Bleeding Armenia: Its history and horrors under the curse of IslamWilliams, Augustus Warner
History
Bleeding Armenia: Its history and horrors under the curse of Islam
Williams, Augustus Warner
Armenian question
But more than that the Sublime Porte had learned the temper of our
government and knew that damages would have to be paid for all mission
property destroyed, hence the Governor of the city sent a double guard
of soldiers to protect the premises from fire or assault. The mob was
never so desperate as not to realize that they must obey orders. This
fact makes the responsibility of the Powers the more fearful as the
pressure of an ultimatum at Constantinople backed by a war fleet would
have been instantly felt to the extremity of the remotest vilayet.
At Harpoot the bullets fell thick around the missionaries, but
they were divinely protected, and saved the lives of many of their
scholars; at Marash, the lady missionaries stood bravely in front of
their students in the college, ready to die, if the call came; but
they were unharmed. "I thought our time had come," wrote one worthy
missionary, afterward, and he added, "and if we were to lay down our
lives there, we felt that we would not have chosen it otherwise." But
they were preserved for still further duty in the Lord's vineyard,
and it is largely due to their humane efforts to-day that any relief
work is being done in Armenia at all.
Not one of the American missionaries deserted his post, not even one
of the women missionaries. Never has there been a time in the history
of Turkey when a brave and faithful missionary counted for so much,
and never has the power of the United States counted for as much.
The presence of these Christian men and women has been a comfort and
protection to thousands of those afflicted, frightened and smitten
people. Many a martyr has been strengthened to bear the awful
agonies of torture by their devotion in the midst of most terrible
scenes. Alone has some noble American woman dragged from the hands of
a mob a young girl screaming for life. Mr. Wingate and Miss Burrage
were alone in the city of Cæsarea on that fearful 30th of November and
nobly did they defend the persecuted, saving many lives. Mr. Wingate
took a policeman, went to a Turkish house and demanded a bride and a
daughter, who had been carried off and got them both. The people in
all that region are ready to kiss his feet.
But time would fail to tell you of the noble deeds wrought by brave,
devoted women at Sivas, Hadjin, Adana, Oorfa and among the villages
of Mesopotamia. Only the recording angels at the last day can fully
recite their deeds of heroism. At the great crisis in their life's
work, nobly did they fulfill their highest, holiest duty.
DUTY OF THE POWERS.
Action of the United States Senate--a protest against European apathy
in not compelling Turkey to observe the Berlin Treaty:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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