The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-07-20

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 cxterminate if they possibly could, all of the Christian Armenians, and thls meant all the Armenians. These mas sacres took place soon after the great war began and continued from June' 1915, until January. 1916.
 "The splendid opportunity came at last. when the Turkish government is- sued the decree-approved by Chris tian CD Germany-to crush all the Arm enians The excuse for this decree
 as far as know, the result of se Armenian spies who helped and guided the Russian armies over the 1 Turkish boundaries. This was at the time, early in the war. when Russian forces took possession in the towns Of Van, Erg -Er- -Kourn, Betlis, etc. In stead of seeking out the few guilty spies. the Turkish government simply | issued a decree to crush the whole race, so consequently the innocent and guilty were treated the same In most cases those who had joined the Rus- sians as spies were able to get away into Russia and are still alive, whilst those unfortunate people who were confined to their homes and minded their own affairs got killed as a re- suit of the Turkish government de- cree
 "One day late in July 1915, I visited Rev. Enrich, an American missionary of Mardin, who had come to Beirut on his way to America a short time after the war began, and had been stranded, unable to move out of the country, as many others were for the entire dura- tion of the war
 I Have you had any letters from Mardin lately sir?" I asked. why. yes, I'm very sad to say that I have just received a very sorrowful letter from pr. Address, who says No Chris tians. That means that all the Chris tians there have evidently been mas
 sacred This thing was very much ex- pected, even when I was there, because
 some Armenians had stirred up the fa-
 natic hatred of the Turks by helping the Russians to cross the Turkish
 frontiers"
 . , this is to me"I cried. You mean to , i say that all my relatives have been } massacred?"I asked with deep con-
 cern. MT. Enrich replied. "AccordinG to the letter. your village. Kills. te- l cause it is surrounded by the Kurdish , inhabitants on all sides. has been more , completely depopulated by massacre xi1 <ha F could escape over the boundaries" g What! What!' I cried. "All my 6 relatives killed-murdered in their
 own houses? Oh, unfortunate. dea, relatives" I cried. with eyes brim-
 ming full of tears. my heart filled witt U U great sorrow.
 Later on I heard the fate of my u family from the lips of woman wh' survived and actually witnessed th' massacre of my village. She told m' U that as soon as the decree of deatl was issued against all Armenians ih
 blood thirsty Kurds began immediate
 ly to prepare themselves for thei ' splendid opportunity to satiate thei s religious fanaticism. Soon after til
 
 vanced in a large body-men, womel ,. and children-upen our unprotecte s village. They brought with them hun e dreds of mules and donkeys on whic e they planned to carry away oa Q things It was arranged that tn = armed Kurdish men were to kill Il s and the women and children were e pack up our possessions and divid e them among themselves. Moreove !, before the Kurds arrived and the req d bloody carnage took place a grea
 band of well-armed' Turkish soldier 6 entered our village and searched fo s hidden arms or weapons until the l. gathered them all. Afterwards the t gathered the chiefs. who are cal!e - shieks. of the village. Next they sys IS tematically herded the other men int e various groups of twenties. fifties an y hu lreds. Each of these groups Wa .- taken away separately to some out y of-the-way place in the mountains. an y there the men were shot down by th