In By Their BloodJames and Marti Hefley write:

In the 19th century Protestant evangelical missionaries brought the gospel to the Armenians with stirring freshness. This precipitated an evangelical renewal movement within the staid old Armenian church.

At that time much of Armenia was under a Turkish Muslim government and conversion of a Muslim to Christianity was punishable by instant death. This law was suddenly lifted in 1856 and complete religious liberty declared. Scores of Muslims became Christians.

The opportunity proved to be short lived. In 1864 the Turkish government began rounding up and sentencing to prison Muslim converts to Christianity. From 1895 to 1896 government soldiers killed up to 100,000 Armenian civilians. In the spring an attempt was made to kill every Armenian Christian within Turkish borders. Lawyers, doctors, clergymen, and other intellectuals were rounded up and charged with subversion. Many had their heads placed in vises and squeezed until they collapsed.

April 24 was the day set to kill the rest of the Armenians. As many as 600,000 may have died on that fatal April 24. One of those who escaped was a young girl of 18 who stumbled into an American camp.

"Are you in pain?" a nurse asked when she arrived.

"No," she replied, "but I have learned the meaning of the cross."

The nurse thought she was mentally disoriented and questioned her further. Pulling down the one garment she wore, the young girl exposed a bare shoulder. There, burned deeply into her flesh, was the figure of a cross.

"I was caught with others in my village. The Turks stood me up and asked, 'Muhammed or Christ?' I said, 'Christ, always Christ.' For seven days they asked me this same question and each day when I said 'Christ' a part of this cross was burned into my shoulder. On the seventh day they said, 'Tomorrow if you say "Muhammed" you live. If not, you die.' Then we heard that Americans were near and some of us escaped. That is how I learned the meaning of the cross."