THE REIGN OF TERROR--VAN AND MOUSH.
Much earnest and faithful missionary work had been done in the cities
and towns of the various Armenian provinces, before the storm of
desolation swept over them. Evangelistic, educational and medical lines
had been followed and now the missionaries, who had been laboring in
a land where crops had failed and where the inhabitants were leaving
their homes to escape starvation, were to face massacre, pillage and
horrors, such as the world had not beheld for centuries. No words of
praise are adequate to tell the story of the devotion which kept them
at their posts, or of the succor they extended to the victims of the
Sultan's hate.
A vivid picture of the desolation that everywhere prevailed, was given
by one who was engaged in the work of distributing relief money in
July, 1895.
"Semal and Shenig are situated in a continuous, moderately wide
valley, with a little reach of rolling land between the encircling
mountains where about half the hill fields are growing green with a
sort of millet that matures in a few weeks and which the sufferers were
persuaded to come and sow, with oxen loaned by the poor, but generous
villagers of the Moush plain. These few fields and few people at work
upon them, were all there was to relieve the sad desolation which
reigned over all. Buildings, once the homes of happy and prosperous
countrymen, now presented only ruined walls with not a chip to show
they had ever roofs to cover them, save a few, of which a little
corner was rudely covered last fall, so that the wretched owners
could find imperfect shelter during last winter. The torch of the
incendiary soldiers had consumed every vestige of wood from all these
scattered homes. The church at the central hamlet, where Der Hohannes
(whose eyes were bored out and his throat pierced, while yet alive,
by the cruel soldiers), used to officiate, being of stone, was not
consumed, being the only roofed building in all the valley, after that
flood of carnage had swept past. Near this church we pitched our tent,
and began to study the situation.
"Beneath our eye, in these two villages, had already gathered over
one thousand people, whom it was our work to try and set upon their
feet again, so that they could start once more on the uphill road
towards prosperity. Could a community be conceived of more completely
prostrated? The sheep and cattle, which composed their wealth, in
the hands of Kurds, as also their few simple household belongings,
cooking vessels, clothing, bedding, etc., and whatever money they
may have managed to hoard. Those who fled with their lives found
themselves nearly as destitute of all that makes life comfortable as
the day they were born.
English liberality has already spent five thousand dollars, and the
authorities gave reluctant consent to our coming up to distribute
it. We located here at Semal, while the Turkish committee has its
headquarters at Shenig, half an hour distant. It was evident that
the thing to be first accomplished was the erection of houses, and
only a few weeks remained in which it would be accomplished, so we
set about persuading the people to begin preparing their walls for
the timbers the government had promised them.
"Of the survivors of the massacre (of 1894), five thousand have already
gathered to try and reëstablish their old homes, while possibly
another eleven hundred may still be scattered over the world. It
is impossible as yet to give the exact number of the slaughtered,
but it will probably be not far from 4,000. We feel that unless
a different status from the present can be secured to distribute
anything to these people beyond daily food, is simply to run the
risk of its falling into the hands of the Kurds. We have distributed
a good many tools, with which the people are gathering hay, in hope
of having some animal to eat it during the winter. We should be glad
to furnish them with tools for laying up the walls of their houses,
and even pay the wages of masons to come and help them. It is all
we can do now to prevent the people from fleeing again to the plain,
when all their crops would go for naught."
Near Harpoot eleven villages were compelled to accept Mohammedanism,
and also near Van the entire population of two villages were forced
to change their religion. Eight villages near Van were entirely
depopulated. Most of the inhabitants were killed, and those who
survived escaped to the snow-covered mountains, where they wandered
with their children, naked and starving. The men who were forced to
accept Mohammedanism were compelled to take their own sisters-in-law,
whose husbands have been killed, to wife--a practice most horrible
to the Christians, who hated polygamy. They were also compelled to
plunder and kill their Armenian brethren to show that their conversion
to Mohammedanism was genuine. The young maidens of these villages
were carried into the Pasha's harem. The Kurds attacked the same
villages over and over to make their work of destruction complete,
and yet the Sultan ordered his ambassador in Washington to deny that
there were any forcible conversions to Islam.
All accounts received of the hardships endured by the Armenians
were distressing in the extreme. Many of the refugees, weakened by
want and exposure, were dying. Fully one thousand Armenian families
in the province of Van alone were in want of food. A majority of
these families lived on roots and herbs, the few fortunate ones had
bread made of clover seed, linseed or flax, mixed with grass and
roots. In the district of Moks, three-fourths of the villagers left
their homes and were in danger of starving. In Shadakh, two-thirds
of the population were homeless wanderers. Beggars swarmed in the
streets of Van, but so general was the poverty that little help
could be afforded. So widespread was the want that many declared, in
bitterness of heart, "there is no food in all the length and breadth
of Armenia"--which was long ago the Garden of Eden. Many poor were
fed daily at the American mission in Van.
America and Armenia both owe more than words can ever express to the
energy, devotion and abundant generosity that sent Mr. W. W. Howard,
in 1895, to investigate the situation in Armenia. In a later chapter
the story of the great relief work will be told, meanwhile Mr. Howard
will tell his story. "I have just returned from the interior of the
devastated region of Armenia and the English language is impotent to
produce a true picture of the actual condition of that distressed
country, and a just regard for the conventionalities of civilized
speech will not permit that the whole truth be told. The refined
Christian mind can understand wickedness and iniquity up to a certain
point, but beyond that point, it either refuses to believe, or it is
incapable of receiving additional impressions.
"There are in Armenia at the present moment at least two hundred
thousand persons fighting a death fight with famine! In the one
province of Van, which is the center of Armenia, there are fully one
hundred thousand persons, out of a total Armenian population of one
hundred and forty-five thousand, in actual want of food.
"Many have already died of starvation, and thousands of villagers
are barely keeping soul and body together by eating roots and herbs
and sort of bread made of clover seed, flax or linseed meal, mixed
with edible grass. I have brought to peaceful, prosperous America
specimen loaves of this hunger-bread. Starving villagers, reduced to
the verge of despair, are crowding into the cities to beg for food
and work. Three thousand unwilling beggars walk the streets of the
city of Van, like spectres of famine, asking bread from door to door,
who six months ago were comparatively prosperous. Others, too proud
to beg, but in as desperate condition, crouch in their ruined homes,
waiting for a merciful death to end their sufferings.
"These are not hallucinations on my part, but are things which I myself
have lately seen with my own eyes. Unless these wretched people receive
immediate help, they will perish of starvation. They must have food
and clothing or they cannot possibly survive the winter. They are now
living on roots and herbs and edible grass, together with this terrible
hunger-bread, the mere odor of which is enough to make a strong man
shudder; but when winter begins, in October, the supply of edible grass
and roots and herbs will be cut off. What will become of them then?
"The Armenians have no wheat, and no money with which to buy food. The
Kurds and the Turks have taken everything, and the Armenians have
nothing.
"The Armenians planted only half a crop this year, owing to the
persecutions and exactions which beset them on all sides. In the
early summer, when the young grain was green, the Kurds pastured
their buffalos and their cattle in the growing wheat. Much of the
crop was thus destroyed. Later, when that which remained of the wheat
was ready for the harvest, the Kurds came down, cut off the heads of
the ripened grain, and left the worthless stubble for the Armenians
to live upon during the long and bitter winter. Even a persecuted
Armenian cannot hope to maintain his family on wheat straw.
"Now, we have this condition at the present moment in Armenia: The
crop planted this year was entirely inadequate to the needs of the
population, and when the Kurds got through pasturing their cattle in
the growing fields they harvested the ripened grain for their own use,
leaving only dry grass for the Armenians. The systematic persecutions
of the people, the exactions of the tax-gatherers, and the repeated
robberies by the Kurds have left the Armenians absolutely penniless
and foodless. Utterly unable to maintain life in their nearly ruined
and wasted villages, the country people are wandering about from place
to place, and crowding into the cities. There is no work for them to
be had, and no chance of earning enough to keep starvation at bay.
"It is for the youngest Christian nation on earth to say whether
the oldest shall perish and be no more, and whether the followers
of Mohammed shall be the sole inhabitants of that land which, in the
beginning of all things, was the Garden of Eden. If we turn a deaf ear
now to the supplications of the starving thousands of fellow-Christians
in Eastern Turkey, the coming of spring will see the troublous Armenian
question forever at rest. There will be no more Armenian question,
for there may be no more Armenians.
"If, on the contrary, the practical Christians of our own land desire
to assist in preserving this ancient Christian race in the land in
which it took descent from the grandson of Noah, the way is clear. A
little help extended now, will not only save the lives of those who
are dropping dead of hunger from day to day, but will provide work
during the coming winter.
"I have necessarily been brief, and have dwelt entirely upon the
starvation in Armenia, because it is the most urgent feature of the
situation. I have not touched upon the Sassoun massacre, because as the
Grand Vizier of Turkey truthfully says, 'that is an old story.' The
victims of Sassoun were in many respects more fortunate than their
fellows, for they had at least the privilege of dying quickly. They
escaped persecution, torture, and starvation. There are very many
hopeless creatures in Armenia to-day who would welcome a second
Sassoun as an easy release from the burden and shame of living.
"As to the cause of the persecution which has brought two hundred
thousand human beings to the actual brink of starvation, there can be
but one explanation. The Armenians are Christians. Should they become
Mohammedans their troubles would vanish, and return no more. It is
for the sake of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, that they are persecuted
unto death."
A resident of Moush confirmed all that has been stated regarding the
widespread suffering and destitution. He said:
"After the departure of the Kurdish tribes, which had perpetrated the
massacres of Sassoun, the survivors left their hiding-places. One group
of these people settled themselves on the plateaux, in the defiles,
and in the forests of Sassoun, whilst the greater part emigrated to
Moush, whence they were soon scattered among the Armenian villages
of the plain. The Armenians sheltered and fed these emigrants as long
as they had the means; but being themselves doubly tried by the want
which reigns on all sides, and for the past two years and more, in the
country, they soon found it impossible for them to supply the needs of
these emigrants. The latter were obliged to move away to the mountains,
where they are finding their food from herbs and leaves, or else to
beg in the villages, where they are hardly finding a morsel of bread."
The Kurds took advantage of the sufferings of the people of Sassoun to
carry on a trade in white people. A young Armenian woman of Sassoun,
was sold as a slave by these nomads. Another was sold to an inhabitant
of the village of Hadji-Osman-Bey, and taken to Diarbekir. A little
boy and little girl were bought for one hundred and thirty piastres
of a Kurd named Mehmed; this amount included besides, the price of
a donkey. There were other instances also of the same character.
The following letter from the Duke of Westminster to the editor of an
American paper, afforded new evidence of the widespread destitution
in Armenia:
"Sir:--There is an additional distressing phase connected with
the sufferings of the Armenians consequent on the losses they have
sustained at the hands of the Turks, which calls for consideration
and assistance from those who are ever ready to relieve distress in
whatever part of the world. Vice-Consul Shipley reports from Moush,
that 'there is great distress, amounting in a great number of cases to
abject destitution, among the fugitives from Sassoun, of which he and
his colleagues have had many opportunities of convincing themselves
from personal observation.' Mr. Hallward, Her Majesty's Vice-Consul at
Van, testifies that the need for relief is unquestioned; that there
is an enormous amount of destitution, and that there will certainly
be more before next winter.
"This applies, we are assured, to the province of Bitlis, and to a
large extent to Erzeroum, where there are survivors of the Sassoun
massacre--mostly women and children who have no one to provide for
them--scattered about. A year ago these people were comparatively
prosperous and comfortable, but are now barefoot and in rags,
begging their daily bread from those who are not much better off
than themselves.
"Consul Graves forwards a private letter describing the deplorable
condition of the people at Talvorig:--'There are about eight hundred
and fifty of these houseless wanderers now living in the woods and
mountains, in caves and hollow trees, half naked, and some, indeed,
entirely without covering for their nakedness. Bread they have not
tasted for months, and curdled milk they only dream of, living, as
they do, upon greens and the leaves of trees. There are two varieties
of greens which are preferred, but these are disappearing, as they
wither at this season. Living on such food, they become sickly;
their skin has turned yellow, their strength is gone, their bodies
are swollen, and fever is rife among them.'
"In addition to these, there are thousands of refugees who, compelled
by poverty and danger to abandon their village homes, have flocked
into the towns where they hope to find personal safety and charity
to keep them alive.
"The Committee of the Armenian Relief Fund has already remitted £3,000
to Sir Philip Currie, Her Majesty's Ambassador at Constantinople,
for the distribution of food and clothing in the distressed districts,
and further aid is very urgently required.
"Westminster."
Grosvenor House, London, W., Sept. 20th, 1895.
Probably the best known and most experienced of all the
Americans who have served in the missionary field in Asia Minor is
Rev. Cyrus Hamlin, D.D. the venerable founder of Roberts College,
Constantinople. Dr. Hamlin, has a lifelong acquaintance with the
Armenian question in its various phases, and is a strong champion of
the right of this oldest Christian nation on earth to be permitted
to live and worship in the faith of their fathers. Conversing on the
subject, Dr. Hamlin said:
"The condition of affairs in that country has not been exaggerated
in the printed reports. I have lately finished reading the MS. of
some two hundred letters from missionaries, a very large part of
them dealing with the oppressions and sufferings of the Armenians,
which were of a most frightful character. The poor creatures must
have help before the winter opens in earnest, or they will perish. An
Armenian winter is usually very severe, the snow lying on the ground
from four to six feet in depth and the cold being intense.
"The whole civilized Christian world must help these people--they
must be saved from death and assisted over the winter. They can
look in no other direction for help, for there is no sympathy and
assistance to be had from Turkey. Indeed, the policy of the Sultan's
government is apparently dictated by a desire to efface the Armenian
people altogether--at least those of them who will not accept
Mohammed. When you talk sympathizingly about these people, a Turk
will say in surprise: 'Why do you speak in behalf of such worthless
trash and try to save them? They can save themselves--all they need
do is to accept Islam and then they are safe and out of trouble.'
"And so," continued Dr. Hamlin, "A Turk regards it as strange that
an Armenian should refuse to purchase his life at the cost of his
faith; but there are some among them who take a different view. Some
of the Turkish soldiers who shared in the terrible atrocities lately
perpetrated on the Armenian Christians have been stricken by remorse
afterward. One soldier, who had borne his part in several horrible
butcheries of women and children, was so troubled that he could not
sleep. He had visions of his victims that ultimately drove him insane."
Dr. Hamlin spoke in the highest terms of Miss Kimball and her relief
work, in conjunction with the other missionaries at Van. "No one knew
the needs of the suffering people better, or was better qualified to
deal with the present very trying situation. It is the duty of the
Christians of America to help them as far as we can help them. The
Turks will embarrass the work if they can; they wish these people to
die. In the whole region of Sassoun--comprised of about one hundred
villages--forty or fifty villages have been annihilated." A letter
from Mr. Cole, a missionary who is employed in relief work, stated
that he visited a village of one hundred and seventy-five houses,
every one of which had been destroyed. The Turks would not even
permit him to erect a shanty as a defence against the weather, lest
some Armenian should get the use of it. They wished these people to
die out of cold or starvation.
England, whose official support of Turkey made it in large measure
responsible for the wrongs and sufferings of the Armenians, now moved
for reform in that unfortunate country. At the same time, the English
people were helping the Armenians by contributions. On the occasion
of opening a bazaar held at Chester, for the benefit of the Armenian
sufferers, Mrs. Gladstone gave expression to the popular sentiment
prevailing in England regarding Armenia's condition in these terms: "No
words of mine are needed to describe the frightful need of help. You
are all aware of the terrible details. I plead to-day in behalf of
the poor sufferers--that we may be instrumental in allaying their
sufferings. As my husband says, we cannot dictate to the government
as to the time, but we pray that the Powers may soon take action to
end Armenia's woes."
But while this most blessed work of caring for these hunger-stricken,
homeless and wretched Armenians was going on, the storm burst upon them
in all its fury. The appetite of the Moslem had merely been whetted,
not satiated.
Following the massacres in Trebizond and Erzeroum all the villages
about them were almost depopulated, the orders for the slaughter
of the Christians, as the Moslem troops admit, having come from
Constantinople. At Sivas the massacre was terrible, and a like horror
occurred at Marash. The ungovernable fury of the Turks spared neither
age or sex, and the brutalities practiced upon women and children could
not be described. Bodies of little children, dead and mutilated, were
found in the fields after the slaughter had ended. Large numbers of
the victims of these atrocities died the death of martyrs. They fell
in the Moslem war for the extermination of the religion of Jesus in
Asia Minor.
At Diarbekir, where the victims were numbered by thousands, there was
abundant evidence that the massacre was premeditated. It was claimed
that the Armenians had attacked a Moslem mosque, whereas the facts,
as afterwards disclosed, showed the Kurds and Turks to have been
the sole and intentional aggressors. The massacre began on Friday,
and continued on Saturday and Sunday with insatiable ferocity.
Meanwhile, the story of what was taking place in the villages
and hamlets of the different districts had not reached the public
ear. When it came, it disclosed a tale of suffering and savagism that
had scarcely a parallel. Many hundreds of villages were literally
swept out of existence. The story of one is the story of all: the
Kurds, directed from higher sources, swooping down, rounding up the
cattle, slaying the strong men, outraging and abducting the women,
and killing even the children, concluded the satanic work by burning
everything that would consume. In many places the Kurdish troops came
equipped with empty sacks strapped to their saddles for the purpose of
carrying off the plunder. The Kurdish chiefs openly declared that they
were ordered to slay the Christians and take the plunder for their pay.
Rev. John Wright, another missionary, wrote: "In one instance, the
Kurds, after compelling a family to provide food for their horses and
themselves, smothered a babe which was asleep in the cradle, cut it
in pieces and roasted it before the fire on their weapons, and then
made the mother eat the flesh. In another case, when the Kurds had
killed an Armenian, they joined hands and danced about the corpse,
singing a song of triumph. They then cut up the corpse, boiled it,
and forced the Armenians residing there to eat the flesh. Flocks
were driven off, grain burned, and houses razed to the ground and
burned. Many women died from fright, and the children also died from
fright or exposure to the cold. We found that nearly half the members
of the families we met had perished during the flight. They had great
difficulty in securing food to eat. All of them had substantially
the same harrowing tale to tell. About ten thousand refugees are
estimated to have passed through the district of Khoi."
Eight of the villages near Van were totally depopulated and all their
people slain or rendered fugitives, except the young women who were
seized and taken to Kurdish harems. In the Van provinces nearly two
hundred villages were partially destroyed.
During the last weeks in December, 1895, the carnival of slaughter
continued with tireless energy and terrible ferocity by the Turks and
Kurds. From every side came reports of atrocities by Turks, Kurds,
and Circassians--villages swept by fire, the men massacred, the women
either slain or reserved for a fate worse than death. Thousands of
women were carried away captive to become inmates of some vile Moslem
harem. An illustration of the Turkish method of extermination was found
in the case of the village of Hoh, in the Sandjak district. At first
the aghas (or local magistrates) promised to protect the Christians,
but when they saw villages burning in every direction they refused
to keep their word. All the Christians were told that, under the
pain of death, they must accept Islam. They were assembled at the
Mosque, and there eighty young men were picked out and led outside
the village--for slaughter. Eight escaped, sixty-two were killed,
and ten wounded. The young women of the village were taken to Turkish
harems, and the survivors of the Christian population were scattered
among other villages.
In every district there was the same tragic story of massacre,
outrage, pillage, and abduction; monasteries sacked, and Christian
pastors and people butchered. In many villages the Armenian priests
were among the number who laid down their lives as a testimony to the
faith. In almost every village the strong men and youths were killed,
and in nearly every case they met death with the fortitude of true
martyrs. Many were killed with horrible tortures, because of their
refusal to deny Christ. Among those who so perished were the Armenian
pastors at Khizan, Halakeny, and Koh.
Although in official communications the atrocities were denied by the
Turkish government, the statements issued by the Porte were nowhere
credited. Denials of the massacres of Trebizond and Erzeroum were
circulated, despite the statements of American and European Consular
officials, missionaries, and Armenian survivors, supplemented by the
photographs of the piles of dead in the streets and cemeteries. A
number of Armenian citizens were arrested by the authorities after
the Trebizond massacre, on the pretext that they caused the riot,
and six of them were condemned to death.
In January, 1896, the Mesopotamian Christians of Mardin were suddenly
attacked by a large body of Kurds, the town being surrounded. News had
already been received of the burning of many villages and the massacre
of thousands of peaceful peasants, but the Mardin attack came like
a thunderbolt. Many hundreds were butchered in a few hours. A number
of native ministers of the Gospel were slain.
The town was a scene of terror and desolation; groups of weeping
mothers and crying children sheltered themselves in the houses, while
all around, and even upon the floors were the telltale pools of blood
that showed where the martyrs fell under the Kurdish swords. Dead
bodies, clotted with blood that had flowed from great gaping wounds,
lay everywhere in sight. There were other horrors that added to the
terror--the attacks on the native women and girls, who were subjected
to nameless abuse.
The massacres at Mardin and Gemerek resulted in leaving the survivors
in those once populous villages in a condition that threatened to
exterminate them by starvation. The help which was cabled to them
from the relief fund was welcomed with a gratitude that can hardly
be expressed in words. With the horror of their recent woes still
unrelieved, the aid seemed as if heaven-sent. Erzeroum was still full
of wounded, and rows upon rows of blackened ruins alone showed where
its homes once stood. There were many hundreds homeless. Harpoot,
too, had a large number exposed to hunger and cold. At Diarbekir
the destitution was probably worst of all, for both in the city and
villages, the slaughter was relentless, and the survivors had nothing
to expect but death by slow degrees--their little ones perishing of
hunger and cold beside them. At Erzinjian, where many martyrs fell,
the remaining Christians were scattered around, hiding where they
could, like hunted wild beasts.
After these massacres most piteous appeals were received in this
country from relatives in the stricken towns and villages. A letter
sent by a poor mother from Gurun to a relative here, said:
"We have only to say that I and my child are living. No male population
has been left in our town. They have killed my father. I took the
child with me and sought refuge in the church. Our cousin also has been
killed. Of our three families, only one family has partly a shelter,
but we have not even a piece of a blanket to cover our nakedness! We
have nothing to eat. The government is giving a small piece of bread
for each living person. No physician has been left. Our child has not a
book to study from or to read. Everything has been destroyed. They have
plundered even the goods which were concealed in the ground. There is
no life for us here. In our three families, there is not a lamp to give
light. For God's sake send help or else we will die of starvation."
A letter from a young man in the same town to an Armenian in New
York, said:
"You have no doubt heard of the terrible events that have taken place
in our town. They have not left anything in our house. They killed
your brother and sister. They have burned our stable and woodhouse and
our winter house. We are in terrible distress. We have no bedding,
no clothes. We have not even the means to procure a piece of dry
bread. Rich and poor are all alike, and our generous neighbors are
not any better off than ourselves, so that they cannot help us. No
merchant or broker has been left."
A few extracts from another report of Mr. W. W. Howard, sent from
Urumia in December, 1895, will fitly close this chapter of woe and
destitution.
"The American mission work at Van has been suspended, and all the
schools closed. The closing of the schools, however, has not been
confined to the American mission, but has extended to every school in
the city, of whatever race or creed. All the shops have likewise been
closed, both Armenian and Turkish. Even the Turkish shops in the bazaar
proper have been shut, so great is the fear of massacre. The Turkish
Government ordered the Armenian merchants to open their shops, and the
Armenians obeyed, but when the shops were opened they were entirely
empty, the goods having been removed to the merchants' houses. The
merchants then sat in their empty stores with nothing to sell.
"With the money already sent to her, Miss Kimball has done a large
work in the supplying of bread for the starving, and she is now at
work on a soup kitchen. Her plan of relief is to furnish work to such
of the poor as are able to work. Business in Van and the province of
Van has been dead for months. Nothing is being bought or sold except
the simplest articles of food that will sustain life. Miss Kimball is,
therefore, distributing these articles of clothing free to the wretched
village refugees who are flocking to Van in rags and nakedness.
"In raiding the villages the Hamidieh cavalry not only destroyed the
houses, drove off the sheep and cattle and removed every portable
piece of property, but actually stripped the villagers of the clothes
on their backs. The unfortunate peasants, men, women and children,
were thrust out into the wilderness of snow-covered mountains without
clothes to cover them or food to eat. How many of these poor creatures
left bloody tracks on snow and ice; how many dropped by the wayside
to go down to death in a shroud of snow and a tomb of ice no man may
know. The snow will not give up its dead for long months to come.
"Are the Christian people of America willing that this thing shall
continue?"