The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1895-01-23
The Armenian Crisis.

Under the above caption "The Re
view of Reviews" for January con-
tains graphic story of the outrages
and massacre by the Turks. The fol-
lowing is taken therefrom
"Some Kurds, having robbed Az
menian villages of tlocks, the Armen-
ians pursued and tried to recover their
property, anda ightensued in which n
doz Kurtis were killed. The slain men
were 'senIi-ofIicial robbers i. r.. enroll
ed rs troops and armed ~ such, but
not under control. The authorities
were telegraphed here [Constantino-
ple1 that 'Armenians had killed some
of the Sultan's troops The Sultan at
once ordered infantry and cavalry to
put down the Armenian rebellion, and
they did it, only, not finding any re-
bellion, they cleared the country so
that none should occur in the future" "
Another letter, dated Bitlis, Oct. 8,
1894, reads thus:
NEARLY all these things are related
here and there by soldiers who partici-
pated in the horrible carnage, some of
them weeping, claiming that the
Kurds did more, and declaring that
what they did was to obey orders.
Others said that a hundred fell to each
70 dispose of. No compassion was
shown to age or sex, even. by the reg
ular soldiery,-not even when their
victims fell suppliant at their feet.
Five to ten thousand met such q fate
as even the darkest ages of darkened
Africa had hardly witnessed, for there
women and tender babes might have
at least the chance of life Of slavery,
while here womanhood and innocency
were but mockery before the cruel
lust that ended it's debauch by stabbing
to death with the bayonet, while ten
der babes were impaled with the same
weapon on their dead mothers breasts,
or perhaps seized by the hair to have
their heads Topped off with the sword.
In one place three or four hundred wo-
men, after being forced to serve the
vile purposes of a merciless soldiery,
were hacked to pieces by sword and
bayonet in valley below. In another
place, some two hundred, weeping and
wailing, begged for compassion, fall.
ing at the commanders feet, but the
bloodthirsty wretch, after ordering
their violation, directed the soldiers to
dispatch them in a similar way. In
another place some sixty young. brides
and more attractive girls were crowd
ed into church, and, after violation,
were slaughtered, and the gore was
seen running out of the church door.
In another place large company un-
der the lead of their priest fell down
before them, begging compassion, and
averring that they had had nothing to
do with the culprits(?), but all to no
purpose, all were killed. In another
place proposition was made to several
of the more attractive women to
change their faith, in which case their
lives might be spared. why should
we deny Christ p they say: I'VE are
no more than they pointing to the
mangled forms of their husbands and
brothers before them, kill us too, and
they did"
The same article quotes from the
treaty between England and Turkey,
which shows that the latter country
guaranteed protection and religions
liberty to the Armenians; and that
therefore England has it in her power
to force reparation on the part Of Tur-
key, so far as reparation for such afro
cious crimes can be made.