Ali Asker
2006-04-23 20:09:58 UTC
TURKS TO REBUILD MOSQUES WITH ARMENIAN SKULLS
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Literary Digest for June 25, 1921
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"CHARITY MAY BIND UP WOUNDS and pour in the oil of consolation," but is it
not time that the systematic destruction of Christian peoples in the Near
East be made to cease? asks a special committee of the Near-East Relief
Association, which stands appalled at the threat of the Turks to rebuild
their mosques with Armenian skulls. "before it is too late," before this
dire threat can be carried into execution, the Association is sending a
warning to all members of Congress, to all churches and church assemblies,
and to 110.000 individuals who have contributed to the work of the
organization. Something more than charity is needed now. The danger of the
complete annihilation of peoples subject to Turkish rule is said to be
imminent, and only quick and concerted, we are told, can avert the tragedy.
A million Armenians have been slaughtered by the Turks, Professor Lepsius
testified before the Berlin District Court which recently tried and
acquitted the Armenian youth who assassinated Talaat Pasha, former Turkish
Grand Vizier. "The Armenians were systematically led to slaughter as soon as
the concentration-camps became overcrowded," the German professor is quoted
as saying in the news dispatches. "They were led out upon the desert, where
they were decimated in wholesale fashion. The object of the Turks was not to
exile the Armenians but to slaughter them in cold blood, the scheme being to
kill off a whole people." Thus the purpose of the Turkish Government is
revealed in the land of its ally in the war.
For centuries the minority populations in the Turkish domain have been
subjected to a deliberate process of extinction, we are reminded by the
American relief workers. Out of 1,850,000 Armenians living in Turkish
territory before the war there are said to be only 850,000 left. The rest
were butchered to make a "Turkish holiday." America has done much to relieve
the misery in the Near East, but "her task is not yet finished." For five
years the work of life-saving has continued, and nearly 1,000,000 human
beings, who otherwise would have perished, form a living memorial to
American aid. In this benevolent work approximately $60,000,000 have been
used by the Near-East Relief Association in the form of money, clothing,
supplies, shelter, food, medicines, medical care, and supervision.
But it is practically useless to stanch the flow of blood while the Turks
continue to slaughter their helpless victims, informed writers say. On
January 3, 1920, Leland Rex Robinson, who had spent some time in Persia and
the Caucasus as a member of a Near-East Relief Commission, wrote on The
Survey (New York): "Until America - or England - accepts the mandate for
Armenia (perhaps we should say the Caucasus rather than Armenia alone) there
is little hope that order can rise out of pandemonium. . . . Unless the
mandate is taken, relief work is three-fourths lost." In an official report
for the American Government when the advisability of an American mandate for
Armenia was under consideration, Maj.-Gen. James G. Harbord said:
"Mutilation, violation, torture, and death have left their haunting memories
in a hundred beautiful Armenian valleys, and the traveler in that region is
seldom free from the evidence of this most colossal crime of all the ages."
The Near-East Relief's manifesto, which is signed by a special committee
consisting of James L.Barton, chairman of the Association, and Secretary of
the American Board of Foreign Missions; Stanley White, Secretary of the
Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions, and Walter George Smith, of
Philadelphia, relates that "contrary to expectations, national conditions in
the Near East remain so threatening that it has been impossible to return
the hundreds of thousands of exiled refugees to their homes where they could
become self-supporting, or to gather the vast number of dependent orphans
into anything but temporary orphanages. On the contrary, renewed atrocities
have created additional hordes of refugees and added to the number of
dependent children faster than their needs can be met." The statement covers
the entire present area of the American relief operations, in the country
reaching from the Dardanelles to the Caspian Sea, and south across Asia
Minor, Syria, And Mesopotamia eastward into Persia. Here political
conditions are chaotic. Anatolia, Armenia, Kurdistan, and Asia Minor are
under Mustafa Kemal Pasha, leader of the Turkish Nationalist party. Now that
the French are withdrawing from Cilicia, where they had assembled large
numbers of Armenians for protection -
"It is reported by absolutely trustworthy Americans that Turkish
Nationalists have proclaimed that the mosques and minarets destroyed in
their conflict with the French they will rebuild with the skulls of
Armenians. Women and children declare that they would choose death, in
whatever form it might come, to such a state of distress, of hopelessness,
and of perpetual terror, and yet no way of escape opens before them. Among
these distracted Christian peoples a state of panic prevails. Their safety
seems to lie only in flight. There appears to be no protection for them in
territory controlled by the Turkish Nationalists and the French protest
their going into French protest their going French Syria. They can not
immigrate to a foreign country, for the most of them are absolutely
destitute, and no country will receive them as refugees. They seem condemned
by circumstances beyond their control to certain death."
"As conditions now are it would seem that the giving of food and shelter
alone will not suffice for future protection. What seems to be impending
disaster to the unprotected Christian minorities under the control of the
Nationalist Turks must be averted or the wards of our philanthropy and care
may be destroyed under conditions of surpassing cruelty."
"If the contributions of past years are not to be wasted and our sacrificial
work come to nothing, we must take the next step of appealing to our own and
Allied governments to protect these threatened people. America is in a
position to secure the protection required if it acts promptly and
decisively. To achieve this she must act promptly and take the leadership in
this matter. She alone can with absolute political disinterestedness."
It is suggested that we insist that "England, France, and Italy, who have
incensed the Turk by depriving him of much of his choicest territory and
created in him a spirit of revenge," shall demand that exiled and menaced
peoples be restored to their homes and be protected there. To this end the
20.000.000 of people who contributed to the Near-East Relief "must follow
their gifts by action and by personal expression of determination that
something be done by our Government." So, continues the committee -
"In the name of that charity which knows no bounds of race or creed we urge
every one who reads these lines to write at once to his Senator and member
of Congress urging that early action be taken at Washington. No political
emergency can serve as an excuse for inaction on the part of our own
Government and the Allied governments. Each one should regard himself as an
agent to get others also to write that Washington may know and feel the true
heart of America."
"We do not assume to dictate to the President and to Congress what shall be
their method of attaining the end in view. We are certain that the means are
at their command to make it known to the Allied Powers that the people of
the United States look to them to end the Turkish destruction of Christian
peoples under their control, and we are equally sure of the goodwill and
humanity of the high officers of our Government; but if they are assured
that the public is back of them, their hands will be strengthened. What we
ask is that they bring home to the European Powers a realizing sense of the
fact that the American people are in earnest in their demands that these
people shall be saved from utter destruction."
We must not stand by and let the Armenians die, insists The
Congregationalist -
"The Allies have punished Germany with reparations, but the evil Turk seems
likely to resume his chronic sport of Christian-baiting, with only a murmur
of protest from the Western nations at whom he laughs in his sleeve. America
sends missionaries, and builds orphanages for the children of those whom the
dragon has slain, but America is helpless before the shrewd but unspeakable
Turk. It is our shame that it is so. It is time we did something to meet our
moral obligations to these weak ones who are the prey of race and religious
hate. Let the Church speak and demand action from the Government at
Washington. Let America speak with all the force that her prestige carries
in the councils of the nations. And let the nations that claim privileges in
the Near East be responsible for the safety of those who are in a peculiar
and tragic sense civilization's wards."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A hard copy of this article or hundreds of others from the time of the
Armenian Genocide can be found in The Armenian Genocide: News Accounts From
The American Press: 1915-1922
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Literary Digest for June 25, 1921
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"CHARITY MAY BIND UP WOUNDS and pour in the oil of consolation," but is it
not time that the systematic destruction of Christian peoples in the Near
East be made to cease? asks a special committee of the Near-East Relief
Association, which stands appalled at the threat of the Turks to rebuild
their mosques with Armenian skulls. "before it is too late," before this
dire threat can be carried into execution, the Association is sending a
warning to all members of Congress, to all churches and church assemblies,
and to 110.000 individuals who have contributed to the work of the
organization. Something more than charity is needed now. The danger of the
complete annihilation of peoples subject to Turkish rule is said to be
imminent, and only quick and concerted, we are told, can avert the tragedy.
A million Armenians have been slaughtered by the Turks, Professor Lepsius
testified before the Berlin District Court which recently tried and
acquitted the Armenian youth who assassinated Talaat Pasha, former Turkish
Grand Vizier. "The Armenians were systematically led to slaughter as soon as
the concentration-camps became overcrowded," the German professor is quoted
as saying in the news dispatches. "They were led out upon the desert, where
they were decimated in wholesale fashion. The object of the Turks was not to
exile the Armenians but to slaughter them in cold blood, the scheme being to
kill off a whole people." Thus the purpose of the Turkish Government is
revealed in the land of its ally in the war.
For centuries the minority populations in the Turkish domain have been
subjected to a deliberate process of extinction, we are reminded by the
American relief workers. Out of 1,850,000 Armenians living in Turkish
territory before the war there are said to be only 850,000 left. The rest
were butchered to make a "Turkish holiday." America has done much to relieve
the misery in the Near East, but "her task is not yet finished." For five
years the work of life-saving has continued, and nearly 1,000,000 human
beings, who otherwise would have perished, form a living memorial to
American aid. In this benevolent work approximately $60,000,000 have been
used by the Near-East Relief Association in the form of money, clothing,
supplies, shelter, food, medicines, medical care, and supervision.
But it is practically useless to stanch the flow of blood while the Turks
continue to slaughter their helpless victims, informed writers say. On
January 3, 1920, Leland Rex Robinson, who had spent some time in Persia and
the Caucasus as a member of a Near-East Relief Commission, wrote on The
Survey (New York): "Until America - or England - accepts the mandate for
Armenia (perhaps we should say the Caucasus rather than Armenia alone) there
is little hope that order can rise out of pandemonium. . . . Unless the
mandate is taken, relief work is three-fourths lost." In an official report
for the American Government when the advisability of an American mandate for
Armenia was under consideration, Maj.-Gen. James G. Harbord said:
"Mutilation, violation, torture, and death have left their haunting memories
in a hundred beautiful Armenian valleys, and the traveler in that region is
seldom free from the evidence of this most colossal crime of all the ages."
The Near-East Relief's manifesto, which is signed by a special committee
consisting of James L.Barton, chairman of the Association, and Secretary of
the American Board of Foreign Missions; Stanley White, Secretary of the
Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions, and Walter George Smith, of
Philadelphia, relates that "contrary to expectations, national conditions in
the Near East remain so threatening that it has been impossible to return
the hundreds of thousands of exiled refugees to their homes where they could
become self-supporting, or to gather the vast number of dependent orphans
into anything but temporary orphanages. On the contrary, renewed atrocities
have created additional hordes of refugees and added to the number of
dependent children faster than their needs can be met." The statement covers
the entire present area of the American relief operations, in the country
reaching from the Dardanelles to the Caspian Sea, and south across Asia
Minor, Syria, And Mesopotamia eastward into Persia. Here political
conditions are chaotic. Anatolia, Armenia, Kurdistan, and Asia Minor are
under Mustafa Kemal Pasha, leader of the Turkish Nationalist party. Now that
the French are withdrawing from Cilicia, where they had assembled large
numbers of Armenians for protection -
"It is reported by absolutely trustworthy Americans that Turkish
Nationalists have proclaimed that the mosques and minarets destroyed in
their conflict with the French they will rebuild with the skulls of
Armenians. Women and children declare that they would choose death, in
whatever form it might come, to such a state of distress, of hopelessness,
and of perpetual terror, and yet no way of escape opens before them. Among
these distracted Christian peoples a state of panic prevails. Their safety
seems to lie only in flight. There appears to be no protection for them in
territory controlled by the Turkish Nationalists and the French protest
their going into French protest their going French Syria. They can not
immigrate to a foreign country, for the most of them are absolutely
destitute, and no country will receive them as refugees. They seem condemned
by circumstances beyond their control to certain death."
"As conditions now are it would seem that the giving of food and shelter
alone will not suffice for future protection. What seems to be impending
disaster to the unprotected Christian minorities under the control of the
Nationalist Turks must be averted or the wards of our philanthropy and care
may be destroyed under conditions of surpassing cruelty."
"If the contributions of past years are not to be wasted and our sacrificial
work come to nothing, we must take the next step of appealing to our own and
Allied governments to protect these threatened people. America is in a
position to secure the protection required if it acts promptly and
decisively. To achieve this she must act promptly and take the leadership in
this matter. She alone can with absolute political disinterestedness."
It is suggested that we insist that "England, France, and Italy, who have
incensed the Turk by depriving him of much of his choicest territory and
created in him a spirit of revenge," shall demand that exiled and menaced
peoples be restored to their homes and be protected there. To this end the
20.000.000 of people who contributed to the Near-East Relief "must follow
their gifts by action and by personal expression of determination that
something be done by our Government." So, continues the committee -
"In the name of that charity which knows no bounds of race or creed we urge
every one who reads these lines to write at once to his Senator and member
of Congress urging that early action be taken at Washington. No political
emergency can serve as an excuse for inaction on the part of our own
Government and the Allied governments. Each one should regard himself as an
agent to get others also to write that Washington may know and feel the true
heart of America."
"We do not assume to dictate to the President and to Congress what shall be
their method of attaining the end in view. We are certain that the means are
at their command to make it known to the Allied Powers that the people of
the United States look to them to end the Turkish destruction of Christian
peoples under their control, and we are equally sure of the goodwill and
humanity of the high officers of our Government; but if they are assured
that the public is back of them, their hands will be strengthened. What we
ask is that they bring home to the European Powers a realizing sense of the
fact that the American people are in earnest in their demands that these
people shall be saved from utter destruction."
We must not stand by and let the Armenians die, insists The
Congregationalist -
"The Allies have punished Germany with reparations, but the evil Turk seems
likely to resume his chronic sport of Christian-baiting, with only a murmur
of protest from the Western nations at whom he laughs in his sleeve. America
sends missionaries, and builds orphanages for the children of those whom the
dragon has slain, but America is helpless before the shrewd but unspeakable
Turk. It is our shame that it is so. It is time we did something to meet our
moral obligations to these weak ones who are the prey of race and religious
hate. Let the Church speak and demand action from the Government at
Washington. Let America speak with all the force that her prestige carries
in the councils of the nations. And let the nations that claim privileges in
the Near East be responsible for the safety of those who are in a peculiar
and tragic sense civilization's wards."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A hard copy of this article or hundreds of others from the time of the
Armenian Genocide can be found in The Armenian Genocide: News Accounts From
The American Press: 1915-1922