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Turkey: A Past and a Future: Part 3
http://www.yerkir.am/en/news/34762.htm
15:43 - 06.11.2012
"Your great business is with the fundamental doctrines and duties of the
Gospel."
In this spirit the American missionaries have worked. They have had no
warships behind them, no diplomatic support, no political ambitions,
no economic concessions.
As Evangelicals their first step was to translate the Bible into all
the living languages and current scripts of the Nearer East. For the
Bulgars and Armenians this was the beginning of their modern
literature, but the jealousy of the Orthodox and Gregorian clergy was
naturally aroused. Native Protestant Churches formed themselves - not by
the missionaries' initiative but on their own. They were trained by
the missionaries to self-government, and as they spread from centre to
centre they grouped themselves in unions, with annual meetings to
settle their common affairs. The missionaries also encouraged them to
be self-supporting, and in 1908 the contributions of the Native
Churches to the general expenses of the missions were twice as large
as those of the American Board.
The Protestant Armenians, in spite of a nominal exemption, were
deported and massacred like their Gregorian fellow-countrymen; the
boys and girls were carried away from the American colleges, the
nurses and patients from the hospitals; the empty buildings were
"requisitioned" by the Ottoman authorities; the missionaries
themselves, in their devoted efforts to save a remnant from
destruction, suffered as many casualties from typhus and physical
exhaustion as any proportionate body of workers on the European
battlefields. The Turkish Nationalists congratulated themselves that
the American work in Western Asia was destroyed. In praising a lecture
by a member of the German Reichstag, who had declared himself "opposed
to all missionary activities in the Turkish Empire," a Constantinople
newspaper wrote:
"The suppression of the schools founded and directed by ecclesiastical
missions or by individuals belonging to enemy nations is as important
a measure as the abolition of the Capitulations. Thanks to their
schools, foreigners were able to exercise great moral influence over
the young men of the country, and they were virtually in charge of its
spiritual and intellectual guidance. By closing them the Government
has put an end to a situation as humiliating as it was dangerous."
But the missionaries' spirit was something they could not destroy.
"When they deported the Armenians," wrote a missionary, "and left us
without work and without friends, we decided to come home and get our
vacation and be ready to go wherever we could after the War."
After the War the Turks in Anatolia may still be infatuated enough to
banish their best friends, but in Armenia, when the Turk has gone, the
Americans will find more than their former field; for, in one form or
another, Armenia is certain to rise again. The Turks have not
succeeded in exterminating the Armenian nation.
Half of it lives in Russia, and its colonies are scattered over the
world from California to Singapore. Even within the Ottoman frontiers
the extermination is not complete, and the Arabian deserts will yield
up their living as well as the memory of their dead.
One thing is certain, that, whatever land is restored to them, the
Armenians will turn its resources to good account, for, while their
town-dwellers are the merchants and artisans of Western Asia, 80 per
cent., of them are tillers of the soil.
http://www.yerkir.am/en/news/34762.htm
15:43 - 06.11.2012
"Your great business is with the fundamental doctrines and duties of the
Gospel."
In this spirit the American missionaries have worked. They have had no
warships behind them, no diplomatic support, no political ambitions,
no economic concessions.
As Evangelicals their first step was to translate the Bible into all
the living languages and current scripts of the Nearer East. For the
Bulgars and Armenians this was the beginning of their modern
literature, but the jealousy of the Orthodox and Gregorian clergy was
naturally aroused. Native Protestant Churches formed themselves - not by
the missionaries' initiative but on their own. They were trained by
the missionaries to self-government, and as they spread from centre to
centre they grouped themselves in unions, with annual meetings to
settle their common affairs. The missionaries also encouraged them to
be self-supporting, and in 1908 the contributions of the Native
Churches to the general expenses of the missions were twice as large
as those of the American Board.
The Protestant Armenians, in spite of a nominal exemption, were
deported and massacred like their Gregorian fellow-countrymen; the
boys and girls were carried away from the American colleges, the
nurses and patients from the hospitals; the empty buildings were
"requisitioned" by the Ottoman authorities; the missionaries
themselves, in their devoted efforts to save a remnant from
destruction, suffered as many casualties from typhus and physical
exhaustion as any proportionate body of workers on the European
battlefields. The Turkish Nationalists congratulated themselves that
the American work in Western Asia was destroyed. In praising a lecture
by a member of the German Reichstag, who had declared himself "opposed
to all missionary activities in the Turkish Empire," a Constantinople
newspaper wrote:
"The suppression of the schools founded and directed by ecclesiastical
missions or by individuals belonging to enemy nations is as important
a measure as the abolition of the Capitulations. Thanks to their
schools, foreigners were able to exercise great moral influence over
the young men of the country, and they were virtually in charge of its
spiritual and intellectual guidance. By closing them the Government
has put an end to a situation as humiliating as it was dangerous."
But the missionaries' spirit was something they could not destroy.
"When they deported the Armenians," wrote a missionary, "and left us
without work and without friends, we decided to come home and get our
vacation and be ready to go wherever we could after the War."
After the War the Turks in Anatolia may still be infatuated enough to
banish their best friends, but in Armenia, when the Turk has gone, the
Americans will find more than their former field; for, in one form or
another, Armenia is certain to rise again. The Turks have not
succeeded in exterminating the Armenian nation.
Half of it lives in Russia, and its colonies are scattered over the
world from California to Singapore. Even within the Ottoman frontiers
the extermination is not complete, and the Arabian deserts will yield
up their living as well as the memory of their dead.
One thing is certain, that, whatever land is restored to them, the
Armenians will turn its resources to good account, for, while their
town-dwellers are the merchants and artisans of Western Asia, 80 per
cent., of them are tillers of the soil.