Ashot Posted April 20, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 20, 2008 RIOTS IN CONSTANTINOPLE Italian Embassy Wrecked--Famine Stricken Mobs Seize Bread Special Cable to THE NEW YORK TIMES. ROME, Oct. 10 (dispatch to The London Daily News.)--According to news from Athens, a Turkish mob has wrecked the new building of the Italian Embassy at Constantinople, which has not yet been completed. The police passively looked on while the building was devastated. Doors and windows were broken, and everything portable was carried away. The rioting was provoked by the high cost of living. Four thousand Moslem women assembled in front of the Sublime Porte and held an anti-war demonstration. The were charged and distressed by the troops and the police. The mob regularly loots the bakers' shops, which are now guarded by the police. The optimism of the Young Turks, due to Bulgaria's intervention, as not shared by the population, and the reports purposely spread that the Anglo-French forces have abandoned operations on the Dardanelles are belled by the enormous number of wounded who arrive daily in Constantinople. Many are dying owing to lack of medical attendance and hospital accommodation. The massacres of Armenians continue and the Turks are openly threatening the Greeks with the same fate. New York Times Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashot Posted April 20, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 20, 2008 SPARE ARMENIANS, POPE ASKS SULTAN OCTOBER 11, 1915 ROME,Oct. 10.--Mgr. Dolci, the Apostolic Delegate at Constantinople, having report to the Holy See on the sufferings of the Armenians, Pope Benedict has written an autograph letter to the Sultan of Turkey interceding for the unfortunate people. BERLIN, Oct. 10, (by Wireless to Tuckerton, N. J.).--"The Cologne Gazette refers to the accusations of Lord Cromer and the Marquis of Crewe in the House of Lords that German Consular officials encouraged the Turkish population to attack Armenians," says the Overseas New Agency. "The newspaper states that the purpose of these unfounded assertions is easy to comprehend. England wishes to divert the attention of neutrals from the violation of Greek neutrality, and since the Belgian question is no longer novel enough, turns to new accusations." New York Times Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashot Posted April 20, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 20, 2008 TURKISH HORRORS IN PERSIA OCTOBER 11, 1915 Sherman Malek Yonan, a well-to-do Persian who was graduated from Washington and Lee University in 1913 and returned to his native city of Uremia, has sent an appeal to the country that gave him his education to help the thousands of sufferers about him. Mr. Yonan, whose nickname is college was Prince and who as a track athlete established the Washington and Lee record for the broad jump, makes his appeal in a letter written to a classmate on July 25, 1915, in which he describes as much of his terrible experience as the censors would pass. The letter is addressed to F. W. McWaine and has been printed in The Ring-Tum Phi, the Washington and Lee college weekly. It says in part: It would take volumes, as big to the world a picture so horrible. No such things have happened since Creation. "When Turkey declared war against the Allies, the Russians had a small army in Uremia. A couple of months later the army was withdrawn from Uremia. Now the sought chance had come to the Mussulmans. Oh, they did what they had contemplated, and a hundred per cent more. "From that day commenced our tortures and evil days. Honestly, as I am writing, the tears are running down my cheeks. I can't help crying. Thousands and thousands of our people--men, women and children, have been butchered in cold blood. Thousands of girls from seven years up have been destroyed by the Moslems. Thousands have been forced against their will to become Mohammedans. Our churches are converted into stables--three-fourths of them burned. More than a hundred and twenty villages of Christians have been turned into ashes. Today there is no habitation left for us. Our own houses have been burned--property taken away-absolutely nothing left. Not being satisfied with this, the cruel Moslems imposed a heavy fine upon certain persons. There was a heavy fine on me. I couldn't find the money. Then I was warned to hide myself. If not I would mount the scaffold. I had to borrow the money to pay the fine. "Well, I suppose you would think perhaps that was enough for me. But this was merely an introduction to the greater horrors. My folks had fled to Russia when they had a chance. My little brother and myself were left behind--found it impossible to go, so we had to stay. "For exactly four months I hid myself. A Moslem friend of mine hid me. Imagine four months in a dark room, not being able to see even sunlight. Three times I escaped the capture. God himself saved me. The authorities were hunting me hard. Why they were so diligently hunting for me I do not know. "The Christianity has absolutely perished here. About twelve thousand have perished by famine, murder and typhoid. Thanks to the American missionaries: they did a heroic work. It was their efforts which saved the remaining Christians. "As a friend college mate, and classmate. I appeal to you for help. we are making appeals everywhere. The people are starving to death." In submitting the letter for publication Mr. McWaine accompanied it with an appeal in Yonan's behalf, saving that contributions might be sent to him at Lexington Va., or direct to Shleeman Malek Yonan, Urumiah, Persia. New York Times Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashot Posted April 20, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 20, 2008 TURKS FEAR ARMENIANS OCTOBER 13, 1915 Fear that the Armenians will rise against them is the principal reason why the Turks are slaughtering their Christian neighbors, according to a letter given out yesterday by the American Committee on Armenian Atrocities form an American professor in one of the American colleges in Turkey. The Professor says that during the last week in April the Professor of Armenian at his college was arrested and imprisoned with twenty-five other prominent Armenians. Later he was taken to Sivas, where he died on June 26. Many of the prominent and strong men of the city, including Professors Hagopian and Manasdjian, were taken to the soldiers' barracks until the total numbered 1,215. "These 1,215 Armenians, "writes the professor, "were bound together in groups of five or six men and sent away at night under the guard of the gendarmerie by order of the Government. At a place three hours distant form the city, on a lonely road leading to Zileh, all of these men were brutally slain by the gendarmerie and by men called chettehs. Chettehs are murderers released from prison for the express purpose of preying on Armenians." The writer also tells of the wholesale deportation during July of 12,000 persons from "that section of the city nearest to our institutions," and of how at some distance from the city men and boys were separated from the women and girls were sent on and gradually taken from the guards to be appropriated by Turks for their harems or perish by the roadside." "A Government officer," the writer continues, "declared that the destination of the exiled was to be Mosul, a city about 500 or 600 miles distant in the desert regions of Mesopotamia. These were practically impossible that any of the people should ever reach this place. "The town of Samsun was similarly emptied of its Armenian population, also Amasia, Vezir Korpru, Chorun, and all other towns and villages in the vicinity of Marsovan. "The last of August, along the Anatolian Railway, from Angora to Constantinople I saw 50,000 Armenians scattered in the field and at stations along the road, without adequate supply of food and with no means of shelter. At Merkedjle alone, the station master told us, there were 30,000 exiles. Many were weak from hunger, others almost dead." The writer says that the American Consul was told that the Turkish Government intended to exterminate the Armenians. New York Times Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashot Posted April 20, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 20, 2008 ARMENIAN PROTESTS CHARGED TO ALLIES OCTOBER 13, 1915 From the Staff Correspondent. Special Cable to THE NEW YORK TIMES. BERLIN, Oct. 12.--The development of the Armenian question between Turkey and America is being followed here with increasing interest, not only in official circles, but in public discussions as well. It is believed in some quarters that the American protest to Turkey is really aimed has begun a drive at Serbia. There is a tendency to regard the Armenian protests as hypocrisy, while many Germans are convinced they are the result of a plot by the Allies to involve America in the world conflict. German opinion in general is voiced by George Bernhard in the Vossische Zeitung who writes: "In America the feelings of all the philanthropists are suddenly gushing over the Armenians. The Turkish Government after certain events since the outbreak of the war in the Caucasus border zone, has resorted to sharp measures against the Armenians. Of the Armenians something over half live in Turkey, and the rest in Russia. An old enmity exists between the Turks and the Armenians. It is only human that the latter long for a Russian victory. "Wherever this was the case the leaders of Turkish policy decided to process of eviction and then prevent the same state of affairs as took place with the Austrians in the Ruthenian districts of Cilicia on a large scale. "I have quite out of the question whether atrocities occurred in the proves. One can safely assume that Turkey's responsible statesmen did not purpose any atrocities. "It is quite possible that in carrying out the eviction orders some things have occurred which in civilized lands must be regarded with the deepest regret. It is certain that the rumors current in America of 800,000 or more Armenians having been massacred are lies, but it is equally certain that these lies were made in England consciously for the purpose of creasing new friction between the United States and Turkey and thereby between the United States and Germany. "Why become indignant over these questions? The quadruple Entente need not believed that it can cause Germany any unpleasantness by this last means which bears the stamp of desperation. We went a long way to meet the Americans in the Arabic affairs. Just how far has not been authentically determined, as the Ambassador's official report has not been received as yet. "Should, contrary to expectation, the contents of Ambassador von Bernstorff's letter to Secretary Lansing prove to be as Reuter cable, we have gone considerably beyond the limit which many Germans believe endurable in our compromise. "I desire to withhold final judgment, but in any event it must be plainly stated today that the Arabic and Lusitanian cases were matters that concerned the American people and the American President. "The Armenian question is a purely theoretical discussion about humanity. WE have battles to fight at present in order to insure our very existence. The political instinct of America's statesmen must tell them as much especially as the all-around political situation today is very different from that of two months ago. The Quadruple Entente will, therefore, have just as little success with the stink bombs of hypocrisy and slander which it now throws as it has had until now in its fight with honorable armies on the battlefields of Western Europe." LONDON, Oct. 12.--All the information in possession of the British Government on the subject of massacres and deportations of Armenians in Turkey was made public in the Marquis of Crewe's recent speech in the house of Lords, Sir Edward Grey told the House of Commons this afternoon. "There can be but one feeling--of horror and indignation--about it," the Foreign Secretary added. New York Times Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashot Posted April 20, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 20, 2008 TURKISH OFFICIAL DENIES ATROCITIES OCTOBER 15, 1915 Djelal Munif Bey, the Turkish Consul General in New York, in an official statement to THE TIMES yesterday declared the report made public a week ago last Sunday by the American Committee on Armenian Atrocities, which asserted that not in the one thousand years just ended had a people suffered such terrible outrages as are those the Turks are perpetrating upon the Armenians to be a fabrication. The report described the atrocities as being officially sanctioned from Constantinople, and it was stated that the situation was one involving an attempt to wipe out an entire race. Among the men who signed the report were Bishop David H. Greer, Cleveland H. Dodge, and Oscar S. Straus. Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, the Rev. Dr. James L. Barton, William Sloan, Professor Samuel P. Dutton, Charles R. Crane, and Arthur Curtis James. Cardinal Gibbons has, since the report was issued, accepted membership on the committee. The committee, in a foreword to the report, stated that it voucher for its truthfulness and added that "the movement against the Armenians forms part of a concerted movement against all non-Turkish and missionary and progressive elements, including the Zionists." THE TIMES yesterday asked Djelal Bey, as the highest Turkish official in New York, if he, as the representative of the ottoman Government, had any reply to make to the charges made by the Armenian Atrocities Committee. He then dictated the following statement: "The daily newspapers have lately been publishing extensive reports of wholesale massacres of Armenians in Turkey, some of them going as far as to state that 800,000 Armenians had been slaughtered in every conceivable and imaginable way. "THE NEW YORK TIMES, in its issue of Oct. 4, published a report issued by the self-styled 'Committee on Armenian Atrocities, and which was undersigned by a few names, some of them prominent American. This report contained accusations of wholesale murder of woman and children by Turks, basing it assertions on information furnished by some newly arrived missionaries from Turkey, and other reports supposedly received from various sources in Turkey, but whose authors are not disclosed; in other words, reports that are not or could not be substantiate, even though corroborated by Lord Bryce, of atrocity reports fame. "These wholesale accusations against the Turkish Government and nation were given out to the press without slightest effort being made toward ascertaining the extent of truth there is in them. "Now what happened is this: When war broke out last year, even before Turkey had joined in on the side of Germany and Austria-Hungary, the Armenians in Turkey, who dreamed of an independent Armenian, were convinced as were many others, that Germany and her ally would be swept off the map of Europe in six week's time; as a result of this Turkey would be divided among the Allies of the Triple Entente, and an independent Armenia created on what had formerly been Turkish provinces. The Armenians already looked upon this as a foregone conclusion and gave free vent to their feelings. A secret visit was paid by one of the Buxton brothers, President of the Balkan committees in London to the leaders of the Armenian revolutionary committees in Van, principal town of the Turkish province of that name. He had come down through Tiflis, Caucasus, where he had held conferences with the Armenian committees of Russia and discussed plans for a concerted action with those of Turkey against the Turkish Government. These revolutionary committees then became active, and armed by the Russians, helped the latter to capture Van, which is not very far from the Russian frontier. "Immediately after, under the auspices of the Russians, an autonomous Armenian Government was established in Van and a man called 'Aram' assumed its Governorship--New York papers published some time ago an appeal sent to America for financial help under the signature of this rebel (who signed himself 'Governor of Van') and that of the Armenian Bishop of Van. "To put it briefly, the Armenians of that section of the empire had risen with arms in hand against Turkish authority, in favor of Turkey's most bitter foe, Russia, and therefore, could not be regarded otherwise than rebels. Of course, at such a time, when it is a matter of life and death to the Turkish Empire, it cannot in good faith be expected of the Turkish troops, after the recapture of Van by them and the ejection of the Russians, that they treat these revolutionists with gloved hands, especially when they offered armed resistance. All those, who have been killed were of that rebellious element who were caught red-handed or while otherwise committing traitorous acts against the Turkish Government, and not women and children, as some of these fabricated reports would have the Americans believe. "Furthermore, in order to prevent the leaking of valuable military information into enemy channels, the Turkish Government deemed it imperative to remove into the interior of the country those suspected elements which jeopardized the safety of the whole Empire. "There may have been cases where inoffensive people shared the fate of the offender, and I am not among the last to deplore such unfortunate occurrences. Unfortunately, in times of war such a discrimination is utterly impossible, and it is not alone the offender who suffers the penalty of his act, but also the innocent whom he drags with him. "However much to be deplored may be these harrowing events in the last analysis, we can but say that the Armenians have only themselves to blame. "I do not think this moment an opportune one to discuss the underlying motives of the missionary societies which are now showing themselves so bitterly anti-Turkish and are advertising through the New York dailies a mass meeting for next Sunday to denounce the Turkish Government and people. Apparently, these same societies, whose headquarters are at 70 Fifth Avenue, are also the originators of the above mentioned report which was published in THE NEW YORK TIMES of Oct. 4. But their motives are known to us and may come to light in a not far distant future." The Consul General was asked to amplify the last part of his statement, in which he made the assertion that the motives of the men who "originated" the Armenian Atrocities Report were known to the Turks and "may come to light in a not far distant future." "For the present I do not care to say anything further on that point," he replied. New York Times Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashot Posted April 20, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 20, 2008 SAYS ONLY GERMANY CAN SAVE ARMENIANS OCTOBER 16, 1915 LONDON, Oct. 15.--"There is only one power that can stop the Armenian atrocities, and that is Germany," declared Viscount Bryce at a meeting today at the Mansion House in support of the Lord Mayor's Fund in aid of the Armenian sufferers. He declared that the only remedy was to bring the pressure of world opinion, particularly of neutral opinion, to bear on Germany, and force her to take action. Lord Bryce, who proposed a resolution condemning the reported atrocities, paid tribute to the intelligence and progressiveness of the Armenians, who, he said, were far superior to the Mohammedance, and he declared the case was not so much one of religious fanaticism as it was of deliberate extermination of a people of whom the Turks were envious. The horrors of the massacre exceeded anything in the history of persecutions declared the speaker. Women and children, he said, had been driven across the Arabian Desert with whips by the Turks, who went mad, and at Trebizond carried their victims out to sea in boats and drowned them. "Women, many of whom were as highly civilized as any of us," he asserted, "had been sold into slavery, where they were Mohammedanized. He declared untrue the excuse offered by Germans for the Turks to the effect that the Armenians had rebelled. saying that the Armenians were quiet and inoffensive until forced to defend themselves. In seconding the resolution Cardinal Bourne said that the evidence was so strong that even Germany was not able to deny the massacres. Neutrals, he said, should follow the example of Pope Benedict, who wrote a personal protest and plea to the Sultan. Sir Edwin Pears, who had been the leader of the British bar in Constantinople, apparently surprised his governors by saying that persecution was not an article on Mohammedan faith and that the massacres were deplored by the mass of the Turks. T. P. O 'Connor mentioned the work of American in raising a fund and also praised the effort to the same end being made by the Lord Mayor. New York Times Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashot Posted April 20, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 20, 2008 ARMENIANS THANK WILSON OCTOBER 16, 1915 PETROGRAD, Oct. 16.--John A. Ray, the American Consul at Odessa, was visited today by a deputation of Armenian students attending the University of Odessa, says a special dispatch from that city, and asked to convey to President Wilson the Gratitude of Armenians for the advocacy of their cause in Turkey by the American Government. New York Times Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashot Posted April 20, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 20, 2008 AMERICAN APPEAL TO AMERICA FOR HELP OCTOBER 16, 1915 INHUMANITY AND RUTHLESSNESS, not of enemy invaders but of government officials, have spurred the latest appeal for American relief funds. This plea comes from the American Committee on Armenian Atrocities, consisting of Samuel T. Dutton, Cleveland H. Dodge, Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, Frederick Lynch, Norman Hapgood, James L. Barton, Bishop David H. Greer, Oscar S. Strauss and others representing American interests and Sympathies in The Turkish Empire. James L. Barton, secretary of the American Board of Foreign Missions, is president and Charles R. Crane is treasurer. Samuel Dutton of the American Peace Society is secretary, with headquarters at 70 Fifth avenue, New York City. When the first reports of the massacre and exile of Armenians on Turkey reach United States, this committee organized and made careful study of the evidence bearing on Armenian persecution which was sent by missionaries, refugees and non-partisans to American friends and the State Department at Washington. The result is a report just released by the committee, a veritable blue book of atrocities. It is a record of a peaceful people driven under the whip like beasts from their homes into exile among populations of different race, religion and language; of men bound and shot; of tortured prisoners; of women outraged, children drowned, and old men beaten to death; of starvation and suffering, loot and massacre. The documents analyzed by the committee have since been substantiated by missionaries returning from Turkey, who have themselves witnessed the brutal extermination of the Armenian race. Among these missionaries the latest arrival is Ernest Yarrow, who was located at the Congregational mission at Van. Dr. Yarrow describes the Armenian massacres as an "organized, systematic attempt to wipe out the Armenians." The pretext, he says, is disloyalty of the Armenians toward the Turkish government, but the real cause is jealousy and religious differences. As for disloyalty, he declares that many Armenians willingly served in the Turkish armies, but that the treatment they have always received from the Turkish government tends to destroy their allegiance. Dr. Yarrow describes the attack of the Armenians at Van as regular trench warfare. The first actual bloodshed he witnessed from the mission window. Some Armenian women were crossing a field and Turkish soldiers brutally laid hold of them. When some of their men folk in trying to prevent insult were killed the signal for the hostilities began. Thereafter cannon were trained on the Armenian quarter, while the Armenians on their side fortified their houses and dug trenches about them. Meanwhile 100,000 to 150,000 refugees from neighboring villages fled to Van before the Turks. Many of these were former orphans housed at the mission. Among them were little children treated at the mission hospital for dagger slashes in the abdomen. Others came stripped of clothing, one women in particular who had wandered in the mountains for ten days without a shred of clothing and who finally died of exposure. All testified that the Turks battered down village after village with their cannon, killing all Armenian inhabitants they could find. This siege of the Armenians at Van lasted twenty-eight days according to Dr. Yarrow. Then came rumors of the Russian advance, and the Turks fled, leaving some thousand Turkish women and children as well as the Armenians. Dr. Yarrow cities as a proof of Armenian humanity the fact that these Turkish non-combatants were sent to the Armenian mission unharmed by the Armenians and allowed to remain there during the Russian occupation of the city. A scourge of diseases--typhus, typhoid, dysentery, ect.--resulting from fifth and congestion affected them, and five of the missionaries contracted typhoid from tending the sick. Finally, at the end of July, the Russian army was ordered to retreat and, fearing the return of the Turks, some 250,000 Armenians and the Van missionaries in care of the Russian Red Cross followed in the wake of the army across the Russian border. There, says Dr. Yarrow, they are safe from Turkish oppression, but are destitute of food and clothing. He hopes that some of the relief funds collected in this country may be used to aid these Armenian refugees in Russia. The bulk of the money contributed to the American Committee on Armenian Atrocities will be used, however, for the Armenians on Turkish territory. Ambassador Henry Morgenthau has sent word from Constantinople that conditions are appalling and more than $500,000 could be distributed advantageously through missionaries at Konitsa, Adana, Tarsus and Urfa and through the American consul at Aleppo. Already the committee has cabled $106,000 succor--$100,00 to Ambassador Morgenthau and $6,000 to Stephen Van R. Trowbridge, a missionary in Cairo, Egypt, for Armenians stranded there. The Rockefeller Foundation has given $30,000 to the fund and the Committee of Mercy, organized for the relief of non-combatants in war, has contributed more than $1,500 and is co-operating with the Committee on Armenian Atrocities in a wide appeal for a generous total. Survey Magazine Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashot Posted April 20, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 20, 2008 THE GREATEST OF RELIGIOUS MASSACRES OCTOBER 18, 1915 THE most extensive, the most atrocities of religious massacres which the world has seen for centuries is now being perpetrated in Turkey. It had stemmed that the measure of her iniquity was full. Almost before she had had time to get over the first intoxication of her revolution which promised liberty, equality and fraternity to Moslem, Christian and Jew alike, the massacres of Adana and the vicinity occurred. But now the fury of slaughter has spread from the Mediterranean to the Caucasus. This is no frenzied dream, But the authenticated fact. We have it from many sources which must be credited. Our mission boards are receiving the story. Very slow were they to publish the facts, for missionaries must not be involved in political affairs, and massacre is political. Our old friend, Ambassador Bryce, confirms the unmentionable details and calls on America to do anything she can to save those who remain. This is no local affairs; it is so general that it is intended, planned and ordered, thru the opportunity of war, to exterminate the Christians, Greek and Armenian, Protestant and Catholic. The tale comes from Marash and Ruitab on the west, from Trebizond on the north, from Bitlis and Van on the east, of men slaughtered by the tens of thousands, of women and girls buried in Moslem harems to bear future soldiers for the Turkish Government and the Moslem faith. Others are driven in herds from their homes, families separated, to go they know not where and to perish by hunger on the road--first deprived of property and then of life. No massacre of modern times compares with this. What can we of the United States who have given so much money and so many devoted lives for the regeneration of Turkey do in this fearful emergency? Indeed, what ! Turkey is in the throes of the great world war. We cannot reach Turkey with army attacking and defending her. Indeed, Turkey is not her own. The munitions defending Constantinople come from Germany. The Turkish army is led by German officers. Germany's will rules at the Porte. Are we then to say that Germany is responsible for these massacres? Surely, surely, not directly. She could not have desired them. But she has been busy in the war, and it has not occurred to the War Office to forbid or prevent them. The Armenians do not love Turkey, doubtless they would help the Allies if they could. Many thousands have fled and are fleeing over the line to meet the Russian army in the Caucasus. The Armenians hate the Turks, and no wonder, and the Turks are taking opportunity to give the old alternative of death or the Koran. But the one and only power that can stop these massacres is Germany. We are powerless, the allied nations are powerless, and the neutral states are all powerless. only Germany can do it. We appeal to Christian Germany to forbid Turkey utterly to exterminate Christianity in her empire. We call upon every organ of public opinion in this country to join in this appeal. The public conscience of the world may not be listened to in Constantinople, but it must be heard at Berlin. But the doom of Turkey must be near at hand. The world has endured the intolerable Turk to the end. Her crime cries to Heaven for punishment. Avenge, O Lord, thy slaughtered saints! Independent Magazine Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashot Posted April 20, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 20, 2008 THE ASSASSINATION OF A RACE THE HOPES AND THE THREATENEDD FATE OF THE ARMENIANS OCTOBER 18, 1915 THE Armenians in Turkey before the present onslaught upon them numbered about two millions, but their importance in the empire is not to be measured by their numbers. Intellectually and physically they are vastly superior to the Turks. In education, enterprise, industry and love of home they surpass all the other races. Among all the peoples of Turkey they have been the quickest to catch the spirit of modern education and twentieth century progress. Within the last fifty years in the eastern part of Turkey wholly, and in a measure throughout the empire, they have been the artisans, the leaders in the learned professions and promoters of commercial enterprises. This ancient and proud-spirited race, conscious of its own innate superiority, ambitious to educate its children, Christian in its religion, and eager for an progress, cherished the hope of an independent Armenia reestablished upon the ruins of its ancient kingdom. For thirty years a few of the more hot-headed youth, both within and without the country, have carried on a revolutionary propaganda that was as hopeless of successful achievement as it was foolish in organization. The loud talk of some of these revolutionary leaders frightened Abdul Hamid into a nightmare of massacre and brought untold suffering upon innocent heads. There has been comparatively little of this in more recent years, but the fear of this aggressive, successful, prolific and industrious Christian race never departed from the councils of the Mohammedans. When Turkey entered into this war, the Armenians enlisted in large numbers and showed themselves loyal Ottomans. For some reason not explained--some say because of German prejudice--arms were gradually taken away from them and they were set to other tasks. Early in March the Russians were drawing down toward Van, where, as has already been stated, the Armenians are unusually strong. The Governor of Van was Jevdet Bey, a brother-in-law of Enver *****, who with Tallat Bey, controlled the fate of Turkey. The Armenian men of Van loyally offered their services to the Governor, who, under pretense of gratitude, tried to conduct the leaders into an ambush for their destruction. Three of the five leaders and spokesmen for the Armenians were killed, but two escaped. These rallied their followers while Jevdet called out his troops and enlisted the services of the Kurds to annihilate them. For five weeks they maintained their position, until the Russians entered the city and the Turks fled to the west. This attempt of the Armenians to defend their lives against treachery and open attack seemed to awaken in the Turks a generation of slumbering wrath. From that hour, so far as the leaders at Constantinople were conserned, the Armenians were doomed to extinction throughout the length and breadth of the Empire. Not only were men and boys imprisoned without charge, assassinated, tortured beyond comprehension, and killed, singly or in groups, but the women were revised, girls carried into Moslem slavery, and entire towns--what remained after the slaughter--sent across hundreds of miles of country, without preparation for the journey, to die like animals upon the road thru disease, starvation and repeated attacks by their guards or other ruffians, and ultimately miserably to perish in the deserts of northern Arabia. This process of destruction, begun last March, is now going on, according to indisputable evidence of creditable eye witnesses recently compiled from authentic documents by a special committee designated to that task, and recently made public. Constantinople is threatened, and the 150,000 Armenians in that city may any day be started upon their feat march to the desert. Our Ambassador, Dr. Morgenthau, at Constantinople, is doing all in his power to stay the gruesome tide of death, and we note with gratification that the public sentiment stirred by a knowledge of this tragedy is moving the President to protest in the name of humanity against such crimes against civilization. If the Central Powers win in this war over the Allies. Turkey will become a German province, in which the Armenians would find scant place. Offials at Constantinople have declared that the Greeks also must follow in the same path, so that when Germany becomes master of Asia Minor, no stray races claiming the lands as inherently belonging to them thru centuries of occupation and dreaming of possible independent principalities, will be there to challenge the German right of occupancy. The Kurds could be easily subdued and the Turks would have no spirit to resist. Some have gone so far as to declare that the present attack upon the Armenians is but the first step in the preparation of the Promised Land for the incoming hosts. On the other hand, if Constantinople capitulates to the Allies, and the two men who drove Turkey into war and rule her today with an iron hand and their German advisers are shorn of their power, there is reason to expect that the Turks as a whole will sue for peace, as multitudes of them today keenly desire to do. We can hardly conceive of any power's favoring the perpetuation of Turkey in any form, after this ghastly exhibit of Moslem incapacity to rule alien peoples or even Mohammedans. At once then will and must begin the repatriation of the exiled Armenians and Greeks, for the Greeks also in a measure are suffering the same treatment. This will be an expensive task, but the civilized world must unite to achieve it. There are said to be 300,000 refuge Armenians in Russia and more than half that number in Persia. In their return naturally the most of them will drift back to the land of Ancient Armenia, where in a few years it will be possible to create, under the protection of one or more friendly powers, an autonomous Armenia. In western Asia Minor, where the Greeks predominate, a Greek principality would be the natural outcome. We have reason to expect that following this baptism of fire and blood, Asia Minor, freed from Turkish domination, will become a place in which non-Moslem race may, for the first time in a century, live in peace and enjoy the prosperity due their quiet, constructive industry. Just at the time when it seems that the tyranny of the Turk is about to be broken and submerged Christian peoples given an opportunity to develop a national life of their own, the terrible news comes to us that the Armenians are being massacres, dispersed and enslaved with the object of extirpating the race before the hour of their deliverance has come. In an editorial on another page if this issue we consider what this means to the world. We have also asked one who is better informed on the Armenian problem than any other man in America to explain who the Armenians are and what might be made of them if the red hand of the assassin can be stayed. On account of his official position and close relations with the people now endangered, it is necessary to conceal the name of the author, but we can vouch for his competency, high standing and truthfulness.--THE EDITOR. The Independent Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashot Posted April 20, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 20, 2008 THE KIND OF ARMENIANS A TURK KNOWS OCTOBER 18, 1915 New York, Oct. 15, 1915 To the Editor of THE NEW YORK TIMES: The campaign led by a few interested persons trying to stir up American public opinion is regard to the so-called Armenian massacres has lately taken such proportions that I consider myself obliged to put forward a few considerations. I do this much to my regret, as, first of all, I amid of the opinion that in public life, as well as in private life, everybody ought to mind only his own business. Be that as it may let me put one question to those using freely the term "Armenia," mentioned even in the official communiqués of the Red Cross Society and other institutions. Where is Armenia? If they intend by this term all the provinces and cities sheltering a number of Armenians, Armenia must then include not only all the territory comprised between India and Greece but also New York City, where a large number of Armenians are residing. But the trouble is that in none of these territories has the Armenian population a reasonable majority. Just as in New York there are represented many other nationalities, so in the above territories are also millions of Persians, Russians, Turks, Kurds, Arabs, Syrians, Bulgarians, &c. If they mean by Armenia the territory contiguous to the Russian border, where the Armenian settlement is thicker, then this term ought also to include all the neighboring Russian provinces of the Caucasus, where said population is thickest. Of course, this is not to be thought of, as in such case a resurrection of Armenia would deprive of a few provinces the Russian "Little Father," whose purity, broad-mindedness, love of freedom and equal rights have allied Russia to the western powers, champions of small nationalities: The truth of this is that there is no constituted Armenia, and the Armenians in Turkey are just Ottoman citizens, as they are Russian citizens in Russia or American citizens in the United States and therefore are expected to able by the laws governing these countries. Let us now consider the national characteristics of the Armenians. It is fair to say that no matter where they are settled, be it in Turkey, in Asia, in Europe, or in America, they constitute an ungrateful element whose dealings in business have largely contributed to give a reputation of unsoundness to all the Orientals. Thus far from being the quiet and peaceful race they are depicted to be in order to aggravate the treatment they are receiving at the hands of the Turks, the majority of them are recognized to form an undesirable element by whoever comes in contact with them in any part of the world. Before passing a definite judgment on the acts of the Ottoman government in this sad occurrence, judgment which to use Mr. Lansing's own words, "would greatly endanger the friendly feelings between the people of the two countries," I want the American public to remember the photographs published broadcast in some American and many European papers. One of the last issues of the Outlook is reproducing them anew. These pictures show "Armenian volunteers entrenched and firing on the Ottoman troops." I want the American public to consider what they would think if they saw "Armenian volunteers entranced and firing on American troops," if part of the American Armenians chose this line of conduct in a time when America was at war with a foreign power. The accounts, given out in the British Parliament and quoted as originating from Tiflis, a Russian City, as well as the accounts given by the Commission of Inquiries presided over by Lord Bryce, are to say the least, grossly exaggerated. The unsoundness of accounts given by our enemies who are vitally interested in showing us under a bad light is so evident that there is no need to dwell any longer on it. The accuracy of the inquiries reported by Lord Bryce's Commission may well be put in doubt when one stops to think that said commission inquired on acts supposedly committed at a distance of several thousand miles inside the border of a country at war, and therefore in a place materially impossible to reach. The only accounts that may give a base for consideration are those given by American missionaries who have lately came back to this country. In this connection, to city only the declarations of one of the most recent eyewitnesses, let me quote the words of Dr. Yarow, member of the American Board for Foreign Missions, as given out and published in THE NEW YORK TIMES of Oct. 6. Dr. Yarow says: "For twenty-seven days 1,500 determined Armenians held Vap against 5,000 Turks and Kurds." Now, mark my words: Van is an Ottoman city, and therefore, the act of the determined Armenians was nothing else than an act of open rebellion and had to be dealt with accordingly by organized and legal force. Queerly enough, Dr. Yarow makes it a crime that the Turks were led by a German officer and used a howitzer to quell the rebellion, as if any legally instituted Government was expected to act in a different way to smash the revolt of a certain number of its "determined" citizens. Queerly enough, Dr. Yarrow makes it also a crime that the Turks deliberately fired at the mission buildings which flew five American flags and a Red Cross flag "as protection" (sic), though according to his own confession he admits the illegal use of said flags by confessing the active support he and colleagues of the mission gave to the rebellious Armenians when he says: "And during the siege WE not only had to fight the Turks but almost every known contagious disease as well," thus manifestly showing that their first and main object was to "fight the Turks" and so manifestly admitting the misuse of the American flag. Is it surprising that under those conditions the Turks deliberately fired at the mission buildings? I would venture to say that of the American missionaries in Van or any other part of Turkey, instead of "fighting the Turks," had rather contented themselves with preaching and professing brotherly love and general Christian principles, for which work they were presumably sent to Turkey by the American Board, the properties of the missions in the Ottoman Empire would have been immune and secure from and attacks. If there has been any purposely committed crime on women and children we are the first ones to deplore it deeply and sincerely, but with my knowledge of the country and people I consider myself in a position absolutely to deny the existence of a concerted general movement implying massacres and atrocities. If women and children have been killed in the fray I again deplore it, but I want to point out that similar accidents to happen daily even supposedly civilized nations are at war. It must therefore, be considered as an unfortunate but inevitable evil of warfare. As for the expulsion " en massae" and the driving away of the Armenians from those parts of the Ottoman Empire which are or may be threatened by a foreign invasion, I see the justification of this act of the Ottoman government in the aid the Armenians gave to the Russians. It is well to notice that only in Van and its neighborhood, where the internal revolt of the Armenians took effect, did the Russians succeed in invading Turkish territory. It stands, therefore, to reason that a legally constituted Government, having been deceived by the treason of a certain element of the population will take necessarily severe measures to prevent the repetition of a similar treason, and the consequences it would have in any other part of the country, by concentrating in a place easy to control, all and every member of such a turbulent element. Of courses an expulsion on such a large scale as bound to create miseries, sicknesses, and even illegal and immoral actions. This is again evidenced by the results noted on the Belgian refugees in England, Holland and other countries. It is most deplorable that similar miseries had to fall on the shoulders of a race included in the Ottoman family as well, but the Armenians have only themselves to blame. ZIA MUFTY-ZADE BEY New York Times Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashot Posted April 20, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 20, 2008 PLANS ARMENIAN CORPS TO FIGHT FOR THE ALLIES OCTOBER 19, 1915 LONDON, Oct. 18.--A dispatch to Reuter's Telegram Company from Petrograd says: "Captain Torcom is planning to raise volunteer corps from the Armenians now residing in the Balkans, Egypt, Italy, France, Great Britain, and the United States to flight in the ranks of the Allies against Turkey. "In as appeal with this end in view Captain Torcom says that the Armenians have been unable to prevent the massacre of Armenians in Asia Minor by the Turks, but that those living in other countries can help fight Turkey and that the allied powers will not refuse them the honor of joining in the war against their oppressors. "Captain Torcom's plan provides for the formation of a maximum of thirty battalions and a minimum of ten battalions. Captain Torcom was wounded in the recent fighting in Cilicia, but is now able to leave the hospital and is about to start for London to get his plan in operation." New York Times Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashot Posted April 20, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 20, 2008 Undeleted OCTOBER 19, 1915 Undeleted To the Editor of The New York Times: Thanking you for your publishing my letter of the 15th inst. in connection with the Armenian crisis. I beg to attract your attention that at least three important paragraphs of the omitted. As I consider these paragraphs of the utmost importance in favor of my argument, I beg you to publish in extents this letter of mine with its corrections, in justice to the claim of fairness you champion. The second paragraph of my letter read. Before entering any further into the subject I want to express my surprise in seeing protests emanating from every quarter, though every nation has in its history similar black pages, and I want to remind in this connection that should the different nations follow the precept of the Christ. "Let he who has no sin throw the first stone. " none of them would be in a position to raise any protest. In connection to the expulsion, massacre, and the driving away of the Armenians, I said in explanation, not as excuse: In other words the Ottoman Government sees itself obliged to follow now the line of conduct the United States adopted in regard to the Indian reservations and its action is thus at least explained. Finally my article ended: If they (the Armenians) are now suffering of the severity of the punishment, it is very deplorable, but they must not forget their previous actions: They were willing to take unnecessary chances, they failed, they must now take the consequences of their rebellious and treacherous actions. These sentences were purposely meant to emphasize that the Turkish nation, as a race or as a Government, is neither better have no doubt you will be kind enough to publish them. ZIA MUFTY-ZADE BEY. New York, Oct. 18, 1915. New York Times Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashot Posted April 20, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 20, 2008 ARMENIANS THANK POPE Patriarch is Grateful for Benedict XV.'s Plea to the Sultan OCTOBER 21,1915 Special Cable to THE NEW YORK TIMES. ROME, Oct. 20.--the news that the Patriarch of the Armenians had thanked the pope for his intervention in favor of the Armenians in Turkey was received here with great satisfaction, as it was thought that had the Papal remonstrance to the Sultan had no effect the Patriarch would have kept silence. The agitation in favor of the Armenians has not ceased, however, as the people hare have had too much experience with Turkish promises to believe the danger of outrages over. The plan of an Armenian Captain to organize a corps of his countrymen from all countries to flight the Turks was received with enthusiasm hare, and he would have no difficulty in getting volunteers among the Armenians in Italy. New York Times Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashot Posted April 20, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 20, 2008 ONLY 200,000 ARMENIANS NOW LEFT IN TURKEY More Than 1,000,000 Killed, Enslaved or Exiled, Says a Tiflis Paper TIFLIS, Transcaucasia, Oct. 19 (via Petrograd and London, Oct. 21).---The estimate is made by the Armenian newspaper Mshak that of the 1,200,000 Armenian inhabitants of Turkey before the war there remain not more than 200,000. This residue, the Mshak says, may disappear before the end of the war, on account of the Turkish policy of extermination. The figures of the Mshak are based on the estimate of the Armenian Patriarch at Constantinople that 850,000 Armenians have been killed or enslaved by the Turks, in addition to which 200,000 Armenians are believed to have fled to Russia. New York Times Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashot Posted April 20, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 20, 2008 ACCUSE ARMENIANS OF WRONGING TURKS OCTOBRER 22, 1915 Special to The New York Times. WASHINGTON, Oct. 21.--Following world-wide accusations of barbarous treatment of the Christians of Armenian, the Turkish Government has filled countercharges here, in which it is alleged that barbarous acts have been committed on Moslems along the Caucasian frontier by Russian troops, aided by members of the Greek and Armenian population of that region. The countercharge was sent by the Turkish Government to its Embassy at Washington. It took the form of a communication which was delivered to Secretary Lanshing today by Abdul Hak Hussein Bey. First Secretary and Charge d'Affaires of the Embassy since the return of Ambassador A. Rustem Bey to Turkey. After delivering the communication to Secretary Lanshing, the Turkish Charge handed a summary of it to the press. Secretary Lanshing refrained from commenting upon the Turkish Government's communication, beyond saying that he had not had opportunity to examine the document. It is not expected that the State Department will take any action on the communication at this time, but will file it for future reference. The summary given out by Hussem Bey says: "The Ottoman Embassy has just received an official report from the General Ottoman headquarters concerning the barbarous acts perpetrated by the Russian troops, assisted by the Greek and Armenian populations, against the Moslems dwelling along the frontier of the Caucasus. These atrocious acts, committed under the eyes of the Russian authorities in the districts of Tavashguerd. 'Pensguerd, Olti, and Ardanuche have been well ascertained after a careful inquiry by Seifullah Effendi, a member of the Ottoman Parliament from Erzerum. Some of the most typical cases are related below with omission however or certain details which could not be printed on account of their indescribable horror. "A band of Russians and Armenians repaired to the house of Murad Bey, a wealthy man of the village of Kirechud, well known for his charitable acts toward all the inhabitants, without distinction of race or creed, with the obvious intention of assaulting his old wife. Murad Bey realized the impossibility of rescuing her from dishonor, killed her with his own gun, and was himself later murdered by the aggressors. The fury of the latter was then directed against the daughter-in-law of Murad Bey, whose son, Sulleyman, following the example of his father, was also murdered. "The offenders went afterward to the village of Izentur, and in order to prevent the repetition of similar acts, began by shooting up in a barn the male part of the population and after that assaulted the women. The Moslems of the surrounding villages being forewarned of the danger, rushed to the spot, but too late to rescue the women, among whom two girls 13 years of age died from disgrace and torture. "Moslem women who took refuge in the village of Parishur were assaulted by Greeks and Armenians, and some of them had to submit to the worst treatment. Most of them, however, preferring death to disgrace, threw themselves from a hill 200 meters high into a rocky precipice, where they all perished. "A great number of Moslem women, of Ardanuche who had fled to Tavanguerd had to endure the same fate. Whilst they had been left half dead their Russian, Armenian, and Greek aggressors carried the cruelty to the point of piercing with their bayonets the cheeks of their babies in order to prevent them from taking the milk of their mothers. In this wise, mothers and children perished by a slow and terrible death under the eyes of their persecutors. "The wife and the daughter of Ibrahim Allias who were carried away by Greeks and Armenians from the village of Mokdjalar to the village of Pertek in the district of Olti and there they were assaulted. Two Mussulmans, rushing to their aid rescued the young girl. The mother died after having received twenty-one wounds. The young girl lost her life two months later as a consequence of the shock she had experienced. "Armenians and Greeks serving as guides to the troops, in the attack on the village of Erghenes, have assaulted with unheard of brutality the wife of Imam Oglou Osman Agha, under the eyes of her helpless husband. The latter was afterward murdered and his body cut to pieces. "Zebra, wife of Mouhib Oglou Mohammed Ali, equally from the village of Erghenes, 18 years old, was tortured by the same malefactors during three days, after which she was killed and her body horribly mutilated. "The Armenians swelling in the village of Dauzote beheaded a certain man. Cherif by name, and four other Mussulmans, who had taken refuge in that village. "A Greek, named Yani, murdered in the middle of the street and before a numerous assemblage. Garib Agha of the village of Karnavas, in the district of Tavasquerd, who had fled to the village of Azort, in the district of Tortum. The Armenians who were witnessing this scene joined Yani at once and dragged twenty-five Mussulmans out from the houses where they had concealed themselves. Driven into the street, these unfortunate people were called together and all of them killed, after having experienced horrible tortures recalling the Middle Ages. Their bodies, cut to pieces were then exhibited on every street corner. "The same murderers proceeded to the village of Djihan, and there they attacked five aged men, 70 years old. These were first covered with wounds, and afterward, being smeared over with kerosene were burned alive. "These few instances could be multiplied, but they are sufficient to show the barbarous spirit with which the Russians, aided by Armenians and Greeks, are carrying on the war in the Caucasus." New York Times Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashot Posted April 20, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 20, 2008 Mr. Yarrow Did Not Say It OCTOBER 24, 1915 To the Editor of THE NEW YORK TIMES: In your issue of Oct. 18, Zia Mufty-Zade Bey in an article entitled. "The King of Armenians a Turk Knows." makes use of an interview in which I am alleged to have said: "And during the siege we not only had to fight the Turks but almost every known disease as well," This statement was never made by me. On the country, both before and after the siege and during it we made every effort to maintain the absolute neutrality of our premises and were successful in doing so. Our relations with the Turks were always friendly, and when the war first began we turned our hospital into a Red Cross unit and for many months cared for sick and wounded soldiers who were sent to us from the Turkish military hospital. In fact, we had about fifteen such soldiers in our hospital when the siege began. One of our young ladies, Miss McLaren, for months served in the Turkish military hospital as nurse, and when the siege began she voluntarily remained within the Turkish lines and was subsequently taken to Bitlis with the Turkish sick. When the Russians occupied Van and the Turks withdrew, over 1,000 Turkish men, women and children, who had been enable to flee, were brought to our premises for care and protection. ERNEST ALBERT YARROW Auburndale Mass., Oct. 21, 1915 New York Times Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashot Posted April 20, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 20, 2008 CAN'T DEFEND ARMENIANS Turkish Statesman Says Government Has No Gendarmes in Interior OCTOBER 25, 1915 BERLIN, Oct.24, (via London.)--The Constantinople correspondent of the Tageblatt, Emil Ludwig, sends the story of an interview which he had with Halil Bey, President of the Turkish Chamber of Deputies, regarding the Armenians. Halil Bey is quoted as follows: "They are traitors. You have in mind certain excesses and blunders, but, believe me, the Government is not responsible for them, and regrets them as sincerely as anybody. But we have no more gendarmes in the interior. Everybody is under arms as a soldier. Thus it comes to pass that we have not everywhere been able to restrain the rage of the Mohammedans against these traitors to their country. The Government itself will only keep the Armenians so far from the theatre of war that they cannot conspire with the enemy." Halil Bey pointed out, says the correspondent, that the Armenians went over to the Russians by thousands when the latter made an inroad to Van, and asked: "Will you defend such things?" AMSTERDAM, Oct. 24.--A dispatch from Constantinople to the Frankfurter Zeitung says that Halil Bey, former President of the Turkish Chamber of Deputies, has been appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Ottoman Cabinet. New York Times Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashot Posted April 20, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 20, 2008 (edited) THE TOTTERING TURK BY FULLERTON L. WALDO, F. R. G. S. ASSOCIAATE EDITOR OF THE PHILADELPHA PUBLIC LENGER OCTOBER 25, 1915 WHEN I was in Constantinople the air seemed more than ordinarily surcharged with that sense of things sinister and gruesome that somehow the city never quite shakes off even in its most lethargic moods in times of peace. The Armenians, in mid-August, had spread about, like running torches, the rumors that sealed orders were at every police station for a general slaughter on the third day of Beiram. Twenty years ago the pavements were reddened with the blood of 8000 massacred innocents: and those who remembered thought the time ripe for a repetition of the horrors of 1895. For the Young Turks, betwixt the upper millstone of a German vassalage and the nether of the Allies battering at the Dardanalles and toiling up thru Mesopotamia, have determined on Turkey for the Turks, and Armenia without the Armenians. Betwixt devil and deep sea, the German incubus and the Egean, Enver *****, Tallat Bey and Shukri Bey are playing out the lurid drama to the end. There are 100,000 Armenians in Constantinople. The Turks whenever they please hale them to the police stations, soak their feet in salt water, and then apply the bastinado till their victims have to walk about on their knees for many days thereafter, if they walk at all. One man I talked with, a cook in charge of a bake oven at an American institution, had recently received the full official tale of seventy strokes while the doctor held his pulse to make sure the exquisite torment did not send the victim's fluttering life quite over the brink. But a weak old man, who in the same hour was given but twenty strokes, died on the day following. The newspapers today are filled with the execrable deeds of hireling Kurds and Bashi-Bazouks in Asia Minor. And still, Ambassador Morgenthau assured me, the half has not been told. The Black Sea and the Tigris River hold the secret of struggling thousands ruthlessly thrown into deep water and shot from the bank. A good woman that I knew wanted to go down from Scutari to Nicomedia by rail to help the evicted there, but the Turks would not let her, for they did not wish her to see the crimes committed and apprise the world of them. From that region 30,000 at least had been thrust forth to desert wanderings, and tens of thousands more were interned in and around the station, waiting till the cattle-cars had dumped their human freight and returned for more. Of course, the Turks, with his sluggish mentality, is jealous of the Armenian's progressive temper that out bargains, out builds, outplays and in all non-military ways outgenerals him. The Turks fears the league of the Armenians and the Russians, for which the former have toiled as their one hope of political and social salvation. In the meantime, this man Morgentau, his soul fired to white heat by Russia's oppression of his own people, the Jews, is determined to do his best for those whom Turkey so barbarously mishandles. On his executive capacity nine nations at lest are now depending, and the embassy is the camp of refuge for black-clad weeping Armenian women with their infants in their arms, for priests and merchants and teachers with a Damocletian sword over their heads in a region of terror. When the Turks on a drenching day of rain began to throw the French nuns and the orphans out into the street, Morgenthau rushed round to their place, and Mrs. Morgenthau went with him. While the Ambassador got a stay from the Under Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Mrs. Morgenthau procured the title deeds and the money and ran the gauntlet with them hidden in her dress and her heart fast beating. The Turks tried to kidnap Sir Edwin Pears, for two score years a highly respected advocate whose knowledge of the Levant almost reached to the encyclopedic understanding of the late Dr. Washburn. Morgenthau heard of it and saved him, and sir Edwin is now safe at home in England. Then there is William Wheelock, the famous missionary treasurer. He has been thirty-four years on the scene, and knows Asia Minor, Macedonia, Albania as a Hadji knows the Koran. "How are you getting the money to the missionaries in these troublous times?" I asked. "I used the money-orders of the post office till the post broke down," he said "then the tobacco monopoly distributed it for me, and now it is the Standard Oil agents. They've never been able to stump me yet !" That is the American spirit--the same spirit that keeps Gates at Robert College, Dr. Patrick at Constantinople College, Dr. Hayward Bliss at the Syrian Protestant College, Beirut, determined not to haul down the flag to Islam. I talked with an ensign from our tiny stationnare the "Scorpion." She is a boat of 900 tons, carrying ninety men. The Turks have moved her to the far end of the Golden Horn, within the two bridges and the tangle of shipping, where in no case can her limited puissance be made available, though her men ashore might guard the Embassy. Aside from the "Scorpion's" complement there are perhaps 150 Americans in the city. Daily more audacious, the Turks cut mail to ribbons and deny to travelers the least written communication in their baggage. They have erased the French and English signs, and ordered these languages off the streets. They aim--successfully--to keep the foreigners in Cimmerian darkness as to all that goes on at Gallipoli. They poison the mind of the Turk against the American munitions feed the guns of the Allies. In spite of all, Robert College--typical of these brave American institutions--has started the year with an enrollment of nearly 400, in the teeth of a famine in oil and coal and bread and many things. There is, at any rate, no dearth of the splendid courage that holds the fort "till the day break and the shadows fled away." Philadelphia Constantinople is now the critical point in the Great War. The issue of the conflict turns upon it, and the next few weeks may decide the question. The city is besieged by armies of Russians, English, Australians, New Zealanders, Indians, French, Senegalese and Italians. Armies of Austrians and Germans are pushing down thru Serbia to reach Constantinople before it falls. British, French and Italian troops have rushed to stop their onward march. Meanwhile "the Sick Man of the East" is in mortal dander. The Turk feels that he is losing his grip and the subject races who have suffered under his tyranny for centuries are getting restive at the thought that the day of their deliverance is at hand. He has determined that they shall be destroyed rather than be freed. The colleges which Americans have founded in Turkey are threatened with extinction. It makes an American thrill with pride to read in Mr. Waldo's article how these educational outposts of ours in the East are calmly continuing their work in the midst of war. ---THE EDITOR. Independent Magazine Edited April 20, 2008 by Ashot Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashot Posted April 20, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 20, 2008 THE LIGHT THAT MAY GO OUT IN TURKEY OCTOBER 28, 1915 To the Editor of The New York Times: Zia Mufta-Zade, the eminent apologist of the Turkish atrocities, in his rambling extenuation and justification of the criminal conduct of the Ottoman Government, asks: "What is Armenia?" He thinks that as Armenia is divided between three powers--Russia Persia, and Turkey--she no longer exists. But Poland also is divided between three powers. Do we ask: "Where is Poland's?" The provinces of Aleppo, Adana, Trebizonde, Erzeroum, Van, Bitlis, Diarbekir, Mamouret-ul-Aziz, and Sivas, inhabited in Turkey. The Turkish Government itself acknowledged officially the existence of Armenian during the Russo-Turkish war. When the Turkish armies were destroyed the Sultan and his advisers realized that the victor, Russia, might demand the annexation of the provinces of Erzeroum, Diarbekir, and Sivas. Therefore, they urged the Armenians to demand for the provinces inhabited by them political autonomy under Ottoman suzerainty. The arrival of the British squadron before Constantinople, however, encouraged Turkey to change her mind, and in the course of the peace negotiations at San Stefano she refused to accept the text proposed by the Russian plenipotentiaries in behalf of the Armenian administrative autonomy" of Article XVI, of the treaty of San Stefano was replaced by that of "reforms and ameliorations" which Russia would guarantee by occupying Turkish territory. At the Congress of Berlin, through the efforts of Great Britain, the clause concerning Russian occupation was eliminated and thus Article LXI. of the treaty of Berlin was substituted for Article XVI. to the treaty of San Stefano and in Article LXI. of the treaty of Berlin are an irrefutable acknowledgment of the existence of Armenia in the Turkish Empire. Moreover, the existence of a nation is indicated not alone by its political independence, but by its civilizing activities. The whole population of the Turkish Empire is estimated at 32,000,000, of whom only 1,100,000 are Armenians. Yet the Armenians have 783 educational institutions, with more than 82,000 students, whereas the Turks can scarcely boast of 150 schools, with only 17,000 students. To give an idea of the economic power of the Armenians in the Turkish Empire. Marcel Leart records the fact that of 166 importers in Ivas, which has the smallest Armenian population of the six Armenian Provinces, 141 are Armenians, 13 Turks and 12 Greeks. Of 150 exporters, 127 are Armenians and 23 Turks. Of 37 bankers and capitalists, 32 are Armenians and only 5 Turks. Of 9,800 shopkeepers and artisans 6,800 are Armenians and only 2,550 Turks, the rest being divided among various other nationalities. The same is true of native industry. Of 153 factories and flour mills, 130 belongs to Armenians, 20 to Turks, and 3, carpet concerns, to foreign or mixed companies. The personnel of all these establishment is Armenian exclusively. The number of employees is about 17,000 of whom 14,000 are Armenians , 3,500 Turks, and 200 Greeks and others. The Turks belong to the Turanian race of Central Asia. With their appearance in Syria, Mesopotamoa, Byzantium, Arabia, Egypt, Armenia, and Greece civilization invariably vanished. Victor Hugo has admirably described this blighting influence of the Turks in the following lines: "Les Turcs ont passé a tout est ruine et deuil." (The Turks have traversed there, all is ruin and mourning.) The Turk has no bond, no consanguinity with the Arab, and hence no claim upon his civilization. he is heartily despaired by the Arab, who signs: Three things naught but evil work-- The locust the vermin, and the Turk. Surrounded on all sides by the destructive Turkish hordes, the Armenians have been the representatives of western civilization, first by their Christianity, and then by their culture. While the Turks furnish the criminals in the Ottoman Empire, the Armenians furnish physicians, the artisans, and the savants. It was an Armenian architect, Sinan, who designed and built the famous Mosque of Adrianople and the Mosque of Suleyman in Constantinople and Armenian architects, the Balians constructed the palaces of Cheragan, of Beyler-bey, and of Dolma Bahche, "which might be taken," writes Theophile Gautier, "for a Venetian palace only richer, vaster and more highly ornamented -- transported from the Grand Canal to the banks of the Bospurus." Even the introduction of Turkish printing and the drama was accomplished by the Armenians, and it was two distinguished Armenians. Odian and Servicen, who collaborated with Midhad ***** in framing the Turkish Constitution, The Turks would not have a grammar of their own language if it were not for the Armenian philologist Sheriff *****, the distinguished Turkish exile in Paris, must be congratulate for his sincerity when he declares, as reported in the columns of THE TIMES of Oct. 10, that: "If there is a race which has been closely connected with the Turks by its fidelity, by its services to the country, by the statesman and functionaries of talent it has furnished by the intelligence which it has manifested in all domains--commerce, industry, science and the arts--it is certainly the Armenians." Besides, Armenia in Turkey is the sustainer of the Turks. Attest the Subjoined paragraphs from a letter which a Turk has sent to his son in this country: "I am returning the check you sent, for we cannot cash it there being no royal here any more * * *. Times are bad, my son, the rajah was everything for us. * * * I tell you when Winter comes we ourselves will have to starve for, as you know, we all live on the rajahs crops." In view of these facts, might not one ask of Zia Mufty. "Where is Turkey?" ARSHAG MAHDESIAN New York, Oct. 19 1915. New York Times Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashot Posted April 20, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 20, 2008 TURKISH SPIES IN HOTEL Guard at an Armenian, but House Detective Chased Them Away OCTOBER 29, 1915 A search for Turkish spies was begun in the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel yesterday noon by House Detective John Dillon when it was reported to him that four suspicious looking persons more than once passed a table where Vahan Cardashain, until recently Turkish Commissioner to the Panama-Pacific Exposition, was dining with several friends. Mr. Cardashian, an Armenian subject of Turkey, ceased to be Commissioner son after a letter he wrote to William Jennings Bryan in confirmation of Armenian atrocities was turned over to Ambassador von Bernstorff. The ex-Commissioner was a little tardy at luncheon, and his friends grew anxious. When he finally arrived, they confided to him their fears, but they merely caused smiles on the part of Mr. Cardashain. However, when the four strangers several times passed the Cardashian table with ominous glances, the house detective was called. As soon as he appeared, the suspects departed toward Fifth Avenue. Mr. Cardashain took a train for Washington. New York Times Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashot Posted April 20, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 20, 2008 TURKS OPPOSING GERMANS OCTOBER 30, 1915 PARIS, Oct. 29.--News from Constantinople, said to be authoritative, says that the anti-German movement is growing daily, and that Ahmed Riza, leader of the Young Turk Party, who wished to interpolate the Government regarding Turkey's reason for entering the war, was not permitted to do so. The Government has forbidden Senators and Deputies to discuss Turkish Foreign policy. Fresh Armenian massacres are reported in the region of Ourfa. LONDON, Saturday, Oct. 30.--A Reuter dispatch from Athens says it is reported that Turkey is about to rescind its decree for the confiscation of the property of belligerents owing to a threat by the Entente powers to confiscated German property in belligerent countries. AMSTERDAM, Oct. 29.--Hakki *****, Turkish Ambassador to Germany declares in an interview published by a Berlin newspaper that the "fiasco" of the Entente powers at Saloniki showed the folly of attempting an important military operation with 50,000 or 100,000 men. If the battlefield was to be extended to Syria, he added, Turkey was ready to send adequate forces, especially now that ammunition was going to Constantinople freely by the Danubs. New York Times Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashot Posted April 20, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 20, 2008 CITY WOMEN'S CLUBS FOR TRADING STAMPS OCTOBER 30, 1915 Federation Remains Neutral. The second flurry came when Miss Amy Fay, as representing the Women's Philharmonic Society, put before the Federation a resolution protesting against the atrocities of the Turks upon the Armenians and pledging the organization to do all in its power to bring about intervention by the Government of the United States. There were cries of "We're neutral !" when the resolution was read, and several women got up and shouted that the whole proceeding was out of order. The opposition developed strength and in the end a motion to table the resolution was carried. There were some 1,800 women present when Mrs. Eugene J. Grant called, the convention to order. By the time the convention got down to work the room was filled and in the confusion at the door many struggled to get in. The convention put into practice the new were 381 delegates and 186 alternates, representing 245 clubs. Seventeen new clubs were admitted to the Federation, the largest being the National Opera Club of America, of which Mme. President, and which has 800 members. The Scholarship Committee reported and $500 was raised for the Scholarship Fund. Of this amount $219 came from a teacher in the public schools and was a gift of the amount paid by the fund for this teacher's expenses during the two years she was a student in the Normal School. Mrs. William Grant Brown, of the Biennial Board, announced that the National Federation of Women's Clubs would meet in the seventh Regiment Armory in May next. An appeal for the City Federation Hotel, a home for working girls at 462 West Twenty-second Street, was made by Mrs. Emile Glogau. The convention went on record as favoring the Consumer's League appeal for early Christmas shopping. It also called upon its members to stop the practice of ordering goods sent home C. O. D. and then not accepting them. The convention adopted a resolution asking Congress to establish a national leprosarium. At the request of the Brooklyn Women's Single Tax Club, there was adopted after much discussion a resolution disapproving Article X., of the proposed Constitution. New York Times Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashot Posted April 20, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 20, 2008 WHO CAN SAVE ARMENIA? October 30, 1915 WHAT TO DO about the Armenian atrocities is a question agitating many minds. The government has made informal representations to Turkey through Ambassador Morganthau "pointing out the bad effect upon public opinion in the United States of the treatment of the Armenians," but beyond this, so Washington dispatches say, nothing further can be done. A London cable reports Lord Bryce as saying that "there is only one Power that can stop the Armenian atrocities, and that is Germany." The Germany press, however, give precise warning to the United States that "the Germans will not only not interfere with Turkish massacre of 'infidels,' but that they will not permit the United States to interfere." The Frankfurter Zeitung points out, with a logic all its own, that the Armenian affaire is no more Germany's business than the lynching of Negroes is German's business. A writer in the Vossische Zeitung adds this assurance: "The American question is a purely theoretical discussion about humanity. We have battles to fight at present in order to insure our very existence. The political instinct of America's statesmen must tell them as much, especially as the all-around political situation to-day is very different from that of two months ago. The Quadruple Entente will. therefore, have just as little success with the stink bombs of hypocrisy and slander which it now throws as it has had until now in it's with honorable arms on the battle-fields of Western Europe." When the German press decide that what has seemed to Americans a crime against humanity is "purely theoretical discussion," observes the Syracuse Post Standard, "we have learned to expect a reflection of their opinions in the minds of these publicists in this country who claim to have exclusive title to the name of neutral": "Expectation is not kept waiting. H. L. Mencken, as American-born author who has two excellent books upon the philosophy of Nietzsche, explains the whole Armenian business in a paragraph: "The Belgian relief-business having gradually petered out, so that it is now an almost impossible job to wring money from the books, the professional up lifters who lately engaged in it so copiously will turn their talents to collecting funds for the massacred Armenians. This Armenian excitement has been set going by the London press bureau, and follows classical lines. The same Armenians who were exterminated in 1896 are now being exterminated again. The only difference is that in the present case the accommodating Secretary Lansing has given the atrocity-mongers a life by addressing a moral note to the Turkish Government. The circulation of such notes now constitutes one of the chief duties of the State Department." Agencies in this country, aside from the Government, are endeavoring to move the atrocities in Germany and Turkey in behalf on the stricken peoples. One private citizen sends an appeal urging that the German Emperor be sent personal letters "protesting against his countenancing the murder of women and children by his allies." It costs but a five-cent stamp. "Five hundred thousand letters at five cents each may save five hundred thousand women and children from the most horrible deaths. Who will write them? The first has gone." A meeting was lately held in the Century Theater, New York, under the auspices of a committee of prominent Americans and well-known Armenians, where the following resolutions were passed: "Whereas, The civilized world has been shocked by a series of massacres and deportations of Armenians on the Turkish Empire: and, "Whereas, These crimes and outrages committed upon an industrious, thrifty, and peace-loving people find no justification, viewed either in the light of law or humanity; and "Whereas, Those Armenians who survive are in great need of succor and relief' be it hereby "Resolved, That as American citizens, we make our most solemn protest against these cruel and inhuman practices and implore all officials and others having influence in the Turkish Empire to put an end to these wrongs and to render every aid to the American Ambassador and others who would rescue and repatriate a people, who by their history and achievements, have been a credit to the Empire. "Resolved further, That war, wherever and by whatsoever nation waged, affords no warrant for inhumanity toward innocent persons. The slaughter of non-combatant men, the children wherever committed, have given to the fairest places upon the earth the semblance of hell. In the name of God of nations and our common humanity, we call upon the nations at war to cease these crimes against civilization and morality." The Literary Digest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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