Weakest is as Sa cred as the Interest of the Strongest." PRESIDENT WILSON. 090« CONTRIBUTORS' COLUMN FOR JANUARY NUMBER Mb. Moorhield Storey is the doyen of Armenia to the Cilician provinces bor the Massachusetts bar, and his name is dering on Mediterranean. widely known throughout the states as the eloquent spokesman of all just causes. Dr. Pasdermadjian continues in this A friend of the negro, of the Philip number his remarkable story of the in pine, of Cuba, he has always raised his domitable courage, of the martial spirit voice for the weak against imperialism displayed by the Armenians, both i* in whatever nature or form. He is an Turkish and Russian Armenia, against old and tried friend of Armenia. When all possible odds, when a member of the there was a question of excluding the allied nations, Russia of the Czar, was Armenians from the United States by planning to carry out its old-time policy, reason of their being classed as "Asia —to covet Armenia without the Arme tics" he presented a brief to the federal nians. Everything related here are the courts which settled the case in favor of actual facts told in their naked sin- the Armenians Mice for all. He wrote a plicity without any exaggeration. remarkable preface to Lord Bryce's Blue Book wherein he Bifts the overwhelming Mrs. Papazian continues her fine inter evidence compiled against Turkish sav pretation of the real forces, in Arme agery since the outbreak of the world nian history and the Armenian people, war. He is a true American with the largely responsible for the sad events spirit of yore. which crowd the pages of the chronicler. We have tried to review her remarkable book under our review column with the Mr. Vaham Kurkjian was born in intention that it may create interest for Cilicia concerning which he writes. He many in the book itself and in Armenian has always taken an active part in history in general. Armenian educational and public matters. He is a writer of distinction and has Jean Aicard's beautiful poem, called specialized on the medieval history of Armenia, which we published last month, Armenia. Some years ago he wrote a was kindly translated for us from the remarkable treatise on the history of French by Miss Alice Stone Blackwell. Cilicia under the Eupenian Kings. The By a careless oversight we regret not to present article is opportune as it estab have mentioned this fact last time im lishes the unquestionable rights of connection with the poem. THE ARMENIAN HERALD TOLUME 2 JANUARY, 1919 NUMBER 2 ARMENIA'S SELF-GOVERNMENT BY MOORFIELD STOREY There is no people in the world entitled to greater sympathy than the Armenians. For a series of years before the war began numbers of them had been massacred at different times with the connivance of the Turkish authorities but after Turkey joined the Germans in 1915, a deliberate attempt to exterminate the Armenian race seems to have been made. In all the bloodstained pages of history there is no more terrible record of unprovoked and fiendish cruelty inflicted on helpless human beings than is contained in Lord Bryce's volume with its statements from eye witnesses and sufferers. The conviction that this brave people which has suffered so long from Turkish misrule is entitled to its independence has been burned into the hearts of civilized peoples, and the Peace Congress should not adjourn without establishing an Armenian nation. There is no other reasonable alternative, and we may well apply in this case the sound rule laid down by an American statesman "No people is fit for any government but self-government." Certainly there is no neighboring power to which the destinies of the Armenian people can be confided safely. There is no hope for them but in themselves. An independent Armenia is only the res toration of an ancient nation, and if it is established, we hope that Arme nians driven from home by Turkish persecution and scattered all over the world will take their health, their wealth, their experience and their wisdom back to their own land, and give their suffering fellow-country men the support which they need so sorely, to the end that the new Armenia may take the station among the nations of the world to which the traditions and character of its people justly entitled it. Boston, January, 1919. THE ARMENIAN KINGDOM OF CILICIA BY VAHAN M. KURKJIAN On the 10th day of November, 1918, a French squadron entered and occupied the port of Alexandretta. The event was joyfully hailed by the Armenians throughout the world as the realization of a dream five centuries old. The port of Alexandretta was within the boundaries of the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia. After having been lost, for a short period, to the Mameluke Sultans of Egypt, it was recovered by King Constantine II in 1347, with the assistance of the Knights Hospitallers. The Egyptian armies reappeared a quarter of a century later, swept the whole coun try, destroyed the last stronghold of Christianity in the East, and car ried away the King, Leon V, to Egypt. Released from his captivity after eight years, the unfortunate prince went to Europe, with the intention of enlisting the sympathies of the Christian world. He was accorded a hearty welcome in the court of Charles VI of France, and a few years afterwards was delegated by Charles to England, as a messenger of peace. The Hundred Years' war was then being waged, and the Arme nian King cherished the hope of bringing about a cessation of hostili ties between these two greatest powers of Europe, and, eventually, of securing their help for the deliverance of his enslaved fellow-country men and the restoration of his throne. In a pathetic address, Leon depicted before Richard II and his Parliament at Westminster the dis tressing picture of the Christians of the East, and concluded as follows : "The hostility between England and France has continued too long. Both should be urged to be contented with their vast dominions and put an end to this struggle, so that they may be able to drive away the en emies of Christ, and to break the yoke of the Christians of the East, who are daily awaiting your assistance, O, illustrious princes !" The address made a profound impression upon the august assembly, and the King consented to the postponement of hostile operations as THE ARMENIAN KINGDOM OF CILICIA 61 requested by his "cousin," the King of Armenia—"nostre cousyn le roy d'Armenye." But, unfortunately, the fire of mutual hatred was too in tense to be extinguished so quickly; no agreement on peace prelimin aries could be reached, and Leon, disappointed in his labors and expecta tions, returned to Paris, there to descend into his grave on the 29th of November, 1393. The last Armenian King passed away, but the Armenian nation has ever since clung tenaciously to the hope that the Christian powers of Europe, and especially England and France, would at last come to their rescue. It is only natural, therefore, that the heart of every Armenian should be thrilled by the news of the redemption of the ancient port of Armenia, through the Anglo-French Alliance. The term "Armenia" is generally applied to the region about the Ararat mountains and the upper valleys of the Euphrates and the Tigris, but historically, politically and ethnographically it comprises an area which stretches to the western Taurus chains and to the northeastern shores of the Mediterranean ; and it is a matter of fundamental justice and of a vital importance to the cause of civilization that this part of the Mediterranean coastland should be included and incorporated in the new Armenian State. The two sections of Southeastern Asia Minor, respectively known in the Fourth Century as Cilicia and Euphratensis, and colonized by Arme nians long ago, became, on the decline of Byzantine influence, after the advent of the Saracens, dominant Armenian centers.1 It is interest ing to know in this same connection that the northern slopes of the Taurus range, the territory adjoining Cilicia and designated in the geog raphy of Moses of Khoren as the First Armenia (Arachin Haik) was an original seat from which the Armenians proceeded towards Ararat in their eastward movement from Thrace and Hellespontes about 1000 years before Christ. After the short-lived Empire of Tigranes the Great, who had oc cupied the territory in 69 B. C, Cilician ports became more and more freely accessible to the Armenians. Most significant is the allusion to the northeastern corner of the Mediterranean as the "Armenian Gulf" (Sinus Armenicus) by Ammianus Marcellus, the Latin historian of the Fourth Century. It was in the second half of the same century that St. THE ARMENIAN HERALD John the Chrysostom, writing from his place of exile at Cocussus, the present village of Goksun between Hajin and Zeitoun, expressed grati tude for the kindness extended to him by the Armenian population of the locality and by the Armenian nobleman, Dioscorus. Bishop Melitus of Antioch, whose pupil Chrysostom had been, was himself an Armenian. According to Theodoret, who lived in the Fifth Century, the city of Cocussus was in Armenia. The Armenians of those parts had grown so numerous in the Sixth Century that Catholicus Christopher took special care to warn them against the teachings of Nestorius. During the Eleventh Century almost the whole province was governed by Armenian functionaries or feudal lords; such as General Hachadour at Issaurian- Antioch, Oshin at Lambron, Ablgarib at Tarsus, Halgam on the western coastlands, Pazouni in the highlands, Tatoul at Marash, etc.