TURKBY. 



and 11 who remained in confinement were set 

 free later, but 11 notable* had died in i.rison. 

 The foreign commissioners were now able to 

 discover and ii '"' Turkish n-inmi- 



aion Armenian witnesses who could throw light 

 on the Sasun horror*. Sentences of death that 

 bad been panted by a court-martial at Kr/in- 

 irhuin U|wn liana and sentences >f im- 



prisonment fur hf- <>r l->ng terms passes I upon 

 Iff others were continued in .lanuary l>y the 

 Obnit of Cassation in Constantinople. 



ID National Assembly fleeted 



Monslgnor l/mirlian. an outspoken champion 



H-niitn librrtif*. to H tin' Patriarch at 



Constantinople, tir-t refused to 



n him u ii taw he would engage to conform 



DdMt to the wishes of U Mnent. 



He ileadilv refused, and in tin end WAS accepted 

 without pledge*, and was enthroned on Jan. 0, 

 1806. In his address he said that fidelity to the 

 Government should be based upon tin- con vie- 

 lion that the Armenians would enjoy al>solut<> 

 security for their honor, their lives. "and their 

 property. All the Armenian hishoits were in 

 prison or exile. The Archbishop of Marash had 

 been sentenced for harboring rebels; the Arch- 

 bishop of Zeitun was convi. il on charges of 



i tip a monastery, delivering prisoners from 

 jail, and presiding over a revolutionary commit- 

 tee; the Hi-hop of Mush was accused of inciting 

 the Armenian population to sedition; and the 

 HishojHof Hadjin. Kemakh,Bulanck,and Adana 

 and toe Abbots of Fernuz and Surp-Arakelotz 

 were restrained of their liberty on similar 

 . , ,-_-. i, '!''.. B;sh,.p ,.f taabgir, npoted to be 

 an active revolutionary worker, was first removed 

 to Diarbekir. and when he again incited the 

 people he was exiled to Jerusalem. The new 

 patriarch reprimanded the Bishop of Adrian- 

 ople for signing, at the solicitation of the Otto- 

 man authorities, an address to the Sultan repro- 

 bating the disloyalty of the Armenians of Asia. 

 Reside* the prelates, 55 priests and deacons and 

 many other leading members of the community 

 were undergoing imprisonment or exile. Pram 

 the beginning of 1895 the arrests in < 'TIM ant i- 

 nople and in Asia became more frequent. It 

 was estimated that nearly 3.000 Armenians were 

 political prisoners in the various provinces. 

 The investigation of the Sasun affair and the 



B of European coercion to secure the 



of Article LXI of the Berlin Treaty 

 the Ottoman authorities to relax the. 

 of some of their repressive measures, 

 though the increased activity of the Armenian 

 agitators compelled the police to be more vigi- 

 lant than ever. The Huntchagists seized the 

 opportunity to promote their revolutionary 

 gfcaiBU by unscrupulous methods. Some of 

 warn were supposed to have laid a plot to mur- 

 wrpr. K<! ward Kiggs and two .. rican 



Marias at Marsovan who had devoted their 

 a to toe education of Annenian youth, mere- 

 ly in order to fasten the blame upon the Turks 

 Jjd provoke the intervention of the I 



ovprnmeiit The revolutionists are re- 

 hav committed inhuman outrages, 

 "Wctoring the flesh of men and 

 and tonttin* gunpowder in the wound, that the 

 ** J urk * .frjl shock the Christian 

 world by the atrocity of their retaliation. 



mmissjon appointed I'V tin- Sultan to 

 consider a scheme for administrative ivforius j u 

 Armenia liegan its sitting <-n April _':',. in C,n- 

 slantinttple. under the presidency of Ti. 

 Pasha. i- of Crete. A pro 



inenian reforms drawn up by the .. 



1 Britain, and liussia, M.-I 

 : to the Sultan mi May 1 1. i 

 ommended that the names of valjs t,> I,,- ;,,,. 

 pointed should lie siilunitted fr the appr^ 



the powers: that the boundaries of th* \ 



and their snoilivi<i..ns ! altere.l sn as \,, 

 the administrative districts as ho?n 

 population us possible; that a gcndarnn 

 recruite<l from the Mohainmedan and Ch 

 population alike; criminal con 

 prison inspection introduced: the col|e< -t 

 taxes intrusted to local <ni<-ials. and a Rhi 

 tained for l<K-al administration; that tin 

 ing of tithes and the rnrrf-c lie abolished : aiul 

 that the Kurdish Elamadieh cavalry should no| 



uniforms or carry arms except wi,. 

 en-ising or serving wi'ih the regu! 

 troops. The reforms were to be 

 under the direction of a high commi 

 appointi-d with the approval of the ; 

 un-ler the supervision of a permanent Commit- 

 tee of Control sitting at tin? Sublime 1' 

 consist ,,f ;{ Mohammcilans and \\ Chr; 

 (>ne third of the administrative, judicial. ; 

 and other offices should bo Christian-. 

 Christian mittes^urifs, kaimakams, and mudirs 

 should be pla-ed over the sat. 

 communal circles in which the Chri-ti;r 

 most numerous, and should have .Mohanr 

 assistants, while in vilayets, sanjak-. 

 nahies in which the governor or mutest 

 kaimakam or mayor is a Mussulman h. 

 have a Christian assistant. As a prelim ii 

 the reforms, the Sultan was exp< 

 all Armenians convicted of purely jKiliti- 

 fenses, restore exiles to their lioincs ami 

 erty, and indemnifv the victims of Sasun. 



l*he Porte replied to the memorandum 

 ambassadors on June 3, objecting to t): 

 posed interference of the powers in the appoint- 

 ment of a high commissioner and to the minute 

 and specific form of the reforms dem 

 many of which were pronounced impraci 

 <>n June 16, after a new Cabinet had !>. 

 pointed, a fresh reply was given in which the 

 <>tt<rnan Government accepted the refer 

 principle, but requested a discussion of il 

 tails, and denied that the Berlin Tr> 

 upon the powers the right to demand the 

 es formulated in the scheme. 



Hjcvad Pasha, the Grand Vi/ier. wa- 

 missed on June 8, and Said I 

 Vi/ier, was appointed in his stead. Turkhan 

 Pasha became Minister of Foreign A Hairs in 

 Said's place; the other minist. 

 committee of ministers, composed of Turkhan 

 Pasha, Ilalil Hi fat Pasha. Ki/ /uhdi 



Pasha, and Tevfik Pasha, was appointed i 

 vise a scheme of Armenian reforms in < 

 tion with the project of the powers Shakir 

 Pa^ha was appointed to superintend tin 

 cation of the reforms that should fin;.: 

 adopted. On Aug. 1 the Porte mad< 

 reply to the powers, proposing to appoint 

 tian assessors to assist the valis, to inspe' 



