The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1895-11-29
TESTIMONY.
That Massacres Mere Ordered by
Officials at Constantinople.
DIABOLlCAL DEEDS AT .sASS0UN
AS Related by Missionaries
From That District.

BUFFALO, Nov. 29.--Misses Charlotte K.
Ely and Mary A. g. Ely have just re-
turned home after long period Of mis-
sionary labor in eastern Turkey, under
tho direction OF the American Board OF
Commissioners for Foreign Missions
Their absence has covered space Of "a
years, and as soon as affairs in the dis
surhed districts have quieted down, they
Will return to Turkey.
Speaking of the Sassoun massacres, a
large part of which occurred at Moosh,
Miss Mary Ely said: "The massacre was
undoubtedly planned by the porte. The
Immediate provocation came about rs fol-
lows: The kurds were in the habit OF
raiding the fiocks of the Armcnians. The
Armcnians, Impoverished by repeated acts
OF robbery, banded together for the pur-
pose OF recovering their fiocks from the
kurds When the two parties met, Of
course there was fighting. Two Moslems
were killed and several Christians. Then
the kurds mutllated the bodies Of their
slain countrymen. After that the corpses
were carried TO the headquarters of the
provincial government at BItlis and shown
to Vail Tahsin. See what the Christians
are doing to usl' they exclaimed to the
vail"
1t was, Miss Ely declared, the Turkish
regular soldiery who did the most of the
killing during the massacres, while tho
Aurds stole the property. Returning TO
her narrative, Miss Ely said that after the
first collision n series of rctaliotory con-
fiices took place. That was year ago
last August. Soon afterward, Tahsin
Pasha went in person to Galigosan, a
village In the Sassoun province, and in
person ordered the massacre OF the Arme-
nian Christians. He wore, suspended by
n cord around his neck an imperial edict
from the porte commanding him to "chas-
tiser the Christians. This was read TO
the, Turkish soldiers, who had been massed
at that place from all that part Of Asia
Minor.
Before the reading was completed"
continued Miss Ely, ''as II unable TO de-
lay the diabolical deeds. Tahsin Pasha
gave the order to smite' the Christians.
Then followed q scene almost too awful
to describe."
The returned missionaries says that it
was hard to pick specific instances out of
suoh an inferno of cruelty, but mentioned
the following:
"The soldiers would toss children up
into the mir and catch Them on their bayo.
nets when they came down. At other
times. they would stand o number of chill
dren In row, each Turk would take a
child by the hair, and then they would see
which one could cut off his victims head
the quickest. When Tahsin Pasha started
out on his mission of butchery he took
along with him large quantity of kero-
sene, oil for the purpose of the removing
by fire all vestiges of the disgraceful
work which he contemplated. This oil
was afterward used TO saturate the cloth
ing Of living beings, and then a match
would be applied,
AT this point Miss Charlotte Ely re-
marked: 81 saw one boy with the whole
side Of his face burned away He told mo
that he had been attacked by the Turks
and then thrown on heap of GOALS, being
left for dead"
Miss Ely was asked about the treatment
OF Armenian women by the soldiers
"Thc violation of women and girls by the
Turks was one Of the commonest and one
of the worst features of the whole horrible
affair. In one instance scores of them
were shut UP in church and kept there
oil night by the soldiers. 1t the morning
they were all murdered One witness
told me he saw the blood flow over the
threshold of the building