30 July 2004

"Tukey and the Armenian Atrocities" in the Armenian Electronic Library

The Armenian Electronic Library hosted by ArmenianHouse.org is an electronic library featuring a huge collection of documents on Armenian literature, history, religion and anything else Armenia-related. Texts are available in Armenian and Russian sections of the library.

Lately three new books have been added on the Armenian Genocide. One of them is titled:

Turkey and the Armenian Atrocities by Edwin Munsell Bliss (1896).

Considered to be the most complete primary source by a Western author on the Hamidian massacres plus contains lots of information on the history of Turkey, its population and religious situation back then.

Excerpts from pages 128-129 of the book:

“The general situation of the Armenians at the present time is one that calls for the sympathy of the entire Christian world. They have lost a large proportion of their best men by massacre; throughout the empire it has seemed to be the unwavering purpose of the Turkish Government to cut down the very men who had most influence, and who most used their influence in behalf of good citizenship and upright life. The most conservative estimates, endorsed by the British Ambassador at Constantinople, for the sections where there has been careful investigation, give the number killed at 25,000, and admit that the real number is far larger. For a nation numbering not more than 2,000,000 within the borders of the empire, to lose probably not less than 40,000 or 50,000 of its best men is a terrible thing, and the loss cannot but have a serious effect upon the future development. This, however, is not all. Not merely have these lives been blotted out, but property to an incalculable degree has been destroyed. The Armenian nation is shorn of a large part of its strength; whether there is enough left to give it vigor or power for the immediate future remains to be seen. The outlook is by no means hopeful, and yet seldom in the history of the world has the effort to blot out a race been successful. Whatever be the political outcome, as set forth in other chapters of this book, there can be but one hope for all those interested in the Armenian people, and that is, that they may by this terrible experience realize their weakness and unite their strength for a purer and truer national life than they have had at any time, even than many of them have dreamed of. This, however, will depend very largely upon the support accorded to them by the Christian nations of the world. If that support fails, then the responsibility rests, not alone upon the Armenians, but to a great degree upon those nations”.

(bold lines are marked by AZAD-HYE. It indicates the need for unity that the author has rightfully noticed to be the only hope for the Armenians)

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