When the inhabitants of the Cilician villages left their homes,
many of them still had donkeys for riding or carrying packs, but
the soldiers escorting the convoys would only allow the "Katerdjis"
(donkey-drivers) to ride on these animals, saying that strict orders
had been given that no deported persons, whether male or female, might
ride. In the case of the convoy starting from Hadjin the "Katerdjis"
simply took all the pack animals which they suspected of carrying
money or valuables straight to their own villages. Other animals,
which the people had taken with them, were taken away from them by
force or purchased for prices so absurdly low that it would hardly have
made any difference if they had been given away gratis. A woman whose
family is known to me sold 90 sheep for a hundred piastres, which at
any other time would have realised about T£60 to £70; in other words,
she had to sell ninety animals for the proper price of one animal. The
villagers of Shar had received permission to take away their oxen,
carts and pack animals. Near Gökpunar they were forced to leave
the carriage road and to take the shorter footpath which crosses the
mountains. They had to march on without any food, for their journey or
other equipment. The escort simply said that these were their orders.
At the beginning each deported person received from the Government
one kilogram (2 lbs.) of bread per month (not per day). They lived
on the provisions which they had taken with them. Small sums of money
were afterwards paid to them. I was told of about 30 persons who had
formerly been in good positions in the Circassian village of Bumbudj
(Mumbidj, on the ruins of the ancient Bambyke), 1 1/2 days' journey
from Aleppo, who had received 20 piastres in thirty days--not per head;
but the 30 between them. That meant a penny a month each. About four
hundred barefooted women, each with one child on her arm, one child on
her back (often enough a dead one) and one held by the hand, passed
through Marash during the first days. The Armenians of Marash--who
afterwards were themselves deported--purchased £50 (Turkish) worth
of shoes to supply those who passed through the town. Between Marash
and Aintab the Mohammedan population in a Turkish village wished to
give water and bread to a convoy of about 100 families. The soldiers
refused to permit this. The American mission and the Armenians of
Aintab--who later on were also deported--managed to bring bread and
money during the night to the convoys which passed Aintab, and which
totalled about 20,000 persons, mostly women and children. These were
the villagers of the Sandjak of Marash. The convoys were not allowed
to enter Marash, but encamped in the open. The American missionaries
found it possible to provision them thus by night as far as Nisib
(nine hours to the south-east of Aintab, on the way to the Euphrates).
While on the march the deported Armenians were at first robbed
of their ready money, and afterwards of all their possessions. A
deported Protestant minister saw T£43 being taken away from one
family and £28 from another. This minister was himself newly married,
and was compelled to leave his young wife at Hadjin, expecting
her first child. Four-fifths of the deported persons are women and
children. Three-fifths of them are barefooted. A former inhabitant
of Hadjin who is known to me personally and who had a fortune of at
least T£15,000 had, like everybody else, been robbed of his clothes,
and clothes had to be begged for him here. The deported Armenians
are specially troubled by the fact that they are unable to bury their
dead. They are left dying anywhere on the road. The women often carry
their dead children for days on their backs. At Bab, ten hours to the
east of Aleppo, those who came through were lodged provisionally for
a week or two, but they were not allowed to retrace their steps to
bury the companions who had died on the way.
The hardest fate is that of the women who are confined on the way. They
are hardly allowed sufficient time to bring their child into the
world. One poor woman gave birth to twins during the night. In the
morning she had to march on, carrying the two newly-born children on
her back. After a two hours' march she collapsed. She had to put the
children on the ground under a bush, and the soldiers compelled her
to walk on with her companions. Another woman was confined during
the march and was forced to proceed on her march immediately; she
fell down dead. A third woman was surrounded by ladies belonging to
the American mission, while she was confined in the neighbourhood of
Aintab. They only succeeded in obtaining permission for her to ride
an animal, and she continued her journey in this manner, holding the
child in her lap with a few rags round it. These cases were witnessed
merely on the section of road between Marash and Aintab. At Aintab
the people clearing up a han, which an hour before had been left by
a convoy, found a new-born child. In the Tash-Han, in Marash, three
new-born children were found buried in dung.
Innumerable corpses of children are found lying unburied on the
road. A Turkish Major, who returned with me three days ago, said that
many children were abandoned by their mothers on the way because
they could not feed them any more. Older children are taken away
from their mothers by the Turks. The Major, as well as each of his
brothers, had an Armenian child with him; they intended to educate
them as Mohammedans. One of the children speaks German. It must be
one of the inmates of a German orphanage. It is thought that about
300 of the women who passed through here were confined on the way.
In this place a family, in its dire poverty and despair, sold a girl
of the age of 18 years to a Turk for T£6. The husbands of most of the
women had been called up for service in the Army. Anyone who does not
obey the summons calling him up is hanged or shot; there were seven
cases lately at Marash. The conscripts are, however, generally used
merely for mending the roads, and are not allowed to carry arms. Those
who return home find their houses empty. Two days ago I met an Armenian
soldier at Djerabulus, who had come from Jerusalem, having obtained
leave to visit his native village, Geben (situate between Zeitoun and
Sis). I have known this man for years. Here he heard that his mother,
his wife and three children had been deported into the desert. All
inquiries as to the fate of his family were fruitless.
Corpses drifting down the Euphrates have been observed every day during
the last 28 days, pairs of them being tied together back to back,
while others are tied three to eight together by the arms. A Turkish
Colonel who is stationed at Djerabulus was asked why he did not have
the corpses buried, whereupon he replied that he had no orders to do
so, and that, moreover, it was impossible to ascertain whether they
were Mohammedans or Christians, as their sexual organs had been cut
off. (They would bury Mohammedans, but not Christians.) The corpses
which had been stranded on the shore were eaten by the dogs. Others
which had stuck on the sandbanks became the prey of the vultures. A
German, in the course of one ride, saw six pairs of corpses drifting
down stream. A German cavalry captain said he had, in the course of
a ride from Diyarbekir to Ourfa, seen innumerable unburied corpses on
both sides of the road, all corpses of young men whose throats had been
cut. (These were the Armenians called up for military service and used
for mending the roads.) A Turkish Pasha, addressing a distinguished
Armenian, expressed himself as follows: "Be thankful, if at least
you find a grave in the desert; many of you have to do without this."
Not one half of the deported persons remain alive. The day before
yesterday one woman died here in the station yard; yesterday there
were 14 deaths, and this morning a further 10. A Protestant minister
from Hadjin said to a Turk at Osmanieh: "Not one half of these deported
persons remain alive." The Turk replied: "That is what we are after."
It ought not to be overlooked that there are some Mohammedans who
disapprove of the horrible deeds done against the Armenians. A
Mohammedan Sheikh, a person of great authority at Aleppo, said in
my presence: "When I hear talk about the treatment of the Armenians,
I am ashamed of being a Turk."
Anyone who wishes to remain alive is compelled to go over to Islam. In
order to promote this, isolated families are in certain cases sent
to purely Mohammedan villages.
The number of deported persons who have passed through here and at
Aintab has so far reached about 50,000. Nine-tenths of them were
told on the evening before their deportation that they had to start
in the morning. The majority of the convoys go through Ourfa, the
minority through Aleppo. The first mentioned take the road for Mosul,
the others for Der-el-Zor. The authorities say that they are to be
settled there, but those who escape the knife will certainly perish of
hunger. Some 10,000 persons have reached Der-el-Zor on the Euphrates;
no news has so far been received of the others. As regards those who
were sent towards Mosul, it is said that they are to be settled at
a distance of about 16 miles from the railway; this probably means
that they are to be driven into the desert, where their extirpation
can proceed without witnesses.
What I have written down is only a small fraction of all the cruelties
which have been practised here during the last two months, and which
assume larger proportions every day. It is only a fraction of the
things which I have seen with my own eyes and heard from acquaintances
and friends who were eye-witnesses. I am prepared at any time to
mention the dates of the events and to give the names of the witnesses.