Norwich bulletin., 1916-03-02

American Doctor Burned TO Death'
 Dr. Jacob Sargis, an American Methodist medical missionary, who has arrived in Petrograd after narrowly escaping death at the hands of the Turks and Kurds in Urumiah, Per sian Armenia, asserts that among the outrages committed against the Chris tian refugees was the burning to death of an American doctor named Simon or Shtmmun, as he was known there. His identity was not further establish ed, but the story of the outrage, as told by Dr. Sargis, was as follows: Dr. Shimmun was in the village Of Supurghan when the Turks attacked that place. He was among those who took refuge on mountain near the lakes. He was captured and told that since he had been a good doctor and had helped the wounded, they would not kill him but that he must accept the Mohammedan faith. He refused, as almost all Christians did. They poured oil on him, and, before aply- ing the torch, they gave him another chance to forsake his religion. Again he refused, and they set his clothes af1re. While running in agony from the flames, the Turks shot him several times. After he fell to the ground un- conscious they hacked his head off. Mr. Allen, an American missionary, who went from village to village bury ing the victims of this butchery, found the body of Shfmmun half eaten by dogs.
 "The Catholic mission there took 150 Christians of all sects and kept them in a small room and tried to save them, but at least forty-nine of them, among them one Bisho Dinka of the Episcopal mission, were bound togeth- CT one night, taken to Gagin Noun l tain and there shot down."
 Dr. Sargis was born in Persia but went to America in 1893, and was edu- cated there by assistance of Dr. w. F. Oldham, former Bishop of India. He | is a graduate of Ohio Wesleyan and Ohio Medical University and was for | time resident physician of the Pro- | testant Hospital at Columbus, 0.
 Dr. sargis was doing relief work in Urumiah on January l last year when | the Russian army retired from that city, followed by 14,000 refugees from | Urumiah and a hundred surrounding | villages. The hardships and suffer- | ings endured by those refugees were
 described in Associated Press dispatch
 es. There were still left in Urumiah
 and the villages 45,000 persons, chiefly
 Armenian refugees when the Turks
 and Kurds entered. The latter at once
 thes Christian population. In one
 town alone, Gu1farchin, in one night,
 according to pr. Sargis, seventy mine men and boys were tied hand to hand,
 taken to hill outside the village and
 shot. Their wives and daughters were
 distributed among the Turks, Kurds and Persian Mohammedans.
 l Dr. Sargis' story continues:
 On the second day after the Turk
 ish officers came they. had a good
 many wounded and sick. As soon as
 they heard that I was an able physi-
 clan, they tok me, gave me a body guard and put me in charge of Uru-
 miah hospital. That was how came I fn 1oav zoF
 their wounded and sick. One day
 there were sixty men brought from Bashkal, all wel1-to-do citizens, some of them noted men of that place. They
 were used as beasts of burden, forced
 to carry rolls of barbed wire into Urumiah. The next day they were all
 taken to the Castle of Ismayil and
 every one was shot or hacked tc death.
 About that time Nuri, the governo, of Gavr, told me that he had received word from the Turkish commander, tc kill all the Armenian soldiers in tn,
 Turkish army. He said that for my
 sake he would not do it. but tha z were killed about fifteen miles iron : Ururniah at Karmad. We had eigh | of them in the city, fine fellows, som 3 of them educated in Beirut. The.
 had been disarmed, and one night the.
 took them to the suburbs and sho . escaped He dropped with the other ! but was not hit. After the butcher . left he made his way to the Presby t terian mission college. I was notif1e
 and asked to take care of him. kep
 him until the Russian army came. H o joined and is now fighting with then "In the First Turkish Corps, com n manded by Kha1il Bey, there wer n about 400 Armenians. One of then y lGulhankyan, a graduate of Beirut f01d that fhoIy ol1 dnnTnnd be butchered. When they appointe
 me head phYsictan of the hospAtel the