Photo by Stephen Van R. Trowbridge 

 KURDISH CHILDREX OF THE CITY 0E AIXTAB 



however, no civil or military advance- 

 ment unless they accepted Islam. 



The Ottoman Empire was organized 

 into millets, a religious division, there 

 being an Orthodox millet, a Gregorian 

 millet, a Catholic millet, and a Jewish 

 millet, and in the nineteenth century a 

 Protestant millet. Each of these millets 

 has its head, who is its representative or 

 ambassador at the Porte. This is not a 

 purely ecclesiastical position, like that of 

 the Catholicos, but is really a diplomatic 

 and political office, and demands intel- 

 lectual rather than spiritual qualifica- 

 tions. 



PATRIARCH XOT ALWAYS RELIGIOUS 



Therefore the patriarch of the Arme- 

 nians is not necessarily nor by any means 

 always a religious man, although an occa- 

 sional patriarch, like Ismirlian, is worthy 

 of great reverence. It is in this entan- 

 glement with politics, and in its ancient 

 ritual in a dead language that lie the 



dangers to the Gregorian Church, namely, 

 formality and lack of application to daily 

 living. One of the best things that Pro- 

 testant missionaries have accomplished 

 in Turkey is revivifying this ancient and 

 noble institution. It will readily be seen 

 that when an Armenian leaves the Gre- 

 gorian to join a Catholic or Protestant 

 Church he in some sense loses touch with 

 his nation, for nation or millet and 

 church are practically one in Turkey. 

 For this reason, if for no other, all mis- 

 sionary work within the church is better 

 than that done outside. 



Turkey governed very well, as govern- 

 ments went, in the first centuries of her 

 rule, and the Armenians were not un- 

 happy. They were not admitted to the 

 army, but paid a head tax instead; but 

 many of their men, cleverer than the 

 Turk in finance, became advisers to roy- 

 alty. The Armenians formed the body 

 of industrious farmers in Asia Minor 

 and were useful business men in the 



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