nature. We issued what was supposed to be a two months’ supply at
one time, giving a Russian pood and a half per capita for this
period, that is, about 50 pounds. To the widows and orphans and to
the new comers from the mountains we gave flour instead of wheat,
the actual cost of this assistance in food at current prices being
two and a half shahis per day to a person, or between a half-penny
and three-farthings. But even with this small gratuity, the total
amount given of wheat and flour was 4,000 poods, or about 140,000
pounds, costing about the same as the quilts, that is, about 18,000
tomans.
With these small gifts to individuals amounting in the aggregate to
large figures, and with the similar work that has been done in
Salmas and Khoi, and even for the district of Albek, our funds have
been exhausted, and we are waiting now to see what the generosity of
America will do about it. Had it not been for this generosity, many
would have died of hunger and cold the last two months, for, apart
from what our Committee has done, very little has reached the people
from any other source. We are grateful indeed to acknowledge the
receipt of considerable sums from his Grace the Archbishop of
Canterbury for the Syrian refugees from the mountains, but still the
largest part has come and must come from America. We shall have to
look to our friends in America for their continued aid, if this
unfortunate people, the victims of Mohammedan hate, are to be kept
this winter and established in their homes once more.
-----
Footnote 63:
Omitted here.
45. AZERBAIJAN: STATEMENT, DATED TIFLIS, 22nd FEBRUARY, 1916, BY MR.
M. PHILIPS PRICE, WAR CORRESPONDENT FOR VARIOUS BRITISH AND
AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS ON THE CAUCASIAN FRONT; COMMUNICATED TO
ANEURIN WILLIAMS, ESQ., M.P., AND PUBLISHED IN THE ARMENIAN
JOURNAL “ARARAT,” OF LONDON, MARCH, 1916.
In the October of last year I came to Diliman on the plain of Salmas
in north-west Persia. I had been in Urmia during September and had
seen the condition of the Assyrians (mostly Orthodox, Catholic and
Protestant) in the low country round that lake. The American
missionaries of Urmia were doing a great deal, and on the whole the
condition of the country was not so very bad. There was housing
accommodation and a good deal of corn, and it seemed as if the
Americans would keep the situation in hand. But in Salmas there was
a very different state of affairs. At the end of September, 25,000
mountain Nestorians from the Tkhuma, Baz and Tiari regions, who had
been fighting with the Kurds all summer and had had to flee for lack
of ammunition, came pouring into the plain led by their Patriarch,
Mar Shimun, and began to plant themselves down in the orchards and
gardens round the villages. All the villages of the plain were
already occupied, and, as the winter was just setting in, their
condition without housing, food and clothing was desperate. I sent a
message to Mr. Shipley, the British Consul at Tabriz, telling him of
the situation, and he telegraphed to the Archbishop of Canterbury
for financial assistance. Meanwhile relief committees were organised
under the Russian Consul Akimovitch, the Armenian Bishop Nerses, who
lent funds from the Armenians of the Caucasus, and an American
Missionary from Urmia, Mr. McDowell, with funds from America, and
they began to organise relief during November and December. The
method adopted was to distribute to all the refugees, Armenians and
Assyrians alike, a daily allowance of 10 kopecks a day, since
increased to 15 kopecks, and to distribute warm quilts and coats
from materials purchased in the bazaars of Diliman and Khoi. Some
medical detachments of the Russian Red Cross and _Soyus Gorodof_
were sent with medical aid to combat typhus and dysentery, which was
beginning to and still is taking many in toll of the refugees. As
regards the medical side of the relief, I am inclined to doubt the
possibility of making effective provision under the circumstances.
There are not sufficient skilled doctors, and it is impossible to
get drugs through from the Caucasus in sufficient quantity to do
much good.
I did not observe on my return to Salmas after a journey to Van in
November any real improvement in the health of the refugees. Every
day a hundred or more Assyrians and Armenians were dying in the
villages round Diliman, and the same thing is going on now.
It seems to me (and these friends of mine, who have also been there
and have seen the conditions, agree with me), that it is impossible
under the circumstances to combat the disease by medical assistance.
The hardy mountaineers from the headwaters of the Great Zab and
Tigris can best be helped by giving them the means to resist
disease. Once disease has hold of them, no half measures of medical
relief can help. I am therefore strongly of opinion that, if more
relief is sent, it should take the form of money, which should go to
increase the daily allowances of the refugees, enabling them to buy
for themselves, from the Persians of Diliman, food and clothing,
which alone will enable them to resist disease.
The position is now as follows. When I left Diliman for Van at the
end of October, I saw in the regions round Bashkalé another 5,000 or
6,000 Assyrian and a sprinkling of Armenians living in caves of the
rocks or in the open, and feeding on raw grains of wheat, which they
were picking from the ruined corn-fields. On my return in January
most of these were in Salmas, and so I think about 30,000 Assyrian
and Armenian refugees are now there—that is, after deducting 15 per
cent. as loss from disease in the last three months. The Russian and
American relief organisations which are working there of course
stand in need of more money to carry on their work effectively. In
order to save the refugees from starving, doles of money must be
given out to them till next harvest at least. I should certainly
think that the Americans, whose committee is centred in Tabriz,
under the American Consul there, are doing the best work with the
means at their disposal. With the Russian organisation there is more
delay and greater leakage. Relief is being given impartially by the
Americans to Assyrians and Armenians of all denominations. This
cannot always be guaranteed for the Russian organisation.
I would therefore strongly appeal for further help for the
distressed refugees of this ancient Assyrian Church, together with
their brethren of the Armenian Gregorian, Catholic and Protestant
faiths, and should suggest that it be sent to the British Consul at
Tabriz to distribute with the American missionaries in the form of
increased daily allowances for food and clothing.
V.
THE REFUGEES IN THE CAUCASUS.
_For two months—June and July, 1915—the Armenians of Van enjoyed an
autonomous national government under Russian protection. But in the
last days of July the Ottoman armies on this front received strong
reinforcements, and were able once more to take the offensive. The
Russian troops began to fall back from Van on the 30th July, and
practically the entire Armenian population of the Vilayet
accompanied them in their retirement._
_The retreat was unexpected. The refugees had few conveyances and
hardly any provisions; and, though their rear was protected against
the descents of the Kurds by the heroic fighting of the Cossacks and
the Armenian Volunteers, the suffering and mortality, during their
flight over almost trackless mountains, was appalling._
_At Etchmiadzin and Erivan, across the Russian frontier, the
Armenian refugees were joined by the stream of Nestorian fugitives
from Urmia, and the total number of Christian exiles in the Caucasus
rose to over a hundred and eighty thousand._
_The Turks only retained their hold on Van for a few weeks, but that
was sufficient for their purpose. They did what they had done at
Bitlis, Moush and Sassoun; and when the Russians returned, they
found that all the inhabitants who had stayed behind had been
massacred, and all the towns and villages burnt to the ground,
including Van itself._
_As soon as security had been re-established, the refugees began to
return, slowly, to build up their ruined homes. But the majority of
them still remained in the Caucasus, where they had arrived in utter
destitution. The Caucasian Armenians rose magnificently to the
occasion. The brunt of the relief work fell upon them, and their
organisation was as admirable as their generosity. They were
subsequently reinforced by aid from London, Boston, and, above all,
from Moscow; but the magnitude of the task was overwhelming, and the
need continued to be very great._
46. THE FLIGHT TO THE CAUCASUS: DESPATCHES TO THE ARMENIAN JOURNAL
“HORIZON” OF TIFLIS, FROM MR. SAMPSON AROUTIOUNIAN, PRESIDENT OF
THE ARMENIAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE OF TIFLIS, WHO WENT IN PERSON TO
MEET THE REFUGEES.
=(a) Despatch dated Etchmiadzin, 12th August, 1915.=
The road from Igdir to Etchmiadzin (about 30 kilometres) is choked
with groups of sick and destitute refugees. They have now waited
there several days exposed to the full heat of the sun, although
they have passes authorising them to proceed to Etchmiadzin. There
is urgent need for a special body of workers to organise and forward
these refugees.
=(b) Despatch dated Etchmiadzin, 13th August, 1915.=
Between the Turkish frontier and Igdir (the first Russian village),
the whole countryside is filled to overflowing with refugees.
Further on, between Igdir and Etchmiadzin, all the gardens and
vineyards are full of them. At Igdir, the first arrival depot, a
mass of 20,000 has accumulated, and another of 45,000 at
Etchmiadzin; from these two centres they are being distributed in
groups to other districts. At Etchmiadzin a hospital has been
installed, as well as baths and a hospice for the orphans. Between
Igdir and the Turkish frontier there are patrols of horsemen
searching for the children, the sick and other stragglers, and
seeing to the removal of the corpses. About fifty orphans arrive
every day at Igdir; part of them are kept there, the others are sent
on to Etchmiadzin.
The refugees from Van and the surrounding country have traversed the
whole distance on foot. The majority of them are sick and starving,
having been able to take nothing with them at the moment of
departure. In the course of their journey they have not been
attacked except at Bergri-Kala, where a band of Kurds cut the
defenceless column and headed off about 20,000 people at the rear
end of it, whose fate we do not know. As a result of famine and
fatigue, a large number of the refugees have been more or less
severely attacked by various epidemics, especially by dysentery.
The stream flows without ceasing, and it is impossible to estimate
the numbers with any exactitude. At Igdir, with the assistance of
Aram, ex-Governor of the province of Van, and other representatives
of the refugees, we fixed them approximately at the following
figures:
Van district, 203,000; Melashkerd, 60,000, not including those who
reached here at an earlier date. The average mortality amounts to 15
deaths a day at Igdir, and 40 at Etchmiadzin.
The care of all these refugees falls upon the Armenian
organisations, principally upon the Committee of Fraternal
Assistance at Etchmiadzin and the National Committee. The relief
available is utterly inadequate to such boundless misery. The
refugees need food, medical aid and clothing, especially linen and
boots. There is a dearth of travelling kitchens, tents and carts. To
stamp out the contagious diseases, it is indispensable to install
medical stations in all the villages.
=(c) Despatch dated Etchmiadzin, 13th August, 1915.=
Hundreds of thousands of refugees are arriving at Etchmiadzin from
Turkish Armenia. There seems no end to these solid columns moving
forward in a cloud of dust. The majority are women and children,
barefoot, exhausted and starving. Their accounts of the atrocities
committed by the Turks and Kurds reveal indescribable horrors. The
panic which set these poor people in flight came upon them
absolutely unawares; parents lost their children, and children their
parents. A great number of these lost children, without food and
worn out as they were, were unable to keep up and died on the road.
Others have been, picked up by rescue parties, and there are now at
Igdir and Etchmiadzin about 500 of these little motherless
creatures. We make an urgent appeal to all Armenian ladies to come
to the aid of these abandoned little ones.
=(d) Despatch dated Erivan, 21st August, 1915.=
The stream of refugees still flows, but with a slacker current. At
the present moment more than 35,000 of them have accumulated at
Etchmiadzin, and 20,000 at Erivan. In spite of all the zeal
displayed by the Relief Committee of Etchmiadzin, under the
presidency of the Prelate Bagrad, and by the National Committees of
Tiflis and Moscow, with their numerous affiliated Committees, the
situation is extraordinarily harrowing. There is an absolute
shortage of bread, hot food and medical assistance. The majority of
the refugees are ill. At Etchmiadzin and Erivan several hospitals
have been installed, which are providing for about 1,500 sick
people; yet there are still great numbers of the seriously sick
lying out under walls, in open courtyards, or even in the streets.
They are suffering terribly from dysentery. The mortality is
enormous; the day before yesterday they buried 103 people at
Etchmiadzin, and yesterday 80.
At the Etchmiadzin Secondary School, 3,500 children who have lost
their parents are huddled together. They sleep on the floor.
Yesterday evening I visited the building; in the big hall I counted
110 babies lying on the floor absolutely naked; some of them were
sleeping, others were crying. The effect was so harrowing that one
could not restrain one’s tears. The sight was too terrible for me to
stand, and I fled from this hell. But in the courtyard an equally
painful scene awaited me. Under the walls and in the corners there
were refugees lying everywhere. One heard the cries of the sick;
here and there one saw corpses. In front of the monastery gate I
found the lifeless bodies of three children. The women of
Vaharshapat and other places are sewing clothes and preparing
bedding material, but such aid is quite insufficient. Professor
Kishkin, the representative of the “Homo-Russe Society,” has just
arrived from Moscow to inspect the condition of the refugees and
organise all the relief available. He told us that beyond Erivan a
supply station has been established at Arkhta[64], where the
refugees are receiving dry bread, and still there is not enough of
that to go around. Wherever the refugees stop, there is sickness,
but no medical aid. Professor Kishkin gave the necessary orders for
the immediate installation of properly-equipped medical stations
between Etchmiadzin and Aghstafa, and has written to the Central
Committee at Moscow for doctors, travelling kitchens, clothing,
linen, etc.
-----
Footnote 64:
Nijni Arkha (?).
47. THE FLIGHT TO THE CAUCASUS: DESPATCH FROM THE SPECIAL
CORRESPONDENT OF THE ARMENIAN JOURNAL “AREV” OF BAKOU.
The immense procession, sinking under its agony and fatigue, forces
itself along and moves forward without respite. The head of the
column came to a standstill some time ago at Igdir; reduced to utter
despair, it is fluctuating aimlessly hither and thither. No pen can
describe what this tragic procession has endured, or what
experiences it has lived through, on its interminable road. The
least detail of them makes the human heart quail, and draws an
unquenchable stream of bitter tears from one’s eyes. In the act of
writing this, my pen trembles in my hand, and I inscribe these lines
with my tears.
Each fraction of the long procession has its individual history, its
especial pangs. It is impossible to describe or record them all.
Here is a mother with her six little children, one on her back, the
second clasped to her breast; the third falls down on the road, and
cries and wails because it cannot drag itself further. The three
others begin to wail in sympathy, and the poor mother stands stock
still, tearless, like a statue, utterly powerless to help.
Here is the road again and a broken cart on it, the sole hope of a
large family. The sick mother has been laid upon it, as well as the
children and the provisions. The father, an elderly man, gazes in
despair at the cart he must abandon. In that moment he lived through
a whole tragedy. But, come what may, they must always move forward.
And here is another mother, quite young and clad in rags. She wraps
her dead baby in a shawl, puts it down out of the traffic, hugs it
for the last time, and goes on her way without looking behind her.
Another scene—a mother once more with little children. She was
carrying two of them in her arms; the third was clinging to her
skirts, weeping and crying to be taken up in her arms like the rest.
Tears were pouring in streams from the young mother’s eyes. She made
a sudden movement, shook off the child who was hanging to her
skirts, left it on the road and walked off quickly, so as not to see
its agony or hear its wailing. From behind rose the cry: “Who has
lost her baby?” The cry reached the mother’s ears, but she stopped
her ears and hurried on.
Here is a whole group of women with white hair, bent double, all of
them, and marching in silence and with bowed heads. Where are they
going? They do not know. They are going wherever the vast procession
carries them.
Oh! these mothers, the mothers of Armenia—are there anywhere in the
world other mothers who have borne the indescribable sufferings
which have fallen upon them?
And so one scene succeeds another, each more fearful than the last.
Often one closes one’s eyes to shut them out. The fact that one is
powerless in the face of such suffering prostrates one’s spirit. The
procession moves forward at a surprising pace, under the imperious
goad of terror. In the rear the Kurds had swarmed down from the
mountains and opened fire on the column of refugees. Strung to the
fullest stretch of anguish and terror, the procession pushes forward
across the lofty mountains and the deep valleys, devoured by thirst
under a burning sun. There are many in that company who curse the
day of their birth.
Now, exhausted by privation and broken by fatigue, the procession
halts at Igdir, floods the streets, fills every corner, and mounts
up along the river bank and into the open fields.
48. MEMORANDUM ON THE CONDITION OF ARMENIAN REFUGEES IN THE CAUCASUS
AND ORPHANS AT VAN: COMPILED IN THE BRITISH FOREIGN OFFICE FROM
INFORMATION, DATED 9th DECEMBER, 1915, WHICH WAS FURNISHED BY
MR. STEVENS, BRITISH CONSUL AT BATOUM.
In order to secure reliability in the application of funds collected
in the United Kingdom to the immediate and actual relief of Armenian
refugees who have sought shelter in the Caucasus, it is generally
agreed that remittances should be sent to the “Armenian Central
Relief Committee for Victims of the War” at Tiflis. The President of
the Committee is Mr. Sampson Aroutiounian, and the Treasurer Mr.
G.M. Zurinov. A Special Refugee Committee is working under the ægis
of this body, and is stated to have representatives on the spot
attending to the immediate needs of the refugees. Apart from this,
the Central Committee has Branch Committees in all those principal
towns of Transcaucasia where the Armenian element predominates. They
are all engaged in collecting for relief work.
It is a task of the greatest difficulty, in existing circumstances,
without visiting the localities where refugees are now concentrated
and investigating matters on the spot, to obtain an absolutely
correct description of the extent of the alleged distress amongst
refugees within the Armenian refugee pale. That distress is
acute—indeed, very acute—is, however, universally admitted. No two
opinions differ on this point: suffering everywhere, the outlook
dark and the need for relief work, and above all pecuniary aid,
urgent.
Attention is also called to the urgent necessity for winter
dwellings, fuel, and warm clothing, and to the inadequate staff of
competent doctors, nurses and assistants to deal with the
exceptional amount of illness which exists among the refugees; and,
in general, to the insufficiency of medicines, medical accessories,
equipment, disinfectants, and every other kind of commodity required
for securing a minimum degree of comfort for the refugees.
Sums of Rs. 250,000 (£25,000), Rs. 10,000 (£1,000), and Rs. 700
(£70) have just been remitted to Bakou, Elizavetpol, and Igdir,
respectively, for the maintenance of the refugee lazarettos at those
places.
Rs. 25,000 (£2,500)—a donation by a rich Armenian gentleman named
Mantashev—have recently been spent by the Mayor of Tiflis in
procuring warm bedding, as for instance mattresses, quilts, and
pillow cases, which have been sent to Igdir, Delijan, Novo-Bayazid
and Elizavetpol for the use of refugees.
With the available funds at the disposal of the various
organisations in this country, which are not relatively
proportionate to the heavy expenditure called forth by the urgent
requirements of the refugees from Asia Minor, relief work obviously
cannot be undertaken by them in the needed degree, owing to the very
considerable numbers of fugitives who are finding their way to the
Caucasus from many parts of the Empire, and whose claims on the
moneys belonging to the Societies are as urgent as those of the
Armenian refugees.
The unsatisfactory character of the conditions obtaining in regard
to the question of relieving the refugees has been recognised by the
various Armenian Refugee Committees in the Caucasus, and an
Extraordinary Meeting of the Bakou Branch was convened quite
recently. At this meeting it was decided to endeavour to improve
relief work within as short a period as possible, and several
modifications in the existing system have, it appears, been
recommended. It is reported that the principal feature of the
changes that are to take place is the issue of rations, which in
future are to be partly in kind and partly in the form of a cash
allowance—the latter at the rate of 20 copecks (about 4d.) per adult
and 15 copecks (about 3d.) per child per diem. A further cash
allowance of two roubles per adult per month is to be issued for
rental.
Mr. Papadjanov, Member of the Imperial Duma for the Armenian
constituencies, who is on a special visit to the Caucasus for the
purpose of gaining a close knowledge of conditions on the spot, was
present at the above meeting and has been furnished with full
details in regard to the situation and the working of the several
Relief Committees. He has since visited the Viceroy and is reported
to have proceeded to the districts situated within the refugee pale.
After this visit, he will better be able to form an opinion as to
the needs of the refugees; and, before he returns to Petrograd, in
all probability, a conference of delegates of all the Armenian
Refugee Committees in the Caucasus will be held at Tiflis for the
final discussion of the urgency of the situation.
The funds at the disposal of the Tiflis Central Committee are
apparently exhausted, and Rs. 2,000 (£200) have recently been
advanced by the Tiflis Municipality to meet the immediate
requirements of the refugees. The Provincial Governor has been
requested by the Mayor to give his support to the negotiations which
are in progress for a grant of £1,000 by the State, until further
funds can be raised for the more urgent needs of the refugees.
Meanwhile, it is reported that the Katholikos has received 120 bales
of warm clothing from America, and Mr. Hatisov, Mayor of Tiflis,
another 11 bales of the same kind of wearing apparel from London,
for distribution among the refugees.
A large quantity of warm clothing, a portion of which has recently
been sent from Moscow to the Caucasus and another lot prepared by
the Ladies’ Committee of the Central Refugee Committee, has been
quite recently forwarded to Djoulfa, Diliman and Van for the
refugees. Warm clothing for the use of fugitives has also been sent,
by the Central Committee, to Aghstafa and Alexandropol.