were for the most part drowned in the Euphrates near the Kamakh
gorge; the Armenians of Baibourt are also reported to have suffered
the same fate in the river Kara-Su, a tributary of the Euphrates.
With the exception of some thirty Armenian families at Samsoun, all
Persian subjects, and a few other families spared here and there,
Murad states that all along the Black Sea coast the industrious
Armenian element has been uprooted from its homes and its property
distributed among local or immigrant Moslems.
In the town of Sivas itself, which comprised some 25,000 Armenians,
many of the important inhabitants have either been killed or
deported to the deserts. There remain now some 120 Armenian families
in the town, consisting mainly of children and elderly folk.
Amid this general scene of unopposed slaughter and destruction,
however, there are brave deeds to record and stories of death faced
heroically by both men and women.
The Armenians of Duzasar, Gavra, Khorsan, Khantzod, &c., all places
in the Province of Sivas, made every possible sacrifice with a view
to preventing an inter-racial outbreak in the early stages of the
war; but when they were convinced that the attitude of passive
resistance they had adopted did not avail in any way, they took up
arms, and, supported by their compatriots of Gurin, Gemerek, Divrig,
Ketch-Magara, Mandjaluk and other places, fought for days against
the Moslem soldiers and bands and repaid the enemy in their own
coin.
The Armenians of Shabin Kara-Hissar and Amasia, exasperated at the
unaccountable savagery of the Turks, took to reprisals. They burnt
down the Moslem quarters and the Government Buildings in their
respective towns and temporarily drove the Turks from them. Later,
however, they were overwhelmed by large Turkish forces, and died
fighting to the last.
Sirpouhi and Santukht, two young women of Ketcheurd, a village east
of Sivas, who were being led off to the harem by Turks, threw
themselves into the river Halys, and were drowned with their infants
in their arms. Mdlle. Sirpouhi, the nineteen-year-old daughter of
Garabed Tufenkjian of Herag, a graduate of the American College of
Marsovan, was offered the choice of saving herself by embracing
Islam and marrying a Turk. Sirpouhi retorted that it was an outrage
to murder her father and then make her a proposal of marriage. She
would have nothing to do with a godless and a murderous people;
whereupon she, and seventeen other Armenian girls who had refused
conversion, were shamefully ill-treated and afterwards killed near
Tchamli-Bel gorge.
The rich Shahinian family of Sivas, father, sons and one daughter,
the fourteen-year-old Khanum, escaped the authorities, who wanted to
capture them, and fought for four hours at the entrance of a narrow
mountain pass against considerable odds. They were all killed,
however, when they ran short of their cartridges.
I could prolong the story of these acts of desperate bravery on the
one side and of murderous frenzy on the other. The grim reality of
these horrible crimes was forcibly brought home to me when, in the
course of my interview with Murad, some girls and young men,
Armenians of Sivas, who were anxious to hear something of the dear
ones they had left before the war, came to see Murad. They inquired
about their relatives and friends, and Murad told them how and when
they had been killed or deported. The percentage of murders, at any
rate in the cases inquired into on this occasion, was much higher
than that of the deportations. One of the girls present, on being
told that everyone she had inquired about had been killed, was
terribly overcome; yet she succeeded in suppressing her strong
emotion, and nerved herself to take a solemn oath of remembrance,
which was shared by all present.
X.
SANDJAK OF KAISARIA.
_The Sandjak of Kaisaria is an outlying sub-division of the Vilayet
of Angora. It lies under the shadow of the Erdjies Dagh (Mount
Argaios), and bestrides the course of the Kizil Irmak immediately
below Sivas._
_We have comparatively little testimony concerning the occurrences
in this district, but the documents contained in this section show
in sufficient outline what happened at Kaisaria itself, as well as
at Everek and K., the only other centres of importance._
83. KAISARIA: STATEMENT BY A TRAVELLER[103] FROM KAISARIA, PUBLISHED
IN THE ARMENIAN JOURNAL “BALKANIAN MAMOUL,” OF ROUSTCHOUK.
The Armenians of the Kaisaria district, with the exception of Talas,
have been deported. At the end of July the Government issued the
following manifesto to the Armenians of Talas and Kaisaria:—
“(i) All the Armenians are to leave in batches of 1,000—the men,
separated from the women, in one direction and the women in another.
“(ii) No one is to take with him more than 200 piastres (£1 13_s._
4_d._). If, after examination, anyone proves to have more than this,
he will be brought before a Council of War.
“(iii) No one has the right to sell his property, etc.[104]”
After urgent petitions this latter condition was modified as
follows:—
“Anyone who has no ready money is authorised to sell property up to
a maximum of 300 piastres.”
Up till now more than 80 persons have been hanged at Kaisaria,
including doctors and other notables such as Hampartsoum and
Boyadjian Mourad of the Huntchakist Party.
The relations of the victims themselves were compelled to take down
the corpses from the gallows.
Only the women and girls were permitted to go over to Islam. When
the Governor was petitioned to allow the infants to be entrusted to
charitable Moslem families, to save them from dying on the journey,
he replied:—
“I will not leave here so much as the odour of the Armenians; go
away into the deserts of Arabia and dump your Armenia there.”
-----
Footnote 99:
Date unspecified.
Footnote 100:
See Docs. 68, 94, and 122.
Footnote 101:
Kotch Hissar.
Footnote 102:
As the Russian fleet had blockaded the Black Sea ports and
transport by water was difficult, the Turks appear to have been
using the Anatolian Railway to Angora, the terminus of the line,
for their communications, proceeding thence to Erzeroum through
Sivas by horse and camel.—[Note by the interviewer.]
Footnote 103:
Name withheld.
Footnote 104:
For other versions of the official proclamation see Doc. 120 and
Annexe C. to the “Historical Summary.”
84. EVEREK: STATEMENT[105] PUBLISHED IN THE ARMENIAN JOURNAL
“GOTCHNAG,” OF NEW YORK, 28th AUGUST, 1915.
At Everek a bomb explosion was the signal for a terrible persecution
of the Armenians. The German who narrates this adds that the
Governor of Everek was a good man, and was therefore relieved of his
duties and replaced by a Circassian of violent character. There had
been numerous arrests and atrocities in this district. After that,
the wholesale deportations were begun.
-----
Footnote 105:
Source unspecified.
85. K.: LETTER FROM A FOREIGN RESIDENT AT K., DATED 16th NOVEMBER,
1915; COMMUNICATED BY THE AMERICAN COMMITTEE FOR ARMENIAN AND
SYRIAN RELIEF.
I wish to confirm my telegram in Turkish dated the 12th November,
stating that the authorities had begun to send away our Armenian
teachers, and that we did not understand the reason for this.
I must now add to this that all our Armenian teachers have been
deported, having left for the south by wagon yesterday. Two of them
had been started in another direction last week, but were brought
back to go south. One of these, however, had become insane from
fright, and is left temporarily in our hands. It is doubtful whether
he can recover under present conditions.
Our local Mudir gives us assurances that our school and pupils will
not be interfered with, and we are going on as best we can, loading
most of the extra work on to ourselves and our Greek teachers.
Children of Armenian parents who have changed their faith are
leaving, but so far others remain. What to do with children left on
our hands without support is a serious problem.
The head of the orphanage at J. has left also, and I understand that
the institution is in a very precarious, chaotic condition. What the
outcome will be I do not know.
The members of our Armenian circle are well, but the long-drawn-out
nervous strain is telling on some. Routine school work has not been
stopped for an hour, and goes on quietly, as if nothing whatever
were happening about us. But to accomplish this, some quick
shifts have had to be made, and, as our Turkish friends say,
“Idaré-i-maslahat.”
XI.
THE TOWN OF X.
_We are better informed as to what happened in this town than in
regard to any other place where the Ottoman Government’s design
against the Armenians was put into execution. The documents relating
to it, contained in this section, are so full of personal detail
that it has been necessary, in consideration for the safety of those
concerned, to conceal the town’s identity, though in this case, as
in others, it is almost impossible to disguise it effectively to
anyone acquainted with Asiatic Turkey._
_The people of X. were a very typical Armenian urban community, and
the story of their destruction represents, in its main features,
what happened to innumerable other Armenian communities throughout
the Ottoman Empire. The only peculiar feature at X. was the extent
to which forcible conversion was attempted by the local authorities.
It may also be noted that here, as at Trebizond, there was no
intention of forwarding the exiles to their nominal destination. The
convoys were butchered_ en masse _as soon as they reached the next
town on the road._
86. X.: NARRATIVE OF THE PRINCIPAL OF THE COLLEGE AT X.,
COMMUNICATED BY THE AMERICAN COMMITTEE FOR ARMENIAN AND SYRIAN
RELIEF.
The trouble for the Armenians began, as for all other nationalities,
with the collection of soldiers. The Government swept off all men
possible for military service. Hundreds of the bread-winners marched
away, leaving their wives and children without means of support. In
many cases, the last bit of money was given to fit out the departing
soldier, leaving the family in a pitifully destitute condition. A
number of Armenians were quite well off and paid their military
exemption fee. A much larger number escaped in one way and another,
so there were more Armenians than Turks left in the city after the
soldiers had gone. This made the Government suspicious and fearful.
The discovery of Armenian plots against the Government in other
places added to this feeling.
The special Armenian troubles began in the beginning of May. In the
middle of the night, about twenty of the leading men of the national
Armenian political parties were gathered up and sent to where they
have been imprisoned ever since. In June the Government began
looking for weapons. Some of the Armenians were seized, and, by
torture, the confession was extracted that a large number of arms
were in the hands of different Armenians. A second inquisition
began. The bastinado was used frequently, as well as fire torture
(in some cases eyes are said to have been put out). Many guns were
delivered up, but not all. The people were afraid that, if they gave
up their arms, they would be massacred as in 1895. Arms had been
brought in after the declaration of the Constitution with the
permission of the Government, and were for self-defence only. The
torture continued, and under its influence one fact after another
leaked out. Under the nervous strain and physical suffering, many
things were said which had no foundation in fact. Those inflicting
the torture would tell the victim what they expected him to confess,
and then beat him until he did it. The college mechanic had
constructed an iron “shot” for the athletic games, and was beaten
terribly in an effort to fasten the making of bombs on to the
college. Some bombs were discovered in the Armenian cemetery, which
aroused the fury of the Turks to white heat. It should be said that
it is very probable that these bombs had been buried there in the
days of Abd-ul-Hamid.
On Saturday, the 26th June, about 1 p.m., the gendarmes went through
the town gathering up all the Armenian men they could find—old and
young, rich and poor, sick and well. In some cases houses were
broken into, and sick men dragged from their beds. They were
imprisoned in the barracks, and during the next few days were sent
off towards Y. in batches of from thirty to one hundred and fifty.
They were sent on foot, and many were robbed of shoes and other
articles of clothing. Some were in chains. The first batch reached
Y. and sent word from various places. (It is said that this was a
scheme of the Government in order to encourage the rest. None of the
rest have been heard from. Various reports have been circulated, the
only one generally accepted being that they were killed. One Greek
driver reported seeing the mound under which they were buried.
Another man, in touch with the Government, in answer to a direct
question, admitted that the men had been killed.)
Through the intervention of a Turk, the college was able to free
those of its teachers already taken, and obtain a stay of
proceedings against all its teachers and employees, by the payment
of the sum of 275 Turkish liras. Later, this same Turk said that he
believed that he could obtain the permanent exemption of the entire
college group by the payment of a further sum of 300 liras. The
money was promised, but after some negotiations, which showed that
no definite assurance of exemption would be forthcoming, the matter
was dropped.
Following the sending of the batches of Armenians in the direction
of Y., criers went through the streets of the town announcing that
all male Armenians between the ages of fifteen and seventy were to
report at the barracks. The announcement further stated that their
refusal to obey would result in their being killed and their houses
being burned. The Armenian priests went from house to house,
advising the people to obey this announcement. Those reporting at
the barracks were sent away in batches, the result being that within
a few days practically all the Armenian men were removed from the
city.
On the 3rd or 4th July, the order was issued that the women and
children should be ready to leave on the following Wednesday. The
people were informed that one ox-cart was to be provided by the
Government for each house, and that they could carry only one day’s
food supply, a few piastres, and a small bundle of clothing. The
people made preparation for carrying out these orders by selling
whatever household possessions they could in the streets. Articles
were sold at less than 10 per cent. of their usual value, and Turks
from the neighbouring villages filled the streets, hunting for
bargains. In some places these Turks took articles by force, but the
Government punished all such cases when detected.
On the 5th July, before the order for the expulsion of the women was
carried out, one of our staff went to the Government to protest
against the execution of this order in the name of humanity. He was
told that this order did not originate with the local officials, but
that the orders had come from those higher up not to leave a single
Armenian in the city. The commandant, however, promised to leave the
college to the last, and gave permission for all people connected
with the American institutions to move into the college compound.
This they did, and at one time over three hundred Armenians were
living on the college premises.
The population had been ordered to be ready to start on Wednesday.
But on Tuesday, about 3.30 a.m., the ox-carts appeared at the doors
of the first district to be removed, and the people were ordered to
start at once. Some were dragged from their beds without even
sufficient clothing. All the morning the ox-carts creaked out of the
town, laden with women and children and, here and there, a man who
had escaped the previous deportations. The women and girls all wore
the Turkish costume, that their faces might not be exposed to the
gaze of drivers and gendarmes—a brutal lot of men brought in from
other regions. In many cases the husbands and brothers of these same
women were away in the army, fighting for the Turkish Government.
The panic in the city was terrible. The people felt that the
Government was determined to exterminate the Armenian race, and they
were powerless to resist. The people were sure that the men were
being killed and the women kidnapped. Many of the convicts in the
prison had been released, and the mountains round X. were full of
bands of outlaws. It was feared that the women and children were
taken some distance from the city and left to the mercy of these
men. However that may be, there are provable cases of the kidnapping
of attractive young girls by the Turkish officials of X. One Moslem
reported that a gendarme had offered to sell him two girls for a
medjidia.[106] The women believed that they were going to worse than
death, and many carried poison in their pockets to use if necessary.
Some carried picks and shovels to bury those they knew would die by
the wayside. During this reign of terror, notice was given that
escape was easy—that anyone who accepted Islam would be allowed to
remain safely at home. The offices of the lawyers who recorded
applications were crowded with people petitioning to become
Mohammedans. Many did it for the sake of their women and children,
feeling that it would be a matter of only a few weeks before relief
would come.
This deportation continued at intervals for about two weeks. It is
estimated that, out of about 12,000 Armenians in X., only a few
hundred were left. Even those who offered to accept Islam were sent
away. At the time of writing, no definite word has been heard any of
these batches. (One Greek driver reported that, at a little village
a few hours from X., the few men were separated from the women,
beaten and chained, and sent on in a separate batch. A Turkish
driver reported seeing the convoy two days journey from X. The
people were so covered with dust that features were scarcely
distinguishable.) Even if the lives of these exiles are being
protected, it is a question how many will be able to endure the
hardships of the journey over the hot, dusty hills, with no
protection from the sun, with poor food and little water, and the
ever-present fear of death, or some worse fate.
Most of the Armenians in the X. district were absolutely hopeless.
Many said that it was worse than a massacre. No one knew what was
coming, but all felt that it was the end. Even the pastors and
leaders could offer no word of encouragement or hope. Many began to
doubt even the existence of God. Under the severe strain many
individuals became demented, some of them permanently. There were
also some examples of the greatest heroism and faith, and some
started out on the journey courageously and calmly, saying in
farewell: “Pray for us. We shall not see you again in this world,
but sometime we shall meet again.”
-----
Footnote 106:
About 3_s._ 2_d._
87. X.: ADDRESS DELIVERED IN AMERICA, 13th DECEMBER, 1915, BY A
PROFESSOR FROM THE COLLEGE AT X.; COMMUNICATED BY THE AMERICAN
COMMITTEE FOR ARMENIAN AND SYRIAN RELIEF.
On the 1st June of this year (1915), the town in Asiatic Turkey from
which I come had a population of 25,000, half of which was Armenian
and the other half Turkish. When I left X. on the 18th August, the
12,000 Armenians, who comprised the Armenian half of the city’s
population, had either been driven into exile or done to death. What
happened to the Armenians of X. is but a specimen of what has
happened to these poor people in every other city of Asia Minor and
Armenia.
Over fifty years ago, the American Board of Commissioners for
Foreign Missions established a mission station at X., which during
the intervening years had grown into an important religious,
educational and medical centre. We had there a boys’ college with
425 students, nearly all of whom were boarders, who came from all
parts of Asia Minor, from the Balkan States and from Russia. We also
had a girls’ boarding school with 276 pupils enrolled. Besides these
we had a large hospital, which had recently been newly equipped at
great expense. Here the American physician and the Armenian nurses,
in addition to the ordinary large work of the hospital, were caring
for sick soldiers of the Ottoman Army under the auspices of the
American Red Cross Society. About half the constituency of these
three institutions was Armenian. More than half the teachers and
professors in the schools and nearly all the nurses of the hospital
belonged to that same race, which all through the Christian
centuries has been the vanguard of Christian civilisation on the
frontiers of Christendom against the heathen and Mohammedan hosts of
Asia, and which has been the first to respond to and co-operate with
modern missionary effort in the Near East.
Now there remains not a single Armenian teacher or pupil in our
mission college at X., out of the more than 200 who were there
before the war began. All have been sent away by the order of the
highest Government authorities, into exile or to death. With
unspeakable brutality, the innocent young women teachers and pupils
of the girls’ school, who were remaining in the school for the
summer vacation on account of the difficulties of travelling to
their homes, were carried off by the Turkish gendarmes under
Government orders; but with equal heroism and courage the American
principal of the girls’ school rescued 41 of them from death, or a
condition worse than that, after nearly a month’s pursuit over rough
and dangerous roads.
With insensate cruelty and wickedness, the young women nurses of the
hospital, who were risking their lives in nursing soldiers of the
Turkish Army sick with the deadly typhus fever, were driven away by
the gendarmes just like the rest of their unfortunate sisters. The
American physician in charge of our hospital begged the Turkish
officers in charge of the deportation to spare the nurses who were
serving their own soldiers. These officers declared that they were
ordered by their superiors to make no exceptions whatsoever; but,
because the doctor begged so hard, four out of the dozen nurses
would be allowed to remain temporarily and continue their work of
mercy. That left the doctor to perform the heart-rending task of
selecting those who should go and those who should remain. It was
like casting pearls before swine when he made them draw lots to
decide their fate. Some of the best and most experienced nurses drew
lots to go. One who held a diploma from one of the leading London
hospitals, who was a pioneer in the nurses’ profession in Asia
Minor, and who was known as the Florence Nightingale of Armenia, was
taken away with the young women of the girls’ school. She was not
rescued with the 41 fortunate ones. Though great in soul, she was
lame and not comely in form, and on this account she has probably
been allowed to perish by the way instead of being reserved for a
life of shame.