Christians in the Near East

New Zealand Tablet, 30 March 1922, Page 31

Christians in the Near East

Thirty thousand Christians, so we are told on reliable authority, have already fled from Cilicia for Cyprus, fearing that under the pact that has been concluded between the French Government and the Kemalists there will be a fresh outbreak of persecution against the Christians (writes Stephen Balabanoff in an exchange). The Armenian Archbishop of Cilicia, Mgr. Sarajian, has sent out an urgent telegram predicting that fresh massacres of Armenians in Cilicia by the Turks will take place immediately after the withdrawal of the French troops. This fear that the so-called safeguards will be insufficient to protect the Christian minorities, is felt not in Cilicia alone. It is felt in Paris also, and M. Emil Bure in the Eclair gives expression to this fear when he writes in that journal: “It must be admitted that it is not easy to see how France is going to continue to protect the religious minorities in Syria. Although the Kemalists have promised M. Franklin-Bouillon to be good, religious fanaticism knows reasons to which reason itself is often a stranger. In days gone by the misfortunes of the Armenians brought together in common commiseration men like Clemcriceau, Jaures, Anatole France, Longuet, and Denys-Cochin, who published in Paris the newspapers Pro-Armenia. It is to be feared that these misfortunes will be repeated.