The city of Birijik is on the shores of the Euphrates; it has a
beautiful appearance from the other side of the river. The Mohammedan
population there are very wild and ignorant.
The Massacre at Birijik (Province of Aleppo).
Birijik had about 300 Christian houses, or say about 1,000
souls, in the midst of the Mussulman population of about 9,000
souls. After the massacre at Oorfa on the 27th of October, 1895,
the authorities at Birijik told the Armenians that the Muslims
were afraid of them, and that therefore they (the Armenians) must
surrender to the government any arms that they possessed. This
was done, the most rigid search being instituted to assure the
authorities that nothing whatever in the way of arms remained in
the hands of the Armenians. This disarmament caused no little
anxiety to the Armenians, since the Muslim population was very
generally armed, and was constantly adding to its arms. In fact,
during the months of November and December the Christians have
kept within their houses because the danger of appearing upon
the streets was very great.
Troops were called out by the government to protect the
people. Since the soldiers had come to protect the Christians,
the Christians were required to furnish animals for them to carry
their goods. Then they were required to furnish them beds and
carpets to make them more comfortable. Finally they were required
to furnish the soldiers with food, and they were reduced to a
state bordering on destitution by these increasing demands.
The end came on the first of January, 1896, when the news of
the massacre of several thousands of Christians at Oorfa by the
soldiers appointed to guard them incited the troops at Birijik
to imitate this crime. The assault on the Christian houses
commenced at about nine o'clock in the morning and continued until
night-fall. The soldiers were aided by the Muslims of the city in
the terrible work. The object at first seemed to be mainly plunder,
but after the plunder had been secured the soldiers seemed to
make a systematic search for men, to kill those who were unwilling
to accept Mohammedanism. The cruelty used to force men to become
Muslims was terrible. In one case the soldiers found some twenty
people, men, women, and children, who had taken refuge in a sort
of cave. They dragged them out and killed all the men and boys,
because they would not become Muslims. After cutting down one
old man who had thus refused, they put live coals upon his body,
and as he was writhing in torture, they held a Bible before him,
and asked him mockingly to read them some of the promises in
which he had trusted. Others were thrown into the river while
still alive, after having been cruelly wounded. The women and
children of this party were loaded up like goods upon the backs
of porters and carried off to the houses of Muslims. Christian
girls were eagerly sought after, and much quarreling occurred
over the question of their division among their captors. Every
Christian house except two, claimed to be owned by Turks, was
plundered. Ninety-six men are known to have been killed, or about
half of the adult Christian men. The others have become Mussulmans
to save their lives, so that there is not a single Christian left
in Birijik to-day. The Armenian Church has been made into a mosque,
and the Protestant Church into a Medresse Seminary.--[Dr. Dillon.