PREFACE
RELIGION and COUNTRY are two inseparable elements which have long characterized the life of the Armenian people.
The coming together of these two elements goes back to the beginning of the fourth century, when Saint Gregory, the Illuminator of Armenia, and the holy King Trididate made use of the spiritual and temporal power entrusted to them to give a deathblow to paganism and to proclaim Christianity a state religion for the first time in history.
The words ARMENIAN and CHRISTIAN have become synonymous for our people.
Our history has been marked through the centuries by these two ideals: « FOR RELIGION and FOR COUNTRY ».
This motto was adopted by Saint Vartan and his companions, when, in the middle of the fifth century, they had to resist the forceful imposition of Zoroastrianism on them. It has ahvays and everywhere been the rallying cry for Armenians when their lives and religious faith have been threatened and they have had to choose between death and the denial of their religious beliefs and their homeland.
The massacres of 1915-1918, the fiftieth anniversary of which we are now commemorating, ivere primarily intended to annihilate our race. It was also the oppressors' intention to force our people to deny their Christian faith.
Once again brute force with its consequent devastation and barbarity could not overcome steadfastness in the faith of Christ and fidelity to one's country. Our fathers preferred to die the most horrible of deaths and lose all their earthly belongings rather than sacrifice the noble ideal of the Armenian people.
In recalling those sad years which we ourselves lived through as a young man, we wish to render filial homage to the blessed memory of the million and a half victims who died in order that the religious and national heritage of the Armenian people might remain alive and intact.
Above all, we wish to remind the present and future generations of Armenians of:
I. THE BLOODY BUT GLORIOUS CHAPTER OF OUR CONTEMPORARY HISTORY;
II. THE REASONS FOR THE MASSACRES;
III. THE REACTION CAUSED BY THESE EVENTS;
IV. THE LESSONS TO BE LEARNED.
