The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1895-02-03
RELIGION TO BLAME.
The Truth About the Massacres
OF the Armenians.
sY 4 CAREFUL .nvEsT,cATcR.
Ousragss Have Costfnusd Many Ysars-
Every Young Armenfsn Woman
DefiIsd by the Soldiers.
copyr4ghsea isa5 by the Associated Press

Copyrighted 1875 by the Associated Press.
London. Feb 2.--4t letter has been
received here from the special CORE
spondent of the Associated Press who
was sent to Armenia to investigate the
reported Armenian atrocities and who
IS still in Armenia. For reasons that
VIII be readily understood. the name OF
this correspondent is withheld. but he
is a newspaper man well known in
America. and he was instructed 10 make
an impartial investigation OF the stories
told OF Turkish cruelty.
The Associated Press correspondent
spent a. week or more in Constantinople
before starting for Armenia. during
which time he investigated the reports
current there. and then continued his
journey. His first letter has just
reached here. after having been posted
by a trusted messenger at Tiflis. Rus
sia. 1t contains the first authentic news
from Armenia direct, and says.
Whatever secrets may lie under the
Snow ON the Armenian mountains, II
seems beyond dispute. from what
have heard from many lips. that the
published stories of ferocious butchery
and red horror In the Sassoun villages
have at least a reasonable foundation
of truth, and that any change author
lied by further investigation viii deal
more with numbers than with the de-
gree of horror"
But from what the correspondent or the
Associated Press says IN a later part OF
his letter. there are two sides to the
Armenian story: But no matter what
light we throw upon the spasmodic wick
einess of the Turk. or upon the ingenious
deviltry OF the revolutionary conspiratcrs.
we find that 1t Is stil the innocent that
suffer most The Turk declares that the
Armenians have inflicted shocking cut
RACES upon Turkish men and women, ard
from what is already known Of eonspir-
acy methods. 1t is quite likely that the
assertion is true. For instance, 1t Is
reported that as a means Of melting the
Turks % commit outrages that will brig
down upon them the wrath OF civilized
world, Armenians have thrust gun cart
ridges 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 a quantity of
gunpowder. which was then ignitei as a
sort OF bomb. These facts are known
at the embassies at Constantinople. and
probably they have been transmitted In
reports to the various governments
The correspondent also remarks: s.The
impartial truth of the Sassoun massacre
viii probably never be known, for the
dead tell no tales. A careful sitting OF
all the facts obtainable from tratworthy
sources in Constantinopla Sassonn. Ker-
asunt. Trebizonde and Bitlis indicates
that this Is what happened:
Certain Armenian peasants, to the num-
Der Of several thousand, were tending
their herds and fiocks in their summer
pastures in the Sassoun mountains along
the borders of Kurdistan. They were
living In mere temporary villages, which
they inhabited only during the summer
pasture season. their winter homes being
far down the valleys. Kurds were under
contract to defend them against the raids
of cattle stealers and Kurdish bandits. A
short time before the villagers were ready
to return to their homes with their fat
tened cattle, a band of Kurdish bandits,
industriousiy searching for winters
supply Of provisions, raided their stock.
The villagers and their Kurdish pro-
tectors made a vigorous defense. They
would have ended 1t, but before the fight
ing WAS over the Turkish government
came into the affair. and then the real
trouble began. Some OF them telegraphed
that a conspiracy was in progress among
the Arnenaans in the mountain villages
and the order came straight from the
palace: Punish the villagers to the ut
most extremity"
The palace had not paused to inquire
into the truth OF the rlInor. and the Of
ficers intruSted with the execution OF the