Evening bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1895-1912, 1896-05-01
THE SIEGE OF zeITOUN.
TWICE THE WOMEN or THE CITY
SAVED n.
a story which Reads like n Scene
From the Middle Ages.suHerIngs or
the Besiegcd were Terrible.

London, says correspondent OF
the New York Sun. The brave
and bloody record, full of the
most extraordinary incidents, re-
minds one of the siege of Luck
now. 1t is almost pleasure to
note the fact that in the course of
the investment fully 5000 Turks
were killed, while only about $50
Armenians lost their lives in the
various engagements. Twice the
women of Zeitoun saved the city.
News of the approaching attack
reached the town several days be-
fore the troops arrived. Refugees
poured in from surrounding coun-
try and villages, saying that the
Turks were coming, and that
massacre had been ordered. 1t
was determined to defend the city
at all costs. The representatives
of Turkish authority there were a
Governor with about sixty-fve
guards in the city itself and n gar
rison of $50 men in a strong fort
overlooking the town. 1t was
necessary to capture this fort be-
fore it should fall into the hands
of the coming invaders. The
Armenians first polluted the water
supply of the garrison with petro-
leum, and a day or two later at
tackled the place. There was al
most continuous fighting for fifty
six hours, and then the garrison
surrendered.
Meantime all the able-bodied
men of Zeitoun were engaged in
fortifying the approaches to the
town. The women alone were left
behind, for the Governors guards
were so few IN number it was not
considered possible that they
would attempt hostilities against
n city of more than 100000 people.
In the absence of all the men,
however, they attempted to fire
the city. The women defeated
the plot. They armed themselves
with knives and axes, quickly
overpowered the guards and ex-
tinguished the flames, which had
already appeared in two or three
places.
When the fort had fallen the
garrison were held as prisoners
in the Governors quarters, where
they were guarded most of the
time. The siege soon began
in earnest, however, and every
man and boy was pressed into the
work of defense. The besiegers
numbered more than 10000 men,
half of them regular troops and
the rest Bashi bazouks. They at
tempted to carry the defenses by
assault, but the position of lei
toun is almost impregnable, and
the defenders, while themselves
well protected, were able to inflict
great slaughter upon the enemy.
During this great battle, when
Zeitoun itself was again deserted
by all, except women and children,
the $50 prisoners in the Gov
ernor's quarters broke loose. They
again attempted to fire the city.
Again the women of lei toun
arose, and this time they did not
stay their hands. They slew
every one of the $50 and cast their
corpses over cliff 800 feet high
at one side of the town.
Finally the Turks bombarded
the town, and nearly 1000 shells
fell in the city, but without doing
great damage. About 1900 of the
missiles fell upon the mud walls
or roofs of the. houses and failed
to explode. The women fearlessly
opened these shells and emptied
them of powder and shot, of which
the Zeitoulis were in great need.
"Ihe Smelling of the town was a
great blessing to u.s." they say
simply in abiding to the incident.
When very hard pressed the
Zeitounlis tried to negotiate terms
of surrender, and the reply of the
Turkish commander was: "Sur-
render at once and we will spare
two in every ten-wait one day
and we will have the life of every
man, woman and child"
Naturally these terms were not
accepted, and the city held out
until the Intervention of the
powers at Constantinople secured
for them an armistice. The suff-
erings of the besieged during the
last days were terrible. The inha-