Trench and camp. [volume] (Augusta, Ga.) 1917-1919, 1918-02-27
No. ri
WHAT The WAR MEANS
TO ARMENIA
By George Magarian


Day after day as 1 come in touch with
hundreds of soldiers in Camp Hancock, l
am asked this question: where Is Ar
menia and what kind of people are the
ArmenianS?'
And so 1 have been asked to give you
an idea as to what that nation is doing
has done and may do in the future.
We all know the simple law Of nature,
that every creature is born to live and
die, that the length of every PERSONS life
depends upon how clean he keeps, both
morally and physically, that holy temple
of God, which is the best gift nature ever
presented to any person. AS it is with
individuals so it is with nations. They are
dependent upon clean living, upon right
eousness and honor.
1t is because of her splendid record,
her national spirit, and her steadfast de-
votion to ideals that ArmenR is recorded
as one of the Oldest nations, having ex-
listed from before the time of the Romans
and the time of Babylon and ASSyria to
the present day. These nations have
meant nothing to us-they are matters OF
history only-but Armenia is both mat
ter of history and a live and still existing
nation. She and her church still exist.
With regard to the location of the cOun-
try a few words might not be amisS. Ar
menia on the modern map is located geo.
graphically by the Black sea and Rus
sian Caucasia on the north, Caspian sea
and Persia on the east, Mesopotamia, Sy~
ria and Mediterranean sea from the south,
and Natola Turkey from the west. The
Asia and Europe for centuries and has
frequently served as a barrier wall for
Europe, protecting her civilization sra9a1
the inroadS of Asiattc baFbarism. The
Garden of Eden is in Armenia, and she is
also the Mother of the two rich rivers,
Tigris and Euphrates.
Before the present war her population
was considered as about four millions, but
in the Golden Age of her history her
population has run as high as forty-flve
millions.
Armenia is the first nation that ever ac-
cepted Christianity as national religion.
Many times has she painted the battle-
fields with her rich red blood for the pro-
lection of the cross. She even lost her
for the same cross. She has suffered.
she has been tortured, and she has seen
many massacre, but none of them has
devastated her more than the cr1elties
forced upon her by this great war.
When Turkey declared war in the au-
tumn of 1914, it seems that she did not
only want the world to know that a state
Of war existed between Turkey and the
Allies but she openly meant to declare to
the whole Christian world that while
Christian nations of Europe were busy
sslaughtering each other she. would be
busy DISCRIMINATING the ChristianS-tha
Armenians-in Turkey.
The drafting of every able-bodied man
OF Armenia between the ages of twenty
and forty-fye followed the declaration of
war, and soon the final signal for the ex-
deportation was telegraphed throughout
the entire Ottoman Empire
This order was carried out very system.
aticaly and with remarkable exactitude
by all local authorities. In some places
the Armenians were given immediate no.
tfCe of the deportation within fixeI
time-fve days or perhaps a week-but in
many cases people were literally dragged
from their beds at midnight and carried
off.
Women were compelled to leave their
occupations dressed as they were and
take to the road under severe hardships
Mothers did not have time to get word to
children at school; husbands and fathers
were torn from their wives and chlldren
and children were taken to the outskirts
of the town and butchered. The prettiest
of the girls were taken into harems; the
rest were exiled to an unknown destiny
They had to travel days and weeks UNI
der the burning sun, spending the nights
on the hillside without shelter or food.
They did not spend two nights in the
same place and wherever they went the
surrounding Turks, Kurds and Arabs of
the vicinity attacked them. The govern
ment had given the MoSlemS free hand.
They killed the men and robbed them of
everything that this unfortunate people
had managed to bring along with them.
They outraged the women and took the
young girls away with them. Those who
had passed safely through the terror OF
the night did no consider themselves
fortunate; they knew that they had to
take the road early in the morning and
journey on foot until sunset--and they
knew that the night to come would be
similar to the one just passed.
From one district four to five thousand
were gathered by the Gendarmes and or
dered to take the road to find their graves
in Mesopotama or Anatolia deserts
When but few hours distant from the
town the caravans were surrounded by
bands of Turkish criminals who were
just released from the jails by official
orders for that purpose. Turkish peasants
also came at them with axes and clubs.
Plundering was first in order, then the
searching of the young children. After
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