authorisation to send three emissaries to Cilicia, in order to
inform ourselves of the true situation in that country.
While we are profoundly grateful to your Excellency for your
courtesy in granting this authorisation, we now desire to inform you
that trustworthy information, furnished by official persons who have
arrived from Syria in the course of the present week, shows that the
situation in Cilicia has undergone a complete transformation. On
this account the despatch of the emissaries is, for the moment,
postponed; the actual state of affairs calls for altogether
different measures.
Cavalliere Gauttieri, the Italian Consul at Aleppo, and certain
foreign residents at Alexandretta and Adana, as well as others from
Bitlis and Harpout, who travelled across Cilicia and all arrived
here last Monday on board a neutral vessel, give the following
account of what has occurred:—
The town of Zeitoun, which was exclusively inhabited by Armenians
and is famous for its heroic struggles against the Turks, took
warning by the manifest intention of the Ottoman Government to take
advantage of the favourable moment created by the war for effecting
the extermination of the Armenian race, and revolted several months
ago. Dört Yöl and Hassan Beyli (a large Armenian village half way
between Marash and Dört Yöl) were preparing to take the same action.
The Turkish Government tried to subdue Zeitoun by military force,
but all its efforts remained fruitless; its troops were decimated,
and had to beat a retreat several times over. At that stage of
affairs the local authorities, by order of the Central Government,
employed the following stratagem: they threatened the Katholikos of
Cilicia, an old man of 75 years, that if the Zeitounlis refused to
capitulate they would have the whole Armenian population massacred,
while they assured the Zeitounlis that, in case they laid down their
arms, they would be in no way interfered with. On the urgent
recommendation of the Katholikos, the Zeitounlis, thinking that they
were fulfilling a patriotic duty, laid down their arms to save their
compatriots; and the inhabitants of Dört Yöl and Hassan Beyli did
the same thing for the same reason. Thereupon the Government
treacherously proceeded to deport the inhabitants of Zeitoun and the
afore-mentioned places en masse, and to replace them by Moslem
emigrants from Macedonia. At the same time they began to persecute
the peaceful populations of the plains—those of Marash, Aintab, Sis
and Adana, and so on—who are thus threatened now with imminent
massacre. It is worth noting that the towns situated on the
coast—Mersina, Alexandretta, Selefka and Kessab—continue to enjoy
relative tranquillity. Notwithstanding all these persecutions, there
are certain localities, scattered over the whole extent of Cilicia,
where groups of Armenian fighting-men have entrenched themselves
solidly in the mountains and are putting up an indefatigable
resistance to the Turkish troops. Whenever they can, they leave
their positions to go to the rescue of the defenceless people of the
cultivated lands, always hoping that aid will come to them _from
abroad_, and that, thus reinforced, they will be able to drive their
historic oppressor from the country. The same hope is cherished by
the whole Christian population of these regions, and one may say
that the Moslems themselves are convinced that all this country
will, before long, be occupied by the Allies.
That is the present situation in Cilicia, as it was unfolded to us
by the official persons whom we have mentioned above.
(=b=) =Resumé of Travellers’ Reports, enclosed with the Address.=
My official informants are unanimous in asserting that the object
pursued in Cilicia by the Turkish Government is neither more nor
less than the complete extermination of the Armenian element. The
philanthropic efforts put forward by the Italian and American
Consular Bodies, with a view to preventing the execution of this
sinister plan, have remained without fruit, since the mandate for
destruction and massacre emanated from the Central Government
itself. The Turks, with the Government officials at their head,
everywhere declare openly that the extermination of the Armenian
element in Turkey is for them one of the necessities of national
salvation, it being understood that the Allies protect the
Armenians, and that they afford a permanent pretext for foreign
intervention in the country’s affairs. The Governor of Aleppo, a
fair and liberal-minded man, who is personally opposed to this
criminal policy, has avowed it to the European Consuls, declaring
that the military commanders have only executed faithfully the
orders received from the Sublime Porte, and emphasising this in the
case of Fakhri Pasha, who is the representative of Djemal Pasha, the
supreme commander of the military forces in Syria and Palestine.
Among the other official persons responsible for the atrocities that
have been committed, they mention the Mutessarif of Marash and the
Kaimakam of Zeitoun. Latterly Marash and Zeitoun have been
consolidated into an independent Sandjak by order of the Central
Government, and so the above-mentioned functionaries are no longer
under the control of the Vali of Aleppo.
The German Consul at Aleppo, of whom we shall have more to say
below, made an extremely significant declaration to the Consul of a
Power which has since joined the Allies:—
“However painful and deplorable the condition may be to which the
Armenians find themselves reduced, the Turkish Government could take
no other course towards them, in view of the fact that they have
everywhere cast in their lot with the enemies of Turkey.”
_Zeitoun._—The Turkish troops which marched against Zeitoun and
presided, after the capitulation, over the deportation of the
Zeitounlis, were commanded by German officers. The Turks have torn
from their homes in this way all the inhabitants of Zeitoun, Furnus,
Alabash, Geben and the neighbouring districts, and have sent them
off in batches to Der-el-Zor, to Djibal Hauran, and towards various
unexplored regions of the desert. The women have been sent to Konia,
an exclusively Turkish district. In place of the Armenians they had
installed at Zeitoun a number of Moslem refugees from Macedonia.
_Marash._—This town was relatively tranquil till a short time ago;
now it is the scene of all kinds of atrocities and persecutions.
Hundreds of Armenian families have been driven out and marched away,
no one knows where. These atrocities have been committed in the
presence and with the connivance of the German Consul at Aleppo,
according to the testimony of a large number of Armenians which has
been recorded by the European Consular authorities.
_Hassan Beyli._—This unfortunate village, which had been already so
cruelly tried during the Cilician massacres of 1909, has this time
been destroyed root and branch. The inhabitants have been deported.
_Dört Yöl_ presents the same tragic spectacle. Though there have
been no massacres here in the literal sense of the word, the arrests
and expulsions en masse continue without abatement. The story is
already well-known of the German spy who came to Dört Yöl disguised
as a British officer—how he incited them to revolt against the
Turkish Government, and the arrests and partial massacre that came
of it. The story of this piece of treachery is also confirmed by the
Italian Consul from Alexandretta. The village of Dört Yöl, once so
prosperous, is now plunged in frightful misery.
At _Aintab, Sis and Adana_ the Armenians have so far been less
molested and persecuted than elsewhere. The arrests are less
numerous; but sinister rumours are current, which are propagated by
the Turks, and the terror of imminent butchery haunts the
inhabitants of these towns, who are strong in numbers but absolutely
bereft of all means of defence and of all protection against the
danger of extermination by which they are menaced.
_Ourfa_ groans under a Governor of the name of Haidar Bey, who, as
his own wife avows, has committed atrocities of all kinds wherever
he has exercised authority. He is the notorious organiser of the
butcheries at Mardin. The Armenian monastery at Ourfa has been
confiscated by the authorities and transformed into an asylum for
the British and Russian subjects who have been put under arrest in
Cilicia.
_The Turkish Forces._—The Turks do not dispose of military forces of
any importance in Cilicia; the troops they have there are not a
permanent garrison, and their number is not constant.
120. CILICIA: LETTER, DATED 20th JUNE, 1915, FROM DR. L., A FOREIGN
RESIDENT IN TURKEY; COMMUNICATED BY THE AMERICAN COMMITTEE FOR
ARMENIAN AND SYRIAN RELIEF.
The deportation began some six weeks ago with 180 families from
Zeitoun, since which time all the inhabitants of that place and its
neighbouring villages have been deported, also most of the
Christians in Albustan and many from Hadjin, Sis, Kars Pazar, Hassan
Beyli and Dört Yöl.
The numbers involved are approximately, to date, 26,500. Of these
about 5,000 have been sent to the Konia region, 5,500 are in Aleppo
and the surrounding towns and villages, and the remainder are in
Der-el-Zor, Rakka and various places in Mesopotamia, even as far as
the neighbourhood of Baghdad.
The process is still going on, and there is no telling how far it
may be carried. The orders already issued will bring the number in
this region up to 32,000, and there have been as yet none exiled
from Aintab, and very few from Marash and Ourfa.
The following is the text of the Government order[160] covering the
case:—“Art. 2nd.: The commanders of the Army, of independent army
corps and of divisions may, in case of military necessity, or in
case they suspect espionage or treason, send away, either singly or
in mass, the inhabitants of villages or towns and install them in
other places.”
The orders of commanders may have been reasonably humane, but the
execution of them has been for the most part unnecessarily harsh and
in many cases accompanied by horrible brutality to women and
children, to the sick and the aged. Whole villages were deported at
an hour’s notice, with no opportunity to prepare for the journey—not
even, in some cases, to gather together the scattered members of the
family, so that little children were left behind. At the mountain
village of Geben the women were at the wash-tub, and were compelled
to leave their wet clothes in the water and take the road
bare-footed and half-clad, just as they were. In some cases they
were able to carry part of their scanty household furniture or
implements of agriculture, but for the most part they were allowed
neither to carry anything nor to sell it, even where there was time
to do so.
In Hadjin well-to-do people, who had prepared food and bedding for
the road, were obliged to leave it in the street, and afterwards
suffered greatly from hunger.
In many cases the men (those of military age were nearly all in the
Army) were bound tightly together with ropes or chains. Women with
little children in their arms, or in the last days of pregnancy,
were driven along under the whip like cattle. Three different cases
came under my knowledge where the woman was delivered on the road
and, because her brutal driver hurried her along, she died of
hæmorrhage. I also know of one case where the gendarme in charge was
a humane man and allowed the poor woman several hours’ rest and then
procured a wagon for her to ride in. Some women became so completely
worn out and hopeless that they left their infants beside the road.
Many women and girls have been outraged. At one place the commander
of gendarmerie openly told the men to whom he consigned a large
company that they were at liberty to do what they chose with the
women and girls.
As to subsistence, there has been a great difference in different
places. In some places the Government has fed them; in some places
it has permitted the inhabitants to feed them; in some places it has
neither fed them nor permitted others to do so. There has been much
hunger, thirst and sickness and some real starvation and death.
These people are being scattered in small units, three or four
families in a place, among a population of different race and
religion and speaking a different language. I speak of them as being
composed families, but four-fifths of them are women and children,
and what men there are, for the most part, are old or incompetent.
If means are not found to help them through the next few months,
until they get established in their new surroundings, two-thirds or
three-fourths of them will die of starvation and disease.
121. BM.: LETTER FROM A FOREIGN EYE-WITNESS, DATED 6th JULY, 1915,
ON BOARD A STEAMSHIP; COMMUNICATED BY THE AMERICAN COMMITTEE FOR
ARMENIAN AND SYRIAN RELIEF.
Central Turkey has reached a crisis in its history. There are grave
problems to face. In many parts the accumulated work of years has
been washed away in a few weeks by the great and terrible flood of
deportation, and we are again on bed-rock. We understand that,
between the middle of May and the middle of June, 26,000 people were
deported, and that the number is to reach 32,000. When I left BM.,
on the 14th June, Zeitoun had been practically emptied of Armenians.
Only one, or perhaps two families, who were originally not of
Zeitoun and who were in the employment of the Government and
necessary to it, were left in Zeitoun, and even they were not
allowed to live in houses, but were living in a church. The place is
now occupied by Macedonian Moslem refugees. They began by cutting
down the fruit trees, laden with green fruit, and using them for
firewood, and by cutting down the green grain and using it for
fodder. One man demanded the mule that had carried him there from
the Moslem katerdji, who had been asked by the Government to convey
the man to Zeitoun—or Yeni Shehr, as I think it is now to be called.
When the katerdji naturally demurred, the man killed the katerdji
and took the mule. So lawless are they that the Government seems
afraid of them, and so leaves them strictly alone. As far as I know,
at that date not an Armenian was left in Albustan and all its
region, in Furnus and all its region, in Geben and all its region,
or in Gourksoun and all its region (I don’t remember the other
places that have been swept clean), and Fundadjak and Deré Keui and
all that region expected to move any day. Indeed, the Government
says that the plan is that all Cilicia shall be entirely cleared,
except for Sis, Adana and BM., where the serving class shall be
left. Some officials say that all but about three hundred rich and
influential families of BM. shall be left, but no one believes them
and all from the highest to the lowest are preparing to leave. The
same officials say that Sis and Adana will not be touched, but we
know that some from there have been taken already. As you may know,
Marash was this year made an independent “Sandjak,” like Ourfa, and
this has made this infamous work more easy. The Vali of Aleppo
resisted all efforts at deportation in his district, but the day we
left Aleppo we were informed by him that he had been removed to
Konia, so by this time deportation is very probably in full swing in
the Aintab field. When we were in Aleppo I saw some of the first one
hundred families to be deported from Hadjin, and the rest of Hadjin
were expected the day we left, or within the next few days. The man
who has been deporting in Diyarbekir, and, worse, has been killing
people by beating or scalding them to death—one person said: “He is
killing them alive!”—was transferred about the middle of June to
Ourfa, with the evident purpose of letting him continue his work
there. To go out into other fields, I might add that a private code
telegram from Mardin received about the 24th June said that
massacres had begun there.
Why is there this deportation? There are many theories. When the
people asked, the answer was: “It is an order from Constantinople.”
One official, who is being worked nearly to death by this extra work
of deportation, said one day: “It is all right for people in Europe
to deport. They simply put people on a train and send them wherever
they wish”—and much more along that line, which led us to believe
that Germany has a hand in it. Indeed, we know that, when Turkish
officials are easing up on these poor people, German officials step
in and make things hard.
Where are they going? Some are being scattered, one or two families
to a village, among Moslem villages, evidently with the idea of
forcing them to become Moslems; others are being taken from their
mountain homes and are being driven across the desert towards
Baghdad. German officers, who came into Aleppo one night on their
way from Baghdad to Constantinople, said that they first met this
weary train two days out of Baghdad, and that the road the thousands
they had met were marching along was marked or outlined by the
bodies of their dead.
Who are these people? Women and children, tottering old men and
babes. The men, twenty-one to thirty-five or forty years old, have
practically all gone to the war, so these women are at the mercy of
those in charge of them. Some soldiers are as kind to them as
circumstances permit; others farm the women out for the night to the
men of the villages near which they camp, or march in themselves, as
a bull might into a herd of cows. This is not guesswork, but
well-known fact. Some women kill themselves by jumping into the
rivers, to escape, but others, for the sake of their children,
endure.
Some of the circumstances that make this deportation especially
cruel are these. As a general rule village people get their new
clothes in the autumn. Now they are expecting to go up into the
mountains with their flocks, and so will wear out the old rags of
last year’s clothes and be ready for the new clothes after harvest.
So, at best, they are very ill-provided for a journey. Not only
this, but the Government takes special pains in many, if not most,
instances to prevent their taking what clothes they have. The first
to be summoned were some families in Zeitoun. Early one Saturday
morning, as usual, the industrious housewives donned their old
washing clothes and began their Saturday’s washing. Without warning,
all of a sudden, a terrible knocking was heard at many doors. In a
minute the soldiers came pouring in, saying that the people in those
houses were wanted immediately at the Government House. Not a moment
was given to don dress or shoes, but, in night-clothes or washing
rags, the mothers and a few fathers snatched sleeping children out
of their beds, the women throwing a shawl over their heads as they
ran. Of course, many children were left behind, and there are many
pathetic stories of little boys and girls, eight or nine years old,
stumbling along the road, hardly able from sheer weariness to walk,
yet carrying their little baby brother or sister, because, as their
mother was being taken away by the soldiers, she had said: “Look
after baby and never leave him (or her).”
Geben’s turn came later, so the people had heard of the deportation
and gotten ready, although the Government assured them again and
again that that district was not to be deported. Time went on, and
no order came. The Government said: “Why will you not believe? Why
do you sit here waiting for that which is not coming? See, your
flocks are suffering for want of pasture. Be sensible, and go to the
mountains as usual.” Some brave ones started out, and nothing
happened. So, in great joy, the flocks started for the mountains.
One morning the women were putting into the tub the clothes that had
got dirty during all those weary weeks of waiting, that they might
go to their mountain places with clean clothes. Such was the need of
washing that they wore the fewest clothes possible, that they might
take everything nice and clean. Hardly an hour had passed, or at
least a very short time, before some soldiers presented themselves
to these women with the command “March!” while others accosted those
who had gone to the mountains with the flocks with the command
“Leave all and march!” So they were forced to leave all their
clothes in the tub and their flocks on the mountains, and march!
In Albustan, when friendly Moslems wished to buy things of the
Armenians and so give them ready money for the road, the Government
stationed soldiers in all the Armenian streets to prevent this, so
all they could sell was what they smuggled out by the back door.
Another factor that adds horror to the situation is the fact that
most of the horses, mules and donkeys have been taken by the
Government for the use of the Army. So now the people have
practically no animals to carry their own loads, and the Government
can furnish few. Sometimes they force an Armenian from a distant
village, who happens to have kept a poor old lame horse or two, to
help transport people. He hears on the way that orders have come for
the deportation of his own family. Of course, if he can steal away
in the night to go to the help of his own family, he does so. Or the
soldiers make a raid on some neighbouring Moslem villages and gather
up the few donkeys that are left. Their owners know that, if these
donkeys once reach some large centre, they will never see them
again. So these poor people, who have been tramping along all day,
must keep awake all night to keep the donkeys from being stolen by
their _owners_, who are sneaking round watching their chance. So the
mothers are obliged to walk and carry their little children as best
they can. Some throw their little ones into the river or leave them
under a bush by the road, that they may be able to manage those that
are left. One mother threw one child in and jumped in with the other
in her arms. The heart-breaking cry is: “Won’t you take my daughter
and save her from the horrors of the road? She was educated in your
schools; surely you can take her and save her?” Or: “My little one,
my darling! Take her, take him! How can I trudge on, day after day,
over the rocks or the burning sands of the desert, and carry and
feed and keep my darling?”
There is not an Armenian family in BM., I suppose, but has given
clothes and money and food, till now they say: “We have nothing left
but what we shall need on the road when we are summoned.” They could
not stand the bitter cry of the mothers, and many, many have taken
children, saying: “If we put a little more water in the soup, it
will be enough for all,” and yet they say: “When we are summoned,
what is to become of these children? To be sure, they have had a few
more days of security and life, but then—what?”...
Still another factor adds to the horror, and that is: a Government
that is not able to feed even its soldiers, how is it to obey the
beautiful paper instructions and see that the people are well fed
and lack for nothing? In BM., for over a month, Christian churches
have been giving two meals a day to the three thousand people to
whom the Government gives two small stale loaves of bread a day, and
I suppose it is safe to say that those fed are never for any two or
three days running the same people. Each party stays two or three
days, or even a week, but nearly every day some are coming and
others going. This, as you may suppose, is a terrible drain on those
from whom the Government has used nearly every means to extract the
last penny, even hanging a man in the market-place because he did
not pay ten pounds when asked for it! Hanging is so common in BM.
now that it creates little stir. It is only when someone happens to
mention having seen a man hanging in the market yesterday or the day
before that we even hear of it. The people are looking into their
fast-emptying larders, and asking: “How long will it last?” In
Aintab the people are not even allowed to feed the refugees, who are
now sent by a long detour round the town to prevent anyone’s seeking
to feed them. Some good Aintab people took a lot of water-bottles
right out to the cross-roads two hours or more away, to give to the
refugees as they started out on their desert journey; but they were
not allowed to give them, and had sadly to take them home again.