Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1895-04-12
TURKISH ATROCITY.


Orders to Make Clean Sweep and No
Distinction OF Age or Sex-I6 900 People
NIassacred.
New York. April 1.-THE Phil
Armenian Association is distributing
a handsomely printed and illustrated
| book entitled "The Armenian Crisis
in Turkey" dealing largely with the
massacre Of 1894, its antecedents and
significance. Friedrich Davis Greene,
the author, was a missionary Of the
American Board in Van, the centre OF
the Armenia, and was recently ordered
by his physician to return to America
Many of the atrocities described III this
letter are too horrible for publication.
Here are some extracts from a descrip-
tion OF the great massacre at Sassoun,
near Moosh
No distinctions were made against
persons or villages, whether they were
loyal and had paid their taxes or not.
The orders We're to make a clean sweep.
A priest and some leading men from
one village went out 10 meet an officer,
taking in their hands their tax re-
ceipts. declaring their loyalty and beg
ging for mercy; but the village was
surrounded and all human beings put
TO the bayOnet. A large and strong
man; the chief of one village, was cap
tWed by the Kurds, who tied him,
threw him on the ground, and, squat
ting around him, stabbed him to pieces.
At GalogZan many young men were
tied hand and foot, laid in row, COW
cred with brushwood and burned alive.
! Others were seized and hacked TO death
peacemeal.
At another village a priest and sew
eral leading men were captured and
promised release if they would tell
where others had fed, but after telling,
all but the priest was killed. a chain
was put around the priests neck and
pulled from opposite sides till he was
several times checked ana revived, af-
ter which several bayOnets were plant
ed upright, and he was raised in the
air and let fall upon them.
The men of one village, when fleeing,
took the women and children, some
500 in number, and placed them in a
sort of grotto in a ravine. After sew
eral days the soldiers found them and
butchered those who had not died OF
hunger.
Sixty young women and girls were
selected from one village and placed
in a church, when the soldiers were
ordered to do with them as they liked,
and they finally were butchered.
Children were frequently held up by
the hair and cut in two or had their
laws torn apart. Women were treated
the same way. Other children were
pulled apart by their legs The last
stand took place on Mount Andoke,
south of Moosh, where some thousand
| persons had sought refuge The Kurds
| We're sent in relays to attack them, and
after the besieged had been without
food for several days and their ammu-
milton was exhausted, the troops sue
| ceeded in reaching the summit with
| out any loss, and let scarcely a man
escape.
Now all turned their attention to
tose who had been driven into the Tai
voreeg district Three or four thous-
and of the besieged were left in this
small plain. When they saw them
selves thickly surrounded on all sides
by Turks and Kurds, they raised their
hands to Heaven with an agonizing
moan for deliverance. They were thin
ned out by rife shots, and the remain
der were slaughtered with bayonets
and swords, till a veritable river Of
blood flowed from the heaps Of the
slain.
Forty villages were destroyed, and it
is probable that 10000 at least were
killed. The lowest estimate is 10000,
and many put it much higher.