Page:Story of Turkey and Armenia.djvu/31

 Rh the gold, silver, copper and salt known to exist abundantly. With an empire possessing every kind of soil and climate, vegetable, animal anti mineral product, the Ottomans are bankrupt; they seem as alien as when, six hundred years ago, they emerged from obscurity.

Armenia is a country lying about Mount Ararat as a central point. The country is now partly in Russia, partly in Persia, partly in Asia Minor. Turkish Armenia is about the size of New England; it is a mountain land, some of the Taurus peaks rising over 10,000 feet. There are a few valleys in which scant rice and cotton may be grown, but the high plateau is mostly a grazing place. As in the rest of the Ottoman Empire, agriculture is in a pitifully primitive state, and, though there are abundant deposits, mining does not exist. The climate is one of extremes of cold and heat. The sources of the Euphrates and Tigris are in Armenia, and there is also Lake Van, a salt lake. The roads are nothing but bridle-paths: they are infested with brigands, and there are no inns. Geographical isolation is not the least of the hardships in the present crisis.

The Armenians represent an ancient civilization, and have kept their individuality through all ages. Their name comes from an early king, Haik, a descendant of Japhet. Armenia is mentioned several times in the Old Testament; for instance (2 Kings xix, 37), when the sons of Sennacherib are said to have escaped thither. The best known Armenian king, Tigranes I, was an ally of Cyrus the Great, and in Xenophon's