Correspondence Relating to Executions in Turkey for Apostacy from Islamism Part 1

Correspondence Relating to Executions in Turkey for Apostacy from Islamism.

by Various.

No. 1.

_Sir Stratford Canning to the Earl of Aberdeen_.--(_Received September_ 20.)

(Extract.) _Buyukdere, August_ 27, 1843.

Within the last few days an execution has taken place at Constantinople under circ.u.mstances which have occasioned much excitement and indignation among the Christian inhabitants. The sufferer was an Armenian youth of eighteen or twenty years, who having, under fear of punishment, declared himself a Turk, went to the Island of Syra, and returning, after an absence of some length, resumed his former religion. Apprehensive of the danger but resolved not to deny his real faith a second time, he kept out of sight till accident betrayed him to the police, and he was then thrown into prison. In spite of threats, promises, and blows, he there maintained his resolution, refused to save his life by a fresh disavowal of Christianity, and was finally decapitated in one of the most frequented parts of the city with circ.u.mstances of great barbarity.

Inclosed herewith is a statement of the particulars drawn up by Mr.

Alison.

It is not merely on grounds of humanity that I would draw your Lords.h.i.+p's attention to this incident: political considerations of serious importance are connected with it; and on this account, no less than from regard for the tears and entreaties of a distracted family, I exhausted my influence in vain endeavours to divert the Porte from its purpose. Every Member of the Council to whom I applied, returned the same answer, expressing a willingness to meet my wishes, and regretting the inexorable necessity of the law.

For my own part I do not believe that any such necessity exists. The determination of the Government to sacrifice the Armenian youth, in spite of my earnest solicitations, unless he recanted publicly, is part and parcel of that system of reaction which preceded my arrival here, against which I have constantly struggled, and which, notwithstanding the a.s.surances given to me, and the efforts of its partisans to conceal it, is day by day gaining strength, to the despair of every enlightened Turkish statesman, to the prejudice of our relations with this country, and to the visible decline of those improvements which, in my humble judgment, can alone avert the dissolution of the Sultan's empire.

The law, which, in this instance, has torn a youth from the bosom of his family, and consigned him to an ignominious and cruel death, would apply with equal force to a subject of any Christian Power.

Such of my colleagues as I have consulted upon this subject appear to take a view of it similar to my own, I refer, in particular, to the Austrian, French, Russian, and Prussian Ministers: each of them has told me that he intended to recommend the question to the serious consideration of his Government.

Since my arrival here one British and two French subjects have declared in favour of Mahomedanism, and much difficulty has been experienced in dealing with the individuals concerned. The British subject, a Maltese, returned to the Catholic faith a few days after he had declared himself a Turk, and he was privately conveyed out of this country. The Porte, on that occasion, evidently identified the change of allegiance with the change of creed, and not only would a trifling incident have sufficed to raise the question arising out of that principle between Her Majesty's Emba.s.sy and the Porte, but had the man been arrested after his recantation, I should perhaps have been reduced to the necessity of putting all to hazard in order to s.n.a.t.c.h him from the hands of the executioner.

The only* Articles relating to this matter in our Capitulations with the Porte are the sixty-first and seventy-first. The French have an Article of similar meaning in their capitulations, and by the Treaty of Kainardji between Russia and the Porte it was agreed that individuals who had changed their religion should be mutually exempted from the operation of the Article, which otherwise stipulates for the extradition of refugees and malefactors.

* Article LXI.--That if any Englishman should turn Turk, and it should be represented and proved that besides his own goods he has in his hands any property belonging to another person in England, such property shall be taken from him and delivered up to the Amba.s.sador or Consul, that they may convey the same to the owner thereof.

Article LXXI.--That should any Englishman coming with merchandize turn Turk, and the goods so imported by him be proved to belong to merchants of his own country, from whom he had taken them, the whole shall be detained, with the ready money, and delivered up to the Amba.s.sador, in order to his transmitting the same to the right owners, without any of our judges or officers interposing any obstacle or hindrance thereto.

Under these impressions I trust that your Lords.h.i.+p will not think I have exceeded the bounds of prudence in stating confidentially, though without reserve, to the Grand Vizier the impressions made upon my mind by the recent execution. Couched as my message was in respectful and kindly terms, I hope it will operate as a salutary admonition. The interpreter's report of his Highness' reply is inclosed with this despatch.

Inclosure l in No. 1.

_Case of the Armenian Avakim, son of Yagya, of the parish of Top Kapousee_.

About a year and a half ago Avakim having had a drunken quarrel with some neighbours, was sentenced at the War Office to receive 500 bastinadoes.

Fear and intoxication induced him to become a Mussulman, and he was conducted on the spot to the Mehkeme where the name of Mehemet was given him.

Some days afterwards Avakim repented of what he had done, and fled to Syra, from whence he returned a few months ago.

About three months ago, while returning from his sister's house with a small bundle containing wearing apparel, he was recognized by the Kolaga of the quarter, Mustapha, and denounced at the War Office of having renegaded from Islamism. He was then submitted to the most cruel punishment to compel him to re-abandon his original belief, and was even paraded through the streets with his hands tied behind his back as if for execution. Avakim, however, unintimidated by torture or the prospect of death, proclaimed aloud his firm belief in Christianity, and was led forth to suffer on Wednesday last amidst the execrations of the Ulema partisans.

Only one man, Taouk-Bazarli Ali, among the thirty armed police who conducted him, could be prevailed upon to strike the blow. Many of the Turks spat on him as they pa.s.sed, and openly reviled the faith for which he had died. A Yafta, in the following terms, was affixed on the opposite shop:--

"The Armenian shoemaker, Avakim, son of Yagya, having last year, in the beginning of Moharrem, while at an age of discretion, accepted Islamism, and received the name of Mehemet, some time afterwards renegaded, and having now obstinately persisted in refusing the proffer made to him by the law to re-become a Moslem, sentence of death was awarded unto him according to fetwa, and he has thereby suffered."

The first intelligence received in Pera of this occurrence was the appearance in the streets of the unfortunate lad's mother tearing her grey hair, and rus.h.i.+ng distractedly from the scene of bloodshed.

The poor old woman, when a.s.sured of her boy's fate, returned and sat in grief by the corpse, from which she was afterwards removed.

A pet.i.tion of the Armenians for the corpse was rejected, and it was after three days exposure cast into the sea.

_Constantinople, August_ 27, 1843.

Inclosure 2 in No. 1.

M. Pisani to Sir Stratford Canning.

Excellence, _Pera, le_ 24 _Aout_, 1843.

Conformement a vos ordres, j'ai vu le Grand Vizir, et je lui ai rendu, mot a mot, le message contenu dans votre instruction confidentielle en date d'hier, relativement au jeune Armenien qui vient d'etre execute. Son Altesse a repondu de la maniere suivante:

"Quant a moi, personnellement, j'ai en horreur meme d'egorger une poule. Les executions, si frequentes dans l'ancien systeme, sont tres rares aujourd'hui. Mais dans le cas recent, je vous ai deja dit, et je vous repete, qui ni les Ministres, ni le Sultan, ne pouvaient absolument pas sauver la vie de l'Armenien. Les lois du Coran ne forcent personne de se faire Musulman; mais elles sont inexorables tant a l'egard du Musulman qui embra.s.se une autre religion, qu'a l'egard du non-Musulman qui, apres avoir de son propre gre embra.s.se publiquement l'Islamisme, est convaincu d'y avoir renonce. Nulle consideration ne peut faire commuer la peine capitale a laquelle la loi le cond.a.m.ne sans misericorde. Le seul, l'unique moyen d'echapper a la mort, c'est pour l'accuse de declarer qu'il s'est fait de nouveau Musulman. C'est dans le seul but de sauver la vie a l'individu en question que nous avons, contre la lettre de la loi, qui exige que la sentence dans le cas dont il s'agit soit mise a execution aussitot qu'elle a ete p.r.o.noncee, que nous lui avons laisse quelques jours de temps pour y bien reflechir, avec l'a.s.surance que la declaration voulue par la loi une fois faite, il serait mis en liberte, et qu'il pourrait partir de Constantinople; mais comme il a resiste a toutes les tentatives faites pour le persuader de recourir au seul moyen d'echapper a la mort, force fut a la fin d'obeir a la loi, sans quoi les Oulemas se souleveraient contre nous. L'execution a du, aux termes de la loi, etre faite publiquement."

Voyant que le Grand Vizir n'avait rien dit par rapport aux observations de votre Excellence sur ce qui arriverait si un etranger, un Anglais par exemple, se trouvait dans des circonstances a.n.a.logues, j'ai prie son Altesse de considerer et de faire considerer au Ministere Ottoman, dans quelle position la Porte se mettrait vis a vis du Gouvernement Anglais, si elle recourait a des violences. Le Grand Vizir a dit alors: "Je ne sais pas vraiment ce qu'un cas pareil exigerait s'il s'agissait d'un etranger; j'ignore ce que les lois disent a l'egard d'un Franc qui se trouverait compromis par les circonstances qui ont fait cond.a.m.ner a la mort l'Armenien, qui est un rayah."

Le Grand Vizir a fini par dire; "Faites mes complimens a Monsieur l'Amba.s.sadeur, et dites lui que j'apprecie ses sentimens d'humanite et de bienveillance; mais que ce qui vient d'arriver etait un mal tout a fait sans remede."

J'ai l'honneur. &c.,

(Signe) FRED. PISANI.

(Translation.)

Excellency, _Pera, August_ 24, 1843.

In conformity with your orders I saw the Grand Vizier and communicated to him, word for word, the message contained in your confidential instruction of yesterday respecting the young Armenian who has just been executed. His Highness made answer to the following effect:--

"As regards myself personally, I have a horror of even putting a fowl to death. Executions, so frequent under the old system, are now of rare occurrence. But in the late instance, as I have already said to you, and again repeat, positively neither the Ministers nor the Sultan could have saved the life of the Armenian. The laws of the Koran compel no man to become a Mussulman, but they are inexorable both as respects a Mussulman who embraces another religion, and as respects a person not a Mussulman, who, after having of his own accord publicly embraced Islamism, is convicted of having renounced that faith. No consideration can produce a commutation of the capital punishment to which the law condemns him without mercy. The only mode of escaping death is for the accused to declare that he has again become a Mussulman. It was only with a view to saving the life of the individual in question, that we--contrary to the letter of the law, which requires that the sentence in cases of this nature, should be executed as soon as p.r.o.nounced--allowed him some days respite to think over the matter carefully, with the a.s.surance that having once made the declaration required by law, he would be set at liberty and would be able to leave Constantinople; but inasmuch as he resisted all the attempts which were made to induce him to have recourse to the only means of escaping death, it finally became necessary to obey the law, otherwise the Ulemas would have risen against us. The execution, according to the terms of the law, was necessarily public."

Seeing that the Grand Vizier had said nothing with reference to your Excellency's observations as to what would occur if a foreigner, an Englishman for instance, were to be placed in similar circ.u.mstances, I begged His Highness to consider, and to direct the consideration of the Ottoman Ministry to the nature of the position in which the Porte would place itself as regards the British Government, were it to have recourse to violence. The Grand Vizier then said, "I really do not know what would become necessary in such a case if a foreigner were concerned; I am ignorant as to what is said in the law as regards a Frank who should be compromised by the circ.u.mstances which caused the Armenian, who was a Rayah, to be condemned to death."

The Grand Vizier concluded by saying, "Present my compliments to the Amba.s.sador, and tell him that I appreciate his humane and well-intentioned sentiments, but that what has occurred was a misfortune for which there was no remedy whatever."

I have, &c.

(Signed) F. PISANI.

No. 2.