The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-06-19
STORIES OF REFUGEES
Neither Age Nor Sex RESPECTED
by the Cruel. Devilish
KurdS.
PRIESTS AMONG THE TORTURED.
Men, Women and Children Butch
cred in the Most Revolving
Manner.

BOSTON, MASS, June 18.-A rehearsal
of incidents of the Sassoun massacre has
been obtained from refugees and forwarded
from Bitlis, in the mountainous region of
Eastern Turkey. for publication in the
United States. 1t includes statements of
the most revolving outrages and cruelties.
Parih of Delvorig, the region of He
tink village of some thirty-fve houses,
tells of the killing of her husband and his
brother, who were shot and bayoneted to-
death. After mangling her husbands
body, the soldiers hung it to tree, ex-
posed to the sun and to be food for rapa-
cous birds. The Kurds stripped the
women of their clothing and burned their
dwellings and belongings.
AT Aghpig, near the village, Nero was
burned in his house. Meros small chill
dren were hacked to pieces by the soldiers,
and woman's head was found and recog-
nized.
One woman says: 81 saw another
woman, Hapseh by name, native of Dali
vorig, ripped up by the soldiers and her
child put on her breast and the two bay.
oneted after that
Der (Pries) Hohannes of Seminal and
Der Bedraz OF Geliguzan were the woman's
uncles, and she, like others, says: "The
eyes of Der Bedraz were dug out and forty
bayonet wounds inflicted"
Der Hohannes of the forty who were
bayoneted in the ditch by the. soldiers
asked for a few minutes to pray, and was
told that if he would not change faith he
would be killed. 81 can't" he sale, 'but
my people (many drawn up before him)
are free to do as they like AS they too
refused to change their faith they were
bayoneted and thrown into the long
grave they had been forced to dig. The
soldiers took out Der Hohannes and COM
PEELED him to dance. Not only was he de-
prived of his beard-the insignia of his
priestly office-but the cruel creatures took
along with the razor some of the skin and
flesh as we'll.
Having pierced his throat they forced
him to drink water, when it flowed from
the CHASTITY wound down on either side.
His head was kicked this way and that, as
if football. Human flesh taken from
some of the mangled people was put into
his mouth. He too was pitched into the
ditch with more than two score men that
had the promise of safety if they would
cease resistance and surrender.
Numerous other witnesses corrobor ated
the stories of the torturing of this priest.
A dozen refugees, members of whose fam
lilies were bayoneted and pitched into the
terrible ditch, tell horrible stories of the
cruelties of the butcher soldiers.
Still another woman, named Marian,
tells how her husband, Ghazar, was
pitched into that ditch and two-year-old
boy burned in their house. She also tells
how in Geliguzan a four-year-old boy, son
of Hello, was sacrificed on fire made for
the purpose by the soldiers. Marian saw
from her hiding-place the soldiers hang
from a tree and fay alive one Harten.
There he was left hanging, a prey to rapa-
cious birds and the scorching sun. Another
Armenian, pursued by nine soldiers, was
mangled, his skin and flesh scraped from
his face and his own flesh thrust down his
mouth.
Numerous witnesses relate how Kalo's
wife, Torrey, and her child were flung into
the air on bayonet. Kahzo of Shrink, 20
years of age, who had babe of months
in arms, tells how her husband, Hogos,
and his brother, Ghazar, were killed; also
three others of the family, Tattar, Khacho
and MiSag, her mother, Memmo, hacked
and bayoneted all out of shape and left
unburied by Tone. She was Geliguzan
and the Kurds did this in anger because
she pushed her sons into the fight
Burfoo of Bitlis tells thrilling story.
Her husband, Lilo, was literally hacked
to pieces, the remains of which she could
only gather up for some sort of burial
after twelve days. Her two-year-old boy
was snatched from her arms to be stabbed
to death, her daughter of 10 years. Aghrout,
fell down dead from fright, while she Dur
foo) made her escape.
Nearly hundred terrorized ones, and
among them twelve able-bodied men, de-
cided to go to Kourdichaghas, in not dis
tant village. En- route they were sur
rounded by hundreds of the tribe, who
drove them like cattle into valley. They
took the only weapons-their knives-from
the men, bound them and sent them to the
camp of the regular soldiers as sheep to
the Slaughter. The women were stripped
of their clothing, few of every rag,
counted, as if sheep for the yarding. and
kept under guard for the night
After shivering in the cold, the next
morning they were again asked to deny
their faith, but not succeeding in this the
Kdrds began to disband and the poor,
frightened ones were allowed to make
their escape. The wives were ready to fol-
low their husbands to their fate, but were
not allowed.
The testimony of all the other witnesses
is but repetitions of such unheard of cruel
ties as these.
TO ABANDON THE VAR.