Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1894-11-23
OF BUTcHERY
An American Claims That 5000
Countrymen Perished.
AN OFFICIAL DENIAL ISSUED.
The Kurds Spared Neither Mother. Bride
Nor Babe, But Put All to the
sword-FiendishC Cruelty.

the Armenian Patriotic Association, q.
Hagopin, has sent the following letter |
received from an Armenian whose name |
is not given because 1t would jeopar- |
die his life, to the earl of Kimberly, |
secretary of the state for foreign af- |
fairs. The letter is accompanied by
one fromHagopin, in which he says:
II have no reason to doubt the anthem
ITCHY of the details. They will be borne
out by fuller official reports which have
been, or which will soon be received
from the British agents in Armenia"
The events reported are the enact
ment of Bulgarian atrocities, with all
their most sickening details of fiendish
lust and atrocious cruelty on Armenian
Christians, defenceless innocent women
and children, deliberately planned and
ruthlessly executed under orders re-
ceived from Constantinople. Hagopin
concludes by saying the time has come
to abolish in toto the existing admin
istration of Armenia and replace 1t by
another regime approved by Great
Britain and other signatories of the
treaty of Berlin and worked under
their immediate supervision. The let
ter of the Armenian thus prefaced is
dated Bitlis, October 3. After saying
that the magnate appears to be a sec
ond Nero, the writer continues
A GOT-UP AFFAIR.
1.-THE so-called rebellion of Armenians
in 1893 was a 'got-up affair for the re-
preston of which the chief magnate
got a decoration. This year the kurds
carried off Armenian oxen and the
Armenians' appeal for restoration was
refused. A fight ensued. Two kurds
were killed and three were wounded.
The kurds Immediately carried their
dead before the governor, declaring the
Armenian soldiers had over-run the
land, killing and plundering the kurds.
This furnished pretext for massing
troops from far and near. The troops
were commanded by a pasha and a mar
shall and were hurried to the district
| The pasha is said to have hung from
| his breast, after reading ii to his SOL
| diers, an order from Constantinople to
| cut out the Armenians, root and branch.
| Nearly all these things We're related
| here and there by the soldiers who took
| part in the horrible carnage. Some
| of them, weeping. claim the kurds did
more and declare that they only obeyed
| the orders of the others. 1t is said
that 100 Armenians fell to each of them
to dispose of. No compassion was
shown to age or sex. even by the regu-
lar soldiers, not even when the victims
fell suppliant at their feet.
SIXTEEN THOUSAND DEAD
Sixteen thousand persons met such
fate as even the darkest ages of dark
ened Africa hardly witnessed, for the
women and tppler hn hos OIL loo 6,
have had a chance for a life of slavery
while their womanhood was but 6
mockery before the cruel lust that end
ed its debauch by stabbing the womer
to death with the bayonet, while tender
babes were impaled with the sam,
weapon on their mothers breasts, OF
perhaps seized by the hair to hav,
their heads chopped off with the sword
In one place 800 or 400 women, afte
being forced to serve vile purposes b,
I the merciless soldiery, We're hacked t.
pieces by the sword and bayonet in tn
valley below. In another place 20
weeping and wailing women begged TO
compassion. falling at the commander
! feet, but the bloodthirsty wretch, afte
: ordering their violation. directed hi
soldiers to dispatch them in a simila
. way.
I'm another place so young brides an
: the more attractive girls We're crowde
r into church and after violation wer
!, slaughtered and human gore was 500
y flowing from the church door. At anotf
9 er place a large company under tn
leadership of their priests fell down be-
! fore them begging for compassion an
!. averring that they had nothing to d
, with the culprits, but all to no purpos
n All We're called to one place and the pr,
s. posal was made to several of the MOI
attractive women to change their faitl
= in which event their lives were to
~ spared They said: why should we d,
ny Christ? We are no more than these
pointing to the mangled forms of hui
bands and brothers. kill us too an
they did So A great effort was made
save one beauty, but three or four qua
n relied over her and she sank down lii
her sisters.
r. CONFIRMED BY OTHERS.
: But why prolong the sickening tale
6 There must be God in heaven WI
: will do right in all these matters.
: some of us would lose faith. One
more consuls have been ordered ava
= to Investigate the matter. If the Chri
:, tians instead of the Turks reportt
: these things in the city of Bitlis and Il
: region where l have been touring, Il
case would be different, but now we a
70 compelled to believe it. The magnat
are having papers circulated and a
, trying to compel the Christians to sis
y them, expressing satisfaction that ju
tice has been dealt to the rebels al
thanking the king and the chief ma
nate. The Christians of Bitlis will n
CT sign, though 1t is said that in some
the outlying districts the Christian
have signed. The circulars have n
"a been offered to Protestants, and as y
:, the Protestants have not been thru
into chains or blackmailed very niue
- though lately things are beginning
look that way" Another letter sa
y some of the regular soldiers themselv
AZ admit that they killed 100 persons apie
a. in fiendish manner and that rape W
u. followed by the bayonet Twenty
"a thirty Armenian villages ii won
III seem, have been wholly destroyed al
la some persons were put TO death by Ike
osene in their own houses.
AN OFFICIAL DENIAL
m Constantinople, Nov 16.-The folio
ol ing official account of the Armeni;
~ trouble was issued today: Some A
sb menian brigands provided with arms
,e foreign make Joined an insurgent Ku
RI tribe for the purpose of committing e
n cesses. They burned and devastat
rv several Mussulmen villages. AS an