French publicist Henri Rochefort (1830-1913) was the editor of La Patrie newspaper. In 1913, he wrote an article entitled “The Great Victim” in his newspaper (the article was printed as “Adaptation” 1913, N.23 3 February), which Hayern Aysor presents to its readers.

THE GREAT VICTIM

One may think that all Armenians were born to be tortured and massacred. They are talking about the Armenian massacres, making it seem like it is the premiere of an opera. The atrocities that are taking place every day in Turkish Asia have become a sort of ongoing action, and newspapers are rarely mentioning it as unnoticeable events. They report without commentaries and simply say that the atrocious Muslims have tortured two priests for no reason and on the smallest occasion, and then those impious torturers have cut their tongues. Our editorial office received telegrams stating how young girls were desecrated and then “stripped”, and nobody was amazed.

Four Balkan states have already been liberated from the Ottoman yoke, and Armenia is the only one that must see its compatriots stripped and with cut tongues since it is not part of the federation of the Balkans.

It seems as though those poor Turks have the right to receive compensation for being deprived of everything that they have stolen from other nations, and the allies have talked to them in this language: “We will steal from you the countries that belonged to us and instead we will leave you Armenia against which you can do all the impious acts that you can imagine.”

You can imagine how those wolves can take advantage of that “permission”. However, I don’t think it’s possible for people like the king of Greece, the czar of Bulgaria and the king of Serbia who are almost Frenchmen, can leave a nation in suffering and horrible slavery, a nation that can be taken from the hands of killers after the glorious victories.

I don’t want to talk about Europe, which is uniquely egoistic. Having financial interests in Turkey, it maintains relations with Abdul Hamid and shakes his bloody hands with tenderness.

The great powers have villainy in their bloods, and nothing will change their villainy.

However, can the brave nations of the Balkans, the heroism of which is admired around the world and which are enjoying their liberation, care to take a look at their brothers who are perhaps more persecuted than they were at the time?

Mankind is raising voices about revenge against the scoundrels that dishonor mankind.

A long time ago, Russia, the “owner” of the Caucasus today, was obliged to advance its conquests to Armenia, which it had to annex. Now, Armenia wouldn’t be a stage for horrors taking place again and again and horrors that nobody knows about.

Unquestionably, something horrible is going to happen in that misfortunate and beautiful country. Blood is going to flow there as always because after the fall of Hamid’s regime, people believed that they would see Turkey respect the lives of men, women and ladies, but now the world is disappointed with all this. The new government only encouraged the slaughterers. Indeed, it’s not the same, it’s worse.

Source: BLACK BOOK (NOTABLE FOREIGNERS ON THE CRIMES OF THE TURKS AND THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE)