ARMENIAN - Erevangala500

From Boston Harbor the American missionaries set out on a
new "Crusade" - as they themselves saw it - to make the Holy
Land Christian again. Unfortunately, the missionaries had no
success at all among the Jews or the Moslems, but only among
the Armenians, in other words Christians, who were being
lured away from their ancestral church.
archy did not pay enough attention to the educational
needs of the highly intelligent Armenians. Secondly, it
was practically drowning in wealth and power. The
Americans finally opened their mission headquarters in
Constantinople under the direction of William Goodell. In
studying the history of the American missionaries in the
38
Ottoman Empire, it is quite intriguing to follow the story
o f all the wrong turns the missionaries took before they
finally recognized with great relief that the capital of the
huge empire was also without a doubt the best location
for their headquarters.
The studies done by the missionaries Smith and Dwight
soon confirmed the pattern established in Beirut and
Smyrna. The Armenians, hungry for learning, gratefully
and eagerly accepted the education offered by the
"American Board o f Commissioners for Foreign
Missions” in Constantinople.
As early as 1833, many Armenian students, eager for
learning and knowledge, were converting to Protestantism.
In the same year, the Protestant mission already had
more than fifteen young Armenian clergymen. The missionary
wave soon spread from Constantinople into the
provinces. In 1834, Benjamin Schneider opened a mission
in Bursa. Another in Trabzon soon followed. Five
years later, in 1839, came the beginning of what the
Protestant Armenian-Americans refer to in their historical
writings as the "spirit of persecution". The Armenian
orthodox clergy had become uneasy about the incredible
success that the American missionaries were having
among the most talented and capable Armenians. They
launched an effort to get rid of the missionaries and win
back the Armenians who had gone astray.
When persuasion did not work, the church turned to
force. Schools were burned to the ground, and according
to the missionary chronicler William E. Strong, "arrests
were made and terror spread". The patriarch was deposed
for being too tolerant, and a list was drawn up of roughly
five hundred "principal suspects". They belonged to
the highest social classes o f the Armenian millet; they
were bishops, bankers, businessmen and artists; and they
were all accused of heresy. That meant expulsion from
the Gregorian Church, which at that time was equivalent
to losing one's nationality - a personal catastrophe for
those affected. Without membership iri a millet, one
could not marry or have a Christian burial. One enjoyed
no protection under the law and was subject to social
ostracism.
Nevertheless, Protestantism continued to gain ground
among the Armenians. This was undoubtedly due to the
fine abilities of the American-Armenian clergy, as well as
the thirst for learning o f the Ottoman Armenians. A Protestant
mission even sprung up in Van, practically the farthest
corner of the huge Ottoman Empire, and the Protestants
won converts among the "Mountain Nestorians"
in the distant Hakkari Mountains. Protestantism did not
bring much luck to either the Nestorians or the people of
Van, however. Both the Armenians and the Nestorians
started collaborating with the Russians (using American
money) and finally drifted into the revolt movement of
March, 1915. The Ottomans responded with a general
relocation order. That was the beginning of the Ottoman-
Armenian catastrophe o f 1915, which claimed so many
tragic victims on both sides.