Page:Islam, Turkey, and Armenia, and How They Happened.djvu/131

Rh In official documents these three branches of the Armenian church are intentionally distinguished by the names of "the Protestant nation," "the Catholic nation" and "the Armenian nation" (the old church). And the common people, unable to realize the real spirit of this distinction, receive it as a compliment and recognition of their equal rights.

4. Governmental Offices for non-Moslems. Non-Moslems are entirely left out of the legal and military services. No Christian is admitted in the Turkish army or navy as a soldier; some few Greeks and Armenians, however, serve as physicians in the army.

According to the later constitution, each community in the empire should have their representatives at the courts in proportion to the numbers of Moslems and non-Moslems of the country (not of the respective towns), as one to four; the president being always a Moslem and each Christian member being approved by the government herself. Under such limitations there could not be much room for the protection of Christians' rights, especially in the interior, where the Turkish members arrange matters and prepare reports to suit themselves and offer them to the Christian members to sign, even without reading the contents, and that most probably at the expense of the rights of their own friends and communities. Fear, ignorance, and sometimes selfish interests, compel them to do so.

Coming to other subordinate offices, as in telegraphic or postal departments, or in financial or register bureaus, etc., the Christians are used as