Armenia, a martyr nation: A historical sketch of the Armenian people from traditional times to the present tragic daysGabrielian, Mugurdich Chojhauji
History
Armenia, a martyr nation: A historical sketch of the Armenian people from traditional times to the present tragic days
Gabrielian, Mugurdich Chojhauji
Armenia; Armenian question
Avedis (good news) Zotian was a boy of ten or twelve years of age when
the writer was acquainted with him, over forty years ago. He was quiet,
unassuming, skillful and industrious and was engaged in his father’s
trade, copper-smithing. Through his cousin, who was a constant reader
of the Bible and a friend of the writer, and still better a warm friend
of the reformation, Avedis was brought under the influence of the Word
of God. He finally, about 1885, avowed himself a Protestant and joined
that community. He became very active, and, like the prophet Jeremiah,
felt that “His word was in his heart as a burning fire.” He had a long
distance to go to the services and would not be able to stop on his way
and speak to others on the topic of religion. He, therefore, thought
one Sunday in 1889 to have a verse on a piece of board and to carry it
along so that the people could see and read it. The words from Matt.
4:17, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand,” were written
in the Armenian, and Avedis had his friend Sahag, another Protestant
Armenian, to write the same in the Turkish language. Avedis started to
church with the above text. He was arrested on his way by the Turkish
officers and thrown into prison. His friend Sahag also was arrested
for his share of the crime and shared the corner of the prison with
Avedis. The charge against these young men was that they were political
agitators.
After several months’ imprisonment the unrighteous judge declared them
guilty and sentenced them to be exiled for life. They, with tearful
eyes, bade adieu to their friends, relatives, brothers, sisters, aged
parents, and to their newly married wives, who in vain had tried to
wipe away their overflowing tears. They were driven like cattle by the
mounted officers to Smyrna, then sent to Africa. They were so cruelly
ill-treated on their way that, not very long after their exile, Avedis
was taken away by his Heavenly Father to rest from his labors. And
what became of Sahag no one knows. The Turkish government’s early
determination to root out the Christians and Christianity from the
empire lacks no evidences. Only the selfish European powers, the
guardians of the Christian subjects of the Porte, were unwilling to see
them.
2. EDUCATION. Next in importance to the Bible and the activity of
the natives in spreading it, the superiority of the educational
institutions of the mission and the love for the truth in the native
youth will claim our attention, as potent factors in the progress of
this reformation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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