The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1896-01-24
ONE LONGsTRAGEDY.
Turkeys Terrible Crusade of Moslem Fan
atioism.

Boston, January s3.-1he following
letter, written by a Bostonian in Con-
stantinople, has been received here. The
writer. charaoterizes the situation in Tur-
key as the crusade of Moslem fanaticism.
Private letters he says which are COM
ing to the many thousands Of Armenians
from the interior who are temporarily in
ConstantinopIe, and whose families are
in the provinces, the reports of refugees
and travellers who were in the principal
places of massacre, and the more detailed
communications of foreign witnesses
who write from personal observation and
inquiry, together present scenes Of car
mage, spoliation, fanatioism and lust
which appall the stoutest heart. Five
hundred square miles of territory-a
beautiful and diversified country-have
been swept with a bosom of des truction
In many cases individual Armenian
families, and in some cases the entire in
habitants of Armenian villages and
towns, anticipating by some days the
storm OF wrath about to burst upon
their heads, gathered together whate YER
money and jewels could be found, and by
payment of the same to their Turkish
and Kurdish neighbors, secured fir ON
them s0lemn promises of protection but,
alas these people also suffered either
death or the loss of all their goods But,
passing by the unprovoked and pitiless
slaughter OF from twenty five to forty
thousand Armen1ans, largely the we'll
TODD, capable mon, the merciless plun-
dering Of the Armenian shops, stores and
houses, and the multitudes Of Christian
girls and married women whose hus-
bands have been slain or were away from
home, who have been forced to become
the wives of Turks in less than three
months time, whole districts, which for
| more than IA centuries have been occu-
pied with Christian homes, have been
made to assume the appearance OF Mo
| hammedan land. Such is the fate to
| which thousands of Armenian Christians
with husbands, fathers and sons slain,
| in utter beggary and despair. have been
reduced. And this is the situation in
which christian Europe, and especially
England, in spite of the treaty Of Paris,
in spite OF the treaty of Berlin, in spite
OF the Cyprus convention, and in spite OF
| the recent labored scheme OF reforms,
leave their Armenian fellow Christians.
Is it not gross betrayal?
| yeritable crusade OF Moham medan
fanatioism rules the hour The kurds
ana Clrcasslans are tolerably stated with
| lunder, but the Turks in various prOvin-
ces, with Saracenic cruelty, are COM
polling the wretched survivors to accept
the hatred religion OF their murderous
oppressors. Eleven Protestant preachers
in the region of Harpoot, one pastor in
Arabkir, one pastor in Sivas, several
priests and many Armenian Christians,
men and women, have distinctly chosen
death rather than Islam, and have been
mercilessly slain. Multitudes of Other
Armenian Christians, however, have
been SO entirely terrorized that they have
professed themselves Mohammedans en-
masse, in the hope that subsequently
| Christian Europe would deliver them
from the dreadful work of Mohamme.
danism. Thus whole villages and tow rs
and whole Christian quarters in cities
have been driven. like helpless shee p,
| into the Moslem fold.
+! Does any government ii Europe. does