ng Turks against Islam in Syria and
Mesopotamia. In Syria they have hanged the leading men of enlightenment,
without fault on their part, such as Shukri Bey El-Asli, Abdul-Wahhab
Bey El-Inglizi, Selim Bey El-Jezairi, Emir Omar El-Husseini, Abdul-Ghani
El-Arisi, Shefik Bey El-Moweyyad, Rushdi Bey El-Shamaa, Abdul-Hamid
El-Zahrawi, Abdul-Kerim El-Khalil, Emir Aarif El-Shehabi, Sheikh Ahmed
Hasan Tabara, and more than thirty leading men of this class.

I have published this pamphlet in order to refute beforehand inventions
and slanders against the faith of Islam and against Moslems generally,
and I affirm that what the Armenians have suffered is to be attributed
to the Committee of Union and Progress, who deal with the empire as they
please; it has been due to their nationalist fanaticism and their
jealousy of the Armenians, and to these alone; the Faith of Islam is
guiltless of their deeds.

From the foregoing we know that the Armenians have committed no acts
justifying the Turks in inflicting on them this horrible retribution,
unprecedented even in the dark ages. What, then, was the reason which
impelled the Turkish Government to kill off a whole people, of whom they
used to say that they were their brothers in patriotism, the principal
factor in bringing about the downfall of the despotic rule of
Abdul-Hamid and the introduction of the Constitution, loyal to the
Empire, and fighting side by side with the Turks in the Balkan war? The
Turks sanctioned and approved the institution of Armenian political
societies, which they did not do in the case of other nationalities.

What is the reason of this sudden change of attitude?

It is that, previous to the proclamation of the Constitution, the
Unionists hated despotic rule; they preached equality, and inspired the
people with hatred of the despotism of Abdul-Hamid. But as soon as they
had themselves seized the reins of authority, and tasted the sweets of
power, they found that despotism was the best means to confirm
themselves in ease and prosperity, and to limit to the Turks alone the
rule over the Ottoman peoples. On considering these peoples, they found
that the Armenian race was the only one which would resent their
despotism, and fight against it as they previously fought against
Abdul-Hamid. They perceived also that the Armenians excelled all the
other races in arts and industries, that they were more advanced in
learning and societies, and that after a while the grea