Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1894-11-22
CARNIV ALI OF BLOOD.
CHRISTIANS ARE sLAUGIiTERED
ny THOUSANDS IN ARMENIA.

l,5s-' ~ "a
rrom SIX To Ten Thansand Persons,
rncludfng Women and Children,
Are Bntchcred by Soldiers Actiug
Under Orders From Constantinople.
London. Nov. 1S.-The chairman of
+he Armenian Patriotic association, G..
Hagopin, has sent the following let
FOR received from an Armenian whose
name is not given because 1T would
,copardize his life. to the earl Of Kim
berly, the secretary of state for for
eipn affairs The letter is accom-
panied by one from Hagopin in which
lie says:
~ have no reason to doubt the au-
thcuticity of the details. They will
he borne out by fuller official reports
which have been or will soon be re-
ceiycd from the British agents in
Armenia. The events reported are
the re-cnactment of the Bulgarian
atrocities with all their most sickening
details of tiendish lust and atrocious
cruelty ON unarmed Christians and de-
fenscless. 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 toto
the existing administration Of Ar
menia and replace it by another
regime approved by Great Britain and
other signatories OF the treaties Of
Berlin and worked under, their int
mediate supervision.
The letter of the Armenian thus pre-
faced is dated Bitlis, Oct. 8. After
saving that the chief magnate appears
TO be second Nero, the writer con-
tnues:
.rhe so-called rebellion of the Ar
for the repression of which the chief
nagnate got decoration. This Year
the Kurds carried off Armenian oxen
and the Armenians' appeal for ,lleir
restoration was refused. A fight ell
sued. Two Kurds were killed and
three were wounded. The Kur(ls i'm
mediately carried their dead before the
governor. declaring that the Armeni-
ans had overrun the land, killing and
plunderipg the Kurds.
"This furnished a pretext for mass-
ing the troops from far and near. The
troops were commanded by pasha
and a marshal and were hurried to
the district. The pasha is said to have
hung from his breast. after reading it
to his soldiers, an order from Constan-
tinople to cut the ArmenianS up root
and branch, and abjuring them to dO
so if they loved their king and their
government.
Nearly all these things We're 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
obcyed the orders of others.
lit is said that 100 fell to each Of
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 fate as even the darkest ages
of darkened Africa hardly witness, for
there women and tender babes might
at least have had a chance of life
# slavery. while here womanhcod anG
innocency We're but q mockery before
the cruel lust that ended it's 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.
lin 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
ether place some sixty young brides
and the more attractive girls were
crowded into church, and after vio-
lation We're 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 for
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, | i 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
their 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 ina tiend-
ish manner, and that rape was fol-
lowed by the bayonet. Twenty or
thirty Armenian villages, it would
seem, have been wholly destroyed and
some persons were burned to death
with Kerosene in their own houses.