The Washburn leader. [volume] (Washburn, McLean County, N.D.) 1890-1986, 1894-11-24
CARNIVAL OF BLOOD
CHRISTIANS ARE SLAUGHTERED
BY THOUSANDS IN ARMENIA.
From Six to Ten Thousand Persons,
Including Women and Children,
Are Butchered by Soldiers Actiag
Under Orders From Consta n tin Ople.

Under Orders From Consta ntin Ople.
London. Nov. 1S.-Tle. chairman of
the Armenian Patriotic association. G..
Hagopin, has sent the following let
ter, received from Il IN Armenian whose
name is not given because 1T would
.ieopardize 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:
II 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-
'ceivcd from the British agents in
Armenia. The events reported are
the re-enactment of the Bulgarian
details Of fiendish lust and atrocious
cruelty on unarmed Christians and de-
fenscless. innocent women and hill
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
saying that the chief magnate appears
to be q second Nero, the writer con-
tinues:
''The so-called rebellion of the Az
menians in 1888 was Il yOt-up affair
for the repression of which the chief
magnate got 4 decoration. This year
the Kurds carried off Armenian oxen
and the Armenians' appeal for their
restoration was refused. \ fight ell
sued. Two Kurds We're killed and
three We're wounded. The Kurds inn
mediately carried their dead before the
governor, declaring That the ArEeni-
ans had overrun the lIld, killing and
plundering the Kurds.
This furnished u pretcxt for mass
ing the troops from far and near. The
troops were commanded by a paslla
and a marshal and We're hurried to
the district. The paslla is said to have
hung from his breast. after reading it
to his soldiers, M 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.
1T 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 a 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 a life
4 + slavery. while here Womanhcod anG
%innocency We're 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
dead mothers breasts or, perhaps,
.1SlItu w tUC. UulI " nave tlACll ACuup
Topped off with the sword.
"1n 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 u similar way. In an
other place some sixty young brides
and the more .uttl&ctive girls were
crowded into IL church. and after vi0-
lation were slaughtered and human
gore was seen flowing from the church
door.
AT another place still. a large COM
rany under the lead of their priest,
fell down before them. begging for
compassion and averring that they
had nothing tn do with the cnlprits.
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, IL which
case their lives were to be spared.
They said: Why should we deny
Christ? We ale no more than these
pointing to the mangled forms of
their husbands and b~rothers-'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 a fiend-
ISL manner, and that rape was fol-
lowed by the baycnet. Twenty or
thirty Armenian villages. 1t would
SEEM, have been wholly destroyed and
some persons were burned to death
with Kerosene in their own houses.