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 Turkish officials in charge of the deportation and extermination
of the Armenians were: At Erzeroum, Bihaa Eddin Shaker Bey; at
Trebizond, Naiil Bey, Tewfik Bey Monastirly, Colonel of Gendarmerie,
the Commissioner of Police; at Kamach, the member of Parliament for
Erzindjan. The "Shotas'" headquarters were also at Kamach. Their chief
was the Kurd Murzabey, who boasted that he alone had killed 70,000
Armenians. Afterwards he was thought to be dangerous by the Turks,
and thrown into prison charged with having hit a gendarme. He was
eventually executed in secret.
(2) C.D.'s Report.
In August, 1915, in the suburbs of Mush I saw large numbers of
dead bodies of Armenians, men, women and children, lying in the
fields. Some had been shot, some stabbed, and most of them had been
horribly mutilated. The women were mostly naked.
In the villages around Mush I saw old women and children wandering
in the streets, haggard and emaciated.
In the same month, in a camp outside Bitlis, I saw collected about 500
women, girls, and children, guarded by gendarmes. I asked the latter
what was to become of these people. They said that they were being
deported, but that they had orders to let the Bands deal with them on
the way. The Bands had been organized by the Turkish Government for
the purpose of massacring the Armenians. They were formed by Kurds,
Turkish gendarmes and criminals who had been specially set free. [36]
On the river at Bitlis I saw quite a number of bodies of Armenians
floating on the water, and some washed up on the banks. The smell
was pestilential and the water undrinkable.
In the same month of August, in the country at a distance of about
two hours from Zaart, I saw the bodies of about 15,000 massacred
Armenians. They were piled up on top of each other in two ravines. The
Armenian Bishop of Zaart was, at his own request, taken to a cave
near by and shot.
On my return from Zaart to Mush, in a village of the suburbs of Mush
over 500 Armenians, mostly women and children, were herded up in a
stable and locked in. The gendarmes threw flaming torches through
an opening in the ceiling. They were all burnt alive. I did not go
near, but I distinctly saw the flames and heard the screams of the
poor victims.
I heard from reliable persons that women in the family way had their
bodies cut open and the child snatched out and thrown away.
At Mush the streets were strewn with bodies of Armenians. Every
Armenian who ventured out of doors was instantly killed.
Even men of great age, blind and invalids, were not spared.
From Mush to Hinis, at short distances from each other, I saw piles
of bodies of Armenians in the fields alongside the road.
Between Sherkes-Koi and Hinis I saw two ravines filled with corpses
of Armenians, about 400 in each ravine, mostly men. Another ravine
was filled with bodies of little children.
At Khara-Shuban I saw a large number of bodies of Armenians floating
on the river Murad.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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