Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1920-09-23

villages. We were told the German
| government had issued orders to
spare no, Armenians, and they
1 after us later. ...t
Il was in a town with four other
4 girls. The minister's daughter and
4 I were put with a Kurdish family.
deported. There was weeping and
could hear nothing but that-the
weeping and wailing of women and
81 did not know what 20 do I
| told the Kurdish woman at this
home I would give her all my money
and Jewels | had secreted in my
own home, if she would hide me.
of the town heard we five girls were
in the town. He ordered us brought
! to him for himself.
| "The hey, the governor and SOL
| diers began to search the town. The
Kurdish woman took the minister's
! daughter and me to the cellar, where
| they kept the cows. 1t was yards
deep in manure. She dug two holes
put us in them, covered us up over
| two holes to breathe through. When
! the soldiers came, we were invisible.
| We stayed in the manure twenty
four hours, and when we were re-
being. We found that all the men
| had been killed and their heads cut
Off, and all the women deported
Her Baby Restored
tho Il III LIVED 1ta IN the the town for months
During this time, 1 managed to send
word to my own town by a. Turkish
.ooy' found my baby had Deen cared
d dd by my neighbor, the Turkish
woman. and had him brought to me-
orders tn
men1an girls. hiding the town and de-
port them. Again I did not know
what to do. Before there was only
one or me. Now, with the baby, there
woman again. This time she hid the
minister's daughter and me in a pile
of hay in front of the house, and
kept KEEP the the baby, telling the, soldiers it
low for. us. They ran their swords
and their bayonets through the hay
stack. Ii we had not hidden near
the top, we would have been killed.
But again we were saved.
On this occasion, the Turks de-
| ported every one from the town but
one blind man, the richest Armenian
in the town, and three of the best
| looking. women. With my own eyes,
! from the top of this house, 1 saw
| killed with one shot, and l saw the
! blind man, who was very old, tied
to a donkey and cut into little pieces,
During the eight months 1 was
/ in the town, 1 preserved my safety
/ and my life by being kind to every
| body, sewing for them, washing for
them, shaving for them. I was so
useful to the town that nobody re-
vealed my whereabouts to the gov
ernor, not even the Bey.
| from the housetop I saw, many
|. terrible sights: /. saw two women,
| Il 1H-nI I1t int n
the town. The mother was hanged;
I saw it. The girl was stripped, tied
to a stake and cleft open from skull
to feet by a Turk with a shovel;
1 saw that, too I suppose she would
not become a Mohammedan wife.
81 saw mother and her two chill
dren shot at the same time. l saw
| this-an Armenian girl, good-looking,
had become the wife of a Turk, one
of his many wives. One day he told
ha to g3 unto the A fFonf She ya soo aad
down, her husband shot her from
the doorway and then went out and
hacked her to pieces. 1 was passing
by and saw it. But God struck him
down for his crime. He went crazy
and died six months later. So it
often happened.
Used Boys for Targets
"I saw 400 boys brought in front
Of our house one day and placed
in a shallow trench. The trench was
half filled with dirt, SO they could
! as targets. The Turks killed them
all. Tiurrah for Turkey!' they yell
ed, and 1 was told it was the orders
of the German government"
ourfaiyan's story. She told it all,
! but that is enough to show you what
the rest was-three more years of
horror. She almost starved to death
at one time. Finally she returned
ashes and her people. gone. The only
Armenians in the town were 300, lit
tie children, and while she was there,
they were driven out by Turkish SOL
diers on horseback. =.
Turks gathering little children AMI
putting three or five of them into
big sack, and tieing the top to-
gether and dragging them to the
in" she said. II saw another Turk
take three children, saying, I am
going to have a good time with Them
The next day he took them down to
the, river and KILLED them IN three
different ways"
Maryam was spared often because
she was supposed to have embraced
the Mohammedan religion. But al
ways, she said, she nag az het b b
Her baby, which she was carrying
around With her, died from lack of
food. --.
the American consul helped her., she
said, For three years, she lived on
his charity. On her way to Harpoot'
she said, she crossed the River Eu-
pirates twice, and both times 1t ran
red with the blood of Armenians.
Her description of life in Harpoot,
the people skeletons, typhus-ridden,
dying. on every street corner was
terrible.
She. finally. escaped by crossing ifg
the Turkish boundary into ARABIA,
where she and another woman man
aged to get passage for America. She
had not heard from her brother In
America for eight years, but she
located him through Armenian
friends, and reached Atlanta ABOUT
Maryan Ourfalyan concluded her
story with the following appeal to
the American people:
To-day there are hundreds of Ar
menian women and thousands OF
children in The possession OF TURKS
will you not help us IN getting our
freedom. and liberty like you pos
tress? We need your help like you
did years back. You, the mighty ma
ton, there was a time when you
had to fight for your freedom. and
you received it, but you Were help
ed by a bigger nation. Will YOU
not help us to get these young wom--
en- and children away from the cruel
Turks? They are nothing but slaves
for them. You can help them in
many ways. There are today hum
dreds of Armenians that are fight.
ing to maintain their recognized ma
ton. If you wish to help you may
get in touch with me at SO Hood
street."