The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1915-12-09
CHAPTER TO
ARMENIAN HORROR
Viscount Bryce Gives New De.
tails Confirming and Am
pIifying CHASTITY Events
In Near East.

London Special: Viscount Bryce
recently made public the details of
further American massacres which, in
a letter accompanying them, he says,
'surpass in horror, if that were pos
slble. what has been published al
ready"
I feel" his letter continues, that
such crimes ought to be exposed to the
utmost and that the charity Of other
nations will, more thar ever, be drawn
to the unhappy refugees, when it is
known what their friends and fellow
countrymen have suffered"
p1Scount Bryce says the details con-
firm and amplify the CHASTITY history of
deportations by which Armenians in
northern and eastern Anatolia were
The first part of the evidence, he says.
was received by the committee of i'm
quiry in the United States, and the
second part comes from an Armenian
gentleman at Tiflis, who received it
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 corr
respondent at Tiflis:
Butcher BattaIions."
Toward the END of May Djevdet Bey,
the military governor, was expelled
from Van. Djevedt fled southwark and
entered Sairt with some 5000 soldiers,
whom he called butcher battalions.'
a Of s @afsa ths as n25t & & A sAs gA nethlng
Is known. On the best of authority,
however. it is reported that he or
dered his soldiers to burn in the public
squares the Armenian bishop, EgIise
Vartaved, and the Chaldean bishop,
Addai Sher.
CON I,,na or a.. IH..5. -.. I a
the town of Bitlis and cut it's COM
m~unications with neighboring Ar
meniall villages. Then most Of the
able bodied men were taken away from
their women by domiciliary visits. Dur
ing the following few days all the men
under arrest We're shot outside the
town n buried in deep trenches dug
by the victims themselves. The young
women n 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
quelled by he regular troops. Many
~Armenians, after firing their last
cartridge, either tool poison by whole
families or killed themselves in their
hands Of the Turks.
1t is in such a fashion that the
Turks disposed of about $4,000 ArnYen-
tans at Bitlis. AT Mush early in .Iuly
the authorities demanded arms from
the Armenians and a large sum in ran
som of votables of the town. The head
men of h village were subjected to
revolting fortunes. Their finger nails
nj their toe nails were forcibly ex-
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 die not move the Turkish beast.
In the town Of Mush itself the Ar
menians, under the leadership of Go
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
of oil the Armenian positions. and
every n of the Armenian leaders, as
We'll as their men. were killed in their
fighting.
When they were dead and silence
eigned over the ruins of the churches
and houses, the rest OF the Moslem
bible descended upon he women and
children and drove them out of town
n 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 We're 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 our lions.
Turkish prisoners who apparently
witnessed some of these scenes We're
Mortified and maddened at remember
ing the sight. The odor of burning
flesh, they say, permeated the air for
many days.
I'm the hill country of Sasun the sur
viving warriors found themselves sur
rounded at close quarters by 10000
Turks n 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
md 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
rocks. many of them with infants in
their arms
South Dakota Power Prospect.
From the Huron Is. ID Huronite.
A civil engineer, John T. Nelson, con-