The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-06-10

DJulfa, Russia, May 7.-[Copyrighted,
1895, by the Associated Press. From
the special correspondent of the As
ISOLATED Press in Armenia. 1.-The Turk
ish government, it is claimed, has just
taken the preliminary steps in what
may result in a, massacre of HISTORIAN
Christians in the mountains of Kurd-
istan. 1t is asserted that the govern
ment has given orders to starve the
Independent tribes of HISTORIANS in
the mountain region Immediately west
of Caviar, which may be described as
laying about midway between Mosul
and Lake Van, about fifty miles west
of the Persian frontier. The orders it
is stated, are that no food supplies of
any kind shall be allowed to enter the
territory of the Independent tribes and
measures are said to have been taken
to enforce these orders to the letter.
This again is apparently taken as a
means of compelling the Independent
tribes to submit to the Turkish au-
thorities and to pay the taxes de-
manded by the government, and it is
regarded as the first serious attempt
that the Turks have made to eXtOrt
taxes from the independent tribes
From the earliest time in the history
of the Ottoman empire these tribes
have been independent of Turkish rule
They have paid no taxes and they
have acknowledged no allegiance to
the Turkish government. The present
course of the government is taken in
some quarters as an indication that
the sultan has set on foot systematic
persecution of the Christians in all
parts of the empire. The sultan has
plenty of opportunity for knowing
hn nd
too poor to pay taxes, and that many
of them make a living by going down
into the villages OF their less
wretchedly poor countrymen and beg
ging. These poor creatures, according
to the story, are to be starved because
they will not share with the sultan of
Turkey the scraps of bread, the refuse
bits of meats and the odds and ends
which they obtain by begging. Their
homes are in wilderness of noun
tain peaks and narrow rocky valleys,
where nothing will grow. except a tuft
of broom corn here and there in the
crevices on the rocks of the mountain
sides, and a few stocks of millet in a
casual square yard of soil in the val
leys.
1t is not difficult to forecast the
proba BILE result of the starvation of
this race of beggars should the report
turn out to be correct. Driven des-
perate by hunger the people will en-
deavor to obtain food from Caviar and
other outside districts and there will
be fights with the Turkish troops; the
villages will possibly be attacked and
some of the wretched people will be
killed and no man can prophesy where
the persecution will end.
| have just returned from a rapid
journey to the Kurdish mountains for
the purpose of inVeStiga ting the re-
port that fourteen villages had been
attacked and devastated by a raid of
KurdS last week. The original rumor
had it that the Kurds had massacred
many Christians and had carried off
women and girls to the mountains.
After riding day and night to reach
the scene of the raids l at length ar
rived at the Merguisver valley. which
lies like the bottom of boat beneath
huge mountains covered from base to
summit with almost unbroken expanses
of snow. 1t was in this valley that
the raid took place. l found that a
band of Kurds from the mountains
had indeed raided fourteen villages in
this valley, but the raid was directed
against other Kurds, and not against
Christians. There were few Mes
torian Christians living in the valley.
but they were not molested in any
way.
AS this was not race or religious
raid it will probably have little inter
est outside of the valley. [ regret to
say that Mr.. Palon. the British con-
sulate general in Tebriz, Persia, is
very much in disfavor with the gem
tlemen who are conducting the Ar
menian revolutionary movements. In
spite of the fact that Mr.. Palon has
been collecting evidence of the Sassoun
and Moosh massacre for the use of the
British government, the Armenians
looked upon him as a spy. They may
go to the length to do him bodily harm
The closing of the caravan routes to
Van has rendered more acute the suf-
fering from famine in the devastated
districts near Van. The only hope of
relief is now cut off.