Chapter XVIII: The Massacres of 1915-16 298

Why the Young Turks Declared War--Reasons for the Beginning of the Massacres--A Draft of Armenians with the Army--Disarmed and Made to Work on the Roads--Turkish Proclamation of “A Holy War”--A Holy War Explained--Proclamation Favorably Received by Mohammedans Everywhere--Suffering Syrian Christians--“A Price on Every Christian Head”--Consequences--Letter from a Medical Missionary--Heart-rending Scenes--A Catholic Priest Who Refuses to Confess Mohammed as God’s Prophet and His Fate--Report of Dr. Vanneman--Urumia--Native Christian Preachers Crucified--Inhabitants of Van Resist--Timely Arrival of Russian Forces--Succor only Temporary--Turks and Kurds Return--“Suppressing Armenian Rebellion”--Turkish Treachery--Scenes along the Road--Christians Held in Prison and then Slain--Atrocities Miscalled “Justifiable and Necessary Measures”--Wholesale Drownings--“Turkey for the Turks”--Testimony of Dr. Herbert Adams Gibbons--The Turks not Satisfied with Less than the Complete Extermination of all Who Oppose Mohammedanism.