that death on the road is the only available alternative. Many, for
the sake of trying to save wife and children a little while, have so
changed their faith. The best of the Turks, however, only emphasise
the national side of this change and not the religious.
VII. The Turkish houses are full of Christian children, girls and
women. They are usually early registered Mohammedans and an Imam
comes and teaches them some of the prayers. After a while their
“nufus” teskeriés are called for and a Turkish one given in their
place, and so their nationality is lost.
VIII.—_Omitted by the Editor._
IX. What has become of the men is a profound mystery, but I am
increasingly certain that the large majority of them have been
killed. The soldiers are still most of them alive, I believe, though
all say that in the end they will also be killed. I talked with one
who had managed to crawl to the Z. hospital wounded. He was one of
ten men who had escaped, when all the rest of their company of 200
had been shot by the gendarmes in a defile of the mountains.
90. X.: REPORT FROM MR. AL., A FOREIGN RESIDENT AT L., IN ASIATIC
TURKEY, DATED 26th AUGUST, 1915; COMMUNICATED BY THE AMERICAN
COMMITTEE FOR ARMENIAN AND SYRIAN RELIEF.
On the 14th instant I started again for X., and I returned from
there on the 24th.
On the 10th instant, that is, immediately after my departure, the
Turkish Government carried away, in 31 ox-carts, part of the
Armenians of the College and the Hospital.
These gentlemen had been instructed by me not to allow these people
to start voluntarily, and as you will see stated in the Principal’s
letter, they were taken by force. Besides, 63 persons were taken
from the Girls’ School.
As stated in the Principal’s letter, the lawyer of the College said
that these people could perhaps be released if a sum of two or three
hundred pounds (Turkish) were given to the Kaimakam and the
Gendarmerie Commander. But as I could not approve such proceedings
on the part of the College, I sent you a telegram on the 13th
instant, reporting on the actions of the authorities at X.
It seems that the Kaimakam, the Gendarmerie Commander and the
Beledié-Reis could not agree on the sharing of the sum, so that the
Kaimakam dared not accept the money from the Americans, and
meanwhile the girls were sent away.
The conversion of these girls to Islam was attempted, but as they
refused to change their religion, they were sent towards Y. Miss
AA., Miss A., and the Principal went with them to Y. There they were
not allowed to enter the city, and had to camp in the open air.
The Americans were forbidden by the Mutessarif to go further than
Y., on the pretext that the vessikas which they had taken at X. were
without value. They came back to X. I told them that they could have
asked the Kaimakam for a vessika for Z., stating that they had to
work for the American Mission at that place. On the 16th instant
this was tried, but the Kaimakam did not believe the reason given,
and he said that only the Mutessarif of Y. could decide about that
departure. Miss AA. and Miss A. then started again for Y., on the
16th instant.
At Y. they could not at first manage to see the Mutessarif, so they
called at his harem, where he came later. They succeeded in
obtaining from him the promise that he would ask the Vali of Z. for
that permission. Thus was the journey finally permitted.
Miss AA. and Miss A. will arrive at Z. at the same time as the 63
girls, and they will try to obtain from the Vali permission to
accompany them.
These girls are accompanied by a servant from the College, and
inform telegraphically of their arrival in each place.
I doubt whether Miss AA. and Miss A. will ever succeed in obtaining
that permission from the Vali, because these girls are all from 12
to 18 years old, and they will assuredly be distributed among the
Turkish families of Z., Malatia, etc.
Only 52 persons are left in the College and the Hospital. I gave a
list of their names to the Kaimakam, requesting him to deliver them
vessikas so that they may not be troubled. The Kaimakam sent that
list to the Vali of Z., and he told me before I left that these
people would in any case be allowed to stay. I am convinced,
however, that the contrary will happen, because this is a European
institution, and life is made very hard for these people. They were
all ready to be sent away on the 18th or 19th instant, but my
presence prevented that action. I telegraphed requesting permission
for the remaining Armenians to keep their positions, because
otherwise Dr. BB. would be obliged to close the hospital, because he
cannot do without an apothecary or without nurses.
My opinion is that, owing to the Government’s proceedings, no
foreign mission will now be able to carry on its work in Turkey,
because they cannot do without the Christian element....
There still remain in X. a few more Armenians who are hiding
themselves, and also those who have embraced Islam, but these will
assuredly be deported after they have taken all that they possess.
I called on the Kaimakam the last day, and he was very kind to me. I
went also to M. I know from a reliable source that nothing
disagreeable happened to the Armenians from L. on the way to Y. The
Mutessarif was very kind, and gave the gendarmes strict
instructions, threatening them with severe punishment in case the
Armenians were ill-treated. He even asked the Commander of
Gendarmerie, Latif Bey, to accompany them to BH. The latter was very
kind to the Armenians, and these are very grateful both to him and
to the Mutessarif.
At Y., the women were separated from the men, and the latter were
bound in groups of five and carried away at night, no one knows
where.
Near Y. there is a well which must contain from fifty to sixty
corpses; heaps of torn clothes, fezes and papers were found near
there. Part of these papers were gathered up. Not far from Y. there
must also be a common grave for about 400 corpses.
A person of standing[124], who has been travelling in the interior,
gave me confidentially the following details on the subject:
(1) _Samsoun, Amasia and Marsovan people_—all reached Amasia. Then
all the men were taken, bound, and some of them killed, between
Amasia, Tokat and Tourchal. All those who reached Tokat were
directed towards Tchiftlik or Gishgisha and murdered. The women and
children were taken in ox-carts to Sharkishla; then they were sent
to Malatia, and finally thrown into the Kirk Göz or Euphrates.
(2) _Tokat._—The same thing as above, with the difference that all
pretty women and all children were taken off to Turkish houses.
(3) _Erbaa, Niksar, Messoudia._—The men were bound during the night,
and then part of them were thrown into the river Kelkid. The others
were murdered near Tokat. The women and children were deported _via_
Sharkishla and Malatia—same fate as in No. 1.
(4) _Sharkishla, Gemerek, Azizia, Tchoroum, Derenda_—all sent on
foot to Malatia, same fate.
(5) _Sivas, Divrik, Kangal_—in ox-carts to Kangal, then all on foot
to Malatia, men murdered en route, same fate.
(6) _Egin, Arabkir, Keban, Harpout, Malatia_—same fate.
(7) _Karahissar, Sou-Shehr, Zara, Tchavik_—all murdered.
(8) _Erzindjan, Kamakh_—part murdered, the rest thrown into the
Euphrates.
Bands of Kurds from Dersim are at work in Malatia. All Armenians
have been killed, according to my informant. I believe that all the
men have been killed, but that the women and children have been
distributed among the Turkish families of the interior. Not one
Armenian is to be seen.
I wanted very much to go to M. and Y., so as to see myself what was
happening, but the Kaimakam had his eye on me. I do not know that
one can believe everything one is told, and it seems rather curious
that none of my friends from the interior have reported these things
to me.
-----
Footnote 124:
Name given in the original—Mr. BZ.
91. X. (?): NARRATIVE OF A FOREIGN RESIDENT OF GERMAN
NATIONALITY[125]; COMMUNICATED BY THE AMERICAN COMMITTEE FOR
ARMENIAN AND SYRIAN RELIEF.
I was called to a house one day where I saw a sheet which originated
from the prison, and which was being sent to the wash. This sheet
was covered with blood, and running in long streams. I was also
shown clothes which were drenched and exceedingly dirty. It was a
puzzle to me what they could possibly have done to the prisoners,
but I got to the bottom of the matter by the help of two very
reliable persons who witnessed part of it themselves.
The prisoner is put in a room (just as was done in the time of the
Romans), and gendarmes standing in twos at both sides and two at the
end of the room administer bastinadoes, each in their turn, as long
as they have enough force in them. In Roman times forty strokes were
administered at the very most; in this place, however, 200, 300,
500, even 800 strokes are administered. The foot swells up and then
bursts open, owing to the number of the blows, and thus the blood
spurts out. The prisoner is then carried back into prison and
brought to bed by the rest of the prisoners—this explains the bloody
sheet. The prisoners who become unconscious after these blows are
revived by having cold water thrown on their heads, and that
accounts for the wet and dirty clothes. On the next day, or, more
exactly, during the night, as all ill-treatments are carried on at
night in ——, as well as in ——, the whole bastinadoing is repeated
again, in spite of the swollen feet and the wounds. I was then in
——, but in that prison there were also no less than thirty
prisoners, who all had their feet in such a state that they began to
burn, and had to be amputated, or had actually already been taken
off. Equally revolting tortures have been inflicted in ——, and also
by the cruel Mutessarif in ——. A young man was beaten to death
within the space of five minutes.
Apart from the bastinadoing, other methods were employed as well,
such as putting hot irons on the chest. A smith, who was suspected
of having forged the shells of the bombs, was let go only after his
toes had been burned off with sulphur (called kezab). I have seen
the wounds.
Four weeks ago we received news that the Kaimakam of —— had had ten
to eighteen people shot in a district between —— and ——. Shortly
after this had happened, an order was promulgated with respect to
the Christians of ——, in which they were all commanded to leave the
place within three-quarters of an hour. Among them were several
women who gave birth to children on the way, and threw them, in
their desperation, into the water. Many men were recalled, and it is
impossible to say how many were secretly murdered, or how many will
still be butchered.
I wish to state that the inhabitants of —— are so terribly ignorant
that I really never saw the like, and I therefore feel convinced
that not one single person had ever dreamt of opposing the
authorities. Neither from the Turks nor from the Christians have I
ever heard that one of these people had ever rebelled during the
four months in question, and it is the Kaimakam alone who says so in
order to excuse his deeds. And yet the Kaimakam always declares: “No
one dares oppose me.” When I ventured to protest to the Kaimakam in
all friendliness against the bloody sheets, he replied as follows:
“If the law and the Sultan were to forbid it, I would carry out
these measures in spite of everything, and do as I please.”
In ——, three weeks ago, when I was engaged in getting ready to go
off, I noticed two gendarmes riding in the direction of the
mountains with an inhabitant of —— who had been expelled and then
recalled. They (the gendarmes) returned without the man and
declared, as their excuse, that the man had escaped, which is, of
course, out of the question, as the man’s feet were completely
swollen and he was on a mule, while the gendarmes were on horseback.
The German consul at Aleppo estimates the number of individuals
deported to be 30,000. Five thousand people were deported to the
unhealthy spot of Sultania, in the Konia district. The Government
served out some bread during the first few days. When the bread was
finished and they received no more, the misery was heart-rending.
According to Mr. ——, ——, the rich were also deported to Sultania,
and shared their bread with the poor as long as their money lasted,
which was not very long, of course. Mr. —— begged the Vali for
permission to supply the people with bread, but he replied that the
Government attended to this, and that the people did not want any.
92. X.: LETTER, DATED NEW YORK CITY, 30th DECEMBER, 1915, FROM
PROFESSOR QQ., OF THE COLLEGE AT X., TO AN ARMENIAN PROFESSOR
RESIDENT BEYOND THE OTTOMAN FRONTIER.
I received your letter only yesterday. I am very glad you were in
London and not in Turkey. They have been terrible days, filled with
terrible events. The experiences I have had during the last six to
eight months are terrible indeed. Not that I had much to suffer in
person, but I suffered by witnessing the sufferings of others.
I am sending you some printed material that may interest you.
The short of it is that all the Armenians of X. have been
“deported” (_sefk oloundou_)—the official word. The destination
was Mosul, Der-el-Zor—sometimes Bagdad was mentioned. The very
first to be arrested were twenty-five members of the Executive of
Hunchak[126].... They were sent to Z. They all either died of
typhus or were put to death, and it was the same with AJ. and AK.
and some fifty others—all sent to Z. and finished off there. Then
all the men found in the streets were arrested; many were taken
out of their beds at night. These were professedly sent to Y. It
is certain that they were all killed at a distance of three to
four hours from X., on the W. road. I cannot give you a list; here
are some of the names[127] ...; the number was officially stated
as 1,215.
Then they sent away the women and children, including some old men
like AW. Before the ox-carts left the town, some girls were picked
out and sent to harems—M.’s daughter, a pretty girl just graduated
in June; N.’s daughter, etc., etc. The women were distributed to the
villagers; many would perish on the way, and perhaps some might
reach Syria.
Dr. LZ., of Adana, told me the other day that many from U., T. and
X. had passed through Adana. Some of the women of X. came to his
home. Unfortunately he could not remember the name of anyone. Some
were graduates of the American schools. They said that the men had
been killed on the way; many had died of hunger, disease or
exposure. They had no money. It took them three months to go from X.
to Adana. They were to go on to Aleppo—then Mosul!
When they were all imprisoned at X., then the wealthy and the wise
began to consult together and find means of escape. First of all,
Mr. O. declared in favour of conversion to Mohammedanism as the only
way of salvation. He influenced many and persuaded them to follow
him. It was not so easy to persuade the officials. P., Mr. Q.’s man,
our graduate, said to me: “We have lost all—our religion and our
money too (Hem dinimizden oldouk, hemdé paramizdan).’ He said that
everyone gave large, very large sums, hundreds of pounds. Someone is
said to have given £2,000. All this went into the pocket of the
Kaimakam and the Commandant of the gendarmes. These two men had in
their hands the people’s lives, property and everything else. Many
applied to become Mohammedans, but were not accepted. I saw the
Kaimakam, Kadi, Mufti, etc., all sitting and examining whole piles
of petitions. Perhaps some thirty to forty from among them were
accepted, to mention a few names[128] ... all with their families.
X. had more converts than other places. O. told me that it was
through his influence that this success was obtained. He was on good
terms with the Kaimakam. If one wanted to stay in Turkey, he told
me, one had to become a Moslem. He approved my decision to leave the
place. A prominent official said to B.: “In these parts you will
hear no more ‘Kal’ Iméra’ or ‘Pari Louis.’”[129]
Your brothers, I am sorry to say, are among those who were sent
away. What happened to them, who knows? I suppose there is no hope
for them, especially considering the name they bear. K. was intimate
with the Kaimakam and the Commandant, as their wives had been in the
Hospital; but when they found out that she was a relative of yours,
they began to behave differently. She was sent away with the girls
of the girls’ school; Miss A. went with them as far as Z.; they were
63 in all; 23 have been sent on, chiefly servants; 40 girls came
back to X., and are now in the girls’ school, J.’s daughter among
them. Before the girls were taken, the Kaimakam asked each one, in
the presence of the Principal of the College, whether they wanted to
become Mohammedans and stay, or go. They all replied that they would
go. Only Miss H. became a Mohammedan, and went to live with G.
Professors E. and FF. had been arrested with other Armenians, but in
the name of all the teachers some £250-£300 were presented to the
officials, and so they were let free—the officials said they were to
go with the last batch.
Meanwhile, word was sent to Constantinople, and Ambassador
Morgenthau secured a promise from Talaat that the College people
would not be touched. But the Kaimakam declared to the Principal
that no such order had reached X.
The Principal refused to deliver up anyone from the College
premises; but the gendarmes came and broke down the big gate, and
any other door that was barred, and took away all the Armenians—FF.,
GG., J., HH., and JJ. According to the testimony of the gendarmes,
they all marched with their families for three or four hours, and
then the men were separated and killed, while the women were sent
on. Not a word came from any one of them.
When the girls were being sent on, Miss AA. managed to get promises
for two of the inmates, Miss AG. and Miss AH., to stay on at the
school, so they stayed. But the promise said “For a time.” AX. and
AY., the cook and steward of the College, were also allowed to
remain, and four nurses were left in the hospital. All the
rest—servants, nurses and patients—were taken. The two druggists of
the hospital, AZ. and AI., had to become Mohammedans, and are still
working with Dr. BB. All the shops and houses were seized by the
Government—in one word, confiscated.
The priests were among the first to be sent off. A Turk described
how KK. was killed. They stripped him of all his clothes, excepting
his underclothing. With his hands bound behind his back, he knelt,
with his son beside him, and they finished him off with axes, while
he was praying. The same description was given of the execution of
LL.—how they took off his head by hacking down into his shoulders
with axes and carving the head out like a bust.
The missionaries had written on behalf of Mrs. MM. to
Constantinople, so it was through Mr. Morgenthau that special orders
were sent for her. After the troubles began, she stayed in the
Hospital. I left X. on the 2nd August. I was detained eighteen days
in the town of S., because I came from X. and was a Protestant. The
difficulty was in the word “Protestant,” which was taken as
equivalent to Armenian. How could there be a Protestant of my
nationality? At last the Vali was persuaded that there could be
other than Armenian Protestants, and permitted me to go to
Constantinople. I lost thirteen days in Constantinople over the same
point. At last I got my papers through the American Ambassador, or
rather Consul—perhaps both. It is a long story; some day I might
relate it in full. Many others of my nationality were in
Constantinople trying to get passports, but they did not succeed. I
am very glad I got away from Turkey....
I left everything I had in X. It was no use attempting to sell the
things, neither could we take them with us. But I do not regret
that—even should they be lost for good—when I stop to think of what
happened to my friends and colleagues. I cannot believe that it is
real. How glad I am that I escaped from that hellish scene! My only
fear now is about my people—relations and friends in S. and
elsewhere. I am afraid that they will persecute my nationality also.
The Armenian Church <at X.> was sealed up and guarded by
soldiers. The Protestant Church was just finished and ready to be
used. We might not enter it for prayer, not even once. Someone said
that O. had promised to bear the expense of adding the minarets to
it. Of course, he may have said it to save his own position....
All the Catholics and Gregorians of S. were carried off. By that
time I was in Constantinople. The men, it is said, were killed; of
the women, those that had become Moslems were allowed to stay, the
rest were sent on to Mesopotamia. Mosul is their ultimate
destination.
You will find hardly an Armenian left in Trebizond, Ordou, Samsoun,
or the districts of Marsovan, Köprü, Amasia, Tokat, Sivas,
Harpout—excepting just a few who became Moslems. The vilayets of
Harpout and Sivas, it seems, had the worst treatment, but I cannot
say—it was bad everywhere. Again, the Protestants were left alone at
S. and R.; they were likewise spared in the towns of Kaisaria and
Talas, but not in the surrounding villages....
93. X.: NARRATIVE OF A JOURNEY FROM X. TO CONSTANTINOPLE, BY
PROFESSOR QQ. OF THE COLLEGE AT X.; COMMUNICATED BY THE AMERICAN
COMMITTEE FOR ARMENIAN AND SYRIAN RELIEF.
Under the pretext of transportation for political reasons, the Young
Turks are carrying out a well-planned, systematic process of
extermination. Beginning in April, they imprisoned the leaders and
many other prominent people in X. In order to exact confession they
used all sorts of torture, only to be paralleled in the records of
Mediævalism and the Inquisition. I saw people unable to walk brought
on donkeys to Dr. BB. for treatment of their wounds and sores that
they got from torturing and beating. GG., a strong young man, an
employee of the College, was beaten so terribly that he was unable
to walk for weeks. I saw him moaning in bed.[130]
I heard from the lips of Professors FF. and E., as well as from many
others, our graduates, etc., of the terrible condition of those
imprisoned in a subterranean place under the barrack in X. People
were literally packed there—the air suffocating. Happily they were
kept there only for a short time; but—unhappily—they were taken away
from there in groups and put to death, at a distance of three or
four hours from X. This was openly confessed by the Turks to many
Greeks. I heard it from a Greek gendarme who was compelled to take
part in the killing. Axes were used for killing them. The condemned
were stripped of all but their underclothing and led to the brink of
a great ditch. There they knelt with their hands bound behind their
backs, and were despatched by axe-blows on the head—as the scene was
described by an eye-witness to Mr. NN., the representative of the
Greek bishop in X. The Armenian priests were killed likewise. One of
them, KK., was killed in the attitude of prayer—praying with his son
beside him.
Women, children and old men were carried away on ox-carts. The sight
was tragic[131]. Women of good family were dressed like peasants and
driven away on ox-carts, accompanied by wild, savage-looking
gendarmes and Turkish drivers. On one cart I saw the aged mother,
wife, sister and two-year-old daughter of Mr. OO., one of our
teachers[132]. As they passed by our door they bade us good-bye. The
old mother, waving her hand upward, said to us, “Pray for us,” and
so they went on. The little child was smiling. On one cart there was
a woman expecting childbirth. Miss K., a nurse in the Hospital, saw
her as she was driven past the Hospital windows. She begged the
gendarmes to let her stay in the Hospital until she was delivered,
and they let her. She was delivered within a few days. Others,
however, were not so fortunate and were carried mercilessly along.
I left X. on the 3rd August, accompanied by Pastor CC. with his wife
and niece[133]; Mr. DD. of our College, with his wife, mother and
daughter; and Mrs. MM. with her four daughters. The first family
travelled by the permission—officially given—of the authorities at
X. The other two had a special permit from the Minister of War,
Enver Pasha. Mr. DD. was an American subject.