Читать книгу The Armenian Crisis in Turkey онлайн
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Ex-Attorney-General of Massachusetts.
ISABEL SOMERSET
Lady Henry Somerset.
CYRUS HAMLIN
Founder of Robert College.
I. J. LANSING
Pastor Park Street Church, Boston.
JOSEPH COOK
Author and Lecturer.
WM. E. RUSSELL
Ex-Governor of Massachusetts.
JONATHAN A. LANE
Pres. Boston Merchants’ Association.
EXPLANATORY NOTE BY THE AUTHOR.
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These letters are written by men who can have no possible motive for misrepresenting the facts in the case, while, on the other hand, each writer subjected himself to personal danger by putting such statements upon paper and sending them through the mails. Several of the documents have gotten through Turkey by circuitous routes, in some instances having been sent by special messenger to Persia, and so on to this country. Others were never risked in the Turkish mails, but have come through the British post-office at Constantinople.
It must be borne in mind that no writer was an eye-witness of the actual massacre; nor could he have been, inasmuch as the whole region was surrounded by a military cordon during the massacre and for months after. The letters are largely based on the testimony of refugees from that region, or of Kurds and soldiers who participated in the butchery, and who had no hesitation in speaking about the affair in public or private until long after, when the prospect of a European investigation sealed their lips. Much of the evidence is, therefore, essentially first hand, having been obtained from eye-witnesses, by parties in the vicinity at the time, who are impartial, thoroughly experienced in sifting Oriental testimony, familiar with the Turkish and Armenian languages, and of the highest veracity. No one letter would have much force if taken alone, for it might be a large report of a small matter; but these sixteen letters are written independently of one another, at different times, and from seven different cities widely apart, five of them forming a circle around the scene of destruction. The evidence is cumulative and overwhelming.