The citizen., 1896-01-31
armenian MASSACRES.
British Blue Books Issued
on the Outrages.

Newspaper Stories of Murder. Tor.
ture and the Violation of Women
differentiation of the
Armenians the Main Desire. and
London, Jan. 29.-Two blue books on
the Armenian massacres have been is
sued by the government. The first
contains the dispatches between the
consuls and diplomats, while the second
give the process verbal of the Armenian
commission. The blue books deal only
WIN the Sassoun outrages and do not
mentlon the later reports. The consuls
conhrm the newspaper stories so far as
the nature of the outrages go, telling
OF brutal tortures, burning alive. the
violation of women, the cutting open
OF encelnte women, the tossing of chill
oren on bayonets. etc, by Kurds and
soldiers. Long extracts are given from
the report of the consular delegates on
the commission to Sir Phillip Currie,
the British ambassador to Turkey.
kurds and Soldiers Acted To~etber
This report states the fact that
the Kurds accompanied the troops. and
that no steps were taken to compel
them to withdraw may be regarded as
proved. 1t must also be regarded as
having been established that the Kurds
and soldiers were the joint authors of
the burning of entire villages. More
over, it was not proved that the Armeni-
ans were In revolt. The victims at Che
hguzan are estimated to have been
about forty. The report does not sup
port the newspaper stories which
stated that the victims numbered tbou-
sands, but it protests against the diff
Guilty thrown in the way of the INQUIRY
and the duplicity of the Turkish com
missioners and officials
LonG-standins Armenian Revolt.
The second blue book contains an
important memorandum by Consul
Sn1pley upon the report of the dele
gates. This declares that the consul is
compelled to regard the stories told bv
the newspapers and similar stories told
elsewhere as being enormously exae-
gerated and, in certain instances. abso-
utely invented fol. the purpose of ad-
dingDto the horror. Nevertheless. Con-
sui Shlpley says, it is impossible to
doubt that in certain ravines of the
Antok mountains fugitive villagers
were attacked by soldiers and Kurds
and massacred with savage brutality
regardless of age or sex. Consul Shin
ley remarks that an agitation subver-
slve OF government authority has pro-
ceeded for years among the Armenians
In the Moesh and Talori regions This
agitation was instigated by the Armen-
ian committee abroad. 1t was the
failure to successfully cope with the
agitation that finally exasperated the
Turkish officials.
determination the Main Desire
On the other hand, the government
entirely failed to protect the Armeni-
ans from the constant extortions of
the Kurds and rapacity of the officials.
The Armenians were obliged to paw
tribute to the Kurds to prevent their
houses from being burned and their
cattle stolen, the government never
attempting to prevent such outrapes.
1t was impossible to expect the Arme-
mans to be contented under such con-
ditions Mr.. Shipley concludes that it
was not SO much the suppression of
psuedo revolt that was desired bv the
Turkish officials as the determination
of the Armenians in the Gheligrizan
and Talori districts. He estimates
at 900 the number of victims in Sas-
soon