AFION KARA HISSAR by Rev. Lyman Bartlett

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Oct 8, 1896

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 22, No. 40.

AFION KARA HISSAR.

By Rev. Lyman Bartlett

BY REV. LYMAN BARTLETT.

THIS city is one of the out-stations of the Smyrna mission field in Asia Minor. It is located about 250 miles east of Smyrna, at an altitude of more than 3,000 feet above sea level, and is an important center for the opium trade, the soil of the surrounding district being peculiarly adapted to the growth of the poppy from which the opium comes, and which is cultivated in great abundance. Hence the name of the city, Afion (opium) Kara Hissar (black castle), to distinguish it from several other cities called Kara Hissar, each with some designating prefix.

It is very compactly built in a valley, on one side of which an immense perpendicular rock rises 500 feet above the city, and is surmounted by the ruins of a very ancient castle, built for the defense of the town. Its streets are very narrow and generally without sidewalks, paved with rough stones. The population is estimated at 30,000, of which probably 7,000 are Armenians. The Gospel has been preached and a school maintained in this place for many years, and with a fair degree of success, considering the difficulties to be overcome, for almost all who have accepted the truth have been called to suffer severe persecution. People in America do not know what it costs to be a Christian in countries where there is but little freedom of conscience. A few years ago this small band of Armenian believers passed through a long siege of persecution, not from the Turkish Government, but from their own people, encouraged by a bigoted priesthood.

The collection of the taxes imposed by the Turkish Government furnishes an opportunity for the practice of great injustice. As the apportionment of these taxes to individuals is always left to the leading men of the different nationalities, obnoxious persons, like those who have declared themselves Protestants, are liable to have their taxes doubled on the slightest provocation, and these poor brethren found themselves obliged to pay two and three times as much as could justly be required of them, and were plainly told that if they would return to the mother church their burdens would be lightened.

One of the brethren had an infant child whom he wished to have baptized by a Protestant pastor, but as their preacher was not ordained there was necessarily some delay. Taking advantage of this delay, the relatives one day seized the child from the arms of its grandmother and hastened it away to the Gregorian Church, where it was baptized by a priest against the will of the father. The child's mother, who was not a Protestant, was taken to the house of her brother and kept, with the child, for two and a half months, even against her will, her husband being obliged to pay a certain sum each month to meet their expenses, and because he had not the money to pay he was imprisoned until the preacher came forward and paid it for him. He finally appealed to the government, claiming his wife and child, but before action was taken a mutual friend interposed and brought them back.

There were two excellent women who frequented the Protestant worship, but they were bitterly opposed by their husbands. They were slandered, they were beaten, they were sometimes shut out of their houses and sometimes locked into them, and were forbidden to go near the Protestants. A son of one of these Christian sisters, about sixteen years old, began to attend the worship and to show sympathy with his mother in her trials, and was ordered by his father never to enter his house again till he would take an oath not to attend the Protestant service. He accordingly left his father's house and apprenticed himself to a Protestant brother to learn shoemaking. During my last visit to the place these two persecuted sisters, with the rejected son just mentioned, became members of the church, but I have never heard that the father had become reconciled.

During the summer of 1892 I visited the place with my daughter at a time when the persecution was at its height, and during our stay of three weeks the house we occupied, which was the home of the preacher, was stoned every night but one. The front windows, being protected by wire netting, were uninjured; but the back rooms, whose windows were exposed, could not be used for a time, and the windows were taken out to save them from destruction. The brethren were almost daily stoned by the boys in the streets, and one Sabbath during our stay a crowd gathered about the door, railing at those who dared to enter, and stoning the door after we had assembled for worship, till finally we were obliged to call on the Turkish police to protect us from the violence of the mob. For a long time most active measures were employed to prevent people coming to the worship, both slander and threats being freely used, and the preacher was most shamefully maligned.

At one time a document was presented to the governor accusing him of having, in a public place, shamefully slandered the Virgin Mary, and this document was emphasized by 200 signatures, mostly Armenians. The governor informed me of this foul accusation, but declared that he should not submit it to the court, as it could be nothing but slander. Yet, after we had gone, it was served in due form, and the good man was summoned before the Turkish court for trial. He had no one to plead his cause, and his accusers were many, but being allowed to speak in his own defence, he easily convinced the court and all who heard him, of his entire innocence and of the perfidy of his accusers. The case was dropped without further trial. In this affair he rejoiced in the fulfilment of our Lord's promise: "It shall

be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak."

But now all is changed. Enemies have become friends, and those who have slandered the preacher now speak his praise. The patience and forbearance of the persecuted brethren during all their trials have put to silence their opposers and won the confidence of all. The number of those who come to listen to the truth has much increased, and a Sabbath school of 150 children has been gathered. A faithful and devoted Bible-woman finds ready access to the homes of the rich and of the poor, who gladly listen to her earnest words and gather in large numbers at her weekly meetings for Bible study and prayer.

The Armenians of Afion Kara Hissar are very ambitious in the matter of education, and large sums of money are expended annually for the support of their boys in the best schools in Smyrna and Constantinople, while at home a large public school is supported by the people, and several private schools of different grades have long been sustained. Thus far advanced education has been sought mainly for boys, yet a few girls from this place have been connected with our Girls' School in Smyrna, and at present the preacher's daughter is a promising pupil there.

The importance of this place has been much advanced during the last year by the building of a new railroad, by which it is now put in direct communication with Constantinople at Scutari, and another road is being built which will connect it with Smyrna, so that we shall soon be able to go by rail from Smyrna to Constantinople, via Afion Kara Hissar, and this will tend to make our relations with that place more intimate and effective.—Missionary Herald.