Chapter I: Front Matter

THE ARMENIANS

_By_
C. F. DIXON-JOHNSON

“_Whosoever does wrong to a Christian
or Jew shall find me his accuser on
the day of judgment_” (EL KORAN).

Printed and Published by
GEO. TOULMIN & SONS, LTD.,
NORTHGATE, BLACKBURN.

1916.

Preface

_The following pages were first read as a paper before the “Société d’Etudes Ethnographiques.” They have since been amplified and are now being published at the request of a number of friends, who believe that the public should have an opportunity of judging whether or not “the Armenian Question” has another side than that which has been recently so assiduously promulgated throughout the Western World._

_Though the championship of Greek, Bulgarian and other similar “Christian, civilized methods of fighting,” as contrasted with “Moslem atrocities” in the Balkans and Asia Minor, has been so strenuously undertaken by Lord Bryce and others, the more recent developments in the Near East may perhaps already have opened the eyes of a great many thinking people to the realization that, in sacrificing the traditional friendship of the Turk to all this more or less sectarian clamour, British diplomacy has really done nothing better than to exchange the solid and advantageous reality for a most elusive and unreliable, if not positively dangerous, set of shadows._

_It seems illogical that the same party which recalled the officials (and among them our present War Minister) appointed by Lord Beaconsfield to assist the Turkish Government in reforming their administration and collecting the revenue in Asia Minor, and which on the advent of the Young Turks refused to lend British Administrators to whom ample and plenary powers were assured, should now, in its eagerness to vilify the Turk, lose sight of their own mistakes which have led in the main to the conditions of which it complains, and should so utterly condemn its own former policy. Whatever hardships the Armenians may within recent years have suffered, the responsibility for them must surely to a great extent rest with the well-meaning idealists who, instead of trying to improve existing conditions, inspired their helpless dupes with impracticable aspirations which were bound to lead to disaster._

_The writer desires to thank those authors and travellers whose works he has so freely quoted, and upon whose information he has relied for the historical and geographical notes, as well as Professor Henry Léon, Mr. Robert Fraser, and other friends, who have afforded him their most valuable assistance._

_The reasons for dealing with the subject at this particular juncture are given in the text and will, he hopes, prove satisfactory to the reader._

_C. F. DIXON-JOHNSON._

_Croft-on-Tees, Yorkshire. February, 1916._

CONTENTS

PAGE.

I.

HISTORICAL: Earliest History—Ethnological Characteristics—Supposed
Relation to lost Tribes of Israel—Tiridates and
St. Gregory—Introduction of Christianity among
the Plain-dwellers—Animal Sacrifices—Monophysite
Doctrine—Mass—Ignorance and Bigotry of
Clergy—Mountaineers remaining Pagans—Decline of the
Kingdom—Seljuk Invasion—Mountaineers converted to
Islam—Lesser Armenia—Incorporation in Ottoman Empire 9

II.

GEOGRAPHICAL: Physical Features—Divisions of Population—Sedentary
Plain-dwellers: chiefly Armenians—Semi-Nomads:
Kurds—Nomads: Kurds and Half-Arab—Four Agricultural
Mountain Strongholds 15

III.

ARMENIAN QUESTION: Kurds and Armenians: Equal Historical
Rights to Consideration—Mohamed II. grants
Religious Freedom—Millets—Root-Evil of all
Subsequent Troubles—Sir Charles Wilson’s
Explanation—‘Odysseus’ on Excellent Relations
between Turks and Armenians—Mr. Geary’s
Corroboration of Turkish Tolerance—Armenian
Population scattered—Disturbing Factors: Foreign
Missionaries, Treaty of Berlin, Revolutionary
Societies—Blackmail and Murder—Growing Popular
Distrust of Armenians 19

IV.

ARMENIAN CHARACTER: Lord Bryce’s Idyllical Representation—Competent
Opinions by Others:—Sir Charles Wilson—Lord
Salisbury—Mr. Grattan Geary—‘Odysseus’—Captain
Burnaby—Sir Mark Sykes 25

V.

PAST RISINGS: Family-Likeness between so-called Armenian
Atrocities and Past Bulgarian ditto—Gross
Exaggerations—Sir Henry Layard’s Despatch—The
Zeitun Rising in 1895—A Graphic Account—The
Malatia Massacres Exception to General
Rule—Constantinople Riots in 1896—Mr. Henry
Whitman’s Observations—Partisan Correspondents—The
Predicament of Mr. Melton Prior 31

VI.

RECENT TROUBLES: Unfair Exploitation of One-sided Reports—Standards
of Proof declining in Times of Trouble—Captain
Fortescue on the Looting of Pera Palace—Sir
William Osler on Emotional Instability—“A
Well-known Hand”—Sources of Lord Crewe’s
Information—Improbability of Unprovoked Turkish
Action:—Military and Political Situation—Habitual
Calm and Tolerance of the Turk—Conditions
Favourable to Armenian Rising—What Actually
Happened—Armenians Capture Van Butcher the
Inhabitants—Further Risings—Necessity of Repressive
Measures—Moslems alarmed for own Safety—Panic and
Retaliation 41

VII.

FIGURES AND FANCIES: Exaggerated Estimates—Over One Million
Victims out of 900,000 Inhabitants!—The
Mystery of Mersina—The Drownings at Trebizond
vouched for by Italian Consul—Different Story
by the same Authority—The Curious Case of
Canon McColl—Unfounded Armenian Claims to
Independence—The Armenians Minority of Population 49

VIII.

BRITISH POLICIES AND RUSSIAN AIMS: Object of Agitation to
Influence British Policy—Kurdistan the
Key of Mesopotamia—Sir Henry Layard’s and
Mr. Grattan Geary’s Opinion—The Danger to
Egypt—Cyprus Convention—Russian Opposition
to Reforms—Anglo-Russian Entente followed by
Reversion of British Policy—Turkish Request
for British Administrators Refused—Russian
Proposals—Turkey Appeals to Germany—An Impossible
Compromise—Band-Warfare and Propaganda 54

IX.

CONCLUSIONS 59

Principal Authors consulted and quoted in the following pages:

BURNABY, Captain Fred: On Horseback through Asia Minor (Sampson, Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington, London 1877).

GEARY, Grattan: Through Asiatic Turkey (Sampson, M. S. & R., London, 1878).

‘ODYSSEUS’: Turkey in Europe (Edw. Arnold, London 1900).

PEARS, Sir Edwin: Forty Years in Constantinople (Herbert Jenkins, 1915).

SYKES, Sir Mark: Dar-ul-Islam (Bickers & Son, London 1904).

” ”: The Caliph’s Last Heritage (Macmillan & Co., London 1915).

WHITMAN, Sidney: Turkish Memories (Wm. Heinemann, London 1914).

WILSON, Sir Charles: Article on “ARMENIA” in the Encyclopædia Britannica.

THE ARMENIANS