Ashot Posted April 11, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 11, 2008 ASKS BERNSTORFF's AID TO PREVENT MASSACRES October 1, 1915 State Department Makes Informal Request to Ambassador in Behalf of Armenians. Washington Sep 29 -- The State Department has placed an informal request before Count Von Bernstorff the German Ambassador, asking that he use his influence with the German Government to interfere in behalf of the Armenians in Turkey. The request, it became known today, was made some time ago, and as yet has not been directly answered by the Ambassador except with the text of a German consular dispatch which stated that conditions among the Armenians had been exaggerated. Officials here stated that no formal representations on the subject had been directed to the Berlin Foreign Office and no such steps were now contemplated by the Government. State Department advises have shown that, while so far there has been no violation of American rights which would make a basis for formal protests evidence from unofficial sources indicate that American lives and property have been threatened. Ambassador Morgenthau at Constantinople today sent a telegram to the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions urging that contributions toward the fund for Armenian relief work be increased. New York Times Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashot Posted April 11, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 11, 2008 (edited) TELL OF HORRORS DONE IN ARMENIA MONDAY, OCTOBER 4, 1915 TELL OF HORRORS DONE IN ARMENIA Report of Eminent Americans Says They are Unequaled in a Thousand Years. -TURKISH RECORD OUTDONE - A Policy of Extermination Put in Effect Against a Helpless People -ENTIRE VILLAGES SCATTERED- Men and Boys Massacred, Women and Girls Sold as Slaves and Distributed Among Moslems The Committee on Armenian Atrocities, a body of eminent Americans which for weeks has been investigating the situation in Turkish Armenia, issued, yesterday, a detailed report of that investigation, in which it is asserted that in cruelty and in horror nothing in the past thousand years has equaled the present persecutions of the Armenian people by the Turks. The committee adds that the sources of its information are "unquestioned as to their veracity, integrity, and authority of the writers." The data on which the report is based were gathered from all parts of the Turkish Empire. The report tells of children under 15 years of age thrown into the Euphrates to be drowned of women forced to desert infants in arms and to leave them by the roadside to die; of young women and girls appropriated by the Turks, thrown into harems, attached, or else sold to the highest bidder, and of men murdered and tortured. Everything that an Armenian possesses, even to the clothes on his back, are stolen by his persecutors. The report says the use of the bastinado has been revived, high dignitaries of the Church have been hanged, families scattered to the four winds, and thousands upon thousands of defenseless, miserable persons herded together like cattle and driven into the desert lands of the empire, there to starve and die. Men Who Signed the Report The men who signed this report are: * The Right Rev. DAVID H. GREER, Protestant Episcopal Bishop of the Diocese of New York. * OSCAR S. STRAUS, former Secretary of Commerce and Labor, and ex-Ambassador to Turkey. * CLEVELAND H. DODGE, of Phelps,Dodge & Company * The Rev. Dr. STEPHEN S. WISE, , Rabbi of the Free Synagogue, N.Y. * CHARLES R. CRANE of Chicago, Vice Chairman of the Finance Committee of the Democratic *National Committee during the last campaign. * ARTHUR CURTISS JAMES, Director of many railroads and of the Hanover National Bank, the United *States Trust Co., and Phelps, Dodge & Co. * The Rev. Dr. FRANK MASON NORTH of the Board of Foreign Missions of the Methodist Episcopal Church. * JOHN R. MOTT of the International Committee of the Young Men's Christian Association. * WILLIAM W. ROCKHILL, former Ambassador to to Turkey and former Ambassador to Russia. * WILLIAM SLOANE, President of W. & J. Sloane, 575 Fifth Avenue, NY * The Rev. Dr. EDWARD LINCOLN SMITH of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. * The Rev. Dr. FREDERICK LYNCH of the New York Peace Society. * GEORGE A. PLIMPTON of Ginn & Co., a trustee of Constantinople College. * The Rev. Dr. JAMES L. BARTON, for many years a missionary in Turkey, and now the Secretary of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. * The Rev. Dr.WILLIAM J. HAVEN, one of the founders of the Epworth League. * STANLEY WHITE, President of the White Advertising Corporation. * Professor SAMUEL P. DUTTON, an authority on Balkan affairs. Identity of Writers Concealed. "For reasons that will be obvious to all," says the committee in a foreword to its report, "the names and positions of the various writers cannot be given at this time. These are known to the committee, who vouch for them and their statements. In most cases it will be necessary to conceal the place from which the statements were written, and even the names of the cities and towns referred to, in order that the writer or his interests may not suffer irreparable harm." Sources of the information, it added, are Greek, Bulgarian, American, Turkish, German, British, and Armenian. The report, which contains 20,000 words, is divided into twenty-five parts. The first, dated April 27, 1915, states that a "movement against Armenians forms part of a concerted movement against all non Turkish and mission and progress elements, including Zionists. The second, dated three days later, tells of the persecution, plunder, and massacre in the interior of Turkey, and of "incredible severity" against Armenians in Zeitun and Marash. July 10, the writer stated that it was then evident that a "systematic attempt to uproot the peaceful Armenian population had been decided upon. Torture, pillage, rape, murder, wholesale expulsion and deportation, and massacre, came from all parts of the empire and was due, not to fanatical or popular demand, but was purely arbitrary, and directed from Constantinople." July 16, another writer reported that "a campaign of race extermination is in progress." Chapter VI, tells of the massacre in late July of women and children, most of whom had been deported from the Erzerum district. The massacre occurred near the town of Kemakh, between Erzerum and Harput. Deportation Was Begun in Zeitun Chapters VII, and VIII, form two of the most horrible of all the chapters of horrors, into which the report is divided. The are, in part, as follows: June 20. The deportation began some six weeks ago with 180 families from Zeitun; since which time all the inhabitants of that place and its neighboring villages have been deported; also most of the Christians in Albustan, many from Hadjin, Sis, Kars Pazar, Hassan Beyil and Deort Yol. The numbers involved are approximately, to date, 26,5000. Of these, about 5,000 have been sent to the Konieh region, 5,500 are in Aleppo and surrounding towns and villages, and the remainder are in Der Zor, Racca, and various places in Mesopotamia, even as far as the neighborhood of Baghdad.The process is still going on, and there is no telling how far it may be carried. The orders already issued will bring the number of in this region up to 82,000, and there have been as yet none exiled from Aintab, and very few from Marsh and Oorfa.The orders of commanders may have been reasonably humane; but the execution of them has been for the most part unnecessarily harsh, and in many cases accompanied by horrible brutality to women and children, to the sick and the aged. Whole villages were deported at an hour's notice, with no opportunity to prepare for the journey, not even, in some cases, to gather together the scattered members of the family, so that little children were left behind. In Hadjin, well-to-do people who had prepared food and bedding for the road, were obliged to leave it in the street, and afterward suffered greatly from hunger. Women Driven Under the Lash In many cases the men were (those of military age were nearly all in the army) bound tightly together with ropes or chains. Women with little children in their arms, or in the last days of pregnancy were driven along under the whip like cattle. Three different cases came under my knowledge where the woman was delivered on the road, and because her brutal driver hurried her along she died of hemorrhage. I also know of one case where the gendarme in charge was a humane man, and allowed the poor woman several hours rest, and then procured a wagon for her to ride in. Some women became so completely worn out and hopeless that they left their infants beside the road. Many women and firls have been outraged. At one place the commander of the gendarmerie openly told the men to whom he consigned a large company that they were at liberty to do what they chose with the women and girls. As to subsistence, there has been a great difference in different places. In some places the Government has fed them, in some places it has permitted others to do so. There has been much hunger, thirst and sickness, and some real starvation and death. These people are being scattered in small units, three or four families in a place, among a population of different race and religion, and speaking a different language. I speak of them as being composed of families, but fourth fifths of them are women and children, and what men there are for the most part old or incompetent. If a means is not found to aid them through the next few months, until they get established in their new surroundings, two thirds or three fourths of them will die of starvation and disease. Prisoners' Feet Beaten to Pieces I was called to a house one day where I saw a sheet which originated from the prison and which was being sent to wash. This sheet was covered with blood and running in long streams. I was also shown clothes which were drenched and exceedingly dirty. It was a puzzle to me what they could possibly have done to the prisoners, but I got to the bottom of the matter by the help of two very reliable persons who witnessed part of it themselves: The prisoner is put in a room (similar to the times of the Romans) Gendarmes standing in twos at both sides and two at the end of the room administer, each in their turn, bastinadoes as long as they have enough force in them. At the time of the Romans 40 strokes were administered at the very most; in this place, however, 200, 300, 500, even 800 strokes are administered. The foot swells up, then bursts open, due to the numerous blows, and thus the blood spurts out. The prisoner is then carried back into prison and brought to bed by the rest of the prisoners - this explains the bloody sheet. The prisoners who become unconscious after these blows are revived through the means of some cold water, which is thrown on their heads, and which accounts for the west and dirty clothes. A young man was beaten to death within the space of five minutes. Apart from the bastinadoing other methods were employed, too, such as putting hot irons on the chest. A forger, who was suspected to have forged the shells of the bombs, was let free only after his toes were burned off with sulphur, (called Kerab). The German Consul of Aleppo estimates the number of deported to be 30,000. Five thousand people were deported to the unhealthy spot of Sultani, in the District of Konia. The Government gave in the first days some bread. When the bread was finished they received none; the misery was heartrending. In Chapter 9 the writer tells of another reign of terror, during which the terrible bastinado was again brought into use, with torture by fire added. He had heard instances of this burning out of the eyes of the poor victims. In another instance some old bombs found in a cemetery and planted there probably during the reign of Abdul Hamid were used as an excuse to torture and kill hundreds who were accused of having hidden them there for use against the Turks. On June 26 the Armenian men of a certain town were ordered to leave the town. No exception was made; old and young, rich and poor, sick and well, all had to go. When seriously ill the victim was dragged from his bed into the streets. They were robbed of their shoes and clothing. They were thrown into prison and marched away in groups of thirty and more. Some groups were chained. A man in touch with the Turkish Government subsequently stated they had been killed. Women of Sultan's Soldiers Deported Following the deportation of the men the women and children were ordered to be ready to leave. They were told to be ready to leave on a Wednesday. This is what happened: On Tuesday, about 3:30 A.M., the ox carts appeared at the doors of the first district to be removed, and the people were ordered to depart at once. Some were dragged from their beds without even sufficient clothing. All the morning the ox carts creaked out of town, laden with women and children, and here and there a man who had escaped the previous deportations. In many cases the husbands and brothers of these same women were away in the army, fighting for the Turkish government. The panic in the city was terrible. The people felt that the Government was determined to exterminate the Armenian race, and they were powerless to resist. The people were sure that the men were being killed and the women kidnapped. Many of the convicts in the prison had been released, and the mountains around______ were full of bands of outlaws. It was feared that the women and children were taken some from the city and left to the mercy of these men. However that may be, there are provable cases of the kidnapping of attractive young girls by the Turkish officials of _______. One Moslem reported that a gendarme had offered to sell him two girls for a medjidie ($4.00). The women believed that they were going to a fate worse than death, and many carried poison in their pockets to use if necessary. Some carried picks and shovels to bury those they knew would die by the wayside. During this reign of terror notice was given that escape was easy; that any one who accepted Islam would be be allowed to remain safely at home. The offices of the lawyers who recorded applications were crowded with people petitioning to become Mohammedans. Many did it for the sake of their women and children, feeling that it would be a matter of only a few weeks before relief would come. This deportation continued at intervals for about two weeks. It is estimated that out of about 12,000 Armenians in __________ only a few hundred were left. Even those who offered to accept Islam were sent away. At the time of writing no definite word has been heard from any of these groups.. Another chapter tells of the deportation of 12,000 Armenians, of all classes and ages,and that "the whole Mohammedan population knew these people were to ge their prey from the beginning, and they were treated as criminals." The route of this unhappy band was marked by corpses. Beat Child's Brains Out on Rock This is what happened in a village in which many Armenians once lived: ______ a village about two hours from_________ is inhabited by Gregorian and Catholic Armenians and Turks. A wealthy and influential Armenian, together with his two sons, according to a reliable witness, were placed one behind the other and shot through. Forty-five men and women were taken a short distance from the village into a valley. The women were first outraged by the officers of the gendarmerie, and then turned over to the gendarmes to dispose of. According to this witness a child was killed by beating its brains out on a rock. The men were all killed and not a single person survived from this group of forty-five. Here is, in part, the story of another unhappy Armenian town: Daily, the police are searching the houses of the Armenians for weapons, and not finding any, they are taking the best and most honorable men and imprisoning them; some of them they are exiling, and others they are torturing with red hot irons to make them reveal the supposedly concealed weapons. The Gendarmerie Department seems to have full control of affairs and the Mutessarif upholds them. They are now holding about a hundred of the best citizens of the city in prison, and today the gendarmerie chief called the Armenian Bishop and told him that unless the Armenians deliver their arms and the revolutionists among them, that he has orders to exile the entire Armenian population of _____ as they did the people of _____. We know how the latter were treated, for hundreds of them have been dragged through _____ on their way to the desert whither they have been exiled. These poor exiles were mostly women, children and old men, and they were clubbed and beaten and lashed along as though they had been wild animals, and their women and girls were daily criminally outraged, both by their guards and the ruffians of eve village through which they passed. Woman Writes of Horrible Experience Another document in the hands of the American Committee states that "The Young Turk Government pursues unceasingly, and every day with added violence, the war to the finish that it was declared against its Armenian subjects." A letter from a woman in Turkey, of unquestioned integrity, reads, in part, as follows: Our party left June 1, (old style) fifteen gendarmes going with us. The party numbered 400 or 500 persons. We had got only two hours away from home when bands of villagers and brigands in large numbers, with rifles, guns, axes, surrounded us on the road and robbed us of all we had. The gendarmes took my three horses an sold them to Turkish mouhadjirs, pocketing the money. They took my money and that from my daughter's neck, also all our food. After this they separated the men, one by one, and shot them all within six or seven days - every male above 15 years old. By my side were killed two priests, one of them over 90 years of age. These bandsmen took all the good looking women and carried them off on their horses. Very many women and girls were thus carried off to the mountains, among them my sister, whose one year old baby they threw away; a Turk picked it up and carried it off, I know not where. My mother walked till she could walk no further, and dropped by the roadside on a mountain top. We found on the road many of those who had been in previous sections carried from _____; some were among the killed, with their husbands and sons. We also came across some old people and little infants still alive, gut in a pitiful condition, having shouted their voice away. We were not allowed to sleep at night in the villages, but lay down outside. Under cover of the night indescribable deeds were committed by the gendarmes, bandsmen and villagers. Many of us died from hunger and strokes of apoplexy. Others were left by the roadside, too feeble to go on. One morning we saw fifty to sixty wagons with about thirty Turkish widows, whose husbands had been killed in the war; and they were going to Constantinople. One of these women made a sign to one of the gendarmes to kill a certain Armenian whom she pointed out. The gendarmes asked her if she did not wish to kill him herself, at which she said, "Why not?" and drawing a revolver from her pocket, shot and killed him. Each one of these Turkish hanums had five or six Armenian girls of 10 or under with her. Boys the Turks never wished to take, they killed all, of whatever age. These women wanted to take my daughter too but she would not be separated from me. Finally, we were both taken into their wagons on our promising to become Moslems. As soon as we entered the araba they began to teach us how to be Moslems, and changed our names, calling me_____ and her _____. The worst and most unimaginable horrors were reserved for us at the banks of the Euphrates and in the Erzingan Plain. The mutilated bodies of women, girls, and little children made everybody shudder. The bandsmen were doing all sorts of awful deeds to the women and girls that were with us, whose cries went up to heaven. At the Euphrates the bandsmen and gendarmes threw into the river all the remaining children under 15 years old. Those that could swim were shot down as they struggled in the water. After seven days we reached __________. Not a single Armenian was left alive there. The Turkish women took my daughter and me to a the bath, and there showed us many other women and girls that had accepted Islam. Moslem Criminals Released for Pillage Excerpts from various statements included in the report given out yesterday follow: August 2. about 800 middle-aged and old women, and children under the age of 10 years, arrived afoot from Diarbekir, after forty-five days en route, and in the most pitiable condition imaginable. They report the taking of all the young women and girls by the Kurds, the pillaging even of the last bit of money and other belongings, of starvation, of privation, and hardship of every description. All over the country leading Armenians have been shot or hanged. Leading merchants have been beggared and exiled. Thirty thousand Mohammedan criminals have been released from jail and formed into bands under strict military discipline. One of the duties of these bands is to pillage villages and to rob and assassinate exiles. The Greek and Armenian patriarchs have been refused audiences with the Ministers of the Turkish Government. Foreign Ambassadors among them the United States Ambassador, have been rebuffed and told that what the Imperial Government wishes to do with its subjects is none of their business. The Turkish Ministers and other officials have repeatedly avowed the intention to smash the Christian nationalities and thus forever put an end to the Armenian question.. The important American religious and educational institutions in this region are losing their professors, teachers, helpers, and students, and even the orphanages are to be emptied of the hundreds of children therein, which ruins the fruits of fifty years of untiring effort in this field. The Government officials in a mocking way ask what the Americans are going to do with these establishments now that the Armenians are being done away with. The situation is becoming more critical daily, as there is no telling where this thing will end. The Germans are being blamed on every hand, for if they have not directly ordered this wholesale slaughter, (for it is nothing less than the extermination of the Armenian race) they at least condone it. The story of a visit to one of the desert camps to which the Armenians have been exiled is given near the close of the report. It tells of famished old men, women and children, reduced to the very lowest state or misery by their persecutors. There are only a few men in the camp, the report reads, "as most of them have been killed on the road." LIkewise many women and little children had been murdered. "The condition of these people," says the report, "indicates clearly the fate of those who lave left and are bout to leave here. The system that is being followed seems to be to have bands of Kurds awaiting them on the road to kill the men especially, and incidentally some of the others. The entire movement seems to be the most thoroughly organized and effective massacre this country has ever known." Turks Foil Missionaries' Efforts. The American Missionaries began considering plans to aid the women and children who would be left here with no means of support. It was thought that perhaps an orphanage could be opened to care for some of the children, and especially those who had been born in America, and then brought her by their parents, and also those who belonged to parents who had been connected in some way with the American mission and schools. There would be plenty of opportunity, though there might not be sufficient means, to care for children who reached here with the exiles from other villayets and whose parents had died on the way. I went to see the Vali about this matter yesterday and was met with a flat refusal. He said we could aid these people if we wished to do so, but the Government was establishing orphanages for the children and we could not undertake any work of that nature. An hour after I left the Vali the announcement was made that all the Armenians remaining here, including women and children, must leave by July 13. "In response to the urgent appeal of Ambassador Morgenthau," the report concludes, "the Committee on Armenian Atrocities, in co-operation with the Committee of Mercy, has decided to make a wide appeal for funds. "Several gentlemen have already pledged large contributions, but the need is very great, and it is expected that a good number of smaller gifts will be received." "The crimes now being perpetrated upon the Armenian people surpass in their horror and cruelty anything that history has recorded during the past thousand years. The educated and the ignorant, the rich and the poor, are all being subjected to every form of barbarity and outrage. It is understood, however, that very many Turks are opposed to this policy of persecution." "It is hoped that prompt action will make it possible to save a great many lives, and repatriate some at least of those who have been driven from their homes." "Funds will be forwarded to the Ambassador as fast as received. Donations should be sent to the Treasurer Charles R. Crane, 70 Fifth Avenue, New York.' " New York Times Edited April 11, 2008 by Ashot Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashot Posted April 11, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 11, 2008 GOVERNMENT SENDS PLEA FOR ARMENIA October 4, 1915 Tell Turkey That a Continuation of the Atrocities Will Jeopardize American Good Feeling Washington -- Further representations have been made to the Ottoman Government by the Government of the United States regarding the Armenian atrocities. Secretary of State Lansing tonight sent to Ambassador Morgenthau at Constantinople a message voicing the interest of the American people in the Armenian situation, and urging that steps be taken by the Turkish Government for the protection and humane treatment of the Armenians. The message did not take the form of a protest from the Government of the United States, but directed Mr. Morgenthau to inform the Ottoman Government that the atrocities inflicted upon the Armenian Christians had aroused strong sentiment among the American people and that a continuation of these atrocities would tend to jeopardize the good feeling of the people of the United States toward the people of Turkey. Secretary Lansing said today that no representations had been made to Germany regarding the treatment of the Armenians by the Turks. It was learned, however that Ambassador Morgenthau had reported that the German Embassy at Constantinople had filed a protest on this subject with the Turkish Foreign Office. An announcement some time ago was to the effect that the State Department had asked Count Von Bernstorff, the German Ambassador here, to bring the matter to the attention of his Foreign Office. New York Times Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashot Posted April 11, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 11, 2008 800,000 ARMENIANS COUNTED DESTROYED October 7, 1915 LONDON, Oct.6. - Viscount Bryce, former British Ambassador to the United States, in the House of Lords today said that such information as had reached him from many quarters showed that the figure of 800,000 Armenians destroyed since May was quite a possible number. Virtually the whole nation had been wiped out, he declared, and he did not suppose there was any case in history of a crime "so hideous and on so large a scale." "The death of these people," said Lord Bryce, "resulted from the deliberate and premeditated policy of the gang now in possession of the Turkish Government. Orders for the massacres came in every case direct from Constantinople. In some instances local Governors, being humane, pious men, refused to carry out the orders and at least two Governors were summarily dismissed for this reason. "The customary procedure was to round up the whole of the population of a designated town. A part of the population was thrown into prison and the remainder were marched out of town and in the suburbs the men were separated from the women and children. The men were then taken to a convenient place and shot and bayoneted. The women and children were then put under a convoy of the lower kind of soldiers and dispatched to some distant destination. "They were driven by the soldiers day after day. Many fell by the way and many died of hunger, for no provisions were furnished them. They were robbed of all they possessed, and in many cases the women were stripped naked and made to continue the march in that condition. Many of the women went mad and threw away their children. The caravan route was marked by a line of corpses. Comparatively few of the people ever reached their destination. "The facts as to the slaughter in Trebizond are vouched for by the Italian Consul. Orders came for the murder of all the Armenian Christians in Trebizond. Many Mussulmans tried to save their Christian friends, but the authorities were implacable and hunted out all the Christians and then drove them down to the sea front. Then they put them aboard sail boats and carried them some distance out to sea and threw them overboard. The whole Armenian population, numbering 10,000, was thus destroyed in one afternoon." The Lord Mayor at a meeting at the Mansion House on Oct. 15, will start a fund for the aid of Armenian refugees. Among the speakers will be Lord Bryce, Cardinal Bourne and T. P. O'Connor. New York Times Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashot Posted April 11, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 11, 2008 LETTERS TELL OF OUTRAGES October 10, 1915 One from a Turk Laments Over Expulsions of the Armenians "The cruelty of the authorities is beyond description. In some cases nails and sharp points are being driven into the ends of the fingers; men are beaten until they fall senseless on the ground; the soles of the feet are pounded, and then boiling water is poured upon the raw, bleeding flesh; in other cases the man is pounded and beaten until it is impossible to know who he is, even though he be a near friend. All of this torture is given to compel the person to reveal secrets and to inform the Government of plots and schemes that may or may not be planned against it." Some five hundred of the worst criminals in the prisons, " the letter continues, " have been let loose and sent to the Russian frontier to burn villages and to destroy the lives and property of the enemy. We met bands of these men as we came across the country." A second letter tells of the wholesale deportation of Armenians to the desert and other distant parts of the Turkish Empire....from a certain unnamed town, the writer states that "the 1st included the educated and leading men of thecommunity, some of whom had been subjected to indescribable tortures and were unable to walk." A third letter is from a Turk, a Moslem to his son, who is now in the United States. This is the first letter published from a strictly Turkish source-and a most reliable one-which confirms the stories of frightfulness and torture and death, sent to this country from various non-Turkish sources. "I am returning the check you sent, for we cannot cash it, there being no Raya (Christians) her any more. The inhabitants of our village are all Moslems now, for all our Raya neighbors were driven away by night, nobody knows where. There houses are now occupied by Kurd and Cherkes Bashibasooks with their one or two Raya slave girls each. Times are bad, my son. The Raya was everything to us, and the thief Cherkes is by no means a fair substitute for us. All the elders of the village realize this, although there are few who sympathize with this unhappy people. I am only taking my chances to write to you the way they were treated. It being the harvest time, the poor Raya had not a handful of already ground flour in their home, and were largely living on vegetables. If there were any who had a bare subsistence at hand, they were not given the chance to take anything with them. Some were taken out from bed and not given the time to dress so many (mostly old women and children) went half naked and barefooted. We hear many of them died before the end of the first day. There is no more business activity in the whole of _____. Everything is in an anarchical state. The wheatstacks, still in the field, are constantly being set on fire by the Bashibaseeks. It tell you when the Winter comes we ourselves will have to starve, for, as you know, we all live on Raya's crops. New York Times Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashot Posted April 11, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 11, 2008 DEFENDS REPRESSION OF THE ARMENIANS Nobody's Business What Turkey Does to Them, Count von Reventlow Declares BERLIN, Oct. 9, (via London.)--Count Ernst von Reventlow, military writer for the Tagezzeitung, in an article in that paper under the headline, "The Uproar About 'The Armenian Atrocities' Berlin," declares flatly that it is Turkey's own affairs how she deals with Armenian uprisings. His article was inspired by the report that Henry Morgenthau, the United States Ambassador to Turkey, had given Turkey notice that her relations with the United States would be endangered if the Armenian massacres were not stopped. Count von Reventlow declares that he is unable to discuss the matter as he would like, but expresses the hope that Turkey will not allow herself to be frightened. He continues: "If Turkey considers it necessary that Armenian uprisings and other intrigues be suppressed with all means possible, so that a repetition will be impossible, that does not constitute massacres or a justified and necessary character, the more justified and the more necessary from the fact that the Turkish empire is in its hardest fight for existence and has enough foreign enemies. To demand that it shall also nourish an internal enemy on its bosom, because that would suit the British and Americans, so to demand a great deal. "The Turkish Empire has long had to endure that all the great powers who please and who wished to destroy, plunder or rob the Turks, should mix in their affairs. Now we should think that these times were finally passed. And they will indeed be passed as soon as the German Empire determinedly takes the standpoint that what its Turkish ally does with his revolutionary Armenians is an internal affairs which concerns him alone." The writer expressed indignation at a report published by the Frunkfurter Zeitung that German Consuls had endeavored to modify the hardships, and declared that this standpoint was incomprehensible to him and that he considered it politically false. "We Germans have to give an account neither to enemies nor neutrals of what the Turks do with their Armenians or what the German Consuls say about it," he declares. "The place of the German Empire and of every individual German is at the side of our Turkish ally, and that without criticism." New York Times Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashot Posted April 11, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 11, 2008 TURKISH STATESMAN DENOUNCES ATROCITIES October 10, 1915 (II-19:3,4) Cherif ***** Says Young Turks Long Planned to Exterminate the Armenian. An arraignment of a Young Turks, or the Committee of Union and Progress, as having for years plotted the extermination of the Armenian people, is contained in a letter recently addressed by Mehmed Cherif ***** to the Editor of the Journal de Geneve. The views of this eminent exile should doubtless be considered in the light of the fact that he was obliged to fly from his native land because of his secession from the party now in power in Turkey, but even his enemies-and that he has formidable ones is evidenced by the nearly successful attempt made upon his life by Turkish police agents in Paris about two years ago-must admit that he has had excellent opportunities for observation of the Young Turks policy, since he was prominent in their councils when they first obtained power on the overthrow of the Abdul Hamid regime, and left their ranks to build up the Liberal opposition party only when he became convinced that their leaders had no intention of carrying out the program of reform to which they were pledged. He is the son of the late Said *****, who was one of the chief advisers of Abdul Hamid and the first Grand Visier under the new Constitution. His wife is Princess Emanine, the daughter of Prince Halim, and he is the brother-in-law of Prince Said Halim, the present Grand Visier. He, himself, was at one time Turkish minister to Sweden. After branding the Armenian atrocities perpetrated under the present regime as a surpassing the savagery of Genghis Khan and Tamerlane, Cherif ***** continues: "To be sure, the state of mind of the Unionists was not revealed to the civilized world until they had openly taken sides with Germany; but for more than six years I have been at exposing them in the Mecheroutiette (his newspaper, published first in Constantinople and then in Paris) and indifferent journals and reviews, warning France and England of the plot against them and against certain nationalities within the Ottoman borders, notably the Armenians, that was being hatched. "If there is a race which has been closely connected with the Turks by its fidelity, by its services to the country, by the statesman and functionaries of talent it has furnished, by the intelligence which is manifesting in all domains-commerce, industry, science, and the arts-it is certainly the Armenian. " Cherif ***** then enumerates some of the contributions which Armenian have made to Turkish civilization, including the introduction of printing and the drama, and gives credit to an Armenian, Odian Effendi, for having collaborated with Midhat ***** in framing the Ottoman Constitution, and he lays stress upon their fine qualities as agitators against the despotisms of Turkey and Persia-qualities, one suspects which have not highly recommended them to the autocratic "reformers" of the Young Turk regime. And he continues: "Alas! at the thought that a people so gifted, which has served as the fructifying soil for the renovation of the Ottoman Empire, is on the point of disappearing from history-not enslaved, as were the Jews by the Assyrians, but annihilated-even the most hardened heart must bleed: and I desire, through the medium of your estimable journal, to express to this race which is being a assassinated my anger toward the butchers and my immense pity for the victim's. "Having fulfilled this pious duty, let me make some exceptions relating not to the unhappy Armenian nation but to certain individual Armenians and some propagandist groups who have for the last six years so maladroitly constituted themselves the defenders and apologists of this Committee of Union and Progress, the broader of all their present sufferings. How often have I warned them against the bad faith of the unionists, the perversity of whose black souls I knew only too well! Besides, the massacres of Adana, provoked by the Union's orders, to have brought them to a sense of the real state of affairs. Some of them by a wrong appreciation of their interest, others influenced by political alliances of an evil sort-like that poor Constantinople deputy, Zohrab Effendi, who has expiated his errors on the scaffold-all the Armenian political leaders, or almost all, by identifying themselves with the political fortune of the Union, have compromised, instead of serving their national cause. "If, instead of enrolling themselves under the banner of that baneful and treacherous association, they had ranged themselves openly beside the true liberals who had long been pointing out the danger of their course, even at peril of their lives, they would not only have remained true to their principles, but they would also have spared their unfortunate brethren the persecutions they suffered before the war and their whole nation the prospect of an extermination unique in the annals of history." New York Times Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashot Posted April 11, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 11, 2008 MASSACRES RENEWED, MORGENTHAU REPORTS Fresh Outrages Upon Armenians Follow Bulgaria's Stand Favoring Turkey OCTOBER 13, 1915 WASHINGTON, Oct. 12. --Armenian massacres in Asiatic Turkey have been renewed with vigor since Bulgaria's practical entrance into the war as Turkey's ally. This information reached the State Department today from Ambassador Morgenthaus, who stated that the majority of the Armenians in Asiatic Turkey had been killed. Although representations were made by this Government, some time ago, warning Turkey that further atrocities against the Armenians would alienate the sympathies of the American people, no answer has been received. Earlier representations were met with two concessions, promising that those Armenians who wished to leave the country would be spared. Information recently reaching this country, however indicates that these conditions have not been strictly ahead to. From one quarter it was asserted that "they were rescinded the next day." Although has been placed at Ambassador Morgenthau's disposal, for distribution among the Armenian refugees now banished to desert towns, no arrangements have been made for bringing Armenians to this country, as was originally planned, except where friends or relatives send for them. Those Armenians who were spared are now gathered in the country between the Tigres and Euphrates Rivers. New York Times Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashot Posted April 11, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 11, 2008 WE CAN DO NOTHING FURTHER View of State Department as to Action Regarding Armenia OCTOBER 16, 1915 WASHINGTON. Oct. 15. --The united States Government has done all it can, officially, toward relieving the condition of the Armenians in Turkey, in the opinion officials. They told Representative John J. Eagan of New Jersey today that beyond making informal representations to the Turkish Government through Ambassador Morgenthau, pointing out the bad effect upon public opinion in the United States of the treatment of the Armenians, nothing further could be done. Representative Eagan had inquired as to the conditions among the Armenians and concerning the policy of the United States in the matter. New York Times Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashot Posted April 11, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 11, 2008 ARMENIAN LEADERS ANSWERED DJELAL BEY Call Turkish Consul's Denial of Atrocities Mass of Inaccuracies EXPLAIN FIGHTING AT VAN Say Christians There Acted in Self-Defense---Protest Meeting Today at the Century Theater OCTOBER 17, 1915 Dr. M. Simbad Gabriel, President of the Armenian General Progressive Association, the leading Armenian organization in the United States, and Arshag D. Mahdesian of the Society of Armenians in America, issued replies yesterday to the statement made to THE TIMES last week by Consul General in New York, who branded as a fabrication the report made by the American Committee on Armenian Atrocities, and added whatever measures the Turks had been compelled to take against the Armenians were due to the hostile activities of the latter. Mr. Mahdesian said that the Consul General's statement was a mass of inaccuracies, and was "a feeble effort on the part of Djelal Bey to prove his countrymen guiltless of the most terrible atrocities committee against a whole race of people in centuries." "One statement that Djelal Bey makes," said Mr. Mahdesian, "and which he knows to be inaccurate, is when he refers to a visit to Van made by Noel Buxton visited the city of Van after present war started and, as he put it, attempted to start a revolution against the Turkish Government. The visit he so cleverly cites as a justification for what has happened occurred many months before the war started in the early part of 1914, and nobody knows that better than does Djelal Bey. Of course Mr. Buxton never tried to start any uprising before the war, during the war or at any other time. Why Names Were Not Made Public. "Then again Djelal Bey asks why the committee, on which are such men as Bishop Greer, Cardinal Gibbons, Rabbi Wise, Oscar S. Straus, and Cleveland H. Dodge, did not give the names of the people who had reported to them concerning the atrocities the Turks are now committing against the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire. Well, I will tell him. It was because the committee knew that if they did Djelal Bey would cable all the names to Turkey, and that would mean the death or the torture of every person named. Horrible as were the disclosures made in the report of the Atrocities Committee it did not disclose by any means all of the horrors of the present situation. For instance, it did not tell of the mutilation of young girls, the cutting up of their bodies, and the stringing up in the market places of the poor remains of their bodies, with signs on the limbs and torsos marked 'bir metallik' per pound. A metalik is one cent in America. This is one of the frightful things they have resorted to terrify the Armenian people, and it has happened in Harput, in Hadjim, in Malltieh and other places. This information comes to us from absolutely trustworthy sources. "And furthermore that report did not state that the Turkish order to bombard the 'dirty Armenian' quarter of Van was signed by an officer with a German name and that the bombardment was directed principally against the Armenian section and the reservations of the American missionaries, and that during the bombardment five American flags were riddled by the shots directed by the officer with the German name." Dr. Gabriel, who was one of the Ottoman delegates to the International Red Cross Congress held in Washington in 1912, said: "It would seem that the Turks have only 'killed' Greeks, Manorites, Bulgars, Armenians, but never massacred them. The Turks have killed them when they have rebelled against Turkish rule. The Armenians in Van, says the Turkish Consul, had risen with arms in hand against Turkish authority, and therefore they could not be regarded otherwise than rebels, and the Turkish troops, after the recapture of the city, could not be expected to treat these revolutionists with glove hands. "Such is the Consul's argument. It would be worth listening to if it were not horribly twisted to suit his case. The fact is that the Turks had already inaugurated the new reign of terror and massacre in the province of Van, and Van was compelled by the course of 'harrowing events' to resort to self defense. Other towns and villages had surrendered their arms, believing in the pledges if Turkish authorities that they would not be molested, and had been put treacherously to the sword. The Armenians of Van, warned by the experience of others, refused to hive up their arms, but took absolutely no revolutionary steps until the Turkish troops began to attack them and bombard their quarters, not sparing even the houses of the American missionaries. "If some Armenians in city like Trebizond were of the 'suspected elements' they might be removed 'into the interior of the country' to such provinces as Sivas and Harput which are situated in the very interior of Asia Minor, but why should all the 10,000 Armenians, of Trebizond be evicted from their houses, and even then why should they be men, women, and children, dumped into the Black Sea? The Italian Consul was an eyewitness of this inconceivable savagery. Who dares to deny it? Ambassador Morgenthau telegraphed from Constantinople that the majority of the Armenians in Turkey have been killed. Would the Ambassador say so if he was not convinced of the certainly of the fact? "How many does that majority mean? At least 800,000. That is the number mentioned in the latest reports and is a very conservative figure. Everything leads to believe that the number of victims is over one million." Delegation from more than a thousand churches and religious organizations will attend the means meeting to be held today at the Century Theatre as a protest against the massacre of Armenians by the Turks. They will represent all denominations. It was announced yesterday that Cardinal Farley had officially designated Mgr. Lavelle, rector of St. Patrick's Cathedral, to represent him at the meeting. Some of the speakers are missionaries and travelers who have just arrived from the scene of the massacres. Other speakers will be W. Bourke Cochran, Rabbi Stephen S. Boston. Hamilton Holt will preside. The doors of the theatre will be open at 8 o'clock. No tickets are required. New York Times Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashot Posted April 11, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 11, 2008 (edited) THOUSANDS PROTEST ARMENIAN MURDERS Only One Man and One Woman Dissent from Resolutions Denouncing Outrages TURKS HAVE KILLED 500,000 Evidence, Taken form State Department, Shows Quarter of a Million Women Violated OCTOBER 18, 1915 A great audience that packed the Century Theatre, Central Park West and Sixty-second Street, yesterday afternoon, had just acclaimed its approval of a resolution deploring the atrocities committed against the Armenians by the Turks, when a man, who said his name was Brown, arose and demanded a chance to discuss the resolutions. A woman, who said she was Mrs. Brooks, shouted encouragement to the disturber and demanded that he be heard. He was forcibly ejected from the theatre, but in a few minutes was back, angrily demanding to have his say. The meeting, held to condemn atrocities in Armenia, was under the auspices of a committee of prominent Americans and well-known Armenians. Hamilton Holt, editor of The Independent, presided, and the speakers were the Rev. Dr. Lames L. Barton of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, the Rev. Father John J. Wynne, S. J., editor of the Catholic Encyclopedia; W. Brouke Cochran, the Rev. Dr. Ernest Yarrow of Van. Turkey, and the Rev. Dr. William J. Haven. The resolutions adopted read as follows: Whereas, The civilized world has been shocked by a series of massacres and deportations of Armenians in the Turkish Empire; and Whereas, These crimes and outrages committed upon an industrious, thrifty, and peace-loving people, find no justification, viewed either in the light of law or humanity; and Whereas, Those Armenians who survive are in great hood of succor and relief, be it hereby Resolved, That as American citizens, we make our most solemn practices and implore all officials and other having influence in the Turkish Empire, to put an end to these wrongs and to render every aid to the American Ambassador and others who would rescue and repatriate a people, who, by their history and achievements have been a credit to the empire. Resolved, Further, That war, wherever and by whatever nation waged, affords no warrant for inhumanity toward innocent persons. The slaughter of noncombatant men, the tortures, mutilation, and outrages committed have given to the fairest places upon the earth the semblance of hell. In the name of the God of Nations and our common humanity, we call upon the nations at war to cease these crimes against civilization and morality. Father Wynne seconded the resolutions and Mr. Holt had them up for approval when Brown arose, red with excitement. Several men hurried to the disturber and started him down the aisle. Mrs. Brooks then demanded that the man be heard and followed those who were ejecting him. The audience was on its feet as were those on the stage, among the latter Mgr. Lavelle, who represented Cardinal Earley, Charles R. Crane of Chicago the Rev. Dr. H. P. Mendes, Professor William W. Rockwell, Professor Samuel P. Dutton, and a score of other prominent men. Angrily denouncing his ejectors and struggling every inch of the way the man was forced from the theatre. "This meeting," said Mr. Holt in his opening address," is called for the purpose of deploring the greatest hecatomb known to history. The massacres now being perpetrated in Turkey are the most atrocious in the history of the world, and if they are to stop we must prevail upon Christian Germany, who alone can save the Armenians. The appeal may not be listened to in Constantinople, but it can be heard in Berlin." Dr. Barton was the first speaker. "We are here," he said, "to consider facts that bear upon the Armenian situation in the Turkish Empire, facts from which we cannot escape." Referring to the report made by the Armenian Atrocities Committee, Dr. Barton said the disclosures were for the most part the disclosures were for the most part taken from official documents in the State Department at Washington. "The committee," he said, "took steps to get only facts and went to Washington and examined the official reports to the State Department. They ask why we did not publish the names of the persons who made the reports. The reason as obvious. One of the laws of Turkey is retaliation. One of our Consuls asked that his name be withheld because he would have to quit his post if his name became known." Dr. Barton held up a great mass of papers, all copies of official reports, to the State Department. Excerpts were read telling of terrible tortures, in thousands of instances causing death. Dr. Barton read a statement by a well-known Armenian, a graduate of an American university, just arrived in this country. He told of the fate of 1,215 men. These men were herded together and then in groups of twenty-five were sent away "by order of the Government and all of them brutally slain." The executioners, he said, were Turkish gendarmes and murders and other criminals freed from jails to assist in the killing of Armenians. "The reward of these murders," said the statement, "was the money and valuables founded on the bodies of their victims. One of these men boasted that he got 150 pounds in Turkish money for his night's work." Bourke Cochran said he had been informed that between 500,000 and 800,000 Armenians had been massacred and that 250,000 women and girls had been outraged. The problem of Armenia, Mr. Cochran said, is the problem of the Cuba of 1898 aggravated a million times. Rabbi Wise was the last speaker. He was present, he said, not as an opponent of Turkey, nor as a champion of Armenia, but to protest against inhumanity, whether committed by Germans against Belgians, by Russians against Jews, or by Turks against Armenians. He said that Germany and Austria could do much toward ending the Armenian atrocities, and if they did not do so, he said, those nations may find out that "certain victories are more disastrous than any defeats." If the Germans would alienate the good will of those who still remain neutral," he said, "let these outrages go on unchecked. If they would rehabilitate themselves, let them say to the Turks: "Not one more drop of blood must be shed." In all the seats were petitions, with blanks for signature, addressed to the Kaiser and the people of Germany, imploring them to use their good offices to end the atrocities in Armenian. New York Times Edited April 11, 2008 by Ashot Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashot Posted April 11, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 11, 2008 TURKEY BARS RED CROSS April 29, 1915 Will Not Permit America to Aid Armenian Sufferers The Turkish government has informed the State Department at Washington that the Red Cross will not be permitted to send surgeons and nurses to the aid of the Armenian people of the Turkish empire. Not only are American Red Cross surgeons, nurses, and agents barred from Turkey, but also all other foreigners, foreigners in this instance undoubtedly meaning the nationals of neutral countries. The State Department informed Ernest T. Bicknell and Miss Mabel Boardman of the executive staff of the American Red Cross of Turkey's decision, and Miss Boardman communicated the information to Dr. M. Simbad Gabriel of 410 West Twenty-third Street, this city, the President of the Armenian General Progressive Association in this country . A few weeks ago Dr. Gabriel wrote to Miss Boardman concerning the atrocities committed against the Armenians by the Turks. He asked the American Red Cross to send physicians and nurses to Turkey to aid the sufferers. In his letter Dr. Gabriel said: "A hundred American Red Cross nurses and physicians can work miracles there not only by the bread and medicine they will give but by virtue of their personal presence. " He also suggested that Armenians in this country might raise $50,000 to be expended by the Red Cross. Informing Dr. Gabriel of the inability to send Red Cross aid, Miss Boardman, writing from Washington under date of Oct. 16 said: "Your letter of Sept. 21 arrived during my absence from Washington. On my return I made inquiries regarding the possibility of the American Red Cross sending surgeons and nurses for the aid of the Armenians if the Armenians in America raised funds for this purpose. Mr. Bicknell took the matter up with the State Department, and on inquiry we found that the Turkish government had declined to allow any foreign personnel to undertake this work. Therefore it would be impossible for us to do so, even if the money were secured, greatly to our regret. "We find it also difficult at present, almost impossible, in fact, to send supplies to Turkey, everything is in such a fearful condition in Europe. We have notified those that desire to send contributions for Armenian relief that we would transmit them through the American Ambassador at Constantinople, as this seems to be the only method at present of aiding the Armenian population. We can only hope that this situation will before long come to an end. It is growing daily so much worse that it seems as if it could not last long." "The letter from the Miss Boardman," Dr. Gabriel said yesterday, "speaks for itself, and I think in the eyes of all prejudiced persons it will prove convincing evidence of the truthfulness of the terrible stories that are coming out of Turkey regarding the persecution, murder, and torturing of the Armenian people. Perhaps the President might make it personal request of the authorities at Constantinople that the American Red Cross be permitted to undertake this mission of mercy in behalf of a people who are the victims of the greatest and most systematic series of massacres recorded in history." New York Times Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashot Posted April 11, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 11, 2008 GERMANY SAYS SHE CANNOT STOP TURKS Made Representations About Armenian Massacres, But Found Officials Uninterested. WASHINGTON, Oct. 22. - Confidential devices received today by the State Department said the German Government had officially made efforts to alleviate alleged atrocities upon Armenians in Turkey, but that Turkish officials apparently displayed lack of interest in such endeavors. The representations were made by the United States through Ambassador Morgenthau at Constantinople some time ago, warning Turkey that continued persecution of Armenians would alienate the friendship of the American people. A number of dispatches on the subject have been received from Mr. Morgenthau but there has been no announcement of a definite answer from the Ottoman government. New York Times Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashot Posted April 11, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 11, 2008 SLAY ALL ARMENIANS IN CITY IF KERASUNT Turks Wipe Out Entire Population in Town on the Black Sea OCTOBER 26, 1915 LONDON, Tuesday, Oct. 28.--A dispatch to The Daily Mail from Odessa says: "The Turks have massacred the entire Armenian population of Kerasunt, on the Black Sea." Kearsunt is a seaport in Asiatic Turkey, about seventy miles west of Trezbizond. It is situated on a rocky promontory with a spacious bay on the east side. The heights surrounding are covered with luxurious vegetation. The population of Karasunt is about 24,000. LONDON, Oct. 25.--An eyewitness story of Armenian atrocities, given to the British staff at the Dardanelles by an Armenian prisoner who was serving in the Turkish Army, is sent by the Reuter correspondent with the Dardanelles fleet. This Armenian says the declaration of marital law at Zile included the confiscation of all Armenian property. He describes how women were tied to the tails of oxcarts and exposed to hunger and rough weather until they accepted conversion to Islam or death; how mothers were bayoneted before the eyes of their children, and how Armenian girls were distributed as chattels among civil and military officials. The prisoner says that as a soldier he was compelled to assist in many massacres, being on one occasion a member of a party of forty soldiers which superintended the death of 800 Armenians. His account close as follows: "There is reason to believe that German advisers of the Turks have urged upon them the undesirability of allowing a large alien and presumably unfriendly population to inhabit ports which lie open to Russian attack." New York Times Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashot Posted April 11, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 11, 2008 AID FOR ARMENIANS BLOCKED BY TURKEY Attempts to Send Food to Refugees Frustrated, Says the American Committee PUTS VICTIMS AT 1,000,000 Careful Survey Shows 55,000 Persons Killed in the Vilayet of Van Alone November 1, 1915 The American Committee on Armenian atrocities, among the members of which are Cardinal Gibbons, Cleveland H. Dodge, Bishop David H. Greer, Oscar S. Straus, Professor Samuel T. Dutton, Charles R. Crane, and many other prominent citizens, issued a statement yesterday in which it was said that authentic reports from Turkey proved that the war of extermination being waged by the Turks against the Armenians was so terrible that when all the facts were known the world would realize that what had been done was "the greatest, most pathetic, and most arbitrary tragedy in history." A chance to furnish food to the Armenians, ordered deported to distant parts of the empire were blocked by the Turkish authorities, the committee said, the Turkish officials stating that "they wished nothing to be done that would prolong their lives. " In the statement the committee makes public its report received a few days ago from an official representative of one of the neutral powers, who, reporting on conditions in of one of these Armenian camps, says: "I have visited their encampment and a more pitiable site cannot be imagine. They are, almost without exception, ragged, hungry and sick. This is not surprising in view of the fact that they have been on the road for nearly two months, with no change of clothing, no chance to bathe, no shelter and little to eat. I watched them one time when their food was brought. Wild animals could not be worse. They rushed upon the guards who carried the food and the guards beat them back with clubs hitting hard enough to kill sometimes. To watch them one could hardly believe these people to be human beings. As one walks through the camp, mothers offer their children and beg you to take them. In fact, the Turks have been taking their choice of these children and girls for slaves or worse. There are very few men among them, as most of the men were killed on the road. Women and children were also killed. The entire movement seems to be the most thoroughly organized and effective massacre this country has ever seen." "They all agree," adds the committee, referring to the reports, "as to the method of procedure, the thoroughness and cruelty of the destructive work, and the confessed purpose of the plan to wipe out the Armenian nation. The fact that the central government at Constantinople refuses to permit Armenians to leave the country is a further evidence of their purpose of extermination. "The Turks do not deny the atrocities, but claim they are a military measure to protect them against a possible attack of a race that is disloyal. "It is impossible to estimate how many have already perished. A careful survey in the Van Vilayet gathered the names of 55,000 persons who had been killed. Others were able to escape by flight to Persia or Russia. An eyewitness who has recently made an extended journey across Asia minor saw over 50,000 poor, dazed, helpless, starving refugees camped by the roadside in a region almost desert, with no provision for their food supply. Probably it is not an overestimate to say that 1,000,000 of the possible 2,000,000 Armenians in Turkey at the beginning of the war are either dead or in Moslem harems, or forced to profess Mohammedanism, or are on their sad journey to the desert and death." The committee says it has cabled the $106,000 to Ambassador Morgenthau, at Constantinople, of which $100,000 was for relief of Armenians in Turkey, and the remainder for Armenians who had escaped into Egypt. The office of the committee, of which Mr. Crane is treasurer, is at 70 Fifth Avenue. New York Times Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashot Posted April 11, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 11, 2008 ARMENIANS' HEROIC STAND IN MOUNTAINS Men, women, and Children Fought with Knives, Scythes, and Stones Women Who Had Plunged Knives Into Turks Afterward Killed Themselves---Bryce Gets Report SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 1915 LONDON, Nov. 26.--Viscount Bryce tonight made public the details of further Armenian massacres, which, in a letter accompanying them, he says, "surpass in horror, if that were possible, what has been published already." "I feel," his letter continues, "that such crimes ought to be exposed to the utmost, and that the charity of other nations will more than ever be drawn to the unhappy refugees when it is known what their friends and fellow-countrymen have suffered." Describing a last stand of Armenian in the hill country of Samsun, a report received by Lord Bryce says: "The surviving warriors found themselves surrounded at close quarters by 30,000 Turks and Kurds. Then followed one of those desperate, heroic struggles for life which have always been the pride of the mountaineers. Men, women, and Children fought with knives, scythes, and stones, and anything else they could handle. They rolled blocks of stone down the steep slopes, killing many of their enemies. In the frightful hand-to -hand combats women were seen thrusting their knives into the throats of Turks. "When every warrior had fallen, several of the younger women who were in danger of falling into the hands of the Turks threw themselves from the rocks, some of them with infants in their arms." Lord Bryce's Letter Lord Bryce says the details confirm and amplify the ghastly history of deportations by which Armenians in Northern and Eastern Anatolia were driven to a death of fiendish cruelty. The first part of the evidence, he says, was received by the Committee of Inquiry in the United States, and the second part comes from an Armenian gentleman at Tiflis, who received it from refugees who escaped from regions where the events happened. "The sufferings of the peasants and the mountaineers in the regions of Van, Mush, and Samsun," Lord Bryce says, "seem to have been even more terrible than were those of the peaceful town folk described in Part I of the report. Every successive piece of evidence increases the horror of the story and confirmes the dreadful certainly of its truth. "These atrocities were not produced by imagination. Many of them are vouched for by several coincident testimonies. They all are in keeping, and the evidence is most complete, and some of it most terrible. At this present phase of events the civilized world is powerless to intervene, but we must bear these unspeakable crimes in constant memory against the day of reckoning." THE NEW EVIDENCE After giving the parts of the evidence received from the United States, Lord Bryce says that the following extracts were taken from his correspondent at Tiflis: "Toward the end of May Djevdet Bey, the Military Governor, was expelled from Van. Djevdet fled southward and entered Sairt with some 8,000 soldiers, whom he called 'Butcher Battalions. He massacred most of the Christians of Sairt, as to the details of which nothing is known. On the best of authority, however it is reported that he ordered his soldiers to burn in the public squares the Armenian Bishop, Eglise Vartaved, and the Chaldean Bishop, Addai Sher. "On June 25 the Turks surrounded the Town of Bitlis and cut its communications with neighboring Armenian villagers. Then most of the able-bodied men were taken away from their women by domiciliary visits. During the following few days all the men under arrest were shot outside the town and buried in deep trenches dug by the victims themselves. The young women and children were distributed among the rabble. The remainder, the useless lot were driven to the south and are believed to have been drowned in the Tigris. "Any attempts at resistance, however brave, were quelled by the regular troops. Many Armenians, after firing their last cartridge, either took poison by whole families or killed themselves in their homes in order not to fall into the hands of the Turks. Armenians Tortured to Death. It is such a fashion that the Turks disposed of about fifteen thousand Armenians at Bitlis. At Mush early in July the authorities demanded arms from the Armenians and a large sum in ransom of notables of the town. The head men of the village were subjected to revolting tortures. Their finger nails and then their toe nails were forcibly extracted; teeth were knocked out, and in some cases noses were whittled down the victims thus being done to death under shocking, lingering agony. "The female relatives of victims who came to the rescue were assaulted in public before the very eyes of their mutilated men. The shrieks and death cries of the victims filled the air, yet they did not move the Turkish beast. "In the Town of Mush itself the Armenians, under the leadership Gotoyan and others, entrenched themselves in churches and stone-built houses and fought for four days in self-defense, but Turkish artillery, manned by German officers, made short work of all the Armenian positions, and all the Armenian leaders, as well as their men were killed in the fighting. "When they were dead and silence reigned over the ruins of the churches and houses the rest of the Moslem rabble descended upon the women and children and drove them out of town and into large camps, which already had been prepared for the peasant women and children. Women and Children Burned "The ghastly scenes which followed may seem incredible, yet these reports have been confirmed beyond all doubt. The shortest means employed for disposing of the women and children in the various camps was by burning. Fire was set to the large wooden sheds in Alijan, Mograkom, Khasjogh, and other Armenian Villages, and these absolutely helpless women and children were roasted to death. "Many women went mad and threw away their children. Some women knelt down and prayed amid the flames which were burning their bodies. Others shrieked for help, which came from nowhere, and the executioners, who seemed unmoved by this unparalleled savagery, grasped infants by one leg and hurried them into the fire, calling out to the burning mothers. Here are your lions. "Turkish prisoners who apparently witnessed some of these scenes were horrified and maddened at remembering the sight. The odor of burning flesh, they say, permeated the air for many days." New York Times Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashot Posted April 11, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 11, 2008 POPE MAY MAKE NEW PLEA TO KAISER December 9, 1915 T. P. O'Connor Hears He Will Be Asked to Take Action to Save the Armenians BRITISH COMMITTEE ACTIVE Resolves to Work On Despite the Terrible Events That Have Stopped its Work for Armenia. London, Nov 20 -- T. P. O'Connor is well known, among his other activities, as one of the veteran friends of the Armenians, and he today dictated a statement in reference to the recent massacres and the debate in the House of Commons. He says: "If it were not for the quarter of a million of refugees that have to be helped, housed, and fed, and if I were to yield to a mood, I would feel almost too full of despair about Armenia to say one other word on the subject." "Three or four years ago, when it seemed possible to raise the Armenian question again, I joined with others in forming an Armenian Committee; and for a couple of years everything seemed to be going in our favor." "After negotiations of two years we at last succeeded in drafting a scheme for reform in Armenia, to which we got the assent of all the European Governments, and two general Inspectors were actually appointed to carry out these reforms just before the war began. And now the sequel is the most hideous and cruel massacre of Armenians that has ever occurred. You will acknowledge I have some cause for despondency." "However, the British Armenian Committee have resolved to work on, and they were immensely encouraged by the information they received of the great wave of sympathy and of horror which had passed over America, and of the creation of an American Armenian Committee and of the splendid assistance poured forth from America to the refugees in Russia and Egypt." "We approached the British Foreign Office with a request for an opportunity of raising a debate in the House of Commons and Lord Robert Cecil, who is the best Under Secretary of the Foreign Office in my time at once backed our request, and the result was the debate of last Tuesday night." "It was a brief debate, but it was one of the most thrilling I have ever heard. It was initiated by Aneurim Williams who is the Chairman of our committee, I followed, and then there was a brief speech from Lord Robert Cecil. It will perhaps be some satisfaction to the American Armenian Committee that their work largely supplied our material." "On the morning of the debate there was distributed a pamphlet on Armenia written by Arnold Toynbee, a brilliant man of letters, to all the members of the House. I was surprised to find that, amid the mass of literature at such a time, it had already been read by the majority of the House, and its ghastly story had moved everybody. But it ought to be noted that the greater part of the materials for Mr. Toynbee's pamphlet had been supplied by the report off the American Armenian Committee. I may go further and say that the burden of all the speeches was that it was to America more than any other nation that we should look with the most hope for preventing further massacre and for helping those who have escaped massacre." "There was, however, some difference of opinion on an unofficial request made by me and the official answer of Lord Robert Cecil as to how America could best help. I ventured to suggest that the British Government might make an appeal to President Wilson and to the American Government to take official action. Lord Robert Cecil, however, pointed out that it was impossible for the British Government to dictate or even to suggest to the governments of independent neutral countries what their duty was. 'It is' he said, 'for each Government to settle exactly what it ought to do with reference to foreign Governments.' " "I however, put as a second line of action that we should make a strong appeal to the sympathy and support of the generous and humane people of the United States themselves to bring relief to the oppressed Armenians, and Lord Robert cordially took up this suggestion. We also look with hope to the intervention of the Pope. Lord Robert Cecil was able to inform the House that humanity was grateful to the Pope for the steps he had already taken and I understand that the Pope will be asked to make a direct appeal to the German Kaiser in addition to the appeal he has already made to the Sultan." "Another of our requests to the Government was that the British armies and ships should, where possible do their best to rescue any Armenians escaping from massacre, as the French ships had done in the case of 4,000 refugees whom they had been able to land in Egypt, and I understand instructions of this kind have already been sent, and with some good results." "Finally, I would suggest that the American and British Armenian Committees should keep in constant touch with each other, if necessary by cable. I and others have already had correspondence with Mr. Oscar Straus and Mr. Samuel Dutton, and I trust that by working together we may do something, especially for the refugees. Money is coming in to us in considerable quantities, especially considering all the other demands upon the generosity of the British people; and we have already been able to send to the Armenian Catholikos something like L8,000 or L10,000 and we shall send more as promptly as the money comes in." 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Ashot Posted April 11, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 11, 2008 (edited) WOMAN DESCRIBES ARMENIAN KILLINGS German Missionary Says Turks Proclaimed Extermination as Their Aim FIENDS WORK IN HARPUT "Let Your Christ Help You!" the Cry as Torture Went On -- Dr. Knapp a victim. December 12, 1915 The American Committee for the Armenian and Syrian Relief, at 70 Fifth Avenue, announced the reciept yesterday of a cablegram from the American Consul at Tiflis, in which he said that there were more than 180,000 Armenians "in a most pitiful condition," in various provinces that came under his immidiate notice. Of these 110,000 are in the Ervian Province, 20,000 in Elisavethol, 201,000 in Kars, and 50,000 in Tiflis. The committee also announced that a cablegram was expected cery soon from Dr. Wilson, the head of the commision sent to Tiflis. Details from the scenes of the massacres are reaching the committee daily. These are from officials, missionaries, and other persons well known to its members. One from a German woman missionary, who is stationed not far from the border of the Caucasus, was received within the last three days, and although not written for publication, gives an intimate picture of the terrible fate that has befallen the Armenians. "Toward the middle of April," she writes, "we heard there were great disturbances. We have heard statements made from both Turks and Armenians; and, as these reports agree in every respect, it is quite plain there is some truth in them, neamely, that the Government of Turkey sent orders that all Armenians were to give up their arms, which the Armenians refused to do, stating that they required them in case of necessity. This caused a regular massacre. All villages inhabited by Armenians were burnt down. Thinks Dr. Knapp Was Murdered. "At the beginning of June we heard that the whole Armenian population of Bitlis was done away with. It was at this time that we received news that the American missionary, Dr. Knapp, had been wounded in an Armenian house, and that the Turkish Government had sent him to Diarbekir. The very first night in Diarbekir he died, and the Government explained his death as a result of having overeaten, which if course, nobody believes. When there was no one left in Bitlis to massacre, their attention was called to Musch. Up to now cruelties were committed, but not too publicly; now they have started to shoot people down without any cause; they beat them to deathe because they found delight in doing so. "In Musch itself, which is a big town, there are alone 25,000 Armenians; every village containing about 500 houses; and not one male Armenian, and but a few women here and there are visible now. "Beginning of July: In the first week of this month, 20,000 soldiers came from Constantinople over Harput to Musch with munitions and eleven guns, and besieged Musch. In fact, the town had been surrounded since the middle of June. At this time the Mutassarif gave orders that we two German missionaries should leave the town and go to Harput. We pleaded with him to let us stay, for we had in our charge all the orphans and patients, but he was angry and threatened to force us away if we did no do as we were instructed. As we both became suck, we were allowed to remain at Musch. I recieved permission in case we should leave Musch to take the Armenians of our orphanage along; but on my asking for assurances of safety, his only reply was; 'You can take them along; but, being Armenians, their heads may and will be cut off on the way.' "On the 10th of July Musch was bombarded for several hours, they pretended the reason was because some Armenians had tried to escape. I went to see the Mutessarif, asking him to protect our houses and his reply was: 'Serves you right for staying instead of leaving, as instricted. The guns are here to put an end to Musch. Take refuge with the Turks.' This, of course, was not possible, as we could not leave our charges. A new order was the next day promulgated that the Armenians would be expelled, and three days were given them to be ready. They were told to register themselves at the Governmetn Office before they left. The families could remain, but their property and their money was to be confiscated. "The Armenians were unable to go, as they had no money to pay for the trip, and they preferred to die in their houses rather than be seperated and endure a lingering death on the read. As mentioned before, three days were given the Armenians to leave; but two hours had scarcely elapsed when the soldiers broke into the houses and arrested every one and threw them into prison. The cannons began to fire, thus preventing the people from registering themselves at the Government Office. We all had to take refuge in the cellar for fear of our orphanage catching fire. "I went to the Mutessarif and begged him to have mercy on the children at least, but in vain; he replied the Armenian children must perish with their nation. All our people were taken from our hospital and orphanage. They left us three female servants. Thus Musch was burnt down in this monstrous way. Every officer boasted of the number he had personally massacred, thus ridding Turkey of the Armenian race. We left Harput; Harput has become the cemetary of the Armenians. "Now Let Your Christ Help You!" In Harput and Mesre the people have had to endure terrible tortures, such as their eyebrows being pulled off, their breasts cut off, their nails pulled out, their feet cut off, or they hammer nails into them, just as they do with horses. The soldiers then cry: "Now let your Christ help you!" Beginning of July: 2,000 Armenian soldiers were ordered to leave for Aleppo to build roads. The people of Harput were terrified on hearing this, and a panic started in the town. The Vali called the German missionary, Mr. Eheman, and begged him to quiet the people, repeating over and over again that no harm whatever would befall these soldiers. Mr. Eheman believed the Vali and quieted down the people. But they had scarcely left when we heard that they had all been murdered and thrown into a cave. Just a few managed to escape, and we got the reports from them. It was useless to protest to the Vali. The American Consul at Harput protested several times, but the Vali treats him like 'air' and in a most shameful manner. "Toward the beginning of April, in the presence of Major Lange and several other high officials, such as American and German Consuls, Ekran Bey said quite openly, that their intention was to exterminate the Armenian race. All these details plainly show that the massacre was planned. It is very unsafe now for all missionaries in the interior, the officials show their hatred too plainly, and have often told us that they do not see the necessity of our presence. The American Committee has already sent more than $100,000 to Ambassador Morgenthau, and much more is needed to alleviate the terrible conditions of the remaining Armenians. Contributions for their relief should be sent to Charles R. Crane, 70 Fifth Avenue, New York. New York Times Edited April 11, 2008 by Ashot Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashot Posted April 11, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 11, 2008 MILLION ARMENIANS KILLED OR IN EXILE American Committee on Relief Says Victims of Turks Are Steadily Increasing POLICY OF EXTERMINATION More Atrocities Detailed in Support of Charge That Turkey Is Acting Deliberately. December 15, 1915 In a statement issued yesterday from the offices of the American Committee for Armenian and Syrian Relief at 70 Fifth Avenue, further atrocities committed by Turks upon Armenian Christians were detailed and additional evidence was given to support Lord Bryce's assertion that the massacres are the results of a deliberate plan of the Turkish government to "get rid of the Armenian question," as Abdul Hamid once said, by getting "rid of the Armenians." Professor Samuel T. Dutton, Secretary of the committee said: "According to all the best evidence which the American Committee has received, it is probably well within the truth to say that of the 2 million Armenians in Turkey a year ago, at least 1 million have been killed or forced into Islam, or compelled to flee the country, or have died upon the way to exile, or are now up on the road to the deserts of Northern Arabia, or are already there. The number of victims is constantly increasing. Surely there can be no greater need of immediate help, even in these troublous times, then the desperate need of the Armenian refugees. The American Committee has already done much in collecting and sending funds, as has also the English Committee, but there is still the direst need of generous contributions. All contributions should be sent to Charles R. Crane, Treasurer, 70 Fifth Avenue." Walter H. Mallory, Executive Secretary of the American Committee, said that the committee was in close touch with the Lord Mayor's committee of London and that "daily authentic reports of almost unbelievable atrocities" were received. In the statement made public there was an excerpt from a letter received by the American Committee from the English committee, which read: "The committee knows that there are 180,000 refugees still in the Caucasus besides 30,000 who have died there, and 70,000 who have returned to parts of Turkey and Persia. A large part of the statement is taken up with a letter received by the American Committee from a missionary stationed in Konia. In part, the letter read: "Soon after the great deportation that preceded the arrival of the new Vali, Miss C. and I drove out to Kachin Han, the first station of the railroad toward Eregli. Just to follow the crowd, as a large number had been driven off on foot with the expectation of taking the railroad later on. Kachin Han is about three hours from here by carriage, and even so near to Konia as this we found about one hundred people, sitting and lying about the station in utter desolation. They had been there three days: most of them had eaten up all the provisions they had and looked haggard and emaciated, veritable famine victims such as one sees in pictures of a scene in India. "The train from Konia arrived while we were there, and the greater number of the of the people dragged themselves to the cars in an effort to get on board, but were pushed back by the gendarmes, partly because they had no tickets and partly because there was no room: so the poor people were forced to turn back. New York Times Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashot Posted April 12, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 12, 2008 THE PERIL OF ARMENIA January, 1913 The recent dramatic rush of events in the Balkan Peninsula has brought to pass in a month that would have appeared a year ago to be a faint and remote dream. We have seen the up rising in armies of a Balkan Alliance which has swiped before it the great armies of Turkey as dust before the wind, until the Ottoman Power is at the present moment making its last stand behind the lines of Chataldja, and little is left of Turkey in Europe except Constantinople and its adjacent strip of seaboard. Europe has been shaken out of her slumber; diplomatists are meeting in council, efforts- we would fain hope real and earnest efforts-are being made by great Powers to "see the things through," with due regard to the claims of the gallant Allies and without involving themselves in the iniquities of a general war of the iniquities of the general war of self-interest. Would God that such a genuine "Consort of Europe" had acted together long years ago , to secure the righteous ends which have now had to be won at so awful a coast of blood and misery, of devastated lands and ruined homes. "If before his duty man with listless spirit stands, Ere long the great Avenger takes the task from out his hands." It may well be that Turkey also has lost her opportunity, not only in Europe but likewise in Asia. For where as all evidence goes to prove that in the former massacres it was only necessary to proclaim that the Padishah commanded the slaughter to cease, for it cease at once, when the next occurs the Central Government may be powerless to control the demons it has raised. Europe, however, is awake at last. But perhaps it is not to be wondered at that she is too much absorbed in the fate of Turkey in Europe to trouble herself with the results of the war in Turkey in Asia. yet the Powers cannot escape from the responsibility laid upon them as signatories of the Treaty of Berlin (1878),which promised reforms to be carried out in the Armenian Provinces-reforms which they well know have never been carried out. Indeed, by the cruel irony, it is the "protected" provinces which have been swept with massacre. England, by the Cyprus Convention, herself undertook the protectorate of the Christians in the Asiatic provinces of Turkey-i.e. , "all the land inhabited by the Armenian race and religion." And Englishmen may derive what comfort they can from the fact that England has from time to time remonstrated with the Porte through her Ambassadors and Consuls and procured the removal of a very few of the worst officials (who were promptly decorated and promoted by Abdul Hamid). One thing has been proved up till now is, that without guarantees no reforms have been or ever will be carried into effect. what is the Armenia to hope from the astonishing war that has freed the Balkan States? She looks to England in trembling apprehension, for unless England intervenes, the blow that frees Macedonia may only rivet more tightly the chains that bind Armenia. In this war the first time Christians have been allowed to serve in the Army. For generations a tax was taken from them instead of military service; since the granting of the Constitution they share in the conscription, and only wealthy families can redeem their sons, and that at a ruinous price. Formerly a man who supported a family was exempt, but now these breadwinners have been taken. What has it meant for the Christian lads, many of them engaged in sedentary toil and quit unused to exercise, to be suddenly torn from their simple homes and set to walk six hours a day through slush and snow without proper shoes, clothes, or food with companions who would treat them worse than dogs. How the hearts of young men must have stirred when they heard the Bulgarian proclamatoin. The allies are their brothers, fighting for the things that they too hold dear: Religion, Home, theirs women's honor, and the safety of their children. But the duty of these unhappy lads is to fight for the race that has oppressed and harried them, and made life a burden to them for five hundred years. Their enrolment in the army seemed to some the one hope that future massacres and outrage in Armenia might become impossible , but this war has turned for Armenia a hope into a tragedy. The whisper will be repeated in markets and cafes, in the Khans and by the roadsides, "It was the Christians". "What else could come when the good old custom was broken?" And if these lie safe in their graves on the open hill-side or in the snowy valley, they have left hostages-mothers and brothers, sisters and little children. Soon the broken army of the Moslems will be wandering through Anatolia. They are being dumped down anywhere with no provision made for them, and what will come of that? The past tells us. At the end of the eighteenth century whole armies of men owning no authority destroyed cities and laid waste lands; it seems all too probable this experience will be repeated. and Sassoun, Marash, Aintab, Harpoot, Urfa, and Adana -what have they to tell us? At Urfa still stands a large flat-roofed building, the thick stone walls of which are cracked: the flames, which split them, devoured between two and three thousand Armenians, living and dead, in one great holocaust, on that dread Sunday. December 29th, 1895. there is a narrow alley by the ruins of the burned Abgarian School at Adanawhere the Constitutional (!) troops shot down the Armenians who were trying to escape the flames, till they lay piled higher than a man could reach. It is there that Armenian faith in the Revolution lies buried. The next massacres may not be organized so perfectly, beginning with the sound of the trumpet and ending when the authorities give the signal, as at Urfa, but they will hardly be less deadly if perpetrated by hungry and demoralized soldiery. That eleven Kurds, turned out of the army, should have dared to attack Miss Matheison and her orphans (1912) on the much frequented road between Hadjin and Everek shows that the country is in a very disturbed state. Her presence saved the girls, for foreigners are generally respected, thanks to the Capitulations, and, if murdered, their States get indemnity, but they cannot always save their Armenian friends. Thus it was in vain that that Dr. Christie clasped an Armenian youth in his arms when the mob bore down upon them. He only heard the deaf-scream as the jagged knife was plunged and withdrawn(April, 1909). The Capitulations which protect foreigners, by making them self-governing, are said to be a survival of the old Roman law; they are necessary when the moral and religious code of a country is inferior to that of the foreigners resident in it. "Look ye to it," said Gallio, the Roman Governor, as he drove the disputants from his judgment-seat. They must settle the affairs of their millet, or community, themselves he could not be bothered. It is not usually known that the same idea is found in the position of the Armenians to-day. Thus Mahomet II. was acting by precedent when on conquering Turkey, he gave the Christians of Turkey judicial courts of their own, making the Patriarch (his nominee) their political head, with the rank of Vizier, responsible to the Sultan only , and all the Bishops responsible to the Patriarch. This resulted, through the sale of offices, in the degradation of the priesthood and the Church. Then in 1862 all real power passed into the hands of clerical and lay councils elected by the Representative Assembly of 140 Armenians. This Assembly was meant to be communal body, dealing with the affairs of the Armenian community. Nowadays i8t is called the National Assembly, but it must be borne in mind that the Turks are still the ruling community, Regarding Christians as rayahs. The meetings of this Assembly have been very stormy of late, for the Patriarch has been driven to bay. In vain does he remonstrate and protest to the Turkish Ministers. The Turkish Government allows murderers of his flock to go unpunished, the local Governors conceal facts and abet assassins, and as long as the Armenians are not allowed arms to defend themselves from the Kurds, his position is untenable. Hence, both the Patriarchs have tendered their resignations. It is noteworthy that at this sitting the Archbishop of Pera said that the only remedy was to demand the application of Article 61 of the Berlin Treaty. This Article might well be quoted, for it not only promises reform, but actually promises security from the Kurds. The only thing Europe did to give them this security was to remonstrate with Sultan Abdul Hamid, who replied by arming the Kurds and enrolling then as irregular cavalry under his own name, Hamidieh. Meanwhile, he refused arms to the Christians, and this refusal is still enforced by the Turkish Government, in spit of the promise of the "Young Turk" Constitution. And yet no one can read the account of the granting of the Constitution as given by the official reports in our Government White Paper (Turkey, No.1,1909) without being struck by the fact that everywhere its promulgation was a terror to evil-doers. Is it to be a beautiful promise unfulfilled? It would be seen so, far so common has rape and murder become that to-day no Armenian dare travel alone. Every day brings news of the lifting of sheep and cattle. In one district alone 5,000 sheep had been taken. The inspector of the Schools of the See of Aghtamar, with his companion, has been murdered in Karkar and cruelly mutilated. The reports come, not from one region, but from places as wide apart as Van and Adans, Bitlis and Hadjin. To all this things the Turkish Government is supremely indifferent, and the Patriarch interviews Ministers and utters protests in vain On account of this disorders and the indifference of the Government, Noradougian Effendi, the Minister of foreign Affairs of Turkey, sent in his resignation on September 28th, 1912.He was asked to draw up a scheme of for Eastern Anatolia. But enough of such schemes: There is no intention, and there never was any intention, of letting these paper reforms be put into execution. Thus the year 1913 opens gloomily for Armenia. The war has caused stagnation in trade and a rise in the price of foodstuffs; moreover, the cattle have been taken transport work, besides those stolen by the Kurds, and the able-bodied youths have been sent to the seat of war. Should their Moslem neighbors be roused to fanatical fury and visit the calamities of the war upon the Armenians, the latter will be in a peculiarly defenseless position. It will be another case of the Christians and the burning of Rome. Turk and Kurds have so regarded the Armenians as their milky cows, whom they can drain with impunity, that it does not seem possible that a defeated army returning to Anatolia, unfed but armed, and bearing in their harts a grudge for their cruel suffering and shameful repulse can settle down quietly. The fact that the Sheikul-Islam has issued an Encyclical to all the Muftis of the disturbed provinces, condemning religious fanaticism and commanding them to preach against it, is a ray in the darkness. He points out that the Sheriat or sacred law used in the Turkish Courts ordains the security of the non-Moslem as well as the Moslem. But whether or not his fata proclaiming the Jehad , or Holy War, deluges Asiatic Turkey in blood will largely depend on the used made of the Moslems pulpit. In 1908 a most effective and beneficent use was made of this pulpit as is shown in our Government White Paper (Turkey. No 1, 1909, Section No.65). The Mufti of Silvan on the occasion of the recent festival of Bairam preached against the Christians, especially the Armenians, and that district is much agitated in consequence, for before all the great massacres of 1894-1897 and 1909 the fanatics of the people was fanned by preachers sent on purpose. Thus the Thursday before the massacre at Antioch, a grand personage, claiming to be the Head of the Society of Moslems, vowed to devote himself even to the death for religion and country, came harangued the Turks, and the teaching and buying up of arms and ammunition went on till Monday, April 19th. 1909. On that afternoon, while the Mohammedian chiefs were actually proclaiming "Peace, Liberty, and Fraternity," the massacre began and lasted until the arrival of the warship for which the British Vice-Consul had applied. Out of all that city hardly any Armenian was remained alive. Members of this society are being sent to the Chataldja lines, and it is with this spirit that the Ulemasare trying to inspire the troops. Well might one ask, "Are the warships ready?" They will be needed to help the Turkish Government to keep order, not merely at Constantinople, but on the Black Sea coast and along the Cilitian shore. The polished Turkish gentleman seems to have a fascination for certain English minds. Yet, in many cases, he was the organizer of "The events." On the other hand, massacres were doubtless rendered more hideous by the letting loose of the savage section that is found at the bottom of every population. In Turkey, however, the soldiery has invariably acted alongside of these ruffians. Yet the Turkish peasant under a good Governor is often a quiet, though, speaking generally, the Armenian nation is "The industrious, energetic, self respecting element in the Turkish Empire," while it may be mentioned that there is a long list of the illustrious Russian Generals who were Armenians. That the Armenians should have kept up the sanctity of home life, through all these centuries of oppression, while going in constant fear of having their women and girls torn from them, shows that there must be moral grit in the race; and their devolution at all costs to that church, which has, throughout, been their one bond of national unity and their guide and consoler, must appeal to all who have any reverence for religion or patriotism. Men of known judgment and ability, long resident in Turkey, testify that all nationalities can live side by side peaceably and happily, provided only the local governor is just. We read that at the present moment the governors of the provinces where outrages are most frequent neither punish nor arrest the criminals, but spend their time in searching for arms in Armenian houses. "It is the same donkey," as the Eastern proverb says. Just in this way did they rob the Armenians of Urfa of all weapons before they slaugtered them in 1895. A Mohammedan governor can, if he wishes, protect his subjects from robbery and outrage and make life worth living, but it is impossible for a Mohammedan governor to treat the Mohammedans and Christians under him as equal, for this is against his religion. The Koran forbids molestation and cruel treatment of subject races who pay their taxes, but inculcates the dogma that all "infidels" ought to be the bondmen of the "true believers." To conquer them by the sword and hold them in subjection is the duty of all true Moslems. All reforms which promise equality are mere falsehoods wherewith to blind Europe, for the enlightened views of the present Sheik-ul-Islam and some other Turkish leaders have not yet permitted the mass of people. The injustice of the present molestation of Armenians is all the more glaring because the Yong Turkey Party owes them a debt of gratitude. For it is not too much to say that, without the loyal support of the Armenians, the Young Turks could never have overtrown the Palace camarilla which was shaping the life of the country. Indeed, there are those who affirm that it was an Armenian brain that planned the wonderfully successful coup of July 24th, 1908. After the granting of the Constitution on July 28th, 1908. it seemed for a few months as if the Golden Age had come. All nationalities fraternized, and in future there were to be neither Armenians, Greeks, Turks, nor Albanians, but all were Osmanil (Ottomans). All political prisoners were set free, exiles returned, and the Royal Princes of the blood were allowed to come out of their seclusion; freed from the returned, and the Royal Princes of the blood were allowed to come out of their seclusion; freed from the lies and spies the land breathed more freely; and men began to think that the Committee of Union and Progress had converted Midhat's Constitution of1876into a reality. Amongst the Young Turkey Party were men who had risen above the teaching of their Prophet and were willing to give equality to all. Through them something was done, by appointing better men as governors, and this saved Aitab, Malatia, and Harpoot from sharing the fate of the Adana. Yet to-day the Armenians are not free, although the law courts no longer refuse to hear Christian evidence, the verdict is given on the Moslem evidence. Now they have to fear not only the returning army, but the Turks from the Balkan who are trekking back to Asia and will need homesteads. These are passing Constantinople with their families and family belongings, their cattle, and their buffalo and Ox-carts, much as they passed into Europe five hundred years ago. They affirm that their homes were burnt by the retreating Turkish army, not by the Bulgarians; the latter are carrying the war in a civilized fashion. Twenty five years ago Mr. Freeman foretold that, unless the two following points were insisted on at the coming Berlin Conference, the whole work would have to be done again. In the face of the present situation, it might be well to remember them: 1st. What ever be the form of government in any of these lands, the Turk must have no hand in choosing the governors. 2nd. No spot in any of the lands that are to be set free must be garrisoned by Turkish soldiers. Will this warning again be neglected? We would, in conclusion, further commend the following suggestion, among the many that have been made for the improvement of the condition of the Armenians, since these three would seem to be feasible and moderate. (1) An increase in the number of foreign consuls. But commercial consuls have ceased to be of much use since Turkey learned that no action would be taken on their reports. (2) The substitution of military census for commercial consuls. The Turk respects things military, and it is certain from past occurrences that the military consul is more effective; this would surely outweigh the extra coast. (3) The appointment of a Christian Governor over the six Vilayets. The difference between these three is briefly this: (1) Civil consuls can report on a massacre-e.g., Vice-Consul Fitzmaurice at Urfa, March, 1896. (2) Military consuls can stop a massacre-e.g., Major Doughty-Wylie at Adana, Aprile, 1909. (3) Governors can prevent a massacre and restore order-e.g., Daud *****, who wages the fires Governor of the Lebanon, installed July 14th, 1861. This last was an Armenian Catholic, and, in spite of the oft-repeated prophecies of the Porte that the appointment of a Christian governor would rouse the Moslem population to fresh outbursts of fury and fanaticism and results in worst massacres than ever, he restored the Lebanon to prosperity tranquility. And to-day travelers tell how the very fields reveal where Turkish misrule ends and constitutional rule begins. But it must born in mind that Daud ***** was appointed governors of Lebanon for three years and could not be removed at the fancy of the Sultan. (The disastrous effect of changing governors, when their schemes for improvement are but just begun, may be seen at Adana to-day. Djemal Bey has been sent to Baghdad, and the orphanage remains unfinished, the rebuilding and orphans grants unpaid.) Moreover, Daud was not obliged to depend on Turkish troops to keep order, otherwise he must have failed. At first he was supported by the French troops, who only left in August, when the ships of the French and English squadrons still cruised off that coast; and while thus sheltered he prepared a military force from the inhabitants of the Lebanon which made the presence of Turkish soldiery unnecessary. This is what is wanted in the six Armenian Vilayets to-day, and the Moslem section of the population would benefit only less than the Armenian. For if the Kurds were restrained and justice was administered, the wave of prosperity which would flow through these fertile provinces would benefit every inhabitant, and open a market for Europeian commerce. The alarming predictions of the Turkish Government were falsified in the case of the Lebanon, and if the same Constitution were granted to the Armenians, although the Porte might try to fulfill its own prediction by stirring up fanaticism, it is more than probable that history would repeat itself. Were the six Powers as thoroughly agreed as the Balkan Allies have been that Turkish misrule must end, it would cease at once; for the Turk is a good subject, and his fatalism makes him the slave of the accomplished fact. Let him but realize the Fate, in the shape of United Europe, is too strong for him, and he will fold his hands and say "Kismet, it is decreed." Lucy C. F. Cavendish. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashot Posted April 12, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 12, 2008 YOUNG TURKS' MISRULE IN ARMENIA July 5, 1913 "OUR SHIPS can not climb the mountains of Armenia", was the brutal remark of Lord Salisbury, then Prime Minister of England, on being appealed to for interposition by the Christian Armenians whose homes and farms were being desolated and drenched with the blood of massacre by Turks and Kurds. This was in 1896, under Abdul-Hamid, but the same atrocities and injustices, it is charged, have been perpetrated with many aggravations under the Young Turks. The revolutionary Government at Constantinople aims at centralization. All national separatism or distinction is to be obliterated. The Armenian language, into which the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures were translated in the early centuries of the faith, is to be abolished. CharleVellay gives in the Revue de Paris the following list of the grievances which form the crux of the Armenian question: "In opposing by so many persecutions the development of the Armenian race, the present Ottoman Government refuses to Armenia the free use of her own language and traditional customs, thus denying them rights of which even Abdul-Hamid never ventured to dispute the reality and legitimacy. In his day the Armenian nation carried on its own administration, civil and religious. It possesed a national assembly, and the usual administrative departments. It disposed of an annual budget raised by special imposts. How could the Young Turks force the country to renounce her national tongue, her national customs, all the privileges and rights which the former regime had approved? Could the party at Constantinople fail to see that their policy of unification, of centralization, would inevitably become an instrument of oppression when operated in the Caucasian provinces?" The Armenians, 500,000 in number as against nearly 2,000,000 Mussulmans, were quick to realize this. They were now between the devil and the deep sea. The Kurds, rapacious and cruel bandits by profession, descendants of those Karduch whose fierceness and pitiless savagery were a scourge to Xenophonin the Retreat of the Ten Thousand, are on the side to murder and plunder, and the Turk, on the other, driving the churchmen of Gregory the Illuminator and of the modern Protestant evangelists to be cut down by hundreds and their farms taken possession of by the Kurdish brigands. The writer we are quoting declares that Turkey actually aims at the extermination of the Armenians: "Thus by a singular paradox the Ottoman Constitutional Government was very soon regarded by the Armenians as embodying the most brutal despotism. Miscarriages of justice became as frequent as ever. Nothing was changed in the violent or underhand methods of the central power. While the Turks massacred the Armenian's, the Kurds seized on the lands which the fleeing possessors had left as they crossed the frontier. When the original proprietors returned to reoccupy their possessions and recover their goods and protested against these usurpations, the Turkish Council of State decided against them. As the Armenian population is above all things a peasant population, all these persecutions threaten their very existence. For Mussulman immigrants are brought in by the Turks from Caucasus or Turkestan and installed upon the stolen farms. These farms are confiscated on a thousand pretexts; sometime signed by an illegal plea of exchange or of imperfect title, sometimes by forged deeds, false witness, sometimes because of imposts that have allegedly left unpaid, or standing indebtedness. Only recently the Armenian archbishop of Constantinople submitted to the Grand Vizier his reports of the farms or fields, 7,000 in number, which have been taken from the Armenians by the Turks." The European Powers are then scored for their indifference or incapacity in checking these outrages. The Balkan War, by which Turkey was finally driven out of Europe, calls attention to Armenia's plight. The whole press of Europe is asking if the Powers will interfere. To quote further: "The deliberate extermination of the Armenian race is going on by these varied methods-massacre, murders, forced emigration, as much to-day as ever before. The Armenian Question now lies before Europe, and since the Ottoman Empire shows itself incapable of solving it, needs must be that a solution comes from the outside." Mr. Vellay says Russia, England, and Germany are debarred by self-interest from intervening. When England speaks of Armenian autonomy she is silenced by Russia, who does not wish for a second Bulgaria on her Asiatic frontier. England and Germany wish Armenia to remain a Turkish buffer state to prevent Russia's expansion to the south. As this writer declares: "In all this diplomatic discussions the interest and safety of the Armenians themselves unfortunately counts for next to nothing. The outlook of the Powers does not extend beyond their own economic or political interests." An Armenian paper published in Constantinople, the Avedaper, recently contained a review of the situation by an Armenian clergyman, the Rev. A. B. Shumavonian, in which he complains of the "much cry and little wool" of the Armenian press agitation. "We have been deceived quite long enough," he exclaims indignantly. "The Times, the Temps, the Noveye Vremya, and the Berliner Tageblatt, have nothing new to say, more especially as our wounds is not of those that are healed of ink." He concludes with a warning to Turkey, who may find Russia making Armenia a stepping-stone to the absorption of part of Islam's Asiatic possessions. Russia already has "a sphere of influence" in northern Persia. What if she should strengthen her position there and make stronger her line of communication by absorbing the Turkish Vilayets south of the Caucasus Mountains? To quote further this patriotic and well-informed Armenia: "Not a single Government wishes or is able to defend the integrity of Turkey if the Turkish nation does not hasten to strengthen its position by internal reforms. . . . . . . "Turkey lost Cyprus without insuring any real and permanent gain. Perhaps the Russian Cossacks may succeed in climbing those mountains where English ships cold not ascend, and then if Turkey asks help from the west, Sir Edward Grey may be tempted to repeat Lord Salisbury's clever remark and say, "OUR SHIPS can not ascend the mountains of Armenia." Translation made for The Literary Digest. 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Ashot Posted April 12, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 12, 2008 MOSLEMS THREATENING WAR ON CHRISTIANS Demonstrations at Damascus Invasion of Egypt Is Feared October 31, 1914 By Marcony Transatlantic Wirless Telegraph to The New York Times. CONSTANTINOPLE, Oct.30,-- Sir Louis Mallet , the British Ambassador, has called the attention of the Grand Vizier to reports of an intended Bedouin raid into Egyptian territory. He warned the Vizier that such a raid would be regarded as a hostile act on the part of Turkey by the British Government. LONDON, Saturday, Oct, 31 There have been great manifestation at Damascus, Asiatic Turkey in favor of a war against Christians, and especially against Great Britain, according to a dispatch to the Exchange Telegraph Company from Athens. The massing of Bedouins along the Egyptian frontier, the dispatch adds, is being continued. Strong Turkish cavalry divisions are said to have arrived in the neighborhood of the gulf of Akabah on the Red sea about 200 miles south of the Suez Canal. This news contained in a Cairo dispatch received in Vienna, and forwarded to London by the correspondent at Amsterdam of the Central News Agency. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashot Posted April 12, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 12, 2008 REPORT CHRISTIANS IN PERIL IN TURKEY Views of Refugees Noe in Petrograd--All Men Forced Into the Army November 12, 1914 Special Cable to THE NEW YORK TIMES. PETROGRAD, Nov. 11, (Dispatch to The London Morning Post.)-- Refugees who have arrived here from Constantinople report that the state of things there and in Turkey generally appalling. Brigandage, murder, and atrocities are committed. Armenians being the chief-victims, but all Christians and foreigners are in great danger. One refugee, a Greek tells me he ran away to escape forced military service, leaving his wife and mother behind. According to his account Turkish authorities are forcing every man possible into the rank of the army. The fighting on Saturday Sunday at Koprikos was not renewed on Monday, but the day was spent in a vigorous artillery duel, apparently without result. In the meantime Russian columns are marching up in two directions to reinforce each other for an attack on Erzerum. Several strategic points of the utmost importance are already in the hands of the Russians. New York Times Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashot Posted April 12, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 12, 2008 ERZERUM FANATICS SLAY CHRISTIANS November 29, 1914 PETROGRAD. Nov 28---A telegram received here from Odessa describes an outbreak of fanatical rioting in Erzrum. Dispatches reaching Odessa from this Turkich city say that, following the posting of a proclamation calling the Mohammedans to a holy war , all the Armenian clubs, churches, and schools were demolished by a mob. Four Armenians, including one woman, were killed in the streets. New York Times Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashot Posted April 12, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 12, 2008 TURKISH PEOPLES MISERY December 5, 1914 The Armenian Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions has issued a bulletin relative to conditions in Turkey, which contains excerpts from letters recently received in this country from missionaries in Turkey. Some of them read: A. N. Andru of Mardin. --Everything is in confusion. Trade is utterly paralyzed, travel is impossible, transportation is stopped, schools are stripped of their teachers, money has ceased to circulate, drafts cannot be cashed, grain remains unthrashed and unwinnowed for lack of animals and men to do the work; the labor market is closed and hunger in the midst of plenty is already looking in at the door of thousands of homes, hence two, three, four and in some cases, five of the breadwinners have been summoned to the ranks. E. C. Woodly of Marash.--Churches cannot pay pastors' salaries and we cannot help because of our shortage of funds. From one of our best outstation churches seventy-two out of ninety-four male members have been called out as soldiers. E. C. Partridge of Sivas.--Everything that is movable is being taken from shops and in some cases from houses. Thousands of villagers have been sleeping hungry in the streets of Sivas for three weeks, while their wheat is wasting in the fields. Mary D. Uline of Bitlis.--If ever relief was needed it is now. People will starve to death and die of exposure. Hundreds and hundreds of wild Arabs and Kurds from the south have been going through the city on their horses. They helped themselves to whatever they wanted from merchants and travelers. New York Times Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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