CHAPTER XXVI.
SO-CALLED ARMENIAN REVOLUTIONISTS.
1. Armenia's Appeal to Europe Considered Rebellion. As the natural result of Christian civilization, the Armenians could not help cherishing in their hearts the sacred ambition of freedom, as a living plant could not help bursting into life under the necessary conditions of nature. Being oppressed and deprived of this human privilege, they could not help sighing under the heavy burden of Turkish persecutions and Kurdish outrages. Who can blame them for feeling such pain and pleading for any help that might be offered?
The presentation of their deplorable condition before the representatives of the Great Powers, as they did in the Berlin Conference in 1878, was simply to implore their help in suppressing the Kurdish and Circassian cruelties, and obliging the porte to regard the promises of reform, which were entirely cast into oblivion, especially after learning that the European governments had repeatedly shown themselves anxious in securing these promises of the Sultans and pretending zealousness for their fulfilment.
A pamphlet lately published under the title of "England's Responsibility Towards Armenia," by Canon McCall of the Anglican Church, contains evidence enough to prove from the Blue Books of the
193
