A HERO OF ARMENIA

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 37, 6 November 1937, Page 16

A HERO OF ARMENIA

"Ross.")

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Armenia is a little republic of two and a half miilion souls bordering on T'urkey. The history of the Cliristian Uhurch in Armenia goes back to the beginning of the fourth ceutury. This ancient Christian country has suffered more than pen could tell at the hands of the Turks whose religion is Mohammedanism. Between 1917 and 1919 nearly 1,000,000 Armenian Christians were slaughtered by the Turks. Fivesixths of the men had been kiiled. Thus for century after century down to our own day the death march of Armenia has been heard trampmg, tramping, tramping. All this was just gruesome news to me, to be shuddered at and then forgottenj but wlien I met at a student .conference of 7000 delegates an Armenian student whose family had been wiped out by the Turks, newsprint accounts of tliese massacres became lieart-rending. Let me inxroduce you to a boy of fifteen who was numbered among these cortured and butchered people. it was a burningly^iot day in an Armenian summer of 1920. A group of Armemans were cowed in a corner before the bioody swords of the. Turks. Restless children were lashed into unconsciousuess by the whip of their hereuitary enemies. Women (all the men had been kiiled) were namelessly treatd. Among the handful oi people was Aram, a strong dauntiess Christian boy whose t'ather had been kiiled two years before. When a Turh roughly handled iiis mother, iie firmly stepped in front of her as a protection. In a flash a great arm caught him: "tio you would be the iirst, eh said the Turk. "I)o you call yourself a Christian?'' Aram bit his fips and said "Yes." "WeTi see about that. lt's to be a Mohammedan for you— or . . Aram stood sxlently. His braiu swam. His wiil faitered. Hia legs began to give way. But behind him was sixteen centuries of national suffering for Christ, and in his biood there was! the strength to hold on, and having done all, to stand. And he stood there that day ready for anything. "Give it to him," said a Turk to another who held the iustrument oi torture. "Give him the first dose." Quickly the soldiers (was it not "soldiers" who "plaite'd a crowh of thorns and pushed it . on the head of Aram's iford?) withdrew from * his pocket a pair of pincers. Grabbing the boy's nand, one oi; them tore olf tlie nails from twa fingers. Aram involuntariiy winced, but soon ,pulled himsfelf together. His mother screameu. "JNever mind, mother. Father is with me and I will be as braye as he." Refusing to give up Christ for Moliomet, they ripped ofE more finger nails. Still the boy stood his ground. 'lhen they lacerated hia Hcsh with a whip. "Take him to th© posts," cried a Turk. "He shall turn though it takes the whole afternoon to force him.'' Four soldiers carried him to the posts where his naked body was tied by hands and feet. They lau^hed devilishly. The sun mercilessly beat upon his tace. The fires of hell seemed to be burning his fingers off. Flies by the thousand added to his torment. In his agony Aram saw the faces of his dead father, his demented mother, and his crucified Lord. His lips moved in unuttered prayer, "Are you through with your Christ?" The Turk received only a faint answer: "No." "Change or die. 1 give you a minute," thundered the Turk. "Change or die." It was a scream of frenzied hatred. The lad could only ,part his lips in a dying effort to reply. J)own tiashed the sword. "AJlah 1 What a Turk he would have made," said the Mohammedan. Let me add a word. My Armenian student friend wrote me a letter after the conference. It ib discoloured with much use. 1 tuni to it" when the sin of compromise, cowardice, and bitterness threatens to stain me. Praying to be saved from hatiug the Turks, "the natural enemies of my country," he say s, "they are to be pitied more than hated because by their religious fanaticism they are digging their own graves. They do not know what they are doing so are to be forgiven. The Turks should receive the light of the Gospel, and the Armenians must bring in their share of this great work of Christ."0