Photo by Stephen Van R. Trowbridge 



A STREET SCENE IN THE CITY OE MARASH 



Marash is the principal city of the sanjak of the same name, not far from Aleppo. It is 

 famous for its trade in oriental rugs and has a large Armenian population 



the Rayahs were released from their 

 special tax and allowed to enter the army. 

 There were undoubtedly a good many 

 changes for the better made after the 

 constitution, but the old habits of cor- 

 ruption, of contempt for the Rayah, of 

 leniency to the Kurd, and of general in- 

 efficiency remained. Armenians in 1909 

 were sadly shaking their heads and 

 prophesying that the Young Turk party 

 would fail, when came the counter-revo- 

 lution, Abdul Hamid's attempt to repos- 

 sess himself of the power. With su- 

 preme cunning he planned a series of 

 massacres that should forever discredit 

 the Young Turk party in Europe. In 

 many cases the governors refused to exe- 

 cute the massacres, but in Cilicia they 

 took place — a sickening succession of 

 horrors. 



The Armenians, infinitely saddened, 

 reluctantly abandoned their hope of free- 

 dom through the Turk. Emigration be- 

 gan in considerable numbers to America, 

 and in still larger numbers to Russia. 



RUSSIA S ARMENIAN POLICIES 



Russia had long been the possessor of 

 an Armenian question, too, and had 

 sought to make Russians of its Armenian 

 subjects in Transcaucasia. Its policy at 

 first was one of russification. In 1896 

 Mr. Hodgetts quotes an Armenian priest 

 of Etchmiadzin as follows : 



"The great difficulty we Armenians 

 have today is to get education. We are an 

 ancient race, with a noble literature and 

 a great cultural history behind us; but 

 everything is being done to undermine 

 that culture, to reduce us to the condition 

 of brutes, to make us learn Russian, for- 

 get and neglect our own language, and 

 thus become assimilated by Russia. But 

 the Russians are intellectually, culturally, 

 and racially our inferiors, and we mean to 

 do all we can to retain our superiority.'' 



In 1903 the Russian government de- 

 spoiled the sanctuary of Etchmiadzin, 

 carrying away coin and plate and taking 

 over farms and lands belonging to the 



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