The Washington herald., 1915-10-04

what tney cnoSe with the women ana
girls
The prisoner is put in a room ,similar
to the times of the Romans). Gendarmes
standing in twoS at both sides and two
! at the end OF the room administer, each
i in their turn. bastinadoes as long as
/ they have enough force in them. At the
I times of the Romans. forty strokes We're
| administered at the very most: in this
place. however. 800. 800. 500. even 500
strokes are administered. The foot swells
up, then bursts open. due to the numer-
Gus blows, and thus the blood spurts
out. The prisoner is then carried back
| into prison and brought to bed by the
rest of the prisoners. The prisoners who
become unconscious after their blows
are revived through the means of some
! cold water, which is thrown on their
| heads. On the next day. or more ex-
actly. during the night. as all il-treat-
ments are carried on at night in -,
as well as in -. the whole bastina doing
is being carried on again in spite of
swollen feet and their wounds. l was
then in -. but in that prison there
were also thirty prisoners in number,
and all had their feet in such a state
that they begun to burn and had to be
amputated, or were already taken off. A
young man was beaten to death within
the space Of five minutes. Apart from
the bastonadoing. other methods were
employed. too. such as putting hot irons
on the chest. A forger, who was sus-
pected to have forged the shells of the
bombs. was let free only after his toes
were burned of with sulphur (called
Kerab). / have seen the wounds Four
weeks ago We received news that the
Caimakam Of - had had ten to eighteen
people shot in a district between and
-. Shortly after this had happened
an order was promulgated which con-
cerned the Christians of -. and which
demanded that they all leave the place
within three-quarters of an hour Among
these were several women who gave
birth to children on the way, and which
they, in their desperation. threw into
the water. Many men were recalled.
and 1t is impossible to say how many
were secretly murdered and how many
will still be butchered."
1.-The panic in the city was terrible. The
termined to exterminate the Armenian
race, and they were powerless to resist
The people Were sure that the men were
being killed and the women kidnapped
Many of the convicts in the prison had
been released. and the mountains around
- were full of bands of outlaws. 1t was
feared that the women and children were
taken some distance from the city and
left to the mercy of these men. However
that may be. there are provable cases Of
the kidnapping of attractive young girls
by the Turkish officials OF -. One
Moslem reported that a gendarme had Of
fered to sell him two girls for a meji-
dieh. The women believed that they were
going to worse than death, and many
carried poison in their pockets to use if
necessary. Some carried picks and
shovels to bury those they knew would
die by the wayside."
"-. a village about two hours from
-. is inhabited by Gregorian and Cath
olic Armenians and Turks. A wealthy
and influential Armenian. together with
his two sons. according to a reliable wit
ness, were placed one behind the other
and shot through. Forty-fve men and
women were taken a short distance from
the village into q valley. The women
were first outraged by the officers of the
gendarmerie. and then turned over to
the gendarmes to dispose Of According
to this witness child was killed by
beating its brains out on a rock. The
men were all killed. and not a single per-
son survived from this group of forty
five"
THE gendarmerie department seems to
have full control of affairs and the
Mutessarif upholds them. They are now
holding about 100 Of the best citizens of
the city in prison. and today the gen.
darmerie chief called the Armenian
bishop and told him that unless the Ar
menians deliver their arms and the revo-
lutioniSts among them, that he has or
ders to exile the entire Armenian popu-
lation Of -. as they did the people of
We know how the latter were
treated. for hundreds Of them have been
dragged through - on their way to
the desert whittier they have been exiled
These poor exiles were mostly women.
children and old men, and they were
clubbed and beaten and lashed along as
though they had been wild animals, and
their women and girls were daily GRIM
inally outraged. both by their guards and
the rufYians Of every village. through
which thsy passed, - the former allowed