Chapter XX: Camps of Refuge, 1915-17 332 (1)

Physical Suffering Compared with the Deeper Anguish of Mind and Heart--Why the Young Turks Continued Their Barbarity--An American Missionary’s Experience--Martyrdom of First Christian Century Compared with Scenes in 1915--An American Woman’s Appeal Unheeded--Absurdity of Turkish Excuse--Inefficiency of Armenian Defense--Cilician Armenians Disarmed by Misrepresentation--Evacuated Homes Given to Mohammedan Refugees--More than 20,000 Armenians Forced to Emigrate from One Province--An Almost Miraculous Escape--“_Christians in Distress. Rescue!_”--The Third Stage of the Turk’s Plan of Extermination: “Agricultural Colonies”--Most Undesirable Sites Chosen--A Thousand Families with only Fifty Grown Men--Unwholesome Climatic Influences--Scenes in the Refugee Camps--American Embassy Refused Permission to Carry Help--The Sufferings of Shelterless Exiles--The Unburied Dead--Epidemic of Typhoid Fever--Exhausted Exiles Driven Forward at Point of Soldiers’ Bayonets--What a Missionary Saw--Distributing Bread to the Hungry--Children Sold to Prevent Starvation--580 Buried in One Day--A Town in the Desert--Instant Death Preferred to Long Suffering--A Protest from German Missionaries--Heart-rending Scenes--Massacres Still Going On--Late News--Present Conditions--Accessories to Turks’ Crime--U.S.A. Entering into the Conflict. Encouraging Signs--God rules.

MAP 352

A CRY FROM ARMENIA

By ELLEN M. MITCHELL

(_The New Armenia_)

Through all this golden sunshine there peals a mournful cry,
Help, help us, or we perish--help, help us, or we die!
Our babes are begging wildly for one small crust of bread,
They faint, they die with hunger--is there a God o’erhead?

Oh, haste with friendly succor, we are starving while we wait,
To thousands sinking graveward your help may come too late;
Our gaunt forms totter feebly; our lips grow wan and white,
Oh, God, how hard it is to starve beneath a sky so bright!

Your hearths are crowned with plenty, your homes with blessings rife;
The scattered crumbs that strew your floor might save a human life;
Oh, can you hear, unmoved and calm, of all our bitter need,
Nor feel your quivering heart-strings with throbs of pity bleed?

Dear brethren, would ye follow Christ, our starving children save,
Keep back the shuddering feet that tread the margin of the grave;
Send on your bounty quickly, with timely comfort haste,
For human lives are ebbing out each moment that you waste.

I

ARMENIA

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. It is a lamentable fact that according to the teaching of Mohammed the severer the Mohammedan is to his unbelieving or non-Mohammedan neighbor the greater will be his reward, and the better his position in paradise.

It may not, therefore, be amiss if we say a few words about the original and ancestral home of the Armenians, whence they have been at times driven and scattered throughout the Mohammedan dominions and have become the victims of cruelty and massacre for ages.

Armenia lies directly north of Mesopotamia. It is bounded on the north by the Caucasian Mountains, on the south by the Mesopotamian plains, on the east it extends to the Caspian Sea and Media and on the west to the Black Sea and Asia Minor.[1]

Its boundaries varied at different times. According to the native historians, the country reached its greatest extent under the reigns of the Kings Aram and Tigranes II. The former is mentioned by the Assyrian kings, the latter was well-known in the first century B.C. “It (Armenia) varied in extent at different epochs, but it may be regarded as lying between lat. 36° 50´ and 41° 41´ N., and lon. 36° 20´ and 48° 40´ E.” It must have been between six and seven hundred miles from east to west and from two hundred and fifty to three hundred miles from north to south.

The country of Armenia was divided into two main divisions, namely, Armenia Major and Armenia Minor, or the Greater and Less Armenia. Greater Armenia which comprised the larger part of the country extended from the eastern boundary to the Euphrates river, and Armenia Minor extended from the Euphrates to Asia Minor. This ancient river thus made a dividing line between the two main divisions of the country. Armenia Major was again divided into fifteen provinces.

Armenia is a highland from 4000 to 7000 feet above the level of the sea. Its surface is undulated with beautiful dells and hills, with fertile valleys and forest covered mountains, with richly productive and extensive plains and pasture lands, and lofty snow capped mountains with glittering snowy peaks, piercing the clear blue sky.

The highest mountain of western Asia is situated at the center of Armenia. It is the Mount Masis of the natives, and Mount Ararat of the Europeans, and is of unsurpassed beauty, magnificence and grandeur. No traveler has ever yet seen it and not spoken of it with admiration. “The impression made by Ararat upon the mind of every one who has any sensibility of the stupendous works of the Creator, is wonderful and overpowering, and many a traveler of genius and taste has employed both the power of the pen and of the pencil in attempting to portray this impression, but the consciousness that no description, no representation can reach the sublimity of the object thus attempted to be depicted, must prove to the candid mind that whether we address the ear or eye, it is difficult to avoid the poetic in expression and exaggeration in form, and confine ourselves strictly within the bound of consistency and truth.

“Nothing can be more beautiful than its shape, more awful than its height. All the surrounding mountains sink into insignificance when compared to it. It is perfect in all its parts; no hard rugged features, no unnatural prominence; everything is in harmony, and all combined to render it one of the sublimest objects in nature.

“The fabric of Ararat composes an elliptic figure with an axis from northwest to southeast. The base plan measures about twenty-eight miles in length, and about twenty-three miles in width. The fabric is built up by two mountains. Greater Ararat (16,916 feet above the sea) and Little Ararat (12,840 feet above the sea). Their bases are contiguous at a level of 8800 feet, and their summits are seven miles apart. Both are due to eruptive volcanic action; but no eruption of Ararat is known to have occurred during the historical period, and the summit of the greater mountain presents all the appearance of a very ancient and much worndown volcano with a central chimney or vent, long since filled in.”[2]

From this central plateau, the highest mountain in Armenia, the land slopes down in all directions. On the south it inclines toward the Lake of Van and the plains of Mush; on the east toward the lower valley of Araxes, on the north to the middle valley of Araxes, and on the northeast and east toward the plains of Kars and Erzerum. “Along the line of the fortieth degree of latitude a succession of plains extend across the tableland, varying in their depression below the higher levels, watered by the Araxes and by the upper course of the western Euphrates, and each giving access to the other by natural passages. The first is the valley of the Araxes, with its narrower continuation westwards through the district between Kagyzman and Khorasan; the second is the plain of Pasin; the third the plain of Erzerum. Yet while the plains of Pasin and Erzerum are situated respectively at an altitude of fifty-five hundred feet and fifty-seven hundred and fifty feet, the valley of the Araxes in the neighborhood of Erivan is only twenty-eight hundred feet above the sea. Both on the north and south of this considerable depression, even the plainer levels of the tableland attain the imposing altitude of seven thousand feet, while its surface has been uplifted by volcanic action into long and irregular convexities of mountain and hill and hummock.”[3]

Instances of earthquake are not uncommon but fortunately not very frequent. In the early part of the eleventh century of the Christian era, King John was frightened by an earthquake and an eclipse of the moon as forebodings of coming calamity upon his kingdom and capital Ani. It is believed by some that the isolation of the rock of Van itself might have been due to some violent earthquake in the remote past causing its present separation, from the heights adjacent on the east. “Several visitations (earthquake) of considerable severity have probably occurred during the historical period, thus we learn that in the year 1648 of the Christian era, one-half of the wall of the fortified city, as well as churches, mosques, and private houses were shattered by successive shocks, and fell to the ground.”[4]

In the beginning of the year of our Lord, 1840, there stood the ancient village of Aicori (vineyards), happy and apparently sheltered in the shadow of the Armenian giant. Not far from the village at the foot of Mount Ararat were situated the old Monastery of St. James and its numerous buildings. But on the twentieth of June, a terrible earthquake shook the mighty mountain from its foundations. The avalanche, of rocks, earth, ice and snow from the mountain sides, rushed swiftly down upon the village and the monastery, the houses and buildings already tottering, crushed them and buried the inhabitants alive--about one thousand in number. The cities Nakhejevan and Erivan did not escape the calamity. In both of these cities also hundreds of houses were thrown down and thousands of lives were lost.

The following despatch will show that not only the sword and incendiary fire of the Turk has been pursuing the poor Armenian but even the elements of nature seem to militate against his mundane existence. May the good Lord save him from suffering in the hereafter!

PARIS, May 17, 1891.--“The _Dix-Neuvième Siècle_ states that commercial advices have been received at Marseilles from Trebizond to the effect that a new volcano has appeared in Armenia at the summit of Mount Minrod, in the district of Van, vomiting forth flames and lava. The villages at the base of the mountain have been destroyed, and many persons are said to have been killed or injured....”

The earliest name of Armenia appears to be Ararat; by that name it was known to the ancient Hebrews, Babylonians and Assyrians. We are told, in connection with the Deluge, that when the waters of the flood subsided “the ark rested upon the mountains of Ararat.” “The geography of Genesis starts from the north. It was on the mountains of Ararat or Armenia that the ark rested, and it was accordingly with this region of the world that our primitive chart begins.”[5]

It was generally--we might say universally--believed by all Christians, almost of all ages, before the days of the higher critics, that the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Bible) was written by Moses. It is not improbable that when he composed or compiled the book of Genesis he was in possession of oral traditions and traditional documents, handed down to his time from these sources. It is one of these older written accounts which states that the ark rested upon the mountains of Ararat. Another old tradition handed down and preserved in writing is that of another Moses. Moses of Khorene, the Armenian Herodotus, who states that this central part of Armenia was formerly called Ararat. The author of the Book of Genesis is accurate and precise in his knowledge of the fact that Ararat is the name of the country upon whose mountains the tempest-tossed vessel of the Patriarch rested. Whether his knowledge was due to Divine inspiration, or to a historical fact preserved and handed down to his time (it may be both), we cannot tell. But the accuracy of the statement, which stood the criticisms of centuries, and especially this age of criticism, had a rightful claim to acceptance by all.

Ararat is also mentioned in three other books of the Old Testament, namely, II Kings 19:37, Isaiah 37:36, and Jeremiah 51:27. The first two passages are identical in import and speak of the escape of Adrammelech and Sharezer “into the land of Ararat” after having committed the crime of patricide. In the third passage, Jeremiah summons the forces of Armenia to join the Medes to overthrow Babylon in these words: “Set ye up a standard in the land, blow the trumpet among the nations, prepare the nations against her (Babylon), call together against her the Kingdoms of Ararat, Minni and Ashchenaz.... Prepare against her the nations with the Kings of the Medes.”

The following is from an inscription of Assur-Natsir-Pal the King of Assyria, and the date of his reign is assigned by Prof. Sayce from B.C. 883 to 858. “The cities of Khatu, Khotaru, Nistun, Irbidi ... the cities of Qurkhi which in sight of the mountains, of M’su, Arua and Arardhi, mighty mountains, are situated, I captured.” Professor Sayce remarks that “Arardhi seems to be the earliest form of Urardhu (of later Assyrian inscriptions), the Biblical Ararat.”[6]

The passages from the Bible and the Assyrian inscriptions show beyond doubt that Ararat was the earliest name of Armenia, and it was not the name of a mountain; and that the ark of Noah rested upon “the mountains of” Ararat or Armenia.

The great rivers of western Asia take their origin from the highlands of Armenia. The river Acampsis of the ancients, identified by some with the Pison of the Bible, has its source southwest of Erzerum, it receives several other streams and with beautiful windings, flows into the Black Sea. About the Araxes, according to some the Gihon of the Bible, I find an interesting statement in an Armenian history: “Aramais (King of Armenia) built a city of hewn stone on a small eminence in the plain of Aragay, and near the bank of a river before mentioned, which had received the name of Gihon. The new city which afterwards became the capital of his kingdom, he called Armavir, after his name, and the name of the river he changed to Arax after his son Arast.” The river Araxes is fed and swollen by many streams, rivulets and brooks, which run from the sides of numerous glens, through picturesque ravines, and mingle with it. Its tortuous course irrigates the lands adjacent carrying great fertility, and finally joins the famous river Kur (Cyrus) and pours itself into the bosom of the Caspian Sea.

The other two great rivers of Armenia Major are the Euphrates and Tigris, whose identity with those mentioned in connection with the Garden of Eden is beyond doubt. Both of these rivers also take their origin in the highlands of Armenia. The Euphrates, whose springs are not very far from Mount Ararat (Masis of the Armenians) takes a westward course along the Taurus mountain chain on the northern side of the mountain, runs north of Kharput, then turns westward, and about forty miles west of Kharput unites with the western branch of the Euphrates; near Malateah the river turns towards the southeast and nearly approaches the sources of the Tigris. From this point onward with a southeasterly course, these rivers flow and finally they unite and pour into the Persian Gulf. The students of the ancient Babylonian and Assyrian history and civilization need not to be told what fertility these rivers carried along their course through the Mesopotamian plain, and how, with numerous canals and channels, they irrigated the land of these great empires, and became the means of commercial intercourse with the neighboring nations.

Armenia’s claim to the possession of the Garden of Eden within her bosom ought not to be disputed. Indeed no other country has attempted to contend for this honor. Her natural beauty, salubrious climate, her exuberant fertility, the fragrance of her flowers, the variety of her singing birds, above all her mountainous bosom and overflowing rivers through which mighty waters run down on her mountain sides and fill the great channels, which fertilize the subjacent countries and replenish the two adjacent seas and distant ocean in the south; all these justify her claim, and render it almost a historical fact, that Armenia was the cradle of infant humanity. “Ancient traditions place the province of Eden in this highest portion of Armenia, anciently called Ararat; and it appears to furnish all the conditions of the Mosaic narrative.[7] A distinguished writer, well-known in this country, who had the pleasure of looking from the top of Ararat over the countries around, makes the following remark: “Below and around including in this single view, seemed to lie the whole cradle of the human race, from Mesopotamia in the south to the great wall of Caucasus that covered the northern horizon, Mount Kaf, the boundary for so many ages of the civilized world. 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.”[8]

If variety makes beauty, Armenia furnishes such a variety, making her one of the most beautiful countries in the world; not only has she those gigantic mountains with their snow crowned heads, looking down upon the clouds that envelop their skirts while they mock at the air and the winds, not only has she hundreds of murmuring streams and rippling brooks, gliding along the sides of thousands of hills, which swell those kingly rivers and cause them to overflow their banks; but she has also some beautiful lakes like jewels set in their respective caskets. The Sevan, which lies between the Araxes and the Kur (Cyrus), occupies the center of a fertile plain in the northern part of Armenia and is called “Sweet Lake,” in contradistinction to the others which are salt water lakes. The Lake Sevan is about thirty miles northeast of Erivan, and is in the Russian provinces of Armenia. The Lake Urmi, or Urumia, lies in the southern and southeastern part of the country, and is now in the Persian province of Armenia. These lakes and some others are surrounded by magnificent views, but Lake of Van, surpassing them in size, in importance and splendor, will attract us to linger with her a little longer.

The area of Lake Van is about fourteen hundred square miles, its surface is over five thousand feet above the level of the sea. It is embosomed in the center of a rich and verdant plain, and this in turn is encircled by an exceedingly beautiful, romantic, undulating mountain chain which culminates, on the north, in the sublime monarch of the mountains of western Asia, “The Armenian giant Mount Ararat.”

The beauty of Lake Van and its surroundings always did, and will more intensely enchant the poets and artists--who are more fortunate and enjoy the beauty of nature more than the rest of us. The following is the description of a distinguished explorer: “A range of low hills now separated us from the plain and lake of Van. We soon reached their crest and a landscape of surpassing beauty was before us. At our feet intensely blue and sparkling in the rays of the sun, was the inland sea, with the sublime peak of the Subbon Dagh (mountain) mirrored in its transparent water. The city (of Van), with its castle crowned rock and its embattled walls and towers, lay embowered in orchards and gardens. To our right, a rugged snow-capped mountain opened midway into an amphitheater in which, amid lofty trees, stood the Armenian convent of Seven Churches. To the west of the lake was the Nimrod Dagh and the highlands nourishing the sources of the great rivers of Mesopotamia. The hills forming the foreground of our picture were carpeted with the brightest flowers, over which wandered the flocks, while the gaily dressed shepherds gathered around as we halted to contemplate the enchanting scene.”[9]

Many a scene like the above has enchanted the foreign traveler and inspired the native authors and poets, and caused the wandering, expatriated sons and daughters of Armenia to remember her former glory and splendor, now marred by the vicissitudes of the ages (especially under the iron heel of the Turkish tyranny), and in indescribable misery to weep, like the ancient Hebrew prophet “Mine eye runneth down with rivers of water for the destruction of the daughter of my people.” (Lam. 3:48.)

It will be easily understood that the climate of Armenia cannot be mild in winter on account of the altitude of the country, which is from four thousand to seven thousand feet above the level of the sea. In general it is very healthful, but in winter the cold is severe and lasts from the middle of October until the beginning of May. In the valleys the weather is mild and very pleasant. The summer is short but warm, especially in certain valleys, which are far away from the reach of the sea breeze, too much enclosed by high mountains and too deep for mountain air. “And while the climate of the city (Alexandropol) on the Arpa may compare with St. Lawrence in North America, that of Erivan resembles Palermo or Barcelona.”[10] The length of the winter should not mislead the reader for neither is it uniformly long, nor is the degree of cold the same all over the country.

The reader’s expectation of such a variety of climate, combined with a naturally fertile soil, of a rich production both in quality and in quantity is perfectly justifiable. Barley, cotton, tobacco, grapes and wheat are almost unexcelled in quality; although these are cultivated with very rude instruments and in very primitive ways. Almost all the fruits and vegetables raised in gardens, in this country, are in the list of the products of Armenia.

It is due to the natural fertility of the country, when we remember the fact that the land is not only very old, and, therefore, more or less, would necessarily decline in its productivity, but the method of cultivation itself is also very old, started, probably by Adam, Noah and their immediate descendants, compelled by the necessities of life.

In spite of ancient traditions, which locate the Garden of Eden in Armenia, no explorer as yet has been able to discover it. Some signs and symptoms, however, seem still to linger in that unhappy land, even the curse of the flaming sword included.[11] The flowers of Armenia are some of these signs, though they grow wild and uncultivated, yet they are of rare beauty, fragrance and hue, and hardly are they known to the Europeans and Americans. They should surely give a paradisical aspect to the place and furnish the conditions of Eden.

The writer well remembers, while the snow had hardly melted away from the ground, going out into the fields with a missionary of his native city, who was eagerly digging up some of these flowers to send to his friends in England. “Some slight remains of Paradise are left even to our days, in the form of most lovely flowers, which I gathered on the very hill from whence the three rivers take their departure to their distant seas. Though one of them has a Latin scientific name, no plant of it has ever been in Europe, and by no manner of contrivance could we succeed in carrying one away. This most beautiful production was called in Latin Ravanea, or Philipea Coscinea, a parasite on absinthe or wormwood. This is the most beautiful flower conceivable, it is in the form of a lily, about nine to twelve inches long, including the stalk, the flower, the stalk and all the parts of it, resembles crimson velvet; it has no leaves, it is found on the side of the mountains near Erzerum, often in company with Morans Orientalis, a remarkable kind of thistle, with flowers all up the stalk, looking and smelling like the honeysuckle. An iris, of a most beautiful flaming yellow, is found among the rocks and it, as well as all the more beautiful flowers, blooms in the spring soon after the melting of the snow.”[12]

We must not omit the mention of the singing birds of Armenia, for surely they must have performed a noble service by their melodious music in that great assembly of all creation, gathered to witness the nuptials of our innocent parents in their sinless state. Some of the descendants of Adam and Eve, who are still living in Armenia, have no other singers than the posterity of those, who sang for the first happy pair, while in the state of their innocency. The birds in general are numerous, belonging to various tribes “which” says the author, above quoted, “in thousands and millions would reward the toil of the sportsman and naturalist on the plains and mountains of the highlands of Armenia.”

Nothing was more delightful and amusing to the writer when a child, than to watch the armies of birds flying towards the north in the spring, or south in the autumn, in a grand array, led by a general as it were, until they were lost from sight in the clear and bright Oriental sky; and even now, it would give him no little delight were it possible, to retire into one of those quiet cottages in the vineyards or orchards of the east and listen to the most melodious anthems of those songsters, who were then, it seems to him now, vying with one another to make their praises more acceptable to their Creator than do many of our noted singers in the magnificent churches and cathedrals of to-day.

The animals of Armenia--beside the human--are in general about the same as are found in the United States, though perhaps the domestic animals of Armenia, like cows, oxen, horses, mules and donkeys, sheep and goats, are a little smaller in size than are found in America. In olden times, the Armenian horses were as famous as are the Arabian horses now. “The rich pastures of Media and Armenia furnished excellent horses for the Medo-Persian Army.” (See Ezek. 27:14.)

There are some valuable mines in Armenia. Traces of old gold mines are found midway between Trebizond and Erzerum. Some even think that the locality of “Ophir,” from whence King Solomon fetched gold to decorate the temple at Jerusalem, was in this region. It may be interesting to some to repeat that the ancient river Acampsis, identified by some with the Pison of the Bible, “which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold,” does really run through this part of the country.[13]

There are rich silver and copper mines in the vicinity of Karpert (Harput), the copper mines alone yield 2,250,000 pounds annually. There are mines of sulphur, sulphurate of lead, antimony and silver. The mines of coal and iron are found in abundance, but not in full use, those that are operated are very poorly done. There is a little town situated on one of the tributaries of western Euphrates, called Divrig, where the writer spent some time in the two-fold capacity of a teacher and preacher for the reformed Armenian Church, and he well remembers how the people used easily to avail themselves of the native masses of iron, with primitive skill, converting them into rude implements for farming or other purposes.

There are mineral springs, hot and cold, at various places, with their peculiar curative powers; they have become “Bethesdas” of the invalids, and are frequented like the places of pilgrimage, by those who suffer any ailment which may be amenable to treatment and who are able to repair to such restorative resorts. Rock salt and salt springs also abound in Armenia. They are especially inexhaustible in the vicinity of Moosh. A salt stream, whose springs are through and from the salt rocks, which would bring a good income in the hands of a wise government, unprofitably flows into, and mingles, with the waters of the Euphrates.

Some of the ancient and modern cities of Armenia still in existence are the following: Van, Amid--now Diarhekie--Palu, Malatia, Kars, Erzerum, Etchmeadsin, Erivan, Sivas, Karpert (Harput), Manazgherd, Bitles and Moosh. The following is a list of some of the ancient cities in ruins: Armanir, Ardashad, Valarshabad, Dicranagherd and Ani.

The largest part of Armenia until the present year (1916) was under the Turkish rule. 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.

The English traveler Sandys, who visited the Turkish empire nearly three centuries ago (about 1638) “has described with truth and eloquence the unhappy condition of the regions subject to the destructive despotism,” in the following words:

“These countries, once so glorious and famous for their happy estate, are now, through vice and ingratitude become the most deplorable spectacles of extreme misery. The wild beasts of mankind have broken in upon them, and rooted out all civility, and the pride of a stern, and barbarous tyrant, possessing the thrones of ancient dominions, who aims only at the height of greatness and sensuality hath reduced so great and goodly a part of the world to that lamentable distress and servitude under which it now faints and groans. Those rich lands at this present time remain waste and overgrown with bushes and receptacles of wild beasts, of thieves and murderers; large territories dispeopled or thinly inhabited; goodly cities made desolate, sumptuous buildings become ruins, glorious temples either subverted or prostituted to impiety; true religion discountenanced and opposed; all nobility extinguished; no light of learning permitted, no virtue cherished; violence and rapine exulting over all, and leaving no security, save an abject mind and unlooked on poverty.”

What would Mr. Sandys--this good Englishman--say if he were alive now and had seen what happened within the last hundred years; how these “wild beasts of mankind” again and again broke in upon the defenceless Christians, and the barbarous tyrants ordered their wholesale massacres; and how England protected and prolonged the lives of these wild beasts and barbarous tyrants over a hundred years; and how goodly cities have been made desolate and the ancient dominions have been turned into a veritable hell by the sword and the fire by these despots; and how England is now paying dearly for her past sins against humanity and Christianity for defending such a lowering faith, whose votaries defied Jesus to come and save His followers from the burning churches, after they had set fire to them to consume the helpless Christian men, women, and children who had fled thither for refuge from the sword? He would have said like others of his mold--England lacked men of Cromwell’s type.

The friends of Armenia still hope that she may have yet a bright future before her, when peace and tranquillity is restored; that she may yield, or contribute many valuable discoveries and manuscripts from the old monasteries and ruined churches and furnish a fuller knowledge of the history of the early Christian churches in the east; and that they may swell the band of missionaries of the cross and render good to her foes for the evil she has received for centuries.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Pliny agrees with the Armenian historians in bringing the eastern boundary to the Caspian Sea, and Herodotus makes Armenia to border on Cappadocia and Cilicia.

[2] Lynch, “Armenia, Travels and Studies”; Vol. I. pp. 197-8. London, 1901.

[3] Lynch, “Armenia,” Vol. I, p. 146.

[4] Lynch, “Armenia,” Vol. II, p. 76.

[5] Sayce, “The Races of the Old Testament,” p. 44.

[6] Sayce, “Records of the Past,” Vol. II, p. 140.

[7] Van Lennep, “Bible Lands,” p. 21.

[8] Bryce, “Transcaucasia and Ararat,” p. 298.

[9] Layard, “Nineveh and Babylon,” pp. 333-4.

[10] Lynch, “Armenia,” Vol. I, p. 445.

[11] Bryce, “Transcaucasia and Ararat,” p. 312.

[12] Curzon, “Armenia,” p. 117.

[13] Genesis 2:11.

II

THE ARMENIANS

It is generally accepted, even by the higher critics, that the present Armenians are descended from Togarmah of the Scriptures (Genesis 10:3). The traditions of the Armenians also happily agree with this. It was common in the olden times for the Armenian writers to call the people “the house of Togarmah,” as did also the prophet Ezekiel (27:14).

There is a happy agreement among the commentators on the subject of “Togarmah” or “the house of Togarmah,” all seeming to accept these words as representing the Armenians. Here we may adduce the statements of a few distinguished writers on this subject. “The third son of Gomer is Togarmah; the people descending from him is called the house of Togarmah--(Ezekiel 27:14)--where they are named after Javan, Tubel, and Meshech, as bringing horses and mules to the mart of Tyre; and 38:6, where it appears after Gomer as a component of the army of Gog. The Armenians regarded Thorgom (Togarmah), the father of Haick, as their ancestor; and even granting that the form of the name Thorgom was occasioned by Thorgama of the LXX (Septuagint version), still the Armenian tradition is confirmed by Tilgarimmu being in the cuneiform inscription the name of a fortified town in the subsequent district of Melitem (Malatiah), on the southwestern boundary of Armenia.”[14] “TOGARMAH.” “The people thus designated are mentioned twice by Ezekiel: in the former passage as trading in the fairs of Tyre with horses and mules, in the latter as about to come with Gomer out of the north quarter against Palestine. Neither passage does much toward fixing a locality, but both agree with the hypothesis which has the support alike of etymology and of national tradition, that the people intended are the ancient inhabitants of Armenia. Grimm’s view that Togarmah is composed of two elements: _Taka_, which is in Sanskrit ‘tribe’ or ‘race,’ and Armah (Armenia), may well be accepted. The Armenian tradition which derived the Haikian race from Thorgon (m), as it can scarcely be a coincidence, must be regarded as having considerable value. Now, the existing Armenians, the legitimate descendants of those who occupied the country in the time of Ezekiel, speak a language which modern ethnologists pronounce to be decidedly Indo-European; and thus, so far the modern science confirms the Scriptural account.”[15]

This Armenian tradition which the great scholars say “must be regarded as having considerable value,” runs somewhat like the following: About 2300 B.C., Haig, the son of Togarmah, like the rest of the descendants of Noah, was in pursuit of a new home for himself and for his posterity, and had descended with the multitude into the country of Shinar. Here the people, for fear of another destructive flood, attempted to build a high tower, “the tower of Babel.” Haig and his sons distinguished themselves by wisdom and virtue in the erection of this tower; but Belus ambitious for supremacy, yea, even requiring homage to his image, became too repulsive to the virtuous Haig and his sons. Haig, therefore, left the plains of Shinar with his large family and turned back to the home of his nativity, the land of Ararat, in the vicinity of the Lake of Van.

Belus, on hearing that Haig had withdrawn from his authority, pursued him with a large force. Haig, on hearing of the purpose of Belus’ pursuit, mustered all the male members of his family who were able to fight, and all those who were willing to cast their lot with him and willingly put themselves under his authority, and he armed them as best he was able and set out to meet the enemy. He charged his little army to attack that part of the enemy’s force where Belus commanded in person. “For,” said he, “if we succeed in discomfiting that part the victory is ours; should we, however, be unsuccessful in our attempt let us never survive the misery and disgrace of a defeat, but rather perish, sword in hand, defending the best and dearest right of reasonable creatures--our liberty.” Then did the brave leader move on with his little force and encountered the invaders. After a bloody conflict Belus fell by an arrow discharged at him by Haig. The army of Belus, soon after this, was dispersed. Thus the first battle for liberty the progenitor of the Armenians fought and won for himself and his posterity. The Armenians, therefore, call themselves after this hero _Haigs_ and the country _Haiasdan_.

Haig, following the manner of the patriarchs, built many towns and villages and after a long and useful life, died in peace.

Haig was succeeded by his son Armenag--some think Armenia is named after this prince. The son of Armenag, whose name was Aramais, succeeded him. The son and successor of Aramais was Amasia, who, soon after the decease of his father took the lead of the government. According to our tradition it was this king who gave the name Masis, after himself, to that magnificent and huge mountain, now called Mount Ararat. After the death of his father Harmah ascended the throne.

Aram, about 1300 B.C.,[16] the son and successor of Harmah, towers among the kings of the first period of the Armenian history; he was, like King David, a great warrior and conqueror. He chased out the Babylonian and Median invaders, penetrated into the heart of Cappadocia, and the countries which he thus subjected to the west of the Euphrates composed the Armenia Minor.

After the long and glorious reign of Aram the country slowly came into a subordinate condition to the Assyrian empire and though the kings of the Haikian dynasty continued to rule over Armenia, they were according to our traditional history much overshadowed when the southern empire was at the zenith of her glory.

The famous inscription of Tiglath-Pileser I, the king of Assyria (1110-1090 B.C.) throws some light on the condition of Armenia, and some of those districts which never knew subjection: “The lands of _Laraus_ and _Ammous_, which from the days immemorial had not known subjection, like the flood of a deluge I overwhelmed. With their armies on the mountains of _Aruma_, I fought, and a destruction of them I made.... At the mountain of _Aruma_, a difficult district which for the passage of my chariots was not suited, I left the chariots, I took the lead of my soldiers.”

It is apparent from the discoveries of the cuneiform inscriptions, both in Armenia and in Assyria, and their decipherment by the modern scholars, that our ancient historians, who depended largely on traditions, were misled or mistaken with regard to the Assyrian supremacy over Armenia at this period--1100-626 B.C. Instead of Assyrian supremacy, a new dynasty had sprung up in the regions of Lake Van, north, west, and south of the lake, and become a worthy antagonist of the Assyrians. They had probably pushed the Haikian dynasty further north and northwest for a few centuries.

The following is a brief account of this period and dynasty: It may be interesting and also important to state that the kings of this dynasty are known to the Assyrian monarchs as the kings of Urartu (Ararat) or Nairi, and in the Assyrian cuneiform inscriptions, they are so named. Neither do they call themselves the kings of Urartu, but they designate themselves as the Kings of Nairi and Biainia.

They call themselves also the children of Khaldis, after their supreme God. Of late the modern writers call them Chaldians or Khaldians, but they are pleased to call themselves the children of Khaldis, and never Khaldians. They seem to have a sort of theocratic reign.

Following is a list of the kings of this dynasty; Arame--He has no inscriptions; he is known only through those of the Assyrian kings, in which he is styled the king of Urartu (Ararat). He was attacked in his capital, Arzaskum, by Shalmaneser II in 860 and again in 856 B.C.

1. Sarduris I--Son of Lutipris, was attacked by the general of Shalmaneser II in about 833 B.C. Called King of Urartu in the Assyrian inscriptions.

2. Ispuinis--Son of Sarduris, 825-812 B.C., mentioned in his own inscriptions, styled himself King of Nairi of Soura (Northern Syria), inhabiting the city of Dhuspas.

3. Menuas--Son of Ispuinis, “may be regarded as the founder of the original garden city of Van.” He calls himself the great King of Biania, inhabiting the city of Dhuspas (Van).

4. Argistis--his son--Numerous inscriptions of his are found as far north as Alexandropol--He described his conquests of the Assyrians southeast of Lake Urumia. Lynch thinks “He was the founder of the City of Armanir in the valley of the Araxes.”

5. Sarduris II--Son of Argistis--His numerous inscriptions are scattered over a large area of the country as far as Malatia. He probably reigned from 754-727 B.C. He is called the King of Urardhu in the Assyrian inscriptions.

6. Rusas--his son. He has at least two important inscriptions. He came in contact with Sargon, the King of Assyria (722-705 B.C.)

7. Argistis II--Son of Rusas. The mention of this ruler in a Vannic text was discovered by Messrs. Beliek and Lehman in an inscription on a shield in the temple at Tobrak Kala, near Van; now in the British Museum.

8. Rusas II--The son of the above. He is mentioned on the shield above mentioned, and also in two new inscriptions found by Dr. Belek, in which it is told that he conquered the Hittites and Moschians. He was a contemporary of Esarhaddon of Assyria (681-668 B.C.).

9. Erimenas--He is mentioned in an inscription on the shield as the father of Rusas III.

10. Rusas III--He rebuilt the temple of Khaldis (god) on the Tobrak Kala. An inscription of this king has been found at Armauir.

11. Sarduris III--He is known through the Assyrian inscriptions as having sent an embassy an embassy to Ashur-Bani-Pal for a treaty of peace, about 644 B.C.[17]

The succession of the kings of this dynasty has been recently corrected by inscriptions discovered by Drs. Belek and Lehmann. They put (1) Lutipris, (2) Sarduris I, (3) Arame, (4) Sarduris II.... They suppose a Sarduris II, the son of Arame, as the antagonist of Shalmaneser II, and suggest that Sarduris I was a contemporary of Ashur-Naser-Pal II (885-860 B.C.).

“The original capital of the land was named Arzashkun, and was situated in the valley of Araxes. The first kings mentioned in the inscription are Lutipris and Sarduris I, who were contemporary with Ashur-Naser-Pal (885-860 B.C.). In the account of the sweeping operations from end to end of the northern regions, which marked the beginning and end of that great warrior’s reign, no mention is made of Sarduris, but it is more than probable that he felt the weight of Ashur-Naser-Pal’s arm. Shalmaneser II is the first Assyrian king who states that he came into actual hostile contact with Urartu, whose king was Arame. In 860, 857, and 845 Shalmaneser ravaged Arame’s country and finally destroyed Arzashkun. Later, when Sarduris II had succeeded Arame, the Assyrian _turtan_ (general) Ashurdayan attacked (in 833 and 829 B.C.). Ten years later again the _turtan_ of Shamshi-Adod led an expedition against Ishpuinis, the successor of Sarduris II. These successive attacks seem to have strengthened rather than weakened the hardy mountain state, while the Assyrians gained no real advantage from them. In alliance, apparently, with Urartu, stood the Mannai, an Iranian folk of Median stock, and Protomedes, to whom the name Madai properly belonged (it now first appears in history), in the country east of Lake Urmia.... Meanwhile Menuas, the son of Sarduris II, had extended the dominion of Urartu to the western shores of Lake Urmia. Argistis I, his son, conquered the whole of Kurdistan and Armenia as far west as Meled or Meleten (Malatia). The proximity of the territory of Urartu to the center of the Assyrian power now became directly dangerous to the empire.”[18]

It is more than probable that our esteemed reader’s patience has been taxed beyond measure by reading a history furnished by the Assyrian and Armenian inscriptions, but then hardy states, the kingdoms of Ararat have rendered a noble service to mankind by checking the Assyrian kings from doing more mischief in other parts of western Asia. Not infrequently these kings had to quit in the midst of their campaign in Syria, Palestine or in Asia Minor and run back to stop the avalanche coming down from the “Mountains of Aruma” to sweep the Assyrians down. With all their boasting, the Assyrian kings never conquered the kingdoms of Ararat.

“The great undertaking of the 4th year of the King’s reign was a campaign into the lands of Nairi. By this, the annals of Tiglathpileser I clearly mean the lands about the sources of the Tigris and Euphrates, lying north, west and south of Lake Van.... One only of these twenty-three kings--Pierri, the king of Dayami (near Maleshgert)--refused to surrender as the others did but resisted to the last. He was therefore carried in chains to Assyria.... This episode in the king’s conquests is concluded with the claim that the whole of the lands of Nairi were subdued, but later history shows clearly that further conquest was necessary.”[19]

Tiglathpileser IV, the king of Assyria, made several attempts (in 739, 736, 735 B.C.) to reduce the kingdoms of Ararat, but he completely failed to conquer them. The authority above quoted concludes the history of their campaigns in these words: “After some ineffectual fighting about the Capital (Van) Tiglathpileser raised the siege and departed. He had not succeeded in adding the kingdom of Urartu to Assyria.”[20]

According to Dr. Belek, the last work of the last king, Sarduris IV, of Ararat is written in the records of Ashurbanipal of Assyria (668-626 B.C.). Sarduris sent messengers, with presents and words of friendliness to the Assyrian king. Assyria had abandoned its attempts to wreck the kingdom of Ararat and the two powers now were friends. Some of the modern kings would have saved untold misery and millions of lives had they done likewise.

It is very probable that Aram of the Armenian historians, Aruma of Tiglath-Pileser I (1090 B.C.) and Arame of Shalmaneser II (860 B.C.) are the same name. Tiglath-Pileser may have used it as a certain district, for his expression would justify this supposition: “On the mountains of Aruma I fought.” And again: “At the mountain of Aruma, a difficult district....”[21] No name of a king is mentioned at this date. But in the time of Shalmaneser’s invasion into Armenia (860 B.C.), we are distinctly told: “The inscription of Kurkh (twenty miles from Diarhekir) informs us that Shalmaneser had already, in the year of his accession, come in conflict with Arrame (or Arame, as the name is there written). After leaving the city of Khupuscia, in the land of Nahri, he had attacked Sugunia, a stronghold of Arame, ‘King of Urardlians,’ and there marched to the Sea of the land of Nahri; or Lake Van, where a figure of himself and a cuneiform inscription were engraved on the rack.”[22]

A probable hypothesis is that Aram of the Armenian historians, by his conquests and wise administration, had formed a dynasty, that the early Assyrians knew his country and some of his successors by his name, that Arame of the time of Shalmaneser may have been the last of that dynasty and on account of his reverses with the Assyrian King, his reign came to an end. The following quotation from Professor Sayce seems to confirm this view: “A more serious difficulty exists in the fact that Sarduris I calls himself the son of Lutipris, whereas the king of Uradhu, against whom Shalmaneser had to contend in 857 and 845 B.C., was Arame, and already, in 833 B.C., only twelve years later, his antagonist was Sarduris. It is, however, quite possible that the reign of Lutipris had been a short one of less than twelve years. But I am more inclined to conjecture that Sarduris I was the leader of a new dynasty, the ill successes of Arame in his wars with Assyrians forming the occasion for his overthrow.” This conjecture also explains why the kings of this dynasty do not call themselves the kings of Ararat, and have no reference to Arame, while much Assyrianism exists in their culture.

In regard to the origin of Ararat, or Arardhi, it is certainly not a Semitic word, neither is it an Accadian, were it so, we would have been told. Moses of Khorene thought it was called Ara-ard, in reference to a defeat of Ara, the king of Armenia, in a bloody conflict with the Babylonians about eighteen centuries before our era. Another Armenian historian makes Arardhi to derive its name from King Ara, in honor of the king, it being composed of Ara and Ardh, “field” or “plain,” on account of his wise administration and the improvements which he made in the land.[23]

Brockhous’ definition and derivation of Arardhi is the most satisfactory of all, namely, Ar, in Sanskrit the root of “Aryan” or “nobles,” and ardh, in ancient Armenian the “plains” or “field,” thus Arardhi or Ararat meaning “the plains of nobles” or “Aryans.”[24]

The antiquity of the name of Ararat is not disputed. It first comes to our notice in the book of Genesis, as we have seen in connection with the resting of the ark “upon the mountains of Ararat.” The book of Genesis is considered by the best critics to be the oldest book, or at least, having the oldest documents that compose the book in the Scriptures, and its authorship is assigned to Moses, who lived in the fifteenth century before the Christian era. Ararat was known as the name of Armenia even several centuries before the time of Moses. “An ancient bilingual tablet (W. A. I., II 48, 13) makes Urdhu the equivalent of _tilla_, the latter, as Sir H. Rawlinson long ago pointed out, being probably a semitic loan-word, and meaning “the highlands.” _Tilla_, the equivalent of Urdhu, usually signifies that land of Accad or northern Babylonia, but since it is not glossed in this passage, and stands, moreover, between Akharu or Palestine, and Kutu Kurdistan, it would seem that it is here employed to denote Armenia. Urardhu, therefore, contracted into Urdhu, would have been the designation of the highlands of Armenia among the Babylonians as early as the sixteenth and seventeenth century B.C.”[25]

We know that the Assyrians sprang out of the ancient Babylonian people; they were of the same blood and race. Assyria was colonized from Babylonia.[26] Thus, their early acquaintance with the highlands of Armenia, by the name of Urardhu, accounts for their calling the Kings of Armenia the kings of Urardhu or Ararat.

There has been a great deal of discussion among the scholars as to whether these Vaunic kings and people belong to the Aryan race or not, and whether their language belongs to the Indo-European family of languages. The question may be considered still a debatable one, though the consensus of opinion of the modern writers is in the negative. Yet a man like the late Dr. Hincks, who was the first to begin the decipherment of the Vaunic inscriptions, has recorded his opinion in the following words: “I flatter myself, that those who read this paper will admit that I have made a beginning, and gone a considerable way in the decipherment and interpretation of a set of inscriptions, which, however slight may be their value in a historical point of view, are invaluable to the philologer, as being beyond all comparison the oldest specimens of the Asiatic branch of the Indo-Germanic family; nay, for aught we know to the contrary, they are more ancient than any Greek which has come down to us.”[27]

The name Armenia was differently spelled by the ancients. In the old Persian it is written Armina, and in the Armondian, Kharminya. It first appears in the cuneiform inscriptions of Darius Hystospis (522-486 B.C.), which supplanted the earlier name Arardu, or Ararat. According to the Armenian historians it is called after King Armenag, but according to others its origin is unknown. “It may be connected with the Vaunic word _armeini-lio_ ‘a stele’ (monument), or with Arman, an Aramaean district south of Lake Van.”[28]

It must have been during the reign of Rusas II, the King of Ararat, that the sons of Sennacherib, Adrammelech and Shareser, after their assassination of their father, escaped into the land of Ararat or Armenia (see Isaiah 37:37-38). For we know that Rusas II was contemporary of Esar-haddon, Sennacherib’s son, who succeeded him (681-668 B.C.). The Armenian history makes Sgaiordi the king who welcomed the Assyrian princes in to his realm: probably it is a mistake.