ARMENIA : PAST AND PRESENT.*
IT was inevitable that the present crisis in the relations between the Sultan and his Armenian subjects should be the cause of many new books on the past and present history of Armenia, and it was equally certain that a good many of these historians should have been tempted to authorship rather by the interest of their subject than by any particular knowledge of their own; for which reason we are hardly surprised to find that in the case of neither of the books now before us does the author possess any special qualifications • U.) Armenia : d Historieal Sketch. By An Old Indian. London: Elliot Stock.--(2.) Turkey and the Armenian Atrocities. By Rev. Edwin M. Blum. London Fisher Bonin.
which should enable him to speak with authority on Armenian affairs. Nevertheless, though one cannot say that either the Rev. E. M. Bliss or " An Old Indian " have done anything more than collect together and comment upon information which was open to all the world, their efforts to instruct should not be thrown away upon a public whose sympathy with the present condition of Armenia has not led it to study the past history of the Armenian people.
The author of Armenia: a Historical Sketch has, as his title implies, given a very succinct account of Armenia and the
Armenians in ancient and modem times ; but his sketch is quite sufficiently full to impress upon his readers the fact that though the Armenians to-day are a people without a country and without a home, they once formed a nation which played no inglorious part in the history of Christianity. And it is a fact which it is well to bear in mind in considering the aspirations of the down-trodden relics of the race, for the Armenians themselves are by no means forgetful of their past. As to the question whether Armenia has still claims to be regarded as a nation, "An Old Indian" refrains from expressing a direct opinion, though he makes it fairly evident that such claims meet with his approval :-
" A claim to nationality is not dependent on any form of civil government, and is not weakened by any circumstances of bondage and oppression. The insignia of a national status are a common race, a common language, a common religion, and as the result, common aims and aspirations. All these characteristics of nationality distinguish in a high degree and to the present hour the Armenian people. For long centuries they have been deepened under the influences of the national faith, however degenerate it may have often become, either in form or substance. Nor are there wanting in these times tokens of a wide-spread revival of the patriotic spirit."
Theoretically, no doubt, common aims and aspirations ought to result from those other possessions in common which the author quotes, but it is the misfortune of Armenia that they have not. The unselfishness of true patriotism is markedly wanting. Even in the stormy history of her past, from the first introduction of Christianity into Armenia by Gregory to the close of the Armenian monarchy with the death of Leo IV., through the rise and fall of the different dynasties that occupied that bloodstained throne and the fierce feuds that divided the Church itself, one may trace that lack of patriotic cohesion which has left the Armenians for so many centuries the helpless prey of their Turkish conquerors. There is nothing in "An Old Indian's" book to indicate for certain whether he has a personal acquaintance with the people of whom he writes, or whether his knowledge is entirely derived from old histories and modern Consular reports, with, perhaps, some personal experience of Armenian communities in other lands. We fancy, from internal evidence, that the latter is the case, and that the author has not fathomed some of the most important depths of the Armenian character, hardly apparent, perhaps, amongst the scattered individuals whose country lies anywhere between London and Calcutta, but very visible to those students who, like the English and American missionaries, actually live amongst the Armenians in the old home of their race under Turkish rule. The result is that, in seeking for some explanation of the change from the Armenian past to the present, some primary cause of the misrule of the Turk, and the miserable condition of the Armenian people within the Sultan's dominions, the author is fain to fall back upon the influence exercised by Islamism upon the Turkish Government and the conflict between Mahommedan orthodoxy and the stubborn adherence of the Armenians to their ancient faith. No doubt the religious question has mach to do with it, as it had much to do with the ill-treatment of the Bulgarians and other Christian populations under Turkish rule in Europe ; but, in view of the fact that the Turks, official and unofficial, are capable of practising a
perfect religions toleration when it pleases them, and in view, too, of the marked decline in fanaticism which has accompanied the general degeneration of the Turkish strength of character, it is impossible to believe that religious- in- tolerance only is at the bottom of that smouldering hatred between the two peoples, which, when it breaks into flame, changes even a decent Turkish citizen to the semblance af -a
fiend. The author lays great stress upon the " forced conver- sions" which have taken place• in one or two instances. • These conversions were no doubt effects of the brutalities committed upon the helpless Christiana, but not the cause ; the intention of the Turk has been too manifestly to eater. minate and not to convert. The reason of this hatred, as also the real extent of the rottenness of the Turkish system of government, is not to be learnt from histories or Blue- books. As far as it forms a mere historical sketch, this volume deserves to be read ; it is a well-constructed and excellently written survey of the past and of the most salient features of the present of Armenia. Bat we do not think it throws any new light upon the Eastern question.
Very much the same may be said of the contribution of the Rev. E. M. Bliss, Turkey and the Armenian Atrocities, with
this difference, that though the author does not appear to be one of the number of American missionaries who have estab- lished themselves in Asia Minor, he is evidently in such close touch with them as to be able to profit largely by the unique information which their intimate knowledge of the country affords. Had he confined himself to a brief survey of the present condition of the Armenians in Asia as seen through the eyes of the American missionaries, his book would have been quite as useful and far less bulky. As it is, the history of the Turkish Empire, which forms the preamble to his volume, is rather beside the mark. Nevertheless the matter of the author's work is so interesting, and its tone throughout so admirable, that we are not disposed to quarrel with him on the score of diffuseness. Indeed, the moderation and absence of prejudice which the author invariably displays, form one of the most marked features of his book, and are in strong contrast with the silly exaggera- tion of the preface with which Miss Willard has favoured him. Like "An Old Indian," Mr. Bliss is also an admirer of the Armenian character, and believes that the people possess " many of the essential elements of a strong nation." Still, he is not blind to their defects, and his description of the latter goes far to explain not only the failure of the Armenians to hold their own in the past, but also some of the rancorous hatred which their Mahommedan fellow-subjects seem to entertain towards them. Mr. Bliss writes of the Armenians at the time of the Treaty of Paris :-
" There were, however, other features which must be noted. They were grossly ignorant and for the most part densely superstitious, held in absolute thrall by a Hierarchy bigoted and over-bearing to the last degree, and fully as ignorant as the people whom they misled. Their constant strife with other nations and their long history of subjugation had developed a shrewdness of dealing which partook in marked degree of the un- scrupulous. They were ready to take advantage of anybody and of anything to further their ends. Obsequious and servile in their bearing towards their superiors, they were looked upon by the Turk as a necessary evil; a fruitful source of income in the shape of taxes, advantageous for their general skill as artisans and as servants, but beneath contempt for their trickery. Similarly they had the hatred of their fellow-Christians of other churches. There was, however, another characteristic that has been recog- nised by their best men for years as operating more than any- thing else to keep them in subjection and prevent their best development. With all their intense nationality manifesting itself in their devotion to their history and their church, their absolute refusal to be swallowed up in any other race or any other community, there is a lack of mutual confidence, a jealousy of one another's advance, that has made it impossible for them as a race to hold together in any onward movement."
In these defects lies, we think, the whole tragedy of Armenian history. How tragic that history has been of late, how unspeakable the sufferings through which the unhappy race has passed, it does not need this book to remind us. Mr. Bliss is able, through his missionary colleagues, to give us a more authoritative account of the extent of the atrocities than can be derived from most sources, and it is lamentable to find that in hardly a single case have they been exaggerated by the European Press. Taken altogether, it is impossible to speak of Mr. Bliss's book except in praise, and we would warmly recommend it to any one who wishes to learn some- thing more of the Armenians than their misery.
Previous page
