May 3, 2012
To: Leonard Felson and
Seasons Media, LLC
P.O. Box 92
West Simsbury, CT 06092
From: Bob McKay PhD Advisor to the Southern New England
Turkish American Association & Former Missionary of the American
Board of Foreign Missions-now The United Church Board of World
Ministries. (1959-1964) P.O. Box 126, Eastford, CT 06242 Phone:
860-978-6794
Regarding “A Connecticut Missionary in Turkey-Caroline Hamilton’s Courageous
Work” by Leonard Felson.
I loved the article “A Connecticut Missionary in Turkey” as all of our three children were born in the Gaziantep American Hospital co-founded by West Hartford’s Caroline Hamilton. I grew up in nearby Simsbury, attended the Immanuel Congregational Church on Farmington Avenue and after graduation from UConn (trainer of Jonathan IV) was recruited to work in Turkey as a Congregational Church Missionary to teach biology to young Turkish boys at the Tarsus American College by the same mission board that employed Caroline Hamilton.
However, from my own experience in Turkey, research, and participation in international seminars, etc. I found one part of the article misleading and perhaps insensitive to the innocent readers of this magazine article.
The article discusses “Massacres”, “Atrocities”, and “50,000 Armenian Dead”. This language and the reporting of what happened during tragic times over 100 years ago is and has been slanted to the Western “Christian” point of view. Why? The answer is simple. In the Ottoman Empire during the turn of the last century many diverse international forces saw an opportunity to acquire various parts of the Ottoman Empire for themselves. The Armenians were no different. In order to create an Armenian country for themselves they became terrorists within the Ottoman Empire encouraged and armed by Russia.
In the Ottoman Empire proselytization was not allowed! Christians could teach and preach to Christians, Jews could teach and preach to Christians and the Muslims could only teach and preach to Muslims. Thus, when reported to the West, massacres of Muslims by Armenians are almost never mentioned, especially since Christians were reporting the stories from their point of view. Due to the overall beautiful picture Leonard Felson has created of Caroline Hamilton’s courageous work, in Turkey, I do not wish to belabor this point except to say that during this historic time in history.
1. About 1/3 of the entire Ottoman Muslim population died of war, disease, or famine and we in the West pass it over as we do the 7 million non-Jewish victims of the holocaust.
2. Also while thousands of authors and scholars have looked at this point, the most salient words come from a speech of Hovhannes Kactchaznouni, the first Prime Minister of the Independent Armenian Republic in his epoch report to the 1923 (Armenian) convention. Copy Enclosed.
Thus, while the subject I discuss is only tangentially related to Mr. Felson’s story, it is nevertheless very important to Turks around the world and to the many Turkish students of the University of Hartford and the families who resides in West Hartford and surrounding areas in Connecticut.
Cordially,
Robert B. McKay
Historical Notes:
Isabel Hemingway (Ernest’s cousin) after leaving the China mission came to Turkey and founded one of the first nurse training programs at the “Gaziantep American Hospital” co-founded by Caroline Hamilton.
Aintab is the Ottoman name of Gaziantep (Gaziantab). I believe Kemal Ataturk may have added Gazi as a prefix to the name of the town: Gazi meaning victory over infidels.
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