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TO ARPA-CHAI AND LENINAKAN 169
sounded decidedly fine, and he was much applauded. It
surprised me once more to see that Turkish was so well
received here. Formerly the Tatars in Azerbaijan were among
the bitterest enemies of the Armenians, and it was not
very long since they had perpetrated their bloody massacres
of the Armenians at Baku. But it is all unity, peace, and
concord now.
I cannot give the content of all these speeches, excellent as
no doubt they were, because unfortunately I was unable to
understand a word of them. Suddenly the President asked
me to speak, too, and I had to say a few words in German,
which were translated by a professor from Erivan. And what
was there to say, except what all the others must have been
saying, about this historie day, which had ushered in a new
era in the history of the present generation of the Armenian
people, when at last these wide plains, parched since the dawn
of the ages, had been given water to drink, the water which
would gradually turn them into one continuous carpet of
fruitful fields and orchards ? I was also bound to say what a
splendid impression wc had formed of the whole undertaking
—carried out by a elever and capable nation who were labour
ing, with the small means at their command, to build up a
happier future after their age-long sufferings, privations, and
disasters from war and pillage. If an era of peace had now
dawned, it was our conviction, from all that wc had seen,
that such a capable and persevering people would quickly
develop the many rich possibilities of their beautiful country
and provide new hornes for thousands of happy families.
And they would have the sympathy of the whole civilized
world with them in their work of building up a national home,
which even if it did not include all Armenians, would at any
rate be one which all of Armenian blood could regard as their
native country.
After this meeting there was to be a concert, and wc left
while the chairman was making a speech in my honour, a
fact of which I was unaware. In Armenia they still rejoice
in a state of primitive happiness in which time is no object,
so the concert did not begin until a couple of hours after the
time stated on the programme. But the music was worth
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