|
Heralding of the Armenian Genocide: Reports in The Halifax Herald (1894-1922)
BOOK REVIEW
Published by the Armenian Cultural Association of the Atlantic Provinces, 2000 (364 pages)
Reviewed by Hagop Yeramian
Anguished by the outrageous repudiations of some "academics" of the undeniable fact of the Armenian Genocide, coupled by the shameful indifference of Canadian, US, British and French governments, the Armenian Cultural Association of the Atlantic Provinces in Nova Scotia, Canada, conceived an idea: to prescribe to those governments the very same medicine from their past. The prescription, in this case, would be in the form of parading the hundreds of articles that have appeared in their own newspaper between 1894 and 1922.
Were the newsmen of those days liars? Were the missionaries working in Turkey at the time lying to their families in their personal letters?
The initial concept of the project was to compile all articles published in Nova Scotian newspapers on the wholesale massacres perpetrated by the Ottoman Turks against their Christian Armenian citizens. And not to risk redundancy, the Halifax Herald, which had the highest circulation during that period, was chosen.
All 247 articles in the book, from year 1894 on, are arranged chronologically. The photocopy of the actual article is placed on one side of every page with its facsimile on the other, as few of them, because of age, have become illegible to the untrained eye.
The 163 news items between 1894 and 1909 relate to the massacres in Sassoun, Hadgin, Zeitoun, Adana, Erzingan, Moush, Yozgat, Bitlis, Trabizond and Van and hundreds of their respective villages.
Examples of atrocities committed against the Armenians are too numerous to list. For instance, "A witness hiding in outscrub saw soldiers gouge out the eyes of two Armenian priests, who in horrible agony implored their tormentors to kill them, but the soldiers compelled them to dance whilst screaming with pain and presently bayoneted them."
In another example of Turkish atrocities, an article of several columns details methods of torture, such as plucking of hair, branding with red hot iron, rape, pillage, abduction, confiscation and desecration of churches.
In 1895 a struggle arose between Russia and Great Britain for paramount influence in the Bosphorous, and the Sultan cleverly played one country against the other. Meanwhile, the Armenians suffered the brunt of their dilly-dallying.
The British always talked, debated and threatened the Sultan in their parliament that they would "Intervene and wipe the Turkish empire out of its existence," but all was hollow talk. The atrocities continued unabated.
In a dispatch from Sivas dated November 14, 1895, headlined "Missionaries guarded by troops while Christians are massacred by Moslems," US Consul M.A. Jewett telegraphs Minister Terrell, informing him that a massacre of Christians by Moslems had begun.
Mr. Terrell then hastens to the Foreign Office where he personally sees Tawfik Pasha, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and demands "protection for the US consulate, at the same time warning the Pasha that Turkey would be held responsible if even a hair upon the head of any American should be touched." The same US minister could have issued a similar warning to save "Armenian Christians" who had been converted to "Christians" of the American variety. But he did nothing of the sort.
Headlines of the day tell all sorts of gruesome stories. "The massacre at Trabizond," "Fifty students in Constantinople thrown into the sea with heavy lead attached to their feet," "Embrace Islamism or the sword."
And from the 1896 issues, "100,000 massacred in Armenia," "Unmentionable Turkish Atrocities," "The Sacking of Van," "Horrible Scenes in Constantinople," "The Sultan's days are numbered," "Six thousand slaughtered," "Armenians imprisoned for possessing Bibles."
And from the 1909 issues, "One thousand persons slain by frenzied Adana Moslems," "25,000 killed," I will not delve into the 1915 Genocide whose details are too familiar to the average Armenian.
One hundred and five years ago, the great powers - England, France, the US, Italy, Germany and Russia - threatened to "wipe the Turkish Empire out of its miserable existence." Instead, they kept pandering to the Sultan's excesses.
Has the modern Turks' demeanor changed?
In all the dispatches between 1894 and 1922, the area in Eastern
Anatolia is referred to as Armenia. Yet the Turks today deny that a
country called Armenia ever existed. Nowadays, the mere mention of the
word Armenia or Genocide causes NATO member Turkey have spoiled brat
tantrums. She threatens and intimidates friendly countries, but no
major country has yet had the moral fortitude to call Turkey's bluff.
Armenian, Assyrian and Hellenic Genocide News Archives