Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-12-26
ZEITOUN CAPTURED
End Of the Siege Of the Armenian
Town.
INHABITANTS ESCAPE. TO MOUNTAINS
Ambassadors Endeavor to Prevent
a Massacre.
DESCRIPTION OF TIE PLACE

CONSTANTINOPLE, December 26.-The
report that the town of Zeitoun, held by
the insurgent Armeaians for some time
past, has been captured by the Turkish
troops is confirmed.
No details, however, have yet been an
nounced.
1t is alleged that the inhabitants fed to
the mountains.
LONDON, December GA dispatch to
the Times from Constantinople, December
-, says:
LAS an outcome of the meeting of the
ambassadors to concert means to prevent
the massacre of the inhabitants of Ze.toun,
for which the palace thtrsts, and attempts
to justify by publishing mendac:ous state
ments of atrocities comm tied by the Zei-
tounlis, Baron Calice, the Austrian ambas-
sador, went to the porte today and i'm
parted to the grand viz.er the earnest hope
of the powers that TO extreme measures
would be taken against the ZeitounEs.'
The Town of Zeitoun.
Zeitoun, also spelled Zeitun and Zeithun,
is a town twenty-five miles northwest of
Marash in the highlands of the Aleppo prov
IL ce. 1t has about 10000 inhabitants, MAIN
ed themselves for centuries against Turkish
oppression. The soil abcunds in patches of
great fertility, but does not produce grain
enough to supply the wants of the inhab-
itants. Mulberry trees grow numerously
and give occupation to the women in feed
ing silk worms. The men are chiefly engag-
ed ir smelling and manufacturing the iron
supplied by the mountains.
Zeitoun is surrounded on all sides by In
east, where
it is bounded by the deep channel of the
Pyramus. The language Is a rude dialect OF
Armenia.
The inhabitants are free from Asiatic Wees,
resembling Europeans in their respect for
women. Crime is infreQuent No prisons
exist, and certain authorities assert that
murder fer the sake of gain has never been
committed in that country. The people have
always shown the greatest Jealousy of for
eigneIs, and little was known of them until
1884, when their country was visited by a
French Protestant clergyman.
The government is patriarchal, being. vest
ed in elders of the people, with some pre-
negatives in the priesthood. All offices are
conferred by popular election, the executive
power being placed in the hands of the four
princes.
There are about twenty villages in the
district, and in 1870 it was estimated that
they could muster an army of from 1000 to
500 men to defend the mountains against
Turkish invasion.
Zeitoun is a relic of the Armenian king
dom of Cilicia, founded in the eleventh and
destroyed in the fourteenth century. Since
that period the native population has been
gradually assimlating to the Turks. 1t was
not until after the Crimean war that the
maSsacreS in the east called especial atten-
tion to the existence of Zeitoun and other
Christian communities in the east which
had some claim to European sympathy.
Former Attack by Turks.
An attempt by the Turks to settle Cir
cassians near Zeitoun gave AZiz Pasha an
opportunity to attack the Christians. and
atrocities of the most friShtful chara Cter
were committed. Massacres similar to those
that have marked the recent troubles in Ar
menia We're frequent.
The Inhabitants defended themselves with
the greatest gallantry, twice defeating large
Turkish forces in the field. and the struggle
was at length terminated by the interfer-
ence of>the French and English govern
ments at Constantinople, and the recall of
the paSba. The intervening powers permit
ted the Turks to suppress the Armenian
newspaper, then the sole means of COM
munication between this isolated district
and the rest of the Christian world and un-
til a comparatively late day Zeitoun has
been isolated.
Defense of Zeitoun.
Intelligence from Zeitoun has been an
Xiously awaiting for long time. 1t was
known that the Turkish troops had ad-
vanced in large numbers, with artillery,
and reports had come of heavy fighting.
The Zeitouniis fought well, but evidently
could not hold out against the artillery,
The Turkish government reports that Zei-
toun is the only disturbed place in Armenia
1t has been feared that an unprecedented
massacre would follow it's capture