Albuquerque morning journal., 1917-10-15
Rev, Henry H. Riggs Returns
From an Investigating Tour
in Asiatic Turkey; Gives
Facts.
MORE THAN 10000 ARE
BUTCHERED AT ONE PLACE.
Armenians Practically Exter-
minated; Women, as Well asI
Men, Tortured to Death;
Children Starve.

tnY MoahAo JOURNAL SPECIAL LEASED wiRsI
New York, Oct. 14.-Burial alive of
babies in trenches with the bodies of
their mothers. who had been slaugh-
tered or allowed to perish from ex
posure. was practiced by the Turks
in their work Of exterminating the
Armenians 1t was declared here today
by the Rev. Henry H. Riggs, mission
airy of the American board of COM
mssioners for foreign missions to
Harput, Turkey, wrio recently came
back to this country. A trench was
dug beside camp of Armenian wom
en-, he said, and as they met death
the survivors were forced TO drag their
bodies to ii and bury them.
The gendarmes said they could
not take care of the babies that were
left behind so many of those were
buried with their mothers DR.. Riggs
said. when ] visited this camp fire.
kluently saw Turks wandering about
among the Armenians picking out
pretty girls and little children to take
away to their homes. Some mothers
told us that they had themselves
thrown their babies into the Eu-
pirates river rather than allow them
to be taken to Moslem homes Many
more threw themselves into the river
to escape a bondage of shane worse
than death. s@eI
Saw 10000 Bodies.
About, fifteen miles from Harput
is lake hidden from sight with
many ravines about it. We were told
that the Armenian exiles We're being
killed and left in these ravines. Two
Americans investigated and brought
back photographs and actual facts.
They saw in twentymile ride 10000
human bodies, most of them killed
with the bayonet With a few excep-
tons they were women and children
and the mangled condition of their
bodies showed the horrible fate that
had been theirs"
The story of the deportation of the
Armenians of Harput is one Of per
fidy, violence and murder" DR. Riggs
went on, adding, 1T is nearer to the
truth to say the Turkish government
undertook the extinction of the Ar
menian population" After the issue
of an edict for all Armenians to go to
Mesopotamia, he said, there came the
arrest of all the men Of standing.
They were sent out on the road
tied together in groups of two to
five" he said, driven and beaten by
the gcndarmes. OF the first party OF
500. one young man survived to tell
the story OF what happened. The par
ty was taken into ravine and order
ed to sit down, he told me. Then the
gendarmes climbed up on the sur
rounding rocks and fired with their
rifles into the crowd of bound prison.
ers as long as they showed signs OF
life.
Ruthless Butchery.
1.-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
volley of shots but got away unscath-
ed. All the other men of that and SIM
liar parties were ruthlessly butchered.
The women and children were
then Started on the road toward Mes
opotamia in companies of two or
three thousand. BY indirect routes
they we're forced to wander about un-
til the summer heat and disease
wasted away the majority. No trans
portation was provided. saw one old
man, who had travelled 200 miles.
start out to go the remaining ESQ
miles carrying on his back his pack
of quilts and clothes and on top of
that his aged, palsed wife, who could
not walk. !
"Often the routes chosen took the
people over waterless deserts where
thousands perished from thirst l
passed through such region where
uoBe suol5tsYs psuoBsIq 10 spuvsnoul
side the way told the story of a water
less journey across the plains in
August.
'The people who passed through
Harput from the north usually spent
two or three days in camp within
sight IF my home. The sights we saw
there can never be forgotten. They
were absolutely without shelter, day
or night. from heat or cold. The air
was unspeakably foul from dead
bodies lying near. AS we approached
the women and children came around
us like hungry wolves. all restraint
lost in the one desire for a piece of
bread.
Killed by Suns Heat.
"The. Sick and dying lay around un-
der the blazing sun with no one to
care FOR them. waiting for the end. |
One place saw row Of twelve dead