The Tabor independent. [volume] (Tabor, S.D.) 1913-19??, 1915-12-09
ADDS CHAPTER To
ARMENIAN HORROR
ViScount Bryce Gives New De.
tails Confirming ant Am
pIifying GhaStIy Events
In Near East.

LONDON special: NiScount Bryce
recently made public the details of
further American massacres which, in
q letter accompanying them, he says,
"surpass in horror, IL that were pos
sible, what has been published al
ready"
Il feel" his letter continues, that
such crimes ought to be exposed to the
utmost and that the charity OF other
nations will, more than ever. be drawn
to the unhappy refugees, when II IL
known what their friends and fellow
countrymen have suffered"
Viscount Bryce says the details con-
firm and amplify the CHASTITY history OF
deportations by which Armenians In
northern and eastern Anatolia were
driven to death of fiendish cruelty.
The first part OF the evidence he says.
was received by the committee OF in
qufry in the United States, and the
second part comes from an Armenian
gentleman at Tifiis, who received tt
from refugees who escaped from re-
gions where the events happened.
After giving the parts Of the evil
dence received from the United States,
Viscount Bryce says that the follow
Ing extracts were taken from the COR
respondent at Tiflis:
Butcher 5attaIions."
Toward the end Of May Djevdet Bey,
the military governor, was expelled
from Van. Djevedt fed southwark and
entered Sairt with some 5000 soldiers,
whom he called butcher battalions.'
He massaered most Of the Christians
is known. On the best Of authority,
however, 1t is reported that he or
dered his soldiers to burn in the public
squares the Armenian bishop, Eglise
Vartaved, and the Chaldean bishop,
Addai Sher
"on June rs the Turks surrounded
the town OF Bitlis and cut its COM
. rpnications with neighboring Ar
mean villages. Then most OF the
able bodied men were taken away from
their women by domicfliary visits Dur
ing the following few days all the men
under arrest were shot outside the
town and buried In deep trenches dug
by the victims themselves. The young
women and children were distributed
among the rabble. The remainder Of
the useless lot were driven to the
south and are believed to have been
drowned in the Tigris. Any attempts
at resistance, however, brave. were
Armenians, after firing their last
cartridge, either took poison by whole
families or killed themselves m their
homes in order not to fall into the
hands OF the Turks.
ut is in such a fashion that the
lans at Bitlis. At Mush early In July
the authorities demanded arms from
the Armeni0ns and large sum In ram
som OF votables of the town. The head
men of the village were subjected to
revolving fortunes. Their finger nails
tracted; teeth were knocked out and
in some cases noses were whitfield
down, the victims thus being done to
death under shocking, lingering agony.
Turk Beast Unmoved.
The female relatives OF victims who
came to the rescue were assaulted In
public before the very eyes Of their
mutilated men. The shrieks and death
cries OF the victims filled the air. yet
they did not move the Turkish beast.
In the town OF Mush itself the Ar
menians, under the leadership OF Co
toyan and others, entrenched them
selves in churches and stone built
houses and fought for four days In self
defense. but Turkish artillery, manned
by German officers, made short work
or all the Armenian positionG, and
every one of the Armenian leaders, as
well as their men, were killed in their
fighting.
when they were dead and silence
reigned over the ruins of the churches
and houses, the rest OF the Moslem
rabble descended upon the women and
children and drove them out of town
and into large camps, which had been
prepared for the peasant women and
children.
Many women went mad and threw
away their children. Some women
knelt down and prayed amid the flames
which were burning their bodies.
Others shrieked for help which came
from nowhere, and the executioners,
who seemed unmoved by this un-
paralleled savagery, grasped infants by
one leg and hurled them into the fire,
calling out to the burning mothers,
Here are your lions
Turkish prisoners who apparently
witnessed some Of these scenes were
Mortified and maddened at remember
ing the sight. The odor of burning
flesh, they say, permeated the air for
many days.
'Tn the hin country OF Sasun the sur
viving warriors found themselves sur
rounded at close quarters by $4,000
Turks and Kurds. Then followed one
Of those desperate, heroic struggles for
life which have always been the pride
Of the mountaineers. Men, women and
children fought with knives, scythes
and stones and anything they could
handle. They rolled blocks of stone
down the steep slopes, killing many OF
their enemies. In the frightful hand
to hand combats women were seen
thrusting their knives into threats Of
Turks.
when every warrior had fallen, sew
eral of the younger women, who were
In danger of falling into the hands of
The Turks, threw themselves from the
rocl<S MANY of them with infants In