Freedom of conscience in Orthodox Syria under the new Young Turk regime

(Al-Zabedan incident based on personal impressions and memories) The periodical press spent a long time studying the incident in Az-Zabedani near Damascus, which took place in the spring of this year, and interpreted it at random, furnishing the most incredible and even fantastic details 1 . Since this incident took place in our presence, and to some extent we unexpectedly even served as the reason for its beginning, we consider it our duty to put an end to all misinterpretations and present its course in a sequential order, according to our personal impressions and memories, using some official data. The Az-Zabedan incident is also of interest to a wide range of readers, as a characteristic indicator of how the constitutional Ottoman Empire with its liberal Young Turks treats the issue of freedom of conscience when it comes to its numerous subjects - Orthodox Syrians, and can we say that Muslim fanaticism in constitutional Turkey is weakening these days. Az-Zabedan is a kazy district town of the same name and is located on the Beirut-Damascus Railway, a 3.5-hour drive from Damascus. Muslims here count up to 3,500 souls who own mosques and 5 schools, Orthodox Christians number no more than 800 souls, for whom a small church, quite decent for Syria, was built and with it, in the same courtyard, a very large and decent building for a school for senior groups, and across the courtyard opposite there is a slightly smaller room for a kindergarten and the first group. This school is run by the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society, headed by a teacher who is a graduate of the Nazareth Teachers' Seminary named after V.N. Khitrovo. Up to 100 Melchite souls also live in Az-Zabedani, who have a house chapel with a small bell calling members of this community to prayer. For the Orthodox Az-Zabedants, it became a cherished dream to achieve the fulfillment of the right permitted by the Sultan to hang a bell on their church and, at his good call, not only to gather in the church for prayer, but also to gather their children, schoolchildren, to school to study. This desire especially intensified among them thanks to the example of the Melchites and the promise of their sympathetic but indecisive ruler, Metropolitan Herman of Selevi, who had the imprudence to assure his flock Az-Zabedani that he would, one way or another, achieve the right to hang a bell on their church and begin to ring it to convene them to public worship. And the truth must be told that Bishop Herman put a lot of effort into convincing the Damascus Valiy to agree to satisfy this modest desire of the Orthodox Az-Zabedants. Yielding to the persistent requests of the bishop, the cunning Valiya had already promised to turn a blind eye if Metropolitan Herman, taking advantage of the opportunity, began to ring the bell he had purchased for the Az-Zabedan Church, although, knowing the fanaticism of local Muslims, he recommended caution in this matter. Having secured non-interference in the planned matter from the Valiy, Metropolitan Herman, however, did not dare to take the initiative and, without telling anyone, start ringing in the church at the decisive moment, but carelessly allowed himself, with excessive frankness, to speak about this to the local kaymakam and members of the administrative council - fanatical Turks, thus seeking from them formal permission to hang the bell on the church and start ringing into it. When Vladyka Herman met a stubborn refusal here, he, in a temper, allowed a threat to be made that he was expecting the arrival of Moscow honorary guests in Zabedan (meaning the writer of these lines, as the secretary of the Palestine Society, Vice-Consul N.V. Kokhmansky, sent from Constantinople by our ambassador to His Majesty Sultan N.V. Charykov, inspector of the Galilean schools of the Society P.I. Ryazhsky and acting Inspector of the South Syrian Inspectorate A.A. Stasevich) and, upon meeting them, will begin to ring this bell... The Bishop, with his last words, hoped to place his risky act under the protection of powerful Muscovy - the patroness of Christians, which the fanatical Turks would not dare to offend. What the bishop said with expression and frankness was enough to stun those who heard this statement in the public place and agitate all Muslim ordinary people, who were terribly embittered against Christians. Quarrels began to occur between Muslims and Christians on the streets, often ending in beatings of the weaker party. Anger among Muslims grew, and it became unsafe for Christians to appear on the streets in the city. The local kaymakam informed the valiya about the restless mood of minds in Az-Zabedani and demanded that soldiers be sent from Damascus to establish order. The day we had appointed for the inspection of the Palestinian Society schools in Az-Zabedani and Bludani was approaching. On the evening of March 3, at about 9 o’clock, the Russian consul, Prince B.N., appeared at the hotel where our commission lived. Shakhovskaya with the news that, in view of our arrival in Az-Zabedan, riots have begun there, and the Damascus walia, notifying him of this, asks us to postpone the trip to Az-Zabedan until a more favorable time. We made a meeting. And although there were voices against our trip to Az-Zabedan, I personally insisted not to change my route and go, as was decided without fail tomorrow, saying: “The Orthodox, who were looking forward to our arrival and are now being insulted by fanatical Muslims, in the event of our non-arrival, will remain abandoned and completely defenseless. The Muslims will interpret our non-arrival to Az-Zabedan as nothing other than cowardice, that we are their They were afraid that Christians would be treated with even greater ruthlessness and cruelty.” It was decided not to postpone the trip to Az-Zabedan, but through the consul, Prince Shakhovsky, to inform the Valiy today of our intention to be in Az-Zabedan tomorrow and ask him to take possible measures for our safety. Prince Shakhovskoy, through dragoman Sabea, brought our decision to the attention of the Valiy, who sent an additional detachment of soldiers to Az-Zabedan that night to strengthen security in the city. For his part, Prince Shakhovskoy sent the consular officer to Az-Zabedan to Metropolitan German with a request to refrain from any sympathetic demonstrations against Russia and Russians, so as not to irritate Muslims and not cause unrest and complications in the local population. On the night of March 4, the eve of our arrival in Az-Zabedan, embittered Muslims staged a hostile demonstration against Christians. They destroyed gates and fences in 15 gardens belonging to Christians and cut down fruit trees in them (this is a terrible disaster for residents involved in gardening). Metropolitan Herman, in the priest's quarters, where he settled down for the night, had to withstand a real siege by an excited crowd of people, and the servant he sent to buy provisions for the breakfasts of the expected guests was beaten half to death by this crowd. The hostile crowd carefully examined and rummaged through the provisions, as they were looking for something illegal and suspicious in the baskets with provisions, and returned it to the ruler only after it became clear for whom this provision was intended. On March 4, at 7 a.m., Kokhmansky, Ryazhsky, Stasevich, my wife and I, and two dragomans set off on a railroad train for Az-Zabedan. At the station we were met by Bishop Metropolitan German, a local priest and several elders of the Orthodox community, gendarmes and a platoon of soldiers. The faces of those who met us expressed a languid and restless expectation of something special... There were no noisy exclamations, nor the usual stormy greetings with rifle and pistol fire, which we were generously treated to in other places, from those who met us here. We exchanged with everyone we met only silent dry handshakes and short greetings: “mar khaba.” In order to use this day with greater convenience for the purpose for which we came here, we decided to divide here into two groups. My wife, A.A. Stasevich and the dragoman remained in Az-Zabedan, and N.V. Kokhmansky with P.I. Ryazhsky and the dragoman of the South Syrian inspection went on horseback to the village of Bludan, located on the other side of the railway, an hour’s drive away, to inspect the Society’s school there. Upon leaving the railway station, we were immediately surrounded by a platoon of soldiers with guns on their shoulders and escorted by them all the way to the school. The streets along which we walked for quite a long time to school were crowded with Muslims, looking at us with silent curiosity, but without a shadow of hostility or displaying any demonstrative exclamations towards us. At the school itself, on the street, schoolchildren greeted us with the singing of the hymn: “The bright joy of grief,” with Turkish and Russian flags in their hands, and the clergy came out to meet us with the cross and the gospel in full sacred vestments. The roofs of the houses adjacent to the school were dotted with crowds of people, mostly women, who had come here to watch the meeting of Moscow guests. And this crowd behaved quite calmly, without any sympathetic or hostile exclamations towards us. In order not to give rise to the accumulation of a large crowd of hostile Muslims, having greeted the teaching staff and students, I interrupted the singing and asked the children to go to school in their places, and I, according to the accepted custom, with all my companions went to pray at the local church. A short prayer service was served by Metropolitan Herman without the usual exclamations in honor of the Sovereign Emperor and the August Chairman of the Palestine Society. From the church we all went to the school, which was surrounded by a dense ring of soldiers, pushing back all the respectable Christian inhabitants who wanted to hear the students’ answers. Going out into the courtyard, I asked the soldiers not to interfere with those who wanted to be in the school, and invited them to enter it. The large, spacious hall of the school was overflowing with people who remained there throughout my stay and followed my questions and the children’s answers with visible interest. Taking advantage of the presence of such a large meeting of Orthodox residents at the school and bearing in mind their sad misunderstandings with the fanatical inhabitants of the Muslim faith, I focused on the Law of God with special attention and thoroughness in clarifying the petition in the Lord’s Prayer: “Hallowed be Thy name.” Having asked a question in the older group: “how can children sanctify the name of God”? I found out the direct meaning of the words of the petition and showed that children of Orthodox parents can sanctify the name of God before the Muslim fanatics around them by openly confessing their faith, earnestly fulfilling all the rites and institutions of the Orthodox Church, even in the face of all difficulties and oppression from the enemies of the Orthodox Church, following the teachings and commandments of our Savior, who commanded not only to love every neighbor as oneself, but even one’s enemies. “It’s hard for you to live among fanatical Muslims, I told the children, meaning adults, you suffer from them insults, oppression and even unjust insults, but as true children of the Orthodox Church and confessors of Christ’s teaching, in order to force enemies to respect our Orthodox faith, you must forget and generously forgive the insults and insults inflicted on you, and believe, if not now, when your enemies are seething with anger against you, then, after some time, when passions will subside and life will return to its usual peaceful course, regret and repentance will appear for the unfair treatment towards you. Yes, the Christian God is great, your enemies will say, if Christians, under the pressure of heavy untruths, still did not decide not only to take revenge on us, their enemies, but even forgave us our untruths and showed their readiness to live with us in peace and love. Confession of the faith of Christ to the point of readiness to suffer for it, to accept the crown of martyrdom, is the highest manifestation on the part of Christians of the opportunity to sanctify the name of God among the infidels.” My speech was listened to by both the students and those present with great attention and excited them so much that some had tears in their eyes. I also spoke in such a conciliatory tone on other issues arising from the analysis of the Ten Commandments, the Beatitudes, etc. The exams, despite the excitement of the children on the occasion of the alarming events in the city and the expectations of unexpected guests from Muscovy, were generally successful, and I was satisfied with the children’s answers in all subjects 2 . When the tests of the students were over, I asked them questions that I had proposed in other schools of the Society: who is the patron of the Orthodox Church in Syria? What is the Russian emperor called? What is the name of the August Chairman of the Society and the patron of the school? What is the name of their mutran-metropolitan? What is the name of the reigning padishah? When the children gave me answers to all these questions, I invited them to sing together first the Russian anthem, and then the Turkish anthem: “Padishagim chek-yashi.” To the sounds of the friendly, sonorous voices of the children, I said goodbye to the community representatives and the clergy, thanked the senior teacher, asking him to dismiss the children until tomorrow, since my exams dragged on until almost two o'clock in the afternoon, and left the school in the best mood. A convoy of soldiers escorted me and my companions to the apartment of the local priest, where the caring ruler of Seleucia, Herman, was waiting for us with a prepared breakfast. We, however, did not sit down at the table, but decided to wait for the return of our comrades from Bludan, who were inspecting the schools there. Bludan, as we said, is located near Az-Zabedan, on the other side of the railway, and is a separate village with 650 Orthodox population, 70 Protestants, 5 Melchites and 50 Muslims. The school of the Palestine Society is of a mixed type and is located in two buildings, with the senior department, 49 people, located in a very poor basement building, and the kindergarten (46 people) in a fairly decent rented building. A local priest teaches at this school, with an assistant in the person of an elderly local man who runs the kindergarten. Since the unrest of Az-Zabedani did not affect Bludan and was transferred here only out of sympathy for the victims of Christians, Mr. Kokhmansky and P.I. Ryazhsky were greeted very sympathetically by the local population, who tried in every possible way to express to them signs of their attention and joy on the occasion of their arrival. They were pleased with the successes of the students, despite the squalor of the environment around them, especially when by chance they had to simultaneously examine about fifteen students of the local Protestant school, attracted to our school by curiosity on the occasion of the expected auditors, and compare their answers on the Law of God and other subjects with the answers of our students. The reason for the delay of our companions in returning to the breakfast awaiting them in the house of the Az-Zabedan priest was circumstances that were completely unforeseen by them and which they were unable to eliminate. It turned out that the affected inhabitants - Christians of Az-Zabedani - persuaded the guide of the city. Kokhmansky, Ryazhsky and their dragoman, so that he would lead them on the way to Bludan through all those places where, on the night of our arrival, fanatical Muslims destroyed fences and cut down the gardens of ordinary Christians. This involuntary inspection of Christian disasters caused by hating fanatics, along a roundabout road, took an extra hour of time from the inspectors and significantly slowed down their return to Az-Zabedan. We had barely sat down at the table to have breakfast when we were informed that the guide Mr. Kokhmansky and Ryazhsky were captured by the Turks and put in prison as punishment, of course, for the fact that he was taking Moscow guests to Bludan by a circuitous and undesirable route for them. We immediately interrupted our breakfast and decided to go to the station in order to leave for Damascus at exactly 3 o’clock in the afternoon and report everything we had seen to the highest local authorities. And now soldiers also escorted us to the station. Passing by the city office, we inquired about the whereabouts of the kaymakam, but neither him nor the city authorities were visible in the barn, despite the hour, Eastern business time. The Turkish population saw us off calmly, without any demonstrations. The next day, at about 9 am, Valiya made a return visit to us at the hotel. A native of the island of Crete, Izmail-Fasil Pasha turned out to be a very educated man, fluent in Greek and French. Passing on all the details of our stay in Az-Zabedan and Bludani, we asked him not to put the cause of these unrest on the shoulders of Metropolitan Herman of Seleucia and to release a completely innocent guide from prison. Valiya Izmail-Fasil - Pasha poured out thousands of apologies to us for the troubled day he had experienced in Az-Zabedani, assuring us of his respect for the personality of Metropolitan Herman of Seleucia. Laughing, to further reassure us, the Pasha jokingly added that the desired bell in Az-Zabedani would be hung on the church in the very near future, and that he himself would be the first to ring it, even with his own hands. The assurances of the valiya were distinguished by such categoricalness and such exquisite courtesy that they completely calmed us about the Az-Zabedan incident, but subsequent events showed that the cunning Damascus valiya, as befitted a descendant of the cunning Ulysses, and also a Cretan, was not sincere with us, and lavished pleasantries on us only to reassure us. News soon began to reach us from Az-Zabedani that, even after our departure from there, peace between Christians and Muslims had not been restored. Beatings of Christians on the streets became such frequent occurrences that Christian inhabitants did not risk showing themselves from their homes. Our school began to be empty, and the senior teacher recognized it as good to stop classes for a while and went to Damascus to the inspector with a report. Walia ordered to strengthen the troops in Az-Zabedan in order to protect residents from the danger of a possible massacre between different nationalities. On March 11, in Homs, Herman, Metropolitan of Seleucia, who accompanied us to schools to this city, received a telegram from the Patriarch of Antioch Gregory with a request to immediately arrive in Damascus to explain the Az-Zabedan incident. It turned out that Valiya Ishmael Fasil Pasha made a detailed report to Constantinople, and the Az-Zabedan incident was presented in an extremely biased and distorted manner, completely silent about the violence of Muslims against Christians. In response to this report, Patriarch Gregory received from Constantinople from the Minister of Justice and Confessions the following circular, which, as an example of Young Turk religious tolerance and respect for the freedom of conscience of Orthodox Christians, as well as their shameless disregard for the autonomy of the Antiochian Orthodox Church, we consider it interesting to convey here to our readers in its entirety in Russian translation: “Mr. Patriarch of Antioch. “From a report from the place it turned out that Herman-Efendi, the Orthodox Metropolitan of Zahle (the residence of the Seleukian Metropolitan) came to the village of Az-Zabedani and wanted to take advantage of the presence of two foreigners (meaning Mr. Kokhmansky and I) in order to hang a bell in the Orthodox church, and that when it was explained to him that it was impossible to hang the bell until permission to do so was received, He responded to this, in the presence of important persons from the village residents, that it was necessary to hang him at all costs, whether permission was given for this or not, and sent some residents from himself to bring the bell, which was in the village of Bludan. This led to disagreements (sic!!) between the residents. The Orthodox elders openly admitted (sic) that this deed, which came from the metropolitan effendi, was accomplished without their knowledge and without anyone’s prior request on their part, and that they were even against such an act of the metropolitan, which was contrary to the spirit of unity and harmony between nations (sic), and in this sense they spoke out to him personally. Therefore, the aforementioned metropolitan is no longer allowed to travel to the said district city, and he should either be removed (that is, from the diocese), or the area of ​​his official activities should be limited to the borders of Lebanon and his spiritual relations should be stopped within the Damascus vilayet. This is reported to you according to the attitude of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, based on reports from the field. Based on the above, it is proposed to carry out the execution and notify about the subsequent one. “For the Minister of Justice and Religion, adviser Mustafa Nadin son Sad-ed-Din. This is how the Az-Zabedan incident we told about, which we unwittingly had to witness, was conveyed from the spot to Constantinople in such a biased and tendentious manner. The zealous Archpastor Herman, just for expressing, perhaps not cautiously, in the presence of the city Muslim authorities, the intention to hang, to the consolation of his Orthodox flock, who for many years had vainly sought this right by legal means, an intention, moreover, not actually implemented, by the liberal Turkish government is removed from his diocese, as a person whose behavior harms the “spirit of unity and harmony between nations”, and is deprived of what belongs to him, legal right to visit the churches and flock entrusted to him. Be that as it may, this violation of the pronomies of the Orthodox patriarchy made a strong impression in Damascus, and the Orthodox community decided to defend its ancient privileges by all means against the illegal encroachment of the Turkish constitutional government. The Az-Zabedan incident and the participation in it of the Seleucia metropolitan Herman, Patriarch Gregory of Antioch, brought it to the court of the local Antiochian church council, which was convened by the patriarch this summer in the female patriarchal Sednai monastery. By the unanimous decision of the fathers of this council, the metropolitans of the entire Patriarchate of Antioch, the act of Herman, Metropolitan of Seleucia, in the Az-Zabedan incident was not recognized as criminal, and he himself deserved removal from the diocese he occupied or restrictions on the rights that canonically belong to him. But the decision of the council remains only on paper. And to this day, Metropolitan Herman remains in fact separated from his spiritual Az-Zabedan flock and in vain appeals to all those who are zealous about the successes of Orthodoxy in Syria (we have a letter from him dated October 10 of this year), so that they support him in fair solicitations for the benefit of Orthodoxy of the unfortunate Az-Zabedan flock, and he himself would be protected from the malicious mockery and ridicule of fanatical Muslims, celebrating the now visible defeat of Orthodoxy and its worthy and devoted servants. Even Moskovskie Vedomosti, 1910, 30/VII (No. 174) is no exception. The Arabic newspaper “Meraat-ul-Guard”, and from its words “Voice of Moscow” reported that “Mr. Dmitrievsky energetically took up the task entrusted to him, personally examined school students and, in most cases, was dissatisfied with the success of the schoolchildren. The consequence of the audit was the removal of many members of the teaching staff and their replacement with new teachers.” (“Voice of Moscow” dated May 5, 1910). I consider it in the interests of fairness to categorically state that, in general, beyond my expectations, I was very pleased with my impressions of the audit of Syrian schools. I haven’t expressed my dissatisfaction to anyone yet, because... Finally, these impressions are only now forming in me, when compiling a report, and, it seems to me, they will not be similar to those that were attributed to me by the Arab newspaper and, in its words, by some Russian newspapers. As for “displacing many members of the teaching staff and replacing them with new teachers,” I did not do this and did not consider myself to have the right, fully trusting the competence of our inspectors, who know the merits of teachers better than the auditor, and replacing them with new teachers, given the lack of such in Syria and Palestine, is a very difficult matter. On my instructions, the elderly teacher Shakhtyn Atiya at the Betjal Seminary was replaced by the young one from Tripoli, Mr. Zhiryes - and nothing more, but this change was caused by a long-overdue need and was not a surprise to anyone. You might be interested in: