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

by Augustus Warner Williams; M. Smbat Gabrielean

4. A special commission composed of an equal number of Mussulmans and Christians to superintend the execution of the reforms proclaimed and proposed.

5. The amelioration of the rural population.

The representatives of the six powers under instructions from their governments supported these measures of reform before the Porte, all of them heartily, except the English minister, Sir Henry Elliott, who acting evidently under secret instructions, expressed his belief that they would amount to nothing; and his fear that they trenched upon the right of the Ottoman Porte to manage its own affairs without foreign interference. The Grand Vizier did not reject them, but replied that he was preparing a constitution which would, he believed, embody these and other measures of reform.

The Powers believed or affected to believe these brilliant promises. England even tendered to the Sultan the cordial expression of her hopes that “he would soon succeed in quelling the revolts of his subjects and restoring order.” And this meant, as England ought to have known and as all the world knows now, that the Turks might put it down in the only way the Turk ever does put down a rebellion—with fiercest cruelty. It meant liberty from British interference while they proceeded to slay, kill, torture, burn, outrage, violate men, women and children with fiendish lust and delight.

These promises of reform were made February 10, 1876, and the Turks’ answer to the cordial expression of the hope of England that they would soon succeed in quelling the revolts of his subjects, was the awful Bulgarian horrors executed by the orders of the Porte during the first two weeks in May.

The whole civilized world shuddered. Just as the gates of the Centennial were being thrown open to welcome the nations to the celebration of the glorious victories of peace and the triumphs of art, the unspeakable Turk let loose upon the defenceless Bulgarians the Bashi-Bazouks. These were irregular troops, the scum and offscouring of the Oriental cities, gathered from the prisons, jails and slums: the vilest wretches to be found on the face of the earth without military knowledge, ability, courage or discipline—men fit only for the work of murder, lust, rapine and cruelty on which they were sent by the Sublime Porte, the Infernal Tyrant.

On the 14th of May, 1876, the representatives of Russia, Austria, Hungary, and Germany met at Berlin without any knowledge of the massacres, and desirous of sustaining the good intentions of the Grand Vizier, agreed upon the paper known as the “Berlin Memorandum” which provided for a guaranty by the great Powers of the several reforms which had been proclaimed, but were not yet put in force. Five of the Powers signed it, but Great Britain refused, on the ground that it must obviously and inevitably lead to the military occupation of Turkey. Miserable subterfuge—didn’t she “occupy Egypt” a little later to secure the payment of the interest on her bonds: but she had no “interest” in breaking the bonds and chains of Christian populations of Turkey. She knew very well that the Sublime Porte would never execute a reform except under compulsion.

The action of the British Ministry greatly encouraged the Turks, and gave them very naturally the impression that England sympathized with them, and would help them to subjugate the Christian races.

The British Ministry at first professed ignorance of the massacres: then thought the Bulgarians as much to blame as the Turk—the lamb as the wolf that devoured him—the helpless, disarmed Armenians as the Turkish soldiers that swept down upon them from the mountains—and at last compelled to acknowledge the enormity of the conduct of the Turks, said they had been greatly provoked by the Russian emissaries who were stirring up revolution among the Christians.

Instantly Great Britain sent her Mediterranean fleet again to Besika Bay, where it arrived May 21st, only seven days from the first meeting of the Powers. The Minister said it was to protect English subjects, the Turks said it was to protect them. From what, pray? It was never clearly explained why; but it looked then and it looks now as if England were ready to champion the Turk as she had done in the Crimean War. It must have made every Englishman with a conscience or heart in him, blush for shame that the Turks themselves and all the rest of the world took it for granted that the presence of this fleet in Turkish waters was a friendly demonstration on the part of the English towards the Sultan: that in fact they were going to stand by and keep off the great Powers while the Turks continued to “restore order.”