Foreigners about Armenians

[Nare]

Georgian Chronicles
Chapter 1

”They selected eight of the bravest and most renowned of his sons. First was Hayk (father of the Armenians), second Kartlos (father of the Georgians), third Bardos, fourth Movkan, fifth Lekan, sixth Heros, seventh Kovkas, and eighth Egres. But Hayk was the strongest and bravest. There was no one like him on earth, not before the deluge nor after it, to the present. T’orgom divided his land among them: half he gave to Hayk and half to the sevens sons, according to their merit.”


Chapter 2

In the same period there came to the country of Iberia some fugitives from the Greeks, Syrians, and Khazars who were harassed by their enemies. [The Iberians] accepted them to [10] aid themselves against the Iranians. Also at that time came xxxs who had escaped from Nebuchadnezzar (Nabugodonosor), who had captured Jerusalem. And they requested a place for worship from the tanuter of Mts’xet’a; and he gave them [an area by] a stream on the Arag river called Zanaw, now called Xerk. Up to this point the language of Iberia was Armenian. But then [the Iberians] started to be changed by the peoples dwelling among them, and there occurred a mixing up of everything, leading to that which is presently called Georgian. Subsequently they elected a religion and a conduct more immodest and indecent than all people’s. For in marriage they made no differentiation among [the same and related] lines, they ate every creeping reptile, insect, and carrion, and had no graves.”

[Nare]

Re: Foreigners about Armenians

By Luigi Villari
“Numbers of isolated Armenians were caught by the Tartars while trying to escape and shot or cut to pieces. Some were induced to leave their hiding places by promises of safety, and then brutally murdered. At the
Melikoff works several Armenians who had taken refuge in a house were burnt to death with kerosene pumped in by the Tartars. …But amid these deeds of savage cruelty there shine also deeds of magnificent heroism. The way in which some Armenians brought women and children to places of safety or got water and provisions for the besieged under a heavy fire was beyond all praise. …In the meanwhile fighting and incendiarism had broken out on the Bibi Eybat oil-fields. The Pitoieff, Mantasheff, and other Armenian properties were set alight, and the properties of the English firms “Oleum” and B. O. R. N. were also damaged.”

http://armenianhouse.org/villari/caucasus/bloodshed-and-fire.html

[Nare]

Re: Foreigners about Armenians

“At Tiflis you find specimens of all these races, and in the bazars you can hear all their languages spoken, with the addition of such extraneous tongues as Polish, German, French, Italian, Hindustani, Sart, and sometimes even Chinese. The observant stranger soon learns to recognize the main types — Georgians, Tartars, Armenians, Russians—but it takes long before he can distinguish the minor subdivisions of the human species here exhibited.
The Armenians are certainly the most conspicuous element of the population, and one comes across them in every walk of life.
If you go to a bank, to a money-changer, to a merchant’s counting-house, the proprietors, directors, and most of the employees will probably prove to be Armenians.
If you see any particularly large and handsome house and ask to whom it belongs, in nine cases out of ten “a rich Armenian ” will be the answer.
On the Duma, or town council, over three-quarters of the members are Armenians, and they control all the commercial activity of the town. One has but to walk down the chief streets to see that the names over all the chief shops and of the most important firms are Armenian. They may end in -off or in -eff—Kalan-taroff, Oganjanoff, Mantasheff, Gukassoff, &c.—but they are merely Russified forms of Kalantarian, Ogandjanian, Mantashiantz, Gukassiantz.
The best lawyers, doctors, and journalists are Armenians, and until lately one found them even in the Government offices.”
LUIGI VILLARI
(1876 – 1959)
An Italian historian, traveler and diplomat. Author of number of books including Russia under the Great Shadow; Italian Foreign Policy under Mussolini; The Liberation of Italy, 1943-1947; etc.