DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4752#0217
THE ARMENIANS 20J
if their shadow darkened a Turk, to be outraged,
to be the mats on which he wiped the mud from
his feet. Conceive the inevitable result of centuries
of slavery, of subjection to insult and scorn, cen-
turies in which nothing that belonged to the
Armenian, neither his property, his house, his life,
his person, nor his family, was sacred or safe from
violence—capricious, unprovoked violence—to resist
which by violence meant death! I do not mean
that every Armenian suffered so ; but that every
one lived in conscious danger from any chance
disturbance or riot. Every one knew that any
sign of spirit or courage would be almost certain
to draw down immediate punishment; and that
in bribery of the officials lay the only hope of
redress, and the best chance of escape. They are
charged, by the voice of almost every traveller,
with timidity and even cowardice; but for centuries
they had the choice offered them between submis-
sion and death. So long as they were perfectly
submissive, they were allowed to live in compara-
tive quiet; so long as they had money, they could
purchase some immunity from, or redress for, insult.
Naturally and necessarily the bravest were killed off,
they that could most readily cringe and submit
survived, and all efforts were directed to acquiring
money, as the only means of providing safety for
family and self.
if their shadow darkened a Turk, to be outraged,
to be the mats on which he wiped the mud from
his feet. Conceive the inevitable result of centuries
of slavery, of subjection to insult and scorn, cen-
turies in which nothing that belonged to the
Armenian, neither his property, his house, his life,
his person, nor his family, was sacred or safe from
violence—capricious, unprovoked violence—to resist
which by violence meant death! I do not mean
that every Armenian suffered so ; but that every
one lived in conscious danger from any chance
disturbance or riot. Every one knew that any
sign of spirit or courage would be almost certain
to draw down immediate punishment; and that
in bribery of the officials lay the only hope of
redress, and the best chance of escape. They are
charged, by the voice of almost every traveller,
with timidity and even cowardice; but for centuries
they had the choice offered them between submis-
sion and death. So long as they were perfectly
submissive, they were allowed to live in compara-
tive quiet; so long as they had money, they could
purchase some immunity from, or redress for, insult.
Naturally and necessarily the bravest were killed off,
they that could most readily cringe and submit
survived, and all efforts were directed to acquiring
money, as the only means of providing safety for
family and self.