Chapter X: Part 10

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."

MARASH.

The writer became acquainted with many noble Armenians here during his three years in the Theological Seminary, and almost all his friends were killed. Among them were the Rev. Sdepan Jirnazian, a noble Christian minister,--when I was a little boy he was my pastor in the suburbs of Antioch;--Bedros Iskiyan, an American citizen, butchered before his wife and children; Garabed Popalian, another noble man, and the richest among the Armenian Evangelical people; Dr. Kevork Gulizian; Khacher Bayramian and his family; Garabed Salibian, in whose house I used to take my meals. A private letter says that about half the Armenians were killed by the Turks. Marash had about 35,000 population; about 15,000 were Armenians, of whom about 7,000 were killed. It has four Evangelical Armenian churches there, a theological seminary, and a ladies' college. The local governor led the regular soldiers to plunder and kill the people.

Letter from Marash.

London, Nov. 28, 1895.--The correspondent of the United Press in
Constantinople telegraphs, under date of November 27, that a second
terrible massacre has occurred in Marash, and that the houses there
have been pillaged without regard to who their occupants might
be. It is reported that thousands of persons were killed and many
hundred wounded. The American Theological Seminary was plundered
and burned, and two of the students in that institution were shot,
one being fatally wounded. The hotels and boarding houses also
were plundered. The Christians at Marash, and in that vicinity,
thousands of whom are destitute, have appealed for aid.

The following letter, under date of November 25, has been
received here:

"I will report the events of the 18th in this city. At 7 a. m.,
almost simultaneously the firing of Martini rifles was heard all
over the city, with conflagrations in three Christian quarters.

"We understood the meaning of it. Soldiers began firing against two
Christian houses, and their inmates fled into missionary houses,
and soon the soldiers were looting their buildings, followed by
a mob, who smashed doors and windows, and carried away property.

"Towards noon a squad of soldiers approached the missionary
grounds, and it was thought that a guard had been sent in behalf
of the missionaries. They entered the grounds of the seminary
and academy boarding department. Two seminary students, who had
concealed themselves in a cave, were discovered, and one of them
fatally shot, while the other was badly wounded.

"The soldiers looted the missionary academy boarding department
of all the students' clothing and bedding, and a part of the
year's provisions in store. Other soldiers joined and looted
the seminary. They repeatedly went to an Armenian house near by,
but did not force it.

"Three-quarters of that terrible day the missionaries were left
to any chance fate that might befall them. They had been informed
by a Moslem of a purpose to burn the Girls' College that day, and
a note had been sent to the local governor asking for a special
guard. He replied that the barracks near by were charged to care
for them. It was soldiers in relays from that very place that
were wrecking everything.

"In the afternoon four or five soldiers entered the seminary, and
soon after, fire broke out in the rear. As the flames wrapped the
building, a trustworthy captain with thirty soldiers appeared at
the gate, and the missionaries were assured of safety. The soldiers
still continue with the missionaries. We cannot estimate the loss
of life. Leaders of society have been struck down everywhere,
two missionary academy teachers among them."

AKHISAR.

The valley of the Sakaria (the ancient Sangarius), is, through a part of its course, followed by the Anatolia line of railway. At a spot ninety miles from Constantinople, where the valley broadens out into a considerable plain, is the station and town of Akhisar. This town was, until the tenth of this month, the center of a considerable trade. The plain is dotted with vineyards, olive orchards, mulberry gardens, fields of cotton, wheat, etc. The town consists of about 160 houses of immigrants from Bulgaria, Bosnia, and Rumelia (who, having been concerned in the celebrated Bulgarian massacres, found refuge in Turkish territory), and sixty houses of Armenians.

A Letter Oct. 15, 1895.

Thursday, Oct. 10 (a bright, beautiful day), was market
day. Numbers of people from the surrounding villages had come with
the fruits of their various industries. The market place consisted
of sixty-three permanent shops, and about 150 temporary places
of trade, where traders from the surrounding country exposed
their wares for sale. The market was almost exclusively in the
hands of Armenians, 200 of the shops and trading places being
in their hands. Rumors of danger were afloat, but the Armenians
anticipated no attack on market-day. They had no arms, or means
of defense, and had taken no precautions. They soon began to
notice, however, that their Mussulman neighbors had mysterious
whisperings among themselves, and that some of them were searching,
as with official authority, the persons of Armenian young men,
who were supposed to have knives or revolvers about them. Those
searching at last found a young Armenian, a seller of calico,
who had a knife in his possession. At once they fell upon him,
but he escaped in the crowd that gathered, and the Mussulmans
turned upon the Armenians, saying, "We must kill them all. Let
him who loves his religion join and help." With knives and
clubs the work was carried on, the Armenians fleeing, or hiding
themselves in or about their shops. Turkish officials encouraged
the killers. A herald was sent through the market calling,
"Let the Moslems go to the government house." They did go,
and immediately returned with rifles and revolvers. Then the
slaughter increased in madness. The piteous entreaties of the
threatened, the shrieks of the wounded, the groans of the dying,
the shouts of the killers, and the hysterical cries of some of
the Christians, who, to save their lives were calling out with
desperate energy the Mohammedan formula of faith, rose to the deaf
heavens. Ten-year-old Turkish boys, as though hunting rats, rushed
into holes and corners, and discovering the hiding-places of the
merchants and traders, called to their fathers and big brothers,
"Here is a Giavour!" and while that one was being dispatched they
rushed off to ferret out another. For four hours the slaughter
continued. Ropes were attached to the feet of the corpses, which
were dragged like the carcasses of dogs through the streets to
dry wells, into which they were thrown. An old man, aged 75,
was tumbled in alive, and left to die among the dead bodies of
his friends. The money and watches of the merchants were secured
by the ruffians. The notes of hand and account books were torn
into shreds (the killers were debtors to the merchants), and the
shops were looted. Not so much as a pin or needle was left in the
200 shops. Then the cry was raised, "To the houses!" to complete
the destruction of the Christian inhabitants.

Twenty-nine bodies were afterward recovered for burial;
thirty-three persons (some of whom afterward died), were
found to be wounded, and about forty are still missing. The
lieutenant-governor arrived that night on the scene, and sent an
official report (by telegram) to Constantinople, to the effect
that a row had occurred between Turks and Armenians, in which three
Armenians had been killed and two wounded, but that order had been
restored! Efforts were made to cover the matter up. Christians were
imprisoned for talking about the massacre, or for sending the news
to friends. A prominent man, well-known throughout the country,
wished to let his circle of friends know that he was still alive,
and was permitted to advertise that he had met with an accident,
but was quite well.

Great patches of dried blood in the shops presented the appearance
of places used for the slaughter of sheep. Groups of people were
standing before the houses, statue-like, bewildered and hopeless,
while other groups were wailing over the news of the corpses of
friends, just recovered from the wells. I saw one of the mutilated
corpses, and have seen it night and day since.

An American Missionary.

The above missionary also says not only common people, but also officers of high rank, made free threats of massacre, and ostentatiously sharpened their swords and cleaned their weapons in the presence of their Armenian neighbors. Great care was taken by the authorities to deprive the Armenians of arms; but the Mussulmans were allowed to carry arms freely. The Constantinople demonstration and consequent massacre aggravated the situation. It was pitiable to see the fear that held the Armenians as in a nightmare, and to hear the threats and observe the bearing of the Turks.

A soldier, passing the door of a Christian house and observing a young woman sitting on the door-step, ground his teeth and called out to her, "You may sit there four days more, and then I will have you on the point of this bayonet." The girl fled in terror into the house.

ZEITOON.

Zeitoon is fifteen miles from Marash. The Zeitoonlis are the bravest of all the Armenians; there are about 15,000 in the city, and no Mohammedans, save a dozen or two Turkish families, and they talk the Armenian language. Until about thirty years ago Zeitoon was a free city; but they were conquered by craft, and became tributary to Turkey. The Sultan garrisoned the place to keep them down, and the troops committed every sort of iniquity. Finally, about two years ago, the Sultan sent physicians there to poison the Armenian boys. These assassins professed to have come to vaccinate the boys; every boy who was vaccinated died. Then the Zeitoonlis revolted, captured the barracks from the soldiers, took all the guns, cannon, and ammunition, and sent the soldiers away. This action enraged the Sultan, and he sent some 20,000 regular soldiers and 30,000 bashi-bazooks to punish them; but they were repulsed with heavy loss by the Zeitoonlis. It has been reported that during the battle between the Zeitoonlis and Turks about 15,000 of the latter were killed. Finally the Sultan lost hope of conquering them, and asked the European powers to use their good offices to restore peace in Zeitoon, and the consuls of the different powers induced them to resume peaceful work by guaranteeing that the Zeitoonlis shall not be molested. But who believes a word of it? We know, with horrible clearness, of how much value the powers' "guarantee" is; they say there is no obligation but to keep count of the massacres.

A Few statements from Zeitoon.

"Turkish mendacity is again asserting itself. A few days ago
the Sublime Porte set afloat the official report that Zeitoon
has fallen, after hard fighting, in which 2,500 Armenians were
said to have been killed as against 250 Turks. Now these official
reports turn out to have been official lies. News from independent
sources shows that Zeitoon has not yet fallen; that its gallant
defenders are still holding out their own. To Armenians who
understand Ottoman tactics, the alacrity with which Abdul Hamid
sent abroad the news of the supposed victory of his troops is a
sign of misfortunes and reverses. The Turks control the avenues of
communication at Marash, and it is not surprising that they attempt
to win victories upon telegraphic despatches--but not at Zeitoon.

"The Armenians at Zeitoon are rebels against organized
assassination, plunder, and arson. They have been unwilling to
submit meekly to Turkish outrages, and are determined to defend
their lives, their homes, and their property. They have vanquished
Turkish armies before, and strewn the ground with thousands
of Turkish carcasses. They need fear nothing but the lack of
supplies. Will not Christian nations intervene to save a valiant
people who are defending their homes and their liberties, and who
cannot be conquered by force of arms, yet who may be compelled
to surrender to inexorable hunger?--[Tigram H. Suni, Dec. 31.

"London, Feb. 3.--A dispatch from Constantinople to the 'Daily
News' says: 'Reports from Turkish sources believed to be fairly
accurate state that it is believed that the Zeitoonlis are still
holding out. The Turks have made seven different attacks upon
the town, but all have failed, and their losses are reported to
amount to 10,000. It is alleged that 50,000 troops will be needed
to capture Zeitoon.

"'It is believed that the Zeitoonlis number from 15,000 to 20,000,
well armed, and provisioned for a year. There is a doubtful report
that 4,000 Russian Armenians crossed the Persian frontier, and
defeated the Turks at Siz, eighteen hours from Zeitoon, and have
joined the Zeitoonlis.'"

MISCELLANEOUS

In the province of Aleppo, the village of Chizek, the Armenian priest was killed for refusing to become a Mohammedan.

In the province of Erzeroum and the district of Erzinghan, six separate attacks for pillage have been made upon the village of Zimara, and great pressure is being used to force the people of the village to become Mohammedans.

At the village of Gazma the houses have been pillaged, and numbers of the people have become Mohammedans to save their lives.

In the province of Bitlis a considerable number of Armenians at Sert have been forced to become Mohammedans. In the district of Shirvan, out of twenty-two Armenian villages, the inhabitants of four entire villages have become Mohammedans to save their lives. The priests also accepted Mohammedanism, and the churches have been changed into mosques. At a little village at which the inhabitants could not disperse over the mountains a considerable number were killed, and the survivors accepted Mohammedanism. This village is called Kourine. In the district of Chilain, returns from six villages have come in which show a considerable number of persons killed for refusing to accept Islamism.

In the province of Van the stuffed skin of the superior of the monastery of Khizan was still hanging from a tree in front of the monastery three weeks after the massacre took place; that is, at the date of the last news from there, Nov. 27. At Kharkotz in this province three priests accepted Mohammedanism, and were paraded through the streets in the dress of Mohammedan ulema in order to influence the people to follow their example.

In the province of Harpoot in many of the smaller villages, where the people have been supposed by the Turks to be mere peasants, without ideas of their own, the offer of Islamism has not been made, but the people seized without ceremony and circumcised by force, and are considered now as Mohammedans. At Haboosi, in this province, the Christian dead were left unburied in the streets for the dogs to eat. The Armenian church and the Protestant chapel and parsonage were burned.

At Peri, in the same province, 450 Christians were made Mohammedans by threats of death.

At Aivos in the same province, all the buildings were destroyed. The Armenian priest was forced to give the call to prayer, and was then shot for refusing to become a Moslem.

At Garmuri the Christians accepted Mohammedanism at the edge of the sword, and have been circumcised. The Protestant chapel and parsonage were burned, and the Armenian church has been seized and made into a mosque.

At Hokh the Armenian church and Protestant chapel and parsonage were burned.

At Houilu in the province of Harpoot, 266 out of 300 Christian houses were burned, among them the fine new Protestant church. Two priests were killed. Many of the people succeeded in escaping from the village. The rest have been forced to declare themselves Mohammedans.

The events above mentioned took place in the main between Nov. 6 and Nov. 20. But the process of forced conversion and the murder of individuals who refuse to accept Mohammedanism was still going on as lately as the 20th of December, when the Turkish government was assuring the European Ambassadors that all is quiet in Asiatic Turkey, and that all that is necessary to complete the work of pacification is for Turkey to be let alone.

The nature of the pacification which may be expected if Turkey is left free to carry out its schemes for these provinces may be judged from the following list of educated and influential Protestant ministers, who have been put to death for refusing to embrace Mohammedanism. In every case the offer of life on these terms was made; in several cases time was allowed for consideration of the proposal; and in each case faith in Jesus Christ was the sole crime charged against the victim.

1. Rev. Krikor, pastor at Ichme, killed Nov. 6, 1895.
2. Rev. Krikor Tamzarien.
3. Rev. Boghos Atlasian, killed Nov. 13.
4. Rev. Mardiros Siraganian, of Arabkir, killed Nov. 13.
5. Rev. Garabed Kilijjian of Sivas, killed Nov. 12.
6. Rev. Mr. Stepan, of the Anglican Church at Marash, killed
Nov. 18.
7. The preacher of the village of Hajin, killed at Marash Nov. 18.
8. Rev. Krikor Baghdasarian, retired preacher at Harpoot, Nov. 18.
9. Retired preacher at Divrik, killed Nov. 8.
10. Rev. Garabed Resseian, pastor at Cherwouk, Nov. 5.
11. Rev. Metean Minasian, pastor at Sherik, Nov.
12. Pastor at Cutteroul, Nov. 6.
13. Preacher at Cutteroul, Nov. 6.
14. Rev. Sarkis Narkashjian, pastor at Chounkoush, Nov. 14.
15. The pastor of the church at Severek, November.
16. The pastor of the church at Adiyaman.
17. Rev. Hohannes Hachadorian, pastor at Kilisse, Nov. 7.
18. The preacher at Karabesh, near Diarbekir, Nov. 7.
19. Rev. Mardiros Tarzian, pastor at Keserik, near Harpoot,
November.

TELEGRAMS FROM HAJIN (ARMENIA).

To the English Consul at Aleppo, and to the English Ambassador of Constantinople.

All the suburban towns of Hajin where Christians live were
plundered by Mohammedans, and some of the Christians were
killed. The people of Hajin and we are in danger; immediate help
is needed.--Nov. 5, 1895.

To the American Minister at Constantinople.

The Christian villages of Hajin were totally plundered by the
Mohammedans. About two thousand, naked and hungry, ran away and
came to Hajin. Both the Christian people at Hajin and we are in
danger; immediate help is needed.--Nov. 5, 1895.

Extracts From a Hajin Letter.

My Dear Sir:-- Nov. 25, 1895.

The situation is growing worse here. All the suburban Christian
villages were plundered by Mohammedans. Some of the villages which
were plundered were as follows:--Shar-Dere, Roumlou, Kokooun,
and Dash-olouk. All of them are left naked and hungry. Came here
to our city, and we are taking care of them. And the government
never punished any of the plunderers. They were encouraged, and
surrounded our city, and nobody can go out of the city, and if this
continues so, we shall have a famine soon, and die in the city. The
government does not protect us, but helps the plunderers, and we
are continually threatened to be killed. Our only hope is in God.

Another Extract From a Letter of an Armenian.

Nov. 25, 1895.
My Dear Uncle:--

If you ask our condition, thank God that we are alive. But beside
life we have nothing, no comfort, no happiness, no property, no
church, no religion, all are taken from us. Though we are alive,
many of our number were killed, and those who survive are wandering
here and there, naked and hungry, and are dying in that manner.

God is angry, and exceedingly angry to us. Perhaps he will hear
your prayers; pray for us, or else all of us shall perish. I can
never describe the horrible situation in which we are put.

Yours truly,

From Hadish Village, Armenia.

My Dear Friend:-- Dec. 2, 1895.

In great sorrow and in despair I am compelled to write to you a
few lines to inform you of our most miserable condition.

The Turks and Kurds came to our village, plundered everything we
had, killed more than 600 persons, violated the women and girls,
tortured the pregnant women, and now we who survive have nothing to
live on. Naked, hungry, cold, hopeless, we are crying bitterly. I
write these few lines; perhaps you can inform the Christian world
and they may help us and relieve our sufferings.

Yours truly,

There are many other cities, towns, and villages in Armenia, where thousands of people were tortured and killed, their houses burned and plundered, their children kidnapped, the women violated. But there is no space to put all here in this book. I am sure the reader will be satisfied with reading this long chapter of Armenian horrors, and the letters on the atrocities from different reliable sources.

To sum up, during these frightful scenes in Armenia more than 100,000 Armenians were killed, and half a million left without food, homes, or clothing; they are dying in heaps; and there is no hope of getting any help from Armenia itself, even when the spring comes, for those who would have supported them are killed, and most of the destitute are women and children. Everything, even to clothes, is taken from them, the head of the family is killed, and they are left hopeless and in despair. How long can the Red Cross Society help them? How long can the American people help them? Not very long; when spring comes they will say, "We have done all we could for the Armenians; let them take care of themselves." But will they stop to think how the Armenians can take care of themselves? Have they oxen and horses to plough? No. Is there any man left to support his wife and children? No. Suppose here and there an Armenian is left (I mean in the country places, not in the cities), dare he go out to his field and work? No. Were any of those who plundered and killed punished? No. What guarantee can we have, then, that those who survive will not be killed or plundered in their turn? None. Will the European powers who signed the Berlin Treaty give any assurance to the Armenians that they will be protected hereafter? No. Is the Sultan a better man since the massacre? No. Are the Turks and Kurds better people since the atrocities? No. They are worse than ever before, because they have a freer hand, and all their passions are roused to greater strength. Well, then, if these are all facts, what is the use of feeding people a few weeks merely to keep them alive for another massacre that will finish the rest of them?

O reader, do not be cheated. The Armenians need practical aid, not deceptive aid. I mean the Armenians must be liberated from the cruel Sultan; if not, no aid is given to the Armenians. Because the future will be worse than ever before.

Thus far I have continually assumed and tried to prove that the Sultan of Turkey deliberately ordered all these atrocities committed. But perhaps you will doubt the statement of a native; you will think I am prejudiced. Therefore I will give you American testimonies from reliable sources. Please read the following from the "Review of Reviews":--

THE MASSACRES IN TURKEY.

From Oct. 1, 1895, to Jan. 1, 1896.

Certain persons in Europe and America, misled by statements of
the Turkish government, have ascribed the dreadful massacres
which have taken place in Asia Minor to sudden and spontaneous
outbreaks of Moslem fanaticism, caused by a revolutionary
attitude among the Armenians themselves. The truth is that
these massacres, while sudden, have taken place according to a
deliberate and preconcerted plan. According to the statement of
many persons, French, English, Canadian, American, Turk, Kurd and
Armenian,--persons trustworthy and intelligent, who were in the
places where the massacres occurred, and who were eye-witnesses of
the horrible scenes,--the outbreaks were under careful direction
in regard to place, time, nationality of the victims and of the
perpetrators, were prompted by a common motive, and their true
character has been systematically concealed by Turkish official
reports. The following paper is based upon full accounts of the
massacres, written on the ground by the parties above referred
to. Their names, for obvious reasons, cannot be made public.

I. In Regard to Place.

With only four exceptions of consequence, the massacres have been
confined to the territory of the six provinces where reforms
were to be instituted. When a band of two thousand Kurdish and
Circassian raiders approached the boundary between the provinces
of Sivas and Angora, they were turned back by the officials, who
told them that they had no authority to pass beyond the province
of Sivas. The only large places where outrages occurred outside
of the six provinces are Trebizond, Marash, Aintab, and Cesarea,
in all of which the Moslems were excited by the nearness of the
scenes of massacre, and by the reports of the plunder which other
Moslems were securing.

II. In Regard to Time.

The massacre in Trebizond occurred just as the Sultan, after six
months of refusal, was about to consent to the scheme of reforms,
as if to warn the powers that in case they persisted, the mine
was already laid for the destruction of the Armenians. In fact,
the massacre of the Armenians is Turkey's real reply to the
demands of Europe that she reform. From Trebizond the wave of
murder and robbery swept on through almost every city, and town,
and village in the six provinces where relief was promised
to the Armenians. When the news of the first massacre reached
Constantinople, a high Turkish official remarked to one of the
Ambassadors that massacre was like the small-pox; they must all
have it, but they wouldn't need it the second time.

III. The Nationality of the Victims.

They were exclusively Armenians. In Trebizond there is a large
Greek population, but neither there nor elsewhere have the Greeks
been molested. Special care has also been taken to avoid injury to
the subjects of foreign nations, with the idea of escaping foreign
complications and the payment of indemnities. The only marked
exceptions were in Marash, where three school buildings belonging
to the American Mission were looted, and one building was burned;
and in Harpoot, where the school buildings and houses belonging
to the American Mission were plundered and eight buildings were
burned, the total losses exceeding $100,000, for which no indemnity
has yet been paid.

IV. The Method of Killing and Pillaging.

The method in the cities has been to kill within a limited period
the largest number of Armenians,--especially men of business,
capacity, and intelligence,--and to beggar their families by
robbing them, as far as possible, of their property. Hence, in
almost every place the massacres have been perpetrated during
the business hours, when the Armenians could be caught in their
shops. In almost every place, the Moslems made a sudden and
simultaneous attack just after their noonday prayer. The surprised
and unarmed Armenians made little or no resistance, and where,
as at Diarbekir and Gurun, they undertook to defend themselves,
they suffered the more. The killing was done with guns, revolvers,
swords, clubs, pick-axes, and every conceivable weapon, and many
of the dead were horribly mangled. The shops and houses were
absolutely gutted.

Upon hundreds of villages the Turks and Kurds came down like the
hordes of Tamerlane, robbed the helpless peasants of their flocks
and herds, stripped them of their very clothing, and carried away
their bedding, cooking utensils, and even the little stores of
provisions which they had with infinite care and toil laid up for
the severities of a rigorous winter. Worst of all is the bitter
cry that comes from every quarter that the Moslems carried off
hundreds of Christian women and children.

The number killed in the massacres thus far is estimated at fifty
thousand, which includes the majority of the well-to-do, capable,
intelligent Armenians in the six provinces that were to have
been reformed. The property plundered or destroyed is estimated
at $40,000,000. Not less than three hundred and fifty thousand
wretched survivors, most of whom are women and children, are in
danger of perishing by starvation and exposure unless foreign
aid is promptly sent and allowed to reach them.

V. The Perpetrators.

They were the resident Moslem population, reinforced by Kurds,
Circassians, and in several cases by the Sultan's soldiers and
officers, who began the dreadful work at the sound of a bugle,
and desisted when the bugle signaled to them to stop. This was
notoriously true in Erzeroum. In Harpoot, also, the soldiers
took a prominent, part, firing on the buildings of the American
Mission with Martini-Henry rifles and Krupp cannon. A shell from
one of the cannon burst in the house of the American Missionary,
Dr. Barnum. In most places the killing was by the Turks, while
the Kurds and Circassians were intent on plunder, and generally
killed only to strike terror or when they met with resistance. It
is an utter mistake to suppose, as some have, that the local
authorities could not have suppressed the "fanatical" Moslem mobs
and restrained the Kurds. The fact is that the authorities, after
looking on while the massacres were in progress, did generally
intervene and stop the slaughter as soon as the limited period
during which the Moslems were allowed to kill and rob had expired.

At Marsovan the limit of time was four hours. In several places
the slaughter and pillage continued from noon till sundown, or
later. At Sivas they continued for a whole day. In every place
the carnage stopped as soon as the authorities made an earnest
effort, and had it not been for their intervention after the set
time of one, two, or three days, the entire Armenian population
might have been exterminated.

VI. The Motive of the Turks.

This is apparent to the superficial observer. The scheme
of reforms devolved civil officers, judgeships, and police
participation on Mohammedans and non-Mohammedans in the six
provinces proportionately. This, while simple justice, was a
bitter pill to the Mohammedans, who had ruled the Christians with
a rod of iron for five hundred years. All that was needed to make
the scheme of reforms inoperative was to alter the proportion of
Christians to Mohammedans. This policy was at once relentlessly
and thoroughly executed. The number of the Armenians has been
diminished, first by killing at a single blow those most capable
of taking a part in any scheme of reconstruction, and secondly
by compelling the survivors to die of starvation, exposure,
and sickness, or to become Moslems.

It is the very essence of Mohammedanism that the "ghiavour"
has no right to live, save in subjection. The abortive scheme of
Europe insisting on the rights of Armenians as men, has enraged
the Moslems against them. The arrogant and non-progressive Turks
know that in a fair and equal race the Christians will outstrip
them in every department of business and industry, and they see
in any fair scheme of reforms the handwriting on the wall for
themselves. If the scheme of reforms had applied to regions where
Greeks predominate, the latter would have been killed and robbed
as readily as the Armenians have been. Are the Greek massacres of
1822 forgotten, when 50,000 were killed, or the slaughter of 12,000
Maronites and Syrians in 1860, and of 15,000 Bulgarians in 1876?

VII. Turkish Official Reports.

The refinement of cruelty appears in this, that the Turkish
government has attempted to cover up its hideous policy by the
most colossal lying and hypocrisy. It is true that on Sept. 30,
1895, some hot-headed young Armenians, contrary to the entreaties
of the Armenian patriarch and the orders of the police, attempted
to take a well-worded petition to the Grand Vezir, according
to a time-honored custom. It is also true that the oppressed
mountaineers of Zeitoon drove out a small garrison of Turkish
soldiers, whom, however, they treated with humanity; it is likewise
true that in various places individual Armenians, in despair,
have advocated violent methods. But the universal testimony of
impartial foreign eye-witnesses is that, with the above exceptions,
the Armenians have given no provocation, and that almost, if not
quite, all the telegrams purporting to come from the provincial
authorities accusing the Armenians with provoking the massacres,
are sheer fabrications of names and dates. If the Armenians made
attacks, where are the Turkish dead?

And the dreadful alternative of Islam or death was offered by
those who have dazzled and deceived Europe with Hatti Shereps
and Hatti Humayouns, promulgating civil equality and religious
liberty for their Christian subjects.

Strangest of all, he who is the head of all authority in Turkey,
and responsible above any and all others for the cold-blooded
massacres and plundering of the past two months, wrote a letter to
Lord Salisbury, and pledged his word of honor that the scheme of
reforms should be carried out to the letter, at the very moment
when he was directing the massacres. And the six great Christian
powers of Europe, as well as the United States, still treat this
man with infinite courtesy and deference; their representatives
still dine at his tables, and some of them still receive his
decorations.

VIII. The Solution.

If the Armenians are to be left as they are, it is a pity that
Europe ever mentioned them in the treaty of Berlin or subsequently;
and to intrust reforms in behalf of the Armenians to those who
have devoted two months' time to killing and robbing them is
simply to abandon the Armenians to destruction, and to put the
seal of Europe to the bloody work. The only way to reform Eastern
Turkey is by forcible foreign intervention--not the threat of it,
but the intervention itself.

The position and power of Russia give her a unique call to this
work. Should she enter on it at once, the whole civilized world
would approve her course.

Russia should have as free a hand in Kurdistan as England has
insisted on having in Egypt. By frankly admitting this, England
would gain in the respect and sympathy of the world, and strengthen
her own position.

INFERENCES FROM THE ARMENIAN ATROCITIES.

First: That devotion to Christ is not lessened but increased. Many people think the spirit of unbelief and indifferentism has spread so widely that in this nineteenth century people will no longer die for Christ. But out of 100,000 Armenians massacred, 90,000 were actually martyred because they would not deny Christ. In all lands, Christians praise the old martyrs, the church fathers: let them know that there are as noble church sons and daughters to-day in Armenia as there were church fathers anywhere in the early centuries. Thus these hideous scenes ought to awaken a true Christian spirit both in this country and in Europe.

Second: That it was a religious persecution. Though the false and cruel Sultan gave a political color to it, his universal order was to offer the Armenians the choice of Mohammedanism or death. This is proved by the fact that the leading gospel ministers were specially chosen for martyrdom. And some of the Armenian priests, after having been converted by force, to escape unbearable tortures, were led through the streets, followed by great crowds, as a warning to the remaining Armenians that they must follow the same road. When some of them did it, the Turks forced them to take arms and kill their brothers and sisters for refusing to accept Mohammedanism. To speak of the massacres as political affairs is doing injustice to the cause of Christ.

Third: That whatever a man sows, he shall reap the same. The Sultan and the Turks are sowing,--they are killing, and thousands of the Christians are converted by force to Mohammedanism; but the time is coming when more Mohammedans will be killed than Armenians have been, and thousands, and even millions of the Mohammedans will be converted to Christianity, and the blood of the Armenian martyrs will be the means of their salvation through Jesus Christ. The time is coming when out of this great persecution a great and happy freedom will proceed. Out of this great darkness a very bright light shall shine.

Fourth: Some of the Turks helped and saved the Armenians. Certainly these were secret converts to Christianity, but their lives being in danger, they cannot confess Christ publicly. All they can do for the present is to help the needy Christians and save them from murder. Another class of Turks who helped is those who were themselves getting a living out of the Armenians. The Armenians gave them employment, and if their employers were killed, how could they get a living? Still another class protected the Armenians, because if the Armenian houses were burned, their houses also would be burned; and they asked and got money from the Armenians as a reward for having saved them. It is a mistake to think that there are good Mohammedans, who, from a good Mohammedan motive helped the Armenians. There cannot be a good Mohammedan motive towards a Christian; if there is a good motive, it is not a Mohammedan motive.

Fifth: That the time has come when American and European Christians should trust no longer in the promises of the Sultan and the European governments, but as Christian people must use something more than "moral principle" before all the Armenians and American missionaries are killed. Moral influence is very good as far as it goes; being a Christian minister, I also believe in it. But as far as the Turks are concerned it can do nothing, because they do not know what morals are, or what moral character is. All the Turks are morally corrupt. They know only two things; one is the sword, the other is moral corruption. They came and captured that country by the sword, and they must go by the sword; there is no other way. Europe tried the experiment century after century, but could find no other way. Moral advice, wise counsel have never moved the Turks, and will never move them hereafter. Europe and a part of Armenia were taken from them by the sword, and the only way Armenia and the Armenians can be saved is by using the sword. When Christ comes again He will never yield; He will never be crucified, but he will judge and condemn. The time has come when Christians have suffered enough; they must unite and remove that great curse, the Mohammedan power, and make free that happy and beautiful Bible Land, Armenia and Palestine.

Reader, you cannot go and visit to-day the places where man was created, where Noah's ark rested. You cannot go in safety to visit the places where Christ was born and walked. Why? Simply because a corrupt Mohammedan power wills there, and will not permit you. Is it not a shame to mighty Christian nations and powers that this is so? Will not the Christian nations be aroused with great indignation and give the last blow to such a cruel Mohammedan tyranny?

Sixth: That Turkey is a mere barbarism; it is not to be considered or treated as a nation, for it is not one in any sense. International law cannot be applied to Turkey. The Sultan must be considered as a brigand, a mere lawless oppressor, and the Turks as mere murderers, and dealt with accordingly. The powers must give up the farce of treating the Sultan as a national sovereign, who speaks for his people, and may govern, therefore, much as he pleases. As Mr. W. W. Howard says, "The blackest spot in the round world is the heart of the Sultan of Turkey."

A Farewell Letter from a Prominent Armenian. March 24, 1896.

"We are evidently a doomed people. A hundred thousand of us have
been butchered, and more than a million of us are in extreme
suffering from hunger, and cold, and nakedness. Multitudes beyond
the reach of foreign aid must inevitably perish before spring. As
to the rest of us, our supplies of food and money are rapidly
diminishing. We can prosecute no business, we are not at liberty
to earn our daily bread, and for even the most fortunate, the
future has only the prospect of starvation a little later than
our poor brethren.

"We hear the announcement that order and peace are being restored,
but to us these are empty words. The terrible and wholesale
massacre at Oorfa and Birijik occurred long subsequent to the
most solemn and emphatic assurances that nothing more of the
kind was to be apprehended,--long after the commission sent out
from Constantinople to carry the message of peace and reform to
Armenia had reached its field of labor.

"Massacres are not now so frequent as they were a few months
ago, but the attitude of relentless hostility on the part of
the government towards us, the ferocious aspect of our Moslem
neighbors, has not a whit improved. They seem to be eagerly
watching for an opportune moment in which to finish their bloody
work, and rid themselves forever of this troublesome demand
for reform.

"May we not then rightfully offer our farewell message to our
fellow men?

"First--To our Moslem fellow countrymen:

"We desire to express our deepest gratitude to those of you who
have sympathized with and helped us in these days of calamity
and bloodshed. Towards those who have robbed and massacred us,
and plundered and burned our houses, we have chiefly feelings of
compassion. You have perhaps done these terrible things in what
has seemed to you the service of your religion and government.

"Second--To our Sultan--most dread and potent sovereign:

"Apparently you have been persuaded that we are a rebellious people
deserving only utter and speedy extermination. For such as you,
this work of destruction is no doubt an easy one, the more so as
we have had neither the means nor the disposition to resist it.

"Third--To the European powers:

"We have not been an importunate nor a turbulent people. We did not
incite the Crimean War, nor any of the subsequent wars which have
stricken this empire. It is not of our will that we were begotten
to a new political life by the treaty of 1856. Our complaints
and appeals have been based solely on the sentiment of humanity
and the common rights of man. It was you who arranged the "scheme
of reforms," and urged it upon our Sultan till he was irritated
to the extent that he seems to have adopted the plan of ridding
himself finally of this annoyance by exterminating us as a people;
and now, while he is relentlessly carrying out this plan, you
are standing by as spectators and witnesses of this bloody work.

"We wonder if sympathy and the brotherhood of man and chivalry
are wholly things of the past, or are the material and political
interests dividing you so great that the massacre of the whole
people is a secondary thing? In either case "We who are about to
die salute you."

"Fourth--To the Christians of America:

"Although we have cherished strong prejudice against your mission
work among us, recent events have proved that our Protestant
brethren are one with us, and have shared fully our anxieties
and our perils. You have labored through them to promote among us
the peace and prosperity of the gospel. It is not your fault that
one result of their teaching and example has been to excite our
masters against us. The Turkish government dreads and dislikes
nothing so much as the ideas of progress which you have sent us."

VIII.

THE ARMENIANS OF TO-DAY.

There are about five millions of Armenians in the world at present: three millions in the Turkish Empire, a million and a half in Russian Armenia, and half a million more scattered through Persia, India, and Burmah, Egypt, Europe (there are two or three hundred thousand in the Austrian Empire), and America. There are poor and ignorant people among them, as among every people; the majority, however, are (or were before the late horrors) well off, and many of them rich, educated, refined, and, in a word, modern Christian people. Of all the impudent inversions of truth ever perpetrated, the most outrageously impudent and shamelessly the exact contrary of fact is the assertion of Mavroyeni Bey, the Turkish minister at Washington, that the case of the Turks against the Armenians is like that of the whites against the Indians in this country; that the American whites must be allowed to keep the Indians down, and the Turks must be allowed to keep the Armenians down. If the Indians possessed all the money, all the intelligence, all the cultivation, and all the morals in America, and the whites were a mob of ignorant, cruel, lustful ruffians holding them down by the organized power of the sword, the comparison would be just. As it is, the Turks correspond fairly enough with the Indians, and the Armenians to the whites, in every other respect than military power. Does a Turk--a true Turk--ever write a book? Does he ever publish a newspaper, or read one? Does he ever build a church, or pay attention to the moral precepts taught in one? Does he ever found or manage a business, or even an estate? In a word, does he have any more intellectual, moral, or business part in the life of modern civilization than a Hottentot or a Matabele? And do not the Armenians do and have all these things? Are they not in the stream of the same kind of cultivated Christian life led by Americans? Nowhere else on earth, but in the Turkish Empire, can one find millions of gentlemen and ladies and civilized modern citizens ruled over, oppressed, and massacred in hundreds of thousands by a gang of mediaeval Asiatic barbarians, not advanced from the time of Timour or Jenghiz Khan. It is the greatest anachronism and monstrosity of modern times.

If my work is thought prejudiced, listen to what is said of them by men of the first authority,--the greatest statesmen, the best informed special correspondent, and one of the chief historians of England at the present time. First the statesman:--

"The Armenians are the representatives of one of the oldest
civilized Christian races, and beyond all doubt one of the
most pacific, one of the most industrious, and one of the most
intelligent races in the world."--[Gladstone.

Next the special correspondent:--

"The Armenians constitute the whole civilizing element in Anatolia
(Asia Minor); peaceful to the degree of self-sacrifice, law-abiding
to their own undoing, and industrious and hopeful under conditions
which would appall the majority of mankind. At their best, they are
the stuff of which heroes and martyrs are moulded."--[E. J. Dillon.

Lastly the historian:--

"The best chance for the future of the Asiatic provinces of Turkey
lies in the uprising of a progressive Christian people, which may
ultimately grow into an independent Christian state. The Armenians
have, alone among the races of Western Asia, the gifts that can
enable them to aspire to this mission. They are keen-witted,
energetic, industrious, apt to learn, and quick in assimilating
western ideas."--[James Bryce.

IN THE TURKISH EMPIRE.

There are about two millions of Armenians in Armenia Proper, and another million scattered through the rest of the empire. The absurd figures given by some writers, making them greatly less than this (one magazine editor got it down to 300,000! It is significant that he was a strong apologist for the massacre, and laid all the blame to the Armenians) result mostly from taking the official statistics of the Turkish government. Now, there are three reasons why these are always grossly wrong; of no more value than the weather predictions in an almanac, and always wrong in the direction of understating the numbers.

One is that it is the Sultan's interest to make them as small as possible, that the Armenians may not be considered to have the right to autonomy as a nation; the fewer they are, and the more outnumbered by the Turks, the less right they seem to have. "An independent Armenia?" shriek the Turkish ministers and officers. "Why, there are only a few hundred thousand Armenians in their so-called country, and even so, there are three Turks to one Armenian in that very district!"

The second is that in an Oriental country a census is not a means of knowledge but an engine of taxation. The ruler has no care for information on the subject for his own sake, as Western governments have. What he wants is to see how many people and in what places he can screw more taxes out of. The people know this as well as he, and use every effort to outwit his agents, and prevent them from knowing their numbers. This is why even civilized governments ruling over Oriental nations can rarely get any nearer than a rough guess at the numbers of the nation; the inhabitants are suspicious, and resort to falsehood. In the case of the Armenians, remember what I said in the first chapter about an Armenian being taxed for every male child he has, every year as long as the child lives; naturally, he will not tell the number of his children unless he has to. Here is a practical illustration. Some years ago I was in an Armenian village when the Sultan's officers came to take the census. There were about 300 persons in the village; the officer wrote 200, because only a few names of boys were given him out of the whole. The tax is based on the registration, and if you can keep off the registers you can escape the tax.

The third is the gross incompetence, the corruption, and the drunkenness of the officers. The Turkish officials, governors, mayors, clerks, generals, soldiers, all drink any sort of liquor they can lay hands on, and are drunk as often and as long as sober; they are so ignorant that they cannot do their work decently even when they are sober; and they are utterly venal, without the least sense of official obligation. What sort of a census is likely to be taken by these ignorant, whiskey-swilling, venal barbarians? One of these officials, whom I know well, once came to a village to take the census. The Armenians got him so drunk that he barked like a dog, bribed him, and he put down about half the number of the population.