she made an appeal to this Turkish Minister, begging him to stop this cruel persecution of Armenian women and girls, only answered, ‘All this amuses us.’”[176] The absurdity of the Turkish excuses that the Armenians were preparing, or intending to revolt is plainly seen by the following instances: In places where the people knew the object of the government was to massacre them, they resisted the government and the authorities had no difficulty in subduing them. The Turks had indeed a better excuse for massacre and the people their choice of an immediate, instead of a lingering, death. When the people of Shabin Karahussar, a town about 100 miles southwest of Trebizond, were ordered to prepare for deportation, they took up arms, and defended themselves against the Turkish troops from the middle of May to the end of June. Then the Turks, with more reinforcements and artillery, had no difficulty in overwhelming them. They massacred not only about 4000 people who had taken arms to defend themselves, but also the entire population of the country districts, “not excepting the bishop himself. Nothing could show better than this how little the Turkish government had to fear from the Armenians, and how eagerly it seized upon the quickest means to their extermination, as soon as an opportunity appeared.” The reader will remember the Reubenian Dynasty in Cilicia which came to an end in 1375. From that time to the present many Armenians remained in Cilicia. The Armenians who lived in the Cilician mountains were a sort of semi-independent tribe. They were not rebellious, but they exerted their rights often by the force of arms. This year of crimes had included in its plans to crush this people also. The Turkish government “without waiting to summon them for deportation, at once attacked them nakedly with the sword.” It is, moreover, stated that “they were disarmed, by the promise that, if they submitted, their defenseless brethren in the lowland villages would be ransomed from destruction by their act. The Turkish promise was broken, of course, as soon as the Turkish object was secured; and taken at such a disadvantage, the heroic mountaineers inevitably succumbed.” “The bloody curtain has fallen over Zeitoun, and the fighting stock of these brave mountaineers has been subdued in this memorable year of crime! As the faithful followers and remnants of the Reubenian dynasty, they had hitherto kept their homes intact and had successfully withstood the Turkish inroads. They have at last been overcome by heavy Turkish forces, and the stronghold of Zeitoun is now in the hands of the enemy....”[177] It was begun on the 8th of April and finished about the end of May, 1915. The Turks massacred some of the inhabitants.... And the rest, with the old men and women, were deported to Mesopotamia. The fate of the people of Sassoun was not quite known for some time. But the Turks and Kurds have finally completely exterminated them also.