The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1894-12-04
HORRORS or ARMENIA.
Refugees from the Stricken VII
lagos Arrive at Athens. /.
FIRsT REPORTS FULLY CONFIRMED.

nach VIM "ero Eye WNnektas Oh tho
SIonstrous Atrocities Committed by Tur-
kish Soldiers Relate Their Terrible Eek
periences to Newspaper Man.
ATHENS, Greece, Dec. 4.-The Associated
Press representative yesterday met twenty
Armenian refugees who arrived here from
Armenia, after a journey full Of hardships
and suffering, and through an interpreter
questioned the unfortunate refugees con-
corning the terrible events which occurred
in Armenia and of which they had in a
number Of cases been eye witnesses. With
every mark of horror and Indignation the
Armenians told the interpreter Of the
scenes they had witnessed. Several Ar
menian women made their escape from the
villages with the party which has arrived
hore, but when near Erzeroum they died
from tho effects of saber wounds inflicted
upon them before their escape.
For about eighteen months, the refugees
say, the province Of Sassoun has been sur
rounded by Turkish troops, and nobody
has been allowed to enter 1t or to leave.
About four months ago the Turkish
authorities learned that the inhabitants of
Vartcmis, village outside the frontier Of
Sassoun, were sending for the necessaries
of life to the village of Dalvorig. Such
DtbNtbH tuo wv NlhdBtb
being prohibited, the Turks massacred
nearly all the inhabitants Of Vartemis.
One OF the refugees, aman named Khad-
jik, states that his uncle and aunt were
among the killed, the latter being violated
previous to being put to death. An Ar
menian priest named Kevont was killed
for refusing to celebrate Turkish rites in
his church at Vartemis. The village con-
tanned 3o5 Armenian houses before the
Turks attacked 1t, but when the fugitives
left only twenty-five houses remained
standing.
The Turkish commander sent twelve
soldiers into Dalvorig in order to learn
what had occurred. The Armenians filed
with indignation at the atrocities commit
ted by the Turks ut Yartemis, attacked
this detachment of Turkish soldiers and
| put them all to death. The Turkish com
mander determined upon avenglng this
in the most bloody manner possible The
| guns kept up a continuous fire upon Dial
yorig until practically not one stone was
! left standing upon another.
Selo, the beg of IpitzOun, Kurd, with
! a detachment of Kurdish cavalry, went
| with the Turkish soldiers to the village of
Semal and forcibly took the Armenian
priest from his church after disgustingly
defling the sacred vessels and the priests
hands. They then bound him on donkey,
| which they drove distance of II few yards.
The soldiers then fired 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 violated n
woman and her daughter, the latter being
II years old. From this village Selo furci-
bly, took eight Armchair girls and sent
them to Lis hnrcm at lnitzoun.
| Furt her qtrocitiea xyprp tni Inv
the Turks at the village of hclichuzcn
Before dawn this place was surrounded
by soldiers, and while the inhabitants
were still asleep il was set on fire. The
brutal soldiers entered the residence Of u
man named Arakel who was asleep with
his wife, and tortured them both in II ter
rible manner with red hot irons.
AT Keliehuzcn the soldiers killed the
Armenian priest, Margosv, who, with
twenty other inmates of u house, was
burned to death, the soldiers preventing
anybody from escaping from the burning
dwelling. The chief OF the village of Che
neg was captured by the soldiers and
bound to his two daughters All three
were scalded to death with boiling water.
A detachment of twenty five regulars of
the Turkish cavalry, after committing in
exprcssible horrors at the village of Scbg-
hank, went to the village school and raw
ished the girls found there The cavalry
men then devastated the building.
1bo Bey, notorious Kurd brigand of
the village of Bjibron, and a colonel in the
regular army, went with detachment OF
Turkish troops to tho Armenian village OF
Bahlou, drove out the men, collected all
the female children of Bahlou together
about 200 in all, and after ravshing them
they killed them all with guns and swords
The number of villages devasted in this
manner is said to be over thirty-two.