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Christian element, but had yielded to their chivalrous feelings and
allowed the Christians to live. Had the Turks done this bit of
cleaning up at a time when nobody could protest, there would
have been an easy task now for the heads of the Turkish Govern-
ment.”

But there is even more than this, if we may credit an extract
quoted from perhaps, the ablest propagator in Europe of Pan-
German ideas, Friedrich Naumann. What he maintained was this:

“If we should take into consideration merely the violent massacre
of from 80,00 to 100,000 Armenians, we can come to but one
opinion. We must absolutely condemn, with all anger and vehe-
mence, both the assassins and their instigators.” But, he contin-
ues, the Turk is ?ghting for his existence. “We believe, despite the
indignation which this barbarism arouses in us, that the Turks are
defending themselves legitimately; and, before anything else, we
see in the Armenian question and Armenian massacres a matter
of internal Turkish policy; merely an episode of the agony
through which a great empire is passing, which does not propose
to let itself die without making a last attempt to save itself by
bloodshed.” “Just as little as the ancient Roman state could toler-
ate the Nazarene’s religion, just as little can the Turkish Empire
tolerate any representation of Western free Christianity among
its subjects. The danger for Turkey in the Armenian question is
one of extinction. For this reason she resorts to an act of a barba-
rous Asiatic state; she has destroyed the Armenians to such an
extent that they will not be able to manifest themselves as a po-
litical force for a considerable period. A horrible act, certainly, an
act of political despair, shameful in its details, but still a piece of
political history, in the Asiatic manner… In spite of the displeas-
ure which the German Christian feels at these accomplished
facts, he has nothing to do except quietly to heal the wounds so
far as he can, and then to let matters take their course. For a long
time our policy in the Orient has been determined; we belong to
the group that protects Turkey, that is the fact by which we must
regulate our conduct… We do not prohibit any zealous Christian
from caring for the victims of these horrible crimes, from bring-
ing up the children and nursing the adults. May God bless these

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