gendarme. Standing near him were several men with axes in their
hands. He asked me whether there were any Armenians in our company.
He said all Armenians had to go back—anyone of my own nationality
could go on. I tried to reason with him and pressed the point that
they travelled by the special order of Enver Pasha. He replied that
“he could not read, so he had to carry out the orders given him.” In
a few minutes 56 men came up, on horseback and armed. One of them
could read. They repeated the same order—“All Armenians back.”
All the arabadjis—Turks, all of them—pleaded hard with the man[134].
They all said: “These are all others and not Armenians. They had
already finished off the Armenians in X. before we started.” There
was only one Armenian family in the group, they said, and they had
the order of Enver Pasha. The document was presented to the leader,
EE. He read it aloud. Then I told him that I was from S., and that I
had a friend, a medical doctor, in military service in S. I
described him and gave his name to the leader. It so happened that
he knew my friend and regarded him with much esteem, so when he
heard this he laughed and shook hands with me, and begged me to take
his compliments to my friend, adding: “Excuse us, this gendarme made
a mistake in stopping you. Go on.” The whole party went on. We were
told afterwards that this leader was a well-known criminal robber,
and that the whole group were _chettis_—bandits—armed by the order
of the Government and let loose to harry the Armenians. During this
scene of anxiety, Mr. CC. and Mr. DD. were perspiring the cold sweat
of agony. Mrs. MM. was in a tremor.
In one carriage there were a son and a daughter of Mr. AB., pastor
in the city of BO.
The very day that we reached S., Friday, the Armenians of the place
were being arrested. Their documentary permits for travel were taken
from our companions and never returned to them. They were told by
the Police that they had inquired from Constantinople about them and
were awaiting orders. Mr. DD. and Mr. CC. called on the Chief
(Mudir) of the Police in S., and had interviews, but to no effect.
The Mudir questioned DD. on his citizenship; how was it possible for
a man born in Turkey to become an American subject? Three days after
our arrival, CC.and DD. were taken away at night from the hotel, and
sent off with other leading Armenians of S. in carriages—hands tied.
They were sent along the road towards TT. and T. Carriages were
hired for a distance of four hours, as far as a lake four hours’
journey from S. The driver who took our friends, a man from X. who
had driven Mrs. MM. to S., told me that “those men were finished off
on the way”; he was not allowed to see the dead,
but the zaptieh told him. He was sure that all those sent off were
robbed on the way!
Peasants told my friend—a medical man in the military hospital at
S.—that places near their villages, close to the scene of our
incident with the chettis, were all blood-stained.
The drivers said they wished they had never seen the like of what
they saw. One Albanian in S. boasted in the café of how he had
killed 50 Armenians.
The railway stations between S. and Isnik were full of women,
children and men—Armenians driven from their homes and waiting for
an opportunity to enter the train. They were conveyed in goods
trains—packed in like sheep. It was a pitiful, heart-breaking sight.
It seems that there was a prohibition against speaking to them. Near
Isnik, in one of the wagons, I saw AC., a man from X. employed in
the school at AD. I ventured to call his name as our train passed
by, but could not attract his attention. Immediately the Turk near
me asked me whether I was an Armenian. There was no Armenian in our
train.
Turkish soldiers from T. and its villages told me at VV., on our way
to S., that all the villages in their region were emptied—all the
men killed. I asked them about the women; “God alone knows,” was
their reply.
I saw a carriage (araba) loaded with spades, shovels, etc., in front
of the police headquarters in S. They were all covered up, but one
could distinguish then what they were. Then a policeman started to
ride off. During the loading, people were not allowed to look on. As
I was passing by at that moment, and dared to glance in that
direction, I was given a terrible blow by the police officer.
The Kaimakam and the commandant of the gendarmes at X. told me
repeatedly that they were only tools; they had to carry out the
orders given them. No Armenian is to be left. Old or young, blind or
lame, or disabled—all had to go away, without any exception being
granted.[135]
The Vali of S. was dismissed from office for refusing to carry out
the orders. A new Vali, an inexperienced young man, was sent to take
his place, who carried out the order strictly and harshly.
The Roman Catholic Armenians of S.—some 3,000 families—were all
deported.
Mrs. CC., Mrs. DD. and Mrs. MM. were still in S., residing in the
Protestant church building, when I left S. on the 26th August. They
tried to see the Vali, but were not allowed, and their papers and
permits were not given back to them. Mrs. MM. pleaded hard with my
wife that we should take with us at least one of her daughters.
There were similar petitions from many others, but it was impossible
to do anything. We ourselves were under suspicion and liable to
suffer, and it is a wonder how we escaped. It is due to the grace of
God and to the kindly help of the American Embassy and Consulate in
Constantinople.
94. X.: NARRATIVE OF MISS CC., COMMUNICATED BY HER TO A SWISS
GENTLEMAN AT GENEVA DURING HER PASSAGE THROUGH SWITZERLAND IN
DECEMBER. 1915.
It was on the 29th April that the Turkish Government began to arrest
the leading Armenians at X.
Mr. OO., Professor of Armenian, was sent to Z. with sixteen other
Professors; they suffered fiendish atrocities. Their hair was
plucked out by the roots; they were burned with red hot irons; they
were sprinkled with boiling water; they were flogged daily; some of
them died in prison. Mr. OO. himself had his eyes gouged out, and
was then hanged.
At X., the arrests continued, and the Armenians were flogged to make
them confess to pretended revolutionary preparations. The surrender
of a definite number of rifles were demanded of them; some of them
bought rifles from the Turks in order to be able to deliver them up
to the Government. They were tortured to make them bring in their
arms[136].
The Turkish villagers were paid to flog the Armenians, because the
Turkish townspeople of X. might possibly have taken pity on them.
PP., the college blacksmith, was so terribly beaten that a month
later he was still unable to walk. Another was shod with
horse-shoes. At Y., Mr. AD. (brother-in-law of the pastor AE., who
suffered martyrdom at Sivas twenty-one years ago) had his
finger-nails torn out for refusing to accept Islam. “How,” he had
answered, “can I abandon the Christ whom I have preached for twenty
years?”
The search for rifles lasted several weeks. In the Armenian cemetery
the Turks found several bombs, buried there since 1908 and now
absolutely rusty and unusable.
By the end of June, all the men were in the prisons, barracks or
cellars. The women, who went to visit their husbands and bring them
clothes and food, were beaten and driven off by the gendarmes.
After several days’ imprisonment, those who had promised to embrace
Islam were released, as well as those who had paid very large sums
of money. Mr. AF., a colporteur, had been willing to embrace Islam,
but his wife refused to recognise his apostasy and declared that she
would go into exile with the rest of the people, so he went with his
wife and was killed.
The remainder were sent in batches out of the town and killed on the
road. The Turks told their Armenian friends what was happening, and
promised them the same fate.
No sooner were all the men disposed of, than they began to deport
the women and children and even the sick; the ox-carts kept passing
day and night. A Turk, the landlord of our house, told us that he
had watched this procession, covered with dust and tortured by the
heat and lack of water, and that he had said to himself that they
would all be dead before they reached their destination. A woman who
got back to X. by accepting conversion, after being on the road
about ten days, gave an account of their heart-rending condition.
Even mothers abandoned their children or handed them over to the
Kurds; the Kurds for that matter took them by force and violated the
girls, some of whom were carried off for their harems. After several
days’ journey, the carts turned back and the exiles had to proceed
on foot.
Those connected with the American college gave the Turkish officers
large sums to procure their exemption, but this brought them nothing
but a postponement of their cruel fate. Meanwhile, the efforts of
the American Embassy obtained for Professor DD. permission to go to
Constantinople with his wife and eight-months-old baby, as well as
his old mother, and my own family was permitted to leave for Smyrna.
After several days travelling by carriage, we all arrived at S.
There my father and mother were arrested, as well as Professor DD.
Everything we could do to get them released was in vain. It was
impossible to learn anything about their fate. The Mudir said: “They
have reached their destination safe and sound.”[137]
Several days later all Armenians, with the exception of a few
Protestant ladies, were cleared out of S.
Later, some of the missionaries from X. passed through S. and found
us there in the desperate state we were in. They told the American
Embassy as soon as they reached Constantinople, and that is how we
obtained permission to proceed to Constantinople.
Here it took us three months to obtain a passport for America.
At X. several families made up their minds to take poison. Mr. GG.
was imprisoned. He apostatized and returned home, and his wife
fainted at the sight of him. Professor B. accepted Islam, and became
head of the printing works. F., E., and the photographer D. have all
three apostatized to Islam. There was no revolutionary movement.
Frightful atrocities occurred. There was a dark underground cellar
into which the Armenians were crowded, one on the top of the other.
One night one of them cried out in his sleep: “Escape,” and the
other prisoners began to shout as well. Then the guards were given
the order to fire into the living mass, but they showed some human
feeling and fired against the wall.
-----
Footnote 125:
Name withheld. It is possible that the scene of the events
described by this witness may be, not X., but Cilicia.—EDITOR.
Footnote 126:
Six of the names here follow in the original: M., OO., AN., AO.,
AP., AQ., AR.
Footnote 127:
Four names here follow in the original: AS., AT., AU., AV.
Footnote 128:
Seventeen names here follow in the original: C., BC., O., B., D.,
BD., G., BE., BF., AN., BG., BH., BI., BJ., P., BK., BL.
Footnote 129:
Greek and Armenian, respectively, for “Good morning.”—EDITOR.
Footnote 130:
_The treatment of this victim is described in more detail in a
narrative subsequently published by the author of the present
document_:
“Some died as a result of torture. I saw Garabed GG., who, after
having been whipped and beaten a whole day and night, at intervals
of two hours, was moaning in his bed with excruciating pain. He
was confined to bed for weeks. He related to me how one gendarme
had sat on his mouth, that he might not scream, while two others
had held up and bastinadoed his feet, which were bound with ropes
attached to a strong rod. Sometimes they would beat him on any
part of his body, indiscriminately. The poor fellow, a strong,
brave young man, the leader of the college firemen, who, in the
presence of all the leading Turkish officials, had extinguished
some time ago a big fire in the town, was in despair and longed to
die. His body was all blue as a result of the beating.”
Footnote 131:
_Further details in the narrative subsequently published_:
“I visited a great many Armenian families while they were
preparing for this Babylonian captivity. I could not stand the
sight, neither could I find any words of comfort for them. The
scene varied from house to house, but everywhere there was the
same feeling of suspense, dread and despair. In some houses one
saw a feeling of true resignation and heroism. There was a retired
pastor, sixty-eight years old. He did not pack anything in the
house, but left it as it was. Taking his staff in his hand, he
said: ‘I am ready to go wherever they send me. The Lord is my
guide!’”
Footnote 132:
_The fate of Mr. OO. himself is recorded in the narrative
subsequently published_:
“Mr. OO. was put to death at Z. with excruciating tortures—his
eyes being gouged out, and red-hot irons driven under his nails.”
Footnote 133:
Daughter (?). See Doc 94.—EDITOR.
Footnote 134:
_Further instances of Turkish kindness are recorded by the writer
in his subsequently published narrative_:
“The poor Armenians sold their few possessions, but the
transaction was really a legalised plunder. Everything was sold at
one-tenth of its value. Here is a conversation between two Turks
in a coffee house: ‘What a pity things were sold at such a low
price! I could not stand the sight in the streets; I saw many
cheap things, but my conscience would not permit me to buy
anything.’ The other fellow replied: ‘Well done! What a conscience
you have! If you really pitied them, you should have bought
something and offered them a good price! If you and I do not buy,
to whom will the poor people sell?’ It is to their credit that
many of the old school Turks really took pity on the persecuted
Armenians. During the massacres of 1895 many Turks had shielded
and saved Armenians, but in this instance no one dared express his
feelings or do an act of kindness. It is said that a Turk was
hanged in front of his own house in Vezir Köprü, in the Vilayet of
Sivas, for giving shelter to an Armenian.”
Footnote 135:
_This is brought out very clearly in the narrative subsequently
published by the same writer_:
“A blind old man named CZ., whose son is a physician in the United
States, was scarcely able to walk, even with the aid of a staff.
The Mohammedan neighbours took pity upon him and promised to take
care of him if the Government permitted. I appealed to the
Kaimakam and the commandant of the gendarmes. The answer was:
‘Impossible; all have to go; no Armenian is to be left behind,
whether blind, deaf or paralytic.’
“The Kaimakam regretted that he found himself in office at such a
time; he was sorry he had ever entered the official life. His
father, a professor in the Turkish University in Constantinople,
had advised him to go into business, but, as he had had no
capital, he entered the Government Service.”
Footnote 136:
See Docs. 68, 82 and 122.
Footnote 137:
We know from other sources that Mr. CC. was put to death.—EDITOR.
XII.
THE CITY OF ANGORA.
_Angora is the capital of a vilayet, and the terminus of a branch
line of the Anatolian Railway. It is the half-way house between
Constantinople and Sivas, and the focus of traffic with all the
provinces of the north-east. It is naturally an important centre of
commerce as well as of administration, and there was a strong
Armenian element in the population of the town._
_Our information regarding the destruction of the Armenians at
Angora is comparatively scanty—scantier, perhaps, than in the case
of any other Armenian centre of equal importance in the Ottoman
Empire. Yet the documents included in this section, together with
incidental references in other pieces of testimony (_e.g._, Doc.
109, suffice to show that the Government’s order was executed here
in the same fashion as at Sivas and at X._
95. ANGORA: STATEMENT BY A TRAVELLER, NOT OF ARMENIAN NATIONALITY,
WHO PASSED THROUGH ANGORA IN AUGUST, 1915.
While the Armenians of Sivas and other Armenian provinces were being
deported, there were repeated rumours that the deportation was to be
confined to the seven vilayets in which special reforms were due to
be carried out. As in the case of 1894-5, the promise of reforms was
followed by massacres—and that almost throughout the whole Ottoman
Empire.
The Vali of Angora, a really good man, refused to carry out the
orders from Constantinople to deport the Armenians of Angora, so the
Commander of the Military Forces of the Vilayet and the Chief of the
Police agreed with the Vali and supported him. The leading Turks of
Angora, including the religious leaders, were all of the same mind.
They knew that the Christians of the place were all loyal and useful
subjects of the Empire.
The Armenians here were chiefly Roman Catholics, and were all truly
loyal to the Turkish Government. They had no sympathy with any
national aspirations. They even refused to be called Armenians. They
were simply called the “Catholic Nation,” and the Government so
regarded them. There were some 15,000 to 20,000 of them, and they
were leaders in commerce and trade. They had more outward polish
than other Armenians. They spoke Turkish, and wrote it in Armenian
characters.
There were also some 300 to 400 other Armenian families who were
members of the National or Gregorian Church, and had settled in
Angora from various parts of Turkey.
The Armenians’ houses and shops were searched during July, 1915, and
neither arms nor incriminating documents were found. But the central
authorities in Constantinople had decreed their extermination, and,
as the Vali refused to obey them, both he and the Chief of the
Police were dismissed. Their successors made themselves ready tools
to carry out any orders given from above. They succeeded in
deporting all the Armenians of Angora.
As in other places, a number of leading Armenians were first
arrested, including some Catholics. This was towards the end of
July, 1915. The Catholics were soon released; those who remained in
gaol were tortured terribly. Then all the Armenians of all creeds
had to register their names, including women and children—without
any omissions—at the police stations. For several days the police
stations were packed with people. As soon as the list was completed
the deportations began. This was the second week in August. Men were
led to the prisons, and stripped of all valuables, watches, purses,
rings, &c. They were told that these things would be taken care of
by the Government and that they would find them all safe at the
place of their destination. An eye-witness who had visited the Chief
of the Police, saw his office choked up with piles of such articles
taken from the Armenians.
Then they were sent away, principally in three directions—some along
the high-road that leads to Kaisaria and Yozgad, others in the
Süngürlü direction, and others westward. Reports came from all
directions that these exiles were all killed after proceeding some
miles from the city. It was said that one party was shot, but in all
the other cases the Turks practised economy, killing their victims
with axes and daggers. Some of the perpetrators of these horrible
crimes boasted of it openly in the cafés, giving details of their
achievements and the number of their victims. One Albanian said he
had killed fifty men. Villagers from Kilidjlar, on the way to
Süngürlü, spoke to many people confidentially of how the ground in
their neighbourhood was soaked with blood.
Those arrested and deported first were chiefly Gregorians, with a
few Protestants among them. By the middle of August these had all
been deported. They were all men; the women were apparently safe.
The Government in some instances began to give money for the support
of the poor; but the scenes at the office of the Chief of the Police
and at the entrance of the gaol were heart-rending. There were women
and children anxiously waiting to make enquiries about their dear
ones—husbands, or sons, or fathers, or friends. The only answers
they got were vague assurances that they were all safe. Some, they
were told, were already proceeding to their destination, and others
were soon to leave. This was simply a war-measure, a temporary
arrangement; as soon as the war was over, all would return home; any
of the women desiring to follow their husbands or relations would be
sent to the same place as they.
After the departure of the Gregorians (including some Protestants as
well) about the middle of August, it was rumoured that Protestants
and Catholics would be exempted from deportation. The promise was
observed in some instances, _e.g._, in Istanos, which is a village
near Angora, within about twenty miles of the city. All the
Armenians of Istanos were brought, chained, to Angora. Then, after
the order for exemption, the Protestants were set at liberty to
return home, whereas the Gregorians were all deported.
As for the Catholics, the leaders of the Union and Progress Party
sent a special message to the Bishop and his Council stating that,
if the whole Catholic community, headed by the Bishop and the
priests, would accept Islam, they should all remain unmolested;
otherwise the order was to be carried out. This is an ascertained
fact. But they all preferred to stand firm in their faith, and
rejected the proposal of the Committee.
Consequently, on the last Friday in August, 1915, all the
Catholics—that is, the men—were arrested. According to one earlier
report, they were then butchered at a short distance from Angora;
but a later report says that, when the plans for this murder were
ready, there suddenly came special envoys from the Government with
instructions that the Catholics were to be deported safely.
Consequently they were sent to Konia, and thence to the Adana
district.
The latter story may be true, as it is a fact that the Papal Envoy
in Constantinople and the Austrian Ambassador pressed the Turks hard
in defence of the Catholics, and they are said to have secured
promises of exemption for the Catholics from Enver and Talaat. But,
however that may be, it is difficult to have any preference as
between an immediate death and the slower process, for deportation
is nothing but a slow process of execution.
The very day that the Catholic men were sent away, all the Armenian
women in Angora were hurried off to the railway station. They were
told to make haste and catch up their husbands. They were at liberty
to take any valuables with them. As soon as the poor creatures
reached the station, they were all packed by scores, like cattle, in
the sheds and warehouses and barns there. The scenes in the town and
at the station defy description. All the men were gone—no one knew
where—and now the rest, the women and children, were left in anguish
and sorrow, pain and despair, in the company of the Turkish
soldiers.
Any of the women and children that accepted Islam were brought back
to the town and given to prominent Turks. Those who refused were
deported to Syria and Mesopotamia. Their fate must be similar to
that of other sufferers from other regions.
A few Protestant families were left unmolested in the town. The
Protestant pastor was deported, and nothing is known of his fate.
Many children were circumcised and placed in so-called orphanages.
96. ANGORA: EXTRACT FROM THE NARRATIVE (DOC. 88) OF MISS AA., A
FOREIGN TRAVELLER IN ASIATIC TURKEY; COMMUNICATED BY THE
AMERICAN COMMITTEE FOR ARMENIAN AND SYRIAN RELIEF.
It is strange that one can live constantly in Asia Minor and
actually see very little of the crimes that are going on. As one
travels across the country, he feels continually the dead silence of
a situation which is surrounded by crime and from which he is
continually shielded.
I have just come from X. to Constantinople, five days’ journey by
wagon. After waiting a week in Angora, I succeeded in getting one
day further along the railway to Eski Shehr, where one must wait two
days longer. And finally, on a belated train, with neither light nor
heating in the first-class carriage, I arrived late on the
succeeding day in Constantinople.