DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4752#0216
206
THE ARMENIANS
vigour and knowledge of the country, at Angora
investigated the facts, reported them by telegraph,
and succeeded in compelling punishment. "The
end of it all was, that the soldiers were caught, and,
as all was proved to have occurred as stated, the
officer in command zuas degraded} while some of the
men were sentenced to prison for five years." As
Mr. Barkley remarks, this " was not a very severe
punishment for wholesale rape, arson, robbery, and
murder"—especially as we don't know how long
the imprisonment lasted in fact—but it was sufficient
to be a salutary and lasting lesson, for any exercise
of official authority in punishment of crime pro-
duces an immense effect in Turkey. The consul
at Angora related the same story to me in 1881,
but I prefer to give it in Mr. Barkley's words (like-
wise derived from the consul) to add another
witness.
We must, however, go back to an older time,
if we want to appreciate what uncontrolled Turkish
rule meant, alike to Armenians and to Greeks. It
did not mean religious persecution ; it meant un-
utterable contempt. The Turk did not mind what
religion those dogs belonged to, and he was as far
as possible from conceiving the wish to make them
Mohammedans. They were dogs and pigs; and
their nature was to be Christians, to be spat upon,
1 The italics are_Mr. Barkley's.
THE ARMENIANS
vigour and knowledge of the country, at Angora
investigated the facts, reported them by telegraph,
and succeeded in compelling punishment. "The
end of it all was, that the soldiers were caught, and,
as all was proved to have occurred as stated, the
officer in command zuas degraded} while some of the
men were sentenced to prison for five years." As
Mr. Barkley remarks, this " was not a very severe
punishment for wholesale rape, arson, robbery, and
murder"—especially as we don't know how long
the imprisonment lasted in fact—but it was sufficient
to be a salutary and lasting lesson, for any exercise
of official authority in punishment of crime pro-
duces an immense effect in Turkey. The consul
at Angora related the same story to me in 1881,
but I prefer to give it in Mr. Barkley's words (like-
wise derived from the consul) to add another
witness.
We must, however, go back to an older time,
if we want to appreciate what uncontrolled Turkish
rule meant, alike to Armenians and to Greeks. It
did not mean religious persecution ; it meant un-
utterable contempt. The Turk did not mind what
religion those dogs belonged to, and he was as far
as possible from conceiving the wish to make them
Mohammedans. They were dogs and pigs; and
their nature was to be Christians, to be spat upon,
1 The italics are_Mr. Barkley's.