The Sultan and His PeopleOscanyan, C. (Christopher)
History
The Sultan and His People
Oscanyan, C. (Christopher)
Turkey -- Description and travel; Turkey -- Social life and customs
This community constitutes the very life of Turkey, for the Turks long
accustomed to rule rather than serve, have relinquished to them all
branches of industry. Hence the Armenians are the bankers, merchants,
mechanics, and traders of all sorts in Turkey.
Besides, there exists a congeniality of sentiment and community
of interest between them and the Mussulmans. For, being originally
from the same region, they were alike in their habits and feelings;
therefore, easily assimilating themselves to their conquerors,
they gained their confidence, and became and still are the most
influential of all the rayas. There is not a pasha, or a grandee,
who is not indebted to them, either pecuniarily, or for his promotion,
and the humblest peasant owes them the value of the very seed he sows;
so that without them the Osmanlis could not survive a single day.
This is a fact so well attested, that Russia, with the design of
undermining Turkey, always endeavored to gain over this part of the
population, and in 1828, when she took possession of Erzeroum, she
enticed the Armenians of that place to acts of violence and revenge
against the Turks, so that when the Russians retired, the Armenians
were obliged to emigrate with them.
Besides, in the demarcation of her boundaries with Turkey, she so
managed as to embody Etchmiadzin, the see of the high pontiff of the
Armenians, within her own territories, for the express purpose of
governing them through their spiritual head.
Even the correspondent of the London Morning Post, in speaking of
the corruptions of the country, in his ribaldry, termed the Armenians
the cloaca of Turkey, accusing them of being the means through whom
all the filth passed.
Naturally endowed with a brave and warlike spirit; of noble and
intelligent appearance, and great athletic vigor, their services have
ever been invaluable to the country; it has only been their protracted
servitude which has reduced them to the timid and cautious temperament
that they now possess.
Some have even distinguished themselves as statesmen, patriots, and
faithful servants. Had it not been for the good advice and diplomacy
of Abro, or, as he is commonly known to Europe, of Boghos Bey, Mehmed
Aali could not have secured to his heirs the independence of Egypt.
Again, at the conclusion of the last war with Russia, when Sultan
Mahmoud was writhing under his inability to meet the peremptory
demands of his enemy, an Armenian came to his rescue.
Kazaz Artyn was a most noted personage of the Armenian nation. Having
risen from the lowest rank in life, he finally became the head of the
Royal Mint, and the friend and factotum of his majesty Sultan Mahmoud,
who never passed a day without seeing him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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