XVTHE MASSACRE OF 1895-6

“We must beg the reader of the following statements to remember that the Armenian massacres, in which 100,000 innocent people have perished, were directed against a peaceful and defenceless nation.—J. Lepsius.”

While the investigating commission was carrying on its work in the usual Turkish fashion, the British, French, and Russian governments drew out a scheme of reforms for Armenia and submitted it to the Porte through their ambassadors at Constantinople on May 11, 1895.

According to the press despatches the brief outline of this scheme contained the following points:

1. The appointment of a High Commissioner who is to be a Christian.

2. The governors and vice-governors of Van, Erzroum, Sivas, Bitlis, Kharput, and Trebizond be Christians or Mohammedans according to the inclination of the population; but either the governor or the vice-governor to be a Christian, and the appointments are to be confirmed by the Powers.

3. General amnesty for, and release of, all political prisoners.

4. The appointment of a Commission to sit at Constantinople, charged with the application of the reforms and working in concert with the High Commissioner.

5. Complete changes will be made in judicial system—tortures will be abolished.

6. The prisoners will be under surveillance.

7. The police will be composed of Christians and Turks equally.

8. The local and not State officials are to collect the taxes and enough money is to be retained, before it is forwarded to Constantinople, to pay the expenses of the local administration.

9. The inhabitants of Sassoun shall be paid the amount of their losses.

10. The Kurds shall be disarmed.

11. The laws against compulsory conversions to Islam will be strictly enforced.

Supposing that the above synopsis of the reforms demanded of the Porte is true—though these reforms were not officially published—the reader can easily see that the source of the Armenian trouble starts from the head of the government and runs through all its branches down to the very insignificant, yet well-armed peasant, Kurd who may happen to be a member of the Hamilieh regiment.

The evident reason also why the Powers did not wait for the report of the commission and then present their scheme of reforms was three-fold, namely, they had all the facts with regard to the massacre at Sassoun in their possession; they were aware ofthe dilatory manner the indolent Turk generally moves, and they would thus save time and prevent the unspeakable Turk from committing something worse. They, however, signally failed in all these. If they ever intended to accomplish anything, they indeed did not succeed, and still worse, they provoked the beast.

After a prolonged pressure had been brought to bear on the sultan by the British, French, and Russian governments he seemed to give up his opposition to their demands and in the autumn in order to pacify England—for England, to her credit, was the leading power that took real interest in the matter, realizing her greater responsibility in the case—the sultan wrote to Lord Salisbury and gave his word that the reforms should be literally and immediately carried out. Meanwhile oppressions and imprisonments were still going on as usual.

St.Paul says, “Render to all their dues....” With all sincerity and truthfulness we must say that Abdul Hamid II, the ex-Sultan of Turkey, was the shrewdest, the most wicked and most diabolical ruler that ever sat on the Ottoman throne. He was sure that there was no concert among the signatory powers. The Triple Alliance, then made up of Italy, Austria-Hungary, and Germany, was not opposing his policy. More than this, his dear friend, the ruler and the press of Germany had suppressed the true nature of the trouble in Turkey, and had created in Germany the false impression that the Turkish government was at the point of being overthrown by the Armenianswho were in revolt; that the sultan was justly trying to suppress this rebellion and maintain his divine right to rule.

Dr.J. Lepsius, from whose work—Armenia and Europe—we quoted in the preceding chapter, and whose words stand at the head of this chapter, is the author of the following statement: “Truth about Armenia must be made known at last. During the past nine months (1896) the German press has been flooded with statements not merely biased, but, as we shall be able to show,false, and deliberately intended to deceive Europe. Care has been taken that the conduct of the so-called ‘rebellious’ Armenians should be set forth in the strongest light as the cause of all the mischief, and at the same time the story of how a great Christian nation has been subjected to massacre and pillage, and how multitudes have been compelled to abjure their faith, is practically unknown in Germany.”

Thus the sultan was sure of the support of Germany. Then again, he was not quite sure whether England could hold with her the other two powers, France and Russia. So he took the traditional course pursued by his predecessors, to move slowly, so far as the reforms were concerned, but the work of the extermination of the Armenian nation must by no means be slackened; every opportunity must be seized, and if no opportunity was forthcoming, one must be devised for excuses of slaughter.

In Armenia and Asia Minor, where most of the Armenians used to live, there was and is hardly anyindustry. Though a rich country in mineral and agricultural products, yet on account of the absence of good roads and markets, and of robberies and misrule, all efforts toward securing a livelihood have been paralyzed. Money consequently has always been scarce. Continual demand of the government for taxes—sometimes a year in advance—the exactions of the tax-collectors and petty officials keep the Armenians in abject poverty and distress. For these reasons thousands of young men flock to Constantinople to earn money to support their families and to meet these demands.

These men have been hearing of heartrending calamities which had fallen upon their families. Some had heard of the confiscation of their properties, some of their young wives being abducted, some of their sisters being violated, and their aged parents and tender children butchered. A year had passed since the massacre at Sassoun, yet the so-called Christian powers, under whose protection the Christian subjects of the sultan were placed by the Treaty of Berlin, had apparently done nothing. But by attempting to do something and failing, they had actually aggravated their misery.

An open enemy is not as implacable as a secret foe. The Armenians may have also thought that they would, by petitioning the sultan, emphasize the pressure of the Powers for the fulfillment of the promises of reform contained in the Treaty of Berlin. Anyhow the Armenians had prepared a petition to present to the grand vizier in which their complaintsand requests were set forth. The authorities were aware of the matter and had instructed the police to prevent the presentation of the petition and had prepared also a counter demonstration against the petitioners by a large number ofsoftasand Turks. On September 30th, 1895, the petitioners started towards the Sublime Porte with their petition to present it to the grand vizier. The police ordered them to disperse and the softas and Turks attacked them. The peaceful procession of the petitioners was turned into a riot, and some five or six hundred Armenians were killed, some of them were arrested and taken to prisons and were there stabbed to death.

The following letter, written by an American resident in Constantinople, who had ample opportunity to verify the facts, will suffice to show how the sultan could and did create opportunities to slaughter the Christians:

“It was very astonishing that the Turks were so foolish as to resist the efforts of the Armenians to present their petition to the sublime Porte. It was contrary to the usage of the country to do so, and could only be explained as a wilful act of hostility to the Armenians; unless the Armenians had broken the peace before the Turks attacked them—which is denied. When the grand vizier, Said Pasha, told the sultan that the demonstration was to take place and asked for his will, the sultan committed the matter to the grand vizier and the minister of the interior to arrange together, giving them full powers. They decided to allow the petitioners to present their grievances, merely taking the precaution to have troops in the neighborhood, outof sight, but so posted as to prevent any surprise in case the Armenians should prove to be riotous. All was ready, and the Grand Vizier was just setting out for the Porte to receive the Armenians, when he was informed by the sultan that he (the sultan) had decided against the demonstration, and had already ordered his troops to resist and disperse any groups of Armenians that might appear. So the whole responsibility for the carnage falls upon the foolish (wicked) decision to override the plans of the ministers.”

If in the capital of the empire, in the presence of the ambassadors of the Powers who were demanding the protection of the Christians from cruelty and oppression, such a barbarism can be permitted, what could prevent the bloodthirsty wretch from inaugurating a general slaughter of the defenseless Armenians throughout his dominions? Thus this terrible occurrence on the 30th of September, of 1895, was the signal for hundreds of other massacres which followed one after the other, not only in the provinces where the reforms were expected to make the people happy, but throughout the empire. And not only over one hundred thousand Christians were in the most frightful manner slaughtered and burnt, but two or three times as many more were left in such destitution, that they had to choose between starvation and apostasy. “Over the most fruitful provinces of the Turkish Empire, a country as large as Germany a stream of blood and desolation was poured forth which was intended to destroy a whole Christian people.... There can be no doubt that the Turks enjoyed the work of massacre, and carried itout with admirable exactness, according to a previously arranged programme, with processions, blowing of trumpets, and prayers from the mullahs, who from the highest minarets invoked the blessing of Allah on the butchery.”[141]

According to press reports, the scheme of reforms submitted by Great Britain, France, and Russia to the Turkish government on the 11th of May, 1895, was signed in due form and on the 17th of October, 1895, handed over to the ambassadors of the powers. Before this, however, the general massacres had begun.

The massacres took place in the following places and times:

It should not be considered that the number given as killed are exact, for some of those reports have gone through the Ambassadors’ revisions, and some places where massacres have taken place have never been noticed, because there was no foreigner, and no native that was able to report was left alive.

“From that date (October 8, 1895) until the end of the year the wave of massacre swept over the six easternprovinces, engulfing the villages, towns, and cities where Armenians lived; innumerable houses, and schools, and churches were burned, a vast amount of property was stolen or destroyed, a great number of women and girls were carried off by Turks and Kurds, multitudes of people were forced to accept the Mohammedan religion, 100,000 Armenian men and boys were slain, and 500,000 Armenian women and children were reduced to beggary. Everywhere it was understood by the Mohammedan population that they were authorized by order from Constantinople, to kill all Armenian men and boys and seize their property. In many places soldiers and officers joined with the mob and shared the plunder.The massacres were perpetrated in contempt and defiance of Europe; they were an expression of Turkish wrath and vengeance; they were in short, an attempt to end the Armenian question by the destruction of the Armenians. Europe raised the hope of the Christian population of Turkey, and Europe left them to their fate.”[144]

We had the pleasure, before, of quoting from the work ofDr.J. Lepsius of Berlin, “Armenia and Europe.” We are tempted to quote more for a few reasons: First, because he so fearlessly exposed the studied efforts of the official press of Germany to mislead the people with regard to the true nature of the condition of the Armenians who were massacred for their Christian faith, even though it was made to appear that the Turkish government was endeavoring to suppress a revolution which did not exist. Second, because of his courageous exposition of the criminal indifference of Europe to abandon the defenseless Armenians to the ruthless and barbaroustendencies of the Turks. Third, because of his faithfully exposing and showing the true nature of the followers of Mohammed, the absurdity, falsehood, and deviltry of the Turkish government’s excuse of putting down a revolt.

“The Turkish people, equipped and armed by the authorities, were delighted to take their share in the work of murder side by side with the military, the Radifs (Eeserves), the Zaptiehs (Gendarmes), and the lately formed Kurdish Irregulars, called the Hamidieh-Regiment after the reigning sultan. Every one was in the best humor.... A savage and murderous spirit took possession of the people. And what else could be expected? Here an officer urged them on with the cry, ‘Down with the Armenians, it is the sultan’s will!’ Here a Vali exhorted them to ‘Look sharp! Kill! Plunder! and pray for the sultan!’ What inducement had they to cease from murder or from prey! The reward of piety lay before their eyes, for all that they could seize and carry away was to be their own.... The monotonous work of dragging hundreds of defenceless Armenians out of their homes and hiding-places merely to behead, stab, throttle, hang, or beat them, soon palled. The merry mob wanted variety. Simple murder became dull, and the business must now be made more amusing. How would it do to light a fire and roast the wounded at it? To gibbet a few head-downwards? Drive nails into others? Or tie fifty of them together and fire into the coil?... Putting out eyes and cutting off ears and noses was a special accomplishment. Christian priests who refused to become Mohammedans were considered particularly worthy of this fate.... Petroleum and kerosene were at hand. It is true that the authorities intended them to be used only for the purpose of burning down houses and destroying grain. But why not put them to other and more useful purposes?“There was a certain photographer, by the name Mardiros (martyr, or witness), who had a fine beard, petroleum was poured over it and set on fire. Several Christians were gathered together, kerosene poured over them, and, as they burnt, others were thrown into the fumes and suffocated. A woman with luxuriant hair had gunpowder sprinkled on it, and her head was blown off. In a monastery at Kaghtzorhayatz, an Effendi, by name Abdullah, had a young man and a girl placed close together and with one stroke cut off both their heads. But sword and fire can be dispensed with. The Kurdish Sheikh, Djevher of Gabars, proved this by binding two brothers with ropes and pegging them to the ground with stakes.... The baker in Kesserek, who had already murdered ninety-seven Armenians, which he proved by exhibiting their ears and noses, declared that he would not rest until he had brought up the number to one hundred. But he found his master in Hadji Bego of Tadem, who had butchered more than a hundred Christians, and who, as a sign of his prowess, cut a woman into four pieces and put them on posts to public view. The butcher of Aintab, who stuck the heads of six Armenians on his spit, was outdone by the Turk at Subaschigulp, who slaughtered Armenians like sheep and hung their bodies on meat-hooks. The people of Trebizond brought out the humor of the thing; they shot Adam, the Armenian butcher, and his son, cut them in pieces, stuck the limbs separately on sticks and offered them for sale to passers-by: ‘Who will buy an arm, a leg, feet or hands? Cheap! Who will buy?’ But innocence must be spared. The Sultan had commanded that Christians under seventeen should not be killed. But who heeds such caution?... The Mohammedans of a large village in Marash, saved at least one small child from this fate by throwing it into the fire.“In Baiburt the destroyers were merciful enough infourteen houses to burn the babies with their mothers. Ohannes Avakian, a rich civilian of Trebizond, offered the raging mob all his possessions if they would spare his family and himself. His three-year-old child was in his arms. Both were murdered before the eyes of the mother and the other children, and then the crowd seized the spoil. A valiant Turk thinks nothing of strangling children on the knees of their mothers. To play at ball with a baby, and toss it from one bayonet to another before its mother’s eyes seemed pleasant sport for the soldiers of Bitlis.... Although it is a fact that dozens of women and children perished in all the massacres, that in Kiauta and Lessouk a hundred women were mutilated, and amongst the victims at Bitlis were little boys (from five to twelve years of age) of the Church School of Surp Serkis, we must do the Turk the justice to acknowledge that these cruelties were notinvariablyapproved by the head officials.... The populace went beyond their actual instructions when we find that amongst the 450 corpses buried in the cemetery at Sivas all the women had been mutilated. As a rule, however, the authorities did nothing to check the bloodthirstiness of the masses, and whenever the work of murder was too great for the people alone, the soldiers were speedily summoned to help.“Many of the fleeing Armenians were simple enough to believe that their Churches would be a place of safety; that in the sanctuary they would be spared. But as hundreds of churches and convents had to be reduced to ashes, since theaim was to do away with every trace of the hated Christian faith, what mattered the trifling fact that men, women, and children were inside them? In Ressuan the doors of the church were broken open and all the refugees murdered. Three hundred Armenians escaped to the monastery of Maghapayetzatz only to be butchered with the brotherhood. In Indises (district of Luk-Shehri) and in Habusu (district of Harpoot)the churches were burned over the heads of the Christians; but here we cannot blame the people for the soldiers set the example. In Shabin Kara Hissar more regard was paid to the church, the two thousand people who had taken refuge there were at least killed outside the doors....“It is worthy of record that the dead bodies of Christians were dragged naked out of the towns and villages, horribly mutilated, and then cast out in heaps on the streets, or on dung-hills, or thrown into streams and drains, till asses and Jews were requisitioned to carry the corpses away like the carrion of dead animals. Among the mass of mutilated human flesh no one was able to recognize his own dead. When the dead bodies were not left as food for dogs, or when they were not burned with petroleum, a hole was dug into which they were thrown in a mass. But to men of importance special funeral honors were paid. The priest Mattheas of Busseyid, had his head cut off and placed between his legs, and the young Turks of the town amused themselves by flogging the body. The priest, Der-Harutiun of Diarbekir, and his colleague from the church at Alipunar, together with ten other priests from the district of Tadem, had the skin flayed from their bodies. A special monument was erected to the Abbot Sahag, prior of the monastery of Surp Katch in the district of Kizan, and to his young assistant; their skins were stuffed with straw and hung on trees. The Turks of Arabkir with an imagination worthy of Nero set up the heads of Armenians in rows on long poles, and the commander of the gendarmes at Baiburt, who, on the 26th of October, received from the women of the village of Ksauta five hundred pounds sterling in money and jewels as a ransom for the lives of their husbands and who, a few days later, changed his mind, and collecting together in a field the women and children of the village,had them all pitilessly slaughtered, is worthy of being chief of Tamerlane’s bodyguard.“At the beginning of the disturbance the inhabitants of twelve villages north and west of Marash fled for refuge to the town of Turnus with the intention of escaping from thence to the mountains near Zeitoun. About four thousand of them were suddenly one morning surrounded by soldiers. A terrible butchery began, and all were slain except three hundred and eighty women and children; these were collected together and driven by the soldiers for two days like a flock of sheep to Marash. The government of the sultan must show how merciful it could be to the innocent, even though these unfortunate women were obliged in the month of December to wade through the mountain snow, and to leave many of their starving children by the wayside, as no halt was permitted. One mother tells us that when she could not carry her two children any longer, she put them on a horse that belonged to the soldiers, and at the next river the little ones were thrown into the water. Would it not have been more merciful to have slain all the 4000 together?“Has not enough blood been shed? When will the cry of this tortured people reach the ear of Christendom? What answer will those Christian Powers make who, eighteen years ago (1878), stretched a protecting hand over Armenia and presented her with paper reforms, signed and sealed in the name of the Almighty? But enough of this, for there is yet another page of horror to be disclosed.“‘Kill the men! Their wives, their daughters, and their property are ours.’ That was the watchword with which the soldiers of Cæsarea urged on the armed mob to murder, plunder, and outrage. And this watchword was heard and obeyed in all the hundreds of towns and villages where the work of murder was carried out. Even before the commencement of the massacres theshameless Turkish soldiers had dared to ask the Christian mothers to keep their daughters for them, saying that soon all the Christian girls in the country would belong to them.“We must already reckon the number of slain at 85,000 in the massacres of 1895-1896, but who can count all the deeds of shame and infamy, who can number the tens of thousands who were driven into the mountains, sold into harems, exposed in the slave-markets, or who, after having been outraged, were secretly murdered?“It seems necessary to give some idea of the shame and dishonor to which even at the present time women are exposed. The scoundrel Hadji Bego, who boasted of having killed a hundred Armenians with his own hand, hunted a Christian girl naked through the streets of the town. The Turkish people of Cæsarea, who burnt thirty Armenian houses with their inhabitants, also helped to storm the women’s baths at the bathing hour. And with what reception did those thirty women of Koschmad meet, who wandered over the mountains without any clothes, till they reached Shinas and fell into the hands of the soldiers there? But that was nothing unusual.There was no massacre in which the murder of the men was not followed by outrage on the women and girls; no plunder in which they were not offered for sale, carried off as spoils, exchanged for horses and donkeys, or exposed in the slave market.The Agas or officers distributed the girls among the Zaptiehs and soldiers.“Not safe in their own houses under the eye of their husbands, who had often, bound to door-posts, to witness their fate, outraged and robbed of all protection, hunted from house to house till they fell a prey to dishonor—that,Christian women, is the fate of your sisters in Armenia.“Which of the two do you most pity—the widowed or orphaned girl cowering among rags in some corner ofher ruined home, trembling at every footstep of a man, be he Turk or Kurd, who may force his way in and outrage her before her children, or her brothers and sisters; or that other girl who, distinguished perhaps for beauty, has pleased the eye of some Turkish Aga, and, in spite of her cries and tears, has been dragged into his harem, and forced to give up at once her honor and her faith? Can we understand now what drove hundreds of Armenian women to suicide? Or why those fifty women of Lessouk and Krauta threw themselves into the wells, or leapt from the edge of precipices? We can realize the horror that filled the soul of that highborn Armenian lady who was carried off with a troop of women and children and a few men from Uzounova (twenty-five miles east of Harpout). When they reached the banks of the Euphrates she called to her companions, and, rushing to the river, threw herself in. That dishonor is worse than death is proved by the fact, that fifty-five women and children followed her example, and perished in the waters.“Who would not feel compassion for the unfortunate old man who thus expresses his nameless grief in a letter to his son: ‘Oh, I dare not tell you ... they came and threatened to kill me if I refused to give up your sister. After they had taken everything else—blankets, beds, clothes, provisions, and even fuel—they returned to demand our daughter. I was prepared to withstand to the end, but when she saw that they were about to kill me, she threw herself at their feet, and cried out: “Spare my father! Here I am.”’“Admirers of Turkish army organization and of Mohammedan civilization ought to know that even the brutality of the Kurdish hordes and the cynicism of the townspeople were thrown completely into the shade by the infamous conduct of the soldiers and officers. Although it fills me with disgust to dip my pen into this sink of corruption, I feel it is necessary that theworld should know what deeds are done in this home of promised reforms by the guardians of law and order.“The truth of the following account is established by two independent testimonies which lie before me: ‘In the village of Husseyinik (vilayet of Harpout), six hundred soldiers (and their officers) collected together in the military depot about the same number of women and young girls; they first outraged them, and then murdered the unhappy victims of their horrible lust.’“Does not this blood cry to Heaven? And even though the kings of the earth be deaf to its cry, will not God hear?”

“There was a certain photographer, by the name Mardiros (martyr, or witness), who had a fine beard, petroleum was poured over it and set on fire. Several Christians were gathered together, kerosene poured over them, and, as they burnt, others were thrown into the fumes and suffocated. A woman with luxuriant hair had gunpowder sprinkled on it, and her head was blown off. In a monastery at Kaghtzorhayatz, an Effendi, by name Abdullah, had a young man and a girl placed close together and with one stroke cut off both their heads. But sword and fire can be dispensed with. The Kurdish Sheikh, Djevher of Gabars, proved this by binding two brothers with ropes and pegging them to the ground with stakes.... The baker in Kesserek, who had already murdered ninety-seven Armenians, which he proved by exhibiting their ears and noses, declared that he would not rest until he had brought up the number to one hundred. But he found his master in Hadji Bego of Tadem, who had butchered more than a hundred Christians, and who, as a sign of his prowess, cut a woman into four pieces and put them on posts to public view. The butcher of Aintab, who stuck the heads of six Armenians on his spit, was outdone by the Turk at Subaschigulp, who slaughtered Armenians like sheep and hung their bodies on meat-hooks. The people of Trebizond brought out the humor of the thing; they shot Adam, the Armenian butcher, and his son, cut them in pieces, stuck the limbs separately on sticks and offered them for sale to passers-by: ‘Who will buy an arm, a leg, feet or hands? Cheap! Who will buy?’ But innocence must be spared. The Sultan had commanded that Christians under seventeen should not be killed. But who heeds such caution?... The Mohammedans of a large village in Marash, saved at least one small child from this fate by throwing it into the fire.

“In Baiburt the destroyers were merciful enough infourteen houses to burn the babies with their mothers. Ohannes Avakian, a rich civilian of Trebizond, offered the raging mob all his possessions if they would spare his family and himself. His three-year-old child was in his arms. Both were murdered before the eyes of the mother and the other children, and then the crowd seized the spoil. A valiant Turk thinks nothing of strangling children on the knees of their mothers. To play at ball with a baby, and toss it from one bayonet to another before its mother’s eyes seemed pleasant sport for the soldiers of Bitlis.... Although it is a fact that dozens of women and children perished in all the massacres, that in Kiauta and Lessouk a hundred women were mutilated, and amongst the victims at Bitlis were little boys (from five to twelve years of age) of the Church School of Surp Serkis, we must do the Turk the justice to acknowledge that these cruelties were notinvariablyapproved by the head officials.... The populace went beyond their actual instructions when we find that amongst the 450 corpses buried in the cemetery at Sivas all the women had been mutilated. As a rule, however, the authorities did nothing to check the bloodthirstiness of the masses, and whenever the work of murder was too great for the people alone, the soldiers were speedily summoned to help.

“Many of the fleeing Armenians were simple enough to believe that their Churches would be a place of safety; that in the sanctuary they would be spared. But as hundreds of churches and convents had to be reduced to ashes, since theaim was to do away with every trace of the hated Christian faith, what mattered the trifling fact that men, women, and children were inside them? In Ressuan the doors of the church were broken open and all the refugees murdered. Three hundred Armenians escaped to the monastery of Maghapayetzatz only to be butchered with the brotherhood. In Indises (district of Luk-Shehri) and in Habusu (district of Harpoot)the churches were burned over the heads of the Christians; but here we cannot blame the people for the soldiers set the example. In Shabin Kara Hissar more regard was paid to the church, the two thousand people who had taken refuge there were at least killed outside the doors....

“It is worthy of record that the dead bodies of Christians were dragged naked out of the towns and villages, horribly mutilated, and then cast out in heaps on the streets, or on dung-hills, or thrown into streams and drains, till asses and Jews were requisitioned to carry the corpses away like the carrion of dead animals. Among the mass of mutilated human flesh no one was able to recognize his own dead. When the dead bodies were not left as food for dogs, or when they were not burned with petroleum, a hole was dug into which they were thrown in a mass. But to men of importance special funeral honors were paid. The priest Mattheas of Busseyid, had his head cut off and placed between his legs, and the young Turks of the town amused themselves by flogging the body. The priest, Der-Harutiun of Diarbekir, and his colleague from the church at Alipunar, together with ten other priests from the district of Tadem, had the skin flayed from their bodies. A special monument was erected to the Abbot Sahag, prior of the monastery of Surp Katch in the district of Kizan, and to his young assistant; their skins were stuffed with straw and hung on trees. The Turks of Arabkir with an imagination worthy of Nero set up the heads of Armenians in rows on long poles, and the commander of the gendarmes at Baiburt, who, on the 26th of October, received from the women of the village of Ksauta five hundred pounds sterling in money and jewels as a ransom for the lives of their husbands and who, a few days later, changed his mind, and collecting together in a field the women and children of the village,had them all pitilessly slaughtered, is worthy of being chief of Tamerlane’s bodyguard.

“At the beginning of the disturbance the inhabitants of twelve villages north and west of Marash fled for refuge to the town of Turnus with the intention of escaping from thence to the mountains near Zeitoun. About four thousand of them were suddenly one morning surrounded by soldiers. A terrible butchery began, and all were slain except three hundred and eighty women and children; these were collected together and driven by the soldiers for two days like a flock of sheep to Marash. The government of the sultan must show how merciful it could be to the innocent, even though these unfortunate women were obliged in the month of December to wade through the mountain snow, and to leave many of their starving children by the wayside, as no halt was permitted. One mother tells us that when she could not carry her two children any longer, she put them on a horse that belonged to the soldiers, and at the next river the little ones were thrown into the water. Would it not have been more merciful to have slain all the 4000 together?

“Has not enough blood been shed? When will the cry of this tortured people reach the ear of Christendom? What answer will those Christian Powers make who, eighteen years ago (1878), stretched a protecting hand over Armenia and presented her with paper reforms, signed and sealed in the name of the Almighty? But enough of this, for there is yet another page of horror to be disclosed.

“‘Kill the men! Their wives, their daughters, and their property are ours.’ That was the watchword with which the soldiers of Cæsarea urged on the armed mob to murder, plunder, and outrage. And this watchword was heard and obeyed in all the hundreds of towns and villages where the work of murder was carried out. Even before the commencement of the massacres theshameless Turkish soldiers had dared to ask the Christian mothers to keep their daughters for them, saying that soon all the Christian girls in the country would belong to them.

“We must already reckon the number of slain at 85,000 in the massacres of 1895-1896, but who can count all the deeds of shame and infamy, who can number the tens of thousands who were driven into the mountains, sold into harems, exposed in the slave-markets, or who, after having been outraged, were secretly murdered?

“It seems necessary to give some idea of the shame and dishonor to which even at the present time women are exposed. The scoundrel Hadji Bego, who boasted of having killed a hundred Armenians with his own hand, hunted a Christian girl naked through the streets of the town. The Turkish people of Cæsarea, who burnt thirty Armenian houses with their inhabitants, also helped to storm the women’s baths at the bathing hour. And with what reception did those thirty women of Koschmad meet, who wandered over the mountains without any clothes, till they reached Shinas and fell into the hands of the soldiers there? But that was nothing unusual.There was no massacre in which the murder of the men was not followed by outrage on the women and girls; no plunder in which they were not offered for sale, carried off as spoils, exchanged for horses and donkeys, or exposed in the slave market.The Agas or officers distributed the girls among the Zaptiehs and soldiers.

“Not safe in their own houses under the eye of their husbands, who had often, bound to door-posts, to witness their fate, outraged and robbed of all protection, hunted from house to house till they fell a prey to dishonor—that,Christian women, is the fate of your sisters in Armenia.

“Which of the two do you most pity—the widowed or orphaned girl cowering among rags in some corner ofher ruined home, trembling at every footstep of a man, be he Turk or Kurd, who may force his way in and outrage her before her children, or her brothers and sisters; or that other girl who, distinguished perhaps for beauty, has pleased the eye of some Turkish Aga, and, in spite of her cries and tears, has been dragged into his harem, and forced to give up at once her honor and her faith? Can we understand now what drove hundreds of Armenian women to suicide? Or why those fifty women of Lessouk and Krauta threw themselves into the wells, or leapt from the edge of precipices? We can realize the horror that filled the soul of that highborn Armenian lady who was carried off with a troop of women and children and a few men from Uzounova (twenty-five miles east of Harpout). When they reached the banks of the Euphrates she called to her companions, and, rushing to the river, threw herself in. That dishonor is worse than death is proved by the fact, that fifty-five women and children followed her example, and perished in the waters.

“Who would not feel compassion for the unfortunate old man who thus expresses his nameless grief in a letter to his son: ‘Oh, I dare not tell you ... they came and threatened to kill me if I refused to give up your sister. After they had taken everything else—blankets, beds, clothes, provisions, and even fuel—they returned to demand our daughter. I was prepared to withstand to the end, but when she saw that they were about to kill me, she threw herself at their feet, and cried out: “Spare my father! Here I am.”’

“Admirers of Turkish army organization and of Mohammedan civilization ought to know that even the brutality of the Kurdish hordes and the cynicism of the townspeople were thrown completely into the shade by the infamous conduct of the soldiers and officers. Although it fills me with disgust to dip my pen into this sink of corruption, I feel it is necessary that theworld should know what deeds are done in this home of promised reforms by the guardians of law and order.

“The truth of the following account is established by two independent testimonies which lie before me: ‘In the village of Husseyinik (vilayet of Harpout), six hundred soldiers (and their officers) collected together in the military depot about the same number of women and young girls; they first outraged them, and then murdered the unhappy victims of their horrible lust.’

“Does not this blood cry to Heaven? And even though the kings of the earth be deaf to its cry, will not God hear?”

It should not be considered superfluous to state that even these facts were brought by such an able and honest man asDr.Lepsius before the attention of the German people, the German government still courted the friendship of the Turkish government, and have succeeded in keeping the masses of the honest and good Christian people to believe that the Armenians were receiving from the hands of the Turks what they deserved. Strange as it may appear, yet nevertheless it is true, that the Germans were more willing to believe than the Englishmen—like her Majesty’s Government—that Armenians were not suffering all these atrocities on account of “their religious faith.” It is a disgrace to humanity, and especially to the GermanKultur, that Germans who are so thorough in almost everything, should still be so superficial in this one particular, that they should not see the underlying fact.Dr.Lepsius quotes from a German daily paper which, in discussing the massacre at Sassoun, wrote:

“In the absence of other reasons for European intervention, the English and American press have been obliged to take up the Christian religion of the Armenians. Gladstone, indeed, on the occasion of the farce of the reception of the deputation from Sassoun, did not shrink from speaking of the ‘Armenians persecuted for their Christian faith.’ That is a palpable falsehood. What reason could the Porte have had for suddenly setting on foot a religious persecution, when in the course of hundreds of years it had taken no notice of the Armenian religion? As a matter of fact, a genuine persecution of Christians has never taken place in the Turkish Empire. Moreover, it would be the most imprudent thing the Porte could do to increase the manifold difficulties of its position by a religious persecution....”

The following is the answer whichDr.Lepsius gives, and he also sets an array of facts against biassed opinions:

“It is worth while to reproduce this pregnant summary of a widespread opinion ... for still the German press daily tells the same tale.... We confine ourselves to Armenia, and here we must indeed agree that it not only would be, butwas‘the most imprudent thing the Porte could do,’ to inaugurate a persecution of Christianity. For the Christians number one-third of the subjects of his majesty, the sultan, and—if we weigh instead of counting them—in intelligence, education, practical ability, and moral energy, they take up two-thirds of the entire population of the Turkish empire.... We cannot blame him [the journalist], then, if he is ignorant of the fact that the dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire and the ‘manifold difficulties of its position’ can be traced back in every case to the opposition between Islam and Christianityas well as to the circumstance that the religious law of Islam—which during the last decades has been more than ever the standard of Ottoman policy—does not admit equality of civil rights, and that any concession in this direction from the Porte can only be regarded ‘in principle,’ i.e., on paper....“What are the Armenian massacres then? Without any question their origin was purely political, or to state it more exactly, they were an administrative measure. But facts go to prove that, considering the character of the Mohammedan people, whose very political passions are roused only by religious motives, this administrative measuremustanddid, take the form of a religious persecution on a gigantic scale. Are we then, simply because of the political origin of this religious persecution, to be forbidden to speak of the Armenians as ‘persecuted on account of their religious belief’? If so, there have never been any religious persecutions in the world; for all such without exception have been associated with political movements, and even the death of Christ was nothing but a political event, for political moves turned the balance at His condemnation.“We have lists before us of 559 villages whose surviving inhabitants were converted to Islam with fire and sword, of 568 churches thoroughly pillaged, destroyed, and razed to the ground, of 282 Christian churches transformed into mosques, of 21 Protestant preachers and 170 Gregorian (Armenian) priests who were after enduring unspeakable tortures murdered on their refusal to accept Islam. We repeat, however, that these figures express only the extent of ourinformation, and do not, by a long way, reach to the extent of the reality. Is this a religious persecution or is it not?... The most shameful desecration of the churches everywhere, the pollution of sacred vessels ... the spitting on Gospels and Bibles which were then torn into athousand pieces—these were the mere accessories to the drama of vandalism.“The method adopted for the work of compulsory conversion was everywhere the same.... In some towns and villages, even before the outbreak of the massacres, the choice was given of averting the threatened fate by embracing Islam. Mere threats of death were seldom sufficient; bayonets were pointed at the heart, swords at the throat. When this did not avail, tortures were employed. The priests and preachers, especially who refused to renounce their faith, had to endure absolutely inconceivable tortures before they received thecoup de grace. The priest Der Hagop of Harpout, became insane, when, clad only in his shirt, he saw the swords of fifty soldiers pointed at him. What was to be done with him? As the Mullahs declared that a madman could not be received into Islam he was for the present thrown into prison for contumacy.“In the monastery at Tadem the Venerable Archimandrite, Ohannes Papazian, had first his hands and afterwards his arms up to the elbows cut off, on his refusal to accept Islam. When, even then, he would not yield, he was beheaded on the pavement of the church. At Biredjik an old man who refused to renounce his faith was thrown down, live coals were heaped upon him, and, when he writhed in his agony, the fiends held a Bible before his eyes and mockingly bade him read to them some of the promises on which he had pinned his faith.“At Diarbekir, the great stone church of the Syrian order ofSt.James, in which a number of refugees were sheltering, was surrounded by Kurds who fired on it, broke open the roof, threw down combustibles and at last succeeded in bursting open the door. Amid the joyous shouts of the mob the refugees were driven into the open in dense masses, and received with a hail of bullets. When the pastor, Jirjs Khatherschian, fromEgypt, who happened to be visiting his relations, was recognized as an ecclesiastic he was thrown to the ground, and beaten till he became unconscious. One of the sacred books scattered around was pushed into his mouth, and he was mockingly called upon to preach a sermon. Burning brands fell on him, and when he was aroused from his unconscious state by the pain, and attempted to crawl away, he was seized and hurled into the blazing fire and burnt to death. Are we not reminded of the heroism of the Maccabees by a mother at Ourfa, who, when an attempt was made to force her sons to renounce their religion, came running up and besought them: ‘Let them kill you, but do not deny the Lord Jesus’—and the steadfast pair suffered death by the sword. The women and children followed the men to martyrdom. At Bitlis a hundred women, whose husbands had been slain, were conducted by soldiers to an open place. What was their answer when they were called upon to renounce Jesus and save their lives: ‘No, our husbands died for Him, and we will do the same.’ They were massacred.”

“What are the Armenian massacres then? Without any question their origin was purely political, or to state it more exactly, they were an administrative measure. But facts go to prove that, considering the character of the Mohammedan people, whose very political passions are roused only by religious motives, this administrative measuremustanddid, take the form of a religious persecution on a gigantic scale. Are we then, simply because of the political origin of this religious persecution, to be forbidden to speak of the Armenians as ‘persecuted on account of their religious belief’? If so, there have never been any religious persecutions in the world; for all such without exception have been associated with political movements, and even the death of Christ was nothing but a political event, for political moves turned the balance at His condemnation.

“We have lists before us of 559 villages whose surviving inhabitants were converted to Islam with fire and sword, of 568 churches thoroughly pillaged, destroyed, and razed to the ground, of 282 Christian churches transformed into mosques, of 21 Protestant preachers and 170 Gregorian (Armenian) priests who were after enduring unspeakable tortures murdered on their refusal to accept Islam. We repeat, however, that these figures express only the extent of ourinformation, and do not, by a long way, reach to the extent of the reality. Is this a religious persecution or is it not?... The most shameful desecration of the churches everywhere, the pollution of sacred vessels ... the spitting on Gospels and Bibles which were then torn into athousand pieces—these were the mere accessories to the drama of vandalism.

“The method adopted for the work of compulsory conversion was everywhere the same.... In some towns and villages, even before the outbreak of the massacres, the choice was given of averting the threatened fate by embracing Islam. Mere threats of death were seldom sufficient; bayonets were pointed at the heart, swords at the throat. When this did not avail, tortures were employed. The priests and preachers, especially who refused to renounce their faith, had to endure absolutely inconceivable tortures before they received thecoup de grace. The priest Der Hagop of Harpout, became insane, when, clad only in his shirt, he saw the swords of fifty soldiers pointed at him. What was to be done with him? As the Mullahs declared that a madman could not be received into Islam he was for the present thrown into prison for contumacy.

“In the monastery at Tadem the Venerable Archimandrite, Ohannes Papazian, had first his hands and afterwards his arms up to the elbows cut off, on his refusal to accept Islam. When, even then, he would not yield, he was beheaded on the pavement of the church. At Biredjik an old man who refused to renounce his faith was thrown down, live coals were heaped upon him, and, when he writhed in his agony, the fiends held a Bible before his eyes and mockingly bade him read to them some of the promises on which he had pinned his faith.

“At Diarbekir, the great stone church of the Syrian order ofSt.James, in which a number of refugees were sheltering, was surrounded by Kurds who fired on it, broke open the roof, threw down combustibles and at last succeeded in bursting open the door. Amid the joyous shouts of the mob the refugees were driven into the open in dense masses, and received with a hail of bullets. When the pastor, Jirjs Khatherschian, fromEgypt, who happened to be visiting his relations, was recognized as an ecclesiastic he was thrown to the ground, and beaten till he became unconscious. One of the sacred books scattered around was pushed into his mouth, and he was mockingly called upon to preach a sermon. Burning brands fell on him, and when he was aroused from his unconscious state by the pain, and attempted to crawl away, he was seized and hurled into the blazing fire and burnt to death. Are we not reminded of the heroism of the Maccabees by a mother at Ourfa, who, when an attempt was made to force her sons to renounce their religion, came running up and besought them: ‘Let them kill you, but do not deny the Lord Jesus’—and the steadfast pair suffered death by the sword. The women and children followed the men to martyrdom. At Bitlis a hundred women, whose husbands had been slain, were conducted by soldiers to an open place. What was their answer when they were called upon to renounce Jesus and save their lives: ‘No, our husbands died for Him, and we will do the same.’ They were massacred.”

At Cassarea, in the massacre of November 30th,Rev.Dr.Avedis Yeretzian, a pastor and physician, his wife, his eldest son and his brother-in-law were ruthlessly butchered by the Turks and thrown into the flames of their burning house. In another house a Protestant alone with his twelve year old daughter, the mother being absent, a Turk burst into the room where the father was, and killed him on his refusal to embrace the Mohammedan faith. He then went into the room where the girl, unaware of the affair, was sitting. He said to her: “Your father is dead because he would not embrace Islam, now I must make you a Mohammedan, then I shall take you to my homeand you will be treated as my daughter. Are you willing?” Her answer was, “I believe in Jesus. He is my Saviour, and I love Him. I cannot do what you wish, even if you kill me.” He fell upon her in his fury and stabbed her in twelve different places. The house was plundered and burnt with the father’s corpse lying therein. The same evening, in another part of the town, a cart drove up to the house where the girl’s mother was staying. A neighbor, a kindly disposed Turk, entered and said: “I have brought you the body of your little daughter. You are a friend of mine, I could not leave it lying there. I am sorry this has happened.”

The British Vice-Consul,Mr.Fitzmaurice, who was sent to Urfa to make an investigation of the massacre, made the following report:

“On Saturday night (the 28th of December, 1895) crowds of Armenian men, women and children took refuge in their fine cathedral, capable of holding some eight thousand persons. They administered the sacrament, the last sacrament, as it proved to be, to eighteen hundred souls, recording the figure on one of the pillars of the church.“Those remained in the cathedral overnight, and were joined on Sunday by several hundred more, who sought the protection of a building which they considered safe from the mob-violence of the Musulman even in his fanaticism. At least three thousand individuals were congregated in the building when the mob attacked it. They first fired in through the windows, then smashed in the iron door, and proceeded to massacre all those, the majority on the ground floor being men. Having thus disposed of the men, and havingremoved some of the young women, they rifled the church treasure, shrines, and ornaments to the extent of some four thousand pounds (Turkish—$17,600), destroying pictures and relics, mockingly calling on Christ now to prove Himself a greater prophet than Mohammed.“A huge, partly stone, partly wooden, gallery, running round the upper portion of the cathedral, was packed with a shrieking and terrified mass of women, children and some men.“Some of the intruders jumping on the raised altar platform, began picking off the latter with revolver shots, but as this process seemed too tedious, they bethought themselves of a more expeditious method employed against those who had hidden in the wells. Having collected a quantity of bedding and the church matting, they poured some thirty cans of kerosene upon it and then set fire to the whole. The gallery beams and wooden frame work soon caught fire, whereupon, blocking up the staircases leading to the gallery with similar inflammable material, they left the mass of struggling human beings to become the prey of the flames.“During several hours the sickening odor of roasting flesh prevailed in the town; and even to-day, two months and a half after the massacre, the smell of charred remains in the church is unbearable.“At 3.30P.M.at the Moslem afternoon prayer, the trumpet again sounded, and the mob drew off from the Armenian quarter. Shortly afterward the Mufte and other notables, preceded by music, among which were brass military instruments, went round the quarter announcing that the massacre was at an end, and that there would be no more killing of Christians.“No distinction was made between Gregorians, Protestants, and Roman Catholics, whose churches, also, were rifled. The thoroughness with which some of the workwas done may be understood from the fact that one hundred twenty-six Armenian families have been absolutely wiped out, not even a woman or a baby remains. ... After very close and minute inquiry, I believe that close on eight thousand Armenians perished in the two days’ massacre, between 2500 and 3000 of whom were killed or burned in the cathedral. I should not, however, be at all surprised if nine thousand or ten thousand were subsequently found to be nearer the mark.”[145]

“Those remained in the cathedral overnight, and were joined on Sunday by several hundred more, who sought the protection of a building which they considered safe from the mob-violence of the Musulman even in his fanaticism. At least three thousand individuals were congregated in the building when the mob attacked it. They first fired in through the windows, then smashed in the iron door, and proceeded to massacre all those, the majority on the ground floor being men. Having thus disposed of the men, and havingremoved some of the young women, they rifled the church treasure, shrines, and ornaments to the extent of some four thousand pounds (Turkish—$17,600), destroying pictures and relics, mockingly calling on Christ now to prove Himself a greater prophet than Mohammed.

“A huge, partly stone, partly wooden, gallery, running round the upper portion of the cathedral, was packed with a shrieking and terrified mass of women, children and some men.

“Some of the intruders jumping on the raised altar platform, began picking off the latter with revolver shots, but as this process seemed too tedious, they bethought themselves of a more expeditious method employed against those who had hidden in the wells. Having collected a quantity of bedding and the church matting, they poured some thirty cans of kerosene upon it and then set fire to the whole. The gallery beams and wooden frame work soon caught fire, whereupon, blocking up the staircases leading to the gallery with similar inflammable material, they left the mass of struggling human beings to become the prey of the flames.

“During several hours the sickening odor of roasting flesh prevailed in the town; and even to-day, two months and a half after the massacre, the smell of charred remains in the church is unbearable.

“At 3.30P.M.at the Moslem afternoon prayer, the trumpet again sounded, and the mob drew off from the Armenian quarter. Shortly afterward the Mufte and other notables, preceded by music, among which were brass military instruments, went round the quarter announcing that the massacre was at an end, and that there would be no more killing of Christians.

“No distinction was made between Gregorians, Protestants, and Roman Catholics, whose churches, also, were rifled. The thoroughness with which some of the workwas done may be understood from the fact that one hundred twenty-six Armenian families have been absolutely wiped out, not even a woman or a baby remains. ... After very close and minute inquiry, I believe that close on eight thousand Armenians perished in the two days’ massacre, between 2500 and 3000 of whom were killed or burned in the cathedral. I should not, however, be at all surprised if nine thousand or ten thousand were subsequently found to be nearer the mark.”[145]

Miss Corinna Shattuck, the noble American lady missionary, was alone in the city of Urfa during the massacres. She was both lion-hearted and tender-hearted. She wrote: “It was apparent that the utmost was done (by the officials) to protect me, but how willingly I would have died that thousands of parents might be spared to their children.” It is stated that seventeen Armenian houses and two hundred forty persons were saved from the massacre by her special efforts. “Pastor Abouhaiydian with his six motherless children and many others had fled to the house of an Armenian doctor. The Turks attacked the house and killed forty-five men. The pastor plead for life for the sake of his children, but when he refused to accept the Islam faith they shot him through the heart. The eldest daughter, then in her 17th year, ran to her father, who said to her, ‘Fear not, the Lord is with you. I have no fear for I am going to my dear Saviour.’ The Turks took the children to a mosque, but after three days theywere recovered by Miss Shattuck who kept them until claimed by friends.”[146]

The pastor of the Protestant Armenian church at Sivas, Garabed Kuludjizn, was visiting some strangers in a khan; he was seized upon and the demand made of him to deny Christ and accept the Mohammedan faith. On his refusal, he was shot to death by Mohammed’s followers.

The massacre at Marash was—like the rest of massacres in other places—carefully planned by the authorities and carried out with utmost cruelty and barbarism. On the 26th of October about forty Armenians were killed and some shops and houses were looted. But the plans for the general massacre must not have been quite matured, nevertheless, fifteen thousand Armenians, about one-third of the entire population of the city, were completely terrorized. The Christians fled and hid themselves in their houses for a while. On the 18th of November, at 8A.M., the fearful slaughter and plunder began. The near neighbors of the missionaries fled into the missionaries’ houses for safety, and about two hundred persons were saved. We reproduce the following statements of our missionaries who witnessed the horrors:

“The massacre in the city was fearful beyond words to express. Three Christian quarters, covering a large area, were burned. Two Gregorian Armenian Churches were burned and in one of them the women and children, who had sought refuge there, perished in the flames. The Second and Third Evangelical Churches were lootedand the inside of the building was cut to pieces. The venerable pastor of the native church connected with the Church of England, after suffering tortures, was killed. The two head teachers of the American Academy, one of whom was also acting pastor of the First Evangelical Church, were killed, and one of them was flayed alive and then cut to pieces. In all some 1000 Armenians, to whom generally the alternative of Islam or death was given, were most cruelly slain. Children were disemboweled, and the dissevered heads of men and women were kicked about by the soldiers as balls or were carried on pikes through the streets. And this dire work of murdering, robbing and burning was done, not by Kurds, but by theregular soldiers of the Ottoman Government, assisted by the Moslem population of the city, and here, as in so many other places, the Armenians were utterly passive victims, without arms or possible means of self-defense. So far as is known, not a Turk was hurt in all the eight hours’ carnage....“Such is the preparation which his majesty is making, preliminary to the fulfillment of his promise to Lord Salisbury on his honor(?) to carry out the scheme of reform. Such is the state into which England (all unwittingly), by her initiative in elaborating and insisting on reforms, has plunged the Armenians.Is it to her honor that she now leaves them to be murdered, robbed, burned and martyred?”

“Such is the preparation which his majesty is making, preliminary to the fulfillment of his promise to Lord Salisbury on his honor(?) to carry out the scheme of reform. Such is the state into which England (all unwittingly), by her initiative in elaborating and insisting on reforms, has plunged the Armenians.Is it to her honor that she now leaves them to be murdered, robbed, burned and martyred?”

England’s enemies—the enemies she had made in almost a hundred years of defending the barbarous Turk, and her jealous neighbors who were already her enemies—were secretly and openly encouraging the beast in human form to humiliate England through him, and also by befriending him, they were paving the way for their colonial and commercial ambitions.Thus the Armenians were abandoned to their fate. The following statement was made, it may be an attempt of England to throw off her responsibility: “In February, 1896, the cabinet of Lord Salisbury, the minister who had concluded the Convention (both of Cyprus and of Berlin in 1878), confessed that as the Turks had refused to carry out reforms promised in that instrument, it was impossible for England, notwithstanding the possession of Cyprus, to occupy Armenia and prevent the massacres which had happened there, and that it had become practically impossible for her any longer to give either moral or material support to the Turkish power.”[147]

England’s confession of her inability—rather her unwillingness—encouraged the great assassin, the sultan, to do still more of his bloody work. The following statement is given byDr.Lepsius: “The massacres of Van, Niksar, and Eghin in June of 1896, although in their course, 20,000 Armenians were slaughtered, have, in spite of the details given in theFrankfort Journal, made not the slightest impression on the continental press. For the culture of Central Europe, such events lie too far away in the depths of Turkish territory.”

There is one more incident which belongs to this chapter. It is the massacre at Constantinople. The simple narrative of this horrible crime against humanity in general, and the Armenians in particular, is another indictment not only against the sultan, but also against the European Powers.

On good authority we are informed, that the Turkish government knew beforehand that certain revolutionary Armenians from Russia would make an attack on the Ottoman Bank, and had taken the necessary measures, not to prevent the revolutionary action, but to organize, owing to this welcome opportunity, a universal massacre of the peaceful Armenians of Constantinople.

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