The Challis messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1912-current, 1921-01-12
MADE FAMOUS BY NOAH;
WANTED u. S. TO MAKE
1T FREE,

One of the states which asked the
United States to be it's mandatory Is
Nakhichevan.
If you have not heard of Nakhlch-
evan. first consult Genesis ga. for
the district in question lies at the
foot of Mt. Ararat, and the town OF
Nakhichevan contains the a!leged
graveyard of Noah. The builder OF
the Ark. local tradition afIirms. went
down into the land that sought the
wing of the United States. There he
ia said to have died of thirst in the
parched plain after his ark had brok-
en- I'D on the snowy peak OF the
worlds most famous mountain.
The Nakhichevan district, inhabited
| by Tartars. is bounded on the norm
| BY the Armenian district of Erivan
Along the south flows the Arax river.
| which is the subject OF many an Ar
men.an song and which here forms the
| boundary between Asiatic Russia and
Persia. In the hills to the northeast
is Shusha, strong Armenian center
where the Armenians held out against
q circle of foes in the summer of 1918.
When Russia's power in the Caucasus
declined and the soldats flowed back
from the former Russian front In Iur-
key through the Nakhichevan district.
the traditional hatred between the Ar
menians Of the Erivan district and
the Mohammedan Tartars broke out
This closed the carriage road TO
Tabriz and later closed the railway.
At great risk several members of the
American Committee for Armenian
and Syrian Relief, with headquarters
at Erivan. went to Tabriz and brought
back several million roubles in train
that was so crowded with retreating
Russian soldats that one of the COM
mittee members. upholstered with
hundreds Of thousands of rOubles. was
forced to sleep on the roof of the car
in a temperature near zero. Within
week the railway service was stopped
by Armenian-Tartar fighting.
The uprising Of the Nakhichevan
Tartars was III timed. German propa-
gandists had placarded the district
with posters exhOrting these Tartars
who are related to the Turks and are
Of the same religion. to arise against
the Armenians. whom the retreatins
Russians had left to their own de
vices This they did. But the Ar
menians had spent the winter in rails
ing an army to take over the former
Russian front and about $4,000 Of
these volunteers were assembled II
Ervan.
When the writer crossed the Ig,li
!. plain, where Armenians are starvin:
today. these much prosecuted people
we're having their inning and TIL
. smoke from score of burning Tar
, tar villages could he seen. Tartar
: with arms were allowed to live
they surrendered their gurs, an
: women and children were not touched
but their villages were looted an
burned by the Armenians. This wa
y IN March. 1919. All the Tartars RI
: treated to the Nakhchevan distric
= where they formed majority of tn
population. There they have m
3 n'aiHed. Hatred between them an
$ the ArIenlars is strong.
h The whole problem is made difficu
+ by the diversity Of the population. /
l. the mountain villages the kurds ar
h most numerous. A strong hand wi
e be necessary to control these sever'
G tribes. The Kurds have been force
II to be butchers by the Turks, who CAV
them guns as their only tools, an
y who kept agriculture and educatio
n from them. Their condition was 6
l. bad for a time as that Of the ARM
# mans. and along the Turko-Russia
d boundary scores Of Kurds were to
l. seen with only one garment and bar
: foot at an altitude Of seven thousan
e feet. ir March.