Page:Lesser Eastern Churches.djvu/416

394 thousand were killed, forty thousand children were left orphans, enormous numbers perished from starvation as the land was ravaged. In 1896 were fresh massacres in Zaitūn and Van. In the same year (following the attempt of some Armenians on the Ottoman bank at Galata) the Government let loose a horde of Kurds and Lazes armed with clubs, who killed about six thousand Armenians in the streets of Constantinople, under the eye of the Diplomatic Corps. The Embassies brought evidence and openly accused the Government of having organized this massacre. The Government merely said they were mistaken. Nor has the change of Government produced any better effect. The Turkish Committee of Union and Progress treads faithfully in the steps of the tryant it deposed. In 1909, twenty-five thousand Armenians were again massacred in Cilicia. It seems that under the Turk there is no hope for this ill-fated race.

Armenians have a considerable literature. The language has gone through the inevitable development, and has formed several new dialects. There are a classical, a mediæval literary, and various modern spoken forms of Armenian. The liturgical language is classical, now only partially understood by those who have not specially studied it. Their literature begins with a translation of the Bible made by St. Mesrob (p. 409), and others in the 4th century. They have translations of Greek, Latin and Syriac Fathers, commentaries on the Bible, versions of philosophical works (Plato, Aristotle, etc.), some poetry (chiefly hymns in their services), and especially history (Eusebius translated, etc.). Armenian literature consists to a great extent of translations,