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

“The British Government had glossed over and tried to cover up these horrible transactions, Premier Disraeli turning them off with a sneer. The facts, as unearthed by Consul Schuyler, shook the British nation like an earthquake, and came near unseating the Ministry....

“A similar investigation was made in the same district by Mr. J. A. MacGahan, the brilliant correspondent of the London Daily News, who confirms all that Mr. Schuyler discovered, in a special dispatch to the Daily News, dated Philippopolis, July 28, 1876.”

The circumstances and character of the Armenian massacre of 1894 are found in the first chapter of the present volume. In regard to this event the writer in The Independent of January 17th above quoted asks:

“Will history repeat itself in 1895? Will the remaining Armenians of Sassoun be so terrorized as to refuse to testify before a Commission? Undoubtedly.

“If the facts already known do not force Europe to place Eastern Asia Minor under a Christian Viceroy there is little hope that any new facts will influence them. The dead tell no tales. The living fear to speak, lest they fall victims to the humane theories of Beder Khan and Nejib Pasha.

“Will England now insist upon the protection of the Christian? She is morally bound to. Four times has she saved the Ottoman Empire from destruction, and the civilized world looks to her for a fulfilment of her high mission in the East.

“May British public opinion compel British public men to action!”

To make this chapter a little more complete for reference, I add a passing allusion to three other outrages not included in the above list, which takes account of no massacres of less than ten thousand victims at once.

OUTRAGES IN CRETE IN 1866–7.

On July 21, 1867, the British, Russian, French, and Italian Consuls at Canea, Crete, sent the following identical telegram to their several governments: “Massacres of women and children have broken out in the interior of the island. The authorities can neither put down the insurrection nor stay the course of these atrocities. Humanity would imperatively demand the immediate suspension of hostilities, or the transportation to Greece of the women and children.”