The Kendrick gazette. [volume] (Kendrick, Idaho) 1892-1968, 1921-07-08
YOUTH SOLD AS
SLAVE BY TURKS
Armenian Lad Tells Thrilling
Story of His Escape
from Arabia.
SAVED BY BRITISH SOLDIERS
Father, Mother and Sister Exiied Into
Mesopctamia Desert Die of StarVa-
tion--Reaches Chicago Through
Help of Near East Relief.


ChicaGo.-That truth is stranger
than fiction is illustrated by the story
told by Bedrus Sislian a seventeen
year-old Armenian boy, who escaped
from slavery in Arabia and arrived
i'll Chicago recently.
His story Of slavery and fight; the
exiling Of bis father, mother and sis
ter into the Mesop0tamia desert and
their subsequent death from starva-
ton; the meeting in C0nStantinople
between Bedrus and his brother, Ed
ward, who is seaman on the United
States destroyer No. 239, was told in
the office OF the Near East relief, with
Mrs, Ardashes Sislian of $40 North
Wells street, Redrus' sister-in-laW,
acting as the Interpreter.
Until about three years ago the Sis
comfort in the city of Adana, which is
close TO Tarsus in Cilicia. One day
the Turkish soldiers came into the
city and ordered all the nOn-Moham-
medan people 10 leave their homes and
go toward the Mesopotania desert.
Hastily, the mother and father cut
the hair Of the three girls in the fam
lily and daubed their faces with mud
to prevent their sale into slavery.
Bedrus, then fourteen years old, did
not escape that fate because, he says,
he was strong and the Turks saw in
him the making of farm laborer.
Family Separated; Boy Sold.
The family was separated--the
father, mother and girls being driven
to Mosul near Nineveh, distance of
about 500 miles from their nome, and
the boy was sold to a caravan of Ar
aban traders for "a sum equivalent to
an English pound. The traders in turn
sold him to rich farmer for a sum
equivalent to somewhat less than
three English pounds.
This farmer told Bedrus that he
would adopt him as his son and make
him his heir if the Armenian lad
would renounce his Christian faith and
become Mohammedan. The lad kept
his own counsel until they arrived at
a small hotel in Hannah. The hotel
keeper, an Arabian Christian, wills
pered to the boy that in three days
he would help him to escape. While
the farmer was busy with his affairs
in the town. the hotelkeeper sent the
boy to friend, another Arabian Chris
tian, who owned a lunch room in an
other part of the town. Here Bedrus
worked for seven months as waiter
A detachment Of the British army
came to the village and picked up
many of the Armenian orphans, in
Guiding Bedrus, and took them to a
newly organized orphanage in Mosul.
The boy did not know his parents
were refugees in that city until they,
with other Armenian parents seeking
lost children. came to the orphanage
and found Bedrus.
Die Of Starvation.
The family reunion was happy
one. but food was scarce. Within the
year the eldest sister, eighteen years
of age. died Of starvation. Five
months later the father died Of the
same cause. The mothers death fol-
lowed in two weeks. The boy man.
aged. with the help Of the English
army, to get back to Adana, accom-.
panied by his two younger sisters. who
later were taken by the British to Port
Said. Bedrus found a job in a tailor
shop in his home town. where he
worked for four months. when Turk.
ish soldiers again looted the homes OF
girls into slavery and he fed toward
Beirut.
There he worked as dock laborer
for three months. when, fearing the
Turks would find him and return him
to slavery, he started to Constantine
pie. There an Armenian society gave
him job without pay except his
! board, In general store, where he
stayed for six months.
The boy told Of meeting his brother
Edward in COnstantinople. The other
brother, Ardashes, in Chicago, was
communicated with and through the
Chicago headquarters Of the Neal
East relief this brother and his wife
sent money for the transportation Of
the eX-slave to the LAND of the free.
The youth plans to work to get enough
money TO bring his fourteen-year-ol(
sister, who is in an OTphanage in Cy
prus, TO this country.