THE OUTLOOK.
1. Russia is straining every nerve to destroy Protestant schools as endangering the political solidarity of the Greek Church and thus hostile to her prestige and future influence in Turkey.
2. Republican France, having exiled the Jesuits as intolerable at home, finds them pliant tools of her political schemes abroad and subsidizes them heavily with money and diplomatic support in thwarting Protestant missions.
3. The civil policy of the Turkish Government is “Turkey for the Turks.” This means virtually filling all the offices of the Empire with Mohammedans, thus gradually closing every avenue of public official employment and promotion to the six millions of the Christian population, who are far in advance of the Muslims in education and intelligence.
We do not here dispute the right or the political sagacity of this new régime. But its natural result is seen in the emigration of thousands of the most energetic and enlightened young men to foreign lands. Protestant schools are endangered by losing their trained teachers, and the churches by losing their best members and the material for their future pastors, and the cause of self-support is gravely imperilled. But though thus threatened Protestantism is secured.
1. By the wide distribution of the Scriptures. The hundreds of thousands of Bibles in the hands of the people will make the extinction of Protestantism impossible unless the people themselves are exterminated.
2. By the wide diffusion of education and the founding of so many Protestant colleges and seminaries which have come to Turkey to stay.
3. By the deep-rooted faith and personal convictions of tens of thousands who believe in the right of individual judgment in religion and in the supremacy of conscience enlightened by the Word of God. Fifty thousand Protestants in the Empire can be depended upon to hold their own, even were all foreign missionaries to be withdrawn.
4. By the vast body of Christian literature and the power of the journalistic press, which are inconsistent with a recoil into the domain of priestly tyranny and the stifling of the human conscience.
Protestantism as a principle is steadily growing in every sect in the Empire. The Ark of God is safe in this land. Let us work on in patience and good cheer, with gratitude and unquestioning faith.
CHAPTER X.
THE KURDS AND ARMENIANS.
Turkish Armenia, the northwestern division of Kurdestan, is a great plateau of nearly sixty thousand square miles, bounded on the north by the Russian frontier, by Persia on the east, the plains of Mesopotamia on the west, and Asia Minor on the south. There are in all, at the present time, about four million Armenians on the globe, of whom little more than half are in Turkey, and the rest in Russia, Persia, other Asiatic countries, Europe and America. In Armenia—the name and geographical existence of which are not recognized in Turkey—there are probably six hundred thousand native Armenians, or one-fourth of the whole number that are scattered throughout the Porte’s dominions. The climate is temperate and bracing. Facilities for travel and transportation are exceedingly meagre, and all the methods employed by the natives are unusually primitive. “Valis,” or municipal governors, are appointed by the government at Constantinople to administer the laws, and none but Moslems hold official positions.
Among the population are found many races, including Turks, Kurds, Russians, Circassians, and Jews, besides native Armenians. Fully one-half the people are Mohammedan. The Kurds lead a pastoral and predatory life, dwelling in mountain villages over the entire region. Their number is uncertain, but it is estimated that in the villages of Erzeroum, Van and Bitlis there are not less than six hundred thousand. Some of these tribes are migratory, like the Bedouins of Syria. Almost all are warlike, and many have degenerated into lawless brigands. For centuries they have made serfs of the Christians, trampling them under foot at every opportunity, and extending to them no toleration whatsoever. These rude mountaineers delight in bloodshed and pillage, and it was their oppression of the Armenian villagers which precipitated the distress in Sassoun, Moush, Bitlis, and the surrounding country. The Kurdish costumes are picturesque, and nearly all the tribesmen are magnificent horsemen. The government at Constantinople organized them as a military force, and bestowed the name “Hamidieh” on their cavalry regiments, but their spirit, like that of the wild Arab, the Cossack, or the North American Indian, is one that scarcely brooks the restraints of military discipline. They were always formidably armed, and weapons in the hands of such a war-loving race were an incentive to disturbance and outrage. They spread universal terror among the Armenians by their cruelty and frightful excesses for many centuries, but it was reserved for our own time to witness the exhibition of barbarism on their part that filled Europe and America with horror.
Kurdestan, which is a name very common in the East, is no more than a geographical appellation for the entire country inhabited by the Kurds. Its area is estimated at more than fifty thousand square miles. This region has no political boundaries, but includes both Persian and Turkish territory. It may be said to extend from Turkish Armenia, on the north, to the plains of the middle Tigris, and the Luristan mountains, on the south. It contains many other people besides Kurds, such as Turks, Nestorians, Chaldeans, Persians and Armenians.
The origin and ancestry of the Kurds, like that of most Eastern nations, is still unsettled among ethnologists. They stand among the Asiatic races, like the Basques and Lapps in Europe, wrapt in obscurity. They are a people without a literature, and almost without a history. They number about two millions, six hundred thousand of whom are under Persia, the rest being under Turkey. They are divided into many independent tribes; the tribal feeling is very strong, a very fortunate thing for Turkey and Persia, for could the Kurds be firmly united these Empires might often suffer much at their hands.
Some of them are nomadic, not, however, wandering indefinitely, for they have well defined circuits which they make annually.
But some of them are agricultural people, who live in villages, tilling ground on the plains and hillsides. It is amusing to notice them on their way to their work, dragging along their sluggish limbs, as though they might drop asleep at any moment. They will waste two hours before they even start to work. After an hour of pretended labor, in which they have really accomplished nothing, they will have to sit down and smoke awhile. But look at the Kurd as he rides his Arabian steed, gun on shoulder, sword at side and spear in hand—a veritable angel of death. His dark eyes and gloomy countenance are fearful to look upon. These warriors sleep most of the day, and at sunset start on their robbing expeditions. They descend to the numerous villages in the valleys and drive away the cattle and flocks, no one daring to oppose them, as their very name strikes terror to the hearts of the people. Robbing is their business, and they believe that God created them for this purpose only.
One who has conversed with many of them, asked them why they steal. They answered that every man has some occupation; one is a judge, one a merchant, one a farmer, and “we are robbers.” They make their living in this way. “Why don’t you work?” “We do not know how to work.” “Why do you kill people?” “When we meet a man that we wish to rob, if we find him stronger than ourselves, we have to kill him in order to rob him.” “But you are liable to be killed some day.” “We must die at some time,” they answer, “what is the difference between dying now and a few days hence?”
The Kurds are profoundly ignorant and stupid, with neither books nor schools. Of the whole race not one in ten thousand can read.
The most of the summer they live in tents in the cool places on the mountain slopes and valleys. Their winter houses are built underground, most of them having a single room with one or two small holes at the top for light. This serves for a bedroom, parlor, kitchen and stable. In the daytime they are all away; towards sunset they come in, one by one, at least a score of men, women and children; but already the hens have found their resting place; sheep, oxen and horses each in their corner. After it is quite dark, coarse, stale bread and sour milk are brought out for supper. Two spoons and one big dish are sufficient for all; each in his turn tries the spoon. Of course this is always done in the dark, as they have no lights. Now it is bedtime and one after another finds his place under the same quilt without a pillow or bed. In a few minutes all are fast asleep, and soon the heavy breathing and snoring of men and cattle is mingled, and the effect is anything but a sweet sound. The temperature of the room is sometimes as high as a hundred, and swarms of fleas (one of which would be enough to disturb the rest of an entire American family) attack the wild Kurd, but he stirs not until morning, the fleas being exhausted sooner than the men.
Their women wear an exceedingly picturesque costume. They have dark complexions, with eyes and hair intensely black. Their beauty is not of a refined type, but by a mass of paint is made sufficiently attractive for their easily pleased husbands. Almost all the work, both in and out of doors, is done by them. Early in the morning, when they are through their home work, they hasten to the field to attend the flocks, or gather fuel for use in winter. In the evening they come in with large burdens on their backs, which appear to be quite enough for two donkeys to carry. So industrious are they, that they frequently spin on their way to and from work, singing all the while, apparently as happy as if all the world were theirs. This industry the men do not appreciate, or reward. They will not hesitate, when it is raining, to drag the women from the tent, in order to make room for a favorite steed.
This country of Kurdestan is filled with wonderful ruins. On its western border is an inscription upon the face of a cliff which was written by Nebuchadnezzar when he came to conquer this country.
In the city of Farkin, only five miles from Kilise, there are most magnificent ruins of churches, castles and towers. The columns still standing in one of these ruined churches are about twelve feet high and over two feet in diameter and above the arches thus supported is another corresponding series.
This church is closely surrounded with a great many graves—thousands of them—so that the church is often spoken of as “the Church of Martyrs.”
In all probability these are some of the ruins with which Tamerlane filled the land at the beginning of the Fifteenth century, and these are the remains of the splendid Christian civilization which he so ruthlessly destroyed, and the Kurdish-Armenians are the descendants of the few Armenians who accepted of Islam to save themselves and their families from utter destruction. Compulsory conversion to Islam is still the order of the day in all the desolated districts of Turkish-Armenia.