Armenian Genocide Contemporary Articles

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NO HELP FOR ARMENIANS

 

SEPTEMBER 27, 1915

 

ROME, Sept. 26, (via Paris.)--The Apostolic Delegate at Constantinople, Mgr. Dolci, has to the Vatican a report describing the massacre of Armenians. He says that in the present situation of the European powers Germany and Austria cannot interfere because they are allied with Turkey, while the others powers can do nothing because they are at war with Turkey.

 

The only possible assistance, adds Mgr. Dolci, can come from America, whose Ambassador is using every effort to relieve and protect the persecuted Armenians; But "the needs are greater than the means; but "the needs are greater than the means to enforce the humanitarian principles which he represents."

 

New York Times

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ARMENIAN ATROCITIES SCOUTED BY BERNSTORFF

 

 

Calls Reports "Pure Inventions" --Says the Catholicos Wrote under Pressure

 

SEPTEMBER 28, 1915

 

BOSTON, Sept. 27.-- The German Ambassador, Count von Bernstoff, in a letter made public here today, declared that the reports concerning alleged atrocities in the Ottoman Empire were "pure inventions." The Ambassador's letter, written under date of Sept. 23 and addressed to Miran Sevasly of this city, Chairman of the Executive Committee of the National defense Union of America, who asked for a definite statement, was as follows:

 

In reply to your letter I beg to inform you that, according to recent official and authentic reports received by the German Government and transmitted by this embassy to the Government of the United States, the Ottoman Empire appear to be pure inventions. Without doubting the good faith of the Catholicos, I beg, however, to call your attention to the fact that his Holiness is writing under pressure of the Russian censure. Yours very truly.

 

J. BERNSTORFF.

 

The reference to the Catholicos or Primate of the Armenian Church, was based on a report recently published, in which he declared that the extermination of the Armenian race throughout Turkey was being carried on under official direction by an organized system of pillage, deportations, wholesale executions, and massacre.

New York Times

Edited April 20, 2008 by Ashot

[Ashot]

ARMENIANS' OWN FAULT, BERNSTORFF NOW SAYS

 

SEPTEMBER 29, 1915

 

Special to THE NEW YORK TIMES. WASHINGTON, Sept. 28. Count von Bernstorff's letter to Miran Sevasly of Boston, in which he said that, "according to recent official and authentic reports received by his embassy to the Government of the United States the alleged atrocities committed in the Ottoman Empire appear to be a pure invention," is puzzling the department of State.

 

The German Ambassador today sent a communication to the department saying reports of Turkish atrocities against Armenians were "greatly exaggerated," and defending in part the action of the Turks, as having been provoked.

 

While the Ambassador's letter does not deny that extreme penalties have been imposed on Armenians by the Turks it is stated that attempts to stir up rebellion and revolt and treasonable activity have made the "Armenian policy" a necessary war-time measure.

 

The State Department today received from the American Council in Trebizond a report showing that the Armenian population" of that large Armenian province had been expelled Armenian has been taken over by against of the Turkish Government, who are filing claims against the expelled owners. The Consul reported that many Armenian commission merchants who had resided in the province had accounts with Europeans. Few Americans are affected, he thought, but if any American has a claim against an Armenian in the Province of Trebizond he must get it paid by sending to the Consul an affidavit indorsed by a Turkish Consul.

 

Since Turkey has let it be known that no foreign interference with her Armenian policy will be permitted the United States will probably avoid the matter as a subject for any formal protest unless Americans become involved.

 

New York Times

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AMBASSADOR INQUIRY

 

SEPTEMBER 29, 1915

 

WASHINGTON, Sept. 27.--Ambassador Morgentau at Constantinople was today instructed to inquire into reported outrages against Armenians in Turkey and to ascertain if any victims are American citizens by birth or naturalization.

 

So far nothing has been received from the embassy at Constantinople to indicate that American citizens have suffered, but American mission property has been taxed and threatened with confiscation. The report of the murder of two American missionaries is still unconfirmed.

 

New York Times

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THE TURKISH ARTOCITIES IN ARMENIA

 

 

Sept. 29, 1915

 

In recent issues we have several times briefly called attention to the sufferings of the Armenians under Turko-German rule. Viscount Bryce, formerly British Ambassador to the United States, has now made through the Associated Press a powerful plea that America should try to stop the Armenian slaughter. Lord Bryce is not one to misstate or exaggerate facts. Among other things, he says: "In Trebizond City, where the Armenians numbered over ten thousand, orders came from Constantinople to seize all Armenians. Troops hunted them, drove them to the shore, took them to sea, threw them overboard, and drowned them all--men, Women, and children. This was seen and described by the Italian Consul."

 

Lord Bryce's statements are confirmed by reports which come direct to us. The following article is based upon first-hand and authentic information which has reached The Outlook through the most trustworthy source. Where names have been left blank it is because of fear that the individuals quoted might, if known, suffer Turkish relation. The suppressed names, however, are in our possession.

 

As we go to press we have received from Washington the following telegram from one of the foremost American authorities on Armenian affairs, to whom we are indebted for the facts in this article: "After long investigation am convinced that statement sent regarding Turkey's treatment of Christians contains but a fragment of the fact. You cannot overstate the gravity of the case. A race is rapidly undergoing deliberate, diabolical destruction."-- THE EDITORS.

 

AMERICA has more interest in Turkey than any other country, or possibly than all Europe together. This interest is not political, but humanitarian. In 1819 the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign missions began work in the Ottoman Empire, and has now for nearly a century prosecuted that work with vigor and statesmanlike foresight and breadth. The first step was to produce the Bible in the vernaculars of the people. The missionaries have been wholly unsectarian. They introduced into the country the printing-press and a periodical literature, modern medicine and sanitation, the modern hospital, new industries and commercial enterprises, Western education, culminating in the well-organized colleges and graduate schools.

 

Not a few of these institutions, with the hearty approval and co-operation of the American Board, have become independent of the control of the missionary organization. Some of these institutions have an international reputation, and are doing a work that is of lasting benefit to America as well as to Asia and Europe. Some of these institutions are: the Syrian Protestant College at Beirut, with its graduate schools; Robert College at Constantinople; and the Constantinople College for Girls, each one of these incorporated in the United States and possessing a plant worth more than a million dollars. Besides these institutions of international repute there are others, like the International College at Smyrna, Anatolia College at Marsovcan, Teachers' College at Sivas, Euphrates College at Harput, Van College at Van, Aintab College at Aintab, Central Turkey College for Women at Marash, the American Collegiate Institute for Girls at Smyrna, St. Paul's College at Tarsus, and, in addition, three times that number of high schools and academies with their intermediate and preparatory schools dotting the country form Smyrna to Persia, and from the Black Sea to Arabia. We have made no mention of the modern hospitals that cover the same territory, and that bring untold blessing to all classes, regardless of race or religion.

 

The Armenians as a people have been the most responsive to the appeals of modern education. The Majority of the 25,000 students in the schools north of Syria have been from this historic and virile race. Thousands have taken graduate courses in the United States. It can be said that American discovered the Armenian race and introduced it to the Western World. It is therefore eminently fitting that at this time of death struggle America should be the first to life its voice in protest, and the most ready to offer its help to save this nation from annihilation.

 

There are some four hundred Americans now in Turkey connected with the various boards and institutions. With these are associated fully ten times number of trained natives, mostly Armenians, Greeks, and Syrians, all engaged in conducting a work that aims at bringing to that country the blessings of a Christian civilization. These Armenians are remaining at their posts, endeavoring in every way in their power t relieve and save their people. Those who have been compelled to come home have done so with the greatest reluctance.

 

Indications point to a concerned plan upon the part of the authorities in Turkey to Eliminate all of the non-Moslem races. Upon the Armenians and the Greeks the blow is now failing, but there have been intimations that the Jew's turn will soon come. In many places the local Turkish authorities have emphatically protested. The Governor of--------------- was called to Constantinople to answer to the charge of not obeying orders in carrying out the drastic measures of the Central Government. Others have told the missionaries that the measures were most cruel and unnecessary and even disastrous to the country, but they were finally forced to obey. Lenient and unwilling governors were transferred, like the one at --------, in whose place was installed the Governor of----------,who had already carried out with vigor the order of massacre and extermination.

 

There are many indications that the Turks as a whole entertain no hostile feelings towards the Armenians and Greek and would not carry out these drastic measures of extermination were they not forced to do so. Some have declared that the measures are un-Mohammedan, and so contrary to the teachings of their religion.

 

So far as can be ascertained, the two Turkish officers Enver ***** and Taalat Bey are the source of these measures. There are who believe (and among these are the missionaries in large numbers, as well as others) that Enver ***** is the pay of the Kaiser, or at least, was until very recently. Few, if any, believe that the plan of race extermination organized with the Mohammedans or that is carried out willingly by them.

 

A German Official in the interior of Turkey told an America who is now in the United States (the Rev.Mr.-, from-----------) that it was the plan of the Government in its attack upon the Armenians to eliminate them as raw, leaving nothing behind.

 

A governor of one the large and important provinces in the interior told an American (the Rev.--,---,---,), now in this country, that his orders from Constantinople were to leave no male Armenian over ten years of age. These children could be easily placed in Moslem homes for their instruction.

 

President ------- -----. --------,of---------- College, ------, spend two weeks in Constantinople the last of July, and reports that a Turkish officer told him that the German officers were giving regular instructions to the Turkish officers who were soon to proceed to the Dardanelles. The Turk said he was astounded at some of the instructions giving them. "The Turks," said he, "have the reputation for being the most cruel and heartless of any race or religion. 'Cruel as a Turk' has become a proverb. But our German instructors certainly surpass in this respect anything the Turks have ever done or planned. And they are Christians!"

 

In the city of Diarbekir the American Board had a missionary and his wife, Dr. and Mrs. Floyed O. Smith, American citizens. Their nearest missionary and neighbors were at Mardin, fifty miles south, and at Harput, ninety miles to the north. Dr. Smith attended many Armenians who had been cruelly tortured by the Turkish officials. Mrs. Smith, with her baby, went to Harput, where at that time things were more quiet, while Dr. Smith remained at his post.

 

The American Board learned, first through Constantinople, and later through the State Department at Washington, that Dr. Smith had been taken by order of count martial to Beirut under military escort to join her husband. Permission for missionaries to go with her was refused.

 

The charges prepared against Dr. Smith by the Turkish authorities, as by the State Department, were that he and his wife had used a cipher in their personal correspondence, as proved by intercepted letters, that a witness had been produces who had declared that Dr. Smith was a subject of Turkey, and other grave charges.

 

About the middle of July a cable from Dr. Smith reported that he and his family were at the island of Rhodes, evidently expelled from the country. Further particulars have not yet been received.

 

Three Armenian professors in one of the American colleges in Turkey, all of whom had studied abroad, were arrested in June and locked up in prison. No charges were preferred against them. Later they were cruelly tortured to make them confess to plots to overthrow the Government. After prolonged torture they were killed, with a large number--some one hundred and fifty--of Armenian men.

 

Generally, teachers in American schools have fared better than many others, although some of these have been treated as above or exiled.

 

The following quotations are from the many communications now being received in this country, written by missionaries and others who, for the most part, wrote after they had succeeded in getting outside the country. These statements of fact can be absolutely relied on.

 

A British resident, a missionary of the American Board, a Canadian, who has been thirty years in Turkey, writes as follows. He was interned for six weeks, and finally was given his choice of leaving the country or going farther into the interior. His name must be concealed:

 

You have probably learned something of the sad condition of the Armenians from the papers, but probably nothing gets through that in any adequate way portrays the desperate straits in which these poor people find themselves.

 

You many have heard that 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 Erzingen have under torture, been converted to Islam. Mardin reports 1895 conditions (the year of the infamous massacre) as prevailing there. The tale is awful to the last degree.

 

More than a thousand families from Hadjin recently arrived in Aleppo in the last degree of misery, and yet the purpose is to send them much farther. Husbands are forcibly separated from wives and sent to places long distances apart. Children are similarly separated from parents.

 

The following is taken from the report of a United States consul to a correspondent of The Outlook over his signature, with permission to use, provided his name is not made public:

 

Between 4,300 and 4,500 families--about 28,000 persons-- are being removed by order of the Government from the districts of Zeitun and Marash to distant places, where they are unknown, and in distinctly non-Christian communities. Thousands have already been sent to the northwest into the provinces of Konia, Cesarea, Castiamouni, ect, while others have been taken southeasterly as far as Diar-el-Zor, and reports say to the vicinity of Baghdad. The misery these people are suffering is terrible to imagine. To go into details would be useless waste of time, for all the sufferings that a great community would be subject to in such circumstances are being experienced.

 

A statement of conditions in Central Turkey by Miss------ -----, a missionary:

 

When we were in Aleppo, I was some of the first one hundred families to be deported from Hadjin, and the rest of Hadjin were expected the day we left or within the next few days. The man who has been deporting in Diarbekir, and, worse, has been killing people by beating or scalding them to death--one person said, "He is killing them alive"--was transferred about the middle of June to Urfa with the evident purpose of having him continue his work there. To go out into other fields, I might add that a private code telegram from Mardin received about June 24 said that massacres had begun there.

 

Where are they going? Some are being scattered, one and two families to a village, among Moslems, others are being taken from their mountain homes and are being driven across the desert toward Baghdad. German officers who came into Aleppo one night on their way from Baghdad to Constantinople said that they first met this weary train two days out of Baghdad, and that the road the thousands they had met were marching along was marked or outlined by the bodies of their dead.

 

Who are these people? Women and children, tottering old men and babes--the men twenty-one to thirty- five or forty years old have practically all gone to the war. So these women are at the mercy of those in charge of them. Some soldiers are as kind to them as circumstances permit, others farm the women out for the night to the men of the villages near which they camp, or march in themselves as a bull might into a herd of cows. this is not guesswork, but well-known fact. Some women kill themselves by jumping into the river to escape, but others for the sake of their children, endure.

 

A statement of conditions in Sivas on July 13, 1915, made by the Rev.------ ------, missionary:

 

To begin with the all-important fact, which may have reached you by now, the Armenians of the interior are being deported in the direction of Mosul. At the time we left Sivas, two-thirds of them had gone from the city, including all our Protestants, our teachers and pupils, and all our side of the city. Those left were the orphan girls and teachers, and a few boarding girls, three nurses, and two orderlies in the hospital, Ardashes Eff and his family, and a few women servants. According to my best knowledge and opinion, with the exception of Armenian soldiers and prisoners (all of whose families have been sent) and a very few exceptions who for various reasons were necessary to the Government, all Armenians are gone from Sivas. According to what I consider good authority, I believe it to be true that the entire Armenian population from Erzrum to and including Gemereh near Cesarea, and from Samsun to and including Harput, has been deported. There is also a movement in the central field which has not become general, but will doubtless become so. More than one hundred thousand Greeks from the Marmora and Mediterranean coast have been deported. . . .

 

After we had seen thousands of people start out, and especially after ours had actually gone, we came to the conclusion that if anything could be done to stop this terrible crime, which impresses us as ten times than massacre, it would be done in Constantinople. In Constantinople we found that no pressure from the Embassies had been able to do anything.

 

We believe there is imminent danger of many of these people, whom we estimate for the Sivas, Erzrum, and Harput villages to be 600,000, starving to death on the roads. They took food for a few days, but did not dare take much money with them, as, if they did so, it is doubtful whether they would be allowed to keep it.

 

Statement by Dr.----- .-----.-----, of-----, for forty years a missionary in that region, and written on the American war-vessel Monitor, and brought home by an American business man of standing in August:

 

Although the orders for the deportation may have been humane, the manner of their execution has often been brutally harsh. One ward of a city, or a whole village, has been sent off at literally an hours notice, without opportunity to prepare food for the journey, animals for the weak or aged-- to collect their flocks or herds, or even, in some cases, all the members of the family. even when time permitted, they were obliged to sell off their property at a small fraction of its value, and in some cases were prevented from selling it at all. Conditions of travel, hard at best, have been made unendurable, and even fatal in many cases, by the brutality of the gendarme in charge. Most of the men having been conscripted, four-fifths of the whole number are women and children. The women are obliged to carry their babies, themselves often barefooted and hungry. In exhaustion and despair they have abandoned a good many of them by the wayside. Women have given birth to children upon the road. I know of three cases in which they were not allowed to remain behind long to complete the labor and died of hemorrhage. . . . Women and girls have been outraged. In one case the military officers, in turning over a group to the gendarmes, told them openly, before many people, that they were at liberty to do anything they chose with the women and girls.

 

Statement made by the Rev.-------- -------, for forty years missionary in Turkey, just returned from----, near Constantinople:

 

At Cesarea, Sivas, Trebizond, Ordoo, and many other towns and cities, thousands have been persuaded by threats and by abominable tortures to embrace the Mohammedan faith. In many cases the wives and daughters of Christians have been immediately compelled to marry Turks.

 

All over the country leading Armenians have been shot or hanged. Leading merchants have been beggared and exiled.

 

Thirty thousand Mohammedan criminals have been released from jail and former into bands under strict military discipline. One of the duties of these bands is to pillage villages and to rob and assassinate exiles.

 

The Greek and Armenian Patriarchs have been refused audiences with the Minister of the Turkish Government. Foreign Ambassadors, among them the United States Ambassador, have been rebuffed and told that what the imperial Government wishes to do with its subjects is none of their business.

 

Turkish Ministers and other officials have repeatedly avowed the intention to smash the Christian nationalities, and thus forever put an end to the Armenian question.

 

Many more similar statements of the maltreatment of Armenians might be quoted, but these are sufficient to prove the point. They are all alike in their gruesome story of torture, killing, and deportation without preparation for the journey and under the protection of undisciplined brutes. The field covered, according to our latest reports, includes practically the entire country north of Syria.

 

Do the people of the United States propose to do anything about such a state of affairs?

 

Outlook Magazine

[Ashot]

WHOLESALE MURDER IN ARMENIA

 

CAIRO, Sept. 27.

Confirmation has reached here of the reports that have been current of Armenian atrocities of a appealing character. Undoubtedly, as on previous occasion these outrages have been engineered from Istanbul.

 

There is reason to believe that the attack on the Armenians was decided upon on Enver *****'s return after the repulse in the Caucasus, when he appeared to be infuriated against the Armenians because they had greatly assisted the Russians. Talaat Bey evidently seized the opportunity to retaliate upon the defenseless colonies in Asia Minor. The formula adopted as a cloak was an order for the expulsion of Armenians and their deportation to centers in the interior and resistance or delay in compliance with the Government order was made an excuse for murder, rape, and other savageries.

 

COMPLIANCE UNAVAILING

 

One instance, in which leading Armenians were concerned, shows the fate awaiting even those who obey the order. Vartkes Effendi and Zohrab Effendi, two prominent members of Parliament, Aghnuni, one of the chief Dashnakists, Haladjian Effendi and Pastermadjian Effendi, ex-Ministers of Public Works and Agriculture, were put in carriages at Urfa for conveyance to Diarbekr, and then were murdered en route, the escort reporting that the murdered were the work of brigands. It is to be noted that Vartkes was but recently the recipient of marks of Talaat Bey's friendship.

 

The provincial authorities generally carried out the task entrusted to them only too thoroughly and unlike the previous historic massacres the present atrocities are not confined to a definite area. From Sansun and Trebizond, from Ordu and Aintab from Marash and Erzerum come the same tales of atrocities-- of men shot down in cold blood, crucilled, mutilated, or dragged off for labor battalion, of children carried off and forcibly converted to Islam of women violated and enslaved in the interior shot down or sent off with their children to the desert west of Mosul where there is neither water nor food, or to Derzor, between Aleppo and Baghdad, where there is no food, in either case to die miserably. Many of these unfortunates did not reach their destination because the violent escorting, so overdrove the victims that many fell out and were unavailing. They were left to perish by the roadside. Their corpses distinctly displaying the route that many followed. Armenians were tied back to bake in pairs and thrown into river alive. At Zeutun the Armenians were meanly tricked by promised relocations to Adana. Promises that lead to their eventual deaths.

 

Some German Consuls directed or encouraged the proceeding thus Rossler, the Consul at Aleppo a totting companion to his colleague at Haifa went to Aintab to superintend in person, and the notorious Baron Oppenheim Suggested the removal of women and children of the Allies to Urfa where they could not fail to witness the barbarities committed by the troops in the streets, which literally ran blood.

 

A VALIANT RESISTANCE

 

The refugees from Suedia now at Port Said appear to have fought. When the deportation order came 4,300 of these took to the hills where they resisted for seven weeks, the attack of the Turks lasting continuously for 20 hours. It is a remarkable fact that there were only 600 able-bodied men of whom but a quarter had rules and the rest muzzle-loading sporting guns. It is believed that the Armenians are elsewhere resisting, but the case of the inland colonies is almost hopeless. The Suedia Armenians owe their reseed from the terrible fate of their compatriots to the fact that they were on the coast.

 

The systematic butchery abduction and deportation to the desert which still continue point to a total loss of life probably exceeding the total of the Hanudian regime. The nature and scale of the atrocities dwarf anything perpetrated in Belgium or under Abdul Hamid, whose exploits in this detraction now assume an aspect of moderation compared with those of the present Governors of Turkey who certainly can outdo their former masters in the matter of evil. That Tallat Bey is responsible seem incontestable. It is proved by fact that when ordering the deportations he said. "After this for 50 years there the man who is chief of the Committee of Union and progress and Grand Venerable of the spurious Masonic Grand Orient of Turkey and who was one of the leading members of the Parliamentary deputation in 1909 to England where he was greeted as one of the regenerators of Turkey.

 

The London Times

[Ashot]

PRESSES ARMENIAN PLAN

 

OCTOBER 2, 1915

 

Special Cable to THE NEW YORK TIMES. LONDON, Oct. 1,--In reference to the plan of Henry Morgenthau, American Ambassador to Turkey, to transport to America the 550,000 Armenians who have escape slaughter. The Chronique has received some additional details from an authority on near Eastern affairs who has information direct from Constantinople by way of Sofia.

 

Besides offering to make himself personally responsible for $1,000,000 defray the expense of the emigration, Ambassador Morgenthau has offered to find men in the United States who will raise $4,000,000 more.

 

Whether this offer has been accepted or rejected by the Turkish authorities is not known. The probability is that it is being considered.

 

New York Times

[Ashot]

ANNIHILATION OF ALL ARMENIANS THREATENED

 

OCTOBER 2, 1915

 

That the massacres of Sultan Abdul Hamid in 1895, in which 300,000 Armenians were put to death, seem insignificant in comparison with the butchery now going on in Turkey, was the statement published in this country last week. It was made by Nubar *****, the diplomatic representative in Paris of the Katholikos, or head of the Armenians church, who sent letters supporting his declaration to M. Simbad Gabriel, president of the Armenian General Progressive Association in the United States. Dr. Gabriel estimated from these letters that the number of Armenians put to death 600,000 more have been driven from their homes to wander among the villages of Asia Minor. All these are from a population of but 1,500,000.

 

"Christian martyrdom has at no time assumed such colossal proportions," wrote Nubar ***** in transmitting the correspondence. "What has happened is nothing more nor less than the annihilation of a whole people."

 

The authors of the letters begged that their names be kept secret lest vengeance be visited upon them. One letter from Constantinople says that Armenians in all the cities and villages of Cilicia have been exiled to the desert regions such of the Aleppo. They have not been allowed to carry any of their possessions with them, the letter goes on, and Moslems are occupying the lands and houses left vacant. The young men are kept for military service, and it is only the weak and aged who are deported.

 

"The court-martials are functioning everywhere," says another letter. "Numerous Armenians have been hanged, and many others sentences to ten or fifteen years in prison. Many have been beaten to death, among them the priests of the village of Kurk. Churches and convents have been pillaged and destroyed, and almost all the bishops have been arrested to be delivered up to court-martial."

 

Greed, religion and politics combine to induce the Turks to massacre the Armenians, Dr. Gabriel said in making public the contents of the letters. He told of having talked recently with an Armenian woman who had just come from Constantinople. One morning twenty of her friends, she said, were taken out by the Turks and killed in cold blood for no other reason than that they were suspected of being unfriendly to the Turkish cause.

 

"When the bugle blows in the morning," said Dr. Gabriel, "the Turks rush fiercely to the work of killing the Christians and plundering them of their wealth. When it stops in the evening, or in two or three days, the shooting and stabbing stop just as suddenly then as it began. The people obey their orders like soldiers."

 

The American Red Cross is receiving many inquiries concerning conditions in Armenia and is daily requested to contribute toward the relief of the Armenians people. The country appears at present to be virtually inaccessible. Members of the Rockefeller foundation War Relief Commission who have recently returned from Constantinople report that it was impossible for any foreigners to obtain permission to go through the interior of Asia Minor or into Armenia. Even American missionaries who had come to Constantinople in the early summer had not been allowed to return to their stations and were in great uncertainly about the condition of the civil populations among whom they had lived.

 

On Monday the Red Cross announced that it was wholly in sympathy with those who are desirous of extending practical help to the Armenians and that it is now trying to obtain reliable information as to the most effective means of carrying relief to that country. Political conditions in Europe of course inject delicate diplomatic elements into the problem. A definite announcement may be possible within a few days, said the Red Cross.

 

Surbey Magazine

[Ashot]

DEATH OF ARMENIAN PEOPLE

The Literary Digest for October 2, 1915

 

It is a period marking the death of nations, and the one to reach the goal first seems to be the victim of the Jahad which was to overwhelm the Allies. Instead of having any such result, the Holy War is merely extinguishing the race who were Christians when our ancestors were offering hearten sacrifices in the dense forests of Europe. "Turkey is now in the act of murdering Armenia, and she has almost completed her work," says Vincent Yardum in the New York Times. All able-bodied males, we are told, have perished in prisons or on the gallows. Old men, women, and children have been driven out of their homes and sent into exile toward Arabia, where they never arrive. Death from starvation or from the attacks of plundering Mohammedans overtakes most of them. The American Armenian Relief Fund Committee issues in The Churchman (New York) a letter dated Constantinople, June 15, 1915, and purporting to come from "a high authority whose word is not top be doubted." We quote:

 

"The Public in America are unaware of the great crisis through which the Armenian nation in Turkey is passing at present. Indeed, our knowledge of the actual condition of the provinces is very little, because of the strict censorship to which communications with the interior are subjected, and because of the absolute interdiction against traveling on the part of Armenians; yet you will have an idea of what we know already. The Armenian nation is dwindling between life and death at this moment in every part of Turkey. I will pass over the misery caused by arbitrary confiscations, the ravages of typhus, the conscription of men between eighteen and fifty, and the imprisonment and exile during the last two months of thousands of Armenians. About the beginning of April, immediately after the events of Van, Armenian houses, schools, churches, and diocesan offices were searched, by the order of the Central Government, even in the poorest country corners, and consequently many people were thrown into prison for possessing arms, which were hitherto permitted, and for books and pictures publicly sold. In the jails of Cesarea alone 500 Armenians are incarcerated to-day, besides those who have been exiled, by administrative orders only and without any guilt, to places inhabited solely by Moslems. But this condition of affairs is much milder than of the provinces of Cilicia and of those bordering the Caucasus. The Turkish Government is executing to-day the plan of scattering the Armenians of the Armenian provinces, profiting from the troubles of the European powers and from the acquiescence of Germany and Austria. This scheme began to be carried out first in Cilicia. The whole of the population of Zeitum, destroyed, and its neighborhood, and the greater part of those of Marsh and Hassanbeyly were deported forcibly and without notice. . . . . . .

 

"The condition of the Armenians is extremely aggravated since my last letter. It is not Armenian population of Cilicia only which has been deported wholesale and exiled to the deserts. Armenian commutes from all the provinces of Armenia--from Erzerum, Trebisond, Sivas, Kharput, Bitlis, Van, and Diarbekir, also from Samsun, Cesarea, and Ourfa--a population of 1,500,000--are marching to-day, the stick of forced pilgrimage in hand, toward the Mesopotamian wilderness, to live among Arabias and Kurdish savage tribes. It is evident that these poor people can take with them only a little of their good and property, owing to the impossibility of transportation and the insecurity of traveling. Very few of them will be able to reach the spots designated for their exile, and those who do will perish from starvation, if no immediate relief reaches them. There are no means of communicating with the people in the provinces, as the scattered people are not permitted to send any telegraphic dispatches. However, we hope that it will not take very long to find out their present locations and to reach them somehow or other. I trust that the Armenians of America will hasten, on being informed of the distress of their parents, children, and relatives, to send us funds, so that their lives may be saved. I hope also that the American charitable public, on hearing the condition of this ill-fated nation, already in the throes of death, will not refuse its helping hand. Immediate action is necessary. Every day that passes carries away many victims of starvation. It would be superfluous to add anything more. You may conceive from these lines that we are facing the extermination of a nation. Is it that God Almighty, not deeming sufficient the unlimited sufferings of this people in the past ages, has left the bitterest cup to be tasted in this twentieth century? It is in the name of starving population of 1,500.000 that urgent appeals should be made to the charitable public of America."

 

The Chicago Daily news prints a dispatch from Sofia, Bulgaria, giving an account of the activities of Henry Morgentau, the American Ambassador to Turkey, who recently made an offer to the Turkish Government to raise $1,000,000 to transport to America the Armenians who thus escaped the general massacres:

 

"Enver *****, the Minister of War, and Talaat Bey, Minister of the Interior, accepted the offer, and September 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. Morgerntau 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 the transporting them, as it takes $100 to equip, feed, and transport one men. Perhaps $5,000,000 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 settlers 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."

 

Viscount Bryce, formerly Ambassador to the United States, writes to the Associated Press to enlist the aid of America in this crisis. "If anything can stop the destroying hand of the Turkish Government," he thinks, "it will be an expression of the opinion of neutral nations, chiefly the judgment of humane America." He writes:

 

"Soon after was broke out between Turkey and the Allies, the Turkish Government formed, and since has carrying out with relentless cruelty, a plan for extirpating Christianity by killing off Christians of the Armenian race. . . . . . .

 

"In Trabizond City, where the Armenians numbered over 10,000, orders came from Constantinople to seize all Armenians. Troops hunted them, drove them to the shore, took them to sea, threw them overboard, and drowned them all--men, women, and children. This was seen and described by the Italian Counsel.

 

"Some in the country escaped by professing to accept Islam, and a quarter of a million escaped over the Russian frontier, but perhaps half a million were slaughtered or deported, and those deported are fast dying from ill-treatment, disease, or starvation. The roads and the hillsides are strewn with corpses of innocent peasants.

 

"We can all try to send aid to the miserable refugees now in Russian territory, but what man can stop the massacres? Not the Allied Powers at war with Turkey. Only one Power can take action for that purpose. It is Germany. Would not the expression of American public opinion, voicing the conscience of neutral nations, lead Germany to check the Turkish Government?"

[Ashot]

TURKS RENEW ATTACKS AGAINST CHRISTIANS

 

Bands of Irregular Opening in Zone Just Ceded to Bulgaria

 

OCTOBER 4, 1915

 

London, Monday, Oct. 4.--A new series of Turkish outrages against Christians is reported to have taken place in the zone which Turkey has just ceded to Bulgaria, and which Turkish officials and troops are now evacuating. A dispatch to Reuter's Telegram Company from Athens says:

 

"Bands of Turkish Irregulars have been organized expressly to pillage Christian shops and habitations. All the women have been maltreated. Four Christian villages outside the ceded zone have been forcibly evacuated to make room for Turks who did not wish to remain under Bulgarian rule."

 

New York Times

[Ashot]

RUSSIANS REPULSE TURKS

 

Letter's Attempts to Advance Toward the Frontier Defeated

 

OCTOBER 6, 1915

 

PETROGRAD, Oct. 5, (via London, Wednesday Oct. 3.)---An official report issued tonight says:

 

"On the Caucasus front there have been no serious engagements except in the region of Van. At various points the Turks have attempted to advance in the direction of our frontier, but in all cases they were easily reprised.

 

"Skirmishes between advance guards have occurred in the region of the Black Sea coast southwest of Khopa, and further southwest of the town of Van our troops, having defeated a Turkish detachment, continued on Oct. 8 to pursue the enemy, who retired along the southern shore of Lake Van and along mountain paths."

 

New York Times

[Ashot]

THE PLIGHT OF ARMENIANS*

 

 

October, 1915

 

TELEGRAMS and letters continue to describe the awful sufferings of the Christian population of Armenia at the hands of the Turks. A letter from a British resident of Constantinople says:

 

"Zeitun has ceased to exist as an Armenian town. The inhabitants have been scattered, the city occupied by the Turks, and the very name changed. The same is true, to a large extent, of Hadjin. The Armenians of the regions of Erzerum, Bitlis, and Erzingan have, under torture, been converted to Islam. Mardin 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 burning sun, hungry and thirsty. More than a thousand families from Hadjin recently arrived in Aleppo in the last degree of misery, and yet the purpose is to send them much farther."

 

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

 

"Except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved, but for the elect's sake, those days shall be shortened." These words of Christ give light and encouragement in the dark scenes now transpiring in Turkey.

 

"The atrocities being committed there surpass anything that has ever preceded, even in the days of Abdul Hamid II," so writes a special correspondent in Turkey. The massacres are carefully planned and executed, and include the most revolting torture, murder, and a cruel methods of deportation that separates families and sends large numbers of the victims to inevitable death. There are even rumors that Enver ***** is responsible for the program, and that a massacre of Christians is even planned in Constantinople.

 

In one city of Armenian twelve of the leading Armenians were taken out upon the road under pretense of deportation and were then put to death. A few days later 300 more men followed the same path.

 

This same methods is being followed in many other cities and villages in the interior of Turkey. "Women and children, old men and invalids are driven from their homes at the point of the bayonet and sent along different routes covering many days, even weeks, of travel. No preparations for the journey are made or permitted. Children born upon the road are strangled by the mothers, who are forbidden to lag behind the caravan of death. Those too ill to proceed are left alone by the roadside to die.

 

"The women who survive the journey are scattered among Moslem households, where the alternatives before them are Islam or death. This method of extermination is going on from Smyrna to Persia and from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean. Some entire Armenian towns have been depopulated, and Moslems from Macedonia have been brought in to occupy the houses." Can we wonder that these stricken ones join in the cry of the martyrs in Revelation: "How long, O Lord, Holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?"

 

A German official recently told an American who was traveling in the country that they were definitely planning to eliminate the Christian races in Turkey. They are succeeding, and there are few to raise a protest, for since the restraining influence of the Allied powers is not felt, Turkey is free to satisfy her thirst for the blood of the Christians in the Empire. Never in Moslem history has there been such a riot of crime and murder aimed at the annihilation of the Armenian and Greek race. Is it not time for America to act in behalf of these unfortunate people?

 

THE ARMENIAN OUTRAGES.

 

Evidence of terrible Armenian outrages in Turkey continues to grow in volume and authority. It is impossible to disprove such statements as those, for example, which we presented in these pages last week. Count Bernstorff, the German Ambassador, at first denied that were any Armenian atrocities whatever, and while he carefully avoided attaching the veracity of the Church in Turkey, he asserted that the latter's account of the atrocities could not be relied on because he was writing under the duress of the Russian Government. Now, the Catholicos of the Armenian Church as a prelate of distinction. To accuse him of conniving at false statements under duress is at least undiplomatic and indicates how little Count Bernstorff respects the Armenian Church. HE would hardly think of accusing the Pope of making false statements of atrocities in Italy under Italian duress. Great Christian prelates do not so conduct themselves, and it is unpardonable for so accomplished a diplomat as Count Berstorff to make such a statement.

 

The German Ambassador has now modified his attitude, and says that the reports are "Greatly exaggerated." He does not deny that the Turks have imposed severe punishments upon the Armenians, but says that this has been called down upon them by their own rebellious activities. A Turkish-American writes an interesting letter to the "Evening Sun," of New York, in which he assert that the requirements of military efficiency have demanded that unflinching measures be taken against the Armenians on the ground that they are traitorous. His argument is as follows:

 

It must be remembered in the time of war, when a nation is struggling for its existence, measures which ordinarily are considered as strict become permissible and imperative. Thus we see that Baron Bissing, a wealthy British subject of Germany. Turks have found that the Armenians of Van district have actually gone into the enemy's camp or have helped to facilitate the invasion of the enemy.

 

There would be some ground for this position if individual Armenians, proved to be traitors, were incarcerated in prisons or in detention camps: but when thousands of Armenians, including women and children, are killed, starved, and outraged such explanations as those of Count Bernstorff or Mr. Djevad Eyoub--the Turkish-American from whose letter we quote--are no explanation at all. Lord Bryce says over his own name that in Trebizond many hundreds of Armenians, including men, women, and children, were driven by Turkish troops into the sea and drowned. Would Mr. Eyoub or Count Bernstorff compared this to imprisonment in a concentration camp or defend it as being the necessary treatment of traitors in war?

 

Missionary Review

[Ashot]

GERMAN DIRECTED THE TURKS AT VAN

 

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1915

Sixteen missionaries from Van, Turkish Armenia, arrived here yesterday on the Scandinavian-American liner Helling Olav. They are members of the mission established by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, and confirmed the reports that the Turks and Kurds are waging a "holy was" against the Armenians.

 

The missionaries include the Rev. Dr. Ernest Ussher, and Dr. George Reynolds. They went through the siege of Van from April 20 to May 17, in the course of which period thousands of Armenians perished by the sword, fire and pestilence.

 

"For twenty-seven days," Dr. Yarrow said, "1,500 Turks and Kurds, and for the last three days were shelled with shrapnel from a howitzer brought up by a Turkish company headed by a German officer, I must saw him directing the fire of the gun.

 

"Two days before the Russians came to Van the Turks deliberately fired at the mission buildings. They stood out prominently and could not be mistaken, and also flew five American flags and one Red Cross flag as a protection. The firing was so an accurate that the shots cut the signal halyards and brought the flags to the ground. There were about 10,000 to 15,000 Armenians in and around Van at that time, and during the siege we not only had to flight the Turks and Kurds, but almost every known contagious disease as well.

 

When asked about the atrocities committed by the Turks Mr. Yarrow said that every conceivable form of torture had been inflicted on the Armenians in and around Van. The injuries inflicted upon women and children were indescribable.

 

The Turks and Kurds have declared a holy was on the Armenians," he continued, "and have vowed to exterminate them."

 

Dr. Yarrow added that when the Russians retreated the missionaries decided to depart for Tiflis. They were attacked twice by Kurds on the way there. An elderly women in the party was wounded in the thigh by a bullet.

 

When they came away the conditions in Armenia were terrible, he went on to say, and many of the people were dying from typhus and other epidemic diseases. Half the missionaries had been stricken with typhus and six of them had died.

 

The missionaries who accompanied Dr. Yarrow said that the reports printed in New York had not at all exaggerated the conditions in Armenia, and that much more remained to be told.

 

Dr. J. P. Xenides, professor of Greek at the American College at Marsovan Asiatic Turkey, who landed yesterday from the steamer Vasilefs Constantinos, was entertained at dinner last night at the Kismet Restaurant in West Street by members of the Armenian Colonial Association of New York.

 

"Before the trouble began in Marsovan, " Dr. Xenides said, " there were 12,000 or 13,000 Armenians in the city, and we had seventy-three teachers and their families in the college and sixty-three girl students. Before I left the Armenians had all been killed or driven away, including the teachers and their families and the sixty-three girls had been seized by the Turks and taken into their harems.

 

"The Turkish Foreign Minister had promised Ambassador Morgenthua that the American mission and the Armenians at Marsovan should not be injured in any way, but he gave exactly opposite orders to the Governor.

 

"On June 26 an order came that every Armenian was to leave the city and go to Mosul, on the Tigris, a twenty days journey by caravan. When the start was made the men were driven in one direction and the women and children in another, riding in ox carts. The men were never heard of again, and I was told they had all been killed."

 

New York Times

[Ashot]

MORGENTHAU GIVING RELIEF

 

October 6, 1915

WASHINGTON, Oct. 5 ---Many Armenians in this country have communicated to the American Red Cross, and to the State Department, regarding channels of relief for their people at home. Ernest P. Bicknell, National Director of the Red Cross wrote today to an inquiring Armenian in Boston:

 

"We are advised by the State Department that the most effective methods of getting relief to the Armenians at present is through the American Ambassador at Constantinople, Mr. Morgentau. An American committee of prominent men has been formed in New York to collect contributions for help of the Armenians, with Charles R. Crane, New York, as its Treasurer. As rapidly as contributions are received by that committee they will be forwarded to Ambassador Morgenthau and distributed according to his judgment.

 

"It is believed that through the American Consul in Armenia and some American missionaries who still remain in that country it will be possible to do something for the relief of the Armenians, although all recognize that the most that can be done will be only a trifle compared with the needs."

 

New York Times

[Ashot]

ALREADY HAS $75,000 TO HELP ARMENIANS

 

OCTOBER 7, 1915

 

The Rockefeller Foundation contributed $30,000 yesterday to the fund being raised to aid the Armenians who are being driven from their homes by the Turkish Government. This brings the amount already collected up to $75,000.

 

In connection with its appeal for funds to aid the victims of Turkish abuses, issued on Monday, the American Committee on Atrocities in Armenia, from its offices at 70 Fifth Avenue, made public yesterday letters received in New York within the last two or three days detailing the reported misdeeds of the Turkish authorities in their treatment of the Armenians. In giving out the new of the committee said:

 

"We assume that a large number of the Turkish people are not unfriendly to the Armenians; in fact we individual Turks protested against the outrages, and American missionaries highly esteem many of the Turks, particularly of the higher class. This movement is dominated from the center."

 

Included among the new details is a long letter from an officer of Euphrates College, The American institutions at Harput, which had 600 students before the present persecutions began.

 

American College Nearly Wiped Out.

 

"Approximately two-thirds of the girls pupils," he says, "and six-sevenths of the boys have been taken away to death, exile, or Moslem homes. Of our professors four are gone and three are left.

 

"Professor Tenekejian, who was the Protestant Azbaked and representative of the Americans with the Government, was arrested on May 1. No charge was made against him, but the hair of his head, mustache and beard was pulled out in a vain effort to secure damaging confessions. He was starved and hung by the arms for a day and a night and was severely beaten several times. About June 20 he was taken out toward Diarbekir and murdered in a general massacre on the road.

 

"Professor Nahigian who had studied at Ann Arbor, was arrested about June 5 and shared Professor Tenekejian's fate on the road.

 

"Professor Vorperian, a Princeton main, was taken to see a man beaten almost to death and became deranged. He started into exile under guard with his family, about July 5, and was murdered beyond Malatia.

 

"Professor Boogicanian, an Edinburgh graduate, was arrested with Professor Tenekejian, suffered the same tortures, pulled out by the roots, and was killed in the same massacre.

 

"Of the male instructors four were killed on the road in various massacres, and three who have not been heard from probably suffered the same fate. Two are sick in the American Hospital; one is in hiding, and two are free.

 

"Of the female instructors one is reported killed in Chunkoosh, one reported taken to a Turkish harem; three have not been heard from; four others started out into exile, and ten are free.

 

"Of the Armenian people as a whole we may put an estimate that three-fourths are gone, and that this three-fourths include the leader in every walk of life."

 

Charles R. Crane, Treasurer of the Committee, has just received the following communication from sent to the American Ambassador at Constantinople at your request on Sept. 22, inquiring whether he could advantageously use $50,000 or $100,000 at the present time for the relief of Armenians in Turkey, the Department has received a telegram from Mr. Morgenthau, dated Sept. 24, in which he states that he could most advantageously use $100.000 for the purpose mentioned; and that while such a sum, carefully administered, would make a good start, it would not suffice.

 

The Ambassador states that the money received would be distributed through missionaries at Konitsa, Adana, Tarsus, and Ourfa, and through the American Consul at Aleppo; and that the condition at present is simply appalling as follows: "I implore my friends to do their utmost to assist liberally."

 

Public meetings will be held in New York and elsewhere, following the example of the meeting announced in London, which is to be addressed by Lord Bryce, Contributions may be sent to Charles R. Crane, Treasurer, and 70 Fifth Avenue.

 

New York Times

[Ashot]

FOR ARMENIA

 

 

OCTOBER 7, 1915

Our action in behalf of the unhappy Armenians has so far been confined to an "informal" request addressed to Count von Bernstorff suggesting the exercise of German influence in Turkey. There is no question that the atrocities visited upon the Armenians are inspired from Constantinople as part of a regular policy which continues the worst traditions of the Hamidian tactics. Apparently, the only reply to our plea has been a statement from von Bernstorff quoting the authority of a German Consul to the effect that the reports from Asia Minor have been greatly exaggerated. It is an echo of Germany's curt finality regarding the "armed Lusitania," regarding the "hostile Arabic," regarding ever so many questions upon which a mere assertion from Berlin has been held to establish that a thing is so, on the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. But the evidence piling in from Armenia, through missionary, commercial, and private sources, refuse to be so dismissed. The intimation that these charges have been inspired from Petrograd for obvious reasons, is an insult to the disinterested men and women who for years have labored in Turkey and who are in the best position to know. Their evidence is not prejudiced. American missionaries have no dislike for the Turkish people. It is quit the other way. The good qualities of the Mohammedan population, when freed from evil suggestion from Constantinople, have always been emphasized by our missionaries. If they now speak out against what bears many signs of a deliberate attempt to extirpate a race, something more than an "unanswerable" official communication from German sources is called for.

 

The exigencies of war will not explain the deportations in mass of the Armenian population, not to speak of massacres, enforced conversions, and wholesale imprisonments. When the press of this country protested against the hardships visited upon the people of Poland, and notably the Jews, Petrograd was at pains with an emphasize that the inevitable conditions arising in an area of war. The answer was insuffication. It is different with the Armenians. The fighting in the Caucasus has touched only the frontier of Turkey . The operations in the Caucasus have from the first assumed the character of deadlock, and are bound so to continue, with no sweeping back and forth of armies such as has brought woe upon Poland. It is not in the area of war alone that the Armenians are suffering, but hundreds of miles behind the Turkish front, in Harput, in Sivas, in Marash, in Hadjin. In these remote places there cannot be the slightest question of Armenians lending aid and comfort to the enemy. Thither have flocked the refugees from the frontier of war and the population forcibly deported. The Government's hatred has followed them into their places of refuge. We are evidently dealing, not with the passions and lusts of a war-maddened soldiery, but with a deliberate policy of persecution.

 

On the Grounds of humanity, on the grounds of our special interest in the Armenian people, who, as a the Outlook states, have come forth as a race largely through the efforts of American missionaries, we are entitled to address our protests in the only quarter where they have a chance of being listened to. If Berlin intimates that the Armenian question has been brought forward as part of a pro-Ally campaign, it will only be assuming that blindly partisan attitude which Berlin is so fond of ascribing to the American press. Our newspapers did not allow their sympathies to stand in the way of sharp protest against Russia's treatment of the Jews. To the extent that there have been Russian atrocities they have been described with great detail in most of the metropolitan newspapers; and between conditions in Poland and in Armenia, so far as the responsibility of the respective Governments and the magnitude of the evil are concerned, there can be no comparison. Nor has our public protest been without avail. The polish population, expelled by the interior of Russia. Measures for their relief, carried on under the limitations of Russian efficiency, are being worked on a large scale. The Jews of the Pale have been permitted to settle everywhere in Russia outside of the two capitals. This may not be evidence of a change of heart on the part of the Russian Government. But if it has been forced by public opinion in neutral countries, there is all the more reason behalf of Armenia.

 

The great difference is that Constantinople is impervious to the opinion of the outside world. The men in control are fighting a desperate battle, and may feel at liberty to disregard neutral susceptibilities. But Berlin has shown recently that it does not hold American opinion so lightly. Were we to exercise pressure directly upon Turkey, the German Government would have much more ground to suspect our motives than if we protest to Berlin. We are thereby recognizing German paramount in Turkish affairs, even if we couple German responsibility with German ascendancy. We need not emphasize too far the anomalies of the Teuton-Turkish alliance, but a German alliance with a Government that is systematically engaged in destroying a Christian folk must fall sharply even on a world's conscience hardened by many disillusions. So far as sentiment in this country is concerned, Germany's moral battle-front has been irreparably damaged on its northern flank in Belgium. It cannot be that Berlin is content to allow another Belgium to develop on its southern flank in Armenia.

 

Nation Magazine

[Ashot]

NONE IS WITHOUT SHAME

 

 

A Plea for Proportion in the Judgment of Atrocities

 

OCTOBER 8, 1915

 

New York, Oct. 6, 1915 To the Editor of The New York Times.

 

In view of the fact that have been treated for the last few weeks with almost daily tales of atrocities among the Armenians, it is interesting to quote from a letter by Freiherr Fr. W. von Bissing son of the Governor General of Belgium written more than two months ago. He refers to an article in the Journal de Geneva of July 10 in which mention is made of the persecution of the Armenians. He writes: "I have always waited for him, for he belongs to the necessary armaments of the enemies of the Turks. At last he is there the poor ! * * * Three Jews so an oriental proverb says, are as slick as one Greek, but three Greeks are only equal to one Armenian. It is worth while to remember this saying at the present time when a new ally of the Entente has made its appearance--the poor Armenian. I am waiting impatiently for the moment when other billons will follow, and I am curious to see successfully be switched from Russian pogroms and Galician cruelties to the poor Armenian."

 

In the first few months of the European cataclysm newspaper reports and more or less unconnected articles were widely circulated which told of the cruelties of warfare against combatants and noncombatants. Occasionally one or the other of the belligerent Governments took official notice of such alleged cruelties, but only in special instances into a more permanent form. Belgium, of course, has been the hotbed of contentions, although in France a book has been edited by Professor Bedier containing documents strongly anti-German. Probably no publication has been as frequently commented upon as the so-called "Belgian Atrocity Report," sponsored by Viscount Bryce. The German Government has delayed publications of a similar nature. But recently a report was published on the conduct of the Russians in East Prussia and now elaborate documents have appeared bearing on the Belgian situation. These documents chiefly deal with Franco-Tireur war in Belgium. In these papers many of the German actions in Belgium which have brought about strong resentment in this country are directly traced to the Franco-Tireur war. In the completeness and in the character of the affidavits, the German publication exhibits the same thoroughness which has proved its effectiveness in many other directions. The bulk of the affidavits have apparently been taken within a short time after the occurrence and certainly a long time before the Bryce report was published. The neutral observer, as a consequence, would be inclined to balance these two reports against each other.

 

It is not our intention to decry or to commend the publication of such reports. They are there for everybody to read who cares to do so, and they are recognized as expertpresentations of occurrences that everybody is unquestionably sorry for. When this German report reached us, we thought that it might be discussed in somewhat the same form as the Bedier and Bryce pamphlets have recently been commented upon. But on second thought we are persuaded that it can serve no purpose to meet accusation with accusation, or denial with denial, or assertion with assertion. We have rather concluded that the interest of our common humanity would better be served by not spreading the charges made from every side.

 

May we therefore be permitted to say that we do not believe that at this time one should single out any of the belligerent nations for accusations of atrocities and excesses, unfortunately always incidental to considering that nearly 12,000,000 men are now active on various battlefields, that we have heard so little about outrages. In times of peace, when no accessible and when passions are largely controlled, the yearly cases of lawless conduct amount, according to generally accepted statistical figures, to about 3 1/2 per cent. of the total population. It appears, at least to us, that the sense of responsibility constantly impressed upon their soldiers by the leaders of all modern armies had decreased or lessened even that percentage of excesses which we, of necessity, should have to reckon with is armies so vast in numbers.

 

O.J.MERKEL Executive Secretary German University League.

 

New York Times

[Ashot]

CRITICISES MR. MORGENTHAU

 

Special Cable to THE NEW YORK TIMES. LONDON, Friday, Oct. 8,--The Times published a long account from a correspondent, of the American massacres in which he says:

 

"Attempts of the American Ambassador to procure some alleviation of the lot of the Armenians have thus far proved unsuccessful. Mr. Morgenthau, in the opinion of good observers, has wasted too much diplomatic energy on behalf of the Zionists of Palestine, who were in no danger of massacre, to have any force to spare.

 

Talaat and Bedri simply own that persecuting Armenians amuses them and turn a death ear to American pleadings.

 

"German and Austro-Hungarian residents in Turkey at first approved of the punishment of Armenian 'traitors' but the methods of the Turkish extremists have sickened even Prussian stomachs. True the Jewish Baron von Openheim, now in Syria, has been preaching massacre and German Consular officials at Aleppo and Alexandretta have followed suit perhaps with the idea of planting German colonists in the void left by the disappearance of the Armenians when the war is over.

 

"But the German Government has grown nervous. On Aug. 31 the German and Austro-Hungarian Ambassadors protested to the Grand Vizier against the massacre of Armenians and demanded a written communication to the effect that neither of their Governments had any connection with these crimes. Turkey has so as far given her Allies a certificate of unblemished character and the bestowal of the order Pour le Merite on Enver ***** by the Kaiser is not likely to give the impression that Germany is in earnest."

 

The correspondent also says:

 

"The sale by Bedriss police of Armenian children of both sexes to the keepers of disorderly houses and Turks of bad moral character has provoked protests in Constantinople.

 

"The object of the conversion of children reported from some districts and the very general sale of women and girls appear to be political. Foreigners believe Tallat has countenanced these crimes with the object of breaking up the strong social structure of the Armenian community in Turkey."

 

New York Times

[Ashot]

SENDS $100,000 TO AID ARMENIAN REFUGEES

 

 

OCTOBER 9, 1915

 

Responding to a call from Ambassador Morgenthau, received by the State Department, in which he said that he could most advantageously use $100,000 for the relief of Armenians, and that while such a sum, carefully administered, would make a good start, it would not suffice, the Armenian Atrocities Committee, in co-operation with the Committee of Mercy, sent by cable yesterday to Ambassador said that the money received would be distributed at Konitza, Adana, Tarsus, and Durfa, and through the American Consul at Aleppo. As started by the Ambassador, this sum, although it will save many lives at this juncture, is pitifully insufficient to meet the terrible need. It will, however, serve to turn the tide and eventually save the situation. The Armenian Atrocities Committee and the Committee of Mercy will continue their appeal in behalf of Armenia until all possible steps have been taken to save the Armenians from extinction.

 

But, even if money is sent to Ambassador Morgenthau in volume sufficient to do all that can be done to save the lives of Armenians in Turkey, the great bulk of refugees who can be helped will be found where they have fled, to Russia, Egypt, and Greece. Many thousand Armenians are reported to have reached Russia.

 

The following cable dispatch has been received from Stephen Van R. Trowbridge, formerly a missionary at Aintab, Turkey, and now located in Cairo:

 

"Six thousand Armenians from Antioch villages, including four mission congregations, arrived Port Said rescued recently by French cruisers after defending homes sixty-one days against violent Turkish Attacks. Heroic sufferings. Children born during flight. Pastor raised Red Cross flag, seen from sea by cruiser. Survivors utterly destitute. Mostly women and children many sick. British authorities providing food shelter. Please appeal $6,000 for clothing, medicines, and nurses. Committee organized. American diplomatic agent approves."

 

In response the Armenian Atrocities Committee cabled $6,000 to Mr. Trowbridge for relief of Armenian refugees in Egypt.

 

William H. Hamilton, Secretary of the Committee of Mercy, whose interview with M. Venizeios, the Greek ex-Premier, was published in Thursday's papers, has cabled from Athens that Armenian refugees are beginning to reach Greece, together with the Greek refugees, whose ill treatment at the hands of relief in Greece. M. Venizelos and General Korakas, President of the Government Relief Commission, have perfected plans to care for the 300,000 refugees who have arrived in Athens, Saloniki, and the Greek islands. Contributions for the relief of Greek refugees should be sent to August Belmont, Treasurer of the Committee of Mercy, 200 Fifth Avenue.

 

The Armenian Atrocities Committee and the Committee of Mercy are finding means to administer adequately the relief of the Armenian refugees who have been able to escape from Turkey, and with the whole-hearted support of the public lives can be saved to the extent of the funds raised. Contributions for Armenian relief should be sent to Charles R. Crane, 70 Fifth Avenue.

 

New York Times

[Ashot]

WHY WE AID ARMENIANS

 

OCTOBER 9, 1915

 

Special Cable to THE NEW YORK TIMES. LONDON, Oct. 8.--The Times Says this morning:

 

"It Is noteworthy that the monstrous article by Count Reventlow which was Quoted by Lord Cromer in the House of Lords on Wednesday night is the only reference in recent German newspapers to the Armenian massacres. The article was based upon a report that the American Government had invited Germany to intervene in favor of the Armenians. In addition to the brutal remarks already published Count Reventlow sharply criticized all American action.

 

"After a contemptuous reference to the American Ambassador in Constantinople, he said that England and Russia were using the Armenian question for their own purposes, and proceeded:

 

"It is probably well known that it has become a popular habit among Americans to take as active a part as possible in questions of this kind, even when the events happen in Southeastern Europe and the Monroe Doctrine hardly provides an excuse. Such interference would be specially striking at the present moment, because Turkey is a belligerent power, fighting for her life, and the United States pass and want to pass as neutrals. There can hardly be any doubt that the Anglo-American Fraternization in the recent financial transaction is already showing its consequences in this matter."

 

New York Times

[Ashot]

A HOPE FOR ARMENIANS

 

OCTOBER 9, 1915

LONDON, Saturday, Oct. 9.--Arthur J. Balfour. First Lord of the Admiralty, in a Letter expressing regret at his inability to attend the meeting to be held by the Lord Mayor at the Mansion House next Friday to start a fund for the relief of Armenian refugees, says with reference to the massacre of Armenians:

 

"It is a crime surpassing the worst deeds of the Turks. As the Turks are entirely depend upon the Germans for support the Germans surely could, if they would put an end to so disgraceful a condition of affairs, and I should hope that the German-Americans, who must be anxious to save what remains of Germany's good name, would use their influence to check a continuance of these purposeless barbarities."

 

New York Times

Edited April 20, 2008 by Ashot

[Ashot]

EXTERMINATING THE ARMENIANS

 

 

October 9, 1915

NAMELESS HORRORS are being perpetrated in the interior of Turkey in Asia upon the Armenians, one of the oldest and most faithful Christian nations of the world. The accounts of reliable eye-witnesses are now filtering through, and they contain descriptions of scenes too revolting to be included in anything but official reports. We learn from the press that Mr. Morgenthau, American Ambassador at Constantinople, has protested in vain against this organized extermination of the Armenians by their Moslem neighbors, and as a result of his last protests, we are told that seven of the most prominent Armenians in Constantinople were taken and hanged in the streets. American missionaries in Asia Minor report that they are unable to afford more than temporary protection to their Armenian pupils, as Turkish soldiers have entered the missions and slaughtered the Armenians before their eyes. In a recent article the Journal de Geneva says:

 

"The extermination is being carried out by three means: massacre, deportation, and forced conversion to Islam. Throughout the whole of the country it is the same story. . . . The Government has released from prison criminals who are in charge of the Armenian convoys, and there is no brutality they do not commit."

 

The Manchester Guardian learns from a Swiss correspondent recently returned from Turkey that in Constantinople--

 

"In the street the insolence of the Mussulmans toward the Christians knows no limit; the sons of Turkish families gather in bands and go to the houses of Armenians to decide which of the young women they will rape. In the same way Turkish housewives choose their future residence in Armenian houses Christians in the street. Massacres are stated, on reliable authority, to have already taken place in the city. No Armenians dare to leave their houses. . . . . .

 

"In the province of events surpasses all that can be imagined. Whole towns have been sacked and the inhabitants sent to the interior. At Marsivan the men were told they need not take provisions with them; they would be fed on the way. Before their eyes the town was then burned, and they were taken to series of graves already prepared, and poleaxed. Some escaped, but were caught. 'Kill us with your guns,' they said, as they were taken back. 'Never,' was the answer; 'a bullet costs a hundred paras; you aren't worth it; better as it is.' As for the women, they were sold in all the villages on the way to Mosul, so that at the end there were only left cripples, hunchbacks, and other deformed people."

 

The Italian Consul at Trebizond, Signor Corrini, who returned home on the outbreak of war between his country and Turkey, recounts his experiences in the Rome Messagero:

 

"From June 24 the Armenians in Trebizond were interned, they were then sent under escort to distant regions, but the fate of at least four-fifths of them was death. The local authorities, and even some of the Mohammedan population, tried to resist and to decrease to number of victims by hiding them, but in vein. The orders from Constantinople were categorical and all had to obey. . . . . The scenes of desolation, tears, curses, suicides to save honor, sudden insanity, fires, shooting in the streets, in the houses, are impossible to describe."

 

Signor Corrini concludes with an eloquent appeal to neutral Christian nations:

 

"When one has witnessed for a month daily scenes of this terrible character without being in a position to do anything one wonders--Have all the wild beasts of the world congregated in Constantinople? Such massacres cry out for the vengeance of all Christendom. If people knew what I know, had seen what I have seen, and heard what I have heard, then all the Christian Powers yet neutral would rise against Turkey and cry anathema against that barbarous Government."

 

The Literary Digest

Edited April 20, 2008 by Ashot

[Ashot]

ARMENIAN APPEAL BY BRYCE IN FULL

 

OCTOBER 10, 1915

 

Special Correspondence of THE NEW YORK TIMES.

 

LONDON, SEPT. 20-- The Appeal to America by Viscount Bryce to try to stop the slaughter of Armenians by the Turks, extracts form which were cabled to the United states today for publication, was made in the form of a letter to Aneurin Williams, publicist, author, and member of Parliament. The full text of the letter follows:

 

Sept. 18, 1915.

 

Dear Mr. Williams:

 

You are right in thinking that the civilized world, and especially that of the American people, ought to know what horrors have been passing in Asiatic Turkey during the last few months, for if anything can stop the destroying band of the Turkish Government, it will be an expression of the opinion of neutral nations and chiefly of the judgment of humane America.

 

Soon after the war between Turkey and the Allies broke out, the Turkish Government formed, and has ever since been carrying out with relentless cruelty the plan of extirpating Christianity by killing off the Christians of Armenian race. The Armenian population, peaceable peasants and artisans in the Eastern provinces of Turkey, were remaining quiet. They had not rebelled. They were unarmed. Many of them were serving in the Turkish Army. But they were Christians, and the Government doubtless supposed that they were not in sympathy with rulers who had oppressed and robbed them for generations, and who in 1895-6, and again six or seven years ago, had massacred many thousands of them without provocation.

 

The massacres of this year have, however, gone far beyond even those of 1895-6. The accounts which have now found their way to Western Europe--accounts coming from different sources, but agreeing with one another, and as to whose truth there can be no doubt--prove that over the whole of Eastern and Northern Asia Minor and Armenia the whole Christian population is being deliberately exterminated. The men military age have been killed. The younger women have been seizes for Turkish harems, compelled to become Mohammedans, and kept sometimes with their children also forcibly converted, in virtual slavery.

 

The rest of the inhabitants, old men, women, and children, have been torn from their homes and driven away under convoys of Turkish soldiers, largely composed of released criminals, some into unhealthy parts of Asia Minor, some into the deserts between Syria and the Euphrates. Many die or are murdered on the way; all perish sooner or later. Lest any should, if they escaped, try to regain their homes, Moslems have been brought in from other places to occupy the houses and farms from which the Christians had been expelled.

 

No greater injury could be done to the country than to destroy the most intelligent and industrious and educated part of its population, but for that the reckless and ruthless men who now control Turkey do not care. In Trebizond, a city where the Armenians numbering more than 10,000 persons had dwelt in peace with their Moslem neighbors, orders came from Constantinople to seize all the Armenians. Many of these kindly neighbors tried to hide or protect them, but in vein. The troops hunted them all out, drove them to the shore, placed them in sailing boats, took them out to sea, threw them overboard and drowned them all--men, women and children. Resistance was impossible for the younger men had been carried off to the army and the rest were unarmed. This was seen and is described by the Italian Consul.

 

How many have perished over the whole country no one can tell. Some seem to have saved their lives by professing to accept Islam and about 250,000 are said to have escaped across the frontier into Russian territory. But a far greater number, perhaps 500,000 have been slaughtered or deported and the deported are all fast dying of ill-treatment disease, and starvation while the massacres stile go on.

 

Christianity after maintaining itself in Armenia for seventeen centuries against the attacks first of the Persian fire worshippers and then of Saracens and Turks is now being completely rooted out of these countries. The roads and hills, says one account, are strewn with corpses, the corpses of innocent peasants.

 

The story of these horrors must surely touch every American heart whatever ___ to racial origin whatever may be its sympathies with one or other party in the present war. No man in whom any ____lives can fail to feel for the helpless victims of the ferocity of their own Government. What can be done? We can all, of course, try to send aid to the miserable refugees now in Russian territory. But what can stop the massacres? Not the allied powers at war with Turkey. Only one power can take action for that purpose. It is Germany. Would not an expression of American public opinion, voicing the conscience of neutral nations, lead Germany to exert her influence to check the Turkish Government before their ghastly work is complete?

 

I am, faithfully yours, BRYCE Aneurin Williams, Esq., M. P.

 

New York Times

[Ashot]

PLEAS FOR ARMENIA BY GERMANY FUTILE

 

OCTOBER 10, 1915

 

CONSTANTINOPLE, Sept. 20, (Correspondence of The Associated Press.)--By virtue of a total suppression of all news on the subject, the Turkish Government has succeeded in throwing an impenetrable veil over its actions toward all Armenians. Nothing definite is obtainable in Constantinople of the fate of this people out in the provinces, but it is known that severe massacres planned against the Armenians in the Ottoman capital were not carried out owing to objections of the German Government.

 

Concerning the Armenian affairs, three separate notes were presented to the Ottoman Government by the German Ambassador ad interim, Prince Hohenlohe--Luxemburg. If The Associated Press is rightly informed, these notes had no far-reaching effect, because under present conditions the German Government has been obliged to act rather gently. Turkey is still the ally of Germany, and the Armenians seem to have alienated the good will of the German Government and people to a Considerable extent by having made open cause with the Entente powers. Many of them have joined the Russian forces they revolted against Turkish authority. The three notes referred to were but official incident in weeks of endeavor to persuade the Turkish Government to take a more reasonable and humane view of the Armenian affair. One of the notes drew attention to the great injustice of making all Armenians suffer for the acts of a few. The Turkish Government, however, seems to have remained adamantine.

 

As already stated, its has been impossible to secure so acurate information. Turkish officials have all refused to discuss the situation or have placed all blame on the Armenians; these latter on the other hand have either refused to talk for fear of being also persecuted, or have assigned all responsibility to the Turks. A mass of irreconcilable statements has been the result, ranging, on the absurd claim that in Zeitun, Dort-Jul and other places 50, 000 Armenians had been massacred.

 

That the Turks have in many instanced been guilty of needless severity, and in some cases have permitted barbarous acts of violence, including murder and rape, seems well established. On the other hand, the Armenians in the Van country have been accused of similar excesses against the Turkish population, and the Turks having power on their side, have repaid such acts with liberal interest. It is said in well informed Constantinople circles.

 

It cannot be said that the acts of the Turkish Government in this connection have found the approbation of the advanced Turkish classes in the capital, who, for the greater part, favor a policy of conciliation and some of whom even go so far as to advocate the establishment of a separate Armenian State in Asia Minor under the sovereignty of the Ottoman Imperial Government. Meanwhile the tendency of the Ottoman Government, either to deny altogether that the Armenians are being persecuted, or give its acts a too obviously artificial basis and character, would have but one result, clearly, to indicate that it is both ashamed and afraid to let the truth be known. The many attempts made by The Associated Press correspondent to throw some light on the Armenian population resulted in failure, because the Turkish officials would not talk and the censorship would not permit the free passage of dispatches on the subject.

 

Nevertheless, it must be said that the Armenians are not blameless. Divested of all factors related to the national ambitions of the Armenians, their conduct toward the Turks and the Ottoman Government has invited constantly measures of repression. The rising of Zeitun, Dort Jul, and Van, and wholesale desertions of Armenian soldiers to the Allies on the Gallipoli Peninsula, and turned the Turk's heart into stone in matters Armenian, and he is now wreaking vengeance upon guilty and innocent alike.

 

Constantinople has for weeks had its daily crop of Armenian Rumors. One of the most interesting of them is that even the Sheik-Ul-Islam is a man of moderation and of very progressive tendencies.

 

It is asserted in Constantinople that the German Government has for some time, even at the beginning of the war, taken a special interest in the Armenians. The Germans feared from the very start of the war between Turkey and the Entente that the Armenians would make an attempt to re-establish by force their independence.

 

Prominent Armenians were informed that Germany would continue, and even increase, its benevolent interest in the race of the men who had been entrusted with the dissemination of this promise had the desired result. But last January and February, more especially in March and April, when the Allies had begun to attack the Dardanelles in real earnest, the services of These intermediaries ceased to be of value. Exaggerated reports of Entente victories in flamed the imagination of the Armenians, an in many parts they rose in revolt.

 

What has happened since then is still an unwritten chapter. No newspapermen are allowed to visit the affected districts and reports from these are altogether unreliable. The reticence of the Turkish Government cannot be looked upon as a good sign, however, especially when viewed in the light of what the German Government has been obliged to do.

 

New York Times

[Ashot]

TO PLEAD FOR ARMENIANS

 

OCTOBER 11, 1915

 

The Armenian Atrocities Committee of 70 Fifth Avenue, through its secretary, Professor Samuel T. Dutton, a announced yesterday that a mass meeting would be held in the Century Theater next Sunday afternoon, when the situation in Turkey would be discussed. It will be under the join auspices of the committee and the organization known as Armenian Sympathizers, which has on its rolls the names of more than 20,000 persons. The Rev. Dr. James L. Baton of Boston, Ex-President of Euphrates College; Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, and several prominent Armenians will speak. Several missionaries, recently returned from Turkey are expected to be president, and will tell of their experiences in Armenia.

 

The meeting is called primarily, says no statement issued by the joint committee, to make a protest in the name of the American people against what has every appearance of being a governmental policy on the part of Turkey to wipe out the entire non-Moslem population of Turkey. The secondary purpose of the mass meeting is to interest the public in the necessity of raising funds for those whose needs can be reached through the activities of the embassy at Constantinople. This has the hearty support of Henry Morgenthau, our Ambassador to Turkey, who has already received $100,000 from the American Committee.

 

It was announced yesterday that Cardinal Gibbons of Baltimore had accepted Committee among the members of which are Bishop Greer, Dr. Barton, Cleveland H. Dodge, Oscar s. Straus, and other prominent men.

 

The committee will issue tickets of admission, which may be obtained from Professor Dutton at 70 Fifth Avenue or at the headquarters of the Armenian Sympathizers at 175 Fifth Avenue.

New York Times