The Armenian Crisis in Turkey: The Massacre of 1894, Its Antecedents and Significance, With a Consideration of Some of the Factors Which Enter Into the Solution of This Phase of the Eastern QuestionGreene, Frederick Davis
History
The Armenian Crisis in Turkey: The Massacre of 1894, Its Antecedents and Significance, With a Consideration of Some of the Factors Which Enter Into the Solution of This Phase of the Eastern Question
Greene, Frederick Davis
Armenian massacres, 1894-1896; Armenian question
B..., Nov. 16, 1894.
Last year the Talvoreeg Armenians successfully resisted the attacks of
the neighboring Kourds. The country became very unsettled. This year the
government interfered and sent detachments of regular soldiers to put
down the Armenians. These were assisted by the Kourdish _Hamediéhs_
[organized troops]. The Armenians were attacked in their mountain
fastnesses and were finally reduced by the failure of supplies, both of
food and ammunition. About a score of villages were wiped out of
existence—people slaughtered and houses burned.
A number of able-bodied young Armenians were captured, bound, covered
with brushwood and burned alive. A number of Armenians, variously
estimated, but less than a hundred, surrendered themselves and pled for
mercy. Many of them were shot down on the spot and the remainder were
dispatched with sword and bayonet.
A lot of women, variously estimated from 60 to 160 in number, were shut
up in a church, and the soldiers were “let loose” among them. Many of
them were outraged to death and the remainder dispatched with sword and
bayonet. A lot of young women were collected as spoils of war. Two
stories are told. 1. That they were carried off to the harems of their
Moslem captors. 2. That they were offered Islam and the harems of their
Moslem captors,—refusing, they were slaughtered. Children were placed in
a row, one behind another, and a bullet fired down the line, apparently
to see how many could be dispatched with one bullet. Infants and small
children were piled one on the other and their heads struck off. Houses
were surrounded by soldiers, set on fire, and the inmates forced back
into the flames at the point of the bayonet as they tried to escape.
But this is enough of the carnage of death. Estimates vary from 3000 to
8000 for the number of persons massacred. These are sober estimates.
Wild estimates place the number as high as 20,000 to 25,000.
This all took place during the latter part of August and [early part of]
September. The arrival of the commander-in-chief of the Fourth Army
Corps put a stop to the carnage. It is to be noted that the massacres
were perpetrated by regular soldiers, for the most part under command of
officers of high rank. This gives this affair a most serious aspect.
A Christian does not enjoy the respect accorded to street dogs. If this
massacre passes without notice it will simply become the declaration of
the doom of the Christians. There will be no security for the life,
property, or honor of a Christian. A week ago last Tuesday evening at
sundown a Turk kidnapped the wife of a wealthy Armenian merchant of the
town of Khanoos Pert. Next morning her cries were overheard by searchers
and she was rescued from a Turkish house. No redress is possible.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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