The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-09-20
THE OTTOMAN BANK RAID
THE DEED THAT PRECIPITATED
THE CONsTANTINoPLE RIOT.
Armenian Desperadccs Held the Bank
and Demanded the Redress OF
Their Country's Wrongs.

fired in the hall of the bank, and, rushing
out to the gallery which runs round each
floor and looks down into the ground floor,
1 saw confused mass of men wildly firing
revolvers in every direction
MY first impression was that a. general
massacre of Christians was taking place,
but soon realized that this not the
case, as the men in possession of the bank
were firing their revolvers toward the en-
trance of the bank, and evidently defending
the staircase. My second impression
that robbery was the object of the attack,
but when 1 saw a man dressed in frock
coat and having a small leather bag slung
over his shoulder suddenly go to canvas
bag lying near the counter and empty it of
quantity of round balls of different sizes
and cap them | admit that L was fairly
puzzled When half dozen of these balls
had been capped the chief distributed them
TO his men, and moment after one was
thrown out of a window into the street and
exploded with terrific roar.
For ten minutes after this the firing of
revolvers and rifles and the exploding of
bombs were incessant The panic in the
bank was great, but after the first volley
all lay down out of the line of fire from
outside and awaited developments. AS L
moved forward along the gallery two men
SO, and asked in the same language what
they wanted and why they attacking
us They replied that the employees of the
bank were not being attacked, and that no
one would be hurt if we kept quiet. Their
object, they said, was political, and they
were fighting for the Armenian cause. By
this time the insurgents had complete pos
session of the bank, and had placed them
selves at important points with small pile
of bombs. The two chiefs in command
went from point to point giving orders, ems
couragfng their. men, and reassuring the
bank employees"
Meantime the troops outside kept up a
steady firing the bank, and not for an
hour was any one, friend or foe, permitted
1.-The leaders of the Armenians finally
stated their case They declared that they
would under no circumstances give up the
bank or the clerks until their demands
were acceded to. They claimed the liberty
of all Armenians without conditions, the
release of all Armenian prisoners and their
own pardon. If these demands were not
granted within two days they would blow
were then allowed to depart and quilted
the bank at 3:45 p. m. when by common
agreement hostilities were suspended be-
tween the revolutionarieS and the troops.
The commander of the troops then asked
us to come out, but we made it clear to
him that it was impossible, as we were
in the absolute power of the Armenians,
and begged him to prevent his men from
firing, as we We're threatened by the Ar
menians should this take place.
MATURING THE PLANS.
"Then came a period of comparative
calm. which the Armenians took advan-
tage eff to mature their plans. They re-
quested the employees of the bank to keep
in a suite of rooms. BY dint of talking J
persuaded the chief to let me go with him,
and I then went round the bank with him
and saw their arrangements. The men
were posted so we'll that it was clear they
had carefully studied the plan of the bank
before striking their blow. In the base
volvers and standing by a quantity of dy-
Mantle placed most scientifically and
the ground floor they had ten men, of
whom three were wounded, guarding the
entrance, which they had barricaded with
manding the main and side streets. Here
also were piled bombs and dynamite,
placed under the supporting pillars of the
bank. On the first floor they had four
men with bombs and dynamite. On the
second floor were two men guarding the
the roof communicating with the Reggie
were five men, of whom two We're wound
bombs and a quantity of dynamite. Be
sides the above there were three chiefs,
Viz 40 t6nir men bv means Of whistles.
After walking round with one OF the
leaders and hearing him give strict orders
to his men not to touch a halfpenny or
slip of paper on pain of being shot.
entered into conversation with him and
asked for information as to the way they
he himself and one of the other leaders
We're Armenians brought up in Russia and
respectively named Dratch and Armenigor-
off, that they had become desperate and
were determined to force Europe to take
action and by such outrages to show what
the Armenian people could do although OPP
pressed and massacred and abandoned by
their fellow Christians. He Informed me
that the party which was to attack the
bank was composed of sixty men. who
approached the bank in four different
bands by small side streets. Two of the
leaders went into the bank on the pretext
of trdnsac ting business with a view to
accommodating, and a third was posted at
the head of the stairs commanding the en-
trance and the interior of the bank. On
seeing that the coast was clear signal
was made 10 men posted outside five or
more of whom, dressed in the ordinary
garb of porters (hamals) then entered,
carrying what appeared to be the ordinary
canvas bags used in Turkey for carrying
specie BY curious coincidence silver
dollars were at the same time being
brought into the bank. that the reVolu-
tionaries entered without arousing
picion The bags contained bombs. dyna-
mite and dynamite cartridges. One of these
bags was deposited the ground floor;
close to the counter and two in the base
ment. Events were precipitated by the ar
rest of suspicious person by the porters
of the bank. which forced the leader to
give the signal prematurely. This was done
by one of the leaders blowing a siren whis-
tie, whereupon rush was made upon the
entrance of the bank by the revolutionar-
les outside. who We're apparently casually
walking past. In the first rush two soldiers
guarding the bank were shot dead and the
Montenegrin porter wounded. About thirty
succeeded in effecting an entrance. but at
the sacrifice of their principal leader and
two men.
INSIDE THE BANK
'Once inside they closed the doors and
commenced firing revolvers in every direc-
ton and throwing bombs out of the window
to brighten the staff of the bank into sub
mission and prevent people outside from
storming the door, AS soon as it was clear
that the bank was in their possession they
proceeded to barricade the door with bags
of specie and were ready to hold the bank
against all corners. Their object in attack
ing the bank was the fact that it was the
State bank and that the staff was Drinci-
pally composed of Europeans, among whom
were several possessing great influence He
said they were fully aware that the DOW
ers would never allow the lives of these
people to be sacrificed but that they We're
determined that unless their demands were
granted they would blow up the bank and
all in it. They had decided to hold out
for two days with this object.
ION my asking him where they had OBJ
tanned their bombs and dynamite h1 in