Armenian Genocide Contemporary Articles

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TURKISH DEFEAT ON DARDANELLES

 

JUNE 1, 1915

 

LONDON, May 31.--Heavy fighting on Gallipoli Peninsula, resulting in the rout of the attacking Turkish forces, is announced in an official statement given out here today. The casualties of the Turks are said to have amounted to at least 2,000. The British losses are given at 300. The statement follows:

 

"Regarding the operations at the Dardanelles on the 26th and 27th of May, nothing of importance occurred.

 

The Germans are still making efforts to smuggle ammunition through to Turkey. Red Cross material passing through, for example, was found to contain sections of a submarine and an airplane. An X-ray examination of the baggage of a German diplomatic courier at Predeal, on the Austro-Romanian frontier, revealed the fact that its contents consisted of mine case and asphyxiating bombs, while the day before sixteen boxes of cartage cases were seized at Glurgiu among the belongings of an Austrian courier on his way to Turkey.

 

I have seen a reliable eyewitness of the Armenian massacres. He says the situation in Armenia is perfect hell, and that the inhabitants are maddened by war, typhus, and famine. On May 12 several bands of Kurdish horsemen made a concerted rush into the Armenian quarterly at Moush, first attacking the shopkeepers in the bazaar, burning, looting and murdering as they went. The massacre went on till far in the night, even the regular police joining. Fully 250 men were killed. The women, if old and ugly, were murdered or beaten; if young and pretty, were taken away. The children generally were spared, but a few were put to death for sheer amusement. The political effect of these horrors is very deep in Constantinople, as many of the best officials of the Turkish Government are Armenians.

 

The heir apparent now speaks openly of the necessity of a separate peace.

 

I traveled with a German officer from Constantinople, who had just been appointed to the command of the prisoners' camp at Uim. He said he hoped he would have the English prisoners under him, as he wanted to visit the sins of the nation on them, and calmly and rather proudly confessed that when he was at the front in France, near Lille, he had on two occasions done away with British prisoners.

 

New York Times

Edited April 20, 2008 by Ashot

[Ashot]

MORE ARMENIAN MASSACRES

 

JUNE 6, 1915

 

TIFLIS, Transcaucasia, (via Petrograd and London), June 5.--After the occupation by the Russians of Van, Turkish Armenia, bands of Kurds continued to commit atrocities in the districts of Bitlis, Mush and Diarbekr. Armenian volunteers in increasing numbers are fighting desperately to protect the Christian population from the Kurds. Inhabitants of Diarbekr, following the example of the Armenians in Van, have organized armed bands.

 

The population of Urumiah, in Persian Armenia, greeted the Russians with enthusiasm. Food for the refugees in the American mission was brought by the Russians. The consulates at Urumiah and Van have suffered little in the fighting which has been on during the last few months.

 

The successes of the Russians in these districts are creating dissatisfaction among the Persians and Arabians. Disorders are developing.

 

The concentration by the Turks of military efforts on the Dardanelles has caused a shortage of arms and ammunition for their troops in the Caucasus. A portion of the Artillery has been removed from the Turkish forts at Erzerum, the principal city of Turkish Armenia.

 

New York Times

Edited April 20, 2008 by Ashot

[Ashot]

Guerrilla Warfare in Armenia

 

 

JUNE 18, 1915

 

Guerrilla Warfare in Armenia. To the Editor of THE NEW YORK TIMES.

 

It is a settled rule of international law that protection is never afforded to private individuals who participate in war and to uninformed predatory guerilla bands. "These are regarded as outlaws, and may be punished by a belligerent as robbers and murderers." (Halleck's Int. Law and Laws of War, 386.) That the Armenians at Hosrova have violated the laws of war by waging private war against the Turkish invading army is admitted in the statements made by Elizabeth Macara, and published in THE NEW YORK TIMES: "When the Kurds (in the present war they constitute part of the armed forces of Turkey and are led by Turkish officers) burst the village gates," said Miss Macara, "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 four more, one of whom was the chief. The battle lasted three hours. And all this was done after the Russians had evacuated the piece.

 

As to how they would be treated by the American Army under similar circumstances I refer to the "Instructions for the Government of the Armies of the United States in the Field," No.100, Sec.82, April 24, 1863, which says: "Men or squads of men who commit hostilities without being part and portion of the organized hostile army, and without sharing continuously in the war, are public enemies, and therefore, if captured, are not entitled to the privileges of prisoners of war, but shall be treated similarly as highway robbers or pirates." (Moore, Digest Int. Law, Vol. VII. Pp. 174.) A. S. Columbia University.

 

New York, June 8, 1915.

 

New York Times

Edited April 20, 2008 by Ashot

[Ashot]

THE TURK UNVEILED

PUBLIC OPINION (New York) combined with THE LITERARY DIGEST

Published by Funk & Wagnalls Company (Adam W. Wagnalls, Press.; Wilfred J. Funk, Vice-Pres.; Robert J. Cuddiby, Treas.; William Neisel, Sec'y), 354-360 Forth Ave., New York

The Literary Digest for June 26, 1915

What a shock it is to find that we do not understand the Turk, and that we have all this long time been misjudging him! We were so sure of the accuracy of our mental impression--gained partly from "Ali Baba and Forty Thieves" and other "Arabian Nights," and partly from Pierre Loti. We picture him with startling distinctness--in fez and baggy trousers--lounging at the coffee-house, puffing a narwhale and playing chess; or lounging about his palace, with the full harem in attendance. Occasionally we saw him armed with a curved sword and an expression of unutterable ferocity; sneaking up behind an unsuspecting Armenian, only to fall prostate in terror when he discovered the supposed Armenian to be a Westerner. He was to some of us a combination of indolence, cruelty, cunning, childlike naiveté, and vanity. And his wives we thought of as pretty, frivolous, imprisoned butterflies. It was difficult to imagine him at war, and many of us have wondered vaguely how it was that the Allies have found it so difficult to push him off the Gallipoli Peninsula into the waters of the Dardanelles, and to march on triumphantly into Constantinople. That perplexity and others are explained when we are given a true side-light on the Turkish character, as in a letter recently printed in the New York Evening post. This letter, which sounds high praise of the Turk, is written by a British subject, Mr. Arthur P. Tully, manager of the Turkish offices of an English life-insurance company, and is address to his uncle, Mr. Stefen Farrelly, general manager of the American news Company, New York City. Mr. Tully writes, in part:

As an Irishman and a British subject, I consider the fighting at the Dardanelles about the most terrible thing that could well happen, and I can only liken my mental attitude to that of a man who is forced to act as a witness to a duel between his brother and his own dearest and most intimate friend. Nothing could ever alter my feeling toward the Turkish people, for I know them too well ever to misunderstand them, and this war will demonstrate once and for all to the world at large that Turkey can act, in war as in peace, with a humanity and a tolerance that need fear comparison with none, and that to speak of the necessity of capitulation's, foreign intervention, etc., etc., is the leeriest farrago of nonsense ever invented.

I can not, of course, comment on anything connected with the causes of, or responsibilities for, the war, or Turkey's part therein (beyond repeating that Turkey and Turkish affairs have always been most sadly misunderstood, and a little more political sympathy in the past would have worked wonders), nor can I comment on the attitude of the press here and elsewhere, for, just as I could not in war-time discuss the political policy of Great Britain, so I could not criticize the Turks among whom I live, whose mental attitude I understand, and of whom I count someone as my friends. I can, therefore, only try to refer to some more of the current misconceptions which it is only right that I should do my best to dissipate.

There seems, To begin with, to be an impression abroad that the Turks as a race are so sick and tired of war in general, and so uninterested in this war particular, that they would be only too glad to throw down their armies, surrender, and, generally speaking, get out on any terms. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Turkish soldier is second to none in bravery, discipline, and loyal obedience to orders, and the whole Turkish race is at the present moment incensed to the highest degree at the idea of their courage and patriotism being impugned in this respect. It is really not fair to them, and it is not war. Yet I can quite understand how those who know nothing of the Turks and take their impressions from the false traditions current, should be acting, in their own view, quite fairly in thinking and talking of the Turks as they do.

The difficulty is that it is practically impossible to force people to see facts and realize that there is generally more than one aspect of every case. It is unfortunately a very British characteristic to be too optimistic and to minimize difficulties. If my memory is not at fault, it was General Buller who, before the Transvaal Britain a hundred thousand men to carry it through, and for having express this opinion he was recalled. Yet it took us between two hundred and three hundred thousand men.

It is, therefore, of no possible utility for it to be thought in the present war that the Turkish troops are only waiting to be allowed to throw down their arms and surrender; They are not and never have been; and we, as a great and historic nation, should be prepared to allow the Turks to possess the same sentiments of patriotism, loyalty, and obedience to orders that we expect and find in our own countrymen. To act or think otherwise is, besides being a gratuitous insult to a brave and courteous foe, of no conceivable military or other utility.

The writer does not hesitate to admit that some years ago, under the old Hmiddian regime, many of the popular beliefs as to the conditions in Turkey were justified, but that these were due to inherent qualities in the Turks themselves headlines. They were the result solely of the "terrible one-man Government then in force." Turkey had a long, hard journey to make, once they were out of the realm of tyranny, to reach the advanced stage of Western civilization; but they were ready to make the effort. That they have failed in any respect, Mr. Tully holds, is due far more to the lack of assistance and encouragement on the part of stronger nations than to any failure in themselves. He adds:

If only the Power had at the outset of the Constitutional regime in 1908 been willing to give up the capitulation and stand by in a friendly and helpful manner while Turkey put her house in order and in a developed her internal resources by the free control of her own taxation and commerce! It is, of course, always easy to prophesy after the event, but I do think that the efforts our various Ottoman associations, so devotedly made in and out of Parliament to obtain a more sympathetic hearing for Turkey have been more than justified by the trend of events. If only we had had sufficient power and influence and had been able to exercise it in 1908 it is more than probable that the world at large would not now be at war, for, if the Balkan War had never taken a place, it is quite conceivable that Austro-Serbian relations might have taken quite another turn.

The Turkish people, both men and women, are in no need of "education" and "liberation," in the sense in which these poor words are something so misused. They only want a little sympathy, diplomatic courtesy, and leave to organize their own affairs free from foreign interference, and I personally feel sure that, after this war is over, they will at last be accorded this long-desired opportunity.

The nation of Europe will have too many dead to mourn and too many frightful ravages to repair to be able to devote their old attention to Turkey, and therefore, in all probability, the latter. her hands at last freed, will be able to set her house on order and take that place among the independent nations of the world to which her history, her humanity, and tolerance, and the chivalrous characteristics of her people in all human justice entitle her.

Among other misconceptions, the writer hastens to correct any notion we may have that Constantinople is a city cowering down behind the tottering defense of the armies in the Dardanelles. As he says:

Locally, matters are here much as usual. Severe precautions are naturally being taken against espionage, real or imaginary, and a few arrest have been made. The treatment accorded to those imprisoned has, however, been exceedingly good, and some of those concerned have afterward even expresst themselves as astonished (yet another breakdown of the "savage-Turk" theory). One can (I doubt whether this is the case in all countries)walk about freely, speaking one's own language and without the faintest trace of those "scowls and black looks" which I remember to have seen so frequently referred to by certain journalists of too fertile imaginations during the Balkan War. Food is, on the whole, cheap, and bread in particular is little above the normal price; but there has been a substantial rise in such kinds of preserved provisions, etc., as used previously to be imported by sea--largely from France and England.

Our chief trouble is that life is somewhat dull, as expert for cinematography and concerts, etc., given in aid of the Red Crescent and other objects of a kindred nature, there is really little to do. The Red Crescent Society, as also the Defense Nationals and the Association in Aid of the Families of Soldiers, are working miracles in their efforts to care for the wounded arriving from the Dardanelles, and in this connection it is especially worthy of note that Turkish ladies are taking a leading part in the collecting and organizing work, and cooperate in the most efficient way with the central organizations.

This will probably create yet another start of surprise to those who still have the old impression of the traditional Turkish woman. As a rule, the real in this world falls short of the ideal, but in this particular instance it is quite the reserve. To put it briefly, the educated Turkish lady is a lady in exactly the same sense of the word as in Europe or America, and the restrictions on her outward freedom in such matters as going in public unveiled, etc., have quite misled the majority of observers and writers on Turkey. In some respect--notably with regard to managing her own business affairs independently of any control on the part of her husband, her position is a good way ahead of that of her Western sisters, and many an American girl who clings fondly to the myth of the "secluded" and "tyrannized" Turkish wife would be astonished beyond measure did she but once get a glimpse of the real facts.

New York Times

[Ashot]

The "Jihad" Rampant in Persia

By Rev. Robert M. Labaree, Tabriz, Persia

 

JULY, 1915

 

Perhaps nothing will better show the spirit in which the war is being wage in Persia than recent massacre of Christians in Salmas. Certainly nothing more clearly reveals the consequences of injecting religious prejudices and hatreds into the conflict which is making such havoc of the world. The suffering and bloodshed on the plains of France and Poland, where Christian is fighting Christian, are sickening; but the horrors there are somewhat mitigated by some acknowledgment of Christian ideals. But when Moslem is arrayed against Christian, and a "jihad" or holy war is proclaimed, all the elementary passions in man burst forth without check in savage fury.

 

Salmas, where I write, is only one little spot in the world of Islam, and the forces involved in the conflict are inconsiderable and almost negligible as compared with the multitudes engaged in blood-letting elsewhere. But small as the numbers are, one can see what would happen if the "jihad" should become general throughout Moslem countries. Then wherever Mohammedan and Christian communities touched one another the same awfulness of hate and cruelty would be seen on an indefinitely larger scale.

 

Salmas is the extreme northwestern corner of Persia, where is to be found a Christian population of about twelve thousand Armenians and Syrians, surrounded by a very much larger number of Moslems. Three months ago, when the Russian army withdrew from this region, the greater number of Christians, realizing what would happen at the advance of the Turks and Kurds, fled across the Arax river into Russian territory. A small portion of them alone remained, secreted in the homes of friendly Moslems, and scattered among the Mohammedan villages of the plain.

 

All that was left in the Homes of the fleeing Christians was plundered, not only by the invading Kurds, but even more by the inhabitants of the district, and the larger part of the booty is now hidden in the different Moslem villages. The governor of this district, who is himself a Mohammedan, told me that he was sure that 90 per cent. of the Moslems here were implicated in this wholesale robbery. The Christians were the most prosperous people of the community; so their houses were well furnished with all the comforts of an Eastern home, and their stables were filled with the best of cattle. They were naturally envied by their poorer Moslem neighbors, who welcomed the popular doctrine that in the time of a "jihad" the property as well as the lives of Christians is lawful prey to Mohammedan.

 

But property is small consideration at such times. It was from death--from death in its most horrible forms, that the people fled. How well founded were their fears may be seen in a recent events in the very town in which I am writing. For weeks the few who remained behind kept concealed in their various hiding-places, most of them in this town of Dilman. They were secreted by Moslem friends, even against the pressure of the Turkish officials, who with fiendish determination sought them out. As soon as it became known where the Christians were hidden, all the males, to the number of about 750. were seized and gathered at central points, from which they were taken to nearby villages, bound together in twos and threes, and there were massacred with all the cruelty that human deviltry could invent. Eyes were torn out, members severed one by one, and parts of the body flayed. Then all were hacked to pieces, their bodies thrown into wells or stretched in rows under walls which were pulled down upon them. The bodies of little boys as well as of old men were found a few days later among the dead, all bearing marks of the awful tortures they had endured. The massacre was carried out with deliberateness and cruelty worthy of a savage; but the man who planned it all was a Turkish official who had studied in the Roman Catholic College at Beirut, Syria.

 

He was the son of a Jumer Vali of Van, who in the time of the massacres there had shown himself well disposed toward Christians.

 

The most relating features of the "jihad" remain to be told. The women and girls whose fathers ,brothers, husbands, had been thus butchered, escaped an awful fate by the timely arrival of the Russian army the day after the terrible deed was perpetrated. But women elsewhere were not so fortunate. Take, for example, the case of the large and prosperous village of Gul*****n, near Urumia. After the men of the village had been taken out and shot in cold blood, the women were given over to the brutish will of their captors. Not a female, from the old women of seventy years down to the little girls from seven to ten, escaped the savage lust of the fiends in human form. None were spared; a fact that proves the crime was not the result of blind passion only, but a deliberate purpose to dishonor all Christian women.

 

Alas, such acts call forth similar acts of retribution on the part of those who are called Christians, but who know not the gentleness and love of Christ. There is here a band of Armenian volunteers numbering about 1,000 to 1,500 who are one arm of the Russian army. Smarting over the massacres perpetrated on their people in Turkey in past years and still more over recent crimes, these men are burning to repay I like coin.

 

Who can preach the theory that war is a benefit to humanity, that it develops the virile elements in men, and saves us from the self-indulgence that peace brings? War in fact means only the calling forth of all that is hateful and fiendish in man; and in no sort of conflict are these qualities developed in more lurid fashion than in the miscalled "holy wars" of the East.

[Ashot]

A "Jihad" Appeal to Moslems

TRANSLATION OF A RECENT CALL DISTRIBUTED TO THE MILLIONS OF ISLAM

 

JULY 1915

 

"Kill them: God will punish them in your hand and put them to shame; and ye will overcome them. He will rejoice the hearts of believers, and take away the wrath from the hearts unbelievers." (Text of the Koran.)

 

Oh ye faithful! Although we are summoning you to a jihad, where is your army? What do you wait for? The foe has summoned you on all sides with fire. See the House of God (Mecca), the point toward which all Islam turns; behold the sacred tomb of Mohammed, the object of the gaze of the faithful. Have you considered these matters? By your inaction and silence the enemy is gaining strength. What if these two sacred places should be taken?...

 

How often have the savage Russians, the traitorous English, the Frenchmen, born of empire parentage yet proud in their baseness, planted their unclean flags upon your pure and holy mountains? How often have they seized you by your lifeless, spiritless, feet and hands, and rolled you in the mire? Oh, you poor, helpless people of India, of the Oxus and of the Orphan islands of Tunis, and you wretched tribes of Turkey ! Oh, Bokhara and Turkestan, dying under the bloody hand of Russia ! Oh you falling mosques, overturned pulpits, crumbling minarets, the ornaments of the country, from which the voice of God has sounded forth; but where the proclamation of the Unity, which once made the mountains to tremble, is now heard only in whispers!

 

Go Forth, ye Moslems, into the places of blood and groans: there see the ruined countries of Islam, and learn a lesson. Look about you: every day the edifice erected by Islam is being torn down stone by stone. Aside from the empire of Turkey, is there any prop left to Islam?

 

Oh ye people of the Unity! Read your history ! Look at the despise graves of your kings ! If you desire honor and glory, heurism and damsels, behold all are awaiting you. Eternal joys, the shade of green trees, heurism, and angels are in the grasp of your sword. Think of these. But if you rather think of earthly things, know that weakness, dishonor, and oppression will surround you in this world like a ring of fire, and in the next world you will be cast out to live in torments. For if you throw down your arms and leave the battlefield you will bring upon your heads bitter anguish. Do you not understand this? You have become slaves of the people of the Cross. . . .

 

Behold ! God has bestowed upon you a greater favor. The tears of the Faithful for centuries past are bearing fruit. Your enemies are trembling under your hand. Attack them from every side. Whenever you meet them, kill them. Quicken the failing proclamation of the Unity by the fire of your rifles and cannon, and by the blows of your swords and knives. Cause the minarets and mountains and wildernesses to resound once more with the cry, "Allah! Allah!"

 

Jihad! Jihad! Oh, Moslems, blow the trumpet everywhere, of people of the Unity. The great God is ordering you to fight with your foes everywhere. God will put them to shame in your hands; He will give you the victory; He will quench the fire of their hate. Do not forget. God has purchased the souls and property of the faithful. In exchange, he gives you the heurism and damsels of heaven.

[Ashot]

REPORTED MASSACRES IN ARMENIA

 

JULY 29, 1915

 

VISCOUNT BRYCE asked the Lord President of the Council whether his Majesty's Government had any information regarding the Massacres of the Christian inhabitants which were reported to have been committed by the Turks in the districts of Zeitum, Mush, Diarbekir, Bitlis, and elsewhere in the region inhabited by the Armenians; and regarding a reported wholesale deportation of the inhabitants of some districts into Central Asia Minor and the desert parts of Mesopotamia; and whether, if these reports were well-founded, there was in the opinion of the Government any step that could be taken to save what remained of the Christian population of Armenia.

 

The EARL of CROMER said there was, unfortunately, no doubt of the truth of the reports. The difficulty was to know what to do to give practical effect to the sympathy they felt.

 

The ARCHBISHOP of CANTERBURY said he had been in frequent communication with Christians in the territories on the Turkish and Persian frontiers and letters received during the last two months had given accounts of massacres and outrages perpetrated by the Turks in territory now occupied by Russia. There was a feeling among the people that nobody in Europe cared about them, but he hoped that something at least would be done to show the sympathy this country and the desire to ameliorate the condition of the inhabitants. The country was at the moment in the hands of the Russians and it would be well that the feeling of horror we entertain should be made known.

 

The MARQUESS of CREWE said he was grieved to say that the information in the possession of the Foreign Office, although not much more ample, was in accord with what the noble lord had given. Two months ago, in concert with the Governments of France and Russia representations were made in regard to outrages perpetrated up to that date, May 24, to the effect that members of the Ottoman Government and all who participated in or instigated the crimes would be held personally responsible Since then the crimes had increased in number, and if possible, in atrocity. Wholesale massacre and deportation had been carried out under the guise of necessity for evacuation of certain districts. It was also true that the crimes had not been challenged by German officials, whose presence and influence might have mitigated the sufferings of the people, but had been a cures to the people. There official had shown a cynical disregard of the country and its inhabitants. For obvious reasons no immediate steps could be taken for repression of outrages. Those who were found to be responsible either directly for the commission of crimes or for cruelty due to their inspiration--and all the more the higher and the more responsible the positions they held--should receive punishment accordingly. (Hear, hear.)

 

Rising again, the MARQUESS of CREWE stated that the House would meet at 3 o'clock to-morrow, and that there would be Royal Commission at half-past 3.

 

The House rests at a quarter to 7 o'clock.

[Ashot]

RUSSIAN HERE FOR COTTON

 

JULY 31, 1915

 

Sasamuel Glushanck, a wealthy cotton manufacturer of Windau, Russia arrived in New York yesterday aboard the steamer Kurks to confer with members of the New York Cotton Exchange as to the means for shipping cotton to Russia direct. He will tour the Southern States before returning to Russia, he said.

 

On the same vessel came Neville Ussher, the 14-years-old son of an American missionary who had been living at Van in Southern Turkey. He said that when the Armenians in the district refused to enlist in the Turkish Army they were treated cruelly by the soldiers acting under the orders of Djevded Bey, the Governor, who is a brother-in-law of Enver *****. Neville Ussher said that before the Russians came 15,000 Armenian men, women, and children were killed by the Turks in and around Van. The last thing the soldiers did before leaving was to fire on the castle and kill several old men and women. Five thousand Turkish women and children were left behind and the Armenians wanted to wreak vengeance on them but the Russian General ordered them to be protected. The boy added that there was no time to be scared in Europe now because persons were being killed everywhere every day, and people took no notice of it.

[Ashot]

GERMANY AND THE BALKANS

TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES

 

AUGUST 6, 1915

 

Sir, In a recent discussion in the House of Lords upon the massacres and outrages now being perpetrated by Turks upon the Christian races of Asia Minor, Lord Crewe is reported to have said:

 

Wholesale massacre and deportation have been carried out under the guise of necessity for the evacuation of the certain districts. It is also true that the crimes have not been challenged by German officials, whose presence and influence might have been mitigated the sufferings of the people, but a curse to the people. These officials have shown a cynical disregard of the country and its inhabitants.

 

May I point out that this is by no means the first occasion upon which German officials have aided and abetted the Turks in Similar abominations. From personal experience I could quote several instances, but will continue myself to one.

 

In September, 1903, the Bulgarian population of Macedonia, after a long spell of acute suffering, rose in revolt against the Turks. Being admirably organized and bravely led, The Comitadjis, or members of the Bulgarian Committee, obtained, at first, considerable success. I myself witnessed several small encounters in which bands of 20 to 30 Bulgars came off distinctly best against whole Turkish companies, or battalions, supported by guns. The revolt began to assume most serious proportions. The Sultan Abdul Hamid, became very much alarmed. Telegrams poured out from the Palace. The whole Turkish Army was mobilized. The local Commander-in-Chief, Omer Rushdi ***** was hastily "ungummed." The local Governor-General quite obviously lost his nerve and head. The Inspector of the European Provinces. Hilmi *****, hurried to replace him, but failed to restore either confidence or order. The record of Bulgarian successes increased from day to day. At this critical moment the German Emperor stepped in to save the situation. Serving in the Great General Staff at Berlin was a Prussian officer, Captain von Goeben, who, under De Wet, had fought against us throughout the South African War, and who therefore had first-hand knowledge of Lord Kitchener's system of "drives." Drives, said the Emperor to the Sultan, might solve the Macedonian problem. Von Goeben, accordingly, was dispatched at once to the Turkish Army headquarters at Monastir, where, for all practical purposes, he assumed complete command. Drives were duly organized, the Turkish soldiery being strengthened by Arnauts, or Albanian bashi-bazouks, and the riffraff of the Turkish towns.

 

Von Goeben was successful. Failing to catch the Comitadjis, who remained in the forests and hills, he arranged to round up their less mobile relatives and friends instead. Villages were destroyed wholesale. Old men, women, and children were mercilessly slaughtered and in the most disgusting manner. Following in von Goeben's tracks I found, for instance, Bulgarian children mutilated or half burnt but living, and on more than one occasion. Bulgarian women who been partially skinned alive--"their stockings taken off" as the Arnauts used to say. I saw other and worse sights which cannot be described in print. In this manner and by these means "normal" conditions were eventually restored. Incidentally, Major von Goeben, promoted for his gallant deeds, committed suicide a few years later whilst in prison awaiting trial on a charge of murdering his own commanding officer in his bed.

 

I enclose my card and remain yours, &c.,

 

A ROVING ENGLISHMAN

[Ashot]

FOUND TURKS CONFIDENT

Dr. Israel Says That They Have Abundant Supplies of Immunization

 

AUGUST 5, 1915

 

BERLIN, August 4, (via London, Thursday, Aug. 5.)--Professor James Israel, who recently operated on the Sultan of Turkey, has returned here from Constantinople. He says he left the Sultan completely cured and able to attend the next Selamlik.

 

Dr. Israel in an interview in the Tageblatt says he conferred repeatedly with the Grand Vizier and the Foreign Minister, and that as the Sultan's tenure of life without surgical attention would have been very short and as he was suffering great pain. It was decided to perform on operation. Two gallstones of large size were removed, and the causes of the other aliments of the Sultan were attended to.

 

Dr. Israel said that he noted in Constantinople an extraordinarily confident feeling on the part of the people with regard to the war. He conversed with virtually all the influential persons of the Court and the leading army commanders, and found all of them of the belief that the Dardanelles could be held, particularly since one of the chief difficulties, namely, the supply of ammunition, had been solved. There is now an abundance of ammunition in Turkey, he declares.

 

The relations between the Turks and the Germans., according to Dr. Israel, are excellent. The highest authorities, such as the Grand Vizier and the Minister of War, Dr. Israel says, is unreservedly pro-German, and paid the Highest tribute to the ability and extraordinary capacity of the Germans.

Edited April 20, 2008 by Ashot

[Ashot]

ARMENIANS EXPELLED

 

AUGUST 17, 1915

 

(FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT.) SOFIA. Acc.13 About 40 notable Armenian families, consisting only of women, children, and old men, who have been expelled by the authorities from Constantinople, arrived this morning at Philippopolis, their men folk having been exiled to the interior of Asia.

[Ashot]

THE ARMENIANS IN ASIA MINOR

 

AUGUST 18, 1915

 

On July 28, in the British House of Lords, the Earl of Crewe, Lord President of the Council, replaying to a question by Viscount Bryce concerning the killing of Christians in Armenia, said that such crimes had increased both in number and in degree of atrocity. The Armenians have often suffered outrage and massacre, and the present was offers a new opportunity for oppression.

 

As far back as last January some one hundred thousand persons from the Turkish and Persian Armenia provinces had taken refuge at Etchmiadzin, at the foot of Mount Ararat, in Russian Armenia, where they appealed for relief to the head of the Armenia Church and to their compatriots. They had been chiefly suffering from the wild Kurdish tribes along the border.

 

In May, however, the Armenians of Asia Minor had to meet another oppressor, the Turkish Government. It issued an order, the execution of which at Brusa (the city which the Turks may make their capital if Constantinople falls) is thus described by an eye-witness:

 

The police at midnight swooped down upon the homes of all Armenians whose names had been put on the proscribed list sent from Constantinople. These men were arrested and the minutest search made of their homes for possible revolutionary documents. The young Armenians were then ordered into the army; the older men were deported into the interior, while women and children who were not carried off in an opposite direction were left to shift for themselves. In thousands of cases the deportation has been carried out on such a basis that families, broken up by the Turkish official will never be reunited.

 

Another report at hand in a letter just received by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions from a British resident of Constantinople:

 

Zeitun has ceased to exist as an Armenian town. The inhabitants have been scattered, the city occupied by Turks, and the very name changed. The same is true, to a large extent, of Hadjin, except, I believe, the name has not been altered. The Armenians of the regions of Erzerum, Bitlis, and Erzingan have under torture been covered to Islam. Hardin reports 1895 (the year of the infamous massacre) conditions as prevailing there. The tale is awful to the last degree. . . . The inhabitants of cities like Zeitun and Hadjin are driven out like cattle and made to march long distances under the burning sun, hungry and thirsty. For instance, large numbers from Zeitun have recently reached Adana utterly destitute, many having been left to die along the road. More than a thousand families Hadjin recently arrived in Aleppo in the last degree of misery, and yet the proposes to send them mach farther. Husbands are forcibly separated from wives and sent to places long distance apart. Children are similarly separated from parents.

 

We learn that some twenty thousand Turks from Thrace were taken to Zeitun and established in houses that for generations belonged to the Armenians, while the former owners were scattered to the extreme ends of the Empire, one portion being sent to the sandy deserts at the head of the Persian Gulf and the other to malarial marshes in the interior.

 

So critical is the situation that Mr. Morgenthau, our Ambassador at Constantinople, who, almost single-handed, is fighting to prevent a wholesale slaughter, has asked and obtained the co-operation of the Ambassadors there of Turkey's allies, Baron von Wangenheim and Margrave Pallavincini. They have joined our Ambassador in trying to convince the Turkish Government that a renewal of the Atrocities of the former Turkish regime would be a crime.

 

THE ARMENIANS IN PERSIA

We have been so accustomed to thinking of the Armenians as resident only in Turkey that we often lose sight of the fact that they also live in Russia and in Persia. The news which comes to hand from Persia is as ghastly in its details as that which has been received from Asia Minor. The city of Salmast, for instance, has been completely destroyed by the Kurds. One of the survivors writes:

 

Hundreds of old people and children remained behind in the ill-omened "Valley of Blood," unable to reach Duzlac. Those who could go on tottered as they walked. Here a dozen women and children, buried in a chasm of snow, were crying out for help. There a cart had been upset into a deep ravine with all its passengers and animals. One woman, unable to walk further, fell on the snow and gave birth to a child. A few yards away, another, made insane by suffering, leaped over a cliff, at the bottom of which hungry wolves were whining. Such scenes were repeated all along the route. I saw one woman, whose husband had just been killed, walking with all her clothes frozen, one child in her arms, another on her back, and the oldest walking by her side. A sick woman was telling how her husband and children had been butchered before her eyes. She begged to be killed too, but instead she was subjected to treatment worst than death. The wailing of the children, woman, and old people was heartrending. Many of the refugees were swept away in trying to cross the streams, and dead bodies by hundreds lined the road.

 

Again, near Urumia, where Americans have a most efficient hospital and mission, four thousand Armenians were killed outright. Crowds of men, women, and children took refuge in the churches, but these were burned down and the poor refugees slaughtered like trapped rats. Nor was this the worst. For many days the field around Salmast and Urumia were strewn with dead bodies, for no kindred or friends were left to give them interment. The marauders allowed them to fester and rot on the open ground. No wonder that from the Azerbaijan Province of Persia alone there has been an exodus of some two score thousand into Russia.

 

The time is thus indeed ripe for the friends of the Armenians to show whether they mean anything by their friendship. An American Armenian Relief Fund has been established under the direction of such men as Bishops Greer and Rhinelander, the Rev. Dr. James L. Barton, Rabbi Harris, ex-President Eliot, and Mr. Oscar Straus. The treasurers are Messrs. Brown Brothers & Co., Bankers, 59 Wall Street, New York City, who will transmit all funds in equal parts to the head of the Armenian Church at Etchmiadzin, and to Mr. W. W. Peet, treasurer of the American board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions at Constantinople. The Armenian colonists, especially in the United States and in other parts of the world, have already sent hundreds of thousands of dollars to relieve their people, but the misery needs the help of all friends of the Armenians as well.

 

Outlook Magazine

[Ashot]

TURKS' SOP TO ARMENIANS

 

AUGUST 25, 1915

 

Special to THE NEW YORK TIMES WASHINGTON. Aug. 24.-- Ambassador Morgenthau has notified the State Department from Constantinople that the Turkish Government gas informed him that orders have been telegraphed throughout Turkey exempting from deportation all Armenians who are members of Protestant or Catholic churches. The Ambassador said that about 90 per cent. of the Armenians belonged to the Georgian or Armenian Church, and 10 per cent. to the Protestant or Catholic.

 

The Turkish Government has also granted exemption for Armenians in the employ of American Consulates.

 

New York Times

[Ashot]

SAYS ENVER PLOTS MASSACRE

 

Lives of All Constantinople Christians Menaced, Galli Asserts

 

AUGUST 31, 1915

 

Special Cable To THE NEW YORK TIMES. PARIS, Aug. 29--That Enver ***** is plotting a massacre of all the Christians in Constantinople is the assertion made in the Gaulois by Emile Galli, former editor of The Lovant Herald who has just escaped from the Turkish capital.

 

The Turks, he says, realize that the Dardanelles will inevitably be forced, and well informed observers are expecting the disaster much sooner than even the Allies.

 

On the eve of M. Galli's departure, which was arranged through his influential friends, many lenders of the Turkish moderates implored him to intercede with France on behalf of the Turks, most of whom, he says, are now hostile to the Germans. He predicts that the moderate party will endeavor to execute a coup d'état that against Enver *****, whose anti-Christian plans are considered a final attempt to commit Turkey irrevocably to the cause of Germany.

 

New York Times

[Ashot]

LAUD OUR AMBASSADOR

 

Refugees from Turkey Say He Alone Prevents Massacre

 

SEPTEMBER 8, 1915

 

Special Cable to NEW YORK TIMES. PARIS, Sept. 7-"The American Ambassador alone stands between a thousand French and British at Constantinople and death, was the tribute of two noble Scotch women traversing Paris today on their way to Glasgow after nine months detention in Turkey.

 

They are members of a party of six British and six French who arrived at Marseilles Sunday. They were released through the efforts of Ambassador Morgenthau. Mr. Morgentau is now working with the American Councils to repatriate the rest of the British and French in Turkey.

 

The women said the subjects of the Allies at first were unmolested. Then they were persecuted, until they are now liable to arrest at any moment. They instanced four French nuns and two priests who were imprisoned for seventy-four days and then declared innocent. Armenians, they declared, are being slaughtered wholesale, the massacres surprising those of 1894. At Vardemis 2,000 of all ages and both sexes were shut in a convent and burned to death.

 

"The Germans are absolute masters," the women said, "but a revolution is brewing and would burst if a leader appeared. The morale of the troops is had. Mutinies are spreading. Ten Turkish officers were shot in the first week of August. Coal and bread are lacking and munitions are low. The Germans admit, privately, that it is impossible to resist long unless conditions change."

 

New York Times

[Ashot]

Defense Committee Corners Supplies

SEPTEMBER 13, 1915

LONDON, Sept. 13.--Conditions in Constantinople are described as chaotic by Reuter's correspondent in Athens, who bases his dispatch on statements made by persons arriving in Athens today from the Turkish capital. The correspondent telegraphs:

 

"The inhabitants of Constantinople are suffering greater hardships than is necessary, because the Committee of National Defense, run by Enver *****, Minister of War, and Taalat Bey, Minister of the Interior, has cornered all commodities and is selling them at high prices.

 

"The Resignation from the Cabinet of the Sheik ul Islam, representative of the Sultan in religious affairs, is confirmed. He disapproved of the extermination of the Christian elements, against which he protested to the Cabinet. The Greek-Armenian Patriarch has been deprived of all powers.

 

"The Black Sea end of the Bosporus has been and by mines."

 

New York Times

[Ashot]

The Menace of Djemal *****

 

 

SEPTEMBER 12, 1915

 

ROME, Sept. 12 (via Paris, Sept. 13.)--The attitude of Djemal *****, former Minister of Marine, is giving the Turkish Committee of Union and Progress much anxiety, the Tribuna says it has learned from sources of information in the Balkans. He is reported to be in Arabia in constant contract with sheik and emirs hostile to the committee, while Arab preachers are trying to ferment rebellion among the inhabitants.

 

Taalat Bey, Minister of the Interior, realizes, it is said that the situation is serious and is not holding entirely aloof from the movement to return to power Hilmi *****, former Grand Vizier, who is now Ambassador to Austria-Hungary. Hostility to the German policy is reported to be becoming increasibly violent.

 

 

A complete disagreement between Djemal ***** and Enver *****, Minister of War, as well as Taalat Bey, was reported early this month. It was intimated that the former Minister of Marine was suspected of preparing a coup d'eta against the Committee of Union and Progress. After the Failure of the expedition against Egypt under his command. Djemal ***** was ordered to Mesopotamia, but apparently did not go there.

 

New York Times

[Ashot]

WOULD SEND HERE 550,000 ARMENIAS

Morgenthau Urges Scheme to Save Them From Turks--offers to Raise $1,000,000

 

SEPTEMBER 14, 1915

 

Special to NEW YORK TIMES. CHICAGO, Sept. 13.--The Chicago Daily News prints this dispatch from Sofia, Bulgaria: "Henry Morgentau, American Ambassador to Turkey, recently made an offer to the Turkish Government to raise $1,000,000 to transport to America the Armenians who thus far have escaped the general massacres. Enver *****, the Minister of War, and Taalat Bey, Minister of the Interior, accepted the offer, and Sept. 3 the Ambassador asked the Government at Washington to appoint a committee of five Americans, whom he recommended, to take charge of the great undertaking. Mr. Morgenthau declined, however, to give me their names when I saw him recently in Constantinople.

 

"Since May," said the Ambassador,"350,000 Armenians have been slaughtered or have died of starvation. There are 550,000 Armenians who could now be sent to America, and we need help to save them. One million dollars is too little for the purpose of transporting them, as it takes $100 to equip, feed and transport one man. Perhaps $3,000,000 will be necessary. I should like to see each of the Western States raise a fund to equip a ship to bring the number of setting it wants. The Armenians are a moral, hard working race, and would make good citizens to settle the less thickly populated parts of the Western States."

 

Turks admit that the Armenian persecution is the first step in a plan to get rid of Christians, and that Greeks will come next. Jews also are marked for slaughter or expulsion. American missionaries must also be driven out for Turkey henceforth is to be for Turks alone. The Sheik-ul-Islam, on being questioned, said that the deportation of the Armenians was contrary to Moslem law, but that he was powerless in the face of military despotism.

 

Foreigners in Constantinople hold the Germans, in part at least, responsible for the persecution of the Armenians, for they are doing nothing to prevent the distribution of inflammatory literature among the savage tribes inciting them to attack Christians.

 

New York Times

[Ashot]

ADMIRES MORGENTHAU PLAN

But British Authority Says It Could Not Be Carried Out

 

CHICAGO, Sep. 14.--Dr. S. M. Zwemer of London, editor of the Moslem Review, and recognized as an authority on social and religious conditions in the Orient, is not enthusiastic over the suggestion of Henry Morgentau, to raise a fund varying in dimensions from $1,000,000 to 5,000,000 with which to defray the expense of transporting thousands of Armenians to America to save them from slaughter at the hands of the Turks. Dr. Zwemer has been in the United States for several weeks in behalf of the Arabian mission and left Chicago for New York this afternoon.

 

"Mr. Morgenthau's plan is a noble one," said Dr. Zwemer today, " but conditions preclude the possibility of its being carried out. The Armenians have maintained their integrity as a nation since 200 A. D., and like the Dutch, is highly patriotic. They would rather suffer massacre and starvation than abandon their land.

 

"Further, it would be an impossibility to transport women and children through the war zone at the present time. I have absolutely no faith that the Turks would let them go. Although their word may have been given, it would prove the same as that of Germany with Belgium."

 

New York Times

[Ashot]

THE DEATH OF ARMENIA

 

Her Land Has Been Devastated and the Few Survivors Driven Out

 

SEPTEMBER 17, 1915

 

To the Editor of THE NEW YORK TIMES: The deliberate murder of a nation is taking place in this twentieth century. Turkey is now in the act of murdering Armenia, and she has almost completed her work.

 

There are no able bodied male Armenians left anywhere in Turkey. They have either been brought to an end in the ranks of the Turkish Army, into which they are dragged or have perished in prisons and at the gallows-- the best of them in the latter manner. The remainder of the Armenian nation, composed of women, children, and old men, has been driven out of their homes; towns and cities have been completely depopulated of their Armenian inhabitants, in most instances amounting to thousands in number. They are driven out on a two months' destination than Arabia. Two-thirds of them perish on the way, either from exposure or at the hands of plundering and raping Mohammedans. These reports are from missionaries, Consuls, and Red Cross nurses of other nations.

 

This state of affairs is the natural course of the Turkish Government's openly expresses policy. What is to be done? Inhumanity so situated as to see deliberate murder committed? And that on such a scale?

 

Ambassador Morgentau is reported as having done his utmost to stave off such happenings, but without avail, and if America cannot extend a helping hand no one else can at present.

 

Armenia as a nation is dead. Its land is devastated; only the individual lives of its remaining women and children can be saved. And the only means of rescue is their transportation to this or some other country. Efforts at relief are being made by various Armenian sources, but they are wholly inadequate. Even the removal of undertaking that it requires the best efforts of a powerful nation like America and the active co-operation of the Government. Ambassador Morgentau is quoted as having said the requirement is at least a million dollars and perhaps more. But why not give it? Why not give the power and the work necessary for such work? The opportunity to do such service as can be rendered at present does not come but once in the history of a nation.

 

VINCENT YARDUM. New York, Sept. 15, 1915.

 

New York Times

[Ashot]

SEVERAL AMERICAN MISSIONARIES DEAD

And Survivors Reach Petrograd from Armenia After Terrible Sufferings on the Way

 

SEPTEMBER 18, 1915

 

PETROGRAD, Sept. 17, (via London, Saturday, Sept. 18).--Dr. Clarence D. Ussher, Mr. and Mrs. Yarrow, and thirteen other persons, comprising the missionary staff at Van, Turkish Armenia, passed through Petrograd today on their way to Bergen, Norway, having had to abandon to pillage and flame the result of seventy years work at Van.

 

Aged but dauntless; Mrs. Reynolds, one of the party, broke her leg in the hurried flight from Van and died at Tiflis two days before her husband reached there from America. Mrs. Ussher died from typhus fever shortly before the flight . Dr. Ussher, was attacked the day that his wife was stricken. He is still scarcely able to walk, although he has recovered from the disease.

 

The entire party suffered great hardships on the road. All the members of the party were scourged by disease and were forced to halt at Tiflis. there fortunately, the mission Board had a fund deposited with the American Consul.

 

William A. Shedd, head of the Urumiah Mission, and Mrs. Labore, the wife of one of the missionaries at Urumiah, and several other missionaries are here, homeward bound. Dr. Shedd lost his wife, and two other women of the Urumiah station died from disease, due to overwork in caring for 20,000 refugees. As an indication of the spirit of American missionaries, another body of them left here tonight for Persia after having bade farewell to Dr. Shedd's party

 

New York Times

[Ashot]

RESCUED 5,000 ARMENIANS

 

French Warships Carried Them from Syria to Egypt

SEPTEMBER, 23, 1915

 

PARIS, Sept. 22.--The rescue by French warships of Thousands of Armenians from pushing Turks is recounted in a statement issued last night by the Ministry of Marine.

 

"Pursued by Turks," says the statement, "5,000 Armenians, 3,000 of whom were women, children, and old men, took refuge in the Djebel Mousta Mountains at the end of July. They succeeded in keeping their assailants at bay until the beginning of September.

 

"Ammunition and provisions then gave out, and they would inevitably have succumbed had they not succeeded in getting word of their grave situation to a French blockading squadron off the Syrian coast went to their help and took all of them to port Sard where they were installed in a provisional camp."

 

New York Times

[Ashot]

Special Cable

 

Special Cable to THE NEW YORK TIMES. ALEXANDRIA, Sept.23, (Dispatch to The London Morning Post.)--British refugees from Urfa who arrived in Alexandria yesterday brought terrible tales of suffering of interned allied subjects. They were not supplied with food, furniture, or servants, and were housed in an Armenian monastery the monks in which had been massacred.

 

They witnessed the Armenian massacres of Aug. 19 Urfa was the center of ghastly scenes. The Turks systematically murdered men and turned women and children out into the desert, where thousands perished of starvation.

 

The last batch of women and children left Urfa on Aug. 24. They were delayed a fortnight at Alexandretta awaiting a ship in fifthly quarters and half starved. They finally embarked for Alexandria in an American warship.

 

Two hundred Jewish refugees from Juffa also arrived yesterday and 400 determined on the extermination of Zionists, and has sworn no Jews will reenter Palestine.

 

New York Times

[Ashot]

GERMAN MISSIONARY AIDS

 

Cares for Armenian Exiles and Describes Their Sufferings

 

SEPTEMBER 25, 1915

 

The Sonnenaufgang, (Sunrise,) a German missionary paper, organ of the Deutscher Hulfsbund fur christliches Liebeswerk im Orient, in its issue of July14 published a letter from a German woman--evidently a missionary--who told of having met numerous convoys of deported Armenians in Asia Minor. Extracts from the letter follow.

 

For these mountaineers the climate of the desert is terrible. I arrived yesterday at a great Armenian camp with goatskin tents of the Kurdish type. The greater part [of the exiles] were stanched out under the blazing sun allowed them a day of rest on account of the great number of cases of illness. One could see from their dress that these unfortunates had been people of means. They were from Geben, another village near Zeitoun and had been exiled with their pastor. Five or six died everyday children or adults. They had just buried a young woman, mother of a nine-years-old girl, whom they begged me to take away with me.

 

"The next day I visited another camp of exiles from Zeitoun, and heard the same stories of unspeakable sufferings.

 

Why don't they kill us at once? By day we have no water; our children cry with thirst. At night the Arabs come, steal our beds and clothing, carry off our young girls, and outrage our women. If we cannot walk, the soldiers beat us. Some women have drowned themselves, with their children, to escape outrage."

 

Writing from Van, the same traveler says:

 

In the neighboring villages the churches and schools have been destroyed, as well as some houses and everything has been absolutely pillages."

 

And from Marash:

 

"We have jus received fifteen babies. Three are already dead. They were frightfully thin and diseased when we found them. Ah! if we could only write all that we see."

 

New York Times

[Ashot]

MISSIONS BOARD TO APPEAL

 

Will Ask Americans for Funds to Aid Armenian Victims of Turks

 

SEPTEMBER 25, 1915

 

WASHINGTON, Sept. 24.--An appeal to the American people for contributions to relieve Armenians in Turkey who have been banished to isolated towns for alleged hostility to the Turkish Government soon will be issued from New York by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. The appeal will be based upon a resort from Ambassador Morgenthau to the board.

 

Representatives of the board have conferred with State Department officials regarding the plan for assassinating the Armenians. The American Government, however, will take no part officially in the plan, the indicated that it will not permit interference with its policy from any foreign power.

 

The American Government's protest, through Ambassador Morgentau, to Turkey against alleged ill-treatment of Armenians brought about minor concessions, but this Government has taken no further action. Turkish officials asserted that the steps against Armenians were necessary as a war measure to prevent rebellion and plotting against the Government. State Department officials say no further action is completed now in regard to the Turkish reply to the American protest. The reply has not yet been made public.

 

Ambassador Morgentau was instructed today to investigate rumors that American missionaries had been killed in recent Turkish military operations against the Armenians.

 

New York Times