Page:History of the Armenians in India.djvu/18

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only this, but subscriptions were opened and funds were raised for the relief of the destitute and homeless survivors. The Armenians everywhere mourned the loss of their martyred brethren at Sassoon, and special prayers were said and a requiem service held, for the repose of their souls, at all Armenian churches throughout the world. The Armenian community of Calcutta convened a meeting on 21st January 1895, at the Theatre Royal, to which sympathizers of other nationalities were invited, "for the purpose of taking into consideration the recent sad events in Turkish Armenia." Several resolutions were passed, and in due course a petition was drawn up and sent to England and the other signatory Powers of the Treaty of Berlin. A subscription was also opened here for the relief of distressed Armenians in Turkey, which was liberally subscribed to, not only by the Armenians, but by the leading European mercantile and trading houses.

Hopes were entertained that the Great Powers would force Turkey to carry out the much-needed reforms in Armenia ; but it was to England that the Armenians chiefly looked for help and deliverance from the iron yoke of the Turk, which threatened to crush, if not annihilate, them. Not until the country was in a state of anarchy, and after a series of terrible massacres, in which defenceless Armenians were mercilessly butchered, have the Powers and America shown their practical