ARMENIAN - Erevangala500

The American Protestant mission to the Armenians of Van
began its work in 1872. The resistance from the indigenous
Armenian Orthodox clergy was bitter. (Van had, after all, been
the seat of the Armenian Catholicos for a long time.) It was thus
a full five years before the Americans managed to erect the first
place of worship for their mission.
The Americans called Van "the Sebastopol of the Armenian
Church" obviously alluding to the long siege and eventual
assault by the allies in 1855. Partly because o f the bitter rivalry
between Orthodox and Protestant Armenians over who the
"better" Armenian was, Van quickly became a breeding ground
for fanatical nationalism. This erupted in a number of uprisings
and finally led to the revolt o f 1915, in which tens of thousands
of Moslems lost their lives. What had started with an offer of
education ended in nationalistic excesses, in spite of the idealistic
zeal o f many well-meaning missionaries, such as Dr.
Reynolds and his wife.
Worship service in an Armenian Protestant church in Istanbul
(built in 1914, immediately before the outbreak of World War I).
A m erica's Indians could not be converted... they
were partically killed, exterminated.
The Armenian tragedy began here in Boston, at
the headquarters o f Am erican Protestant
Missionaries.
In 1811 they started an enterprise o f missionary
work within the Ottoman Empire. They wanted
to convert the Muslims, and, when they failed,
turned their activities toward the Christians,
where they had some success within the
Armenian M illet, thus weakening not only the
Armenian Patriarchate but also provoking a
deadly race between the Armenian Churches:
which one was the most fanatic? Hatred was
preached against the Turks:”...our Mission and
our Missionaries, whose alone can disinfect the
land...” no, they don't speak o f dangerous
insects - no, they speak about “the Sultan and his
Soldiers” who are “the devil's scourge” in the
Ottoman Em pire, “because M ohammedans
believe before all things in the harem” so that
apparently Turks have to be “disinfected” while
Armenians “are unarmed and they do no harm to
none”: who wonders, when we hear that “their
personal resemblence to the supposed physical
type o f our Lord is probably more striking than
any other Race” .
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