… / Geschiedenis / Berichtgeving in de internationale pers / Tell Of Horrors Done In Armenia
The New York Times, 4 oktober 1915
Bron: The New York Times Archive
Tell Of Horrors Done In Armenia
Report of Eminent Americans Says They are Unequaled in a Thousand Years
TURKISH RECORD OUTDONE
A Policy of Extermination Put in Effect Against a Helpless People
ENTIRE VILLAGES SCATTERED
Men and Boys Massacred, Women and Girls Sold as Slaves and Distributed Among Moslems
The Committee on Armenian Atrocities,
a body of eminent Americans which for
weeks has been investigating the
situation in Turkish Armenia, issued,
yesterday, a detailed report of that
investigation, in which it is asserted that
in cruelty and in horror nothing in the
past thousand years has equaled the
present persecutions of the Armenian
people by the Turks. The committee
adds that the sources of its information
are “unquestioned as to their veracity,
integrity, and authority of the writers.”
The data on which the report is based,
were gathered from all parts of the
Turkish Empire.
The report tells of children under 15
years of age thrown into the
Euphrates to be drowned; of women
forced to desert infants in arms and
to leave them by the roadside to die;
of young women and girls
appropriated by the Turks, thrown
into harems, attacked, or else sold to
the highest bidder, and of men
murdered and tortured. Everything
that an Armenian possesses, even to
the clothes on his back, are stolen by
his persecutors.
The report says the use of the
bastinado has been revived, high
dignitaries of the Church have been
hanged, families scattered to the four
winds, and thousands upon
thousands of defenseless, miserable
persons herded together like cattle
and driven into the desert lands of
the empire, there to starve and die.
Men Who Signed the Report
The men who signed this report
are:
The Right Rev. DAVID H. GREER,
Protestant Episcopal Bishop of the
Diocese of New York.
OSCAR S. STRAUS, former
Secretary of Commerce and Labor, and
ex-Ambassador to Turkey.
CLEVELAND H. DODGE, of
Phelps, Dodge & Co.
The Rev. Dr. STEPHEN S. WISE,
Rabbi of the Free Synagogue, New York.
CHARLES R. CRANE of Chicago, Vice
Chairman of the Finance Committee of
the Democratic National Committee
during the last campaign.
ARTHUR CURTISS JAMES,
Director of many railroads and of the
Hanover National Bank, the United
States Trust Co., and Phelps, Dodge &
Co.
The Rev. Dr. FRANK MASON
NORTH of the Board of Foreign
Missions of the Methodist Episcopal
Church.
JOHN R. MOTT of the International
Committee of the Young Men's
Christian Association.
WILLIAM W. ROCKHILL, former
Ambassador to Turkey and former
Ambassador to Russia.
WILLIAM SLOANE, President of
W. & J. Sloane, 575 Fifth Avenue, NY
The Rev. Dr. EDWARD LINCOLN
SMITH of the American Board of
Commissioners for Foreign Missions.
The Rev. Dr. FREDERICK LYNCH
of the New York Peace Society.
GEORGE A. PLIMPTON of Ginn &
Co., a trustee of Constantinople College.
The Rev. Dr. JAMES L. BARTON,
for many years a missionary in Turkey,
and now the Secretary of the American
Board of Commissioners for Foreign
Missions.
The Rev. Dr. WILLIAM J. HAVEN,
one of the founders of the Epworth
League.
STANLEY WHITE, President of the
White Advertising Corporation.
Professor SAMUEL P. DUTTON,
an authority on Balkan affairs.
Identity of Writers Concealed
“For reasons that will be obvious
to all,” says the committee in a
foreword to its report, “the names
and positions of the various writers
cannot be given at this time. These
are known to the committee, who
vouch for them and their statements.
In most cases it will be necessary to
conceal the place from which the
statements were written, and even
the names of the cities and towns
referred to, in order that the writer or
his interests may not suffer
irreparable harm.”
Sources of the information, it
added, are Greek, Bulgarian,
American, Turkish, German, British,
and Armenian.
The report, which contains 20,000
words, is divided into twenty-five
parts. The first, dated April 27, 1915,
states that a “movement against
Armenians forms part of a concerted
movement against all non Turkish
and mission and progress elements,
including Zionists.”
The second, dated three days later,
tells of the persecution, plunder, and
massacre in the interior of Turkey,
and of “incredible severity” against
Armenians in Zeitun and Marash.
July 10, the writer stated that it
was then evident that a “systematic
attempt to uproot the peaceful
Armenian population had been
decided upon.
Torture, pillage, rape, murder,
wholesale expulsion and deportation,
and massacre, came from all parts
of the empire and was due, not to
fanatical or popular demand, but was
purely arbitrary, and directed
from Constantinople.”
July 16, another writer reported
that “a campaign of race
extermination is in progress.”
Chapter VI. tells of the massacre
in late July of women and children,
most of whom had been deported
from the Erzerum district. The
massacre occurred near the town of
Kemakh, between Erzerum and
Harput.
Deportation Was Begun in Zeitun
Chapters VII. and VIII. form two
of the most horrible of all the
chapters of horrors, into which the
report is divided. The are, in part, as
follows:
June 20. The deportation began
some six weeks ago with 180
families from Zeitun: since which
time all the inhabitants of that place
and its neighboring villages have
been deported; also most of the
Christians in Albustan, many from
Hadjin, Sis, Kars Pazar, Hassan
Beyil and Deort Yol.
The numbers involved are
approximately, to date, 26,5000. Of
these, about 5,000 have been sent to
the Konieh region, 5,500 are in
Aleppo and surrounding towns and
villages, and the remainder are in
Der Zor, Racca, and various places
in Mesopotamia, even as far as the
neighborhood of Baghdad.
The process is still going on, and
there is no telling how far it may be
carried. The orders already issued
will bring the number in this
region up to 32,000, and there have
been as yet none exiled from Aintab,
and very few from Marsh and Oorfa.
The orders of commanders may
have been reasonably humane; but
the execution of them has been for
the most part unnecessarily harsh,
and in many cases accompanied by
horrible brutality to women and
children, to the sick and the aged.
Whole villages were deported at an
hour's notice, with no opportunity to
prepare for the journey, not even, in
some cases, to gather together the
scattered
members of the family, so that little
children were left behind.
In Hadjin, well-to-do people who
had prepared food and bedding for
the road, were obliged to leave it in
the street, and afterward suffered
greatly from hunger.
Women Driven Under the Lash
In many cases the men were
(those of military age were nearly all
in the army) bound tightly together
with ropes or chains. Women with
little children in their arms, or in the
last days of pregnancy, were driven
along under the whip like cattle.
Three different cases came under my
knowledge where the woman was
delivered on the road, and because
her brutal driver hurried her along
she died of hemorrhage. I also know
of one case where the gendarme in
charge was a humane man, and
allowed the poor woman several
hours rest, and then procured a
wagon for her to ride in.
Some women became so
completely worn out and hopeless
that they left their infants beside the
road. Many women and girls have
been outraged. At one place the
commander of the gendarmerie
openly told the men to whom he
consigned a large company that they
were at liberty to do what they chose
with the women and girls.
As to subsistence, there has been a
great difference in different places.
In some places the Government has
fed them, in some places it has
permitted others to do so.
In some places it has neither
fed them nor permitted others to
do so. There has been much hunger,
thirst and sickness, and some real
starvation and death.
These people are being scattered
in small units, three or four families
in a place, among a population of
different race and religion, and
speaking a different language. I
speak of them as being composed of
families, but fourth fifths of them are
women and children, and what men
there are for the most part old or
incompetent.
If a means is not found to aid
them through the next few months,
until they get established in their
new surroundings, two thirds or
three fourths of them will die of
starvation and disease.
Prisoners' Feet Beaten to Pieces
I was called to a house one day
where I saw a sheet which originated
from the prison and which was being
sent to wash. This sheet was
covered with blood and running in
long streams. I was also shown
clothes which were drenched and
exceedingly dirty. It was a puzzle to
me what they could possibly have
done to the prisoners, but I got to the
bottom of the matter by the help of
two very reliable persons who
witnessed part of it themselves:
The prisoner is put in a room
(similar to the times of the Romans).
Gendarmes standing in twos at both
sides and two at the end of the room
administer, each in their turn,
bastinadoes as long as they have
enough force in them. At the time of
the Romans 40 strokes were
administered at the very most; in this
place, however, 200, 300, 500, even
800 strokes are administered. The
foot swells up, then bursts open, due
to the numerous blows, and thus the
blood spurts out. The prisoner is then
carried back into prison and brought
to bed by the rest of the prisoners –
this explains the bloody sheet.
The prisoners who become
unconscious after these blows are
revived through the means of some
cold water, which is thrown on their
heads, and which accounts for the
wet and dirty clothes.
A young man was beaten to
death within the space of five
minutes.
Apart from the bastinadoing
other methods were employed, too,
such as putting hot irons on the
chest. A forger, who was suspected
to have forged the shells of the
bombs, was let free only after his
toes were burned off with sulphur.
(called Kerab.)
The German Consul of Aleppo
estimates the number of deported to
be 30,000. Five thousand people
were deported to the unhealthy spot
of Sultani, in the District of Konia.
The Government gave in the first
days some bread. When the bread
was finished they received none; the
misery was heartrending.
In Chapter 9 the writer tells of
another reign of terror, during which
the terrible bastinado was again
brought into use, with torture by fire
added. He had heard instances of
this burning out of the eyes of the
poor victims. In another instance
some old bombs found in a cemetery
and planted there probably during
the reign of Abdul Hamid were used
as an excuse to torture and kill
hundreds who were accused of
having hidden them there for use
against the Turks.
On June 26 the Armenian men of
a certain town were ordered to leave
the town. No exception was made;
old and young, rich and poor, sick
and well, all had to go. When
seriously ill the victim was dragged
from his bed into the streets. They
were robbed of their shoes and
clothing. They were thrown into
prison and marched away in groups
of thirty and more. Some groups
were chained. A man in touch with
the Turkish Government
subsequently stated they had been
killed.
Women of Sultan's Soldiers Deported
Following the deportation of the
men the women and children were
ordered to be ready to leave. They
were told to be ready to leave on a
Wednesday. This is what
happened:
On Tuesday, about 3:30 A.M.,
the ox carts appeared at the doors of
the first district to be removed, and
the people were ordered to depart at
once. Some were dragged from their
beds without even sufficient
clothing. All the morning the ox
carts creaked out of town, laden with
women and children, and here and
there a man who had escaped the
previous deportations. In many
cases the husbands and brothers of
these same women were away in the
army, fighting for the Turkish
government.
The panic in the city was terrible.
The people felt that the Government
was determined to exterminate the
Armenian race, and they were
powerless to resist. The people were
sure that the men were being killed
and the women kidnapped. Many of
the convicts in the prison had been
released, and the mountains
around ——— were full of bands of
outlaws. It was feared that the
women and children were taken
some from the city and left to the
mercy of these men.
However that may be, there are
provable cases of the kidnapping of
attractive young girls by the Turkish
officials of ———. One Moslem
reported that a gendarme had offered
to sell him two girls for a medjidie.
($4.00.) The women believed that
they were going to a fate worse than
death, and many carried poison in
their pockets to use if necessary.
Some carried picks and shovels to
bury those they knew would die by
the wayside.
During this reign of terror notice
was given that escape was easy; that
any one who accepted Islam would
be allowed to remain safely at home.
The offices of the lawyers who
recorded applications were crowded
with people petitioning to become
Mohammedans. Many did it for the
sake of their women and children,
feeling that it would be a matter of
only a few weeks before relief would
come.
This deportation continued at
intervals for about two weeks. It is
estimated that out of about 12,000
Armenians in ——— only a
few hundred were left. Even those
who offered to accept Islam were
sent away. At the time of writing no
definite word has been heard from
any of these groups.
Another chapter tells of the
deportation of 12,000 Armenians, of
all classes and ages, and that “the
whole Mohammedan population
knew these people were to be their
prey from the beginning, and they
were treated as criminals.” The route
of this unhappy band was marked by
corpses.
Beat Child's Brains Out on Rock
This is what happened in a village
in which many Armenians once
lived:
———, a village about two hours
from ——— is inhabited by
Gregorian and Catholic Armenians
and Turks. A wealthy and
influential Armenian, together with
his two sons, according to a reliable
witness, were placed one behind the
other and shot through. Forty-five
men and women were taken a short
distance from the village into a
valley. The women were first
outraged by the officers of the
gendarmerie, and then turned over to
the gendarmes to dispose of.
According to this witness a child
was killed by beating its brains out
on a rock. The men were all killed
and not a single person survived
from this group of forty-five.
Here is, in part, the story of
another unhappy Armenian town:
Daily the police are searching the
houses of the Armenians for
weapons, and not finding any, they
are taking the best and most
honorable men and imprisoning
them; some of them they are exiling,
and others they are torturing with red
hot irons to make them reveal the
supposedly concealed weapons.
The Gendarmerie Department
seems to have full control of affairs
and the Mutessarif upholds them.
They are now holding about a
hundred of the best citizens of the
city in prison, and today the
gendarmerie chief called the
Armenian Bishop and told him that
unless the Armenians deliver their
arms and the revolutionists among
them, that he has orders to exile the
entire Armenian population of ———
as they did the people of ———. We
know how the latter were treated, for
hundreds of them have been dragged
through ——— on their way to the
desert whither they have been exiled.
These poor exiles were mostly
women, children and old men, and
they were clubbed and beaten and
lashed along as though they had
been wild animals, and their women
and girls were daily criminally
outraged, both by their guards and
the ruffians of every village through
which they passed.
Woman Writes of Horrible Experience
Another document in the hands of
the American Committee states that
“The Young Turk Government
pursues unceasingly, and every day
with added violence, the war to the
finish that it has declared against its
Armenian subjects.”
A letter from a woman in Turkey,
of unquestioned integrity, reads, in
part, as follows:
Our party left June 1, (old
style,) fifteen gendarmes going with
us. The party numbered 400 or 500
persons. We had got only two hours
away from home when bands of
villagers and brigands in large
numbers, with rifles, guns, axes,
surrounded us on the road and robbed
us of all we had. The gendarmes took
my three horses an sold them to
Turkish mouhadjirs, pocketing the
money. They took my money and
that from my daughter's neck, also all
our food.
After this they separated the
men, one by one, and shot them all
within six or seven days — every male
above 15 years old. By my side were
killed two priests, one of them over
90 years of age.
These bandsmen took all the
good looking women and carried
them off on their horses. Very many
women and girls were thus carried off
to the mountains, among them my
sister, whose one year old baby they
threw away; a Turk picked it up and
carried it off, I know not where. My
mother walked till she could walk no
further, and dropped by the roadside
on a mountain top. We found on the
road many of those who had been in
previous sections carried from ———;
some were among the killed, with
their husbands and sons.
We also came across some old
people and little infants still alive, but
in a pitiful condition, having shouted
their voice away. We were not
allowed to sleep at night in the
villages, but lay down outside. Under
cover of the night indescribable deeds
were committed by the gendarmes,
bandsmen and villagers. Many of us
died from hunger and strokes of
apoplexy. Others were left by the
roadside, too feeble to go on.
One morning we saw fifty to
sixty wagons with about thirty
Turkish widows, whose husbands had
been killed in the war; and they were
going to Constantinople. One of these
women made a sign to one of the
gendarmes to kill a certain Armenian
whom she pointed out. The
gendarmes asked her if she did not
wish to kill him herself, at which she
said, “Why not?” and drawing a
revolver from her pocket, shot and
killed him.
Each one of these Turkish
hanums had five or six Armenian girls
of 10 or under with her. Boys the
Turks never wished to take, they
killed all, of whatever age. These
women wanted to take my daughter,
too, but she would not be separated
from me. Finally, we were both taken
into their wagons on our promising to
become Moslems. As soon as we
entered the araba they began to teach
us how to be Moslems, and changed
our names, calling me ——— and her
———.
The worst and most
unimaginable horrors were reserved
for us at the banks of the Euphrates
and in the Erzingan Plain. The
mutilated bodies of women, girls, and
little children made everybody
shudder. The bandsmen were doing
all sorts of awful deeds to the women
and girls that were with us, whose
cries went up to heaven. At the
Euphrates the bandsmen and
gendarmes threw into the river all the
remaining children under 15 years
old. Those that could swim were shot
down as they struggled in the water.
After seven days we reached
———. Not a single Armenian
was left alive there. The Turkish
women took my daughter and me to
the bath, and there showed us many
other women and girls that had
accepted Islam.
Moslem Criminals Released for Pillage
Excerpts from various statements
included in the report given out
yesterday follow:
Aug. 2 about 800 middle-aged and old women, and children
under the age of 10 years, arrived
afoot from Diarbekir, after forty-five
days en route, and in the most
pitiable condition imaginable.
They report the taking of all the
young women and girls by the
Kurds, the pillaging even of the last
bit of money and other belongings,
of starvation, of privation, and
hardship of every description.
All over the country leading
Armenians have been shot or
hanged. Leading merchants have
been beggared and exiled.
Thirty thousand Mohammedan
criminals have been released from
jail and formed into bands under
strict military discipline. One of the
duties of these bands is to pillage
villages and to rob and assassinate
exiles.
The Greek and Armenian
patriarchs have been refused
audiences with the Ministers of the
Turkish Government. Foreign
Ambassadors, among them the
United States Ambassador, have
been rebuffed and told that what the
Imperial Government wishes to do
with its subjects is none of their
business.
The Turkish Ministers and other
officials have repeatedly avowed the
intention to smash the Christian
nationalities and thus forever put an
end to the Armenian question.
The important American
religious and educational institutions
in this region are losing their
professors, teachers, helpers, and
students, and even the orphanages
are to be emptied of the hundreds
of children therein, which ruins the
fruits of fifty years of untiring effort
in this field.
The Government officials in a
mocking way ask what the
Americans are going to do with these
establishments now that the
Armenians are being done away
with.
The situation is becoming
more critical daily, as there is no
telling where this thing will end.
The Germans are being blamed on
every hand, for if they have not
directly ordered this wholesale
slaughter, (for it is nothing less than
the extermination of the Armenian
race,) they at least condone it.
The story of a visit to one of
the desert camps to which the
Armenians have been exiled is given
near the close of the report. It tells
of famished old men, women and
children, reduced to the very lowest
state or misery by their persecutors.
There are only a few men in the
camp, the report reads, “as most of
them have been killed on the road.”
Likewise many women and little
children had been murdered.
“The condition of these
people,” says the report, “indicates
clearly the fate of those who lave left
and are bout to leave here. The
system that is being followed seems
to be to have bands of Kurds
awaiting them on the road to kill the
men especially, and incidentally
some of the others. The entire
movement seems to be the most
thoroughly organized and effective
massacre this country has ever
known.”
Turks Foil Missionaries' Efforts
The American Missionaries
began considering plans to aid the
women and children who would be
left here with no means of support.
It was thought that perhaps an
orphanage could be opened to care
for some of the children, and
especially those who had been born
in America, and then brought here
by their parents, and also those who
belonged to parents who had been
connected in some way with the
American mission and schools.
There would be plenty of
opportunity, though there might not
be sufficient means, to care for
children who reached here with the
exiles from other villayets and
whose parents had died on the way.
I went to see the Vali about this
matter yesterday and was met with a
flat refusal. He said we could aid
these people if we wished to do so,
but the Government was establishing
orphanages for the children and we
could not undertake any work of that
nature. An hour after I left the Vali
the announcement was made that all
the Armenians remaining here,
including women and children, must
leave by July 13.
“In response to the urgent appeal
of Ambassador Morgenthau,” the
report concludes, “the Committee on
Armenian Atrocities, in co-operation
with the Committee of Mercy, has
decided to make a wide appeal for
funds.
“Several gentlemen have already
pledged large contributions, but the
need is very great, and it is expected
that a good number of smaller gifts
will be received.
“The crimes now being
perpetrated upon the Armenian
people surpass in their horror and
cruelty anything that history has
recorded during the past thousand
years. The educated and the
ignorant, the rich and the poor, are
all being subjected to every form of
barbarity and outrage. It is
understood, however, that very many
Turks are opposed to this policy of
persecution.
“It is hoped that prompt action
will make it possible to save a great
many lives, and repatriate some at
least of those who have been driven
from their homes.
“Funds will be forwarded to the
Ambassador as fast as received.
Donations should be sent to the
Treasurer, Charles R. Crane, 70 Fifth
Avenue, New York.”
