ARTYRED ARMENIA. A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE RECENT HORRIBLE Massacres 'he Christian Armenians ...IN... Turkey. WITH A FUIyl, EXPI^ANATION OF THEIR REMOTE AND IMMEDIATE CAUSES, SEEN THROUGH THE APATHY OF THE POWERS, AND A PI,EA FOR HEIvP REV. S. S. YKNOVKIAN, AN ARMENIAN REFUGEE. 1896. ^' MARTYRED ARMENIA. A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE RECENT HORRIBLE Massacres ...OF. The Christian Armenians Turkey. WITH A FUI,Iv EXPIvANATION OF THEJIR REMOTE AND IMMEDIATE CAUvSES, SEEN THROUGH THE APATHY OF THE POWERvS, AND A PI^EA FOR HElv'Pj ^ ^0/^,,^-. -By- ^ ' ''^ V' REV. S. S. YENOVKIAN, AN ARMENIAN REFUGEE. 1896. 6.c(r ^ THE BRIXTON PTQ. CO., -.5 bnERIFF ST., CLEVELANOj O, ][jedicated. To tlie most sacred memories of my dear ones, brothers, relatives and scores of friends^ who perished in the company of those one hundred thousand Armenian martyrs, that were massacred in defense of their faith in Christy by the diabolical orders of the Sultan Hamid II. of Turkey^ and by the 7nost cruel hands of Islam BEFORE THE EYES OF THE WHOLE Christian world, at the close of THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. S. S. YENOVKIAN, Cleveland, Ohio. January 21st, 1896. AI.I. RIGHTS RESERVED. Martyred Armenia. On your last Thanksgiving Day, all over this country, thousands of preachers and pastors, with cheer- ful faces, stood before their congregations and rehearsed your national blessings. Yea, the whole nation, proudly and justly, sang the sacred song, " Happy Is the Nation, Whose God Is the Lord." Unquestionably, happiness and piety are closely connected, one with another. But the mere happiness and prosperity of a nation cannot be taken for an infalli- ble sign—that the nation is God's people. Nor does the affliction of a nation always betoken that the nation is wicked. There are many ungodly people in this world who are happy, and also many devout races which are sorely afflicted. Such is the case with the afflicted Armenians. In the history of the Church, very few nations have been found so loyal to their Heavenly Master as the people of Armenia, and yet no other people upon the face of the earth have suffered as much as the Armenians. Before any other nation could venture to accept Christianity as their State religion, the Armenians proclaimed themselves, in a body, a Christian nation. ' And so they gained the distinctive honor, ' The First Christian Nation." Throughout a period of sixteen centuries they have born the standard of their Commander through all kinds of persecutions , religious wars and firey martyrdoms, safe and undefiled. And now, in our own days, the whole nation, cross in hand and the Master's sacred standard unfurled over her head, is brought to the verge of extermination, by the greatest enemy of the Church of God. The assassin, the murderer, with a grim smile is scorning the whole of Christendom, and greatly emboldened by the supine indifference of the so-called Christian powers, with an increasing ruthlessness, is con- tinuing in his inhuman carnage and butchery. It seems to us as if the whole of Christendom is dumb and wonder- struck, and is not able to understand the riddle, or to pene- trate to the mysterious depth of the silence of the Chris- tian powers. It is under such appalling circumstances that the martyr, with all her armies of saints, composed of men and women of every calling, bearing their dear ones in their arms, is calmly and composedly marching to the verge of extermination before the eyes of the whole Chris- tian world. With all her followers she is ready to forgive her enemies, her most brutal executioners. But, like her Heavenly Master, she cannot close her saintly lips, without repeating to the ears of the Christian Europe, *' Friend betray est thou the daughter of Armenia with a kiss?" Grief stricken with the incessant news of unparalleled massacres, despairing of seeing alive my dear little ones, relatives and hundreds of friends, I deemed it my solemn duty to interpret the last words of my martyred people, and make an earnest plea for the small remnant which can be saved yet. Since the terrible news of the recent massacres began to be published in the newspapers of this country, every- where, the people are asking, "Why are not the Christian governments of Europe stepping in and making an end to such awful slaughters? " Many attempts have been made through the press to explain, and even to vindicate, the gross indifference and apathy of the powers. Some have tried to explain by saying, "The newspaper reports are too much exaggerated, and hence the indiffer- ence of the powers." Others have said, "The jealousy of the powers toward each other's welfare is the only cause of their inactivity." Still others have tried to vindicate such a supine apathy by saying, " The peace of the whole of Europe, and the safety of the whole Christian world re- quires a very careful and cautious policy. The powers have a definite understanding among themselves for the dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire, but in order not to arouse the fanaticism of the whole Mohammedan world, they are acting very quietly and deliberately, which policy seems to us as if an apathy." And still a few who are not well acquainted with the most diabolical character and fiendish a ms of the Sultan and his admirers, have resorted, into a very queer explanation by saying, "The Sultan and his ministers have nothing to do with these horrible massacres. They have not been planned by the Turkish government. They are simply the works of those fanatic Moslems in the provinces and the Sultan is utter- ly unable to suppress these awful carnages. The powers know this, therefore they are not blaming the Turkish government, or cannot enforce the Sultan to do that which they know he is utterly unable to do." All these attempts to explain and vindicate the in- activity of European governments have proved to be utterly void and futile, and still the question, " Why powers are not stopping this carnage?" remains unan- answered in the minds of the public, who are not well ac- quainted with the real secrets of the so-called "Eastern question." If we desire to know the real causes of the indiffer- ence of the powers, we must have a brief review of the history of the massacres of the Christian races in Turkey. It is a well-knowQ fact that in the history of that country, from time to time, the followers of Mohammed have ruthlessly butchered thousands f f Christians. Within the last thirty five years alone, besides hundreds of com- paratively small massacres, three great massacres have occurred by the express orders of the sultans themselves. The first of these great slaughters occurred in 1860, at Mount Lebanan, in Syria, in which 10,000 Maronite Catholic Christians were butchered in cold blood by the Druses. The second great massacre, more terrible than the first, occurred in 1876, in Bulgaria. According to the most reliable authorities more than 15,000 Bulgarian Greek Christians were ruthlessly slaughtered. The last massacre began in 1894, in the first part of September, and up to the present time more than 75,000 Armenian Christians, composed chiefly of helpless women and children, have been butchered with un- paralleled cruelty and unspeakable lust. The nation has already lost more than half of their whole wealth, and more than 500,000 helpless men, women and children, without homes and clothing, are starving to death in the moun- tains of Asia Minor. And what is more than all these, every rising day increases the roll of martyra by hundreds and thousands, and it seems that the unspeakable Turk will never stop his inhuman butchery, until the whole na- tion is exterminated. It is in the presence of the most powerful Christian governments, yea, under the very guns of their most formidable navies, that all these barbarisms are perpetrated upon the most defenceless Christian nation in the world. No wonder that the whole civilized world is repeatedly asking * * Why the powers are not stepping " in and making an end to such a fearful carnage? Here is the true answer of this most pressing and urgent question: Because the Armenians Jmve no co- religionist among the European powers. The massacre of the Maronite Catholics occurred sud- denly and unexpectedly. But no sooner did it happen than Catholic France, the coreligionist of the victims, stepped in, and with a single blow, not only stopped its spreading, but also punished the chief leaders of that fearful bloodshed. The Bulgarian massacre also came without warning. But, as soon as it occurred, Russia, the recognized champion of the Greek Church, prepared itself for a re- ligious war against the Turks, and with great sacrifices avenged the blood of 20,000 Bulgarian Greek Christians. But who cares for the Armenians, who have a church distinctly of their own, and have no coreligionist among the European powers ? In short, they are neither Catholics nor Greeks, but simply Christians. The heathen Turk knows this fact well, and, therefore, with relentless fury he continues in his unchecked carnage. But, this is not all. There is something more in the inactivity of Russia and France, which is baser and more heinous than the mere selfish sectarianism. For many centuries the Greek Church, through her Greek and Russian emperors, has tried to induce the whole Armenian Church to join her own, but Armenia has repeatedly de- clined such an offer. The Popes of Rome also, at various times, have made desperate attempts to regain the Armen- ians into their sacred fold without success.