Daybreak in Turkey / Second Edition

by James L. Barton

Trebizond, upon the southern shore of the Black Sea towards its eastern extremity, was occupied as a station, as already stated, in 1835. It is a large city of great influence, with a Greek, Armenian, and Turkish population.

In 1839 a missionary family was sent to Erzerum, one hundred and ten miles into the interior to the southeast of Trebizond. As soon as these stations were opened they became the centers of exploration for securing and forwarding information to the headquarters of the missions in Constantinople and to the Board in Boston.

Aintab was opened in what was then called “Southern Armenia,” in 1849, and became the center for operations upon a large population dwelling in northern Syria, extending from Urfa on the east into the Tarsus mountains upon the west, and including the important cities of Marash, opened in 1855, Adana, Aleppo, Tarsus, Hadjin, Antioch, Kilis, and many other towns of less importance. Later this became the center of what came to be known as the Central Turkey Mission. This region is approached from the Mediterranean and is inhabited chiefly by Armenians and Turks. In this section of country the Armenians have lost, for the most part, their native tongue, and speak only the Turkish language. As the Koords and more savage races live in remote regions, the people have not endured the persecution here that their brethren in the north and east have been called upon to pass through.

In 1850 an investigation of the condition of the Jews in Salonica was made, which resulted in the opening of that station for work, especially among the Jews. There seems to have been no thought of reaching from that station any other races. They found the Jews there extremely ignorant, and divided between the Rabbinicals and the Mohammedans. The unhealthy condition of the city led in 1859 to the transfer of the station to Smyrna.

The more interior stations, like Marsovan, Cæsarea, Sivas, Harpoot and Bitlis, were occupied in the ’50s, while Van, the most eastern mission station in Turkey, was made such in 1872. From Constantinople the missionaries had been gradually reaching out, Nicomedia and Brusa having been made stations in 1847 and 1848, respectively.

The languages used in these missions were the Arabic and Syrian in the Syrian field with its center at Beirut; the Turkish language in the Central Turkey region with its center at Aintab; the Armenian language in the Eastern Turkey district with its center at Harpoot; while Arabic was the language of Mardin, Mosul and Arabia, and the Greek, Armenian, Bulgarian and Turkish languages in the Western Turkey mission including Trebizond. Various plans were tried at first of grouping these various stations for purposes of control and administration. They could not all be classed together owing to the long distances separating them and the difficulties of travel in a country with no roads and no public conveyances. Finally the above outlined arrangement of the stations was adopted and each separate mission became a little republic in itself, holding its annual meeting, in which delegates from all the stations belonging to it met and legislated for it as a whole. In 1872 the European Turkey mission also became separate from the Western Turkey mission and has since been conducted as an entirely distinct organization.

The great extent of territory covered by these missions can best be understood by the fact that but few stations anywhere were less than one hundred miles apart. The nearest station to Harpoot in Eastern Turkey was distant one hundred and fifty miles, a six days’ journey by the ordinary mode of conveyance. To reach some of the interior stations like Bitlis, Harpoot and Mardin required an overland journey on horseback of from three to four weeks from the Black Sea coast. Thus the country was dotted by mission stations which became at once centers for direct, aggressive, educational, philanthropic and Christian work. In no case was one opened except upon the urgent invitation of a large number of the people themselves. A station meant then, as it means to-day, a center in which missionaries reside. It was understood also that this residence was permanent, and to make this clear to all, houses for the missionaries were purchased or erected and other arrangements completed for a life-work. This fact in itself made a profound impression upon the people of all classes and religions. When it was charged that the missionary movement would prove to be short-lived, no one was able to answer the question, “What mean these residences owned by the missionaries?” Certainly, if it was the purpose to carry on only a temporary work, houses would have been leased. Another fact, which gave the appearance and impression of permanency, was that the missionaries came with their wives and set up their homes there. These two facts had much to do in giving stability and strength to the earlier work. The three men and their wives who occupied the Harpoot station in 1858 were there together in that same station until after the massacres of 1895, when owing to broken health and the destruction of their homes four of them were compelled to come to this country. Three of the six are still living, two of them at Harpoot. The policy of married missionaries permanently located in central stations and from there working together as a unit the large adjacent field, has proved itself to be a wise and efficient policy for all parts of Turkey. This policy necessitates the wide use of trained native pastors, preachers, evangelists and teachers who occupy the outstations and push the work into the remoter districts.

Each station became a social settlement, in which the Christian home was the center and from which wholesome Christian influences were exerted upon all with whom the missionaries came in contact. The plan involved the elevation and purification of the entire social fabric of the country, and, judged from our modern standpoint, no more effectual way of accomplishing this could have been devised. It is no small thing for devout philanthropists in England and the United States to give up their comfortable homes and establish their residence, as many have done and are still doing, among the downtrodden and oppressed in our great cities. It is well known, however, that this change of residence is not permanent and that, in cases of sickness, the old home and friends remain, to which return can be made. With those missionaries the case was different. Their homes in America were broken up. They took up their abode in the interior cities of Turkey for life. In times of sickness they remained. No friends from home visited them, and in case of their death, their bodies were buried in the soil of the land. There were their children born, and in multitudes of cases, because of the severity of the climate and the lack of proper facilities for safeguarding their health, there also were they buried. Herein lie many elements of moral strength which appear in the foreign missionary movement. It is this feature which has made a profound impression upon the races of Turkey and which is now reshaping its social system.

In 1860, after forty years of exploration and study in the Turkish empire, so far as her people and their moral and spiritual needs were concerned, missionary work had been outlined for at least five different races. Interest in the Jews had been continued, and a missionary, Dr. Schauffler, intended exclusively for work among them, had been maintained, not at Jerusalem but at Constantinople. He was working in harmony with the three English and Scottish societies, each of whom was maintaining missionaries to the Jews, with headquarters at Constantinople. The work done was quiet, exciting apparently less interest among the people of Turkey than among the organizers of societies in the United States for work among this race. Undoubtedly, during the first generation of work in the Ottoman empire, the people of the United States and England were more stirred by appeals for work among the Jews than by any other appeal which was or could be made.

The work for the Greeks was promising in Smyrna and Constantinople. Owing to Greece obtaining her freedom from the rule of the sultan, Greeks still living in Turkey were drawn away in their sympathies and interest to Greece, and the spirit of patriotism was strong in holding them to the national Church.