Bleeding Armenia: Its history and horrors under the curse of Islam

by Augustus Warner Williams; M. Smbat Gabrielean

It takes about four hours’ sailing to reach the landing place which is about a mile from the city proper. Immediately from the shore rises a curious mass of rocks commanding a most beautiful view. The slopes of the sides are protected by a succession of irregular walls, whose long outline is diversified by towers and other fortifications, and a minaret.

This rock is three hundred feet high and runs due east from the lake about two-thirds of a mile. At either end it rises by a gradual ascent and on its summit are two forts and a central castle. The city which is an irregular oblong lies entirely beneath this rock to the south, and is enclosed by lines of Turkish walls with battlements. The famous inscriptions are found for the greater part on this side of the rock, the most important one occupying an inaccessible position halfway up the face of the cliff.

This inscription is trilingual being written in three parallel columns and is much later in date than some of the others that are found there. It commemorates the exploits of Xerxes the son of Darius, and is very nearly word for word the same as those of that king at Hamadan and Persepolis.

When it was copied, a telescope was required to read it.

Here we see the Turks in large turbans and flowing robes, wild looking Kurds in sheepskin jackets, Persians in tall felt hats, and the Armenians in their more moderate dress.

There is a Christian assistant-governor here. He is supposed to have much power, but in reality has very little, being not much more than a convenient agent to the Governor. But his position has this advantage that he is only removable by the central Government at Constantinople, and not at the will of the Pasha for the time being. The assistant-governor is an Armenian and speaks both French and Italian well. The city contains about thirty thousand population of whom three-fourths are Armenians. On account of the nearness of the Persian frontier which is only sixteen hours off (about fifty miles) there is kept in the city a garrison of four hundred soldiers.

The view from the summit is most enchanting for on the one side lies the expanse of the blue sparkling lake with its circuit of mountains—not unlike Great Salt Lake with the Wasatch Mountains to the east and the beautiful plain stretching to the north and the south, and the Mountains away to the west. The fortifications at the shore end of the rock are of most massive stones, and are attributed to Semiramis, as in old Armenian books Van was called Shemiramagard or The City of Semiramis who made of it her summer capital.

The story of her love for the King of Armenia may be familiar. She had heard of the remarkable personal beauty and wisdom of Ara the King and sent Ambassadors offering him her hand and crown and love, and upon his spurning the offer and the dishonorable proposals attending it, she declared war against him giving orders that the King should not be slain. She was greatly distressed when she heard he had fallen in battle and before she left for Nineveh she had six hundred architects and twelve thousand workmen employed in erecting this new city for her summer residence.

The gardens of Van which stretch for several miles to the south and southeast were her glory and pride. Copious rivulets and streams with careful irrigation have made these gardens famous throughout the East.

Van was the only city which successfully resisted the Kurdish cavalry and the Turkish soldiers. It became the center also of Dr. Kimball’s great relief work which was carried on through the generous aid furnished by the Relief Fund of the Christian Herald of New York.