The New York herald., 1920-01-25
ARMENIAN GIRLS
BRANDED BY TURKS
Victims Return from Long
Captivity with Their Faces
Heavily Tattooed.
BY WILLIAM Z. FILLS.


/ Branded women-such are the Arme-
mans now returning from captivity to
! the Arabs and the Kurds.
| OF tragic human interest is the plight
of these victims of the Turkish deporta-
tions. They may be found in increasing
numbers, scattered among the Armenian
| communities of Asia Minor, to which they
| have returned after nearly five years of
enforced exile. Were it not for the patri-
otic resolution of their fellow Armenians
to regard these girls and women mar
! tyrs of the race their fate would be hor-
rible TO contemplate.
All the world knows how the Turks,
Kurds, Arabs and other peoples too. took
J their pick of the girls and young women
| from among the deported Armenians who
had been sent into exile that the race
might die natural death rather than
be massacred I am not going to rehearse
the horrors # those days. Literally thou
sands of Armenian girls were forcibly
made members Of Moslem households;
and some were legally married to the men
who had secured them.
The Arabs idea OF Beauty.
! Among the Kurds and Arabs it is the
custom to tattoo the faces of the women.
1t is thought that their beauty is thus
enhanced. 8 Designs on forehead. lips, chin
and cheeks are sometimes only few
blue spots, and sometimes an elaborate
jected to the custom of the people amidst
whom they had been taken.
Armenian women do not wear the veil.
so their faces are exposed to public gaze.
Markings are thus apparent to every OBJ
server Since tattooing Is not at all used
in Western Asia Minor the girl with
features so 'ornaihented' is proclaimed
to friend and stranger as a former inmate
of a Moslcm home Her story is written
lunmis takably. Even although Armenian
communities are agreed that these re-
turned refugees should be treated as de-
Serving OF special honor because of what
they have suffered for being Armenians.
the consciousness OF being branded is not
wholesome. \ sensitive woman shrinks
from it as from death. Curious and un-
feeling questioners keep the fact alive.
Girls Who Burn Their Faces.
Many OF these Armenian girls resort to
burning to oblterate the hateful sign
manual of their Moslem captivity. They
endure the pain and the ensuing disfig
urement if only they may get rid of the
blue brands OF the Bedour and the Kurd.
Unfortunately. this drastic treatment not
only leaves terrible scars. but il also tells
Its own tale as plainly as the tattoo marks
themselves.
With the party of Americans who trav-
leIed with me across Asia Minor were n
young Armenian girl and her brother,
ihomeward bound to sister. the only sur
tvivor of the family. The girl was really
beautiful. Her features were regular. her
skin was clear, her color good She had not
become hardened by her captivity and her
face was modest apd winsome. Because
lof her beauty she had been tattooed with
unusual elaborateness of design by the
women of the Kurdish household where
she had been kept.
AS our train drew east of the Taurus
Mountains her appearance excited more
and more comment. She was a visible ad-
vertisement of the deportalions. Crowds
would sometimes gather when she APP
peared at the door of the box car. Orien-
tai fashion, there was no diffidence about
asking questions of her. on the part of
the Armenians these were really SYM
pathetic. But poor Eliza underwent a
severe ordeal between Arana and Afium
Kara Hissar
She promised me TO go to the missionary
doctor for possible effacement of the
facial decorations. though she had planned
Ito burn them off herself. Her features
were so completely covered that the re-
lsultant scars would hideously disfigure
her. Physicians had told me that there
is no way known to them for the removal
of tattooing without trace. and If this is
$50 the fate of thousands Of Armenian girls
lis pitiable.
The Worst sears.
Face branding Is not the worst that has
happened to the Armenian deportees.
Stories from the Near East have dwelt|
so exclusively upon the horrors of hunger
and homeiessness that little has been said
about the worst fate that has come to the
Armenans as result of the persecution.
This IL the effect upon their spirits.
Myriads Of Armenians have been branded
i'm their souls. Many. or most. of the
girls in captivity. for instance. have
neither sought nor desired doliverance.
They prefer to remain in the Incidence
of Moslcm harem life; they have become
Moslems IN reality. This is the deepest
wound the Turks have made upon Ar
lmenia. True. once free. most OF the
liberated girls again become Armenians
in spirit: but their real life has been
crippled. Only q Hawthorne or n Hugo
] could write this aspect OF the Armenian
tragedy
Speaking generally. IL is the consensus
among relief workers that there has
been inevitably a great slump in the
character OF the Armenans who have
been deportees and refugees The
men. once the hardest working race in
the Near East. have lost their spirit of
Industry Hopeless despair has impovcr-
lished the souls OF a host OF them. The
women are reader to work than their
husbands and sons.
Also. | was told by Gregorlan priests
and Protestant Armenian pastors. there
has been "a grave decline in the religious
faith and interest of the people. The
spiritual fervor that marked many Ar
menians In the earlier stages Of the per-
secutions has now been succeeded by
numbness and indifference. Once a not
ABLY chaste people the animal-like cond-
tions OF life into which the deportation
has forced them have resulted in a serious
moral deterioration.
All of whith is laid 10 the door OF the
Turks as the crown of their atrocities;
thoy have smitten and branded nation