preachers, teachers and Bible-Women, with their families, fell
victims to it among the rest. The man who brought the word is known
to me personally. This young man tells the story of how, by order of
the Government, the Kurds and Turkish soldiers put the Christians of
all those villages, including Djeziré, to the sword. Among those
slain were Kasha (Pastor) Mattai, pastor of the church in Hassan;
Kasha Elia, one of our oldest and most honoured pastors, recently
working as an evangelist; Kasha Sargis, superannuated; Muallin
Mousa, pastor of our church in Djeziré, and his sixteen-year-old son
Philip. There are three preachers not heard from, and one of them is
probably killed, as his village, Monsoria, was put to the sword;
another, Rabi Ishak, is possibly alive, as there is a report that
his village had been preserved by the influence of a Kurdish agha.
It is to be feared, however, that this agha would not be able to
protect them for long, as from every source comes the word that the
Government threatened such friendly Kurds with punishment if they
did not obey orders. The third man is reported as having fled to
Mosul. Whether he reached there or not is not known. The women and
children who escaped death were carried away captive. Among these
were the families of the above mentioned brethren. The wife and two
daughters of Muallin Mousa, the daughters of Kasha Elia, and Rabi
Hatoun, our Bible-Woman, were all school-girls in Urmia or Mardin.
Kasha Mattai was killed by Kurds in the mountain while fleeing.
Kasha Elia and Kasha Sargis, with other men of the village of Shakh,
were killed by Turkish soldiers who had been stationed in their
village by the Government.
The three villages of Hassan, Shakh and Monsoria were Protestant,
and it is to be feared that they were wiped out, as were all the
other Christian villages of the plain. Many of the women of Monsoria
threw themselves into the river (Tigris) to avoid falling into the
hands of the Kurds. Mar Yohannan and Mar Akha were still safe at the
time my informant fled. The terrible feature about it was that,
after the first slaughter, there were Kurds who tried to save some
of the Christians alive, but the Government would not permit it. My
informant had found refuge with an agha and was working for him,
when a messenger from the Government came with orders to the Kurds
to complete the work or be punished. Word was brought to my
informant in the field, and he with a few others fled to the
mountain and made their way to Van, and so came here. The villagers
of Attil, where we had work also, all escaped to Van. Their Kurdish
agha, who was a warm friend of our preacher and of our work, gave
them warning that he would not be able to protect them, as the
massacre was being pressed by the Government. It was their pastor
who fled to Mosul. His way would take him to Djeziré and Monsoria,
the home of his wife. They may have been killed there. There is no
word about them.
This terrible calamity grieves me more than I can tell you. And more
than those who died, the fate of those carried off into captivity
weighs upon me. I think of them so often—Sarah, Hatoun, Priskilla
and little Nellie and others, young girls whom I knew in the home
almost like my own children. What is their condition? This word of
my informant is confirmed by a woman of Djeziré, who made her escape
also to Van and thence hither. She tells us that Sarah and her two
daughters were released and were last seen on the plain beyond
Djeziré, wandering in a destitute condition.
-----
Footnote 61:
Before the War, there were three main groups of Nestorians in the
region between Lake Urmia and the Tigris, each group numbering
about 30,000 souls. There were the villagers of the Urmia plain,
the mountaineers of the Zab, and these other plainsmen in the
Bohtan district, round the confluence of the Bohtan River and the
Tigris. The present document describes the general massacre of
many, or perhaps nearly all, the Nestorians of this third group,
whose chief settlements were at Djeziret-ibn-Omar on the Tigris,
Mansouria (Monsoria) and Shakh.
42. SECOND EXODUS FROM URMIA: LETTER DATED TABRIZ, 20th AUGUST,
1915, FROM MR. HUGO A. MÜLLER (TREASURER OF THE AMERICAN MISSION
STATION AT URMIA); COMMUNICATED BY THE BOARD OF FOREIGN MISSIONS
OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN THE U.S.A.
On Thursday, the 5th August, the rumour spread that the Russian
troops were again to be withdrawn from Urmia. This very naturally
frightened the entire Christian population, and on Thursday evening
all Christians, except those already on the road and those
physically unable to be on the road, were in the streets of the city
and on the roads leading northward from the city, waiting for the
departure of the foot-soldiers, with whom they intended to leave.
Knowing the probable fate of any who might stay behind, we were, of
course, not ready to discourage the people from going. Still, we had
no official word of the anticipated evacuation, and were, therefore,
perplexed as to our own duty. The breaking up of a good proportion
of our missionary work, the removal of the bulk of the relief work
to a different place, and the uncertainty of America’s future
position all contributed to indicate that a portion at least of the
Station should move in case of an evacuation. On Friday morning we
learned that the foot-soldiers had left, and one of our men, on
visiting the Russian Consul, was told that all who were going should
be off by 2 p.m. that day. The Station felt that its force should be
reduced to the minimum, and that at least all women and children
should leave. Very hasty preparations were made. Mr. McDowell, Mr.
Labaree and Dr. Packard volunteered to stay in Urmia, and all the
rest were to leave. When we got on the road, however, we found that
Mrs. Packard and her children and Miss Burgess were not of the
party. Mrs. Packard had decided to brave the Station vote and stay
by her husband, and Miss Burgess stayed to be with Mrs. Packard and
to assist the medical work. The fugitive party, therefore, consisted
of Dr. Shedd and his two daughters, Mr. and Mrs. Allen with their
two sons and one daughter, Dr. and Mrs. Coan, Mrs. Cochran, Miss
Lewis, Miss Lamme, Miss Schoebel, and Mrs. Müller and myself with
our daughter. We went in carriages, using some donkeys and horses
bought the last two hours before our departure.
At the end of our second day’s journey we reached a village, Kudchi,
where we found perhaps 20,000 or 30,000 Syrian refugees, whose
further flight had been arrested by the Russian commanding officer
with the good news that a decisive victory had made the evacuation
of Urmia unnecessary. All were told to go back. Unless the
missionaries would return, however, the natives were unwilling to
trust themselves alone. Nothing was left but for some to return,
especially since this was requested by the officer in command of the
troops there. Dr. Shedd and his daughters, Mrs. Cochran and Dr. and
Mrs. Coan consequently turned back. This gave the crowd heart and
they, too, went back. But the tables were soon turned again, and
before the foot-sore crowd reached the city they were again turned
back with the word that there was fighting with the Kurds on Mount
Seir. The missionaries had reached the city and were there during
the fighting on Mount Seir. It seemed advisable for them to leave
again, as conditions were very uncertain, in spite of the fact that
the Russian Consul with a number of Cossacks had stayed by his post
during all this time. They, that is Dr. Shedd and his two daughters,
and Dr. and Mrs. Coan, left for the second time on Friday the 13th
August. This time Mrs. Cochran stayed behind.
Meanwhile, those of us who had continued on our journey from Kudchi
arrived in Tabriz on Friday the 13th August, after a journey free
from mishaps, but nevertheless wearing for us who were still typhoid
and typhus convalescents. Every one in the party with the exception
of Mrs. Allen and the Allen children had recently had the fever.
43. SECOND EXODUS FROM URMIA: NARRATIVE OF A NESTORIAN VICTIM, THE
WIFE OF THE REV. DAVID JACOB, OF URMIA, PUBLISHED IN THE
ARMENIAN JOURNAL “ARARAT” OF LONDON, JANUARY, 1916.
As a native of Urmia and myself a refugee who has fallen into great
trouble, I am writing a few short details about my unfortunate
nation. For centuries as Christians we have been crushed by the
enemies that surround us. Our best looking girls have been forced to
deny their creed; our men have been killed, our homes plundered, and
our property has been robbed.
In all these troubles we lived under the Persian Government, and
obeyed their rules; we have never been untrue to them, or
disobedient. For the past seventy years the only help we have had
has come through the English and American Missions that have been in
Urmia. When the Russians arrived at Urmia it was a delight to us, we
thought our rights would be more clearly established; of course,
things were much better than before; all the country was safer than
it ever had been. This was like a dream for a few years; all of a
sudden, when this terrible war began, we felt almost certain that it
would harm us, although we never dreamed that it would bring us
under such a curse.
In the cold January, when even the beasts do not wish to go out from
their caves, the people were left homeless, bleeding, impoverished
and starving. This all happened when the Russian forces withdrew
from Urmia; very many left their beloved and comfortable homes, and
started with them on an endless journey, which caused the death of
many dear souls from cold and hunger. The rest of the Christians
crowded into the American Mission compounds, with nothing left; here
they were fed on a morsel of bread which came through the kindness
of the Missionaries. There is a great deal to tell of the misery of
the people during the last winter; it was a life too wretched for
humanity. Those that were used to comfortable beds now slept on the
bare ground. For five months of captivity we lived expecting death
every minute, surrounded by sick people who needed help; our little
children died of measles; our young and strong ones could not stand
the terrible epidemics of typhoid and typhus, while the elderly
people could not live such a hard life; they died in the first
weeks, of dysentery. Now the villages were plundered and mostly
burned, a good many people killed, and our little girls and women
wickedly tortured (very many even now have not been found; they were
mercilessly carried into captivity); through all this long time of
anxiety and expectation, during which our time was given to weeping,
we prayed that God would once more save us by sending the Russians
to our rescue.
It was a great relief when we heard that the Russians, for their own
interests, were coming to Urmia once more. After their coming the
people were at liberty, and were able to go out into the country
once more. For three months they tried to live in the villages,
though a very poor and wretched life it was, with everything gone
and most of the buildings burned. In these hard times we were
thankful to the American Missionaries and the Russian Consul who
helped us in settling down. Although at this time we did not do any
evil to our enemies who had treated us so unkindly, we heard them
say that if once more the Russian army should leave Urmia, no
Christian would be safe.
On the 4th August the peasants crowded into the city of Urmia; they
had heard indirectly about the armies leaving. It was a sight that
could not be described. The sick, helpless little children were
terrified. All night and the next day the road that led towards the
Russian border was full of refugees, although the Consul assured us
that he would not leave without warning us; but the fear was so
great that nothing could keep us back.
In the first invasion of Urmia[62] some of those that dwelt inside
the city gates were in more security than the villagers, although
they were fined a great deal and suffered many hardships and losses
of property, and there had been deaths in almost every home; but
this second attack meant that we must leave all and flee. On Friday
morning, with sober face and heavy heart, I left my dear home. I am
grateful to God that until now my home had not been robbed, so that
it was very hard for me to leave its comfort and start out into the
world with no hope of returning again. With many other comrades in
the same plight, we began our dreadful journey. For two families we
had a little cart in which we put a few necessary coverings, a
little bread, and my three little children. It was very hard for us
to leave our property, but life is dearer than all the riches of the
world.
On the way we met all classes of people, the rich and poor were
reduced to the same level; very few had carriages, because our
neighbours would not hire us any, some had horses and donkeys, but
the majority had to walk with great bundles on their backs. We were
quite unused to such a hard journey; some sat on the roadside and
wept from sore feet; it was hard to walk in shoes, and without shoes
the sun burned them until the blood came; dear, innocent children
died on the way; it broke the parents’ hearts to part with them; old
and feeble men and women were left behind; little unlucky babies
were born in the sight of the passers-by; everyone was in need of
help, but no help could be found. We were like the Israelites
scattered in the desert, only they had Moses to conduct them to
Canaan, while we had no one.
The first night we were so tired and exhausted that we stopped in a
place that had very little water, a dry, dusty place; our bed was
the ground, our pillow a stone, the sky our quilt. The little
excited children cried all night; large crowds of people were coming
all night; while some rested and went on, others from behind took
their place. The next day we were so tired and hopeless that we
wished we had died at home and had not started on such an endless
and aimless pilgrimage.
It broke my heart when I met a little girl; her feet were sore and
she could walk no further. She cried, “Oh mother! Oh, God!” The
mother had a heavy load and could not carry the child, the father
was killed, they had no friends. I carried the little girl on my
back for about half-a-mile, but could not any further. It was too
heart-breaking. Why should innocent children suffer so?
Our next stop was a better place; it had splendid, cool water, and
shade; but the people were so many that bread was scarce, starvation
was upon us. A great many were sick by this time and could not move.
This was a Moslem town; they did not like to have us there, but they
could not turn us out on account of the Russian soldiers being near.
There were Christian villages on our way, but by this time they had
all been destroyed. Here we stopped a few days. We heard that the
Cossacks had not left Urmia entirely; they had moved their
headquarters a few miles, so that we had hope that we would not lose
all. From here some of us went to Tabriz, which is a larger city,
and a little safer than other places. Now we are a nation scattered
like the flock without a shepherd, some living here and some there,
a miserable existence. Some have gone back to Urmia; most of them
have found all their crops gone. If we had not left Urmia this
second time, our condition would not be so hard as it is now, the
places near the city having mostly been kept safe by the kindness of
the Russian Consul, who did not leave Urmia; but in the more distant
places the crops and vineyards have all been destroyed. We are more
than grateful to the Americans, who have ransomed our lives from
death by the money that has been spent for us the last winter. We
hope and pray for the victory of the Allies, that through their
kindness the rest of us might live. So far one-third of our nation
has perished, and even we who survive are so broken by the strain we
have suffered that sometimes we are hopeless. Now we are facing a
winter of famine and wretchedness, homes without bedding and
clothes. Of course nobody can supply all our needs. In addition to
our own trouble, our countrymen from Turkey are taking refuge in the
Urmia district, and their condition is worse than ours.
-----
Footnote 62:
By the Turks and Kurds.
44. URMIA DISTRICT: REPORT ON THE DISTRIBUTION OF RELIEF, COVERING
THE PERIOD 1st JUNE TO 31st DECEMBER, 1915; COMMUNICATED BY THE
AMERICAN COMMITTEE FOR ARMENIAN AND SYRIAN RELIEF.
At the beginning of June, 1915, when the people emerged from our
premises emaciated from sickness and malnutrition and crushed by the
blow that had fallen upon them, they were confronted by a seemingly
hopeless situation. Practically all their household furnishings and
food supplies had been plundered; the same was true of their
domestic animals, on which they depended in large measure for their
subsistence. Their houses were without any doors and windows, and
probably a full third of them had been demolished. They were in
terror about going back to their villages; they feared their Moslem
neighbours, who had despoiled them of their property, outraged their
wives and daughters, and killed many of their relatives; they
feared, too, lest the Russian troops might again withdraw and leave
them to the mercy of their enemies; and they were anxious lest the
missionaries who had sheltered them for the previous months might
forget them when they were out of sight. Everything tended to make
them cling to our Mission compounds or their vicinity. To permit
them to do this was of course out of the question. Our efforts,
however, to scatter them to their village homes formed one of the
most pitiful phases of our relief work. The people had to go, but as
long as they received their bread from our yards they would not; and
so we had no choice but to cut off the food supply, after giving
each family sufficient flour to support them a week. At the same
time, with the help of the newly arrived Russian Consul, pressure
was brought to bear upon the landlords of the Christian villages to
support their tenants until harvest. Some of these could not,
because they themselves had been plundered; others would not, in
spite of Consular pressure; and others promised to give the needed
assistance, but delayed it from day to day with all the ingenuity of
excuse for which the Orient is notorious. The result was that our
yards were thronged daily with hundreds of people clamouring for
food. To give way would have nullified all our efforts to get the
people on to their own feet; and only when it was absolutely clear
that nothing could be gotten from the landlords of any one village
did we assume any degree of support for the people of the village.
Little by little progress was made, and although the villagers were
wretchedly miserable, the approaching harvest made subsistence by
their own effort possible, and virtually all food distribution
ceased for a period of three months.
There was another form of relief, however, that was imperative. In
the vast majority of villages there was not a spade to use in
repairing their houses, in ridding their vineyards of weeds or in
burying their dead, and there was not a scythe or sickle with which
to reap their harvest. The best and surest way to help the people
was to give them these implements, and so for upwards of a month we
virtually subsidised all the blacksmiths of the city in our
endeavour to get these instruments in time for the harvest. When we
closed this department of our relief work, we had distributed 2,661
scythes and sickles and 1,129 spades at a cost of 18,909.90 krans.
(The exchange value of a silver kran is approximately 4½_d._)
By the beginning of August the situation was considerably more
hopeful. The people with Consular help had succeeded in collecting a
good deal of their plundered property, including bedding, household
utensils and a few cattle; the harvest was good, although the
acreage was below the average, and the promise of the vineyards was
excellent. Then fell another blow, what seemed an inexplicable
Providence. Events in another section of the war necessitated orders
for a sudden withdrawal of the Russian troops, and the evacuation
was actually carried out with the exception of a small force which
remained with the Consul on the hills outside the city. With the
going of their protectors the whole Christian population of the
plain, with the exception of some 200 sick and aged who again took
refuge in the Mission yards, fled, some only to the northern edge of
the plain, but many to Salmas and Khoi and even Djoulfa. Fortunately
it was summer time, but even so the misery was intense, and cholera
and want and hardship claimed many victims in those few weeks. Worse
still, much that the people had reclaimed of their stolen property
and gathered from their fields was taken once more by their Moslem
neighbours; and so, after nearly a month of miserable hardship and
uncertainty, the poor Syrians and Armenians returned to their twice
plundered homes. Very little relief, however, was given during the
next few weeks; for from the fields and vineyards much could still
be secured in the way of food.
At this time we calculated that about 10,000 to 15,000 of the
Christian inhabitants would have to be supported during! the winter
months, and we were making our plans accordingly, when a new and
overwhelming burden descended upon us. For months the Syrians of
Kurdistan had been holding their own in their mountain fastnesses,
hoping for succour from the Russians. When this failed and their
enemies increased on every hand, they had to flee—many, many
perishing in the attempt. Some 30,000 of them arrived at last in
Salmas and the neighbourhood in almost absolute destitution. A few
succeeded in bringing a part of their sheep, but most came with
nothing, half-naked, and without any means of livelihood. This army
of wretchedness was halted by the authorities on the plain of Salmas
and on the hills surrounding it, until their location should be
determined upon. Mr. McDowell of our Relief Committee, who has had
years of experience among these people, left at once for Salmas and
grappled with the serious problem of their immediate relief. But for
the assistance given by our Committee there, hundreds of them would
have perished from hunger. As it was, cholera, typhoid and pneumonia
did their worst among a people wasted by hardship, unprotected from
the cold and without shelter. Shortly the streams of suffering
humanity began to pour across the pass that separates the Salmas
from the Urmia plain, and to scatter themselves in the villages of
this section. A few weeks before we had been wondering how the
inhabitants of the plain would find shelter for themselves in their
half-ruined villages; but from the accompanying statistical
report[63] it will be seen that they have made room for nearly
16,000 refugees from other districts. For example, the village of
Geogtapa has doubled its population, having received as many of
these guests as it had inhabitants of its own.
About the middle of October we began to take steps in preparation
for our winter relief work. The first thing was to buy up all
supplies of wheat that we could secure while the price was low—the
lowest for years, for the purchasers were few and the owners anxious
to turn their crops into cash before any more untoward events might
transpire. The wheat thus secured was stored in different parts of
the plain accessible as distributing centres. The doing of this
required quite a force of reliable men, who could act as wheat
buyers and weighers.
The next step was to get accurate lists of the actually destitute in
every village. This was no easy task, for many felt themselves
entitled to assistance who were not wholly destitute, and to
discover who were really in want, among the hundreds of
poverty-stricken, plundered inhabitants of each village, required
both tact and firmness. The task was made doubly hard by the
constant stream of new arrivals from Salmas. On the basis of these
lists tickets were issued for bedding and for food—the two most
crying needs.
For bedding it was decided to issue large wool quilts, large enough
to cover several persons. These we found could be made for three or
three and a half tomans (12_s._) per quilt. Under the efficient
direction of Miss Lewis, and later of Miss Lamme, a quilt factory
was started, which in time employed over a hundred needy women in
carding wool and sewing the quilts. This factory during its three
months’ existence consumed over 84,000 yards of calico, 35,000
pounds of wool, and some 1,500 pounds of cotton, and expended over
18,000 tomans; it taxed the resources of the dry goods merchants to
supply our demand and it quite exhausted the wool supplies of the
city. Our plan was to give only one quilt to four persons, families
of over four to receive two or more according to the number of
members; but after the issue of tickets we found that we could not
possibly supply the need, and so regretfully we had to limit our
giving to one quilt to a family. The inadequacy of this relief was
seen when we began to distribute to the families of mountaineers;
for with them all the brothers and their wives and children form one
family, and it was not uncommon to have families of over 20, one
being as high as 35. But in spite of their inadequacy, the 5,510
quilts issued have saved the lives of many, for literally thousands
were facing the rigours of winter without any bedding whatever.