[1]

THE ARMENIANS

By
C. F. DIXON-JOHNSON

“Whosoever does wrong to a Christian
or Jew shall find me his accuser on
the day of judgment” (EL KORAN).

Printed and Published by
GEO. TOULMIN & SONS, LTD.,
Northgate, Blackburn.

1916.

[2]

The following pages were first read as a paper before the “Sociétéd’Etudes Ethnographiques.” They have since been amplified and are nowbeing published at the request of a number of friends, who believe thatthe public should have an opportunity of judging whether or not “theArmenian Question” has another side than that which has been recentlyso assiduously promulgated throughout the Western World.

Though the championship of Greek, Bulgarian and other similar“Christian, civilized methods of fighting,” as contrasted with “Moslematrocities” in the Balkans and Asia Minor, has been so strenuouslyundertaken by Lord Bryce and others, the more recent developments in theNear East may perhaps already have opened the eyes of a great manythinking people to the realization that, in sacrificing the traditionalfriendship of the Turk to all this more or less sectarian clamour, Britishdiplomacy has really done nothing better than to exchange the solid andadvantageous reality for a most elusive and unreliable, if not positivelydangerous, set of shadows.

It seems illogical that the same party which recalled the officials (andamong them our present War Minister) appointed by Lord Beaconsfield toassist the Turkish Government in reforming their administration andcollecting the revenue in Asia Minor, and which on the advent of theYoung Turks refused to lend British Administrators to whom ample andplenary powers were assured, should now, in its eagerness to vilify theTurk, lose sight of their own mistakes which have led in the main to theconditions of which it complains, and should so utterly condemn its ownformer policy. Whatever hardships the Armenians may within recentyears have suffered, the responsibility for them must surely to a greatextent rest with the well-meaning idealists who, instead of trying to improveexisting conditions, inspired their helpless dupes with impracticableaspirations which were bound to lead to disaster.

[4]

The writer desires to thank those authors and travellers whose workshe has so freely quoted, and upon whose information he has relied forthe historical and geographical notes, as well as Professor Henry Léon,Mr. Robert Fraser, and other friends, who have afforded him their mostvaluable assistance.

The reasons for dealing with the subject at this particular junctureare given in the text and will, he hopes, prove satisfactory to thereader.

C. F. DIXON-JOHNSON.

Croft-on-Tees, Yorkshire.
February, 1916.