The daily morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1883-1899, 1895-06-11
POSSIBLE MASSACRE.
Christians in Turkey Liable to Suffer
From Desperate Tribes.

Julia, Persia, May .-(Copyrighted, 1895
by Associated Press-Special Correspond
ence.)-The Turkish government, 1t Is
claimed, has just taken the preliminary
steps in what may result in a massacre
of HISTORIAN Christians in the mountains
of Kurdistan 1t Is asserted that the
government has given orders to starve
the independent tribes of HISTORIANS in
the mountain region lying Immediately
west of Caviar which may be described
as lying about midway between Mosul
and Lake Van about so miles west OF
the Persian frontier. The orders 1t Is
stated, are that no food supplies of any
kind shall be allowed to enter the terri
tory of the independent tribes, and meas
ures are said to have been taken to en-
force these orders to the letter.
This action is apparently taken as a
means of compelling the independent
tribes to submit to the Turkist author,
tiles and TO pay the taN,s demanded by
the government and is regarded as the
first serious attempt that the Turks
have made to extort taxes from the in>
dependent tribes.
From the earliest time in the history of
the Ottoman Empire these tribes have
been independent of Turkish rule, They
have paid no taxes and they have ac-
knowledged no allegiance to the Turkish
government.
The present course of the government
is taken in some quarters as an indica-
ton that the sultan has set on foot a
systematic persecution of Christians In
all parts of the empire. The sultan has
plenty of opportunity for knowing thai
the independent HISTORIANS are too poor
to pay taxes, and that many of them
make living by going down into the VIII
lagos of the other wretchedly poor coun-
trymen and begging. These poor crea-
tures according to the story, are to be
starved because they will not share with
the sultan of Turkey the scraps of bread
the refuse bits of meat, and the odds and
ends which they obtain by begging. Their
homes are in a wilderness of mountain
peakes and narrow, rocky valleys, where
nothing will grow except a tuft Of broom-
corn here and there In the crevtces of
the rocks on the mountain sidl;s, and q
few stocks of millet in a casual square
yarks of soil in the valleys.
1t is not difficult to forecast the prob
able result of the starvation Of this rae
of beggars, should the report turn out
to be correct. Driven desperate by hun
ger, the people will endeavor to obtain
food from Caviar, and other outside dis
tricts, and there will be fights with the
Turkish troops; the villages will be at
tackled and some of the wretched people
killed, and no man can prophesy where
the persecution will end.
have just returned from rapid Jour-
ney to the Kurdish mouptains for the
purpose of ofinvestigadng the report that
fourteen villages had been attacked and
"a ad "a M Ct
week. The original rumor had 1t that
the Kurds had massacred many Chris
tians and had carried off the women and
girls to the mountains. After riding day
and night to reach the scene Of the raid
1 at length arrived at the Merguiv.r
valley, which lies like the bottom of q
boat beneath huge mountains covered
from base to summit with almost I'M
broken expanses of snow. 1t was in
this valley that the raid took placs. II
is said band of Kurds from the noun
tains had indeed raided fourteen villages
in this valley, but the raid was directed
against other Kurds, and not against
Christians. There wsre a few HISTORIAN
Christians living In the valley, but they
were not molested in any way. AS this
was not race or religious raid, 1t will
probably have little interest outside Of
the valley.
L regret to say that Mr.. Patton, the
British consul-general In British Persia,
is very much in dlsfavor with the gem
tlemen who are conducting the Armenian
revolutionary movements. In lpite of the
fact that Mr.. Patton has been collecting
evidence of the Sassoun and Moosh mas.
sacres for the use of the British gov-
ernment, Arnlenians look upon him s a
spy. They may go to the length of do
ing him bodily harm
The closing Of the caravan routes to
Van has rendered more acute the suffer-
ing from famine In the devastated ais
tricts near Van. The only hope Of relief
Is now cut off.