The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1895-01-07
.BARBAR|TY OF The TURKS
Further Details Concerning the Ar
menian Horrors.
FIRST REPORTS CONFIRMED
An Armenian Resident Of Sassoun, the
Seat of the Massacre, Givcsa Graphic
Account of the Slaughter in u
Letter from Athens.
By the United Press.

by the United Press.
Boston, Jan. 6.-The following letter,
dated Athens, Dec. 10, has been re-
ceived in Boston from an Armenian ma
tive of Sassoun, the seat of the recent
massacre:
AT last we have escaped from the
barbarity and atrocity of the Turks,
and have arrived at Athens. Our es-
cape from Sassoun was almost miracll-
lous, and it is possible that the cannon
and knives of the Turkish soldiers are
still doing their bloody work there.
Everybody knows that the orders
for the massacre were given by the
direct counsellors of the Sultan. There
is hardly a man left alive in Sassoun,
and pleading women and children all
together, young and old, have been sac
rificed by the swords of the Turkish
soldiers. They besieged the village from
the last of April until the first of
August, and during all these weeks
were fed on vegetable and the roots of
grasses.
THE first two weeks We're bitterly
cold, and existence was terrible. All
outside communication was cut off.
The Turks suspected that other viii
lagos would give us food, and so they
plundered the neighboring villages; the
villagers resisted, and hundreds of
them We're killed. OF the 325 houses
which made up the village of Varteniss
only thirty-five We're left standing.
+ when the news of this massacre
reached Sassoun our people We're ex-
cited beyond all thought Of personal
/ ca fnf uttuol;.l 10
and succeeded in killing twelve of them.
Then more ammunition and soldiers
We're sent there, and devilish work
was begun.
Unparalleled Atrocities.
''The chiefs of the tribes of the Kurds,
with Selo Bey and his staff, together
with the regular soldiers, came to the
village Of Senal. Many of the inhabi-
tants, after suffering atrOcious cruel
| ties, We're put to death. They brought
the minister of the village from his
house, and after forcing the sacred
| chalice into his hands bound him to a
donkey, and then shot him and the
animal together. In all. the number
killed in this village was forty-tive.
This deyiltry was by no means the
| WplSi ptIpelIdltu. Ht
was at the village of Gely-Guse. Selo
Bey and his men entered the village
before daybreak, and, while the inha5-
itants We're peacefully sleeping in their
homes, set fire to the whole village, and
not one escaped. The village of Shenig
met with almost a similar fate, all the
people of prominence being killed.
1.-The tribe of Kurds known as
Gebran, headed by Chief Ebo, and ac-
companied by Turkish soldiers, entered
the village of Konk. There they
gathered all the women in the church.
After defiling them in the most revolt
ing manner they slew them. The sol
diers spent the night in the village in
revelry and debauchery.
1.-TWO other tribes, those of Pakran,
and Khisan, came against the village
of Alpak. They collected all the herds
and flocks and drove them off. Then
they returned and burned the whole
village.
"We who have escaped thank God for
our safety, and are prayerfully expect
ing the helpful sympathy of the civil
lied world"