the refugees. In my effort to get the facts, I have had interviews
with the Exarch (the Metropolitan Bishop of Tiflis), the Governor of
the Erivan district, the Armenian Bishops of Tabriz (now in
Nahichevan) and of Erivan, members of the various relief committees
and the village elders, who act as local relief committees, together
with a very large number of the refugees themselves in various
sections of the province. Whatever one may find to criticise in the
administration of relief, one cannot but recognise the tremendous
burden that has descended upon the people of this region and the
serious problems they have had to face. While one cannot say that
there has been an adequate effort to grapple with the difficulties,
yet much has been done. The Government officials have given free
railway transportation to the interior, and they have wisely had the
people scattered among the villages, where they can best be taken
care of. The energetic Armenian committees have taken care of their
own people, and have been unexpectedly generous to the Syrians who
are quartered in their midst. In Tiflis the Syrians themselves have
done much for their own race in that city, and have had an efficient
committee working in conjunction with the municipal relief
committee. But more worthy of praise than any or all of these
together are the humble kind-hearted villagers themselves, who have
carried the heaviest end of the burden, taking in the homeless
wanderers, giving them shelter and even bedding, and furnishing them
with food. Had it not been for this unorganised relief, the misery
would have been many times more intense. In one village, of 50
houses, I found 307 refugees; and in another, of 100 houses, 850
dependents. In the former place all that had been received from
outside sources had been 220 roubles, and in the latter the extent
of outside relief had been about six pounds per head of poor flour.
But the farmers of that section have had a bad year of it, and are
themselves feeling the pinch of poverty; and the burden of all this
multitude of destitute people is getting to be almost intolerable.
At best, too, what has been done by all agencies combined has failed
to save the wretched refugees from their sad plight. With often
twenty of them in one room, sleeping on the grass, destitute of
bedclothing and having unwholesome-looking bread to eat, their lot
is not to be envied. No wonder that after the hardships of the
journey scores and hundreds of them have died, pneumonia and enteric
troubles and scarlet fever having carried off a multitude. The
scarlet fever has been especially virulent, and there was scarcely a
house which I visited where from two to five little ones had not
been carried out to the cemetery. One could hardly hope to save a
man with dysentery on the five kopecks (1¼_d._) a day given for his
support, or with the coarse flour given in other districts. While
one cannot but pity all, yet one’s especial sympathy goes out to
those whom one has seen in their own country living in comfort and,
for this country, even in luxury, yet here, in this strange land,
dependent on the dole of bread given them.
With such conditions I have not dared to do anything in the way of
relief, except to leave here and there small sums for the sick and
for those particularly suffering. As long as I have not found anyone
that has died or is dying from hunger I did not think it justifiable
to expend our little funds in the hopeless task of making men
comfortable. More and more am I persuaded that we must reserve our
efforts to the time when these people begin to return to their
homes. If the way opens for such a return, it must be our first
endeavour to restore them to their villages; for very many of them
have their wheat-fields and vineyards, and if these are not looked
after this spring, the relief problem of the future becomes many
times more serious. But how are these unfortunates to get home? Some
of them had a little money when they came out and some reserve
strength; now both funds and physical force are gone, and after the
hard journey back they will reach homes plundered of everything, and
in many cases burnt. Officials here have declared that there is no
question but that the Government will send them back by rail to
Djoulfa free of charge; but, when they are once in Persia, then all
relief committees save our own cease to act. It is on this basis
that I wish to make my appeal to the American public. In a report
which I subjoin, Dr. Shedd, of our Mission in Urmia, gives us a
picture of the conditions there among those who, to the number of
ten to fifteen thousand, have found shelter in our Mission yards. Up
to the 25th January I learn that he has spent over eight hundred
pounds sterling in their support; and he names £3,000 as the minimum
of what is needed for the people there. He himself considers this an
under-estimate, looking at the problem only from the limited
knowledge he had at his command; and I am sure that it is. Five
thousand for those in Urmia and five thousand for those who have
fled, seems to me a more reasonable estimate. Ten thousand pounds is
a big sum to ask, especially at this time, when so many other
portions of the world are stretching out their hands to our country
for aid; but most of these have many eloquent tongues to voice their
cry, while for this people, that have lived so far away among
fanatical Moslem masters, who is there to speak? I can only hope
that this little story of their sufferings may bring some relief,
even if it is not the sum asked and so much needed. I wish I might
hope that others would help in this work; but the French Mission has
little assistance to give, and the Orthodox Mission, that has made a
big bid for the friendship of this people, seems to have completely
flattened out. I doubt whether anything can be hoped for from that
source, and I am very sure that nothing will be given in a large
unsectarian way. And so it appears to me that we of America are the
only ones that can be relied upon to come to the assistance of this
old historic people, who have now endured the heaviest blow that has
fallen upon them for centuries.
There is one other matter. I have said that we must reserve our help
for the time when these people return home; money given them here,
unless it be in very large sums, can do no good. You, however, have
suggested that £200, given through me to the heads of the Relief
Committees of the Caucasus to be used for these Persian refugees,
might do more than anything else to quicken their own assistance to
this unfortunate people. The reasons you have given for this
judgment have seemed to me strong ones, and I have telegraphed
to-day to our headquarters, stating the facts. If any such funds are
sent, I shall ask you to help me in giving the money in such a
manner as shall produce the best results. In the meantime I wish to
thank you most cordially for all that you have done to assist me in
this good work.
29. AZERBAIJAN, BEHIND THE RUSSIAN FRONT: EXTRACTS FROM A SERIES OF
LETTERS BY THE REV. ROBERT M. LABAREE; COMMUNICATED BY THE BOARD
OF FOREIGN MISSIONS OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN THE U.S.A.
=(a) Letter dated Tabriz, 12th March, 1915 (to Mr. Labaree’s
mother).=
Sad news. The Kurds driven back from Khoi massacred 800 Syrian and
Armenian men with cruel torture. This in the plain of Salmas. In
Urmia the largest and wealthiest Syrian village, Gulpashan, which
had been spared by payments of large sums of money, was given over
to plunder by the returning Kurds. The men of the village were all
taken out to the cemetery and killed; the women and girls treated
barbarously. Sixty men were taken out of the French Mission, where
they had taken refuge, and shot. Others have been hanged. The Swiss
teacher of the missionaries’ children has died of typhoid. I have
been asked to go to Urmia, but every way is blocked. Please let Mr.
Speer know facts.
=(b) Letter dated Tabriz, 13th March, 1915 (to Mr. Speer).=
Dr. Shedd’s latest communication speaks for itself and reveals a
terrible condition of things at Urmia. This condition, I fear, has
been rendered even more acute in the two weeks since the letter was
written by the defeat of the Turks and Kurds near Salmas. At that
time all the remaining Christian refugees in Diliman (the chief town
of Salmas) suffered terribly. All the males above twelve years of
age were taken to two neighbouring villages, tortured and shot.
Their number is estimated at 800. The women were to be made Moslems,
but the entrance of the Russians into the town the next day
prevented that. I doubt not but that the retreating Kurds will wish
to do the same thing as they pass through Urmia. One is perfectly
helpless at such a time. The Consuls are acting in concert, but what
can they do? The only salvation seems to be that the Russian army
may advance soon to Urmia, but for military reasons this may be out
of the question.
My own visit to Urmia has been stopped for the present by events.
There is no possible way of my reaching Urmia, unless the Consul
should go and I should accompany him.
=(c) Letter dated Diliman, 19th April, 1915 (to the Presbyterian
Missions Board, New York).=
There seems no more prospect now than when I last wrote of any
measures being taken by the Russian authorities to relieve the Urmia
situation. If any plans are afoot for the occupation of the city
they are not at all in evidence, and I am persuaded that a good many
things must happen elsewhere before the local conditions will be
materially changed.
Recently a Mr. McGowan, a reporter of the Associated Press, fresh
from America, arrived here—all interest over the situation. He was
most anxious to reach Urmia, if any way could be found to get in and
any assurance be given that he could return. We decided upon a
perfectly open policy. With the consent of the Russian officers
here, we secured a messenger and sent him directly to the Turkish
Consul in Urmia, asking for guards and safe conduct, from a point
just beyond the pass to the city, and return. In our letter to the
Consul we enclosed an open letter to Will Shedd, asking his advice
in the matter. Indirectly we hear that our messenger was put under
arrest (lest, I suppose, he should undertake to return), and no
answer has been sent to our request; while, on the other hand,
horsemen were despatched to a midway point to escort into the city
some Persians who had sent a request very much like our own by the
same messenger. It is no use making any more efforts to get inside
this chestnut burr, until through God’s Providence it opens itself.
I am here to render what help I can, and while as yet I have been
able to do nothing, yet perhaps it will be given me later to give
some little assistance to our poor, tired, beleaguered friends in
Urmia. Mr. McGowan has gone back to the Caucasus. It was a pleasure
to get sight of an American face and have a fresh whiff from the
outside world. The news that comes to us from across the Turkish
border is far from pleasant. The many hundreds (and perhaps some
thousands) of Armenians and Syrians in the region of Bashkala have
been massacred. The Armenians and Kurds in and about Van have begun
to fight. In the mountains Mar Shimun is said to have gathered the
independent tribes about him, and they are battling for their lives
against great odds. These are the near-by places. What is going on
inside Turkey, God only knows.
Yesterday I assembled about fifty Armenians from the neighbourhood
of Bashkala in a near-by village for a service. They were all men in
the employment of the Russian army when it withdrew from there
several months ago. They had to come away with the troops, leaving
behind their families and all that they possessed. They feel certain
that their wives and children have been massacred or else taken away
to a captivity worse than death. When one stands before such an
audience, the words that are so easy to speak at other times fail
one. Is there any balm in Gilead for such wounds? Is there any power
to take away from the hearts of these men the sorrow and the
rankling spirit of revenge? May God never put me in a position like
that, or else may he give me more grace than I how possess.
When one knows that three-fourths of the Moslems of this district,
if not nine-tenths of them, were implicated in the plunder of
Christian villages, and that many of them were parties to worse
crimes, it is hard to have the same zest for work among them. But
now that the way to Urmia seems barred for the present, I am
planning to plunge into that work. Just now the Moslems here are so
alarmed lest they suffer for what they have done that they are ready
to listen to almost anything a Christian may say. It is a pity that
in so many cases this willingness has no higher motive.
=(d) Letter dated Tabriz, 6th May, 1915 (to the Presbyterian
Missions Board, New York).=
Just a word to report that I am safe at home. My departure from
Salmas was most sudden and exciting. An overwhelming force of Turks
and Kurds attacked the place, and in the course of manœuvres we were
nearly caught between the two firing-lines. It is not an experience
that often comes to one, nor is it one that one wants repeated. With
hundreds of other refugees, now twice plundered, we made our way to
Djoulfa, and from there I came here.
30. TABRIZ: LETTER DATED TABRIZ, 17th MARCH, 1915, FROM THE REV.
F.N. JESSUP; COMMUNICATED BY THE BOARD OF FOREIGN MISSIONS OF
THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN THE U.S.A.
On the 1st November (1914) Turkey declared a “Djihad,” or Holy War,
against the Allies, and it was soon evident that she would try to
stir up other Moslem nations. In December a small force of Turkish
troops crossed into Persia at Soudjboulak, south of Urmia, but we
thought nothing of it, knowing that the Russian forces here would be
able to cope with them. But on the last day of December it became
evident that the Russians were actually about to withdraw from here,
and there was a panic among the Armenians and other native
Christians. Day and night the poor Armenians fled out of the city
towards the Russian border, and out of 750 or more families only
about 250 were left, most of these being the poorest people. From
the first we were beset by people asking to be allowed to take
refuge with us. We had permission to admit those who were connected
with us, and, in addition, had to make arrangements to receive all
the Europeans who might need protection. It was decided that all the
missionaries should come to this compound, where the Memorial School
and men’s dispensary are located. You can imagine the rush and work
of the first days of January—all the school-rooms to be cleared of
everything so as to be ready for the crowds of people so anxious to
get in, people to be interviewed day and night, rules to be made as
to who and what were to be admitted, our own houses to be made ready
for the advent of the missionary families. For example, my house, in
which I had been living alone on Friday, by Saturday night contained
five families, consisting of ten adults and seven children; and
whereas up to that time Dr. Vanneman and I had been having our meals
alone, now in my dining-room all the Americans ate together,
nineteen adults and a number of children! By this time almost all
the Europeans had left the city, including the Consuls of the Allied
Powers; the banks were closed and the Indo-European telegraph office
was shut. The Europeans who were left in the city came to us for
refuge, all except one family of Italians and a few Germans,
Austrians and Turkish subjects who thought they would be safe. But
even these asked to have a place reserved in case of need, for no
one knew what might happen when a horde of undisciplined Kurds
entered the city. Not only this, but a number of prominent
Mohammedans came to ask protection, and very many more left the city
to flee to Teheran, knowing that they might be molested or
blackmailed.
On Tuesday, the 5th January, the Russian troops left the city and
encamped on its outskirts; the next day they started north towards
Djoulfa, and on Friday, the 8th, the Turks and Kurds entered. For
the next three weeks they were in possession of Tabriz. We were cut
off from the outside world, without news of what was occurring
elsewhere, practically shut up in this compound with the four
hundred who had taken refuge with us. We had as our guests Belgians
from the Customs and Finance Departments, French Catholic Sisters
with forty or fifty of their school-children, two German ladies who
had been sick and unable to go with the rest of the German colony, a
Russian lady, and two American Seventh Day Adventist missionaries
from Maragha, but most of the people were Armenian and Nestorian. As
you see, they were of all nationalities and religions, but all lived
together in the greatest goodwill, and things moved with a
remarkable lack of trouble or friction.
We had planned to observe the regular Week of Prayer with nightly
services in our church, but our church had to be abandoned, for
almost every Christian from that quarter of the city had fled, and
no one dared to stir out of doors after dark. But we were given a
greater opportunity. Instead of a week’s services attended by fifty
or sixty people, we had Evangelistic services in the assembly room
of the Memorial School every night for a full four weeks, with a
hundred to a hundred and fifty in attendance, and all listening with
the most earnest attention. And as we had with us refugee families
from Soudjboulak, Maragha and other places, we had a chance to
preach the Gospel to those rarely, if ever, reached by the truth.
Instead of having to seek a congregation, we had it ready within our
gates, and one composed of those whose hearts were softened in the
fact of our common danger and life together.
As the time went on, the blackmail and plundering on the part of the
Kurds grew worse and people became more anxious. It was indeed a
welcome day when the sound of cannon and machine guns was heard to
the north, and it appeared that the Russians were returning to
deliver the city. This they did on the 30th January, and so well had
the campaign been arranged that the fleeing Kurds were cut off from
the city after the battle, and so could not loot or kill on their
retreat, as many had feared they might. And thus in God’s providence
the city was relieved, and we and the many lives entrusted to us
were kept safe from harm during that trying time.
When the roads were once again open and word reached us from other
places, we began to hear of the terrible plight of the Christians of
other places, especially Urmia and Salmas. When suddenly and
unexpectedly the native Christians of those places heard that the
Russian army was immediately to be withdrawn, they knew that their
only safety from the cruelties of the approaching Kurds lay in
flight. Men, women and little children were obliged to start off at
once, in mid-winter, most of them on foot, unable to make
preparation or to carry sufficient food, clothing, or bedding, and
to flee in terror of their lives through snow and deep mud, wading
through streams and toiling over the mountains and across plains
covered with almost impassable mire, till at last they might reach
Djoulfa on the Russian frontier, nearly 150 miles away. The story of
the horror of that flight will probably never be fully told. From
Urmia 17,000 or 18,000 must have fled. When they reached the Salmas
plain, their numbers were swelled by thousands of Armenian
Christians fleeing thence. Men who went through the experience tell
us that the events of those days are indescribable. On the edge of
the Salmas plain multitudes could find no lodging and had to sleep
in the snow. Some children were carried off by wolves, and many more
died before morning. And then the march of those days! Up before
daylight, struggling in the snow and slush and darkness to find and
keep to the road through the mountain passes, hurrying on ever,
knowing that at the end of the day only those who first arrived
could be sure of finding shelter for the next night; parents
becoming separated from each other and from their children in the
darkness or in the mass of hurrying people, unable to find them
again, but hoping that they might meet at the end of the day; people
throwing away the quilts or other necessary bedding they had brought
because physically unable to carry them; the road strewn with
abandoned goods; the weak and sick falling by the wayside, many
never to rise again; men become as beasts in the common struggle
just to live. At night many would arrive long after dark at the
appointed stopping-place only to find every caravanserai and lodging
so full that they would be forced to spend the night out of doors.
Those within fared little better, crowded in so tightly that often
they could neither lie nor sit down, but had to remain standing all
night in rooms with every door and window shut, and the air so foul
that the winter’s cold without seemed preferable. And at such
stopping-places exhausted mothers and fathers were anxiously going
from house to house and group to group, seeking their lost children.
The fugitives have many terrible tales to tell. By the time they had
reached Khoi their plight was desperate, but beyond Khoi their
sufferings were increased by the deep mire through which they had to
struggle. One of our Christian workers from Urmia told me that with
his own eyes he saw a man go up to his mother, who had sunk
exhausted in the mud, and shoot her through the head, rather than
leave her to die by degrees or to be killed by wolves. They tell of
a family who started from Urmia—an aged father and his two married
daughters, each carrying two children, one on her back and the other
in her arms. There, in the mire beyond Khoi, the father could no
longer go on and had to be left, and one of the women gave birth to
a child. She wrapped the new-born babe in a piece of cloth torn from
her dress, and taking it in her arms struggled on, but the other two
children had to be abandoned like their grandfather. On arriving at
Djoulfa these women found their husbands, who had been in Tiflis and
had hurried down to meet the fugitives. There for several anxious
days they waited, hoping for news of the lost children. The fathers
had been away long, and could not be sure of recognizing them, and
the mothers were too exhausted to return. At last some soldiers came
in with a waggon full of lost children whom they had rescued, and
among them were the two little ones. But they had suffered so from
exposure that in a few days they both died. The grandfather had
perished in the mire.
Mr. Labaree, of our station, left for the Caucasus as soon as the
way was open, to find out conditions and see what we could do to
help the poor refugees. There are 70,000 or more reported in those
regions, not only from Persia, but from Turkey and the border. The
Armenians of the Caucasus had organised relief committees, and the
Government was also helping. The average grant was about 2_d._ or
1½_d._ per adult a day. The villagers among whom those thousands of
absolutely destitute strangers were distributed were very kind, but
the burden was very heavy for them. Mr. Labaree said that the poor
fugitives were in a pitiable state. Sickness had followed the
exposure and strain—scarlet fever and other diseases—and in almost
every room he visited he heard of four or five children who had
died.