ARMENIAN - Erevangala500

emarkably attractive. That is to say that their personal
appearance comes closer to the probable appearance of
Our Lord than that o f any other race."
Francis E. Willard describes the Armenians as "unarmed"
and says that they would never do "anything to harm anyone".
In view of the huge quantities of arms that the
Armenians not only stockpiled but also put to use in
numerous uprisings, these remarks seem to be nothing
but pure mockery. 1896 was a year o f intensive Armenian
terrorist activity. It was the year of the spectacular raid on
the Ottoman Bank, where hostages were taken. But Islamic
hostages obviously meant nothing at all to those who
had an uncritical preference for the "Armenian race".
After all, "the Mohammedans believe in the harem above
all else." Conclusion: "Armenians are the nation, the Sultan
and his soldiers are the devil's scourge. A cold-hearted
observer is the Anglo-Saxon race."
Apparently the intervention o f England and the United
States was not enough to satisfy some Protestant missionaries.
Similar views were expressed by the Russians. By
the turn of the century, the Armenians had become the
great powers' favorite pretense for getting involved in the
internal affairs o f the Ottoman Empire.
42
Artin Dadyan Pasha, Ottoman Under-Secretary o f State for
Foreign Affairs (1880-1887) actually did not work for the
Sultan but for the Armenian case . . .
Trapped by bloodhounds: Sultan Murad V is shown here trying
to deal with the rebellious European provinces of the Ottoman
Empire: Bosnia; Herzegovina; Montenegro; and Serbia. These
nations all had the distinct advantage o f having solid, self-con-
tained national minorities on their territory. (The Armenians, on
the other hand, did not even come close to having a well-
defined area o f settlement anywhere in the Ottoman Empire in
which they were in the majority.) The Czar o f Russia, Austria's
Emperor Franz Joseph, Emperor Wilhelm I, King George 1 of
Greece, and Italy's King Humbert all look on with interest,
while Germany's Bismarck and England's Beaconfield are
ready to jump into the fray. The Armenian patriarch, Nerses II
Vartabedian, declared to the British ambassador at the time,
"that if, in order to secure the sympathy of the European powers,
it was necessary to rise in insurrection, there would be no
difficulty in getting up such a movement" (Letter o f the British
ambassador, Henry Elliot, to his foreign minister in London; F.
O. 424/46, p. 205-206; December 7, 1876).
Cartoon: PUNCH, July 22, 1876