The Turks kept their word: for something over 100 Armenians (mostly honest shopkeepers returning from the market) were butchered at once by the "black-heads" (_kara-bashlar_, the low class civilian population).[124] Again it appeared that the troops, assisted by the Mussulman populace, would break into the Armenian quarters of the town, and that a most hideous massacre would follow. Both sides stood to arms, and for a matter of five weeks the tension was very great; hardly any Armenians venturing to leave their quarters. On the other hand, the Turks had just as much fear of entering there, for the position was eminently defensible. The houses of the garden city were too solidly built to be much damaged by field artillery (which was all that was available); and standing as they do for the most part in large gardens surrounded by mud walls, there was a distinct possibility that the troops (if they entered the quarter at all) might be very seriously entangled in them. Further, all the Turkish and Kurdish forces had a very lively respect for the prowess of the Tashnakists, and an exaggerated idea of their numbers. So the position continued; an anomaly that surely would be possible only in Turkey. A force of armed rebels standing at bay in one ward of the scattered town, and defying the Government in the other. While all the time (for men must eat and Armenians must trade) business was conducted pretty much as usual in the market of _Hach Poghan_, which stood conveniently on neutral ground at the edge of the two districts. The foreign Consuls, by the way, had insisted that food should not be cut off from the Armenian quarter, on proper payment for it! Even in Turkey such a position could not continue indefinitely. As soon as a sufficient body of troops, regular and irregular, had been accumulated, and resistance was manifestly hopeless, the Armenian quarter was formally occupied, and regular search made for arms and revolutionaries. Many of the former were found and confiscated; and the twelve members of the "ring" endeavoured to effect their escape from the town. But this they now found impossible. After some searching, their place of concealment was disclosed; and they were marked to ground in one of the _kerezes_ or subterranean channels that bring water from the mountains to the town.