The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1894-12-04
MEN OR DEMONS +?
Fearful Atrocities of the
Turks.
BUTCHERY OF ARMENIANS.
Tales of Crimes That Cannot
Be Half Told.
MEN AND WOMEN SHOT DOWN
And Little Children Slaughtered in
Their Homes Without Ruth
by Brutal Soidiery.

of the Associated Press succeeded in secur-
ing additional information confirming the
previous statements made. The repre-
sentative to-day met twenty Armenian
refugees, who have arrived here from Ar
menia after a journey full of hardships
and suffering. Securing the service of a
first clsss INTERPRETER. he gathered the
Armenians together at q convenient place,
aud having relieved their pressing neces-
stiles. the interpreter questioned the refu-
gees concerning the terrible events of
which they had in a number of cases been
eye-witnesses. This party Of Armenians is
the first that has escaped from the
districts where the massacTes occurred and
it is believed that even worse remains to
be told, as the horrors described are un-
derstoOd to have lasted for long time
after this party left. Most OF the persons
who told their stories to-day escaped from
Moosh, Btlas and Ssssoun, bringing with
them what little they could carry and
making their way with the greatest diff
Guilty TO the Russo-Turksh frontier and
going to Erivan and Erchmiadzin. Several
Armenian women escaped from the viii
lagos with this party. but when near
ErZeToum they died from the effects of
odOCA WUunAo luAlCACQ uEUu huCn DCAUIS
their escape.
For about eighteen months, the Ar
menians say, the province of Sassoun has
been surrounded by Turkish troops and
nobody has been allowed to enter il or
leave. About four months ago the Turk
ish authorities learned that the in a bitRnts
of Vartemis, village outside the frontier
OF Sassoun, were sending for the neces-
sares of life 10 the village of Dalvorig
Such communication between the two
villages being prohibited the Turks mas
sacred nearly all the inhabitants of Var
tennis. This was the second massacre to
occur. The first took place about a year
ago.
One of the refugees. a man named
Khadjik, states that his uncle and aunt
were both killed, the latter being assaulted
before being put to death. An Armenian
priest named Kevont was killed for refus-
ing to celebrate Turkish rites in his
church at Varemis. The village con-
tanned 325 Armenian houses before the
Turks attacked it, but when the fugitives
left only twenty-five houses remained
standing. Dalvorig is the largest village
in the province of SassOun, and its inhab-
itants. when they learned of the horrors
perpetrated by the Turks at Vartemis,
attacked the Turks on the frontier.
The Turklsn commander eventually sent
120 soldiers into D3lvOrig to learn what
had occurred. The Armenians, filled with
indigna ton al the atrocities committed by
the Turks at Vartemis, attacked this de-
Iachment of Turkish soldiers and put
them all to death. When the Turkish
commander heard OF the death of his SOL
diers he determined on vengeance in the
most bloody manner possible A strong
force of Turkish troops was sent to the
village with artillery, and the massacre
began. Guns kept up a continuous fire
upon Dalvorig until practically not one
stone was left standing upon another,
Seio, the Bey Of Initzoun, Kurd, with
a detachment OF Kurdish cavalry, went
with the Turkish soldiers to the village of
Semal and forcihly took the Armenian
priest from his church after defiling the
sacred vessels and the priests hands.
They bound him on a donkey, which they
drove distance of a lew yards, and the
soldiers then fred at the priest and killed
him and the beast he was bound to. In
the same village the Turkish soldiers
entered an Armenian house and assaulted
a woman and her daughter, tbs latter be-
ing IA years of age. From this village
Selo forcibly took eight Armenian girls
and sent them to his harem at Initzoun.
Further atrocities were committed by
the Turks at the village of Keliehuesen.
Before dawn this place was surrounded
by soldiers, and while the inhabitants
were still asleep it was set on fire. The
brutal soldiers entered the residence of
man named Araket and tortured him in
horrible manner with redhOt irons. At
Kelehuesen the soldiers killed the Ar
menian priest Margosa, with twenty other
inmates of honse. They were burned to
death, the soldiers preventing anybody
fro escaping from the burning dwelling.
The chief of the village of Cheneg was
captured oY the soldiers and bound to his
two daughters. All three were then
scalded to death with boiling water. A
detachment of twenty-five regulars of the
Turkish cavalry, after committing mex
pressible horrors at the village of Seb-
ghank. went to the village school and
assaulted the girls found there. The cav
alrvmeu devastated the building.
Ibo Bey. the notorious Kurd brigand of
the village of Djibrand. and colonel in
of Turkish troops to the Armenian villages
of Bahlou, Hatezgent and Komka, and at
each place committed every crime there is
TO commit After driving out the men.
they collected the female children of Bah
lou together, about 200 in all, and, after as
saulting them, killed them all with guns
and swords. After this massacre the
Turkish soldiers reRaled themselves with
wine and whatever else they could find in
the village. The Kurdish regular troops
from KHAN and Bahran entered the Ar
menian villages of Allanozg and Aghleg,
killed the inhabitants and wrecked their
houses. The number OF villages devas.
tated in this manner is said 10 be over
ihirty-two.
The Armenians fled in every direction,
but many of them were captured by the
Turkish troops before they could get away
and were taken to prison. Khadijak. who