Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1895-06-15

Christians In Turkey the Probable Vic
Tins of u Government order.


ish government, it is claimed, has just
taken the preliminary steps in what
NAV result in massacre of HISTORIAN
Christians in the mountains of Kurdi-
stan. 1t is asserted that the govern
ment has given orders TO starve the in
dependent tribes of HISTORIANS in the
mountain region lying Immediately
west of Caviar, which may be de-
scribed as lying about midway between
Mosul and Lake Van, about fifty miles
west of the Persian frontier The or
ders, it is stated, are that no food sup
plies of any kind shall be allowed to
enter the territory of the Independent
tribes, and measures are said to have
been taken to enforce these orders to
the letter.
This action is apparently taken rs IA
means of compelling the independent
tribes to submit to the Turkish author
tiles and to pay the taxes 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
acknowledged no allegiance to the
Turkish government.
The present course of the government
is taken i'll some quarters as an lndlca-
ton that the sultan has set on foot a
systematic persecution of Christians i'll
all parts of the empire. The sultan
has plenty of opportunity for knowing
that the independent HISTORIANS are too
poor to pay taxes, and that many of
them make living by going down into
the villages of the other wretchedly
poor countrymen and begging. These
poor creatures, 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 OBJ
tain by begging. Their homes are i'll
a wilderness of mountain peaks and
narrow, rocky valleys, where nothing
will grow, except tuft OF broom-cOrn
here and there in the crevices of the
rocks on the mountain sides and few
stocks of millet i'll a casual square yard
Of soil i'll the valleys.
1t is not difficult to forecast the
probable result of the starvation of
this race of beggars, should the report
turn out to be correct. Driven des-
perate by hunger, the people will en-
deavor to obtain food from Caviar and
other outside districts, and there will be
fights with the Turkish troops; the
villages will be attacked and some of
the wretched people killed, aud no man
can prophesy where the persecution
will end.
| have Just returned from a rapid
journey to the Kurdish mountains for
the purpose of investigating the report
that fourteen villages had been attack
ed and devastated by raid of Kurds
last week. The original rumor had it
that the Kurds had massacred many
Christians, and had carried off women
and girls to the mountains. After
riding day and night to reach the scene
of the raid, | at length arrived at the
Merguiver valley, which lies like the
bottom of boat beneath huge noun
tains covered from base to summit with
almost unbroken eXpanseS of snow. 1t
was i'll this valley that the raid took
place. 1t is said band of kurds from
the mountains had indeed raided four
teen villages i'll this valley, but the
raid was directed against other kurds,
and not against Christians. There
n |;
in the valley, but they We're not mo-
Tested in any way. AS this was not
race or a religious raid, it will prob
ably have little interest outside of the
valley.
regret to say that Mr.. Patton, the
British consul-general i'll British Per-
STA, is very much III disfavor with the
gentlemen who are conducting the Ar
menian revolutionary movements In
spite of the fact that Mr.. Patton has
been collecting evidence of the Sassoun
and MOosh massacres for use of the
British government, Armenians look
upon him as spy. They may go to
the length of doing him bodily harm.
The closing of the caravan routes to
Van has rendered more acute the suf-
ering from famine i'll the devastated
districts near Van. The only hope of
relief is now cut off.
Heney Arrested for the Mint Steal.
Denver, June thames T. Heney,
charged with completely in the robbery
of the United States mint at Carson,
NeN WAS arrested by United States