Germany, Turkey, and Armenia: A Selection of Documentary Evidence Relating to the Armenian Atrocities from German and other Sources — John Shaqi
Germany, Turkey, and Armenia: A Selection of Documentary Evidence Relating to the Armenian Atrocities from German and other SourcesAnonymous
History
Germany, Turkey, and Armenia: A Selection of Documentary Evidence Relating to the Armenian Atrocities from German and other Sources
Anonymous
Armenian question; World War, 1914-1918 -- Armenia
The following morning, at a very early hour, we heard the procession
of exiles passing in front of our house, along the high road leading
in to Erzindjan. We followed them and kept up with them as far as
the town, about an hour's walk. Mr. G. came with us. It was a very
large gang--only two or three of them men, all the rest women and
children. Many of the women looked demented. They cried out: "Spare us,
we will become Moslems or Germans or whatever you will; only spare
us. We are being taken to Kamakh Boghaz to have our throats cut,"
and they made an expressive gesture. Others kept silence, and marched
patiently on with a few bundles on their backs and their children in
their arms. Others begged us to save their children. Many Turks arrived
on the scene to carry off children and girls, with or without their
parents' consent. There was no time for reflection, for the crowd
was being moved on continually by the mounted gendarmes brandishing
their whips. On the outskirts of the town, the road to Kamakh Boghaz
branches off from the main highway. At this point the scene turned
into a regular slave market; for our part, we took a family of six
children, from three to fourteen years old, who clutched hold of
us, and another little girl as well. We entrusted the latter to our
Turkish cook, who was on the spot. She wanted to take the child to the
kitchen of Dr. A.'s private house, and keep her there until we could
come and fetch her; but the doctor's adjutant, Riza Bey, gave the
woman a beating and threw the child out into the street. Meanwhile,
with cries of agony, the gang of sufferers continued its march, while
we returned to the hospital with our six children. Dr. A. gave us
permission to keep them in our room until we had packed our belongings;
they were given food and soon became calmer. "Now we are saved," they
had cried when we took them. They refused to let go of our hands. The
smallest, the son of a rich citizen of Baibourt, lay huddled up in
his mother's cloak; his face was swollen with crying and he seemed
inconsolable. Once he rushed to the window and pointed to a gendarme:
"That's the man who killed my father." The children handed over to us
their money, 475 piastres (about £4), which their parents had given
them with the idea that the children would not be searched.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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