Armenian Genocide Contemporary Articles

[Ashot]

HANG CHRISTIANS IN STREET

 

December 5, 1914

 

LONDON. Monday, Dec. 14.--- A Petrograd dispatch to THE TIMES says: "Advise from the front at Erzerum . Turksh Armenia describe the position of 20,000 Christian s there as precarious because of their Russian sympathies.

 

Three hundered thousand Turkish troops are mobilized at Erzerum. Hundreds of Armenians have been imprisoned and many hunged in the streets, without trial, as examples."

 

New York Times

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TURKISH WOMEN REVOLT

 

December 14, 1914

 

Special Caple to THE NEW YORK TIMES. PETROGAD, Dec.13, (Dispatches to The London Times.) --Refugees arriving at Tiflis report an extraordinary anty-war demonstration by Turkish women in Konak and Erzerum. Women threw stones and rioted for several hours, and when threatened by guards rent their garments and paraded the streets almost in the state of nudity, thus compelling the guards to retire in obedience to the Islamic law. They forced the vali to dispatch the telegram to Constantinople protesting against the war.

 

Armenian refugees from Erzerum describe the terrible position of 20,000 Christians whom the Turks threaten with massacre for their Russian sympathy. The prisons are full of Armenians and Greeks suspected of espionage. They are hanged in the streets and squares without trial and the corpses are suspended for weeks from the streets lamps. In passing Turks spit on the bodies and compel Christians to do the same.

 

There are now 200,000 Turkish soldiers and 1,500 officers in Erzerum, where a large quantity of provender and military supplies is stored. German officers control everything in the town and fortress.

 

New York Times

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SAYS TURKS ADVISE CHRISTIANS TO FLEE

 

January 11, 1915

 

Special Cable to THE NEW YORK TIMES. ATHENS, Jan. 9, (Dispatch to The London Daily Telegraph.) --- A man arriving from Constantinople who is in a position to know the facts has given me a mass of information concerning the present condition of affairs in the Turkish capital. He says the Turkish Government has no fear of a revolution, and that measures taken against the enemies of Young Turks Committee are so drastic that no concarted movement on their part is possible.

 

The whole attention anti anxiety of the Government is concentrated on the posible forcing of the Dardanelles by the allied fleet. It seems also that this fear is shared by their German mentors, for Baron Von Wangenheim, the German Ambassador, has warned the Minister of a Balkan State in Constantinople that in the event of the allied ficet's forcing the straits, the Turks will vent their wrath by a massacre of Christian population. In Constantinople no endeavor is any longer made by the Ministers to hide their feelings towards there Christian subjects.

 

To the Greek Patriarchate, who was sent to Talaat ***** to remonstrate against the excesses committed by the organs of his Ministry, he unequivocally replied that there was no room for Christians in Turkey and that best the Patriarchate could do for his flock would be to advise them to bclear out of the country and make room for Moslem refugees.

 

New York Times

[Ashot]

CHRISTIANS IN GREAT PERIL

 

January 13, 1915

 

Special Cable to THE NEW YORK TIMES. ATHENS, Jan. 12 (Dispatch to The London Morning Post.)--- It is asserted in well-inforemed circles that the Turks for the present have abandoned their advance against Egypt.

 

In Constantinople anxiety regarding the possible forcing of the Dardanells continues.

 

It is evident that the situation of the Christian is extremely precarious even in the large cities, and Talaat Bey, the Minister of the Interior, has stated to the Councillor of the Greek Patriarchate that in Turkey henceforth there will be room only for Turks. While he was profuse in assurances to the Greek Minister regarding the cessation of anti-Greek persecutions, no real amelioration of the situation is perceptible.

 

The Turks are again fortifying the Tchatalja lines.

 

New York Times

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HOW TURKISH EMPIRE SHOULD BE MADE AFTER THE WAR

 

January 24, 1915

 

Written for THE NEW YORK TIMES BY A STUDENT OF TURKISH AFFAIRS. Turkey has the second largest share of responsibility in the outbreak of the war,for the reason that her unspeakable system of rule forced the Balkan war, which resulted in the Austro-Servian controversy. Her continued hopeless incapacity in the government of her extensive territories excited the greed and ambitions of the powera and made her a bone of contention among them. It is a well-known fact that the maintenance of the Turkish political entity for the last 200 years has been made possible by the rivalry of the Great Powers. The history of the Turk has been uniformly marked with blood, fire and destruction. His success was imposaible from the very beginning of his power. During the chaos and anarchy incident largely to religious dissensions, crusaders' movements, political upheavals, to which the Eastern World was subjected in the Middle Ages he emerged from the confines of Central Asia a primitive barbarian,and having been converted to the faith of Islam, he carried, wherever he went, the green flag that rejected all compromise and defied all canons of Germany and, in his irresistible sweeping march, conquered a dozen or more principalities. His power in Asia,in Africa,and in Europe rested on the cruel support of his sword. The civilization of his subject races he could not comprehend so he left them separate and distinct in the administration of their church and educational affairs. But the very moment he saw signs of progress in the activities of his subjects and a revival of national aspirations, he adressed himself to the support of steel and powder. Once he reached the height of his power and his rule seemed to be secure from external aggression, he reverted to his natural life of last and sonseous indulgence. Utterly devoid of the sense of justice and wanting in administrative knowledge, the rule he inaugurated has always been characterised by official indolence and incompetency and shameful graft and corruption. Always in the minority, without any social system of his own, with a religion in eternal conflict with that of his subject races, sensuous, lustful, indolent, deceitful, and incorrigible, ge was doomed to utter failure from the very beginning.

 

Without going very far back, if we review tersely the nature of the Turk's existence in the twentieth century, we can easily gain a sufficient grasp of his character. The intolerable nature of his rule forced the Servian insurrections in 1804 and 1817, the Grecian massacres in 1821, and the Russo-Turkish war in 1828, when Greece, a wretched Turkish province, broke loose from the Turkish rule and Servia became autonomous; the massacres of Maronite Christians in1860; the massacres of Christians in Bulgaria , Bosnia-Herzegovinain 1877; the Armenian massacres in 1894 and 1896; the Greco-Turkish war in1898; the Macedonian massacres in 1903 again Armenian massacres in Cecilia in 1909, during the power of Young Turk, present sufficiently the ghastly picture of what the Turk has been. He not only smothered the economic and intellectual sources of the East, but he became imprenetrable barrier between East and West.TO the humiliation of Christendom, it should be said that the Turkish nuisance would have been impossible wereit notfor the cruel diplomacy of Great Powers of Europe, whose diplomacy has been influenced not by human considerations, but by considerations of national gain and prestige. And this despite the fact that the senselessness of this sort of diplomacy was proved in many instance, in that no one power could maintain a long lease of power at Constantinople without being betrayed at the psychological moment in favor of another power.

 

Only recently, in the course of conversation with a leading member of the Turkish Cabinet, I expressed by serious doubt if the Turkish Empire could ever be reformed through the Turkish element. It is to be noted that, out of an estimated population of 20,000,000 in the Turkish Empire not over 6,000,000 to 7,000,000 are Turks. In European Turkey and Anatolia, where the bulk of the Turkish element is to be found the Turk is in the minority. The Greek and the Armenian, who combined are about five millions. In equal number are admittedly superior to the Turk morally and intellectually. They are consummate merchants and financiers, industrious, and progressive. The Jew And the Christian Arab , known to us as the Syrian , are the poers of the Greek and the Armenian. The Greek and the Armenian represent about 25%. of the population of Turkey. They control about 70% of its commerce, whereas the Turk constitute about 30% of the population of Turkey and he controls about 10%of its commerce. In education,he is incomparably far behind the Greek and Armenian. As a Mohammedan , he he does not intermingle socially with the Christian race, and therefore, he cannot assume his rightful place in the leadership of the social system.

 

It is hard to see how a proud German Empire could engage in serious business with this adventurers, upstarts, deceitful and crafty visionaries, who in the course of seven years, plunged their country into four foreign wars, and lost one-fourth of their possessions, and now give excellent promise og reducing the once gigantic Turkish Empire into a miniature principality in this momentous conflict, for centuries a source of perpetual international complication and unending human sufferings, the Turkish Empire should be apportioned among the principle race that inhabit it, which, by tradition history, and their known fitness for self- government, are entitled to recognition among the Great Powers, who in the course of centuries, have fixed for themselves by common consents pheres of influence. To wit: TURKEY Square

Miles

Ismid...........................3,100

Bigha...........................2,600

Brussa.........................25,000

Castamuni......................20,000

West Angora, West Kizil Irmak..12,000

West Koneih....................21,500

East Smyrna.....................6,000

______

Total........................ 92,050

 

 

GREECE

West Smyrna....15,000

 

 

ARMENIA

Harpoot.................................2,500

Sivas..................................21,500

East Angora, East Kisil Irmak..........13,350

East Konieh............................18.000

North Aleppo, North Aintab, inclusive...3,700

Adana..................................15,500

______

Total................................ 90,200

 

 

SYRIA, FRENCH PROTECTORATE.

Aleppo south of Beilan on the east,

inclusive, and south of Urfan on

the west, inclusive....................22,500

Beirut, exlusive of Palestine...........3,200

Syria, north of Damascus, inclusive....15,000

Lebanon.................................1,160

Zor, west of Euphrates.................11,000

______

Total................................ 52,860

 

 

JUDEA

Beirut, south of Lebanon................3,000

Syria, south of Damascus...............22,000

Jerusalem, exclusive if city and en-

virons..................................4,500

______

Total................................ 29,500

 

 

INTERNATIONAL COMMISSION

Jerusalem and environs..................2,000

 

 

ENGLAND

Bagdad.................................42,500

Basra..................................54,000

Hejaz..................................97,000

Yemen..................................75,000

Zor, or Mesopotamia,

west of Euphrates......................20,000

Moussoul, south of Little Zab..........15,000

______

Total............................... 303,500

 

 

RUSSIA

Trebizonde............................13,000

Erzerume..............................19,300

Van...................................15,000

Bitlis................................10,500

Diarbekir.............................15,000

Moussoul, north of Little Zab. begin

ning from east of Tigris..............20,000

A strip begining of the western angle

of Diabekir and bounded on the north

by Euphrates and on the south by a line

north of Urfah, then running wester-

ly to Alexandretia....................5,000

______

Total.............................. 97,600

 

 

DARDANELLES

Especially the Straits of the Darda-

nelles should be of fortifi-

cations: they should not be used as

a naval base by any power in the

time of peace or war ; the merchant

and war vessels of all nations should

have the rightof the Dardanelles

on equal conditions.

 

 

 

I will now offer brief explanations for the reasons of the territorial adjustments proposed above.

 

The part of Turkey in Europe allotted for bulgaria, and the proposed arrangement for the remaining portion of Turkey in Europe, including Constantinople, require no explanation.

 

As for the territories to be assigned to an independent Turkey, the following reasons should be sufficient:

 

More than fifty per centum of the Turkish element in the Turkish Empire are to be found within the boundaries of the territories assigned for Turkey. The first two capitals of the Turks are to be found within its borders. For cemmercial purposes, the ?? are unexcelled, in that they command extensive frontages on the Black Sea, and of the Mediterranean. The soil of every foot of the land assigned for Turkey is excellent for agriculture.

 

New York Times

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PREDICT A MASSACRE

 

March 10, 1915

 

American missionaries, who arrived yesterday from Jerusalem, via Piracus, in the Cunard liner Carpatia, said that the fall of the Dardanelles would probably mean a massacre of Jews and in the Holy Land.

 

The party, which consisted of Mr. and Mrs. A. E. Kelsey, Mrs. E. Meader, Miss F. Parson, M. Kelsey and Miss Alice Jones of Philadelphia, head of the Girls' Missionary School, maintained by the Society of Friends in Jerusalem, sailed from Jaffa for Piraeus on Jan. 29. According to Miss Jones and her fellow-travelers, the Jews are being cruelly treated in Jerusalem by Turkish officials. Hundreds of them have been forced to enter the army and send to Damascus to be drilled. Others, who were unfit physically to fight and undergo the hardships of a march across the desert towards Egypt, have been compelled to do all kinds of menial labor on the roads between Jerusalem and Jaffa.

 

New York Times

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POLAND, SERBIA, ARMENIA

 

MARCH 25, 1915

 

The plans of Armenia awarm with fugitives fleeing from the Turk. All able-bodied men in Armenia have been dragged to Turkish battlefields, while in the show-clad highlands and valleys the women, the children, and the aged are dying of starvation by thousands.

 

Belgium still suffers. All the agencies of relief for that unhappy land have not sufficed, but they are well known. Relatively few know of the headquarters in this city of the Armenian Relief Fund, at 354 Fourth Avenue, or of the Polish Relief Fund at 265 Central Park West. The Red Cross Society with national headquarters in Washington, is doing all it can for Serbia, whither sanitary experts will soon set fourth to stamp out the plagues under the auspices of the Red Cross and the Rockfaller Foundation. But for Serbia, Poland, and Armenia more funds are urgently needed.

 

New York Times

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TURKS RENEW MASSACRES

 

MARCH 22, 1915

 

Special Cable to THE YORK TIMES.

 

ATHENS, March 22, (Dispatch to the London Daily News.)-- Additional Christian massacres are reported from the neighborhood of Aivali, on the Annatolian coast north of Smyrna.

 

Sixty families in the village of Kimerly were massacred.

 

Public Radio of Armenia

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PILLAGE IN SMYRNA DISTRICT

 

APRIL 19, 1915

 

Special Cable to NEW YORK TIMES. MITYLENE, Friday, April 16, (dispatch to the London Daily News.)-- Merchants who arrived last night from Smyrna draw a gloomy picture of the state of things in the district surrounding that city. While Smyrna itself is quiet, pillage and murder are rife in the villages and smaller towns of the littoral, all Christians going in danger of their lives. At Vourla a Greek notable and others have been killed.

 

Large Turkish reinforcements arrived last week and defense works are being constructed with the utmost energy, particularly near Vourla. Several more German officers reached Smyrna a few days ago and have taken over the direction of defense preparation.

 

SYRACUSE, Sicily, (via Paris,) April 18.-- Travelers arriving her from Asia Minor say that bands of Mussulman brigands are committing all kinds of outrages in Smyrna, pillaging, burning property, killing and taking hostages.

 

The people bringing this reports say the Europeans in Smyrna urgently ask the assistance of the United States cruiser Tennessee, now in eastern waters, or any other forces or influence which America can exercise.

 

New York Times

[Ashot]

TURKEY'S DREAM OF POWER

 

APRIL 18, 1915

 

Turkey dreams of regaining through the Austro-German alliance the position of world power, according to a Constantinople dispatch to the Frankfurter Zeitung, which contains excerpts from the address recently delivered Halli Bey, President of the Chamber of Deputies, to a procession of Turkish students. Halli Bey said:

 

"As a result of the weakness that made themselves felt in great number in the course of the centuries, our independence was not complete. Our internal independence was hampered in that our own forces and resources was subject to the guardianship of outsiders and was, whether by reason of treaties or the laws of habit, under their control. Similarly our foreign policies.

 

"We have deprived of the power of pursuing a firm policy toward the two groups of alliances and to govern the general political situation. We turned now toward one group, now toward other. As a result of their competitive rivalry we could not travel a straight course.

 

"Through the revocation of the capitulations we insured our internal as well as our external policies.

 

Following the lessons which history had taught us, and pressed by the demands of our geographical position, we concluded an alliance with the two groups, Germany and Austro-Hungary. From that day we have actually been a part of the world power. Thereby we attained our internal and external independence. May God grant that we may rise again to the greatness and glory of our earlier history."

 

New York Times

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KURDS DISGUST THE TURKS

The Latter Protest Against the Atrocities of the Former

 

APRIL 18, 1915

 

TABRIZ, April 16, (via Petrograd, April 17.)-- Engagements between Armenians and Kurds are frequent in the vicinity of Van, in Turkish Armenia, according to reliable information reaching Tabriz and a general massacre of Christians is expected in the Province of Bashkals. The Armenians of Van are hurriedly trying to raise volunteers in Azerbaijan Province, Persia, to help them against the Turks and the Kurds,

 

After several stubborn engagements between Russian and Turks, to the north of Dilman, in Persia, the Turks to the south of Dilman. From the district of the Choruk River it is reported that after an unsuccessful defense of Khopa, the Turks retreated beyond Archava where they have occupied fortified heights from which they are making sorties.

 

There is said to be growing hostility between the Turks and Kurds, the former deprecating the inhumanity of the latter. In cases where Turks and Kurds are serving together this disaffection has at times approached the mutinous stage. Turkish soldiers and even the younger of the Turkish officers are protesting against the countenancing by higher Turkish officers of the outrages committed by the Kurds. There are several instances of Turkish soldiers having lynched Kurds guilty of unusual atrocities.

 

New York Times

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VON DER GOLTZ TO LEAD TURKS

German Field Marshal Will Head First Turkish Army

APRIL 20, 1915

 

CONSTANTINOPLE, April 19, (via London.)-- Field Marshal Baron von der Goltz has been appointed commander-in-chief of the First Marshal recently returned to Constantinople from Berlin, whither he went, according to report, to urge Germany to send an army to attack Serbia.

 

New York Times

[Ashot]

ENVER SAYS TURKS HAD TO FIGHT

Young War Minister and Generalissimo Lays Blame on Russia and Britain

 

APRIL 20, 1915

 

CONSTANTINOPLE, April 18, (via London, April 20.)-- "I am glad you asked that question. This is not a war of the Turkish Government, but a war of the Turkish people," said Enver *****, the most remarkable men in Turkey, who at the age of 33 years is War minister and Generalissimo of the Ottoman army , to the Associated Press correspondent in the first interview ever given to the American press.

 

"Undoubtedly the world finds difficulty in understanding that the Turkey of today is no longer the Turkey of the past, but that, nevertheless, is a fact which should de apparent to all impartial observers," he continues.

 

The world's youngest Commander in Chief typifies the Young Turks in intellectual attainments and ideals. The conversation with him was carried on in German, and, besides having a thorough command of the German language, he speaks excellent French. Enver ***** would be boyish in appearance, but for a rather heavy brown mustache. Alert, frank eyes, and pleasing manners make him a delightful conversationalist. He has, moreover, a well-deserved reputation for being the handsomest man in the Turkish Army.

 

When the correspondent entered, Enver ***** shook hands cordially and said:

 

"I am sorry to have kept you waiting but I am very busy all day. You have come to interview me ? Well, I will make an exception in your favor. I am averse to talking to men of the press. What do you want?"

 

"The exact reason for Turkey participating in the war," was the reply.

 

Forced Into the War.

 

"You refer, no doubt," said Enver *****," to the assertions in the newspapers of Great Britain, France, and Russia that Turkey entered the war to help Germany. That is very true at this moment, not when we mobilized. Today Austria, Hungary and Germany help us; we help them. But we mobilized because there was no way out.

 

Long before we took this step Russia had grown ugly on the Black sea and in the Caucasus, invading our territory there, while England had already operated against Mesopotamia, and had concentrated a fleet before the Dardanelle. We were unwilling to start the ball rolling, and even after Russian attacked our fleet in the Black Sea we still waited one week before war was declared.

 

"We new that Turkey would again be led to the slaughter block; being unwilling that this should happen, we took the only course open. We Turks feel that we have a right to exist, especially when the best of us are straining every effort and are catching up with other countries in intellectual and material development. I believe that there is much good in the Turkish people, contrary to what our traducers say. At any rate, we are about to prove it.

 

"There was a time when Turkey was merely a Government clique, which was not trusted by the people, but gradually the people are beginning to feel that they themselves are Turkey. I think that this is the healthiest sign here today, and there is also the promise that the progress of all civil life will be rapid."

 

At this moment the War Minister's Chief of Staff entered with papers. When these were disposed of the interview was continued.

 

"We are taking care of our troops today," said Enver *****; "hence their loyalty. Formerly a rifle was given to a man and he had to shift for himself as best he could. Today we see that his land is cultivated in his absence. Each village has this system. while a man is at the front his neighbors till his soil.

 

"This measure has been so effective that the area of cultivated land is 20 per cent greater than ordinary," he went on. When a man is in the field we see that he is cared for, simply perhaps, but sufficiently. The Turkish soldier, moreover, now known how to shoot well. This is instilling the confidence he formerly lacked."

 

Get Rid of Army's Dead Wood.

 

To the question as to what was responsible for the better quality of troops, which has been so very apparent, Enver ***** replied:

 

"When I reached the head of the army I discharged on my second day in????? about 3,000 old officers who had formerly been merely a burden on the Ottoman military establishment. Next I made every effort to have a common soldiers feel that he was part of the service, instead of the subject of it. It can hardly be believed the difference this made. The men now have an esprit de corps."

 

"How did you manage to mobilize your army of almost two millions with limited resources?" he was asked.

 

That was a problem, of course, but we overcame it. we had a lot of old Snider rifles ready for the junk market. These I caused to be distributed among the gendarmerie, taking from them their modern rifles. There was formerly a large gendarmerie force in Turkey," explained Enver *****, smiling. "Now it is not so great -- we don't need it. So we armed many men with new rifles. Today every man at the front is well armed. It was a case of helping yourself. We did it."

 

Replying to questions as to the present status of the campaign, the Generalissimo said:

 

"Conditions in the Caucasus are more satisfactory. Regarding the situation in the Dardanelles, I will say we are fully confident that it has been demonstrated that fighting down the forts there will be a huge task for the Allies. But even should that happen we would still be masters of the situation there by means of howitzers, mines, and a fleet which is not so incoming up the strait would be obliged to move in single file and the effectiveness of our protective measure should be apparent."

 

In view of the fact that some excitement has been observed in Turkey because of the export of arms and ammunition from the United States to the Powers of the Triple Entente, particularly Russia, Enver ***** was asked for his views on this subject, and replied;

 

Friendly to Americans in Turkey.

 

"The matter has occupied us for some time--even the populace, but you may have notice that there has been no anti-American outbreak on that account. Since the elimination of the Capitulations, this was the first situation in which the Turkish people might express resentment in a drastic way, but our of a few manufacturers is not the fault of those Americans living here, and, therefore, our old good relations continue.

 

"We are not savages, who hold the innocent responsible for something not their fault. There are still living in this city under the nominal protection of your embassy, plenty of English and French. They have not been molested despite the fact that our own people have not been treated kindly in France and England. Young Turkey is ready to demonstrate that no particular group holds monopoly on gentlemanliness and so we shall continue taking the best of care of everybody, no matter what the provocation."

 

"When the Capitulations were abolished everybody thought that foreigners in Turkey were unsafe, but time has shown that foreigners were never safer as you must have observed. But the export of arms and ammunition from the United States to the Entente Powers can have but one result-useless killing. Turkey, like Germany and Austria-Hungary is determined to win this war and there is every indication that we will."

 

Speaking of Turkey after the war Enver ***** said:

 

"Turkey will emerge from this war truly united and stronger than ever. The war is popular with the people now because it has given the Government an opportunity that it takes an interest in the people and is for the people.

 

"Not wishing to show favors, we called everybody able to serve to arms, with the result that we got more than we needed. Many of the surplus men are now building road everywhere even railroads. During the last month we completed fifteen kilometers in Anatolia, and during the last three months forty kilometers , so constructed, were given over to traffic. In Syria also we have built ????toward the Sues Canal.

 

Army of the New Era, too.

 

"In addition, the war has brought together under a superior class of officers 2,000,000 men, and the schooling given them is bound to result in good. We are fostering the spirit hero that one must work for others also and that the old era of devil take hindmost is over."

 

The War Minister, commenting on the work of The Associated Press correspondent in Turkey, said that it had been described as they were, and added that he had given orders that the correspondent be permitted to go anywhere.

 

"We have no secrets," he said. "Describe everything you see. Though our experience with some newspapers has been sad, we are willing to trust those who do not require their correspondents to lie to them. What I have said will possibly have no influence; that is the reason why so far I have refused to be interviewed."

 

The correspondent ventured the opinion that everything has some influence replying to which Enver ***** said:

 

"God grant it will. We Turks have long been dented a fair hearing before the public. We are so used to slander that we are now willing to convince the world with arms that we are not the ethnological carcass some claim."

 

The interview with the War Minister took place in the War Department Building, which presented an extremely busy scene. Before the turn of the correspondent came many others saw the Minister, among them Turkish leaders from all parts of the empire, Arabs, Persians, and Indians most of them in European dress, waited for hours to see the young man who guides the military and, to some extent, the political fortunes of Turkey.

 

The contrasts about the large and well-furnished chamber were many. None was so striking, however, as when the muezzin on the ministry minaret called the faithful to prayer, and was answered the next minute by a concert rendered by a splendid military band, which played German marches and opera selections, and ended with a weird Turkish air.

 

New York Times

Edited April 12, 2008 by Ashot

[Ashot]

KURDS MASSACRE MORE ARMENIANS

 

APRIL 26, 1915

 

TIFLIS, Transcaucasia, April 24 (via Petrograd and London, April 23.)-- Refugees who have reached the Russian line report that massacre of Armenians by Mohammedans are being continued on even a greater scale. They say that all the inhabitants of ten villages near Van, in Armenia, Asiatic Turkey, have been put to death.

 

On being advised of massacres at Erzrum, Berjan and Zeitun, and of the conditions at Van, the Katolicos, head of Armenian church at Etchmiadzin near Erivan, cabled to President Wilson an appeal to the people of United States on behalf of the Armenians.

 

Robert M. Labaree, an American missionary of Urumiah, Persia, who visited the Serbian villages and with whom the refugees were quartered, says he found the humanity of the people as broad as their means were limited. The village Governments or Relief Committees had issued eight pounds of flour to each refugee in six weeks.

 

The Associated Press received reports of the massacre of 800 of the villagers in Urza and of 720 in Salmas. The painful uncertainty concerning the 15,000 survivors of Urza was confirmed by a journey through Salmas. Three weeks had failed to obliterate the signs of the slaughter. Pools of blood still marked the execution places in Haftevan. The caps of thirty-six victims lay where a mud wall had been topped over on them. A young man named Hackatur related the story of his escape from a well in which the bodies of the dead had been crammed. He fell with others and was tossed into the well, but he managed to wriggle through the bodies lying on top of him and escaped at nightfall.

 

Not all the Christians lacked the courage or means for self-defense. At the desolated Catholic mission at Hosrova, where forty-eight victims of the massacre were buried, Elizabeth Marcara, an Armenian girl, told how she and young David Ishmu battled with the Kurds. Her story later was amply confirmed.

 

"When the Kurds burst the village gates," said Miss Marcara, "we took rifles and mounted to the roof. I fired eighty shots. The Kurds were forced to withdraw outside the village wall. There I killed two and David two. Later we killed four more, one of whom was the Chief. The Kurds abandoned their plunder, and carried off their dead.

 

"The battle lasted three hours. The death of their Chief caused the Kurds to flee. We came from the roof and recovered the things the Kurds had left behind them. Reinforced, I fled with my relatives, We saw the Kurds engaged in the pillage of Hafgvan and fired on them, but they escaped with their valuables.

 

"Near sundown, we were attacked by fifteen Kurds, of whom I killed one. After the Russian defeated the Kurds and Turks near Khol a soldier told the Persian Governor about me, and chieftainship of a regiment of Turks and if I would continue to fight with the Russians."

 

GREAT EXODUS OF CHRISTIANS

 

Thousands Suffered Greatest Hardships to Escape Enemies.

 

DILMAN, Persia, April 24, (via Petrograd to London, April26.)-- The exodus of from 20,000 Armenians and Nestorian Christians from Azerbaijan Province, the massacre of over 1,500 of those who were unable to flee, the death from disease of 2,000 in the compounds of the American mission in Urumiah, and possible of an equal number of refugees in the Caucasus have been confirmed.

 

When it became on the night of January 1 and 2 that Russian forces had left Urumiah about 10,000 Christians fled, most of them without money bedding, or provisions. Vehicles and camels and donkeys were for hire only at pries at which they might previously have been bought.

 

A majority of the people started out afoot, through mud knee-deep, across the mountain passes in freezing weather. At Dilman they were joined by many more from Saimas plain. but for Father de Cross of the Roman Catholic Mission at Hosrova, near her the disaster might have become historic. After Assuring the safety of sisters of the mission, Father de Cross joined the pilgrims and managed to secure bread and shelter for many of them.

 

The caravansaries were so crowded that few persons could lie down in them, and thousands slept in the mud and the snow. Children were born on the roadside or in the corner of a caravansary.

 

Arriving at Jufa, on the Russian border, passport difficulties added to the troubles of the fleeing people. Maddened woman threw their children into the Araxes River or into pools in order to end their suffering from cold and hunger.

 

Father de Cross had to put his back against a wall to fight off the famished mob when he began distributing bread. The mud and cold and the shelter-less nights, during which the garments of the refugees were frozen knee high, continued for three weeks, until the people were slowly dispersed by rail. Meantime, hundreds of them had not slept under a roof or near a fire.

 

Issaac Yonan, a graduate of the Louisville (Kentucky) Theological Seminary, was among the refugees. He kept a dairy of the happenings during the exodus. This relates that among the refugees from Urumiah were an old man and his two daughters-in law, with their six children, three of them babies in arms. The oldest child was 9 years old. They were eight days on the way averaging twenty miles daily through the mud. The old man became stuck fast in a pool and at his own request was left there to die. One woman gave birth to a child during the march and an hour afterward was again plodding along with the other refugees.

 

Two of the children were lost in a caravansary, but were taken up by Cossacks along with forty other persons. The soldiers displayed great humanity, often giving up their horses to the woman.

 

One young woman carried her father for five days, when he died. A woman was found dead by the roadside with her infant, still living, wrapped up in her clothing.

 

In a single day twenty persons died in the railway station at Nakhichevan, across the border in Russia. The entire casualties aggregated hundreds. People died unheeded and unmourned; in fact, who died seemed to be envied by the living.

 

New York Times

[Ashot]

PLOT TO BLOW UP TURKISH WAR COUNCIL

Clockwork Bomb Found in War Ministry at Constantinople; Several Officials Arrested

 

APRIL 28, 1915

 

PARIS - April 27. A powerful clockwork bomb was found hidden yesterday in the Ministry of war at Constantinople, according to a dispatch from Saloniki. It was timed to explode at an hour when the Council would be in session. The meeting of this body is attended by Enver *****. Minister of War, Field Marshal von der Goltz and General Liman von Sanders.

 

An investigation is said to have disclosed that the bomb was placed in the room by a sweep who had come to clean the chimney and who then disappeared. Several minor officials connected with the Ministry of War have been arrested on suspicion of being his accomplice on. The police believed the plot was directed against the Young Turks and the Germans.

 

Members of the Committee of Union and Progress are said to have decided, at a meeting to which no German were admitted, to adhere , to a "waiting policy," but to favor the conclusion of a separate peace with the Allies if Germany failed to provide the assistance sufficient repulse an attack on Dardanelles.

 

New York Times

Edited April 12, 2008 by Ashot

[Ashot]

KURDS RENEW MASSACRES

Attacks on Christians in Armenia Become Violent

 

MAY 1, 1915

 

JULFA, Transcaucasia, April 29, (via Petrograd and London, April 30.)-- A renewal of the recent massacres of Christians Armenia is in the progress in the whole district of Lake Van.

 

Conflict between the Armenians and the Kurds are daily becoming more obdurate. An exceptionally fierce engagement occurred today at Shatasch.

 

New York Times

[Ashot]

THE CRISIS IN PERSIA

 

THE CRISIS IN PERSIA * MISSIONARY PERILS IN TURKEY * MISSION SCHOOLS IN TURKEY

 

MAY, 1915

 

THE CRISIS IN PERSIA

 

The Christians in Persia are crying aloud to God for help, as did the Children of Israel in the days of Pharaoh's oppression. Fifteen thousands of the m are in the mission compounds of Urumia, and thousands more facing death or worse in cities and villages. Rev. Robert M. Labaree, who went out ten years ago to take the place of his brother who had been murdered by the Kurds, now writes appealing for help for these starving thousands, who are suffering because they are Christians and not Mohammedans. Turks and Kurds are bearing down upon them burning villages, looting property, killing men and boys, and carrying away women and children to a fate worse than death. More than fifty thousands dollars are needed immediately if these sufferers are not to die of starvation on the mission premises.

 

In the days of Pharaoh there were no human servants of God who could be called upon to relieve. His people's distress, and He called into operation. His mighty forces of nature to effect their release. To-day millions of men and women profess to be ready to follow His bidding -- "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto Me." This call comes to Christians in America most loudly and insistently. They are most free from the awful strain of war, and their missionaries have been working in Persia for eighty years, and are the only ones in a position to render the needed help.

 

Persia is undergoing a baptism of blood, and if the Christian Church gives the needed sympathy and assistance we may see even more wonderful results than have followed in China, where the attempt to stamp out Christianity fifteen years ago resulted in the physical death of 10,000 Christians, but has born fruit in the awaking into spiritual life of hundreds of thousands of those who were spiritually dead in Boxer days. Truly, Christianity in Persia is at a crisis, but it may be a crisis, that may be turned to victory.

 

MISSIONARY PERILS IN TURKEY

 

The storming of the Dardanelles and the Bosporus has caused some to fear that the missionaries in Turkey may be in peril. All letters from Constantinople, Smyrna, and Asia Minor, however, report the situation as quiet. The storming of Smyrna will probably not bring danger to the missionaries. The missionaries will, doubt, withdraw to the college grounds outside of the city, where the American flag will be displayed. At Constantinople, Robert College has been selected as the place of rendezvous in case the city is bombarded (which is not anticipated). The Turks have made attacks and there has been some clashing among Turks of a War Party and the Peace Party at Constantinople, the Peace Party being the stronger, but, without much leadership, while the War Party has all the German officers and the army and navy on its side.

 

In case Russia takes control of parts of Turkey, the change will probably not materially interfere with the missionary work. Russia has shown increasing liberality in the last ten years, and the war will possibly result in greater liberalization of Russian administration and in advancing the Kingdom of God in Turkey. Missionaries write in a hopeful tone for the future. A door of approach is opening to the Moslems surpassing anything in the ninety years' experience of the American Board in Turkey.

 

On the other hand, letters from Asia Minor describe an attitude on the part of the Turks in authority that looks very threatening toward Christians of any race aside from the Germans. Many Greeks, Armenians, and Protestants are in terror because of threats and daily outrages. Greeks in one city were imprisoned simply for using the Greek language. Pictures of bloody massacres and outrage are posted in Turkish schoolrooms. On the walls of a school for little girls, for instance, states in one letter, hangs a lurid scene in blood-red and white. Headless bodies lie around; hands, arms, feet, from all of which blood streams. In the center stands a Christian hacking an old man to death. On all these pictures are words certain to arouse bitter fanaticism."

 

The teachers say these pictures are sent by the government, and declare that they are instructed also to teach the children poems which inculcate hatred and contempt. One "hodja," on being reasoned with, merely stamped his foot and said, "So will we grind these enemies under our feet."

 

The American missionaries, for the most part, seem to expect little trouble in case the Allies capture Constantinople. Years of kindness, and the help and friendliness extended in the last few months, have laid such foundations of trust that the common people will not carry out the cruel or blood plans of some Moslem leaders. Many Americans are looking forward to greater intimacy and helpfulness than ever before, growing out of the shared troubles of recent times.

 

MISSION SCHOOLS IN TURKEY

 

The degree of the Turkish Government abrogating the "capitulation" was issued last August. Soon after this, a governmental order was issued affecting private religious, educational, and benevolent institutions in the empire, assuming that previous agreements were also abrogated, so that the rights of each institution must be taken up de novo. Institutions that have no imperial formation are reckoned as actually not in existence, and are not to be recognized, and were given two months (from September 18th) to apply directly to a foreman, not through any diplomatic representative. Any institution failing to secure its forms within the two mount's' limit was to be immediately closed.

 

Some of the statements in the order will gravely affect missionary work if they are put into operation. Foreign individuals may fund private schools in Turkey only by imperial affirmation and the accordance with the Ottoman law, after permission has been granted by the Department of Education.

 

Some of the conditions indicate the blow that would be struck at Christian missionary education by such regulations. All schools, without exception, are subject to municipal taxation. All schools must make obligatory the study in Turkish of the Turkish language, with the history and geography of Turkey, the Turkish language being the language of the school. The program of the schools is to be approved by the necessary authorities, including the approval of all text-books, etc.

 

New York Times

[Ashot]

"SPIRIT OF DOOM" HANGS OVER TURKS

 

MAY 5, 1915

 

 

Special Cable to THE NEW YORK TIMES. CONSTANTINOPLE, (via Bucharest,) April 28, (Dispatch to London Daily Chronicle).--An observer in Constantinople cannot be struck by the widespread unpopularity of the war. Against the Russians there is naturally a certain historical animus; toward the British there is at most indifference, but for the French there is a warm and sincere affection. The sympathies of the Greek portions of the population are openly for the Allies, while the Armenians express the same sentiments more cautiously.

 

But the most curious feature is the attitude of the Jews, who are in many ways the intellectuals. Ever since the revolution, Jewish influence has been enormous in Turkey, and it has been said their Zionist aims had seriously undermined the loyalty of the Arabs. Apparently , however, Enver ***** has decided Arab support is worth a great deal more than of the Jews, and various steps have been taken to force the Jews into Turkish mould. Jewish disaffection is no slight matter, and it is more significant as Jewish influence had hitherto worked powerfully for Germany.

 

To these elements, Greek, Armenian, and Jewish, must be added the anti-Enver section of Young Turks lead by the Heir Apparent. With this movements are associated many Turkish business men and minor officials, who have been hard hit by the war. It is no exaggeration to say that barely 5 per cent of the population of the empire is enthusiastic for the war, while over 50 per cent, are frankly or covertly hostile.

 

But it would be a great miscalculation to reckon on this as an immediate factor. The only domestic event which might lead to Turkey's climbing down is the removal of Enver *****. The terror of this decoratively dominating figure causes criticism to sink to limpid whispers in secluded corners. Even neutrals have their life made unbearable by a plague of spies and agents provocateurs, though I personally met with nothing but courtesy from Turkish officials.

 

German Influence Grown.

 

Every day tightens the German grip on Turkey. All circumstantial stories of von der Goltzs proposing a separate peace at the war council are idle chatter. Germany holds grimly on to Turkey both for her own sake and as a lever separate Great Britain and Russia. The Government is preparing for every eventuality. Eski Shehir has been chosen as the new capital if Constantinople falls. I have visited this town in the swampy upland valley high among hills in the heart of Asia Minor, 80 miles from the Bosporus on the Anatolian Railway. It occupies an excellent strategic position.

 

I found work feverishly proceeding to improve the streets and sanitary conditions. Over 200 houses have been commandeered for official use, and thither then families of high official were sent in February and still remain there, owing to the dread of a Bulgarian attack on Constantinople.

 

The Turkish Ministry of War places the total figure of men under the colors at 322, 000, but probably this is an overstatement. I should estimate the actual number at 800,000, including 200,000 Christians, who are being used for building trenches, railways, roads, and bridges. The rest are divided into five.

 

The first, commanded by Field Marshal Von Der Goltz, about 100,000 strong is encamped at the Adrianople-Tchataldja lines and Constantinople. The second with 150,000, under Djemal *****, threatens Egypt, while the third. 50,000 strong, operates from Baghdad. The fourth about 18,000 is the Caucasus army. The fifth, under General Von Sanders, composed of picked draft of about 70,000 at Dardanelle, with 15,000 at Smyrna. The headquarters are at Gallipolis. In addition there is a detached force of 20,000 at the disposal of Admiral Suchon for the defense of the Bosporus.

 

New batches of reservists are arriving daily at the depots, but arms and uniforms are insufficient or inefficient for future formations. It is noticeable many relief infantrymen wear a bandolier of soft-nosed bullets quite openly. The question of ammunition despite official assurances is causing anxiety. The order was issued last week commanding the coast artillery to enjoin strict economy of fire, but as large quantities are still available there is no immediate.

 

Dardanelle's Preparation.

 

The Dardanelles have been further strengthened. Since March obstacles have been placed in the way of submarine navigation and the whole British Navy could not force the strait in its present condition by a simple naval action.

 

It is the current opinion here that landing less than 300,000 men offers little chance of success and the Turks are confident the Allies have no such force available. Their nervousness is due solely for fear of Bulgarian co-operation with Allies. Fort Hamidieh only is manned mostly by Germans; the others are garrisoned by Turkish officers and men with a sprinkling of Germans.

 

The campaign in the Caucasus is almost at a standstill owing to typhus. On the average, 150 men succumb daily and vigorous measures have been taken to counteract the epidemic, which is raging under indescribably awful conditions. Every available doctor is being died. The commander is contemplating in consequence white drawing into the fortified region of Erzrum there to await the advance of the Russians through the infected region.

 

Meanwhile the Egyptian expedition is more and more absorbing the energitic and hopes of the Turks. No doubt the next attempt in about two months time will be of a much more formidable character than the last. A light gauged railway is being constructed branching off the Hedjas line, northeast of Akaba, and will be finished six weeks from now. Howitaers have been sent with German gunners for transport over this line.

 

I made a careful inquiry into the relations of Turks and Germans in the army. There has been some friction between German and Turkish officers due to Teutonic tactlessness, but the rank and file does not resent anything. Under the stern compulsion of his new task-masters the Turk is acquiring a magnificent machine-like efficiency. It would be foolish belittle the admirable work done by the Germans in Turkey on underestimate the resultant vitality in resources and strength of the Ottoman Empire.

 

Yet it is true that over this land a stranger feels hovering a spirit of doom.

 

New York Times

Edited April 20, 2008 by Ashot

[Ashot]

ROUTED TURKISH ARMY PURSUED BY RUSSIANS

 

Armenians Hold Van Against Turks and Kurds--Massacre of Villagers Continues

 

MAY 6, 1915

 

TIFLIS, Transcaucasia, May 5 -- The pursuit of the defeated Turkish army under the command of Khail Bey, in the Khori-Dilman region of the Caucasus, is being continued, according to trustworthy advises reaching Tiflis.

 

This battle which has resulted in heavy losses for the Turks, began April 29 at Hantahta, near Urumia. In the beginning the Russians stood off the Turks, but the latter received reinforcements and on April 30 the Russians abandoned Dilman and entrenched themselves at Magonzhio, the first village on the way to Khor. From this position they pounded the Turks with their heavy artillery until the arrival of Russian reinforcements.

 

Three hundred refugees from Dilman have arrived at Julfa, just over the border in Russia, and 1,200 more are on their way. The Russian Council here is taking measures to prevent refugees from Urumiah and Dilman entering the Caucasus.

 

Nersus, the Bishop of Tabriz, Persia, has arrived here. He describes the situation at Van as desperate. Eight hundred Turks and a large number of Kurds are active there, destroying Armenian villages. Of 300 inhabitants of the village of Rashva, only three escaped. The Armenians, according to the Bishop are still hoping for American and Italian diplomatic interference.

 

At Van, where a month ago the Armenians were forced to take the defensive and barricade the town they now have been standing off the Turks and the Kurds for a week. Four Turkish regiments, with artillery, are advancing against these Armenians from Erzingan. They are threatened also by gendarmes from the Persian border.

 

It is feared that the history of 1895 and 1896 will be repeated.

 

(In these years reforms for Armenia were demanded after a series of act of oppression on the part of Turkey. The presentation of the demands by the States of Europe was followed by terrible massacres of Armenians, which began in September of 1895, and continued into 1896.)

 

It is declared in Armenia that the Young Turks have Adopted the policy pursued by Abdul Hamid in 1905, namely the annihilation of the Armenians.

 

The existing state of terror has presented the planting of crops and a famine is impending. The city of Erzerum in Turkish Armenia, has today 300 cases of typhus fever

 

New York Times

Edited April 20, 2008 by Ashot

[Ashot]

MISSIONARIES IN DANGER

Americans in Van Threatened as Turks Overcome Armenians

MAY 10, 1915

 

TIFLIS, (via London,) May 10.--American missionaries in the Vilayet of Van, where the Armenians appear to be weakening after a fierce resistance against attacking Turks and Kurds are reported in grave danger.

 

The American missions are in the suburbs of the vilayet, where for fourteen days the hundred Armenian boys and girls and thirty American citizens have taken refuge in this quarter of the town.

 

The Turks have fired 17,000 shells upon the defenders in the fighting of the last few days.

 

New York Times

Edited April 20, 2008 by Ashot

[Ashot]

PLEAS FOR ARMENIANS

State Department Inundated with Appeals for Their Protection

 

MAY 15, 1915

 

WASHINGTON, May 14.-- Replies were being prepared today at the State Department to a flood of communications from various parts of the country urging that steps be taken to protect native Christians in Armenia and in regions under Turkish control. Assurance will be giving that the department is doing and will do all in its power to aid the Armenians reported to have been attacked.

 

No recent report from Ambassador Morgenthau, who was directed recently to take the matter up with the Turkish Government, has been received. It was at his request, however, that Turkish regular troops were sent to Urumia, Persia, to keep order. Officials assume that the Ottoman Government will be equally ready to afford protection in other quarters where outbreaks are reported.

 

It was pointed out today that the feud between the native Christians in Persia and Turkish Armenia and the Kurds had endured for centuries and the present disturbed situation created by the European war was almost certain to be reflected in new outbreaks. The State Department has not been advised officially of the extent of the disorders complained of.

 

New York Times

Edited April 20, 2008 by Ashot

[Ashot]

ARMENIANS ATTACK 2 TURKISH DIVISIONS

Serious Uprising Follows Massacre of 2,000 by Kurds or Turks

 

MAY 17, 1915

 

LONDON, Monday, May 17.-- A dispatch to THE TIMES from Cairo says it is reported that the Armenians in Zeitun and Cicilia (within Asiatic Turkey) have risen, and that the energies of two Turkish reserve divisions are required to meet the situation.

 

Armenian newspapers, the corespondent adds, give harrowing details of a massacre of 2,000 Armenians by Kurds of Turks in Transcausia.

 

New York Times

Edited April 20, 2008 by Ashot

[Ashot]

DETAILS OF ARMENIAN PLOT

 

MAY 19, 1915

 

DETAILS OF ARMENIAN PLOT

 

Conspirators Planned to Kill the Sultan, Enver *****, and Germans

 

PARIS, May 18.-- Report from Constantinople confirm the discovery of a plot organized by Armenians and Turks opposed to the new regime to assassinate the Sultan, Enver *****, Field Marshal von der Goltz, and General Limon von Sanders, according to the Journal's Athens correspondent.

 

Two Armenians, the Journal says, were to have blown up the Karakeul bridge connecting Stamboul and Galate on the Sultan's birthday, while the ruler, accompanied by his commanders, was crossing to attend a ceremony at the mosque of St. Sephin. The plot is said to have been revealed by a son of Zograph Effend, an Armenian Deputy of Constantinople.

 

The correspondent says that 400 Armenians have been arrested and that their fate is unknown while Kurds have received orders to burn two large villages near Van.

 

FAMINE MENACES MISSION

 

Morgenthau Cables an Appeal for Aid for Stations in Turkey

 

BOSTON, May 18.--The American Road of Commissioners for Foreign Missions today received the following cablegram, dated May 15, from the American Ambassador at Constantinople, Henry Morgentau:

 

"All stations begging relief funds. Some say starvation threatened. Please help quickly."

 

The stations mentioned are the seventeen posts of the board in Turkey.

 

DETAILS OF ARMENIAN PLOT

 

Conspirators Planned to Kill the Sultan, Enver *****, and Germans

 

CONSTANTINOPLE, (via London,) May 18. --The following official statement was issued here today:

 

"On the Dardanelles front near Avi Burnu, there have been very small artillery and infantry engagements, but no important action. Some small transport ships have been damaged by our shells.

 

"Our troops on the right wing have retaken a height 200 meters from our positions.

 

"A French cruiser yesterday landed Sarskale, west of Mekri on the southern shore of the Gulf of Smyrna, Sixty soldiers, who fled when out coast guards replied to their rifle fire. Other cruisers landed about 100 soldiers near Sefat, west of Tenika. On the night of May 15-16 two enemy ships which were cruising near the Smyrna forts returned after being damaged by our batteries.

 

New York Times

Edited April 20, 2008 by Ashot

[Ashot]

TURKISH OFFICERS IN REVOLT?

Ten Said to be Facing Court-Martial for Disobeying Germans

 

MAY 22, 1915

 

PARIS, Saturday, May 22.--Telegraphing from Bucharest, the correspondent of the Havas Agency, says:

 

"Ten Turkish officers of field rank have been brought back to Istanbul from the Dardanelles to undergo court martial for refusing to obey their German commanders.

 

"The Turkish cruiser Goeben, badly damaged has been towed into the Golden Horn by the crosier Breslau.

 

"The authorities at Constantinople Wednesday night made a number of arrested. They are charged with plot element. even some Mussulmans were arrested. They are charged with plotting against the Young Turks.

 

"General discontent in Constantinople is increasing, but the existing reign of terror makes outward manifestations impossible.

 

"Reports that Italy is about to declare war on Turkey and assist in the attack on the Dardanelles had brought about deep gloom in Constantinople."

 

New York Times

Edited April 20, 2008 by Ashot

[Ashot]

ARMENIANS MAY AID ALLIES * RUSSIANS SAVE ARMENIANS

 

ARMENIANS MAY AID ALLIES

 

Col. Nevton to Bear Their Offer to Russia

 

MAY 25, 1915

 

Colonel Mesrop Nevton Khan, a member of the Persian - Armenian nobility, says last night he would sail in a few days to join the Russian Army against Turkey, bearing to the Czar the offer of more than a thousand Armenians an America to join the ranks of the Allies against the Sultan.

 

The Colonel, who is the head of the Armenian Colonial Association, spoke at the annual dinner of the New York branch of the Overseas Club at the Majestic Hotel on the anniversary of the birthday of Queen Victoria. The Overseas Club is composed of unnaturalized British subjects in all parts of the world.

 

The Bishop and Prince de Landas-Berghes and de Roche of Belgium said the Allies had no dream of crashing the German nation, but merely of breaking down Prussianism.

 

The club adopted a resolution expressing confidence in the administration of Lord Kitchener as head of the British War Office and deploring the recent attacks upon him.

 

Among the speakers were the Rev. Walter E. Bentiey, the Rev. John Williams, H. J. Riley, and Mrs. J. Elliott Longstaff, President of the Daughters of the Empire.

 

Report read showed that in six months the club had raised $5000,000 for the Prince of Wales Relief Fund, the Overseas Warship Fund and the Fund to sent tobacco to Soldiers.

 

RUSSIANS SAVE ARMENIANS

 

Troops Arrive at Van And Drive Off Besieging Turks

 

TIFLIS, Transcaucasia, May 23, (via Petrograd, May 24.)--A detachment of Russian soldiers has occupied the town of Van, in Asiatic Turkey, thus bringing relief to the Armenians, who were being besieged there by the Turks. Upon the arrival of the Russians the Turks retreated in the direction of Bitlis.

 

 

Van, in Turkish Armenia, and Urumiah, in Persia, have been the scenes of persecution and attacks upon Armenians by Turks and Kurds for several months. The situation became so serious that the power of that Turkish officials would be held personally responsible for the outrages inflicted upon the Armenians.

 

New York Times

Edited April 20, 2008 by Ashot