Norwich bulletin. [volume] (Norwich, Conn.) 1895-2011, 1917-01-03
TIE WAR PRIMER
BY National Geographic Society

Sivas, Asia Minor-If the Russians
operating in Asia Minor continue to
PRESS their advantage and sweep
westward frem their present positions,
tile vilayets of the Turkish empire
and in the middle ages one of the
three chief cities of Asia Minor, will
be an objective figuring prominently
eI Geographic Society, from its head
quarters in Washington, issues the
following bulletin on this city:
The Importance of Sivas as a
strategic center in Asia Minor is based
not merely on the fact that it con-
trolls important highways from Sam
sun and other points on the Black
Sea to such interior points as Khar-
put but also because it is the capital
OF a region which produces most of
the necessaries of life Wheat and
barley yield bountiful crops; great
forests Of fir, beech and oak cover the
plateau and the hills while the noun
tains are rich in copper, lead, iron,
silver, coal, and a variety of other
min erals.
The town, which has a population
of mere than % 0os, is situated on the
MUrean Su, aSsms1l tributary Of the
Kill Irmak, and is 100 miles in an air
line due west of ETzingan, and 425
miles southeast of Censtantinople.
That picturesque traveller and ro
n1ancer Marco Polo, whose accounts
ular ina SinaGiep of Europe in the last
half of the 18th century, relates that
when he visited Sivas, or Savast as
he called it, it was one of the three
chief cities in 'Turconania.' He des-
Cribss the inhabitants of the country
a s a crude people with an uncouth
language of their own; they dwell
among the mountains and downs,
where they find good pasture for their
cattle and for their excellent horses
ms N m 10
their stock raising, this traveller re-
corded that they weave the finest and
bendsomest carpets in the world, and
also a great quantity of fine and rich
silks Of cranneisy and other colours,
and plenty of other stuffs.' Today
the Sfvas Citizens are more prosaic-
ally employed in making wooden socks
and preparing JerlSea beef-theirs only
important experts aside from their
agricultural products.
The ruins of the ancient city,
generally called Sebasteia, are on the
banks Of the Kizil Irrak some six
miles from the modern town. I'm
der the Roman emperor Diocletian it
became the capital of Armenia Min
or, and under the Byzantine emperors
it was, next to Ceasarea, the largest
city of Asia Minor. At the beginning
of the 18th century, when Senekher-
i'm, king of the Armenian province of
Vasbursgan was overawed by the
nnenacfng growth in power of the Sell
juk chiefs of Persia he ceded his do
mains to the great Basil II at Con-
stantineple and in excange received
the latter's protection and the Office
of vicerey of Sebasteia and the con-
tiguous territory. After the defeat of
Romanus ", a soldier who owed his
occupancy of the imperial throne to
the fact that he had fascinated his
empress while being led to the execu-
ton chamber for treason, the Seljuks'
power gradually increased and event.
uaily increased and eventually they
occupied Sebasteia in 1172. It so be-
came the metropolis of their empire
or Rum. More than three hundred
years later the page of the city's his
tory was scared with the sansuinary
go1 princes, Timur, or Tamerlane, he
whose genius in devising exquisite
turtues for his victims equalled his
unqueztiened military prowess. When
he captured Sebasteia he put to the
sword many of the soldiers; caused
1,eeo children, each bearing a copy of
the Koran, to be trampled to death
under the hoefs of his war horses, aid,
as a final debauch of slaughter, has
1880 of the Armenian defenders bur-
led alive in a plot Of ground which to
this day is called the Black Earth
The city never recovered it's lead
ershfp among the cemercia1 centers of
Asia Minor after this blow.
''Mechithar, founder of the Mechi-
thar Order, which today has it's head
quarters in a monastery, built by him
en- the island Of ST. Lazzaro in Ven
ice, was born in Sebasteia in 1876.
Among the most important remains of
beautiful examples of Seljuk .architec-
tyre, the ruins of their medresses' or
nolleges.'