You will tell me, my christian friends, that with the rise of the
reform party in Turkey, the era of massacres is at an end, and I
will tell you that the conditions of 1876 and 1896 have not actually
changed, though they may seemingly appear so to the uninformed and
uninitiated. I will answer you that the hideous massacres of April
last happened nine months after the reform party first rose in power,
and nine months after the inauguration of the Constitution. I do not
question the goodwill of the reform party, but the reform party does
not comprise the whole Turkish nation, and until the Turk learns to
become liberal, civilized and human, there may be no more Armenians
left, unless some Christian Power such as the United States demands
their protection and enforces it. No! my Christian friends, it can be
well for other Christians in the Turkish Empire with their powerful
Governments at their back; but alas! there is no security for a subject
people alien in race and religion.
The massacres in April last raged from Adana to Alexandretta, and
according to authenticated reports about fifty thousand men, women
and children were hideously exterminated; more than this, the last
massacres were especially characterized by the most hideous, the most
loathsome, the most revolting and ferocious cruelties perpetrated
on women and children. Now what other name can we find for the
perpetrators of this diabolical orgy, except to call them fiends
incarnate; and who is the bold man who can guarantee that these same
fiends incarnate have become metamorphosed and changed all of a sudden;
or that the handful of liberal Turks at Constantinople are capable
of controlling and restraining them. We have not even heard that the
leaders and participators of the last massacres have been punished as
they deserved; and what is the reason they are left unpunished? because
the Government is afraid to punish Mahommedans for killing Christians;
because the liberal Turks dare not punish the “true believers” for
killing “Kaffirs.”
The religion of Mahommed, the religion of the sword, has been infused
into the Turk, and to understand the effect of the religion of Mahommed
upon the Turk, it is necessary to regard it from four aspects, or from
four points of analysis. First, the fundamental doctrine and law of the
religion. Second, the character of the founder as an example to his
followers. Third, the racial and ethnographic characteristics of the
Turk. Fourth, the effect which this particular religion would be likely
to have on this particular race. When we have viewed the Turk and his
government from these four points of analysis, we have the explanation
of all the woe and desolation which have lain over the countries under
Turkish rule.
“When ye encounter the unbelievers strike off their heads until you
have made a great slaughter of them” is a chapter of the Koran which
the Turk has religiously and steadfastly made his creed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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