St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-02-03
NEW HORRORS TOLD.
An Associated Press Agent
Investigates in Ar
n1enia.
TWO SIDES TO THE STORY.
Turks but a Degrees More Bar
barous Than the ReVo-
lutionists.
TWO SIDES TO THE STORY.
THE INNOCENT SUFFERED.
Details OF Armenian Fepoei-
ties and More Of Turkish
Brutality.

copyrighted. 1895, by the Associated Press.I
LONDON, Feb. "A letter has been
received here from the special CORE
spondent of the Associated Press who
was sent to Armenia from London
to Investigate the reported Armenian
atrocities, and who at present IS i'll
Armenia. For reasons that will be
readily understood the name of this
correspondent is withheld; but he is
newspaper man we'll known in Amer
lea, and he was instructed to make an
impartial Investigation of the stories
told of Turkish cruelties.
The Associated Press correspondent
spent week or more in Constantinople
before starting for Armenia, during
which time he investigated the reports
current there and continued his jour-
ney. His first letter has just reached
here, after having been posted by
trusted messenger at Tifiis. Russia. 1t
contains the first authentic news from
Armenia direct, and says:
"Whatever secrets may lie under the
snow on the Armenian mountains, 1t
seems beyond dispute, from what have
heard from many lips, that the pub
lshe stories of ferOciouS butchery and
red horror in the Sassoun viii
lagos have at least reasonable
foundation of truth, and that any
change, authorized by further investir
CATION will deal more with numbers
than with the degree OF horror. But
from what the cores pondent OF the As
sociated Press says in later part OF, his
letter,
There Are Two sides
to the Armenian story, as he remarks:
"But no matter what light we throw
upon the spasmodic wickedness of the
Turks or upon the ingenious deyiltry Of
the revolutionary conspirators, we find
that it is still the innocent VINO suffer
most. The Turk declares that the Ar
menians have inflicted shocking OUT
RACES upon Turkish men and women.
and from what is already known of
conspiracy methods it is quite likely
hat the assertion is tr ue.
For instance, it is reported that as a
means of inciting the Turks to commit
Outrages that Will bring down upon
them The wrath of civilized world,
Armenians nave thrust gun cartridges
into the bodies of living Turkish men
and women and have exploded them,
and that in the case Of one man, hole
was made just below the bones of the
chest for the insertion of quantity of
gunpowder, which was then ignited as
Il sort of bomb. These facts are known
at the embaSse in COnStant!n0ple, and
possibly they have been transmitted in
reports to the various governments"
The correspondent also remarks:
"The impartial truth of the SaSSOun
massacre will probably never be known.
for the dead tell no tales. 4 careful
sitting of all the facts obtainable from
trustworthy sources in Constantinople.
Sassoun, KeTTasund, Trebizonde and
Bitlais indicates that
This rs what EEappencd:
Certain Armenian peasants, to the
number of several thousands. were
tending their herds and fiockS i'll their
summer pastures i'll the SasSoun mount
aims along the borders of Kurdlstan.
They were living in mere temporary
villages, which they inhabited only dur
ing the summer pasture season, their
winter homes being far down the val.
leys. They were under the protection
contract to defend them against the
raids of cattle StealeTS ana Kurdish
bandits. A short time before the viii
layers were ready to return to their
homes i'll the valleys with their fattened
cattle band of Kurdish bandits, indus
triously searching for a winters supply
Of provisions, ralded their stock. The
villagers and their Kurdish protectors
made a vigorous defense. They would
have WON the fight and driven off the
thieves, and that would have ended it,
but before the fighting was over the
Turkish government came into the af
fair, and then the real trouble began.
Some official telegraphed to Constants
nOple that revolution was in progress
among the Armenians in the Sassoun
mountain villages. and the order came
straight from the palace. Punish the
villagers TO the utmost extremity
The palace had not paused to in
quire into the truth of the rumor and
the officers entrusted with the eXecu-
ton of the order paused not TO investi-
gate the facts when the troops arrived
on the ground. The Kurdish bandits
Joined forces with the Turkish regulars
and even the kurds, who had been de-
tending the ArmenianS turned traitor
and Swelled the numbers of the governs
ment troops. The poor Armenian peas
ants were then left at the mercy of
force of Turkish regulars and two
bands of Kurds. Then the massacre
began. For the Armenians it was
tight without hope, but still they fought
AS Only Wen Can Fight
who defend their wives and children
from outrage and death. They took
refuge in their houses and barricaded
themselves in, but the Kurdish cannon
made short work of these. and when
they ran in terror from hiding place to
hiding place, they were slain without
mercy, man, woman and child.
''The outrage of Armenian women
and children by the Turks IN that part
of the country is so common a thing,
even in times of absolute quiet, that
there can be no doubt that this massa-
ere was attended with outrage and
atrocity too horrible TO think of.
"Armenians i'll Athens and Constan-
tinople assert that, fortYstWo villages
were destroyed and nearly ten thousand
persons massacred; but more impair
tial and equally Weil-infOrmed person
puts the number at twenty-five villages
and from one to three thousand persons
killed. The exact number will never be
known.
1.-The sultan was so well pleased with
the work Of his soldiers that he sent
thanks and decorations to the officers
and forwarded flags to be presented to
the regiments engaged in the awful