This is a large city, almost on the boundary line between Russia and
Turkey, in Turkish Armenia. It has about 60,000 people, one-third of
whom are Armenians. Several times since the last Turko-Russian war
the Christian Armenians have been massacred there by the Turks and
the regular soldiers, and during the recent atrocities also there
were massacred, and in all about 3,000 Armenians were killed.
Letter from Erzeroum.
"Nov. 27, 1895.--The massacre evidently was pre-arranged. It began
all over the city at the same moment. The bugle was sounded,
and the soldiers began. They first said, "No harm to women or
children," but they soon passed those bounds. A soldier who was
on guard says the order was given by the Porte. We made ready
for defense, but it soon appeared that the soldiers had cut off
the rabble from our section, for no mob passed our street. A few
men tried to open the door, but three well-directed shots from
our balcony sent them off.
"The soldiers at the head of our street, apparently to guard it,
broke open three or four houses within a stone's throw of us,
and carried off everything they found. We saw loads of plunder
carried away by soldiers. A large number of women engaged in the
same work. The affair began shortly after noon and continued about
six hours. One Armenian was called to the door by an officer, who
professed to be friendly, and was cut down in cold blood. Others
were cruelly murdered. The death roll must be towards 300, if
not more. Between fifty and sixty wounded are in the hospital.
"Two hundred were gathered in the Armenian cemetery, some horribly
mutilated. There must be many wounded in the different houses. The
pillaged houses are to be counted by the hundred. No house attacked
was left until it was emptied of every movable thing. The next
day we went to an Armenian home. In the middle of a small room
(the kitchen), lying side by side on a mat, were the bodies of
two young women, almost naked, a light covering thrown over their
heads. At the other side of the room a grief-stricken woman was
trying to make bread from a little flour that had been left. She
had to borrow utensils to do it. She left her work, came forward
and removed the covering from the bodies. They were those of
young women developing into motherhood. The head and face of
one was covered with blood, and she was also badly wounded in
the hand. The other had a bullet wound through the abdomen from
the right side. A companion of these two had been carried off,
and was lying dead in another house. Their lives were sacrificed
in defense of honor.
"We passed through the ruins to other rooms. Boxes and
furniture were in splinters, windows smashed, walls ploughed
with bullets. The floor was covered with big patches of
blood. The bodies lying in the cemeteries are simply wrecks of
human beings. The majority have bullet wounds. Nearly all have
bayonet, sword and dagger wounds, some badly mutilated. Two or
three were skinned, and some were burned with kerosene. A great
many women are missing. Very many dead have been disposed of by
the Turks. Hundreds have nothing to eat, and no means of getting
anything. The villages of the plain have suffered awfully. No
definite news has come; only the news that columns of smoke tell."