ARLINGTON’S CASUALTY OF RELIGIOUS HATE
Benny Morris
The National Interest Online
Dec 7 2010
In 1922, the American diplomat Major Robert Whitney Imbrie spent four
months traveling through Anatolia, generally alone, often on horseback,
twice crossing Asia Minor “from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean.” He
was sent by the American high commissioner, in effect the ambassador
to Turkey, Rear Admiral Mark Bristol, to report on conditions in
“the interior.”
Returning to Constantinople, he reported that he had “seen no
oppression of Christian minorities, no deportations, no massacres,
no outrages, no destruction or confiscation of property.” Of course,
he conceded, such things had certainly occurred during the preceding
years. He himself had seen groups of Christian refugees, “notably
in Sivas and Harpoot . . . in destitute conditions as a result of
these deportations.”
But, at the same time, he had seen “Christian [Armenian and Greek]
minorities living, conducting business and worshipping wholly
unmolested.” Yes, he had noticed ill-feeling between the Muslim Turks
and the Christians but, he opined, the “differences [between the
communities] are not based upon religion. The Armenian and Greek does
not hate the Turk because the latter is a Mohammedan. The Turk does
not despise the Armenian and Greek because they are Christians. The
reasons are political, revolutionary and economic. . . . Personally
I have found the Mohammedan no more tolerant than the Christians. . . .
Religion . . . [is] only a minor contributory factor in the existing
differences among the peoples of Asia Minor.” Indeed, he noted, there
had recently been a “falling off on the part of the Mohammedan from
his former strict adherence to his religion.”
A few months later, the forty-year-old Imbrie was posted to Tehran,
where he served as the U.S. vice-consul.
On July 18, 1924, Imbrie and a companion went to visit and photograph
the “sacred” Sakheh Khaneh well where a native of that city “was
rumored to have lost his sight . . . immediately after having uttered
the name of Abbas Effendi, the late spiritual leader of the Bahais,”
reported The New York Times on July 24. “A few days ago the well was
said to have been poisoned and Bahais were reported to have done it.”
Observers warned Imbrie and his companion, one Seymour, to move off.
They got back into their carriage and drove off but someone in the
crowd shouted: “That is a Bahai! He has poisoned the water of our
Sakheh Khaneh and killed Musselmen women and children.” The Times
reported: “The two Americans were dragged out and attacked by the mob
with sticks and stones.” Imbrie was rendered unconscious by a blow to
the skull, possibly by a saber wielded by a Persian soldier. Policemen
at the site apparently did nothing to protect the Americans but,
eventually, they took him to the Police Headquarters Hospital. Still
the mob gave chase and “forced its way into the operating room”
and murdered him on the operating table. “He received more than
forty wounds.”
Imbrie was buried “with full military honors” in Arlington National
Cemetery. The Times article about the affair was titled “Imbrie Murder
Laid to Religious Hate.”
From: A. Papazian
http://nationalinterest.org/commentary/arlingtons-casualty-religious-hate-4527