Omaha daily bee., 1896-05-03
ANOTHER CRY FROM ARMENIA
Two Hundred Thousand Victims of Furious
Hatred of tho Turks.
STORY OF THEIR WRONGS REcoUNTsD
Dcspniring of Finding Any Help In
Their Present Locality They EN-
press IL Desire 10 Migrate to
Another Country.

NEW YORK. May 2,-The National Arme.
nian relief committee has received the fol
lowing documents from Turkey showing the
feeling of many of the survivors of the
Armenian massacres:
at is now more than FIVE months that
sword. fire, famine and cold have been doing
their dreadful work among us Not less
than 100000 Of our people. largely men and
from influential and productive classes. have
fallen victims to the fury of our prosecutors
More than 10000 have under threats of in
stant death professed the creed of Islam.
Thousands of our sisters and daughters have
been violently carried off to the harems of
the Turks and Kurds. Not less than 5000
of our principal men, including many
Gregorian priests and Protestant pastors and
teachers are languishing in Turkish
dungeons, arrested on utterly baseless
charges and given no opportunity to yindicate
themselves. very large part of our prop
| erty has been stolen or destroyed and all
| our business is paralyzed. so that the prop
| erty we still own is for the present largely
\ worthless.
Nor do we yet see any signs of marked
| improvement in our condition. 1t is true
massacre and open punder have been forbid
| den, but our Moslem neighbors are still
| maintaining a fiercely insulting and threat
Niiiiib altiluuc lONdIu us as u race, ana even
were they constrained to abandon their
bloody purposes the fanatical fury of the
Mosiem peoples among whom live has
been 80 fercely infamed that it is quite
sufficient even against any feeble efforts the
government might be constrained to make
to complete the work of destruction.
We have long since abandoned all hope of
any political rights or standing in this land.
The only position possible for us is that of
serfs. We have cherished the hope of
NlariE ffnt,
Jailed US and we are sacrificed to political
and selfish ambition. What then are we to
DO? Three possible courses of action are
open to us
First, We can surrender all that our
fathers have Clung to during their many
years of oppression and sufferings; we can
abandon our faith, profess Islam and lose
ourselves and our children in the mass of
the Moslem masters; or, second, we can go
on. patiently dragging the chains of our
oppres1ors and bearing their insults and
abuses, wasting away our lives and our
strength in ignoble seryitude; or, third we
can seek in other lands and among liberty
loving people new homes and new hopes of
enterprise. Some of our people have already
tried to adjust themselves to the first con-
dition named, but even now their walls Of
anguish and remorse that is making their
lives an unsupportabe burden warn us that
death is a thousand times to be preferred
to life so basely purchased. The second
alternative is no doubt still open to us |
We can repudiate all our claims and aspira- |
tions for manhood, we surrender all |
hope of progress and take up again the old |
servle life of the past We should perhaps |
be allowed to retain our name, our tradi- |
tions and our faith; but how dwarfed, |
cramp and corrupted
Meanwhile other and Christian lands open
hosptable doors to us and extend sym
pathy and generous aid, and bid us welcome
to share with them the heritage of Christian
liberty and civilization. Only two things
we need to know. First, will our sultan
permit us to emigrate? If So we should
be glad if arrangements could be made by
which we could secure for our future use
some reasonable part OF" the property we
leave behind us. Second, will the Christian
nations who have been witnesses OF our
grant us an asylum in their
borders and give us aid in time of our dis
tress?"
RELIEF FUNDS RUNNING LOW.
BOSTON. May "A letter from Smyrna,
western Turkey, says that the Armenian
relief funds are diminishing, while the num-
Der of destitute is increasing. Continuing,
The writer says: "From every center ex-
cepting Van, where relief work is being
carried on, comes the same story of the in
number of the destitute who look
lpon this source of relief as the last and
,nly means of sustaining life. 1t is indeed
cared by many that the worst has not yet
,ome, and that famine and pestilence will be
Inevitable during the approaching summer ,
months"
AS to threatened renewal of the massa-
res says the writer the recent trouble at
<ilio was of a sufficiently serious nature to
.xcite the greatest apprehensions. The re-
,orts of the number of Armenians killed I
,ary from 100 to 200, while the number of
Wounded is said to be some hundreds"
In writing upon the trade to the governors 6
f the interior provinces, authorizing the
immediate expulsion of all the American
Missionaries from their vlayets, the corre- .
pondent says:
"The trade was issued, and 1t was not
Until three days later that Sir Philip Currie
btained intelligence Of it through the Brit
,h consul in the Moush district where '
seems the governor acting promptly on
he authority of his master at Constantine Y
le had ordered the American missionaries
leave within twenty-four hours. Sir J.
hilip Currie demanded the immediate can
elling of the trade Through his prompt 81
nd energetic action, his demands were exc t
uted without delay and | presume but few
the missionaries are even yet aware of the n
risis through which they have passed.