Note 9 — PART I.
Reading edition
Nicholas C. Adossides [Youngest Son of Adossides Pasha] in the “Cosmopolitan” for July, 1909, (“Abdul the Dethroned”) writes as follows:
“I remember the following incident which depicts the official Russian attitude: One night, while dining at the Russian legation in Bern, Switzerland, many Russian officials being present, the conversation was directed to the ever-engrossing Eastern question. A diplomat from St. Petersburg expressed his admiration of Abdul Hamid, praising his extraordinary intelligence and diplomatic skill. ‘Besides,’ he continued, ‘he is not so black as his enemies have painted him.’
“Not being able to restrain my indignation at this, I protested, saying he was an arch assassin. ‘Not to speak of his innumerable cruelties and many villainies,’ I said, ‘can you deny, Sir, that he instigated and accomplished the annihilation of 360,000 Armenians?’
“The admirer of the Sultan smiled, but before he could answer me, the military attaché of the legation, who was sitting next to me, exclaimed:
“If you condemn the Sultan for that, you astonish me. The Armenians? Bah! They ought to be exterminated en masse, and the Sultan did an excellent piece of work when he got rid of them. I have no use for them. Besides,’ he continued, ‘can’t you see that a free Armenia would be a serious obstacle to Russian expansion and to our advance to the south and into Persia? Abdul Hamid has proved himself a very valuable ally of Russia. He is the best Ambassador at Constantinople that we’ve ever had.”—Note to 2nd printing.