St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-03-04

OF their position. AS result they had
recourse to the Kurds, whose chiefs
were called to Constantinople, where
they received instructions to form res
iments of soldiers from their own
tribes. This was the beginning of
what is known as the Hamidih cav
airy or Kurdish irregulars. The Kurd-
1sh chiefs were loaded with favors and
invested with the right to oppress the
Armenians. Their troops received no
pay, but, what was better for them,
they received permission to plunder
the Christians. Unable to endure this
newest form of oppression, some of
the Armenians revolted against the
cruelty Of their oppressors, while many
sought to fly to foreign countries The
final result came in the massacre
IN THE SASSOUN MOUNTAINS.
What took place there know only
from the statements of eyewitnesses
and also from the accounts published
In the newspapers. The Turks had
wished for long time to capture and
punish the people who had revolted
against the cruelties of the Kurds, but
! the inaccessibility of the mountainous
country not only to cavalry, but also
TO infantry. frustrated their design.
However, when the Kurdish regiments
were formed, the task of capturing the
mountain people was intrusted to
them, and subsequently 1900 Turkish
regular troops, with several mountain
guns, were sent to assist In the work.
me Armenians occupied a strong DO
sltion, owing to the inaccessibility of
the mountain region, and when the
turkish troops attacked them they
met with resistance, but as the Ar
menians had but few arms and In
{ adequate supplies of provisions thew
: were 81 mutually compelled to surrend-
er. DENing the fighting a few soldiers
We're killed, but very few compared
With the number of Armenians after
wards put to death by both Kurdish
and Turkish troops. Among the hor-
r1ble cruelties perpetrated upon the
Armenians during the massacre. I will
relate the following fact, proving the
ferocity of the Turkish troops and
their commander. Zekki Pasha:
/ When the Armenians had surren-
/ oered, ,spO of them, including three
priestsI gere thrown
INTO A DITCH ALIVE.
despite the fact that thew were nor
wounded. Earth was then heaned
/ upon them and some soldiers were
sent to watch them until they had all
perished. After this the massacre
continued. Many people, old and
young, were killed, and many women
and young girls were sent by the
|; soldiers to Moosh. The bodies of the
/ Armenians who were killed in large
numbers together were buried In COM
mon graves, but the bodies of those
who were killed in isolated places
were left unburied. The Armenians
who were not killed fed Most of
them came to Russia. Some of them
are now in Tiflis. Some came to me
IN EtschmiadZin and related to me
IF4he suffertngs they had endured
I Many Armenians are confined In pris.
.ons for political matters; the exact
number of the prisoners is unknown
to me, but it must be more than 1000.
Forty or fifty clergymen are among
this number-priests, bishops and ar
chimandrites. All or nearly all are
quite innocent. They are imprisoned
for so called political offenses.' But
what the Turk calls political offense
has not the same significance as In
Western Europe. For instance, for a
Christian to protect his property from
plunder Is considered a political Of
tense in the Turkish empire. In pris-
on all kinds of tortures are employed
against rich and poor. The state of
the Turkish prisons is
SIMPLY DREADFUL.
For instance, the chief monk of a
monastery was fastened to wall
with nails driven through his hands.
and was delivered from that awful
position only on admitting that he
had acted wrongly, although he was
| really innocent. On the hands and
feet of several prisoners were fastened
iron chains and heavy shackles of
wood, while on their heads were
placed instruments resembling copper
pots, which were heated to high tenn
peratures. Sometimes these tortures
ended in the death of the sufferers.
sometimes also the torturers executed
their terrible task simply to kill their
victims. In the Sassoun district there
were about ia villages and hamlets.
In one of these villages lived kama
dam, Turkish district chief. The
whole number of Armenian families
or 'hearths' as they are called in the
district was 3,648 The Armenians. I
may explain, have preserved the an
cient tribal system. The minimum
number to one of these 'hearths' is
eight persons; the maximum sixty or
more. Taking twenty as modest
average, the number of inhabitants in
the district amounted to more than
h. f,ofo AZ
to me l believe the Kurdish Turkish
troops have burned or destroyed the
following
THIRTY-ONE VILLAGES.
and / estimated that the number OF
men, women and children killed in the
/ Sassoun districts amounts to II 900.
THESE villages are: Spenyk, with 1,6OO
inhabitants; Semal, with 1,400 inhabi-
fants; Cleicangan, with 2,40O inhab-
itants; then follow Alliantz, Ukatan,
Aubr, Talvarik, Akmanda, Khiloghenk,
| Tenalenk, P'Surkh, Hartuk, Khas-
muth, Mardin, Koiliakenman, BERN,
PAmtank, Ceimbenin, Cramoury,
Mazreina, a second village named
Mazrien, Dosorari, Sp'Hgand, Tegh-
Kart, Alkhovitt, Mzrain, Artukou.
Hahiu.''
During the interview, the Associated
Press correspondent asked Khrimiran
what truth there was in the story that
certain Armenian revolutionary lead
ers induced Armenians to commit
atrocities on Turks in the hope of pro-
Yoking outrages which would raise
the wrath of the Christian world. He
replied that such rumors were too
absurd to obtain credence anywhere
except in Turkey. With reference to
the Turkish commission inquiry Mgr
Khrimiran said:
The chief interest at present CEN
ters in the Turkish commission of in
quiry, but
LOOK FOR NC RESULTS
from the commission because it will
only deal with the Sassoun matter,
which was only an incident in the op-
srression of the Armenians.