Mass is said on Sunday three times, partly in Armenian, which many of the Armenians do not understand, and the rest in Turkish. All the Armenians wear fezes, and prayers are said for Turkey. The little chapel is primitive and picturesque; never, however, has one heard such strange Ave Marias or Glorias or Agnus Deis as those sung in their Turkish setting.
During my Christmas visit to the head of the Armenian Church at Angora, I asked him what message he wished me to give the Pope on his behalf. I told him the Pope was anxious about the Christians; and he might tell me, in confidence, if he was not happy in Turkey.
For my visit the Armenian orphans had put their home in festere altere. They had made cakes and sweets to be served with coffee and tea.
Then it was that I had the pleasure of speaking to them about the wonderful personality of the Pope as I had seen him in Rome; and of telling them that, above all, their Father in Christ stood for loyalty to their State. The Turks had never hampered their loyalty to their Church, and the Pope would never hamper the loyalty and obedience they owed to the Sovereign State.
Then the dusky-skinned orphans, boys and girls together, were marched before me, each taking my hand, kissing it and raising it to their forehead.
As I said afterwards to Colonel Mougin: “I wish it were possible to supplement the meagre funds with which Father Babadjanian is maintaining this little colony of poor children.”
“Tell the Holy Father,” said Father Babadjanian, “that we are perfectly happy with the Turks. They are trying to send us away from Angora for economical reasons, but we do not want to go. We have been told by the Grand National Assembly that we shall have exactly the same rights as the Moslems—no more, no less. What more can we expect or desire?
“Tell His Holiness to inform Europe and America,” he concluded, “that it is useless to try and protect disloyal Christian minorities here. It cannot be done by any Church, or any League of Nations. We know very well, and events have proved it, that so long as we remain loyal to the Turkish Government, all will be well. All the trouble that has come to us has arisen from the disloyalty and political intrigues of the Orthodox Armenians and Greeks, and, above all, from outside propaganda. So much has been said and written about an “Armenian Home”; let America offer Armenians that national home. Let the Powers, since it is they who are the cause of all the trouble, only recognise that they must provide homes elsewhere for every Christian who wants to go, or else leave us alone....
“If you only knew how we tremble before this useless propaganda, how we pray to be delivered from our European friends. Turkey is our home. We have to live with the Turks on friendly terms; and will gladly do so, if only this political propaganda can cease.”
Colonel Mougin, who accompanied me on this visit, can vouch for these statements, which he considered so important that he communicated them to his Government.