Page:Islam, Turkey, and Armenia, and How They Happened.djvu/69

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SKETCHES OF ARMENIA.
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in Ezek., 27:14 and 38:6, Armenia is indicated under the name of Togarmah, the great grandson of Noah, to whom the Armenians carry their descendance, as furnishing Tyre with horses and mules, a product for which it is still noted. Tigranes I., the celebrated Armenian king, is said to have been an ally of Cyrus the Great in overthrowing the Babylonians and thus in liberating the Jews from their seventy years' captivity. A foreshadow of this event is indicated by the prophet Jeremiah (51:27–29; also 50:41, 42): "Call together against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minnie and Ashkanaz," etc.

2. About the Origin of the Armenian Nation there are two different opinions. The one, so long cherished by the Armenians themselves, is that their ancestor, Haig, the son of Togarmah and the fifth generation from Noah, a hero, and a worshiper of the true Jehovah, lived in Babylonia, where one of the giants, coming into power, called himself Bel or Baal and claimed for himself the divine worship. Haig did not recognize him, and after slaying him in a struggle left the country and fled with his men to the mountainous regions on the north, and established there a principality which was named Hal or Haigazian, the title which Armenians still use for themselves. The name Armenian is supposed to be given by foreigners, after the name of the seventh great Armenian ruler, Aram.

The other opinion lately brought forward is that the Armenian nation, belonging to the Aryan race, came from the north, from Caucasia, and did not