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Daily Express, 20 maart 1915
Bron: UKPressOnline
Armenian Massacre
MEN MURDERED AND WOMEN CARRIED OFF
The hon. secretary of the Armenian Red Cross and Refugee Fund has received appalling accounts of the condition of Armenia taken from newspapers in the Caucasus.
The whole plain of Alashgerd is said to be covered with the corpses of men, women, and children, frozen in congealed pools of their own blood. Women and children still half alive creep from under the heaps of corpses, from the ruins of houses, from stacks of corn and hay, and out of wells to tell the story of what took place.
“When the Russian forces retreated,” they say, “Kurdish Hamidiehs fell on us and plundered us, and they shut us all up in the mosque. We did not know what was going to happen until they began to take our husbands and brothers out onen by one to kill them behind the door.
“A great sound of sobbing arose, and we all fell on the necks of our loved ones until their turn came. So they killed all, one after another, from the old men down to boys of ten. All the Kurds then poured into the mosque, and divided our little boys between them to be brought up as Mahomedans.
“After having made us women and girls go through untold agonies they stripped us of all our clothing, and made us stand around the walls. The Kurds came up to us, and selected as many women as they wanted, placed them on horses, and took them beyond those white mountains yonder. Those who resisted where beaten mercilessly. Only old women and babies were left in the mosque.”
The Armenian Red Cross and Refugee Fund has been organised to help these destitute people, 120,000 of whom are now in the Caucasus. Donations may be sent to the hon. treasurer, Mr. Godson Bohn, at 17, Holland Villas-road, Kensington, W., or to the hon. secretary, Miss E.J. Robinson, at 35a, Elsham Road, Kensington, W.
