Various - Correspondence Relating to Executions in Turkey for Apostacy from Islamism

Sir Stratford Canning to the Earl of Aberdeen .—( Received September 20.)

(Extract.) Buyukderé, August 27, 1843.

Within the last few days an execution has taken place at Constantinople under circumstances 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 circumstances 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 Lordship'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 assurances 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 Embassy 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 snatch 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 Ambassador 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 Ambassador, 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 Lordship 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 Mehkemé 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 passed, 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 rushing distractedly from the scene of bloodshed. The poor old woman, when assured of her boy's fate, returned and sat in grief by the corpse, from which she was afterwards removed.

A petition 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, Péra, le 24 Août , 1843.

Conformément à vos ordres, j'ai vu le Grand Vizir, et je lui ai rendu, mot à mot, le message contenu dans votre instruction confidentielle en date d'hier, relativement au jeune Arménien qui vient d'être exécuté. Son Altesse a répondu de la manière suivante: