We should also mention the untiring efforts of the widowed Empress Fredrika, daughter of Queen Victoria, who tried in vain to make her son, Wilhelm II, intervene on behalf of the Armenians. 345
Switzerland was also the setting of great wrath and hatred among the general public in response to the massacres of 1894-1896 in Armenia. Their petition of tens of thousands of signatures was handed over to the federal government. Together with the British government, the Swiss government made an official accusation of the Ottoman government for the committed crimes.
Geneva became one of the Armenian centres of activity and housed some of the strongest Armenian think tanks. "The Gallo-Roman city of the Ancient, the carefree city of markets during the Middle Ages, which with glory and honour brought to it through the ideas of Calvin and Rousseau, had become the city of thought", proved itself worthy of its tradition as the refuge and the defender of the oppressed.
Swiss defenders of Armenian rights included Albert Bonnard, G. Godet, Leopold Favre, Edouard Naville and Georges Favon. Later, this Swiss defence was continued bravely by people such as Giuseppe Motta, P. E. Briquet, E. Chapuisat, A. Krafft-Bonnard, J. Martin and Maurice Muret. Whilst the allies of Armenia during the First World War left this nation to its destiny, these people boldly raised their voices in protest, despite all the attempts made to frighten them into silence.
Certain Scandinavians also worked tirelessly for the Armenian cause, such as Georg Brandes 357 and Meyer-Benedictsen, and later admirable figures such as Fridtjof Nansen and Karen Jeppe.
To quote the beautiful words of G. Brandes in his speech aimed at the general public in Europe: "These were crimes which we, in the prevailing situation, considered to be odd and incomprehensible as in truth they belonged to Ancient or Medieval times. But from now on we do not have the right to think so anymore. From the moment when Europe did not prevent the crimes which were being committed in Armenia, we could no longer claim that our time is superior to any of the darkest times in history." 361
In Russia there were several liberal and socialist individuals who put the brand of shame on the actions of the Tsarist government, a condemnation which was persevered by Melikof and Alexander Kerensky. In Italy, the future prime minister Luigi Luzzarti, and in Bulgaria personalities such as Lafontaine, Emile Vanderveld and De Brouchére, also contributed to the outcry.
In response to the massacres of 1894-1896 in Armenia, good-hearted people across the world did everything in their power to awake the consciousness of the interntational public, and although their work did not bring a solution to the Armenian Question, at least they highlighted the start of the moral decay of the Ottoman Empire , and the 20 year struggle to keep the disintegrating empire intact.
To quote another great friend of the Armenians, President Woodrow Wilson: "What prevents our world from perishing is nothing more than a handful of unselfish persons."
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