who have left and are about to leave from here. I believe nothing
has been heard from any of them as yet, and probably very little
will be heard. The system that is being followed seems to be to have
bands of Kurds awaiting them on the road, to kill the men
especially, and, incidentally, some of the others. The entire
movement seems to be the most thoroughly organised and effective
massacre this country has ever seen.
Not many men have been spared, however, to accompany those who are
being sent into exile, for a more prompt and sure method has been
used to dispose of them. Several thousand Armenian men have been
arrested during the past few weeks. These have been put in prison,
and each time that several hundred had been gathered up in that way
they were sent away during the night. The first batch were sent away
during the night of the 23rd June. Among them were some of the
professors in the College and other prominent Armenians, including
the Prelate of the Armenian Gregorian Church. There have been
frequent rumours that all of these were killed, and there is little
doubt that they were. All Armenian soldiers have likewise been sent
away in the same manner. They have been arrested and confined in a
building at one end of the town. No distinction has been made
between those who had paid their military exemption-tax and those
who had not. Their money was accepted, and then they were arrested
and sent off with the others. It was said that they were to go
somewhere to work on the roads, but no one had heard from them, and
that is undoubtedly false.
The fate of all the others has been pretty well established by
reliable reports of a similar occurrence on Wednesday, the 7th July.
On the Monday many men were arrested, both at H. and G., and put in
prison. At daybreak on the Tuesday morning they were taken out and
made to march towards an almost uninhabited mountain. There were
about eight hundred in all, and they were roped together in groups
of fourteen each. That afternoon they arrived in a small Kurdish
village, where they were kept overnight in the mosque and other
buildings. During all this time they were without food or water. All
their money and much of their clothing had been taken from them. On
the Wednesday morning they were taken to a valley a few hours
distant, where they were all made to sit down. Then the gendarmes
began shooting them, until they had killed nearly all of them. Some
who had not been killed by bullets were then disposed of with knives
and bayonets. A few succeeded in breaking the rope with which they
were tied to their companions and running away, but most of these
were pursued and killed. A few succeeded in getting away, probably
not more than two or three. Among those who were killed was the
treasurer of the College. Many other estimable men were among the
number. No charge of any kind had ever been made against any of
these men. They were simply arrested and killed as part of the
general plan to dispose of the Armenian race.
Last night several hundred more men, including both men arrested by
the civil authorities and those enrolled as soldiers, were taken in
a different direction and murdered in a similar manner. It is said
that this happened at a place not two hours distant from here. I
shall ride out that way some day when things become a little
quieter, and try to verify it for myself.
The same thing has been done systematically in the villages. A few
weeks ago about three hundred men were gathered together at AT. and
BG., two villages four and five hours distant from here, and then
taken up into the mountains and massacred. This seems to be fully
established. Many women from those villages have been here since and
told about it. There have been rumours of similar occurrences in
other places.
There seems to be a definite plan to dispose of all the Armenian
men; but, after the departure of the families during the first few
days of the enforcement of the order, it was announced that women
and children with no men in the family might remain here for the
present, and many hoped the worst was over. The American
missionaries began considering plans to aid the women and children,
who would be left here with no means of support. It was thought that
perhaps an orphanage could be opened to care for some of the
children, and especially those who had been born in America and then
brought here by their parents, and also those who belonged to
parents who had been connected in some way with the American mission
and schools. There would be plenty of opportunity, although there
might not be sufficient means, to care for children who reached here
with the exiles from other vilayets, and whose parents had died on
the way. I went to see the Vali about this matter yesterday, and was
met with a flat refusal. He said we could aid these people if we
wished to do so, but the Government was establishing orphanages for
the children, and we could not undertake any work of that nature. An
hour after I left the Vali, the announcement was made that all the
Armenians remaining here, including women and children, must leave
on the 13th July.
66. H.: MEMORANDUM[86] FORWARDED BY A FOREIGN RESIDENT AT H. (THE
AUTHOR OF THE PRECEDING REPORT); COMMUNICATED BY THE AMERICAN
COMMITTEE FOR ARMENIAN AND SYRIAN RELIEF.
On the 1st June[87], 3,000 people (mostly women, girls and children)
left H., accompanied by seventy policemen and a certain Turk of
influence, K. Bey. The next day they arrived at AL., safely. Here K.
Bey took 400 liras from the people, “in order to keep it safe till
their arrival at Malatia,” and promised to accompany them, for their
protection, as far as Ourfa; but that same day he ran away with all
the money.
The third day the convoy of exiles reached AM. There the Arabs and
Kurds began to carry off the women and girls, and this went on till
they reached the first railway station at Ras-ul-Ain, on the Bagdad
line. The policemen given to them for their protection incited the
half-savage tribes of the mountains to attack them in order to rob,
kill and violate their women or else carry them away, and they
themselves many times violated the women openly.
The fourth day they arrived at AN., where the policemen killed three
of the prominent men. The ninth day they came to AO., where the
horses, hired and paid for in full for the journey as far as
Malatia, were taken and sent back. So they had again to hire
ox-carts to carry them to Malatia. Here many were left without any
beast of burden, only a few being able to buy donkeys and mules,
which were also stolen in their turn.
At AO., a policeman carried off Mrs. L. and her two daughters and
ran away.
The thirteenth day the caravan was at Malatia, but for one hour
only, for they returned to the village of AP., two hours from
Malatia. Here the policemen deserted them altogether, after taking
from them about 200 liras in toll for the protection they had given
them that far, and the people were left to the mercy of the beastly
Bey (claw-chief) of the Kurds of Aghja-Daghi.
On the fifteenth day they were again toiling on their way through
the steep mountains, when the Kurds rounded up 150 of the men of all
ages from fifteen to ninety years. They took them some distance off
and butchered them; then they came back and began to rob the people.
That day another convoy of exiles (only 300 of whom were men) from
Sivas[88], Egin and Tokat, joined the convoy from H., thus forming a
bigger convoy of 18,000 people in all. They started again on the
seventeenth day, under the so-called protection of another Kurdish
Bey. This Bey called out his people, who attacked the convoy and
plundered them. They carried off five of the prettiest girls and a
few Sisters of Grace from Sivas. At night some more girls were
stolen, but they were returned after being violated. So the journey
began once more, and on the way the pretty girls were carried off
one by one, while the stragglers from the convoy were invariably
killed. On the twenty-fifth day they reached the village of Geulik,
and all the villagers pursued the convoy for a long distance,
tormenting and robbing the exiles. On the thirty-second day they
found themselves at the village of Kiakhta. Here they remained two
days, and again many girls and women were carried off.
On the fortieth day the convoy came in sight of the river Mourad, a
branch of the Euphrates. Here they saw the bodies of more than 200
men floating in the river, with traces of blood and blood-stained
fezes, clothes and stockings on the banks.
The chief of the neighbouring village took one lira in toll from
each man, as a ransom for not being thrown into the river.
On the fifty-second day they arrived at another village, and here
the Kurds took from them everything they had, even their shirts and
drawers, so that for five days the whole convoy marched completely
naked under the scorching sun. For another five days they did not
have a morsel of bread, nor even a drop of water. They were scorched
to death by thirst. Hundreds upon hundreds fell dead on the way,
their tongues were turned to charcoal, and when, at the end of the
five days, they reached a fountain, the whole convoy naturally
rushed towards it. But here the policemen barred the way and forbade
them to take a single drop of water. Their purpose was to sell it at
from one to three liras the cup, and sometimes they actually
withheld the water after getting the money. At another place, where
there were wells, some women threw themselves into them, as there
was no rope or pail to draw up the water. These women were drowned,
and, in spite of that, the rest of the people drank from that well,
the dead bodies still remaining there and stinking in the water.
Sometimes, when the wells were shallow and the women could go down
into them and come out again, the other people would rush to lick or
suck their wet, dirty clothes, in the effort to quench their thirst.
When they passed an Arab village in their naked condition, the Arabs
pitied them and gave them old pieces of clothes to cover themselves
with. Some of the exiles who still had money bought some clothes;
but some still remained who travelled thus naked all the way to the
city of Aleppo. The poor women could hardly walk for shame; they
walked all bent double.
Even in their nakedness they had found some means of preserving the
little money they had. Some kept it in their hair, some in their
mouths and some in their wombs; and when the robbers attacked them
some were clever enough to search for money in those secret places,
and that in a very beastly manner, of course.
On the sixtieth day, when they reached Viran Shehr, only 300 exiles
remained out of all the 18,000. On the sixty-fourth day they
gathered together all the men and the sick women and children and
burned and killed them all. The remainder were ordered to continue
on their way. In one day’s journey they reached Ras-ul-Ain, where
for two days, for the first time since they started, the Government
gave them bread. The bread was uneatable, but for the three
succeeding days they did not have even that.
Here a Circassian persuaded the wife of the Pastor of Sivas, as well
as some other women, with their children, to go with him to the
station, promising to send them to Aleppo by train. In spite of all
the warnings of their friends, these women followed the man, as they
and their children were no longer capable of finishing the journey
on foot. The man took them in the opposite direction from the
station, explaining that he would borrow money from his friend, near
by, for the tickets; but after a short time he came back to where
the convoy was halted. The women and their children were no more.
The governor of the place demanded three liras for himself and one
lira for the railway ticket from each of them, before he would let
them go by train.
On the seventieth day, when they reached Aleppo, 35 women and
children were left out of the 3,000 exiles from H., and 150 women
and children altogether out of the whole convoy of 18,000.
-----
Footnote 86:
Name of author withheld.
Footnote 87:
July?—EDITOR.
Footnote 88:
See Doc. 78.
67. H.: NARRATIVE OF AN ARMENIAN REFUGEE FROM H.; COMMUNICATED TO
LORD BRYCE BY THE CORRESPONDENT OF THE LONDON “TIMES” AT
BUKAREST.
Much has been written in the Press about the Armenian massacres, and
especially about the horrors of the wholesale deportations, by which
the Armenians were forcibly removed from their native homes. At the
same time no precise or concrete description has yet been given of
the monstrous excesses of which the Armenian nation has been the
victim. But a young Armenian, an eye-witness who escaped by a
miracle from the atrocious butchery at H., has related to us in all
their appalling detail the events that took place at this town. His
narrative gives a clear idea of the enormity and the ignoble cruelty
of the crime committed, not only at H., but in all the other
provinces of Armenia. We can easily discern from these facts the
criminal tactics of the Young Turkish Government.
“At H.,” says this witness, “the deportation of the Armenians lasted
three months. In June the most prominent members of the
Dashnaktzoutioun Committee were arrested, including Messrs. DE.,
DE., DG., DH., and DJ., as well as various others. They were
subjected to unheard-of tortures, to extract from them supposed
secrets concerning the alleged project of an Armenian revolution. No
result was obtained from this inquisition.
“The Armenian population was simple enough to believe that this
harsh persecution was only directed against the members of the
Dashnaktzoutioun Committee, and it therefore displayed no uneasiness
on its own account. But shortly afterwards the arrests were extended
in scope and began to assume formidable proportions. All the
Armenian young men in the town were arrested and terrorised by
infernal torments. About 13,000 Armenian soldiers, too, who were
serving among the Ottoman troops at H., were stripped of their arms
and transferred to the “Red Palace” at G. They were kept there under
stringent guard, and hunger and thirst were left to do their work
upon them. The friends and relations of the prisoners were
rigorously debarred from any communication with them. A week later
all the prisoners were brought out again and despatched to an
unknown destination, under a strong escort of gendarmerie with fixed
bayonets. They were told that they were going to be transported to
Ourfa, to work on the roads and lines of communication, but when
they reached BP. Han, near BQ. village, they were all shot and their
corpses shovelled into a great trench, which had been specially
prepared for them. The majority of the young Armenians who were
treated in this way were pupils of the American College, the French
College, and the Central Armenian School. Other prisoners were
subsequently led away in the same direction in gangs of five and
shot. Twenty of these unfortunates succeeded by a miracle in
escaping, and have related the details of this awful butchery.
“Next came the turn of the imprisoned members of the
Dashnaktzoutioun Committee; but they had guessed the fate that was
awaiting them and offered a desperate resistance, which ended in
their setting fire to the building in which they were confined,
since they preferred being burnt alive to becoming the prey of
Turkish barbarity. (There were from twenty-five to thirty of these
Dashnakists, but the young refugee was ignorant of their names, with
the exception of those which we have mentioned above.)
“In July all Armenian families of any standing in G. were compelled
to emigrate. The arrests of the young men had been effected at night
time, but the deportation of these wealthy families was carried out
in full daylight.
“These exiles from G. were taken to the villages of AN. and AO. On
their way they were overtaken by a gendarme riding post-haste with
an order from the Vali, which directed the return of a score of
individuals among the party. These individuals were taken a distance
of twenty kilometres and then slaughtered without pity, like cattle,
on the banks of a river and their corpses thrown into the water. As
for the rest, the men were separated from the women and cruelly
murdered by blows of the axe. The women and girls were carried off
by the Kurds and Turks.
“This was followed by the general deportation. The people were
deported in several convoys, and in different directions. These
convoys were massacred openly and without discrimination, some below
the hill of AU., others on the summit of BR. Hill and on Mount BS.
“A few men and women in the service of the Turkish and Kurdish beys
were allowed to live until the end of the harvest. The compulsory
emigration was even forced upon Armenians who had been converts to
Islam since the massacres of 1895. These were deported in October.
“All the professors and schoolmasters were also imprisoned and
subsequently assassinated, at the same time as the young men. Those,
however, who were connected with German institutions were happily
excepted.
“The American Consul did not see fit to intervene in favour of these
unfortunates—not even when they were American citizens. We do not
know the motive of this passive attitude of his.
“Out of a numerous convoy of exiles from Erzeroum and Erzindjan,
nothing but a handful of women and children succeeded in reaching
H., after abandoning on their way many of their number who could no
longer bear up against the misery and starvation. Those who have
reached H. are in an absolutely deplorable condition. They hardly
look like human beings, and roam about the streets seeking for a
morsel of dry bread, until they fall fainting from exhaustion and
are picked up next day half dead by the municipal scavenger carts.
These scenes are repeated daily.
“The massacre of the entire population of the Province of Sivas has
been effected in the same fashion. Everywhere one passes corpses
lying unburied in the open. On my journey I saw heart-rending
incidents—women in their last agony lying on the ground with their
sucklings, already dead, beside them.
“The Turkish and Kurdish villages are full of Armenian women and
girls. Some of the villagers have taken possession of dozens of
them. Eimen, the head of the ‘German Oriental Mission,’ remarks, as
if that completely justified everything, that now the Armenians will
realise for the future the serious consequences of conspiring
against Germany and her Allies. A considerable number of Armenians
from H. and the neighbourhood have taken refuge among the mountains
of Dersim, where the native Kurdish mountaineers have offered them
generous hospitality.”
Another Armenian, who succeeded in escaping from Der-el-Zor, in
Arabia, describes the miseries endured there by the Armenian women.
They are not only suffering from the ravages of disease, but from
the lawlessness of the Arabs, who come again and again to snatch
victims for their bestial lust.
68. MAMOURET-UL-AZIZ: NARRATIVE OF AN ARMENIAN LADY DEPORTED FROM C.
(A PLACE HALF-AN-HOUR’S DISTANCE FROM H.), DESCRIBING HER
JOURNEY FROM C. TO RAS-UL-AIN; WRITTEN AFTER HER ESCAPE FROM
TURKEY, AND DATED ALEXANDRIA, 2nd NOVEMBER, 1915; PUBLISHED IN
THE ARMENIAN JOURNAL “GOTCHNAG” OF NEW YORK. 8th JANUARY, 1916.
Shortly after last Easter (1915), the Turkish officials searched the
Armenian churches and schools of G., H., C., AQ., AR., AS. and the
surrounding villages, but without finding anything incriminating.
Afterwards they took the keys of these buildings, and filled them
with soldiers. They also searched private houses on the pretence of
looking for arms and ammunition, but they did not find anything.
After that the Town Crier announced that all arms were to be handed
over to the Government, and by this means a number of arms were
collected.
After that, they arrested from the town of C. the following persons:
Professor B., Mr. H. and his brother J., Mr. O. and his son P., Mr.
Q., the brothers R., the brothers S., and T. Effendi, as well as
many others, old and young. They took them to the house of V. Agha,
stripped them one by one and gave them 300 lashes on their backs.
When they fainted, they threw them into a stable and waited until
they had revived, in order to beat them again. The men who performed
these cruel acts consisted of the following Turks: Commissary
(Gendarme) W. Effendi the son of Commissary X., V. Agha, V.’s cousin
Y., Z. Agha, Hadji CA. Bey the son of CB. Effendi, CD., and CE. the
son of V. Agha. Among the Kurds implicated were the son of CF., CG.,
etc. The above-mentioned CF.’s son and another Kurd beat Mr. CH.
until he was half dead.
After beating T. Effendi in H., and tearing out his finger nails and
the flesh of his hands and feet, they put a rope under his arms,
dragged him to C., and threw him into prison. Then they entered his
house, and, on the pretence of searching it, made his wife, who was
in indifferent health, lie on the ground; a soldier sat on her, and
they began to beat her on her feet, asking her where they had hidden
their arms. After a few days her husband died in the prison.
In C. they beat many young men to get their arms, so that they were
obliged to buy arms from the Turks and give them to the
Government[89].
When the Government was convinced that they had no more arms to
surrender, they stopped tormenting them; but after a few days’
interval they took the young men to G., imprisoned them there for a
time, and then deported them in May. Meanwhile the women of C. went
to the German missionary, Dr. U., at G. and begged him to defend
them. Dr. U. came to C. and spoke in a church; he advised the
Armenians to trust the Turks absolutely.
When I was in C. I heard that in H. they had beaten CI. Agha, who
subsequently disappeared.
They plucked out the hair and nails of some of the professors. They
dug out their eyes and branded them with red hot irons, so that some
of them died immediately, and others first lost their reason and
died thereafter.
The Bishop of H., CJ., and other prominent Armenians were imprisoned
and suffered many cruelties.
On Friday, the 2nd July, they deported part of the Armenians of G.
Their destination appeared to be Ourfa _via_ Diyarbekir.
On Saturday, the 3rd July, they deported all Armenians domiciled in
the houses belonging to CL. in A. Street, in the town of G. Again
their destination was supposed to be Ourfa, but _via_ Malatia in
this case.
We ourselves were deported on the 4th July in the direction of Ourfa
_via_ Diyarbekir.
The Town Crier proclaimed that on the following Tuesday those from
B. and C. Streets in the Town of H. would be deported, on Wednesday
the Armenians from AQ., on Thursday those from AR., and so on.
CJ. and two hundred other Armenians were deported ten days before we
were, that is on Wednesday, the 23rd June; we do not know their
destination. Their party started at midnight. Some of them dropped
cards asking for money, and at AT. money was conveyed to them. But
the following Monday, the 28th June, when the Armenian women of AT.
went to the river, they saw some Turkish women washing blood-stained
clothes. The Armenian women took the clothes from the Turkish women
and brought them to the Governor at G. The Governor on hearing this
went to AT. and found that the Bishop and the 200 Armenians had been
killed.
Up to the day we started, the Syrians had not yet been deported, and
the women who had no husbands were also allowed to remain, but later
on CK. Aghassi said that not a single Armenian would be left. After
the Armenians were deported, the Government locked their houses and
sealed them up. The men of CL.’s factory were also deported with
their families. In C. some of the tradesmen were not deported, as,
for example, CM. Agha the son of CN. Agha, the baker CO. and his
family, and the two brothers, CP. and CQ. Aghas, the sons of Q.
Agha. CQ. Agha became a Moslem, while the father was deported with
the Bishop.