Inside the Ruse of a French-Armenian Scammer — The Public Domain Review

Finally, and perhaps most effectively, Calfa allowed people to interpret his story as they pleased and played into the coverage of Armenians in the European press. In the 1890s, newspapers were filled with sensational stories about a blood-thirsty ruler of the Ottoman Empire, Sultan Abdul Hamid II, who was persecuting his Christian subjects. The European reading public was at least vaguely aware that Armenians were among them. As a result, many of the marquises, baronesses, and other acquaintances who came to visit Calfa in Paris believed not only that Calfa was a prince but that he himself had once reigned. They assumed he had been dethroned by the sultan and was now forced to live in exile in Paris like so many other dispossessed sovereigns. They did not know that Armenians had not had a reigning monarch since 1375, and Calfa did not step in to enlighten them. He relied on the association between Armenians and persecution in their minds and let them believe that the Red Sultan had stripped him of his right to rule. He also let people use his story for their own ends. He indulged those who — fueled by Orientalist tropes and anti-Muslim sentiment in Europe — saw in him a Christian prince oppressed by a Muslim sultan, welcoming their calls for new crusades that would reclaim the region for Christendom and restore him to his throne. His story, in other words, was bolstered by the gruesome news of real massacres in the Ottoman Empire and fit neatly into how Europeans expected Armenians to be treated. Ever the opportunist, Calfa used these expectations to garner the sympathy, support, and credibility he needed to prop up his princely claims for the long haul.