The Wilmington daily Republican., 1895-06-10
A M0NSTR0US PROPOSAL
How the Sultan Of Turkey Will De-
mand Payment Of Taxes.
TO BE STARVED INTO SUBMISSION.

HISTORIAN Christians who Are a Race of
Mendicants VIII be Deprived of Food By
Soldiers. Who VIII Prevent Supplies
from Entering Their Territory.
LONDON, June 1O.-The special CORE.
spondent of the Associated Press, under
date of Djelfa, Prussia, May 2, writes as
follows concerning affairs in Armenia:
The Turkish government, 1t Is said, has
Just taken the preliminary steps In what
may result in a massacre Of HISTORIAN
CHRISTIANS in the mountains of Kurdistan.
IL Is asserted that the government has
given orders to starve the independent
tribes OF HISTORIANS in the mountain re-
gion Immediately west Of Caviar, which
may be described as lying about midway
between Mosul and Lake Van about fifty
miles west of the Persian frontier
The order, 1t is stated, are that no food
supplies Of any kind shall be allowed to
enter the territory of the Independents
tribes, and measures nre said to have been
taken to enforce these orders to the letter.
Ihis action is apparently taken as means
OF compelling the independent tribes to
submit to Turkish authority and to pay
the taxes demanded by the Turkish govern
ment, and is regarded as the first serious
tort taxes from the independent tribes.
From the earliest times In the history
Oh the Ottoman empire these tribes have
been Independent of Turkish rule. They
nave paid no taxes and they have acknowl-
edged no allegiance to the Turkish govern
ment. All Turkish officials have been ex-
ciuded from the territory of the tribes,
and tax gatherers having regard for their
own lives have let the Independent people
alone in their mountain Businesses. The
presence Of these independents has, ac-
cordlng to report, always been o thorn in
the side of the Turkish government, but
as 1t was practically impossible to subdue
the half savage mountaineers by force of
arms, no attempt has been made to discip-
line them.
The present course Of the government Is
taken, In some quarters, as an indication
that the sultan has set on foot q sys-
tenatic persecution Of Christians in all
parts OF the empire. The fact that the in
dependents pay no taxes Is looked upon
by the opponents of the ports as merely a
plausible excuse for the governments &C.
tion.
But why the sultan should come upon
these half wild people for taxes now, after
sn independence since the Babylonian era
Is not easily explained. The sultan has
plenty OF opportunity for knowing that
the independent HISTORIANS are too Door
TO pay taxes, and that many of them make
a living by going down into the villages
OF their less wretchedly poor fellow coun.
trymen and begging. There is one large
village inhabited entirely by begRars.
Ihese poor creatures according to the
story, are to be starved because they will
not snare with the sultan of Turkeyssthe
scraps OF bread the refuse bits of meat and |
the odds and ends which they obtain by |
begging.
1t is not difficult to forecast the prob
able result of the starvation of this race
Of beggars, should the report turn out to
be correct. Driven desperate by hunger
the people will endeavor to obtain food
from Caviar and other outside districts.
and there will be fights with the Turkish
troops, the villages will possibly be at
lacked and some of the wretched people
VIII be killed, and no man can prophesy
whore the persecution will end How
aver the whole story may turn out to be
IN invention of the enemies of the Turk
sh rule, but think 1t but right to record
'he fact that this startling report is in cir
and apparently, Is believed by
many people to be true.
have Just returned from a rapid jour.
,ey to the Kurdish mountains for the pur
pose of Investigating the report that four.
een villages had been attacked and de-
vastated by a raid Of Kurds last week.
ound that band Of Kurds from the
had indeed raided fourteen
'illages in this valley, but the raid was dI
ected against other Kurdsa and not
Igainst Christians.