The sun. [volume] (Morris, Stevens County, Minn.) 1882-1895, 1894-11-22
CARNIVAL OF BLOOD
CHRISTIANS ARE SLAUGHTERED
BY THOUSANDS IN ARMENIA.
Prom six to Ten Thousand Persons,
Including Women and Children,
Are Butchcred by Soldiers Acting
Under Orders From ConstantinOple.


Are Butchcred by Soldiers Acting
Under Orders From ConstantfnOple.
London, Nov. 1s.-The chairman OF
the Armenian Patriotic association, g.
Hagopin, has sent the following let
ter, received from an Armenian whose
name is not given because 1t would
jeopardize his life, to the earl of Kim
berly, the secretary of state for for
eign affairs. The letter is accom-
panied by one from Hagopin in which
he says:
Il have no reason to doubt the au-
thenticity of the details. They will
be borne out by fuller official reports
which have been or will soon be re-
ceiyed from the British agents In
Armenia, The events reported are
the fe-enactment of the Bulgarian
atrocities with oil their most sickening
details of fiendish lust and atrocious
cruelty on unarmed Christians and de-
fenseless, innocent women and chill
dren, deliberately planned and ruth
lessly executed under orders received
from Constantinople.
Hagopian concludes by saying that
the time has come to abolish in teto
the existing administration OF Ar
menia and replace 1t by another
regime approved by Great Britain and
other signatories of the treaties Of
Berlin and worked under their Inn
mediate supervision.
The letter Of the Armenian thus pre-
faced Is dated Bitlis, Oct. 9. After
saying that the chief magnate appears
to be a second Nero, the writer con-
tinues:
1.-The so-ealIed rebellion of the Ar
menians In 1893 was got-up affair
for the repression of which the chief
magnate got decoration. This year
| the Kurds carried off Armenian oxen
and the Armenians' appeal for their
restoration was refused. A fight ell
| sued. Two Kurds were killed and
| three were wounded. The Kurds i'm
| mediately carried their dead before the
governor, declaring that the Armeni-
ans had Noverrun the land, killing and
plundering the Kurds.
'srhis furnished pretext for mass
ing the troops from far and near. The
| troops were commanded by q pasha
| aud a marshal and We're hurried to
| the district. The pasha Is said to have
| hung from his breast after reading 1t
| to his soldiers, an order from Constan-
tinople to cut the Armenians up root
| and branch, and abiuring them to do
| so If they loved their king and their
| government.
| Nearly all these things were related
here and there by soldiers who took
| part in the horrible carnage. Some of
them weeping, claim that the Kurds
| did more and declare that they only
obeyed the orders of others.
ut is said that 100 fell to each of
i them to dispose of. No compassion
| was shown to age or sex even by the
regular soldiers not even when the
victims fell suppliant at their feet.
six to ten thousand persons met
| such a fate as even the darkest ages
of darkened Africa hardly witness, for
i there women and tender babes might
| at least have had a chance of life
/ tf slavery. while here wemanhGod and
| innocency were but Il mockery before
the cruel lust that ended its debauch
by stabbing women to death with the
bayonet, while tender babes were i'm
paled with the same weapon on their
dead mothers breasts or, perhaps,
seized by the hair to have their heads
Topped off with the sword.
I'm one place 800 or 400 women,
after being forced to serve vile pur-
poses by the merciless soldiers, were
hacked to pieces by sword and bayo.
net in the valley below. In another
place some 200 weeping and wailing
women begged for compassion, falling
at the commanders feet, but the blood
thirsty wretch, after ordering their vio-
lation, directed his soldiers to dis
patch them in similar way. In an
other place some sixty young brides
and the more attractive girls were
crowded into a church, and after vic.
lation were slaughtered and human
gore was seen flowing from the church
door.
'.At another place still, large COM
pany under the lead of their priest,
fell down before them, begging foI
i compassion and averring that they
had nothing to do with the culprits.
But all to no purpose. All were called
to another place and the proposal was
made to several of the more attractive
women to change their faith, ! which
case their lives were to be spared
They said: why should we deny
Christ? We are no more than these
pointing to the mangled forms of
ltheir husbands and brothers-'kill us
too and they did So"
Another letter says that some of the
regular soldiers themselves admit that
they killed 100 persons each in fiend
ish manner, and that rape was fol
lowed by the bayonet. Twenty OF
thirty Armenian villages, 1t would
seem, have been wholly destroyed and
some persons were burned to deati
with kerosene In their own houses.