Islam, Turkey, and Armenia, and How They Happened/Chapter XIX
CHAPTER XIX.
THE TURKISH CENSORSHIP.
One of the most ridiculous, injurious and deliberate movements against liberty is the present system and practice of Turkish censorship. It shows the ignorance of the ruling race, the severity of the enslaved officers and the miserable condition of the oppressed people.
1. The Censor. An infidel Turk, or, it may be a Christian subject, a wretched slave to the arbitrary will of his ruler, is appointed and forced to examine all the publications and report the result to the higher officer. Such a one must be acquainted with the languages of the country, also with French, and especially with English, which is supposed by the Turk to be the most dangerous means of circulating the seeds of freedom.
We are in a large provincial city, the weekly mail has come, all the books, newspapers and letters for Christians are brought before the Pasha (governor), to be examined before their delivery. The stern Pasha is in his arm-chair smoking his cigarette, several officers are before him to attend his excellent will. The examiner, most probably a Christian young man, is called and seated between the Pasha and the watching officers. The mail-bag is emptied upon the floor, and everything is handed one by one to this young man for examination. His eyes are upon the paper, and all other eyes are upon him closely watching him, not to miss any change of expression on his face. The Pasha says, "What is that paper?" The examiner says, "London Times." "Oh! the cursed paper, we are ordered to withhold it; give it to me." "What is the next?" "Independent." "What does that name mean?" "It means, not subject to the control of others." "Why, that must be a revolutionist paper; let me have it too." "What is this one?" "Science." "Read the contents," "* * * New Discoveries in Bagdad, the capital of the ancient Assyria." "Cut that article and give it to me. What is that other one?" "The Congregationalist." "What?" "The Con-gre-ga-tion-al-ist." "Cursed be that long name; to whom is it directed?" "To Mrs. Cornellia Statenville." "Who is that devil-named man?" "She is a missionary, a hat-wearer." "Curse their hats; what is next?" "An Armenian paper published in Constantinople." "Let me see the seal of the press-official * * * Six copies in one bundle. Oh! crafty hogs! they don't pay their taxes, and sit together and read six papers in one week and learn rebellion against the Highest Wealth (Turkish Government). Put it in the bag and pass to the letters. Be careful now, I had a telegram that giaours are trying to pass arms in air-ships (balloons); there must be something in these letters about that satanic scheme." The letters are examined with greater care, and woe be unto him in whose letter any shadow of suspicion is imagined.
2. Censorship of Press. The manuscript of any book must go to the press-officer, who is the president of a committee charged with the sacred duty of ruling over the thoughts, speeches and writings of millions of human beings. The same transactions must be repeated before each edition of the same book. There were so many books officially sanctioned five to fifteen years ago that they are confiscated and prohibited now. This shows that the burden of tyranny is growing heavier. All the books sent from foreign countries must go to the same office, be carefully examined and withheld if some injurious thing is imagined. Any kind of history, geography, even cyclopedias containing articles about Armenia, Turkey, Mohametan religion, etc., are confiscated.
All the unofficial newspapers, Moslem or non-Moslem, must be published in Constantinople, and each proof-sheet of every paper must first go to the censor in order to be examined and corrected, and detained if he deems proper. On every occasion of the Sultan's anniversary, or of the commencement services of the government schools, the papers are expected and even demanded to give full pages in praise of the wisdom and mercy of the Sultan in the official style of the palace slaves. "The late Shah of Persia has died of dropsy." "M. Carnot, of France, has suddenly died of heart disease." Many viziers who have been strangled in the palace were reported in the papers as "died a natural death from sickness to which he was subject a log time, and in spite of all the skill of the doctors could not be saved." These false reports are in all the papers, religious, scientific or political; they are forced to announce these things for their existence, and they do it under the title of "Official News."
The endless reports of these last Armenian massacres which have defiled the whole country from border to border, did not pass beyond being "a small local disturbance in such a place, in which two Moslems and three Armenians were killed, and which was at once suppressed by the soldiers of our gracious Sultan." "Cholera has broken out in such a place, but thanks to the attempts of our gracious Sultan it was immediately controlled and health restored." "A tremendous earthquake occurred in certain places, but thanks to the endless graces and wisdom of our Sultan there was no loss of life but three, and a few wounded." "This year, through the grace of our Sultan, the crops seem to be excellently good." Thus the unfortunate country with all its population and possibilities is flooded by the overflowing stream of "the endless graces" of the Sultan.
3. Other Illustrations that Touch Directly on Religious Liberty. From the International Sunday School Lessons of 1893 the title of "Sorrow in the Palace" (Esth. 4:1-9), was suppressed, because there can be no sorrow in the Palace, which is called "the region of holy happiness." Also the titles of "Hope in Distress" (Psalms, 38:8-15), "Wicked Devices Frustrated" (Psalms, 33:10-22), and many others, were ordered to be left out. From the religious songs the words "crown," "throne," "fighting," "fortress," "soldiers," "victory," "home-land," "trumpet," "kingdom," "enemy," "war," etc., are all stricken out, and all the songs expressing Christian warfare or citizenship or union are canceled. The printing of religious books has been objected to once, on the ground that after having been allowed to have the Bible the Christian subjects have no need of other books. Copies of "Pilgrim's Progress" were confiscated with the idea that they show to the Christian subjects some way to escape from Turkey to a Christian land, from the City of Destruction to Heaven—not an incorrect comparisons however. "The Letters to Families" was stopped with the thought that it might contain something against the government, as it bears the name "letters." A booklet called "The Epistle to the Galatians" was supposed to be a special secret letter to the Christians in Galata (a quarter in Constantinople and a center for Armenians), and the book was stopped. The policemen were sent to the Christian church at Galata to arrest St. Paul, who speaks so deliberately about "the deliverance of this present evil world," and advises his men to "stand fast in the liberty, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage." It took much effort and trouble to convince and send these men back, who were more foolish than the ancient Galatians.
The abject ignorance and malice of the censor is best illustrated by the following fact: When he saw in an English book "H2 O," the formula of water (two hydrogen, one oxygen), he supposed it to be a secret emblem against the Turkish Government, and after long meditations and consultations he solved it to mean "Hamid the 2nd (present Sultan) is zero!" and he insisted that he was correct in his discovery.
The dark shadow of ignorance, the nest of all iniquities, is the resting place where "the pearl of ages" is very anxious to hide himself and his subjects, in spite of the enlightenment of this century. The Moslem population is the same stupid and lazy Tartaric race—only they so surpass their fathers in the addition of hellish horrors upon horrors as to put the devil in the shade. They show no sign of consciousness of their wretched condition. Some individuals sparks glowing here and there are at once put out and the national suicide still goes on, and the suffering of the Christian subjects can never be realized. Under all their bondage, intellectual slavery, blackmailing, poverty and persecution they are groaning for liberty. But, alas! the world seems totally deaf to their cries and sighing! It is a mystery of Divine Providence how the Darkness should be permitted to rule the Light, and a greater mystery that the most civilized nations and governments—the supposed champions of Liberty—would take such a barbarous nation as the Turks for their friend, and such a tyrant, the greatest enemy of Christian civilization, for their ally!