Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1920-02-07
Editors Letter Box
Shall We Let a Million Armenians
Die of Starvation?


Armenia is about four times as
large as the State of Maine with a
population four times as great 1t is
wcdged in between the hostile coun-
tries of Turkey, Georgia. kurdistan
and the republic of Tartary. At the
hands of these countries they have
suffered untold massacres through
the instigation of the brutal Turk.
1t is the Oldest Christian nation in
the world and the scene of much
Bible history. Its inhabitants are
the most peaceable, Industrious and
best educated of any nation in that
part of the world.
Some doubt that the Armenians
have suffered as much in the last
war as is claimed by some writer's,
but l have made a pretty thorough
investigation of the matter and I
feel absolutely certain that there
has been no exaggeration. If you
read the official reports of the Brit
ish and American governments and
letters from relief workers who saw
with their own eyes YOU cannot help
believing. ! have yet to find q
writer except one who has not seen
that doubts the awful truth.
At the beginning of the world war.
Armenia. in spite of tempting offers
made by the Hun and Turk went in
with Russia on the side of the Allies.
putting more than 100, 900 men in the
Russian army. This so enraged the
unspeakable Turk that he, with the
help of Germany. deliberately plan
ned the determination of the Ar
menian nation by massacre and de-
portation into the deserts of AIeso-
potania where they were to be COM
PEELED to ,starve. The men were
called away from their homes on one
pretext o. another and shot in
groups or tortured to death in the
most horrible manner. then their
homes would be visited and the. re-
mainder Of the families ordered to be
ready for deportation at days or
even an hours notice and otter they
We're not allowed to take anything
with them except the clothes on
their backs and even these were
often stripped from them. and thus
they were compelled to go on foot.
The prettier girls were sent to
: Turkish harems, there to live a life
of shame, the rest to go on in endless
lines until they died of starvation,
thirst or brutality. When woman
dropped from exhaustion their driy-
ers would lash them with whips I'M
til they arose or died of blows. They
would seize children from their
mothers arms and throw them away
or dash their brains out before the
mothers eyes and compel her to
move on. Sometimes they would be
driven along the rivers bank but not
allowed to drink, although their
tongues protruded from their mouths
as black as a coal. In cold wealth.
er sometimes they were compelled
to walk with feet turned black from
freezing until they dropped to the
ground. 1t was useless to beg for
mercy. The Turk knew no mercy for
a Christian. Sometimes this mass
of tortured humanity would move on
for sixty or seventy days until a
remnant of them reached the desert.
there to be left the prey of wild
beasts. famine and Kurds
Here is an extract from q letter of
four missionaries written in 1915 and
dated at Aleppo; addressed to the
German government:
OF 1000 or 5000 peasant women
only forty or fifty skeletons are left,
the rest having died of blows, hunger
and thirst. Europeans are not allow
ed to give them bread or water. and
all this under the eyes Of high Turk
ish officials. In many places the
people we're driven into buildings and
burned, this being the easiest way to
get rid Of them. In one instance they
had driven a great number of women
ana children into building and fired
1T, and while the women and children
were screaming in their death
agonies. the soldiers would pick I'D
the children on the outside by one
leg and throw them into tho fan,aS