Air '", 



Photo by Stephen Van R. Trowbridge 



ARMENIAN BRIDESMAIDS 



"Hrypsime ran off to join the Red Cross. When I asked whether her mother knew, 

 she shrugged and said: 4 My father gave his life for revolution; why should I try to save 

 mine?'" (see text, page 341). 



Britain, and that England was more anx- 

 ious to maintain the "sick man" on his 

 tottering throne than to help his op- 

 pressed subjects. One finds considerable 

 bitterness against England among the 

 Armenians. 



A CONCERT THAT FAILED 



The article in the Berlin treaty has 

 remained a dead letter. No reforms were 

 introduced, and the appeals of the Ar- 

 menians and their friends in Europe have 

 failed to move the Powers to effective 

 action. The ironically named "Concert 

 of Europe" has never been ready to act 

 together. At one time Germany, and at 

 another time Russia, refused to act ; but 

 between them they sharply irritated the 

 Turkish sultan against his Armenian sub- 

 jects, and he began a definite policy of 

 massacre against these harmless and use- 

 ful subjects. The massacre of i895-'96, 



that at Van in 1906, are some of the 

 familiar illustrations of this policy, and 

 have been proved to have been decreed 

 by authority. The purpose of the massa- 

 cres seems to have been to reduce the 

 number of Armenians and to take pos- 

 session of their property. This policy 

 has, of course, driven the law-abiding 

 Armenians into revolutionary societies, 

 which worked for the downfall of Abdul 

 Ham id and have earnestly striven for the 

 freeing of the Armenian provinces. 



Independent of the massacres, which, 

 alas, have been of too frequent occur- 

 rence, what are the grievances of the 

 Armenians against the Ottoman govern- 

 ment ? 



ARMENIAN GRIEVANCES 



They may be divided into two classes : 

 those which arise from the deliberate 

 policy of the government and those 



353 



