The weekly Alaska citizen., 1917-12-17

babies n trenches with the bodies Of their mothers. who had been slaughtered or allowed to perish from exposure, Was pracuc,d by the Turks ID their work oi rNttlmInauus the Armenians, Il was declared here to- day b. the Rev. Henry Ii. Riggs, missionary Of the American Board oi Commissioners of Foreign Missions io Harput. Turkey, who recently came back 10 this country A trench Was dug beside camp ot Armenian women, he sad, and as they met death the surlIEogS were forced to drag their bodies 10 1t and bury them
 The genuarmes said they could not take care of the babies that were left behind, so many of those were buried with their mothers" Dr. Rigs said. When l visited this camp l frequently saw Turks wandering about among the Armenians pickins out pretty girls and little children 70 take away to their homes. some mothers told Us that they had them, seIioa thrown their babies into tn, s.u2arates r.yer rather than allow lhcm 10 be taa-n to MosIrm homes. Many more threw themselves into the river 10 escape d bondage of shame worse than death
 About fifteen miles from Harput ts lake hidden from sight with many .uylnes about il. We were told that tho Armenian eNilea were being killed and left in these ravines. Two Americans investigated and brought back photographs and actual facts They saw in q twenty nll" ride 10000 human bodies, most of them killed by the bayonet. With a w exceptions they were women ... children and the mangled conditLoa Of their bodies showed the Aorlo-' fate that had been theirs"
 The story of the deportation of tA. Armenians of Harput is onn Of ''-e. fdy, violence and murder 1. -. went on, adding, Tt is n.ars- ,s
 -tn to say the Turkish government undertook the extinction of the Al. menian population" After the tasu of an edict for all Armenians 10 go to Mesopotamia, he said, there cam" the arrest of all the men of standing
 They were sent out on tI
 tied together n groups of two to five" he said driven and beaten by the gendarmes Of the first party of 500, one young man survived to tell the story of what happened. The party was taken into ravine and ordered to sit down, he told me. Then the gendarmes climbed up on the surrounding rocks and fired with their rifles into the crowd of bound prisoners as long as they showed signs of life.
 The man who told me the story succeeded in getting his knife and cutting himself loose. As he made his dash for liberty he was followed by a yolIey of shots but got away unscathed. All the other men of that and similar parties were ruth lessly butchered.
 The women and children were then started on the road toward Meso- potania in companies of two or three thousand By indirect routes they were forced to wander about until the summer heat and disease wasted away the majority. No transports ton was provided. saw one old man, who had travelled 200 miles, start out to go the remaining 25O miles carrying on his back his pack of clothes and on top of that his aged, palsied wife, who could not walk
 Often the routes chosen took the people over waterless deserts where thousands perished from thirst. l passed through such a region where thousands of bleached skeletons each side the way told the story of a ~aterless journey across the plains in August.
 The people who passed through Eiarput from the north usually spent two or three days in camp within sight of my home. The sights we saw there can never be forgotten. They were absolutely without shel- ter, day or night, from heat or cold. The air was unspeakably foul from dead bodies lying near. As we ap- preached the women and children came around us like hungry wolves, all restraint lost in the one desire for piece of bread.
 "The sick and dying lay around under the blazing sun with no one to care for them, waiting for the end. One place l saw a row of twelve dead women and children who had been lying in the shade of trees. With them was one little baby still Il. l.. I .l.l l k,~