The record-union., 1895-11-28
0UTRAGES IN ARMENIA.
IMPARTIAL STATEMENT OF FACVS
IN TIE MATTER,
As Gathered From Personal Observa-
ton, and Having Full Indorse-
ment of Minister erreIl.

CONSTANTINOPLE, Nov. 27.-The
following has been handed to the Euro
pean manager of the United Press,
who is in Constantinople The latter,
from full confidence in the American
Christian men who sent it, and from
careful personal observation, is able
to forward it to the American press as
an impartial statement Of facts. The
statement has the full Endorsement of
Minister Terrell:
During the month of October q con-
siderable part Of the Armenian district
in the provinces of Trebizond, Erz-
eroum, Bitlis, Van. Harpoot, Diabekir
and Siyas has been laid waste, and
number, not yet fully known, Of the
Armenian inhabitants have been killed
by men intent on crushing into impo-
tence the Armenians in Turkey. As the
awful tidingS nave come in driblets, the
Turkish Government has diligently tel
egraphed abroad in regard to each
place that Armenians had attacked
Mussulmans, thus arousing a frenzy of
indignation which could not easily be
controlled, but that order had been re-
stored after some loss of life.
The effect of these kilograms has
been to cultivate a belief that there
have been some risingS of ArmenianS,
and that we are in the presence of a
calamity which is merely the result Of
laWleSs proceedings on the part of the
Armenians themselves. Natural indig
nation with the Armenians for rising at
the very moment when the reform
scheme was about to be put in opera
ton may be moderated when it is
known that up to this date the only
authentic uprising of Armenians has
taken place at Zeitoun, in the province
of AleppO, and TAR from the scene of
the massacres.
Moreover, in such cases as offer Op-
portunity for examination, several cir
cumstances cited in the Turkish dis
patches as causes for the blOOdshed
have been proved to have been Incl
dents and not causes of the massacres.
Men who found themselves assailed by
the mob and happened to have arms in
their houses, in a number of cases de-
Tended their lives and their families to
the last At Diartekir, where the
Christians are generally armed, they
made a hard fight for life, and some
1;D00 MOslems are said TO have been
killed But aside from this one case, the
destruction Of from 10000 to 10000
Christians has not cost the Turks more
than two or three hundred lives.
Proper comprehension of what has
taken place depends on knowledge Of
what went before. In the latter part Of
September while the Powers were re-
neWing their demands for the accept
ance by the Sultan of the reform
scheme, word began to come in from all
of the provinces that the Moslems were
being armed, while the disarmament of
the Christians was being pressed with
ereater determination. In some cases
the Government openly distributed
arms and ammunition to the MOSlem
phalanstery. In many cases Moslens
were found buying arms in the open
market, who had no money to buy
bread. In other cases the officials sold
to the Moslems the arms which they
confiscated from the Christians, thus
making a useful profit
At the same time the Kurds of the
mountainous district of Dersim, lying
between EreZingan and Harpoot, began
to assemble saying that they had re-
ceiVed orders from SeelIki Pasha, the
commander Of the Fourth Army Corps,
to devastate the Armenian villages,
taking the plunder for their pay.
Whether such orders were given no
one knows. They promptly began to
seize the cattle and sheep of the Ar
menians in all of the surrounding re-
flocks and to get them out of harms
way before the serious work began.
During the early DAYS of October,
Turks in all of the six provinces openly
declared that they were going to mas
sacre the Christians. The Armenian
patriarchate and some of the foreign
Embassies at ConstantinOple were
overwhelmed with piteous appeals,
based on blood curdling threats, for
protection from the Moslem population.
Terror reigned among all the Armen-
ians of the region because they were
helpless and unarmed in the midst of
a seething mass of hate and fanati-
cism.
I'm Erzeroum about this time large
numbers of Moslem villagers, it is
said. began to come into the city, eager
TO buy empty sacks. 1t was curious
fad, this passion for empty sacks. The
price of empty bags tripled. At last the
Armenian dealers began to suspect
soroe uncanny secr.t behind the de-
n7and for sacks 1t was afterwards
shown that they were used to cary off
the property plundered from the mas
sacred ArmenianS.
The statement sketches at length the
horrors of the assault upon the Arme-
mans. the destruction of their villages
and the terrible slaughter to which they
were subjected, showing that a region
G 600 miles in area from Trebizond to
Diarbekir, and from the Russian from
tier at Erzeroum to Sivas, has been
given up to massacre and pillage, and
gives a detailed statement of the num-
ber killed in cities and villages. aggre-
eating, so far as known, 13,200- A
very low estimate of the number thus
reduced to absolute want by the loss of
all their movable property is 100000
souls, of whom two-thirds are the wives
and children of the ruined traders or
farmers.
All trade is broken up. All agriculture
in the devastated district is blotted
out, for the stock has been carried off
and the implements generally buried.
All the poor semblance of manufact-
uring industries in these districts have
been wiped out Many who are wealthy
are on the verge of starvation. and the
strongest faint at the prospect of the
woes the pitiless winter will add to their
calamities.