The Armenian Crisis in Turkey / The Massacre of 1894, Its Antecedents and Significance, With a Consideration of Some of the Factors Which Enter Into the Solution of This Phase of the Eastern Question

by Frederick Davis Greene

3. Evidence of this Dangerous Condition.

So far back as June 29th, 1881, Secretary Blaine, in official instructions to Minister Wallace at Constantinople, wrote:

“Your attention will doubtless be prominently and painfully drawn to the insecurity of the lives and property of foreign travelers in Turkey, and the failures of the authorities to prevent or repress outrages upon American citizens by wayside robbers and murderers, or even to execute its own laws in the rare instances of the perpetrators of such outrages being brought to justice. I cannot take a better text on which to base this instruction, than the accompanying copy of a letter addressed to the President by a number of American residents in Turkey. Its statements are known to be entirely within the truth, and can be verified abundantly from the files of your legation. They show in simple yet forcible language, the insecurity of traveling in that country, and the instances to the number of eight, within the past two years, when American citizens have been robbed and beaten by lawless marauders. On these occasions the lives of the assailed have been at the mercy of the robbers and, in one instance at least, the taking of life preceded the robbery.”—Foreign Relations of the United States 1881.

The above extract refers to outrages in Western Asia Minor and the vicinity of Constantinople, but it is well known that in the Eastern and interior part of Turkey, where many of us live, the insecurity is greater and has steadily increased, during the thirteen years that have elapsed since the above facts were admitted by the State Department.

The murderous attack by a Kurdish chief in person, which nearly cost Dr. G. C. Reynolds, of Van his life, and for which no indemnity was ever obtained, though the assailant was positively identified in court, is reported in full in Foreign Relations of the United States, 1883, 1884, and 1890.

The arrest and indignities inflicted upon Mr. Richardson of Erzerum, by the Governor-General, for which no apology even was ever secured, are related in Foreign Relations of the United States 1891.

The burning of Marsovan College by an unrestrained Turkish mob and the danger to the lives of many American residents is found in Foreign Relations of the United States 1893.

More cases of injury and insult, may be found in the same official records. But in many other instances it has been felt to be useless and inexpedient to even report them. The absence of any American representative to substantiate and vindicate our rights on the ground, and the hopelessness of securing anything but further injury by trying to press our claims, often drives us to the humiliating necessity of suffering injustice with scarcely a protest.