The Idaho Springs siftings-news., 1921-01-14
THE TRAGEDY OF
ARMENIA

The plight OF Armenia about the
end of 1919, a condition which has
been aggravated by the recent defeat
Of Armenian forces by Turkish na-
uonalists, is described in the following
communication to the National Geo
graphic society from Melville Chatter.
"Erivan, the capital of ArineinaS
provisional republic is an inconceiv-
able contrast to the Georgian govern
ment seat at Tiflis. Al Erivan one
finds no spacious prospect nor vice
regal palace, no smart shops, Russian
opera, nor gag night life. To behold
misery In Tifiis, one must search is
out. In Erivan one cannot escape it,
"This poor, struggling. dingy city OF
the plains whose government oiliceS
suggest some hastily extemporized elec--
tion headquarters and whose pariia-
ment chamber is rigged 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 ErivaD you may
be, lift your glance and great AraraE
of eternal SHOWS is seen broudlng dis
family over the mean streets with his
aspect of majestic calm. He is the
Armenian's Olympus. or rather say
the Sinai of race which has known
bondage and wildernesswandering}
and for centuries peoples tmagina-
ton has turned toward him.
1.-THE little Erivan repuh'ic has been
the center of refuge for Turkish Ar
menians ever since the massacre OF
1915, and between 100000 and 300-
600 of them are campei 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 5000, the death rate huctuat-
ing between fifty and eighty a day.
"Though the doctor and were herp
to observe the worst phases of the
situation, each of US waited for tho
other to suggest a trip to the Igdir
region, where we were told starvation
was most acute.
"The town Of Igdir, with its Iocaa
and nearby populations of 10000 Ar
menians, 10000 Tatars. and 5000
Yezfdis, revealed some squaiid streets
with but few people seated here and
there, as we drove in. Throuehout
those tortuous, sun-beaten byways. no
played and no animal roamed.
The air was heavy with dreadful ST.
lence. such as hangs over plague-slnit-
ten communities.
"We found the children. such as
they were, inhabitfng an orphanage
wherein one sickened at putridity's
horrible odor, and were Informed tIIat
there were neither medicines nor dis
infeetants wherewith to allay tile con-
dition of the many little sick beds.
sick? Say, rather, The hed-ridden
IA word which more lustiy describes
those tiny. withered-up. crone-like
creatures. upon whose faces the skin
seemed stretched to a drumhea3's
Hghtness; whose peering eyes shot
terror and anguish, as II deaths pres
ance were already pereepiible to them,
and who lay there at fanlne's cliiuax
% physical exhaustion In those
young. vet grotesquely aEea faces. we
seemed TO see a long lifetime of trag-
ady packed into eight or ten childish
years.
eThe mud huts which we visited
presented an invarlaAfs picrure-a
barren, cave-like Interior, lacl5Ing one
stick Of furniture or househoid ufsn-
ell. and with few b'eathed bones
scattered here and there"