Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-11-29
Scenes of the Massacre Described by
Returned Missionaries.
WHAT TIE fVG Eli SISTERS saw
The Outrage, 1t is Charged, Was
Planned by the Porte.
ALMOST INCREDIBLE CRUELTY

Charlotte E. Ely and Mary A. C. Ely have
Just returned home after long period Of
missionary labor in eastern Turkey under
the direction Of the American board Of
commissioners for foreign missions.
Their absence has covered q space Of
twenty-seven years. and so soon as affairs
in the disturbed districts have quoted
down they will return to Turkey.
The Misses Ely were stationed at Bitlis
about fifty-hve miles from Moosh, where
the most horrible Of the atrocities occurred.
At Bitlis there was no wholesale murder
Ing. but many prominent Armenian mer-
chants were throwR dnto prison on false
accusations, and sore less ilustrous VIC
tins never saw the fight Of day again after
they had once entered the prison walls
they were secretly made away with. The
vail OF provincial governor Of Bitlis at that
time was Tahsin Pasha, who is known
among the missionaries as The Fiend."
He it was made the threat that he would
sow the place where the city Of Bitlis once
was with grain.
According to the Misses Ely, the Ar
menians were Imprisoned because they
would not sign paper saying that the
English consul and the American mission
aries had melted the Armenians to rebel.
Speaking of the Sassoun massacre, q
large part of which occurred near Moosh
Miss Mary Ely said: The massacre was
L
mediate provocation came about as follows:
The Kurds were in the habit of raiding
the fiocks of the Armenians. The Ar
menians, impoverished by repeated acts Of
robbery, banded together for the purpose Of
recovering their flocks 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 headquarters of the pro-
vincial government at Bitlis and shown to
Tahsin. See what the Christians are doing
to u.s.. they exclaimed to the vali.'
Miss Ely said that after the first col
lision series of retaliatory conflicts took
place. That was a year ago last August
Soon afterward Tahsin Pasha went in per
sacre of the Armenian Christians. He
wore, suspended by cord around his neck.
an imperial edict from the porte command
ing him to 'chastise" the Christians. This
was read to the Turkish soldiers, who had
been massed at that place from all that
part Of Asia Minor.
An Awful Scene.
Before the reading was completed" con-
tiEued Miss Ely. "as ifiunabae to delay the
diabolical deed, Tshsin Pasha gave the
order to 'smIte' the Christians Then fol-
lowed scene almost too awful to describe
So terrible was the orders given by the
officers that some Of the batter ones among
the common soldiers begged that they he
Eot compelled to carry them out. Others
actually refused to execute. such barbarous
commands. and were told that If they did
not obey orders they wouli be shot to
pieces from the canncrAs mouth.
Some of the good soldiers, however. pro-
tected Armenian chEdren, hiding them in
fields Of grain and among the rocks In the
mountains"
The returned missionaries Say that 1t was
hard to pick specific instances out of such
inferno hr1r he
following: The soldiers ,wouli toss chill
dren Up into the atr anti Catch them ON
their bayonets when they came down. AT
other times, they would stand number
child by the hair. and then they would
see which enc could cut off his victims
head the quickest. When Tahsin Pasha
started out on his mission of butchery
he took along with him Il large quantity
Of kerosene oil. for the purpose or remov-
ing by fire all vestige of the dreadful work
which he contemplated This oil was af-
terwaTd used to saturata the clothing of
living beings, and then the match would be
applied.
His Face Burned Away.
At this point Miss Charlotte Ely remark
ed: Il saw one hoy with the whole side of
his face burned away. Ho told me that he
had been attacked by tho Turks, and then
thrown on a heap of GOALS being left for
dead"
Miss F. 30 asked about the treatment
Of >N>enian women by the soldiers. 1.-The
ssc.ation Of women and girls by the Turks
was one of the coInmonests and one of the
worst features Of the whole horrible af
fair. In one instance scores of them were
shut I'D in church and kept there all
night by the soldiers. In the morning they
We're all murdered. One witness told me
that he saw the blood flow over the thresh-
old Of the building"