The Lehi sun. [volume] (Lehi, Utah) 1913-1949, 1921-01-20
THE TRAGEDY OF
ARMENIA

The plight OF Armenia about the
end of 1919. condition which has
been aggravated by the recent defeat
OF Armenian forces by Turkish ma
tionallsts, is described In the following
communication TO the National Geo
graphic society frop Melville Chatter,
"Erivan, the capital OF Armenia's
provisional republic is an inconceiv-
able contrast to the Georgian govern
ment seat Mt Titlls. At Erivan one
finds no spacious prospect nor Vice
regal palace, no smart shops, Russian
opera, nor gay night life. To behold
misery In Tihls, one must search Il
out. In Erivan one cannot escape II.
"Thls poor. struggling, dingy city Of
the plains, whose government Offices
suggest some hastily extemporlzed cleo
ton headquarters and whose parlla-
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 Erlvan you may
be. lift your glance and great Ararnt
OF eternal SHOWS is seen broodlng 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 race which has known
bondage and wandering;
and for centuries a peoples magma
tion has turned toward him.
"The little Eriyan republic has been
the center OF refuge for Turkish Ar
menlans ever since the massacre OF
1915. and between 200O00 and 3O0,-
900 OF them are camped within It's
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 fluctuat-
Ing between ifty and eighty a day.
Though the doctor and ! were here
20 observe the worst phases OF the
situation, each OF us waited for the
other TO suggest a trip TO the Igdlr
region, where we were told starvation
was most acute.
"The town OF Igdlr, with It's local
and nearby populations OF 10000 Ar
menlans. 10000 Tatars, and $1,000
Yezldls, revealed seine squnld streets
with but few people seated here and
there, as we drove in. Throughout
those tortuous, sun-beaten byways, no
children played and no animal roamed
The air was heavy with dreadful 81.
lence, such as hangs over plague-mit-
ten communities.
"We found the children, such as
they were. inhabitlng an orphanage
wherein one sickened at putrldlty's
horrible odOr, and were Informed that
there we're neither medicines nor dis
lnfectants wherewlth TO aliay the con.
ditiOn OF the many little sick beds.
"Sick7 Say, rather. the bed-ridden
"a word which more justly describes
those tiny, withered-up, crone-like
creatures. upon whose faces the skin
seemed stretched TO a drumhead's
tlghtness; whose peering eyes shot
terror and anguish, as II deaths pres.
ence were already perceptible to them,
and who lay there at famine's climax
of physical exhaustion. In those
young, yet grotesquely-aged faces. we
seemed TO see a long lifetime OF trag-
edy packed into eight or ten childish
years.
"The mud butts which we visited
presented an invariable plcture-a
barren, caye-lIEe Interior. lacking one
stick Of furniture or household uten-
sill. and with few bleached bones
scattered here and there"