The Northern Guardian. — 1895-03-21 (Hartlepool, Cleveland, England)

THE ARMENIAN HORRORS.  SHOCKING STORY OF BUTCHERY.  INFANTS TOSSED ON BAYONETS.  The Daily News of to-day publishes a long despatch from its special correspondent who is investigating into the Armenian atrocities. He sends as an instalment of the evidence he has been collecting an account of the Sasboun massacres. It was taken down from the lips of a Turkish soldier who, in the execution of his duty, was an eye-witness of the terrible scenes. Amongst the other incidents narrated is that of the massacre at Ghelieguzan. The Turkish troops had only been there a day or two when the first batch of the Armenians who had escaped from the Ghelieguzan fight and fled to the .Antok mountain, began to come in. They had already sent word that they were ready to surrender, and that they prayed for the protection of the Sultan's troops. The first batch that came in numbered 450 to 500 persons, men, women, and children. They had a Kehaya who led them. When these people had come into the narrow valley where the troops were camped, the road behind them was closed by the soldiers. The colonel, Ismail Bey, came forward to the open space where the Kehaya was, and ordered him to be seized. The Kehaya himself said, "Kill me if you will ; I take the responsibility of all that has been done by us." Some one (he did not know whether a soldier or an Armenian) cried, "Let him be blinded— he has already been blind." The colonel then gave the order to "Take out his eyes," and one of the soldiers prized them out with his knife. The Kehaya then cried, "Let me die," and three soldiers bayonetted him in the body. Then the people who had followed him were led aside, and were given food. They rejoiced that their sorrows were at an end. The next day more people came in. The head of the valley was held by a double cordon of troops, who let in all who would come, but let none pass out. During the second day a detachment of the troops was engaged in digging two big trenches at the base of a stiff cliff that formed the side of a narrow ravine at the foot of the village. At the bottom of this ravine was a small stream, and in the aides were caves where the inhabitants of the villages went sometimes to store their hay. At sunset the troops were marched forward to the foot of the valley. There at the cliff edge of the ravine they found a number of villagers. Men, women, children, sometimes 20, sometimes 50, sometimes 70 or more. An officer then detached from the villagers a batch of 10 or 20, and gave the order :—" Kill them ; and throw them there !" The selected soldiers then bayonetted these villagers, and threw their bodies into the trenches at the base of the ravine. This went on every night during from a week to ten days. Sometimes three to four hundred were killed in this way in a night. Sometimes a much smaller number.  „ ...... Asked whether the Armenians were armed, he said "that they had not, any one of them, so much as a belt knife.” Asked whether they resisted, he replied that until towards the end they none of them knew what was their fate until the final order was given and they were face to face with the bayonets. Asked whether there were many children among them, he answered very many; but thanked God that be had not had to murder any one of them. The correspondent then overheard his own friend say, And how many did you kill ?" And he whispered back, "God knows. It may have been five. It may have been seven. What could I do ? I had my orders."  Asked whether many children were among the slaughtered, he replied that "the soldiers raised infants on their bayonets as one lifts the sheaves of corn on the pitchfork and flung them thus into the ravine as one tosses hay on to the waggon."  VENUS SOAP sold by all Grocers, 20 per bar.— Ada.