Evening star., 1895-02-04
ATROCITIES IN ARMENIA.
What is Said of the Associated Presd
COrrespondence.

| What is Said of the Associated Press
Correspondence.
LONDON, February 4.-The letter Of the
correspondent Of the Associated Press. who
| is now in Armenia, giving the first direct
| and authentic facts regarding the reported
Turkish atrocities in Armenia, was pub
| lished here this morning after having ap-
peared exclusively in all the newspapers
Of the Associated Press yesterday. It ia
attracting much attention in England. as It
is admitted to be the first impartial ac-
count Of the troubles concerning which
so much has been said and written by the
Armenians and by the Turks.
The Daily Telegraph, for instance, says:
''The story is enough to make civilization
AID humanity despair. Both sides appear
to be guilty of acts against every canon OF
honesty, morality and civilization"
The Daily News in Its comments on the
same subject remarks: Even IL the ac-
cusaticns are fully proved the bulk Of the
Armenians have been extremely patient
under hideous cruelty"
The st. James Gazette says: England
had better take notice that there are un-
,1oubtedly two sides to the question"
First Authentic News.
The Associated Press correspondent was
sent to Armenia from London to inve sti-
gate the reported atrocities of the Turks
and to report impartially. His first letter
has Just reached London after having been
posted by a trusted messenger at Tifiis,
Russia. 1t contains the first authentic
news received from Armenia direct, and
says:
whatever secrets may lie under the
snow on the Armenian mountains, 1t seems
beyond dispute fro mwhat / have heard
from many lips that the published stories
of ferocious butchery and red horror In
the Sassoun villages have at least a rea-
sonable foundation Of truth and that any
change authorized by further investiga-
ton will deal more with numbers than
with the degree Of horror"
The correspondent then repeats the fa-
miliar story of the massacre of the VII
layers of Sassoun by the Kurdish bandits
and the Kurds. who were formerly the pro-
tectors Of the village. The correspondent
says:
1.-The outrage of Armenian women and
children by Turks in that part of the coun-
try is common a thing, even in times
of absolute quiet, that there can be no
doubt that this massacre was attended
with outrage and atrocity too horrible to
think of. The Armentans in Athens and
ConStantinople assert that forty-two viii
lagos We're destroyed and nearly 10000 per-
sons massacred: but more impartial and
equally well-informed persons elsewhere
put the number at twenty-five villages and
from 1000 to 3,00e persons killed. The ex-
act number will never be known"
The correspondent also says: TT Is q
significant fact that outrages are not per-
petrated by Turks upon other Turks, or
by Kurds upon their fellow-tribemen. 1t
is always upon the Armenian Christian
that the Turk and Kurd let loose their in
genious depravity.'
The Armenian revolutionists, he says,
are not free from guilt. He says: 1T is q
fact that certain of these Armenian con-
spirators arranged to murder the Rev.
Edward Riggs ard two other American
missionaries at Marsovan and fasten the
blame upon the Turks in order that the
United States might inf1ict summary pun
ishment upon the Turkish government,
thereby making possible Armenian inde-
pendence Moreover the missionaries would
have been murdered had not an Armenian
friend warned them"