726 



TURKEY. 



leather for 49,100,000 piasters, wool for 48,500,- 

 000 piasters, figs for 43,000,000 piasters, olive oil 

 for 42,500,000 piasters, cocoons for 38,500,000 

 piasters, gall nuts for 36,200,000 piasters, and 

 mohair for 35,500,000 piasters. 



Communications. The railroads open to 

 traffic at the close of 1893 had a total length of 

 1,852 miles, of which 852 miles were in Europe 

 and 920 miles in Asia Minor. A railroad from 

 Jaffa to Jerusalem, built by a French company, 

 was opened on Sept. 26, 1892. Another from 

 Haifa to Damascus is being constructed with 

 English capital. The concession for Anatolian 

 railroads has been granted to Germans, who will 

 extend the Angora line to Csesarea, and build 

 lines between Smyrna, Konia, and Eskisher. In 

 Europe, Ottoman companies, supported by 

 French and German capital, are building lines 

 between Salonica and Constantinople, and Sal- 

 onica and Monastir. The Government is desir- 

 ous of nationalizing all the European lines, and 

 has entered into negotiations with the companies 

 and the bondholders' commission. 



The postal traffic in 1889 was 7,284,000 inter- 

 nal and 2,949,000 international letters, 119,000 

 cards, and 1,286,000 circulars and journals. 



The telegraphs had a length of 20,140 miles, 

 with 31,700 miles of wire, excluding 375 miles of 

 cable. The receipts in 1889 were 51,615,526 pi- 

 asters; expenses, 17,669,044 piasters. 



The Army and Navy. The peace strength of 

 the army is reported as 230,000 men, though not 

 more than 180,000 are effective. The war 

 strength is reckoned at 800,000 men. The stand- 

 ing army is to be armed with Mauser rifles of 

 7'65 caliber. 



The armored fleet in 1893 was made up of 3 

 casemated armor-clads, 2 floating batteries, 7 cor- 

 vettes, 1 monitor. 1 gunboat. 2 river gunboats, 2 

 torpedo vessels, and 14 first-class and 7 second- 

 class gunboats, having a total armament of 103 

 guns exceeding 10 centimetres and 216 of smaller 

 caliber. 



Political Trials of Armenians. The Ar- 

 menian National Committees, established in va- 

 rious capitals, are striving to secure political 

 autonomy for their nation through the interven- 

 tion of the powers. To rouse European public 

 opinion and create sympathy for their national 

 aspirations, it is necessary not only that private 

 wrongs, administrative oppression, and miscar- 

 riages of justice should be committed against 

 Armenians, but that their compatriots should 

 make illegal demonstrations, which the Ottoman 

 authorities are very anxious to repress, in order 

 to avert the interference of the powers. In the 

 early part of 1893 an outcry was raised in the 

 province of Sivas against the Vali, Kosrev 

 Pasha, and seditious speeches and placards gave 

 occasion for arrests and incited lawless Kurds to 

 acts of robbery and wanton violence in Ca3sarea, 

 Mersivan, Yuzgat, and other places. Riots 

 took place, in which both Armenians and Mus- 

 sulmans were injured. The local authorities, 

 pretending that the Armenians were conspiring 

 to manufacture dynamite bombs and destroy 

 property, arrested hundreds. Two professors in 

 the evangelical seminary at Mersivan were ar- 

 rested, and soon afterward the evangelical girls' 

 school in Mersivan was burned by a Mohamme- 

 dan mob. As both were American missionary 



institutions, the United States minister sent an 

 attache, Harry R. Newberry, to inquire. He 

 reported that the Armenian professors in the 

 American college had introduced politics into 

 their sermons. 



The British Government, which has made the 

 Armenian reforms enjoined by the Berlin Treaty 

 its especial care, admonished the Porte to treat 

 the Armenians with justice and humanity. Many 

 of the prisoners had been condemned, and it was 

 said that witnesses had been suborned and pre- 

 tended confessions wrung from some of them by 

 torture. The Porte ordered all the cases re- 

 moved to Angora, the residence of the Vali, 

 Abeddin Pasha, in whose intelligence and im- 

 partiality the Europeans had confidence, and 

 who had therefore been constituted a special 

 commissioner for Armenian affairs. The Porte 

 agreed to pay full compensation to the American 

 Missionary Society for the building that was 

 burned. The British and the German Govern- 

 ments interceded for the two Protestant profess- 

 ors, Pastor Garabed Thumaian and Oanes Ka- 

 yayan. Most of the prisoners were released on 

 bail or on parole, and many were never tried. 

 On June 12 the two teachers were condemned 

 to death. The Vali urged the authorities at 

 Constantinople to pardon them, as the sentence 

 was excessive. There were 15 other persons who 

 received the same sentence. On appeal, the sen- 

 tences were confirmed, and 5 of the prisoners, 

 who were convicted of common-law crimes, were 

 executed. Thumaian and Kavavan were par- 

 doned, but banished from Turkish dominions, 

 and the sentences of all the rest who were found 

 guilty of sedition were commuted, and most of 

 them were deported to Arabia or Tripoli. 



In August the Gregorian patriarch, Ashikian, 

 who has several times threatened to resign when 

 disputes have arisen between him and the Porte, 

 while the Armenian agitators have constantly 

 denounced him as a foe to their political aspira- 

 tions, laid down his office because the Porte re- 

 fused to summon the biennial National Assem- 

 bly of 20 clergymen and 120 laymen for the 

 election of the National Council of 12 clerical 

 and 12 lay members which looks after the eccle- 

 siastical and educational institutions, the admin- 

 istration of justice and the marriage laws, wills, 

 inheritances, etc., in the Armenian Gregorian 

 community, and advises the patriarch in eccle- 

 siastical and national affairs. The Sultan, as 

 usual, refused to accept his resignation. Khri- 

 mian, Archbishop of Jerusalem, was chosen 

 Catholicos of the Armenian Church in May, 

 1892. The Turkish Government, which had 

 formerly deposed him from the patriarchal see 

 at Constantinople and deprived him of his rights 

 as an Ottoman subject, detained him at Jerusa- 

 lem, but finally, in June, 1893, allowed him to 

 depart for Etchmiadzin. 



Pacification of Arabia. The Military Gov- 

 ernor of Yemen, Ahmed Fenzi Pasha, has thor- 

 oughly pacified that province, where an agita- 

 tion against the caliphate, fostered by the Sul- 

 tan's secret enemies in other parts of Turkey, 

 brought on a general insurrection. He has also 

 occupied the mountainous district of Saada, 

 which has often served as a base for insurrec- 

 tionary forces, not only in Yemen, but in the 

 northern coast provinces of Assir and Hedjaz, 



