THE LIGHT THAT MAY GO OUT IN TURKEY

What the Armenians Have Done to Sustain Christianity and Western Civilization in the
Household of the Prophet
BY ARSHAG MAHDESIAN
Armenian Editor and Publicist
OCTOBER 28, 1915
To the Editor of The New York Times:
Zia Mufta-Zade, the eminent apologist of the Turkish atrocities, in his rambling
extenuation and justification of the criminal conduct of the Ottoman Government, asks:
"What is Armenia?"
He thinks that as Armenia is divided between three powers--Russia Persia, and Turkey--
she no longer exists. But Poland also is divided between three powers. Do we ask:
"Where is Poland's?"
The provinces of Aleppo, Adana, Trebizonde, Erzeroum, Van, Bitlis, Diarbekir,
Mamouret-ul-Aziz, and Sivas, inhabited in Turkey. The Turkish Government itself
acknowledged officially the existence of Armenian during the Russo-Turkish war. When
the Turkish armies were destroyed the Sultan and his advisers realized that the victor,
Russia, might demand the annexation of the provinces of Erzeroum, Diarbekir, and Sivas.
Therefore, they urged the Armenians to demand for the provinces inhabited by them
political autonomy under Ottoman suzerainty. The arrival of the British squadron before
Constantinople, however, encouraged Turkey to change her mind, and in the course of the
peace negotiations at San Stefano she refused to accept the text proposed by the Russian
plenipotentiaries in behalf of the Armenian administrative autonomy" of Article XVI, of
the treaty of San Stefano was replaced by that of "reforms and ameliorations" which
Russia would guarantee by occupying Turkish territory. At the Congress of Berlin,
through the efforts of Great Britain, the clause concerning Russian occupation was
eliminated and thus Article LXI. of the treaty of Berlin was substituted for Article XVI. to
the treaty of San Stefano and in Article LXI. of the treaty of Berlin are an irrefutable
acknowledgment of the existence of Armenia in the Turkish Empire.
Moreover, the existence of a nation is indicated not alone by its political independence,
but by its civilizing activities. The whole population of the Turkish Empire is estimated at
32,000,000, of whom only 1,100,000 are Armenians. Yet the Armenians have 783
educational institutions, with more than 82,000 students, whereas the Turks can scarcely
boast of 150 schools, with only 17,000 students.
To give an idea of the economic power of the Armenians in the Turkish Empire. Marcel
Leart records the fact that of 166 importers in Ivas, which has the smallest Armenian
population of the six Armenian Provinces, 141 are Armenians, 13 Turks and 12 Greeks.
Of 150 exporters, 127 are Armenians and 23 Turks.
Of 37 bankers and capitalists, 32 are Armenians and only 5 Turks.
Of 9,800 shopkeepers and artisans 6,800 are Armenians and only 2,550 Turks, the rest
being divided among various other nationalities.
The same is true of native industry. Of 153 factories and flour mills, 130 belongs to
Armenians, 20 to Turks, and 3, carpet concerns, to foreign or mixed companies. The
personnel of all these establishment is Armenian exclusively. The number of employees is
about 17,000 of whom 14,000 are Armenians , 3,500 Turks, and 200 Greeks and others.
The Turks belong to the Turanian race of Central Asia. With their appearance in Syria,
Mesopotamoa, Byzantium, Arabia, Egypt, Armenia, and Greece civilization invariably
vanished. Victor Hugo has admirably described this blighting influence of the Turks in
the following lines: "Les Turcs ont passé a tout est ruine et deuil." (The Turks have
traversed there, all is ruin and mourning.) The Turk has no bond, no consanguinity with
the Arab, and hence no claim upon his civilization. he is heartily despaired by the Arab,
who signs:
Three things naught but evil work--
The locust the vermin, and the Turk.
Surrounded on all sides by the destructive Turkish hordes, the Armenians have been the
representatives of western civilization, first by their Christianity, and then by their
culture. While the Turks furnish the criminals in the Ottoman Empire, the Armenians
furnish physicians, the artisans, and the savants. It was an Armenian architect, Sinan, who
designed and built the famous Mosque of Adrianople and the Mosque of Suleyman in
Constantinople and Armenian architects, the Balians constructed the palaces of Cheragan,
of Beyler-bey, and of Dolma Bahche, "which might be taken," writes Theophile Gautier,
"for a Venetian palace only richer, vaster and more highly ornamented -- transported from
the Grand Canal to the banks of the Bospurus."
Even the introduction of Turkish printing and the drama was accomplished by the
Armenians, and it was two distinguished Armenians. Odian and Servicen, who
collaborated with Midhad Pasha in framing the Turkish Constitution, The Turks would
not have a grammar of their own language if it were not for the Armenian philologist
Sheriff Pasha, the distinguished Turkish exile in Paris, must be congratulate for his
sincerity when he declares, as reported in the columns of THE TIMES of Oct. 10, that:
"If there is a race which has been closely connected with the Turks by its fidelity, by its
services to the country, by the statesman and functionaries of talent it has furnished by the
intelligence which it has manifested in all domains--commerce, industry, science and the
arts--it is certainly the Armenians."
Besides, Armenia in Turkey is the sustainer of the Turks. Attest the Subjoined paragraphs
from a letter which a Turk has sent to his son in this country:
"I am returning the check you sent, for we cannot cash it there being no royal here any
more * * *. Times are bad, my son, the rajah was everything for us. * * * I tell you when
Winter comes we ourselves will have to starve for, as you know, we all live on the rajahs
crops."
In view of these facts, might not one ask of Zia Mufty. "Where is Turkey?"
ARSHAG MAHDESIAN
New York, Oct. 19 1915.