Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1921-01-21
THE TRAGEDY OF
ARM

The plight of Armenia about the
end of 1919, u condition which has
been aggravated by the recent defeat
of Armenian forces by Turkish ma
tionalists. is described In the following
communication to the National Geo
graphic society from Melville Chatter.
"Erivan, the capital Of Armenia's
provisional republic is an in%conceiy-;
able contrast to the Georgian govern
ment seat at Ti1is. At Erivan n
finds no spacious prospect nor vice
regal palace, no smart shops, Russian
opera, nor gay night life, To behold
misery in Tifis, one must search II
out. In Erivan N cannot escape 1t.
'This poor, struggling, dingy city OF
the plains. whose government offices
suggest some hastily extemporized cleo
tion headquarters and whose parlia-
ment chamber is rugged up with bench
es and cheesecloth in the auditorium
of the second-class theater, boasts Of
but one beauty, and that-tO speak In
paradox-is forty miles away; for, In
whatever quarter of Erivan you may
be, lift your glance and great Ararat
of eternal SHOWS is seen %broOding dis
family over the mean streets. with his
aspect of majestic calm. He Is the
Armenian's Olympus, or rather say,
the Sinai of a a C which has known
bondage and MISUNDERSTANDING;
and for centuries a peoples imagina-
ton has turned toward him. .T9s
-The little Erivan republic has been
the center Of refuge for Turkish Ar
menians ever since the massacre Of
1915, and between 100000 and 30O.-
900 Of them are camped within its
borders. AS for the city itself, its
former population of 10000. has been
| doubled by this influx. There. star
walton and typhus have claimed their
toll of 1900, the death rate fiuctuat-
Ing between fifty and eighty q day.
Though the doctor and l were here
to observe the worst phases of the
| situation, each OF us waited for the
other to suggest a trip to the Igdir
region, where we were told starvation
was most acute.
''The town Of Iguir, with Its local
and nearby populations Of 10000 Ar.
menians, 10000 Tatars, and 1900
Yezidis, revealed some squalid streets
with hut a few people seated herevand
there. as we drove In. Throughout
those, tortuous. srn-beaten byways. no
children played and no animal roamed,
The air was heavy with dreadful 81
lence, such as hangs over plague-s1nit-
ten communities, rgT NNt ~ 2
awe found the children, such as
they were, lnhabitlng an erpiianage
wherein one sickened at p~utridfty's
horrible odor. and were informed that
there were neither medicines nor dis
inf~ectants wherewith to allay the con
dition Of the many. little sick beds.
"Sick?' Say. rather. the bed-ridder
Ia word which more justly Describes
those tiny. withered-up,a croneAliks
creatures. upon whose faces the Skin
seemed stretched to a ~drumieads
tightness; whose peering eyes shot
terror and anguish. as II deaths pres
ence were already p~erceptible to them
and who lay there at famine's climaz
Of physical exhaustion. In fhes'
young. yet grotesquely-aged faces. w
seemed to see . hong lifetime Of trag
edy packed into eight or ten childish
years.
sThe mud huts which. va yisitet
presented an invariaple picture
barren, cave-Ifte interfJf,- lacking on
stick Of furniture Or household uten
III. and with ! few bieached bons'
scattered hsrs and thersA"