Lake of Van. Without heeding the flying bullets, the people
flocked on to high ground to watch them. We did not know whether
they were some of the Turkish population or officers who were
escaping. They continued the shooting until next morning. After
the 10th May the fighting became more intense, both during the
daytime and at night, and on the 15th and 16th May the guns were
directed upon the American Institutions, where all the people
were. Although during the whole period of fighting they had fired
upon the American compound, the Hospital, the Church and Dr.
Ussher’s home, and wounded thirteen people, it was only during the
last two days that the bombardment was confined to the compound
alone. It was then that a bomb struck Dr. Raynold’s house and
killed Mr. Terzibashian’s three-and-a-half-years-old daughter.
On the evening of the 17th May the Armenians succeeded in destroying
the upper and lower barracks of Toprak Kalé, which raised their
spirits vastly; but in the evening the joy of the Americans
surpassed that of the Armenians. About midnight, in a strong attack,
the Armenians seized and burned the largest Turkish barracks, Hadji
Bekir’s Kushla, which dominated the American compound. At midnight
the town criers went through the town crying victory: “We have taken
all the Turkish positions; they have run away: come out.” On this
report the Armenians, especially those who were in a starving
condition, came out and attacked the Turkish quarters to rob and
burn them. The revenge of centuries was being taken. The Armenian
soldiers did not participate in this movement for twenty-four hours,
but held their positions so that the enemy might not take them by
surprise. The booty that the people took from the Turks consisted
mostly of wheat, flour and bread.
I asked one of the villagers to show me her booty. She did so, and I
was surprised to see that it consisted of clothing that the Turks
had robbed from Armenian women and girls. They found in the house of
Mouhib Effendi, a member of the Ottoman Parliament, a chalice and
other sacred vessels from an Armenian Church. The Turks were in such
a panic that some left their tables laid and took to flight. The
hungry women of yesterday were carrying away booty without stopping,
with a new strength. It was the story of the seventh chapter of the
Fourth Book of Kings that was repeated word for word. The American
compound was now deserted except for the boy scouts, who, with the
help of one of our teachers and Neville Ussher, remained to look
after the sick.
The whole city was in an uproar. Some went to look at the
entrenchments; others went to look at the burned Turkish quarters,
and others to look at the booty. There were others also who visited
the fortress, which was captured that same night, and over which a
flag with a Cross on it was waving. No Government was left, no
authority. The soldiers had marked out their position from Arark to
Khatch Poghotz as a military centre. They took away all the valuable
vessels and property from the people. They were afraid that there
would be fighting, but fortunately nothing happened. In Aikesdan
there were still armed Turks in certain positions, who killed some
Armenians, but they were finally found and killed. It was very
pitiful to see Armenian soldiers leading Turkish women and children
and unarmed men to the American compound for safety, and saying to
them: “Do not cry; nothing will happen to you; we are only looking
for Djevdet, who destroyed both your homes and ours.” Nobody touched
these Turkish women, some of whom had from £30 to £95 (Turkish) on
their persons. Some of the Armenians went to look for their wounded
in the Turkish hospitals, and when they did not find them they were
so infuriated that they killed some of the Turkish wounded and
burned the building. Mr. Yarrow asked me to go and wait there until
he came. I stayed there. The scene was dreadful. For four days the
Government had given them no bread and no care, so that many of them
had already died from neglect. Interspersed among the dead there
were also some still living, but the Armenians did not raise their
hands to touch them. Before the arrival of the Americans, many came
and helped me to put out the fire and attended to those that were
alive. Mr. Yarrow, seeing all this, said: “I am amazed at the
self-control of the Armenians, for though the Turks did not spare a
single wounded Armenian, the Armenians are helping us to save the
Turks—a thing that I do not believe even Europeans would do.”
The scene in the prison was dreadful, as all the Armenian prisoners
had been massacred. The wife of Mr. Proudian had completely lost her
reason, and cried out: “Show me at least the bones of my dear one.”
The unveiling of these dreadful deeds of the Turks so hardened some
of the Armenians that they followed the doctrine of “an eye for an
eye and a tooth for a tooth,” to the great sorrow of the others.
-----
Footnote 38:
See Doc. 21
Footnote 39:
Of Lazic nationality (?)—_Editor_.
18. VAN AFTER THE TURKISH RETREAT: LETTER FROM HERR SPÖRRI, OF THE
GERMAN MISSION AT VAN, PUBLISHED IN THE GERMAN JOURNAL
“SONNENAUFGANG,” OCTOBER, 1915.
There lies Artamid before us, adorned by its delicious gardens; but
how does the village look? The greater part of it is nothing now but
a heap of ruins. We talked there with three of our former orphan
protégées, who had had fearful experiences during the recent events.
We rode on across the mountain of Artamid. Even in time of peace one
crosses the pass with one’s heart in one’s mouth, because the Kurds
ply their robber trade there. Now it is all uncannily still. Our
glance swept over the magnificent valley of Haiotz-Tzor. There lay
Antananz before us, now utterly destroyed like the rest. We gave
shelter, at the time, to the people from Antananz who had managed to
escape. Further on in the magnificent green landscape lay Vostan. At
first sight one might call it a paradise, but during these latter
days it has also been a hell. What rivers of blood must have flowed
there; it was one of the chief strongholds of the armed Kurds. At
the foot of the mountain we came to Angegh. There again there were
many houses destroyed. We found here a young woman who, after many
years of widowhood, had married a native of the village. Things have
been going well with her; now her husband, too, was slaughtered. One
hundred and thirty people are said to have been murdered thus. We
pitched our camp here in face of the blackened ruins. Straight in
front of us stood an “amrodz,” a tower built of cakes of manure—a
common enough sight in these parts. We were told that the Kurds had
burnt the corpses of the slaughtered Armenians in it. Horrible! And
yet that is at least better than if the corpses of the slain, as has
happened in other places, are allowed to lie for an indefinite
period unburied, so that they are devoured by dogs and poison the
air. There we were met by some soldiers; they were Armenian
“Volunteers” who had come from Russia and were now fighting on the
side of the Russians for the liberation of their Haiasdan. They were
coming now from the neighbourhood of Bitlis, where heavy fighting
was in progress. They had brought some sick back to the town, and
proposed to rest here awhile. After that we rode on to Ten, where
people we already knew came out to meet us from the village and
informed us of what had happened there. There, too, the scenes of
our former activity, the school and the church, lay in ruins, and
many dwelling houses as well. The man who used to put us up was also
among the slain; his widow is still quite distraught. Here about 150
are said to have been murdered. There were so many orphans in the
place, they said to us—Should we now be inclined to take charge of
any again? We were unable to give them any definite answer. As we
rode on and on over the mountains, the splendid air did us much good
and we thanked God for it, for little by little we have come to be
in sore need of recuperation. We had a wonderful view from the
mountain heights, but everywhere in the villages one sees blackened
and ruined houses.
19. VAN AFTER THE MASSACRES: NARRATIVE OF MR. A.S. SAFRASTIAN, DATED
VAN, 2nd DECEMBER, 1915, AND PUBLISHED IN THE ARMENIAN JOURNAL
“ARARAT” OF LONDON, JANUARY, 1916.
“I have seen the ravages of the Crimean war, the Russo-Turkish
war of 1877-78, the Armenian massacres of 1894-96, and the reign
of terror which then followed until the year 1914; but the
massacres which have been going on since April of the current
year are simply appalling, and by far the most terrible blow
which the Armenian nation has ever been subject to throughout
the course of its long history.”
So spoke to me Hagop Boghossian, an old Armenian peasant of Van, a
sturdy octogenarian who, after three forced flights from his home in
the rear of the Russian Army, was once more returning to his home to
tide over the winter in his native village north of Lake Van; and as
he was walking along the muddy pathway, he was telling me the story
of the recent massacres as he knew them, and as he understood them
from his own point of view. His account in its main outline
corresponds with what has been proved beyond all doubt. Before
arousing any suspicion among the Armenians residing in the central
provinces of Asiatic Turkey about its intentions, the Turkish
Government wanted to dispose of the “rebellious” Armenians of Van,
which lay far away from its grip, and the Armenian element of which
had generally been considered by the Turks as a doubtful quantity.
One Djevdet Bey, a brother-in-law of Enver Pasha, happened to be the
governor and the military commander of Van. In February he was
routed in the battle of Diliman and Khoi, in Azerbaijan, a battle in
which the Armenian volunteers under Andranik played some part. When
he returned to Van, he told his friends that while he was at the
front he had to battle throughout the time against Armenians, both
as regular troops of the Russian army and as volunteers. The report
says that Enver Pasha, the Minister of War, expressed almost the
same opinion when his army was defeated early in January in the
battles of Sarikamysh and Ardahan. However exaggerated these
estimates may have been, they seem to have served well the purpose
of the Turkish Government in its efforts to destroy the Armenian
population within its territory; and Djevdet Bey was commissioned to
begin the massacres at Van, where the best relations existed between
the Armenians under Vremyan, the Deputy for Van in the Turkish
Chamber, and Djevdet himself, who for years had enjoyed the
hospitality of the natives.
On the 15th April the young Armenians of Akantz, north of Lake Van
(Ardjish), were mustered by the gendarmes to the sound of the bugle,
to hear the recital of an order which had just arrived from the
Sultan. At sunset these 500 young men were shot outside the town
without any formality. During the following two days the same
process was carried out with heartless and cold-blooded thoroughness
in the 80 Armenian villages of Ardjish, Adiljevas, and the rest of
the district north of Lake Van. In this manner some 24,000 Armenians
were killed in three days, their young women carried away and their
homes looted. After that, Djevdet Bey immediately proceeded to
destroy the able-bodied Armenians on the south side of the Lake in
the same way. Kurds were let loose upon the peasants of the _Kazas_
of Moks and Shatakh, but there these hardy mountaineers proved
somewhat hard nuts to crack. They put up a stout resistance and
frustrated the Turkish plan.
In the town of Van itself the Armenians had already made all the
concessions they possibly could to conciliate the Government in the
matter of deserters from the army and the military requisitions.
Djevdet, however, demanded unconditional surrender; he treacherously
caused the death of four Armenian leaders, and detained Vremyan, who
was killed later. These acts, in combination with the massacres of
Ardjish, cleared up all doubts. The Turks had made up their minds to
annihilate the Armenians by all the means in their power, as they
had shown by killing thousands of absolutely innocent peasants in
Ardjish. The experience of the past had taught the Armenians of Van
that an appeal to arms was the only argument which could save their
life, honour and property, and they collected together all the arms
they possessed. From the middle of April they were besieged by a
Turkish army of about 6,000 men, equipped with artillery and
reinforced by numberless Kurds of all types. Twenty-five thousand
Armenians of the town, who had only some 400 good rifles and double
that number of arms of a medley character, fought for four weeks
against great odds. They organised all their resources through an
improvised staff and various committees for medical help and
distribution of relief. They constructed some mortars and made
smokeless powder to repel the furious Turkish attacks. Every man,
woman and child did their bit to help in the work of liberation;
they held their positions to the last and captured several enemy
positions by blowing up barracks in which the Turks had entrenched
themselves in the middle of the Armenian quarters. After seeing
something of their positions and walking over the scenes of the
fight, one can well understand that it must have been a heroic
battle indeed. The Turks under Djevdet despaired of overcoming Van
and fled hastily at the approach of the Armenian volunteers followed
by the Russian army. Van was captured by the Armenians, who saluted
the entry of the Russian army by the booming of the guns they had
taken from the Turks. An Armenian provisional government was
established in the town and the province from early June. Excesses
of an avenging nature could scarcely be avoided under the
circumstances; yet such excesses by no means overstepped the passion
excited at the moment.
During June and July, almost the entire Armenian population of
Bitlis, Moush, Diyarbekir, and the remaining provinces of Turkish
Armenia was ruthlessly massacred or deported. Of this unparalleled
tragedy the later events at Van, which suffered the most lightly of
all, may serve as an illustration.
After two months of self-government in Van, the fortunes of war
turned against the Armenians. Towards the end of July the Turks took
the offensive on the Transcaucasian front. The Russians retreated
from the Euphrates and Moush towards their own frontiers in order to
counter-attack the enemy under more favourable conditions. But in
this game of strategy, the quarter of a million Armenians of Van,
Alashkerd, etc., the last remnant of the Armenian element in Eastern
Turkey, had also to retreat towards the Russian frontier. Men, women
and children, who had bravely defended themselves against the Turks,
fled in a panic under the most adverse circumstances. There were no
means of transport, except a few ox-carts, horses, donkeys and cows,
and the distance to be traversed varied from 100 to 150 miles
through a waterless and trackless country; while only a few hours’
notice was given to the unsuspecting people to quit their homes,
abandon all they possessed, and walk to Transcaucasia. Every one
burdened himself with some clothing and provisions, and, followed by
exhausted women and children, walked for 10 days under the burning
August sun, smothered in dust and overcome by thirst and fatigue. On
the Bergri bridge (north of Lake Van) the rear of the caravan was
attacked by mounted Kurds. A frightful panic ensued, in which women
and girls threw themselves into the river Bendimahu, while others
threw away their infants in the effort to escape, and entire
families were precipitated into the waters owing to the rush caused
by the panic. The sick, the infirm, and hundreds of children were
abandoned on the roadside, where they died in lingering agony or
were massacred by the Kurds.
On my way to Van along the north-eastern shore of the Lake, I
witnessed revolting evidence of the recent events. Several search
parties had already buried the dead and cleared the ground;
nevertheless, here and there I saw remains of human bodies, of men
and women, under piles of stones or scattered about the roadside. I
discovered decomposing and horribly disfigured bodies of children;
and on the shores of the lake and on the banks of streams skeletons,
pieces of clothing, bones of human beings and animals lying all
around. The stench of putrefaction was simply sickening. The country
from Igdir to Van had indeed been a slaughter-house but a few months
before. Entire villages had been completely wiped out. Except for
some casual travellers, not a single human soul was to be seen
there—there were but vultures and howling dogs who fed upon the
putrefied human remains.
The town of Van itself is mostly a heap of ruins. Since last August
it has changed hands several times; all churches, schools and the
best houses have been burnt down. The pulse of life seemed to have
ceased from beating, where a few months ago the natives had turned
it into a beehive after capturing it from the Turk. On the other
hand, the remnant of the Armenians from Turkey is being greatly
diminished owing to destitution and sickness across the borders of
Transcaucasia. The whole country is devastated beyond any
description. Perhaps nowhere on the European battlefields has the
civil population been so sorely tried as in the Armenian highlands,
and no race has suffered so much as the Armenians in Asiatic Turkey.
At present only some 200,000 of them can be accounted for; and these
are dying by hundreds in Transcaucasia in consequence of the
terrible sufferings they have gone through since last spring.
20. VAN: INTERVIEW WITH A REFUGEE, MRS. GAZARIAN, PUBLISHED IN THE
“PIONEER PRESS,” OF ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA, U.S.A.
A story of the flight of terror-stricken Armenians from the city of
Van, from the persecution of the Turks who massacred thousands of
Armenian women and children and forced the men into their armies,
was told last night by Mrs. Sylvia Gazarian. She has just arrived
from Armenia after suffering great hardships and persecution during
a journey through Russia, and is with her son, Levon Gazarian, a
North St. Paul piano builder.
Mrs. Gazarian during her flight saw her husband die of typhoid
fever, and left seven of her grandchildren lying along the roadside,
victims of starvation and exhaustion. Her son Edward, a Red Cross
surgeon, made the journey with Mrs. Gazarian. He is at his brother’s
home here.
Mrs. Gazarian founded the Christian school at Van, and devoted many
years to educating Armenian children. Her story, which is perhaps
the first uncensored news of the cruelties inflicted by the Turks in
Armenia, was told through Arsen K. Nakashian, an interpreter:—
“I spent a month in Van while our school was the target of the
Turks. I saw them kill, burn and persecute,” she said. “I saw our
town become a part of a barren waste. I saw Turks bury Armenian
victims with the dogs, divide the women among them as wives and
throw babies into the lake. The school was burned, the missionaries
fled, and 35,000 of the 75,000 inhabitants of the Van district were
killed or starved to death.
“Djevdet Bey, Governor-General of Van, started the whole trouble
when, early in April, 1915, he demanded that the Armenians should
support the Turkish army.
“When the Armenians resisted, Djevdet Bey ordered them to be shot.
He demanded that we and the American and German missionaries should
leave Van and seek protection from the Turkish Government. We all
refused. Our valley had been a garden. The Turks did their worst to
make it a morgue.
“For miles around the Armenians congregated at Van, drove out the
Turks and made trenches. Stones, earth and sand-bags were piled over
the school buildings. The Turks attacked, and for more than a month
in April and May kept up a steady fire.
“Finally the Russians came. We were under their protection for a
month. The Turks, fleeing before the Russians, killed all Armenian
prisoners and wounded.
“Russian treachery became evident when they evacuated the town. They
pillaged every standing home. When we demanded that they should stay
and protect us, the general said: ‘If you don’t want us to leave
you, come along.’
“Only old men and feeble women refused the invitation. Fifteen
grandchildren of mine, three daughters and their husbands, my son
and myself made up our forlorn party. We travelled towards Russia on
foot. There was no other way to go. We walked for twelve days—like
dead men and women. As far ahead as we could see, there were women
carrying or dragging their babies and wounded men staggering along
at their sides. Death was common.
“First one and then another of the children died. Typhoid was doing
its work everywhere. We buried the babies where we happened to be.
Seven of them in all died on the journey. When we arrived at Tiflis
my husband died.
“More than a month ago my son and I started for Northern Russia.
Round the Caucasus mountains, across the Russian steppes and into
Moscow, where the Russian troops were assembled in thousands, we
went by train.
“Every Russian official wanted money, and we paid. We reached
Archangel on the Arctic ocean and started for America.”
Just as the woman finished her story her son Edward came in.
“Germany is responsible for the cruelty in Armenia,” he declared:
“She is not a friend but an enemy of Turkey. She covets the
Dardanelles. She aims at making Turkey a German province; but she
knows the power of the Armenians, and she wants Turkey without them.
That is why she permits the Turks to burn, murder and ravage. The
young Turks are educated criminals. They are worse than the older
ones. America is beautiful and peaceful. We will always live here.”
III.
VILAYET OF BITLIS.
_The Vilayet of Bitlis lies due west of Van, across the Lake. The
chief Armenian centres in the province were the town of Bitlis
itself, commanding the principal pass leading from the lake-basin to
the upper valley of the Tigris; the town and villages of Moush,
situated in the only considerable plain along the course of the
Mourad Su or Eastern Euphrates; and the semi-independent highland
community of Sassoun, a group of Armenian villages in the massif of
mountains which separates Moush from the headwaters of the Tigris
and the lowlands of Diyarbekir._
_The extermination of the Armenians in these three places was an act
of revenge for the successful resistance of the Armenians at Van and
the advance of the Russian forces to their relief. There was no
pretence here of deportation, and the Armenians were destroyed,
without regard for appearances, by outright massacre, accompanied in
many cases by torture._
21. THE NORTH-EASTERN VILAYETS: STATEMENT COMMUNICATED BY THE
REFUGEE ROUPEN, OF SASSOUN, TO THE ARMENIAN COMMUNITY AT MOSCOW;
PUBLISHED IN THE RUSSIAN PRESS, AND SUBSEQUENTLY REPRINTED IN
THE “GAZETTE DE LAUSANNE,” 13th FEBRUARY, 1916.
At the beginning of the European war, the “Dashnaktzoutioun” Party
met in congress at Erzeroum in order to decide on the attitude to be
observed by the Party. As soon as they heard of this congress, the
Young Turks hastened to send their representatives to Erzeroum to
propose that the Party should declare its intention of aiding and
defending Turkey, by organising an insurrection in the Caucasus in
the event of a declaration of war between Turkey and Russia.
According to the project of the Young Turks, the Armenians were to
pledge themselves to form legions of volunteers and to send them to
the Caucasus with the Turkish propagandists, to prepare the way
there for the insurrection.
The Young Turk representatives had already brought their
propagandists with them to Erzeroum—27 individuals of Persian,
Turkish, Lesghian and Circassian nationality. Their chief was Emir
Hechmat, who is at present organising bands of rebels at Hamadan
(Persia). The Turks tried to persuade the Armenians that the
Caucasian insurrection was inevitable; that very shortly the Tatars,
Georgians and mountaineers would revolt, and that the Armenians
would consequently be obliged to follow them.
They even sketched the future map of the Caucasus.