The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1896-06-15
ARNENIA'S S lE0DIES.
Details Of the Horrible Persecu-
tion BY the Turks Work
Of Relief.


a. Allen Tupper, Jr,, in letter dated
Merssna. Asia Minor, May IL, gives a
graphic description Of the terrible con-
dition of affairs in Armenia He says
that one must be on Turkish soil and
hear for himself the heartrending tales
OF torture and torment to have any just
conception of the scenes that hsye been
enacted, and the fearful ordeal through
which hundreds of thousands Of Armeni-
ans are now passing.
1T Is, ne says. now openly com
fessed by certain Mohamnledans that the
systematic massacres that. went on
from village to village was simply the
by the Turks to exterminate all native
Christians in Armenia, and II is gener-
ally believed that the Sultan ordered
these massacres, those who led the blood
thirsty business being under his APP
pointment.
-Four days ago I went as near the
town Of Corfa as ! was allowed to go,
and from the most reliable sources
have positive proof of Ottoman perse-
cutions more diabolical than any reports
that have come to US through the Amer
lean or English prees.
80 far as magnitude is concerned
Corfa heads the list with fully 5000 VIC
tins in the last massacre alone The
number sacrificed in the great church,
where they had fed for safety. is now
aseertained to be about 4,0oo, and in the
streets and suburbs of the village near
ly the same number of bodies were
found cut and mangled most terribly.
'It is evident that if special honorable
recognition by His Majesty the Imperial
Sultan is to be bestowed upon those OF his
loyal warriors who have carried out the
task assigned them on the grandest and
the most Satanic scale, his Corfa legion
will come in for the highest awards.
"a private letter from missionary
who is at present in Corfa, that is before
ne as write, explains what has hitherto
been a mere Overwhelmingly, as to
how the Turkish soldiers succeeded in
burning these 1000 victims in the church.
This missionary, who has made careful
a gallery extends around three sides of
this church. and from here great guam
tity of petroleum was poured upon these
defenseless men, women and children, who
were jamrned together on the floor below.
Then lighted torches were thrown among
them. Is it possible to conceive of any
thing more diabolical?
Numbers mad been butchered before
the petroleum was poured out and the
tcrch applied. The fifty or sixty who es
capped to the roof of the church were over
taken and tossed into the flames. Among
those who thus perished were aged men.
and women, mothers with babies at their
breasts i'll persons just taken from Their
beds and hundreds CT boys and girls.
THE church building where this occur
red, Whch has been used for many years
as a place of worship by the Armenians,
has been converted by these murierous
Turks into Mohanmedan Mosque, where
prayers are now daily offered to the Pro-
phet Mohamet.
Ds. Tupper describes the massacre at
Brsdjek, only a few miles from Corfa,
as hardly less revoiting. Every house
Christian girls who refused to Immediate
y marry young men of Mohammedan
cast into harems; scores sof men and
aged women were given the alternative
Of embracing the Islam religion or being
put to death after lingering torture
Heavy stones were tied to many Of the
River Euphrates. There IS not a Single
Christian remaining in Birejik
In describing the condition at Marash,
ut is Of the most distressing nature
Nearly ten thousand are receiving daily
help from the missionaries. and there is
every indication that this number will be
greatly increased in the. near future If
aries permit it. One who was appointed
to visit the district and distribute funds
regarding the condition of affairs. ex
claimed This IT region has been one vast
I'm Van between 5000 and 10000 are
dependent upon the relief work that is
carried on through the agency of the
missionaries Hundreds of refugees are
living in cold. damp places on earth floor
with absolutely no bedding, very little
in some cases. no fuel. and with nothing
to eat save the dry bread we give them
Since last winter the bazaars have
been closed hence everybody in the city
is cut afs employment, while life in the
villages IS, for the most part, well night
or absolutely impossible"
After detailing at length the history OF
the Armenans describing their conver-
sion. faith and home life, DR.. Tupper
concludes:
''In all of her varied history I suppose
that the sky over the national life of AR
menfa was never as starless as it is to-
day, The great powers en- the European
continent turn deaf ears to her cries,
some of them apparently giving indirect
endorsement to the rotten rule, Satanic
cruelty and murderous madness of the
Moslsm sultani and il substantial aid is
rendered in putting bread in the mouths
Of these widowed, orphaned and plum
derea thousands. and in creating world
wide sentiment in their favor it must
c9me from that country which Is today
the hope of the world ard the Inspiration
of neutrality-suspicious., liberty-loving Anle-