The term of office

The term of office of Rushdi Pashas, one week, is the shortest on record save one; the predecessor had a mob of Janissaries preventing his taking his seat .....The longest recorded service as Grand Vazier was that of Halil Pasha, for 25 years. The record showed that 26 Grand Vaziers have been executed while in office besides these officially recognized executions, many Grand Vaziers have died in office. This expression, when used in connection with a Turkish official, may signify a good deal. Apoplexy is a disease which was formerly epidemic with Grand Vaziers. The word damla used by the Turks for apoplexy, is also the word commonly used for drops. Hence, when a Grand Vazier is said to have died of damla, uncharitable minds are at liberty to suspect that he died of poisonous drops, administrated by hostile hands.

Henry Dwight; June 7,1881; Turkish Life in War Time;



Armenia is so situated that it has been trampled and devastated in all the great movements of the races of Western Asia, while its population has literally been scattered to the ends of the earth....there are now possibly two million of these people in the whole Turkish empire.....

Being Asiatic, they have more than any other Chrisitian race in Turkey the confidence of the Turks; while as christians they are eager to receive and adopt the results of christian civilization....The Arminian Church more than either the Greek or the Roman Church, allows to its members freedom of independent thought. This freedom of the Arminian people has afforded room for the success among them of American missionaries. These missionaries have erected evengelical churches among them; have fostered a strong desire for educate advantages, manifested by the appearnace of large numbers of Arminian schools; and have created a taste for reading which affords a steady demand for newspapers and books...........