Twenty Years' Residence among the People of Turkey: Bulgarians, Greeks, Albanians, Turks, and Armenians

by Fanny Janet Sandison Blunt

In 1831 the community began once more to consolidate itself by the scattered members returning to their homes and re-assuming the ordinary business of life. Much had been done in their favor, but much remained to be done by the community itself. The first step was to frame a general assembly, composed of representatives of the various classes of the community by whom the national interests were discussed and debated upon with much freedom. The result was the election of a president who was confirmed by the Porte, and invested with temporal authority alone. The spiritual power was conferred on a primate appointed by the Pope. This measure was adopted in the hope of preventing one authority from encroaching upon the other; the patriarch’s seal was divided into three parts, which were intrusted respectively to the patriarch, the primate, and the president of the council. Other measures were also adopted which established the interests and influence of the Church on a solid basis, increased the privileges of the community at large, and greatly heightened its prestige. But dissensions and jealousies crept in, destroyed the passing dignity of the Church, and brought it to the low level of its adherents, making it a centre of bigotry and intolerance on one side and of struggling efforts for enlightenment and emancipation on the other.

Mechitar’s views and principles are held in increasing veneration by the liberal and progressive Armenians, who believe that the future prosperity of their country is dependent on them. Imbued with these ideas, it is not astonishing to find that this party and that of the Propaganda and Latinized Armenians are in a state of continual contention, undermining the peace and prospects of the community.

In 1846, Father Minassian, a Mechitarist monk, proposed the establishment of a society for the reconciliation of the two divisions of the nation with the view of the furthering education and ultimate political emancipation of the Armenians. The Conservative party, with the patriarch at its head, rejected his plan, which, warmly taken up by the Liberal (or as it is now called Anti-Hassounist) party led to fresh disputes and dissensions, keeping this community for years in a continual state of religious agitation and setting families at variance. The Anti-Hassounist party comprises some of the most wealthy and influential families, while the Hassounists, on the other hand, boast of the influence of their patriarch, the approval and protection of Rome, and the assistance and co-operation of the Propaganda; accordingly, of late years, both parties have sallied forth from their former reserved attitude and offered to the world of Constantinople the spectacle of a pitched battle—one side armed with all the power that spiritual help can afford, the other bracing itself with the force of argument and the protection and favor of the Porte.

Hassoun and his party accepted the doctrine of the Infallibility of the Pope, and committed their spiritual welfare and worldly concerns into the keeping of the mother Church, trusting to her maternal care for unlimited patronage. The Anti-Hassounists, led by Kupelian, rebelled against this despotic arrangement, denied the Infallibility and the right of the Church of Rome to interfere in the social and religious organization of the community; they actually went so far as to break out into open rebellion, and, supported and protected by Hossein Aoni Pasha and some of his colleagues, denied the authority of the patriarch, drove his adherents out of the schools, closed the churches, and sent away the priests under his control, finally effecting the schism which lies under Papal excommunication, but prospers nevertheless, and must ultimately, as the nation advances, triumph over opposition and attain equality, independent of the powerful and absorbing influence of the Church of Rome.

The spiritual authority of this new sect is in the keeping of a patriarch whose election by the community is confirmed by the Porte. He enjoys the same rights and privileges as the patriarchs of the other communities. The patriarch of the United Armenians receives a stipend of 5000 piastres per month, exclusive of the salaries of the officers of his chancery. The expenses of the bairat, amounting to 500 piastres, are defrayed by the community and furnished by a proportionate tax levied by the National Council. The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy consists of the Patriarchs of Cilicia, the Primate of Constantinople, the bishops, and the monastic and secular clergy. The principal see is solely supported by funds provided by the Propaganda of Rome and the “œuvres des missions.”

The priests are divided into Vartabieds, or doctors, and derders, or ordinary priests. Some of the former may be found at the head of small churches, aided by derders or acolytes. They occupy a modest position in rich families, where they are employed as religious instructors of youth and general counsellors of the family. As a class, however, their voice in the Church is overruled by that of the clergy of the Propaganda. The Vartabieds carry a crosier; no regular stipend is allotted to them, but they derive their support from church fees. The regular clergy consists of Mechitarist and Antonine monks, who have colleges at Venice, Constantinople, and Mount Lebanon.

The national council of the United Armenians is composed of twelve lay members called Bairatlis; their election is confirmed by the Porte. They are unpaid, and their period of office is limited to two years, six retiring and six resuming office annually. This council works in conjunction with the Patriarch; it regulates all matters concerning the civil and financial affairs of the community; it is the arbitrator and judge of all disputes among the United Armenians. This community at Constantinople alone numbers about 20,000 souls, forming seven parishes in different parts of the city.

In Pera, annexed to the church of St. John Chrysostom, they possess an infirmary for the poor and a lunatic asylum; each parish has a primary school, and some institutes for female education exists. One of these, founded in 1850 by the family of Duz-Oglou, is conducted by a French lady and placed under French control; the instruction afforded is in the French and Armenian languages.

The unfortunate duality ever present in the Church makes itself felt in the educational department as well, and greatly impedes its progress. The Mechitarist Fathers of St. Lazarus include in the religious and literary instruction given in their schools the records of past Armenian glory, inculcate a love of country, teach its language, and render its illustrious authors familiar to the rising generation; the current language in their institution is the Armenian. The opposition abuse and ridicule all that is Armenian, and replace the native language by Latin and Italian, or French; their principle is, “Let nationality perish rather than doctrine, the holy pulpit was never established to teach patriotism, but gospel truth.” The tutelar saints of the Armenians, treated with the same disrespect, are replaced by saints from the Roman calendar.

In character and disposition the United Armenians are peaceable, regular in their habits, industrious, and fond of amassing wealth; parsimonious and even miserly in their ideas, the love of ostentation and good-feeding has yet a powerful effect upon their purse-strings. They are, however, considerably in advance of the Gregorian Armenians. The youth of the better classes are for the most part conversant with European languages and the external forms of good society, affect European manners, and profess liberal views. Owing to the higher educational privileges they enjoy, they have made more progress in the arts and professions than the Gregorian Armenians. The school of Mechitar has produced scholars of considerable merit, but the vocation they seem specially made for is that of banking. In all careers their success has been signal. There was a time when the increasing wealth and prosperity of the United Armenians was the cause of much envy and jealousy, when no European banking houses existed in Turkey, and the financial affairs of the Ottomans were left entirely in the hands of the Armenian bankers, who directed the mint and regulated the finances of the government and of the Pashas. On the change of system, the ruin of the State as well as that of most of these families, once so wealthy, became inevitable. Should Armenia, however, eventually become a principality, should the Mechitarist school triumph over sectarian susceptibilities, and an understanding be arrived at leading to a national union between the United and the Gregorian Armenians, a considerable number of wealthy, intelligent, and earnest men, fit to be placed at the head of a nation, and able to control it with wisdom, prudence, and moderation, will not be wanting in both branches of this widely scattered nation. The critical moment in the destinies of this country has, I believe, arrived. The Armenians, detesting the Ottoman rule, are ready to cast themselves into the arms of any power that will offer them protection and guarantee their future emancipation. The turning-point reached, Russia or England will have to face them and listen to their claims. If their cause is taken up in good time they will be saved; and the name and prestige of England, already pretty widely spread in Armenia, will become all-powerful.