The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1895-11-29

| IN the disturbed district nave Quieted
| down they will return to Turkey. The
| Misses Ely were stationed at Bitlis,
about 55 miles from Moosh, where the
| most horrible OF atrocities occurred.
AT Bitlis there was no wholesale muir
dering but many prominent Armenian
| merchants were thrown into jail on
false accusations and less illustrious
victims never saw the light Of day again
after they had once entered the prison
! wall. They were secretly made way
| with The vail, or provincial govern
or or Bitlis, at that time was Tahsin
Pasna, who is known among the mis-
sionaries as "the fiend." He it was
who made the threat that he would SOW
| the place where the city Of Bitlis was
with grain. According to the Misses
| Ely, the Armenians were imprisoned
because they would not sign q paper
| saying that the English consul and the
American missionaries had melted the
/ Armenians 10 rebel, Speaking of the
| Sassoun nassacres, a large part Of
| which occurred near Moosh, Miss Mary
/ Ely said:
''The massacre was undoubtedly plan
ned by the porte. The immediate pro-
| vocation came about as follows: The
Kurds were in the habit Of raiding the
mans, impoverished by repeated acts
OF robbery, band hodeetetgraoin DIN DIN
OF robbery banded together for the pur-
| pose OF recovering the f1ocks from the
KurdS
when the two parties met, Of course
there was fighting. Two Moslems were
killed and several Christians. Then
the Kurds mutilated the bodies Of their
slain countrymen. After that, the
corpses were carried TO the headquar-
! tiers of the provincial government at
Bitlis and shown 10 Vail Tahsin.
"'See what the Christians are doing
to us they exclaimed to the vail.
Miss Ely said that after the first COL
lision series Of retaliatory conflicts
took place. That was a year ago last
August Soon afterwards Tahsin Pa
sha went in person 10 Galigozan and or
dered the massacre OF the Armenian
Christians. He wore, suspended by a
cord around his neck. an imperial edict
from the porte commanding him TO
"chastise" the Christians. This was
read to the Turkish soldiers who had
been massed at that place for all that
part of Asia Minor.
Before the reading was completed"
con tinued Miss Ely, "as If unable to
delay the diabolicsl deed. Tahsin Pa
sha gave the order 10 'smite the Chris
tians' Then followed scene almost
too awful to describe, so terrible were
the orders given by the officers that
some Of the better ones among the COM
mon soldiers begged that they be not
compelled to carry them out. Others
actually refused to execute such bar
berous commands and were told IL they
did not obey orders they would be shot
from the lannon's mouth.
Some Of the good soldiers. however,
protected Armenian children, hiding
them in fields Of grain and among rocks
in the mountains"
The returned missionaries say 1t was
hard to pick specific instances out of
such and inferno of cruelty, but men
toned the following:
The soldiers would toss children up
into the air and catch them on their
bayonets when they came down. At
other times they would stand a number
Of children in row. each Turk would
take a child by the hair and they would
see which one could cut his victims
head off the quickest. When Tahsin
Pasha started out on his mission Of
butchery he took along with him
large quantity of kerosine oil for the
purpose of removing by fire all vestige
Of the dreadful work which he contem-
platerd. This oil was afterwards used
to saturate the clothing of living beings
and then the match would be applied.
At this point Miss Charlotte Ely re-
marked: 81 saw one boy with the
whole side OF his face'5urned away. He
told me he had been attacked by the
Turks and then thrown on heap OF
Goals, being left for dead
Miss Ely was asked about the treat |
ment OF Armenian women by the SOL |
diers.
''The violation of women and girls |
by the Turks was one of the common |
est 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 all night by the soldiers. |
In the morning they were all murdered |
One witness told me that he saw the /
blood flow over the threshold or the |