The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1917-01-27
CHRISTIAN MARTYRS
TURKISH MASSACRE OF SYRO-
CHALDEANS.

The following letter, says the Lon
don Tablet, has been received by
Cardinal Bourne from the Chaldean
Bishop, Mgr Jacques Mamma, of Van:
The barbarous massacres made by
the Turks on the Christians of the
East are by now known to all. The
Armenians and the Syro-Chaldeans
especially have suffered. Though the
difference between these two nations
is little understood either in Europe
or in America, they differ radically
as to race, tongue, and rite.
1t is admitted that the Armenians
have suffered the greatest atrocities
at the hands of the Turks. Yet they
have been, perhaps, less unfortunate
than the Syro-Chaldeans. They have
been succored by aid from Europe and
America, and have several very rich
merchants among them in the eau
casus. But up to the present no one
has thought of bringing aid to the
latter, who are dispersed through Tur-
key and Persia.
II 10 Ill l1lCH, vi
their miseries before the eyes of the
English that | ask your Eminence to
allow me to publish some of the evils
which have fallen upon my people. It
is my lot to be Bishop and Patriarcha[
Vicar at Van, and the only Bishop
of my people who has escaped from
the Turks.
Since the spring of 1915 the most
| frightful massacres have taken place
| in the provinces of Diarbakir, of Bit
lis, of Charponti, and of Van, where
there are more than three hundred
| thousand Syro-Chaldeans, in addition
| to the many hundreds of thousands
who belong to the provinces of Nor
soul and of Bagdad in Turkey and to
the provinces of Eurmiah and of
Salinas in Persia. These have suffered
unspeakable horrors. Thousands of
women and young girls have been for
chilly taken away by the Mussulmans
and horribly violated. Many young
people have been forced to become
perverts to Islamism; pillage every
where, houses and villages burnt and
destroyed, churches desecrated and
overturned, and those of my people
who have escaped are now dispersed
| in Persia or in Russia, where they
are being decimated by famine and
| disease.
| Among the victims may be named
Mgr. Solomon, the Chaldean Arch
bishop of Diarbakir, burnt alive in
| petrol; Mgr. James Abraham, the
Chaldean Archbishop of Djarzireh, OF
the same province, massacred with his
clergy; Mgr. Abraham Chimoniteh
Bishop of Hakari, in the province OF
Van, who was forced to fly to the
mountains, and died there of hunger
and exposure; Mgr. Thomas, Bishop
of Atel, in the province of Bitlis, also
brutally killed; Mgr Addai CHER
Bishop of Seert, in the same province
who is now a refugee among the
Kurds; and many hundreds of priests
who have been victims of similar bar
PARTIES.
A great part Of my people, with their
Patriarch and several bishops, are in
| the hands of the Turks. | have not
heard of their massacre, but | know
only too well that what goods they
had left have been taken from them
that the men have been forced into
the Turkish Army, and that the women
and children are in the direst distress
May l not ask for pity on those mis-
cradle ones-men, women, and chill
dren--for whom l plead for help? II
is for this that l have made a dan
gerous and sad voyage, and now ask
the help of all those who can pity
distress.