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Sometimes the rabidly
pro-Armenian New York Times would get confused and publish the rare
article fairly examining Turco-Armenian issues. The inevitable reply would
never be far behind, and what follows is such a sequence from 1894.
Holdwater's comments have been footnoted. (Thanks to Gokalp for the
clippings.)
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| THE ARMENIAN QUESTION. |
THE ARMENIAN QUESTION.
The New York Times, Pg. 4, February 15, 1894
The work of the Armenian revolutionists, to which we referred a few weeks since, is
already bearing fruit. We may indeed question the absolute accuracy of news from Asia
Minor that comes to us via Vienna and London. The story of 125 killed and 340 wounded at
Yuzgat may be very heavily discounted, as may also most of the statements that come in
that roundabout way. As a matter of fact, the Yuzgat riots occurred last November and were
reported at that time. The repetition of the same report now is simply a move in the
revolutionist campaign by which when there is nothing new something old is raked up, so
that the Armenian and European public may not allow their horror at the outrages of
"the unspeakable Turk" to grow less. [1]
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That
"Question" Again.
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We might well pass them in silence but for the fact that they
furnish occasion for some well-meaning but badly informed persons to make attacks upon the
Administration for its refusal to lend itself in any way to a perfectly hopeless and
utterly unjustifiable attack upon a Government with which we are at peace.
We say unjustifiable advisedly. We do not forget for a moment the wrongs committed by
Turkish Governors upon defenseless subjects. We do not condone in the least the outrages
by predatory Kurds upon Armenian villages, for which the Turkish Government has meted out
no just punishment. We do not ignore the fact that the Government has steadily sought to
hamper the work of American missionaries resident in Turkey. We do not deny that in its
treatment of certain naturalized American citizens it has been unnecessarily harsh and has
thus merited remonstrance from our Government such as has evidently been made, even if the
report of Minister Terrell's threat to bombard Iskanderum be incorrect, as in all
probability it is. [2]
Our contention is that in case of incendiarism and revolution, no Government, least of all
our own, can afford, even in appearance to indorse such movements as those of the Armenian
revolutionists. [3] What are the facts in the case?
There is a body of such revolutionists in this country, holding constant communication
with associates in Turkey. Those associates in Turkey are engaged in wholesale attempts,
by assassination and pillage, to involve this Government in difficulties with the Turkish
Government. [4] The very men whose photographs were
displayed in this city a few weeks since, and who were lauded to the skies as martyrs,
having already assassinated fellow-countrymen, were sharers in a plot to assassinate two
Armenian teachers in the mission college at Marsovan and an American missionary. [5] The plot was discovered, and these men met their death
in a fight with the Turkish police, acting in defense of other Armenians and the
missionaries. It is a fact that the Turkish Governor of Marsovan restrained, at
considerable effort, the Moslem community, bitterly incensed by unjust charges made by
these revolutionists, and ready for an attack upon all Christians. [6] Similar statements come to us from various sources.
The situation is critical. Not only the Armenians, who, as we have said, are in the main
peaceable, but the Turkish Government, are between two fires. [7] On the one hand, a band of Russian Nihilists, one of whom was among the
killed at Marsovan last Fall, are preaching their gospel of assassination and pillage all
over the empire. [8] On the other, lawless Kurds, under
the practical protection of Turkish underofficials, are taking advantage of the situation
to work their will upon the Christians, and even the more law-abiding element of the
Turkish peasantry, incensed beyond endurance, are in danger of a general uprising. [9] Under such circumstances, the Turkish Government comes
to this Government, asking its assistance in keeping these incendiaries and assassins out
of its country. It makes no statement that all Armenians who carry American passports
belong to this class, but claims its right, in the difficulty of distinguishing between
them, to keep all alike out of its borders, at least until the present crisis is past.
Furthermore, it presents its claim, a claim disputed by no one, that any subject who,
after taking out naturalization papers in another country, returns to his native land as a
resident thereby, makes his naturalization void, and forfeits every claim upon his adopted
country. [10]
To such claim there can be only one answer on the part of any honorable Government, and
that answer was given by President Cleveland in his message. [10a] Undoubtedly, in carrying out such a principle individual cases of
hardship will occur, and it is the duty of our Government to do what it can to relieve
them. We believe that it has this duty in mind. It may very well be that Minister Terrell,
having no previous diplomatic experience and having so recently gone to Constantinople, is
not perfectly cognizant of all the bearings of each case. But that is not his fault; it is
the misfortune arising from the conditions of our diplomatic service, and one which will
be likely to recur at any time until we see fit to change our whole method of diplomatic
appointment. [11]
The thing to be done now is for the Armenians who are here to make it unmistakably evident
that they are not in collusion or in sympathy with the men who are carrying murder and
violence into the interior towns and villages of Turkey. Let them break up this
Huntchaguist and similar movements, and then they will find Americans of all classes
earnestly supporting them in their efforts to improve the condition of their suffering
people. [12] We notice that one point made against
the position of our Government is that it is hostile to the efforts of the missionaries,
and will prevent the return of Armenians as missionaries. This is the purest nonsense. It
is, in truth, the only safeguard for the Americans there resident as missionaries, and as
for Armeno-American missionaries, the less of them the better. No man who ignores his own
nationality can ever hope to be a power for good among his people.
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1. Is not this opening paragraph absolutely
remarkable? Not only is the astute writer giving blame where blame is due (the
Armenian revolutionists), but he is providing the extremely rare fact (rare
especially for the rabidly pro-Armenian New York Times) that atrocity numbers
have been exaggerated, and the astounding revelation that the purpose for such lies
is to maintain racist hatred against Turkish people! (One primary factor involved in
the omnipresent anti-Turkish propaganda today, although hardly anyone acknowledges
it; the license to hate Turks is still in no danger of expiring, much as well over a
century has elapsed since the appearance of this article.)
2. This reminds me of Guenter Lewy's
excellent book, The Armenian Massacres in Ottoman Turkey: A Disputed Genocide.
Over and over, whenever Prof. Lewy wrote something critical of Armenians, he often
followed up with a disclaimer regarding how we must still remember the Turks were
bad as well. Perhaps Prof. Lewy hoped to forestall the typical accusations that were
sure to follow, trying to preserve his truly neutral status. (A strategy that was
doomed to failure; any historian who tells the truth about the Armenians will always
be accused of being a tool of the Turkish government, a denier, or what-have-you.)
Similarly, the writer of this article knew he was at a disadvantage in an atmosphere
emphasizing the Turks as less-than-human animals. Since he had the courage to go
against the hatred and lies, he still had to cover himself by reminding readers
that, yes, Turks are "bad."
As an additional point, it is interesting that the Turks should have been criticized
for "hamper[ing] the work of American missionaries resident in Turkey";
did the missionaries have a God-given right to go anywhere on earth to perform their
corruption and mischief on simple, impressionable folks? The tolerant and liberal
Ottoman Empire deserves much credit for having allowed these hostile Christian
forces into their country in the first place, and to stir the waters as they have.
3. Shall we repeat the unimpeachable
nature of that statement, ladies and gentlemen, common sense and truth that gets
lost in "genocide" discussions? Here we go: "Our contention is
that in case of incendiarism and revolution, no Government, least of all our own,
can afford, even in appearance to indorse such movements as those of the
Armenian revolutionists."
4. Ye Gads, can you believe it? The rare
truth being told, that Armenian colonists made a point to move to the United States,
not because they were in love with the United States, but in full awareness of the
protection their "Yankee" status would provide, when they continued their
nefarious activities in support of Hai Tahd, the Armenian Cause.
5. Armenian terrorists "lauded
to the skies as martyrs." Well, some things never change! Similarly, as
Armenian terrorists caused their worldwide spree of murder and destruction during
the 1970s-80s, Armenian communities throughout the diaspora would regard these
criminals as the greatest heroes. When pressure and prejudice forced wussy nations
as France to prematurely release the few Armenian terrorists who got caught, Armenia
would welcome the criminals as
national heroes. Another "Secret of the 'Christian' Terrorist State" is
that Armenia would also welcome
the remains of their past criminals as the greatest heroes, lauding them "to
the skies as martyrs," at the same time.
The Marsovan episode was covered in another newspaper report here, as well as others on the same
page, oddly dated the next year. Perhaps there were other intrigues at the American
college in Marsovan, as unlikely as that sounds.
6. Admissions that the Turkish
authorities actually worked to safeguard Armenians and missionaries. It's cause for
a heart attack! This kind of truth was practically unheard of, and it is especially
ironic that such truth would have appeared in The New York Times. And then
there is an example of the almost-inhuman capacity for Turks to restrain themselves,
in the face of the worst injustices.
7. "Not only the Armenians, who,
as we have said, are in the main peaceable, but the Turkish Government, are between
two fires." It's outrageous! Yes, absolutely; not only did the main body of
the Ottoman-Armenian community oppose the villainies of the fanatical revolutionists
(an attitude that was barely curbed in this early period of 1894; but give another
generation, and most of the Ottoman-Armenian community, either through choice or
terroristic coercion, would join the terror movement heart and soul), but the
Ottoman government was caught between a rock and a hard place. On one hand, it was
the government's duty to maintain law and order, and to preserve the peace. On the
other hand, disorder was the excuse enemy European imperialists were eager to
exploit, in order to sicken the Sick Man further, in hopes of gaining its riches.
And the Armenian revolutionists were all too aware of this sickening fact, trying
that time-honored Turkish restraint and tolerance time and time again.
8. The "Loyal Nation" of
Ottoman-Armenians, prosperous and in effect the masters of Ottoman society (most of
the wealth was in their hands), had no complaints to speak of, for the most part.
The ones who screwed them and everyone else were Armenians who originated mainly
from outside the country.
9. While it is true some Kurdish tribes
made life hell for rural Armenians, as the Kurds made life hell for others
(including fellow Kurds), the propaganda point of Armenian suffering under Kurds was
surely overplayed. Most Armenians in the Ottoman Empire were urbanized, for one
thing. Of peasant Armenians who were not, one who was in the position to know
(Russian consul, General Mayewski) has logically told us: Armenians "should not be regarded as
continually under the threat of Kurdish attacks. If such allegations had been true
not a single Armenian would have survived in the region."
10. As a point of reference, of the
66,000 Ottoman-Armenians who came to America from 1834 to 1914, the mid-1890s served
as the period where immigration stepped up. (12,500 arrived from 1891-1898, and the
bulk, almost 52,000, followed from 1899-1914, as sourced by Robert Mirak, in his “Armenian
Emigration to the United States to 1915,”Journal of Armenian Studies, I/1, 1975,,
pp. 5-42.) These were the days before double-citizenship was allowed, and of course
those who were naturalized in their new countries were expected to do away with
loyalties to their old countries. This was not the case for most Armenians, and it's
to this honest Times journalist's credit to have acknowledged it.
10a. President Grover Cleveland's
response to this issue in his December 4th, 1893 State of the Union message to the
U.S. Congress (available in its entirety at presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=29534):
Turkey complains that her Armenian subjects obtain citizenship in this country
not to identify themselves in good faith with our people, but with the intention of
returning to the land of their birth and there engaging in sedition. This complaint
is not wholly without foundation. A journal published in this country in the
Armenian language openly counsels its readers to arm, organize, and participate in
movements for the subversion of Turkish authority in the Asiatic provinces. The
Ottoman Government has announced its intention to expel from its dominions Armenians
who have obtained naturalization in the United States since 1868.
The right to exclude any or all classes of aliens is an attribute of sovereignty. It
is a right asserted and, to a limited extent, enforced by the United States, with
the sanction of our highest court. There being no naturalization treaty between the
United States and Turkey, our minister at Constantinople has been instructed that,
while recognizing the right of that Government to enforce its declared policy
against naturalized Armenians, he is expected to protect them from unnecessary
harshness of treatment.
11. Minister Terrell appears to have
been an honorable and competent man for the most part (not that he didn't have his
prejudices either), and it is interesting that the writer is giving the impression
that Terrell might have been misled.
12. Expect the Armenian rank and file
to speak ill of, or not be in sympathy with their terrorists? Good luck!
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| TURKEY AND THE ARMENIANS. |
As usual, The New York Times fell over itself to publish the
inevitable reply to the rare "pro-Turk" (that is, "pro-Truth") report,
accommodating this time a response that was almost twice as long as the original. In
typical extremist Armenian fashion, the respondent claimed anything and everything to dig
his "Cause" out of the hole of dishonesty, and the following must be read to be
believed. (Not to say this offering is much different than the typical exercise in
Armenian mendacity, but this one offers a little more amusement value, even capping off
with the shameless statement, "All I have said is true.")
The New York Times, Pg. 3, March 19, 1894
TURKEY AND THE ARMENIANS.
The So-Called Hentchakist Society a Government Trick.
To the Editor of The New York Times:
In your Issue of the 15th ult. there was a leading article under the heading "The
Armenian Question," which was somewhat hostile to the interests of the
Armenian-Americans, but still your good will toward them was visible. I noticed that,
although you pity the Armenians for their unjust sufferings at the hands of the Turkish
Government and savage Kurdish hordes, you cannot quite sympathize with them, [13] because, according to some information you seem to have received about
the Armenians, you consider their behavior and actions toward Turkey nothing less than
Anarchistic and murderous. [14]
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Hunchaks a
Government Trick!
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As it appears, you have been informed that Armenians in Turkey have
arisen in rebellion against the Turkish Government, and are carrying on an endless work of
horrible crimes, assassinations, murders, and pillages, and that, in short, they have put
the country under a reign of terror. It seems that you have further been informed that
these outrages are being perpetrated by a great organization of Armenians called the
Hentchakist Society, which has a mighty branch in America, and that most of the Armenians
in this country are active members in it, and are vigorously striving to help their
numerous accomplices in Turkey to keep under fire the population and Government of that
country. [15]
Perhaps you will be surprised when I say that the Hentchakist is, in fact, nothing but the
wicked invention of the wily Turk, by which he has succeeded to a great extent in
confusing the Armenian question [16], and in giving
it the aspect of an Anarchistic movement against the wealthy people of the country.
Fuad Pasha, the Bismarck of the Turks, who was Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire some
thirty-five years ago, said, "Our forefathers fell into a great error; either they
ought to have put to the sword all the Christians that were in the lands that they
conquered, or they ought to have forced them to accept the Moslem faith." Since that
sentiment was uttered the Turks have been ardently striving to correct the error of their
forefathers. [17] As they see that in this country
they are unable to force their Christian subjects to accept the Moslem faith, they have
adopted a policy of annihilating them by massacres, imprisonment, and other means. The
horrible massacres of the Bulgarians some eighteen years ago cannot be soon forgotten. Had
not Russia stepped forward in time, the Turks would have annihilated the little Bulgarian
Nation. [18] The Turk is a short-sighted being; he
cannot see the future; he loses no opportunity to massacre Christians under any pretenses,
and believes that the less the number of Christians in Turkey, the more the chances are
for him to keep hold of his possessions. The only fear the Turk has is from the public
opinion in the West and the North, and he tries to give it satisfaction by circulating
false stories of Armenian uprisings when he is massacring peaceful people.[19]
This short-sighted policy has moved Turkey to treat her Christian subjects in such a
manner that it has often called forth the wide attention of European powers, especially
that of Russia, which now and then extends a hand of deliverance to the oppressed
Christians of Turkey, and every time rewards herself with a portion of the Sick Man's
dominion, and thus takes another step toward capturing Constantinople. [20]
As I have said, the Hentchakist is an invention of the Turk. Nobody knows who is the
leader of the society. The society is not a united body. It consists of some lodges in
cities outside of Turkey, who communicate with the editor of the Hentchak, who is
personally unknown to any of its members. [21] This
society was founded in a peculiar way. About six years ago one or more adventurers hired
by the Turkish Government started an Armenian monthly journal of eight small pages in
Athens, Greece, with the name Hentchak. (Bell.) It was the first of its kind in the
Armenian language. [22] It advocated Socialism—a
Socialistic form of government in Turkey for the welfare of its population. It was
altogether inconsistent with what is required for the people of Turkey and for Armenians.
Armenians have not any Socialistic complaints; no capitalists, no land questions, no labor
questions—in short, they have nothing that has anything to do with Socialistic
doctrines. All they want is not to be robbed, murdered, unjustly imprisoned, or obstructed
to their trading ventures, to be free to worship their own God in their own way, and to
have a court of justice where they can be on equal footings with Mohammedans, and where
the Judge does not extort money from them.
All those Armenians that knew what Socialism was at first laughed at the idea of
introducing it to the Armenians. After the publication of this paper was begun, whenever
the representatives of the European powers asked for an explanation for certain outrages
committed on Armenians by the Turkish Government, the Porte showed them the Hentchak and
said: "Like Germany and France, we are also troubled by Socialists and Anarchists,
and are doing our best to suppress them and to preserve order, and, as you see, this is
the organ of our Anarchists." The representatives of foreign powers held their
tongues with apparent satisfaction. This encouraged the Turkish officials, and joyfully
they repeated the old Turkish saying: "The Sublime Porte can capture a rabbit with a
chariot." Whenever the Turkish Government makes wholesale arrests of Armenians on
alleged suspicions, The Hentchak immediately publishes a list of the names of the arrested
and tells its readers that those persons were Hentchakists, and were conspiring a great
plot against the Government, but, unfortunately, they were discovered and arrested. By
doing this it places the arrested victims in such an embarrassing position that their case
becomes hopeless in a Turkish court; after that the Porte can impose upon them any kind of
punishment, and if an explanation is demanded by the British or Russian Ambassadors at
Constantinople, the Turk replies that he is punishing them for conspiring against the
public peace, and as an undeniable proof shows them the Hentchak. By this treachery The
Hentchak not only renders great service to the Turkish Government in its work of
annihilating Armenians, but also, singularly enough, gains the affections and sympathy of
some simple-minded Armenians of the ignorant class by convincing them the Hentchak has a
great organization laboring in secret for the welfare of the public in Turkey, and that
those that have been discovered and arrested are but few out of many.
In reality there is no such thing as Hentchakist revolutionists. There are no Henchakists
in Turkey that do anything hostile to the Porte, neither is there any other organization
of Armenians for such purposes. [23]
As all nations, so also the Armenians have an ignorant class of people, some of whom are
so simple-minded as to put faith in such stories [24]
and contribute money for the Hentchakist revolution, which they send to the mysterious
editor of the Hentchak. The list of all these contributions is published in The Hentchak,
the total of which does not reach the amount of $2,000 per annum. [25] The people who make such contributions are too ignorant to realize
what they do. They have no idea of what Socialism means. When they read of Socialism in
The Hentchak they think it means nothing but peace in Turkey and protection of the rights
of Armenians. There are Hentchakist lodges in some cities outside of Turkey composed of
this sort of simpletons, who do nothing else but hold meetings, make speeches, collect a
few hundred cents, and send them to the editor of The Hentchak; beyond that they know
nothing and do nothing. Their belief is that if they send their pennies to The Hentchak,
The Hentchak will do the rest. The greatest of these lodges is the one in New York City,
with a membership of seven persons of the most illiterate class. [26] They not only don't know English, but even don't know their own mother
tongue.
The Turkish Government has been making a big fuss about these Hentchakist revolutionists,
and under pretense of fearing them is heaping all sorts of injustices upon the peaceful
Armenians. [27] And it has lately attempted to keep
out of its borders all Armenians that have become naturalized citizens of the United
States, with the excuse that during the present confusion (!) It is very difficult to
distinguish which of them belongs to that terrible society (!) and which of them does not;
so that, for the sake of preservation of peace in Turkey, it has been compelled to banish
them all. [28]
No wonder that as a result of all these tricks of the "unspeakable Turk," some
Americans have been horrified by the monstrous crimes and misdeeds of the Armenians, of
which they hear through the Turkish agents, and have condemned them as Nihilists,
incendiaries, assassins, &e. But we want to be treated fairly. I assure you that for
the followers of the Hentchak are too ignorant to know what they do, and are so simple
that they are but harmless creatures. [29] The leader
of the New York lodge, who is supposed to be their Johann Most, is employed as a porter in
the warehouse of one of the leading Armenian merchants of Oriental goods in this city, and
his master not for a moment doubts his faithfulness. It is a farce on the part of Turkey
to exclude from her shores all American Armenians on the ground of fearing from a handful
of miserable creatures.
No intelligent Armenian can have any sympathy with the Hentchak. [30] We hate it as a mean traitor and a tool in the hands of the Turkish
Government. It is even doubtful whether the editor of The Hentchak is an Armenian at all.
The Armenian language he uses in his paper is unlike any. It is a new jargon, being a
mixture of Armenian, French, German, Turkish, Greek, Russian, and a little of everything.
Its followers are also gradually seeing that they have been deceived: the advice of their
friends is helping them in their vision, and Hentchakist lodges are slowly but surely
dying out. Let the Americans know that the Hentchakist is not an Armenian society, and
that Armenians denounce it. All I have said is true . P.H. VARTOOGUIAN. new York, March
15, 1894
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13. While hateful and
genocide-obsessed Armenians who otherwise can't get a life are entitled to all of
our pity (as Admiral Bristol expressed in his letter to Rev. James Barton: “I am not disgusted with the
Armenians, and I pity them"), what Armenians are really after, as usual, is
"sympathy."
14. There were Armenians who harbored
an "Anarchistic and murderous" attitude toward their Ottoman government?
Why, that's slanderous!
15. Generally speaking, pretty valid
and accurate information, to be sure; yet deadly, if such were allowed to spread on
a wide scale basis to fellow Christians the Armenians have relied upon, for their
precious "sympathy." This is why our faithful Armenian author must do
whatever in his power to dispel the truth from spreading further.
16. In the annals of Armenian
trickery, surely this episode must contend for one of the top prizes. Can you
imagine? The Hunchaks have now become an "agent of the Turkish
government."
Reminds me of when Armenians got caught with their pants down during their 1992
invasion of Karabakh, offering the Western world an extremely rare glimpse of the Armenians'
massacring ways, endangering the Armenians' precious "Myth of Innocence."
(Innocence is a necessity in order to gain sympathy. Murdering actual innocents
makes it very difficult to engage in the all-important sympathy commodity.) So what
did the Armenians do? They claimed it was the Azeris who murdered and mutilated
their own!
Of course there are honorable Armenians, but why do too many Armenians go down the path of falsehood so easily? For
too many, "patriotism" justifies everything, and it is truly an astounding
phenomenon.
17. Since (in good measure) it was the
Ottomans' kindness and tolerance that ultimately brought them down, as opposed to
other multi-cultural empires who treated their conquered peoples far more
ruthlessly, this Fuad Pasha was not without a point. But it is one thing to provide
an opinion, and quite another to suggest an opinion would have translated into
governmental policy. In order to demonstrate the latter, one needs to deal with that
annoying concept known as "factual evidence." In addition, while Fuad
Pasha served as one of several Tanzimat reformers, how could he even be mentioned in
the same breath as Bismarck... whose name is known for good reason?
18. Rather typical of the Armenian
crock Western publications printed without question, isn't it? As though the
Russians suddenly appeared to save Bulgaria, and that the Russians did not play a
hand in the Bulgarians' insurrection to begin with. The few thousand Bulgarian
deaths, not an unusual toll when there is a serious uprising to deal with (the
Bulgarians began with the slaughtering), was surely made out to be a case of
unprovoked "massacres," while to this day, few are aware of the 262,000
Ottoman Muslims and Jews who were murdered in the hands of the Bulgarians and Russians.
19. Such were the racist and deceptive
views widely believed then, and more sadly, still widely believed today.
20. Need it be mentioned that, for
centuries, nothing happened to Ottoman-Armenians before they stirred trouble when
Russians and other imperialists encouraged them and used them as pawns; and additionally, let's stop pretending that
when Russia stepped in, extending a "hand of deliverance" to fellow
Christians was hardly at the forefront of their minds.
21. It is possible that in 1894, few "odars,"
or outsiders, knew the inner workings of the shadowy terrorist organization — a
situation rectified in a few short years, when the crazy Hunchaks called attention
to their murderous ways in the countries that Armenian colonists had settled. The
Hunchaks became very famous in the
Western press at the turn of the century. Little more than a decade after the
above article saw print, an American newspaper (The Washington Herald)
spelled out the name of the publisher of the Hentchakist (Avetis Nazarbekian), so one surmises it
couldn't have been such classified information. Not among Armenians, at any rate.
22. Fortunately, a few Armenian
historians of at least some integrity (a most rare breed) spelled out the real
origins of the Hunchaks, as Louise Nalbandian.
It was certainly a united (at least for a while; in 1896, the Hunchaks split into
two factions, and in the years ahead, found it difficult to compete with the
increasingly popular Dashnaks) and extensive organization. Migirdich Portakalian
served as the spark for the Hunchaks' formation (after the revolutionist was booted
from Van, and moved to France to publish his Armenia newspaper; nine of his
students formed the Armenakan Party in 1885, which probably became the Ramgavar
Party); Nazarbekian, a writer for Armenia, his fiancée and four
Russian-Armenian students in Geneva established the nationalistic and Marxist
Hunchak guidelines by the end of 1886, stressing revolution and terror, and the
party was born in August 1887. They sent organizers to the Ottoman Empire, Russia
and Iran. The Hunchaks took responsibility for the Kumkapi (their first major
operation, in July 1890) and Babiali (1895) demonstrations, as well as the Sassun (1894, where head Hunchak
honcho Hamparsum "Murad" Boyadjian had succeeded in inciting thousands)
and Zeitun (began by Aghasi in 1895; this is the one where he, in his diary, claimed
to have killed 20,000 Turks vs. an Armenian loss of 125) rebellions.
23. We have all heard the expression, "The
bigger they are, the harder they fall." While it has an altogether
different meaning, we can apply this saying with great success here. As the Nazis
realized, not just any lie would do. It was the big lies that often proved the most
successful, because people couldn't fathom anyone would lie that shamelessly, so
there must be truth to the assertion. Similarly, the creepy propagandist we're
examining here felt no compunction over making such a ridiculous assertion, perhaps
in the belief that the bigger the lie, the harder it will fall.
24. If the story in question is the
"genocide,": then that is one gigantic class of Armenians who exercise
their "faith."
25. Let's make a record of that; with
all their evil extortions driving many wealthy Armenians to a penniless state, the
annual budget of the Hunchaks only amounted to a measly $2,000 a year.
26. Let's make another record: there
were only seven Hunchaks in New York City.
27. It wasn't only the Ottoman
government who feared these immoral and murderous desperadoes. Even the Armenians'
allies, the missionaries, on occasion had their hackles raised. We can read the
horrified reaction of Rev. Cyrus Hamlin here,
upon his learning of the mentality of a typically dangerous Hunchak. Hamlin also
reported that the Hunchaks claimed (in 1893) that they had "branches in
every village and city in Armenia, also in the colonies." Hamlin added that
the Hunchaks were "causing great evil and suffering to the missionary work
and to the whole Christian population of certain parts of the Turkish Empire."
(The missionary didn't care about the harm caused to Ottoman Muslims and Jews, of
course.)
28. Meanwhile, what these Armenians
were doing was getting naturalized as U.S. residents, travelling back to their real
home in service of Hai Tahd, poisoning the minds of the yet-to-be-converted
other Ottoman-Armenians, and when the Ottoman authorities tried to preserve order,
these "American" Armenians would lie out of reach, under the protection of
the U.S. government. Pretty crafty!
29. The Hunchaks: "harmless
creatures." Now we've heard everything.
30. The first sensible bit the
Armenian author has written, much as it was for the wrong reason. (The Hunchaks
should not be supported as they are a Turkish tool, you see.) He will go on to
actually tell us that "the Hentchakist is not an Armenian society, and that
Armenians denounce it. All I have said is true.")
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