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296 ARMENIA AND THE NEAR EAST
towns and villages of Cilicia. They looted, burned, and
butchered, and their cruelties took fantastically horrible forms.
About twenty thousand Armenians were killed. The local
administration helped the murderers, allowed the soldiers to
attack whenever the Christians defended themselves, and
telegraphed to Constantinople that the Armenians were the
aggressors. The attitude of the Young Turkish Government
to these massacres does not seem to have been very clear,
although they gave orders that the slaughter was to cease.
Not only did Young Turkish officers and soldiery join in the
looting, but the subsequent legal inquiries were a scandal.
The known leaders of the massacres went scot-free, while a
few murderers chosen at random were hanged—with some
Armenians who had resorted to armed resistance in defence
of themselves and their families. Now that victory was
assured the Young Turks no longer needed their former
comrades in arms ; it was far more important to avoid hurting
the feelings of the Moslem Old Turks. The sequel was easy
to foresee.
It soon became apparent that the programme of the Young
Turks was to establish a pan-Turkish empire with the Turkish
language and wholly Turkish Government everywhere ; even
the Arabs were now to be excluded from the administration.
Christians, especially the Armenians, were to be suppressed ;
equality between the different races had to be definitely aban
doned as impossible ; for it would mean that the Christians,
with their higher standard of civilization and intelligence, and
their greater industry and efficiency, would soon become the
chief power in the country. Obviously the power must be
retained by the ruling Turkish race, who had won it by the
sword ; but håving all the indolent laziness of a less civilized
people they could not hope to hold their ground in fair
competition with the others.
A carefully planned settlement of Moslems in the Christian
parts of the empire, first and foremost in Macedonia and
Armenia, was organized ; the Kurds were once more encour
aged to make encroachments ; and the restoration of stolen
lands to the Armenians was stopped. The Turkish defeat
in the Balkan war made things still worse for the Armenian
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