Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1918-01-12

Dear Kind Americans:
1 have been asked to tell you my sad
story. 1 do not know English well and it
is hard for me to express myself, but I
will try my best.
lived with my father, mother, two
sisters and brother, and we were happy.
We had colleges, schools, churches and
comfortable homes. But that was before
1915. In March, 1915, suddenly our
town was surrounded by Turkish sol
diers and all of the prominent Armenian
merchants, doctors, dentists, professors
and business men were imprisoned. Then
they began to torture them. do not like
to tell you sad things, and to tell you of
torturings in the land of freedom
seems to me not good, but must tell
you of the suffering of my people.
They tortured the professor of history
in our American Missionary college.
First they beat him with a stick; then
they burned his hair; then they burned
his fingers and finally crucified him;
and all the time he was murmuring, "Oh
God, all this for your sake.'
They did not arrest my father at first,
but later they took him to the prison
and kept him in room where they tor
tured prominent Armenians. After he
saw these torturings they told him,
s'These things will happen to you if you
do not bring your guns.'' But my father
was peaceful man; he had no guns. He
was professor and he had no arms with
which to defend himself. He was kind
man and he could not bear to see such
torturings. He became sick and they
took him to DIR. Atkinson IS hospital. AT
ter two months of these torturings the
Turkish government ordered all Armen-
ians to be deported to the Syrian and
Arabian deserts, and in July, 1915, 5000
Armenians, the most prominent men in
our city, doctors, lawyers, merchants,
professors, with their wives and families
began to move towards the deserts. Our
family was in this group.
In America, if someone is pretty they
want to be prettier, if someone is beau
tifuI they want to be more beautiful /;
but it was not so in our country during
the deportations. At the time of depOr-
tations they tried to spoil the beauty
God gave. saw mothers cut the long
hair of their daughters. 1 saw my
mother cut the long blond hair of my
sister, but they could not take out her
beautiful eyes. 1 heard mothers say
ing, Daughter, 1 wish you were blind. -
But it is hard to spoil the beauty which
God gives.
We were travelling towards the des-
erts, surrounded by Turkish soldiers and
officers, and these soldiers selected
were the most cruel ones. After a few
days the Turkish officer saw my sister
and asked for her, but my father would
not do that. Neither would any Armen-
ian do that. Never will 1 forget my
fathers words. We were standing on
the bank of the Euphrates. He said
to the Turkish officer, q" You are Turk
and 1 am Armenian, you are Moslem
and l am Christian; l cannot give you
nv daughter If it were not written IN
our bible that suicide is sin, would
throw myself with my daughter into the
river.'' The Turkish officer said: g You
need not do that for you will see the
same condition in a few days"
After a few days we reached Malatia.
This beautiful little city was father S
birthplanee. AS we saw the town my
father said: "My beautiful birthplace,
will you also be my deathplacef' When
we reached Malatia we were suddenly
surrounded by another corps of Turkish
soldiers and the men were separted from
the women. 1t is hard for me to des-
eribe what heart-broken scene this was
for men to be separated from women.
Even if 1 tried to tell it to yen in Ar
menian 1 could not describe this heart
breaking scene. Husbands could not say
goodbye to their wives for the last time,
fathers were torn from the arms Of their
wives and children. could not kiss my
sister for the last time.
I was surrounded by two Turkish sol
6ers and they pulled me away without