Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1919-07-06
REPORTS REVEAL TURKS
CLUBBED MEN TO DEATH
Hundreds OF Armenians BrutaIly
Slain In March From Their
Homes.
WOMEN BATTERED AS SLAVES
MosIcms Tore Clothes From Chris
tians, Forcing Them to Blister
and Starve Under Beating Desert
Sun.
rRv Associated pressl

Christian women and girls Of Armenia
VINO we're deportcd from their homes
led to Hirtua! captivity or slavery in
the camps Of the Turks. Circassians
and Arabs or held captives In Turk
isn harems IN Asia Minor, have been
! received here by the American Com
ihlltcc Tor Armenian and Syrian Re-
I!ei. The statement issued by the COM
miitee says that the women whose
narratives are made public were re-
leased by their masters or rescued by
allied troops.
After the signing or the armistice,"
says the committees statement, many
OF the Turks, believing that by 50
doing they could escape punishment
turned the woInen-many Of them with
babies--lnto the street. Cablegrams to
inc committee have reported that num-
beis oil these women were wandering
about the country craZed by starva-
/ '!nn and exposure. AS fast as pos
stb!e they arc being gathered up by
ine committees relief workers and
| placed In homes established for their
care a late telegram said that fifteen
sutn homes have been established in
J Asia Mlnor."
I cries of these Armenian victims
/ 81 turkish airocity were obtained b.
Dr. Loyal l.. Writ. member OF an ex-
/ petition sent 10 Turkey by the CONF
Inhtee: They are taken down as re-
lated by pr. W. a: Kennedy. field d.
rector OF the Lord Mayors Relief Fund
+ OF London. After taking them down.
/ Dr kennedy assured DR.. Writ. he per-
/ sonally reread the aitidav!ts> 10 the
! rarrators and they signed them in his
! presence.
Tragic Tale of War.
Together these tales constitute one
/ OF the tragic chapters Of the war. They
\ were not isolated cases but, in some
! Instances, the experiences of as many
! as 5000 refugees who had been driven
I from their homes and forced on jour
! neys Of hundreds Of miles from fertile
I Armenia into the borders Of the syrian
D
time were separated and massacred,
+ often in the most diabolical way.
I Hundreds Of girls were torn from
/ the other members Of their family and
{ taken, none knows where. by the
I Turks. kurds Or ci-cassians. scores
were compelled to live in captivity
naked for months, and suffering from
sun. bIis;ers and bea,insss. Armenian
/ tered like cattle after their fathers
or relatives had vainly paid ransom
! Tor them. Some saw their fathers
i friends murdered. In the tents of the
Arabs in the Syrian desert many were
hound and forcibly tat,ooed on the fore
head, lips and chin TO mark them as
Moslem women.
/ Generally. the stories Indicate that
/ the captives were moved, sometimes
/ IN large groups, from Armenia south
/ ward toward the desert OF Syria. The
! stories told by at least three Armenian
T Christian girls deal with the move
! ment OF one OF these great groups,
consisting OF 1000 families or 5000
persons. one story OF this awful
journey into the desert was told by
Takouhi Guezekuchukian. girl Of
eighteen, who. with her father, mother.
four sisters and brother. was de-
ported from iiadjin. In Adana Province.
in May. 1915. They were moved south
ward TO Aleppo and thence further
party numbered about 1000 families.
Al Sivaria, she said, they were told
tina; on payment OF 5000 Turkish lire
they would be allowed to return.
Men Killed With Clubs.
THE refugees said they could not
give this amount" the Armenian girl
told Or. Kennedy. Then the Circas-
SLAMS of the tribe of Chechens, who had
control Of them :s,erarat.d out LOO
away. The same evening some OF
these people returned and said they
had escaped. and tina; four hours after
the, left the chechens had begun 10
kill them with iron studded clubs The /
remaining families raised il.50o and
sen, deputation o: ffty-two men with |
il 10 buy their security. The amount |
was refused and the men were beaten |
and sent back.
They raised an additional 500 lire |
and took 1000 Turkish pounds in gold !
to the Circassian Reys. who took the |
money and tried TO force them to sign
a paper saving the Armenians had paid
no money to them. The deputation re- |
fused 10 do this. and the iitty-two men !
were bound and taken away"
A few days later, according 10 the |
1ere depor,ed from sivaria and after |
eight days arrived at Shedadieh. on the |
River Habour east OF DER es-Zor.
On the way the girfs story went
on, "l5n men We're separated and taken
away and soon after the Circassians re-
turned and divided among themselves
some of the clothing which She recog
n!Zed as belonging 20 some OF the men
whom they had taken away The next
day 300 more men were taken away
and killed" AS tire refugees resumed
their journey on the following morn
ing she saw the bodies of of some OF
the men she knew. They had been
dubbed TO death
Robbed by Arnbians.
"a few days after this" reads the /
safety. each family OF women and chill
drcn was to go to the house of an
Arab The Arabs robbed them and
stripped them of their clothing and !
sent them back to the Circassians. |
who commenced a once TO kill them |
with knives. women and children. about |
$50 in all. Twenty-Five boys and eleven |
girls were saved and taken to the |
tents of the Circassians. and she was |
taken with her sister 10 the village, OF
Gerbclleh. where she was beaten be-
cause she did not give them gold they |
believed she had
After having been kept n while by |
a Circassian she and her sister were |
sent TO another Chechcn and then to
the house OF another Circassian in She |
crush. She is now in the orphanage
at Aleppo and her sister is in an Ar |
meniau house in NuSebin
Other incidents evidently dealing |
with this terrible journey Of the Ar |
menians to Shedadieh were related to |
DR. Kennedy by Araxa Barutjian
girl OF seventeen. who was a pupil in |
the Americans girls school at Ada
Bazaar. in the western portion of Asia
Minor, near Constantinople. She spoke
English.
"A. Shedadieh." the narrative says,
she saw a party of 800 men. women
and children, all naked. 1t was in July,
and their backs had been blistered by
the sun. and many Of them had bruises
all over their limbs and bodies and
sores caused by the beatings they had
received. During the heat of the day
they would lie covered In the water.
as the pain in the sun was unbearable.
Before she arrived at Shedadieh two
of her brothers died at Bah and her
father at another place. AS the Arabs
we're taking only unmarried girls from
among the refugees, her mother told
them she Was married. At Shedadich
her mother was sold to one Arab and
she to another, and the girl lived In