Martyred Armenia Part 2

So we had no choice but to leave them to the mercy of G.o.d, and on our return, a week later, we found them all dead."

NARRATIVE OF A PROVINCIAL GOVERNOR.--We were talking of the courage and good qualities of the Armenians, and the Governor of the place, who was with us, told us a singular story. He said: "According to orders, I collected all the remaining Armenians, consisting of 17 women and some children, amongst whom was a child of 3 years old, diseased, who had never been able to walk. When the butchers began slaughtering the women and the turn of the child's mother came, he rose up on his feet and ran for a s.p.a.ce, then falling down. We were astonished at this, and at his understanding that his mother was to be killed. A gendarme went and took hold of him, and laid him dead on his dead mother." He also said that he had seen one of these women eating a piece of bread as she went up to the butcher, another smoking a cigarette, and that it was as though they cared nothing for death.

NARRATIVE OF SHEVKET BEY.--Shevket Bey, one of the officials charged with the extermination of the Armenians, told me, in company with others, the following story: "I was proceeding with a party, and when we had arrived outside the walls of Diarbekir and were beginning to shoot down the Armenians, a Kurd came up to me, kissed my hand, and begged me to give him a girl of about ten years old. I stopped the firing and sent a gendarme to bring the girl to me. When she came I pointed out a spot to her and said, 'Sit there. I have given you to this man, and you will be saved from death.' After a while, I saw that she had thrown herself amongst the dead Armenians, so I ordered the gendarmes to cease firing and bring her up. I said to her, 'I have had pity on you and brought you out from among the others to spare your life. Why do you throw yourself with them? Go with this man and he will bring you up like a daughter.'

She said: 'I am the daughter of an Armenian; my parents and kinsfolk are killed among these; I will have no others in their place, and I do not wish to live any longer without them.' Then she cried and lamented; I tried hard to persuade her, but she would not listen, so I let her go her way. She left me joyfully, put herself between her father and mother, who were at the last gasp, and she was killed there." And he added: "If such was the behaviour of the children, what was that of their elders?"

PRICE OF ARMENIAN WOMEN.--A reliable informant from Deir-el-Zur told me that one of the officials of that place had bought from the gendarmes three girls for a quarter of a medjidie dollar each. Another man told me that he had bought a very beautiful girl for one lira, and I heard that among the tribes Armenian women were sold like pieces of old furniture, at low prices, varying from one to ten liras, or from one to five sheep.[F] ...

[Footnote F: An unimportant anecdote omitted.--TRANSLATOR.]

THE MUTESARRIF AND THE ARMENIAN GIRL.--On the arrival of a batch of Armenians at Deir-el-Zur from Ras-el-Ain, the Mutesarrif desired to choose a servant-girl from amongst the women. His eye fell on a handsome girl, and he went up to her, but on his approach she turned white and was about to fall. He told her not to be afraid, and ordered his servant to take her to his house. On returning thither he asked the reason for her terror of him, and she told him that she and her mother had been sent from Ras-el-Ain in charge of a Circa.s.sian gendarme, many other Armenian women being with them. On the way, the gendarme called her mother, and told her to give him her money, or he would kill her; she said she had none, so he tortured her till she gave him six liras.[G]

... He said to her: "You liar! You [Armenians] never cease lying. You have seen what has befallen, and will befall, all Armenians, but you will not take warning, so I shall make you an example to all who see you." Then he cut off her hands with his dagger, one after the other, then both her feet, all in sight of her daughter, whom he then took aside and violated, whilst her mother, in a dying state, witnessed the act. "And when I saw you approach me, I remembered my mother's fate and dreaded you, thinking that you would treat me as the gendarme treated my mother and myself, before each other's eyes."[H] ...

[Footnote G: Unfit for reproduction.--TRANSLATOR.]

[Footnote H: Unimportant anecdote omitted.--TRANSLATOR.]

"THE REWARD OF HARD LABOUR."--The Turks had collected all those of military age and dispersed amongst the battalions to perform their army service. When the Government determined on the deportation and destruction of the Armenians--as stated in their official declaration--orders were given for the formation of separate battalions of Armenians, to be employed on roads and munic.i.p.al works. The battalions were formed and sent to the roads and other kinds of hard labour. They were employed in this manner for eight months, when the severity of winter set in. The Government, being then unable to make further use of them, despatched them to Diarbekir. Before their arrival, the officers telegraphed that the Armenian troops were on their way, and the authorities sent gendarmes, well furnished with cartridges, to meet the poor wretches. The gendarmes received them with rifle-fire, and 840 men perished in this manner, shot close to the city of Diarbekir.

A CARAVAN OF WOMEN.--[I] ...

[Footnote I: Unimportant. The writer describes the inhabitants of Diarbekir, on the arrival of a party, as hastening to select women. Two doctors pick out twenty of them to serve as hospital attendants.--TRANSLATOR.]

A NIGHT'S SHELTER FOR FIFTY POUNDS.--The man who showed the greatest capacity for exterminating Armenians was Reshid Bey, the Vali of Diarbekir. I have already stated how many were killed in his Vilayet.

When news of his removal arrived, the remaining Armenians, and the Christians generally rejoiced, and shortly after the report was current some Armenians, who had hidden themselves, came out from their concealment and walked about the city. The Vali, who was anxious to keep his removal secret and to inspire terror, began deporting Armenians with still greater energy, and those who had come out returned to their hiding-places. One of the princ.i.p.al men of Diarbekir stated that one Armenian had paid fifty Turkish pounds to an inhabitant for shelter in his house during the night before the Vali's departure, and another told me that a man had received an offer of three pounds for each night until the same event, but had refused from fear of the authorities.

CHASt.i.tY OF THE ARMENIAN WOMEN.--[J] ... An Arab of the Akidat told me that he was going along the bank of the Euphrates when he saw some of the town rabble stripping two women of their clothes. He expostulated and told them to restore the clothes, but they paid no attention. The women begged for mercy, and finding it unavailing they threw themselves into the river, preferring death to dishonour. He told me also of another woman who had a suckling child, and begged food from the pa.s.sers-by, who were in too great fear of the authorities to help her.

On the third day of starvation, finding no relief, she left the baby in the market of El-Deir and drowned herself in the Euphrates. In this way do they show high qualities, honour, and courage such as many men do not possess.

[Footnote J: An official relates how he wanted to choose a servant from a boatload of victims, who said they were willing to come as servants, but as nothing else. He took one, and on coming home one night drunk he tried to offer her violence; she reproved him in suitable terms and he conducted himself well thenceforward.--TRANSLATOR.]

WOMEN-SERVANTS IN DIARBEKIR.--You cannot enter a house in Diarbekir without finding from one to five Armenian maid-servants, even the humblest shopkeepers having one, who probably in the lifetime of her parents would not have condescended to speak a word to the master whom she now has to serve in order to save her life. It is stated that the number of such women and girls in the city is over 5,000, mostly from Erzeroum, Kharpout and other Vilayets.

NARRATIVE OF SHAHiN BEY.--Shahin Bey, a man of Diarbekir, who was in prison with me, told me that a number of Armenian men and women were delivered to him for slaughter, he being a soldier. He said: "Whilst we were on the way, I saw an Armenian girl whom I knew, and who was very beautiful. I called her by name, and said 'Come, I will save you, and you shall marry a young man of your country, a Turk or a Kurd.' She refused, and said: 'If you wish to do me a kindness I will ask one thing which you may do for me.' I told her I would do whatever she wished, and she said: 'I have a brother, younger than myself, here amongst these people. I pray you to kill him before you kill me, so that in dying I may not be anxious in mind about him.' She pointed him out and I called him. When he came, she said to him, 'My brother, farewell. I kiss you for the last time, but we shall meet, if it be G.o.d's will, in the next world, and He will soon avenge us for what we have suffered.' They kissed each other, and the boy delivered himself to me. I must needs obey my orders, so I struck him one blow with an axe, split his skull, and he fell dead. Then she said: 'I thank you with all my heart, and shall ask you one more favour'; she put her hands over her eyes and said: 'Strike as you struck my brother, one blow, and do not torture me.' So I struck one blow and killed her, and to this day I grieve over her beauty and youth, and her wonderful courage."

PHOTOGRAPHS OF ARMENIANS lying in the road, dressed in turbans, for despatch to Constantinople. The Turkish Government thought that European nations might get to hear of the destruction of the Armenians and publish the news abroad so as to excite prejudice against the Turks. So after the gendarmes had killed a number of Armenian men, they put on them turbans and brought Kurdish women to weep and lament over them, saying that the Armenians had killed their men. They also brought a photographer to photograph the bodies and the weeping women, so that at a future time they might be able to convince Europe that it was the Armenians who had attacked the Kurds and killed them, that the Kurdish tribes had risen against them in revenge, and that the Turkish Government had had no part in the matter. But the secret of these proceedings was not hidden from men of intelligence, and after all this had been done, the truth became known and was spread abroad in Diarbekir.

CONVERSION OF ARMENIAN WOMEN TO ISLAM.--When the Government undertook the extermination of the Armenians some of the women went to the Mufti and the Kadi, and declared their desire to embrace the Mohammedan faith.

These authorities accepted their conversion, and they were married to men of Diarbekir, either Turks or Kurds.

After a while, the Government began to collect these women, so the Mufti and the Kadi went to the Vali and said that the women in question were no longer Armenians, having become Mussulmans, and that by the Sacred Law the killing of Mussulman women was not permissible. The Vali replied: "These women are vipers, who will bite us in time to come; do not oppose the Government in this matter, for politics have no religion, and the Government know what they are about." The Mufti and the Kadi went back as they had come, and the women were sent to death. After the removal of the Vali--in consequence, as it was said, of abuses in connection with the sale of effects left in Armenian houses and shops--orders arrived that the conversion of any who desired to enter Islam should be accepted, be they men or women. Many of the Armenians who remained, of both s.e.xes, hastened to embrace the Faith in the hope of saving their lives, but after a time they were despatched likewise and their Islamism did not save them.

THE GERMANS AND THE ARMENIANS.--Whenever the talk fell on the Armenians I used to blame the Turks for their proceedings, but one day when we were discussing the question, an official of Diarbekir, who was one of the fanatical Young Turk Nationalists, said: "The Turks are not to blame in this matter, for the Germans were the first to apply this treatment to the Poles, who were under their rule. And the Germans have compelled the Turks to take this course, saying that if they did not kill the Armenians there would be no alliance with them, and thus Turkey had no choice."

This is what the Turk said, word for word. And it was confirmed by what I heard from a Turk who was imprisoned with me at Aaliya, on the charge of corresponding with Abdul-Kerim el-Khalil. He said that when pa.s.sing through Damascus he had visited the German Vice-Consul there, who had told him confidentially that Oppenheim had come on a special mission, which was to incite Jemal Pasha to persecute the Arabs, with a view to causing hatred between the two races, by which the Germans might profit in future if differences arose between them and the Turks. This was a short time previous to the execution of Abdul-Kerim.

THE KILLING OF THE TWO KAIMAKaMS.--When the Government at Diarbekir gave orders to the officials to kill the Armenians, a native of Baghdad was Kaimakam of El-Beshiri, in that Vilayet, and an Albanian was Kaimakam of Lijeh. These two telegraphed to the Vilayet that their consciences would not permit them to do such work, and that they resigned their posts.

Their resignations were accepted, but they were both secretly a.s.sa.s.sinated. I investigated this matter carefully, and ascertained that the name of the Baghdad Arab was Sabat Bey El-Sueidi, but I could not learn that of the Albanian, which I much regret, as they performed a n.o.ble act for which they should be commemorated in history....[K]

[Footnote K: The writer here describes how a Turkish judge (kadi), to whom the office of Kaimakam was entrusted after the murder of Sabat Bey, boasted in conversation that he had killed four Armenians with his own hand. "They were brave men," he said, "having no fear of death."--TRANSLATOR.]

AN ARMENIAN BETRAYS HIS NATION.--[L] ...

[Footnote L: The author tells the story of an Armenian of Diarbekir who gave information to the police against his own people, disclosing their hiding places. He saw him walking about the streets with an insolent demeanor, giving himself the airs of a person of great importance. He considers that such a traitor to his nation deserves the worst form of death.--TRANSLATOR.]

THE SULTAN'S ORDER.--Whilst I was in prison, a Turkish Commissioner of Police used to come to see a friend of his, who was also imprisoned. One day when I and this friend were together, the Commissioner came, and, in the course of conversation about the Armenians and their fate, he described to us how he had slaughtered them, and how a number had taken refuge in a cave outside the city, and he had brought them out and killed two of them himself. His friend said to him: "Have you no fear of G.o.d? Whence have you the right to take life in defiance of G.o.d's law?"

He replied: "It was the Sultan's order; the Sultan's order is the order of G.o.d, and its fulfilment is a duty."

ARMENIAN DEATH STATISTICS.--At the end of August, 1915, I was visited in prison by one of my Diarbekir colleagues, who was an intimate friend of one of those charged with the conduct of the Armenian ma.s.sacres. We spoke of the Armenian question, and he told me that, in Diarbekir alone, 570,000 had been destroyed, these being people from other Vilayets as well as those belonging to Diarbekir itself.

If to this we add those killed in the following months, amounting to about 50,000; and those in the Vilayets of Bitlis and Van and the province of Moush, approximately 230,000; and those who perished in Erzeroum, Kharpout, Sivas, Stamboul, Trebizond, Adana, Broussa, Urfa, Zeitoun, and Aintab--estimated at upwards of 350,000--we arrive at a total of Armenians killed, or dead from disease, hunger, or thirst, of 1,200,000.

There remain 300,000 Armenians in the Vilayet of Aleppo, in Syria, and Deir-el-Zur (those deported thither), and in America and Egypt and elsewhere; and 400,000 in Roumelian territory, held by the Balkan States, thus making a grand total of 1,900,000.

The above is what I was able to learn as to the statistics of the slaughtered Armenians, and I would quote an extract from _El-Mokattam_, dealing with this subject:

"The Basle correspondent of the _Temps_ states that, according to official reports received from Aleppo in the beginning of 1916, there were 492,000 deported Armenians in the districts of Mosul, Diarbekir, Aleppo, Damascus, and Deir-el-Zur. The Turkish Minister of the Interior, Talaat Bey, estimates the number of deportees at 800,000, and states that 300,000 of these have been removed or have died in the last few months.

"Another calculation gives the number of deported Armenians as 1,200,000 souls, and states that at least 500,000 have been killed or have died in banishment" (_El-Mokattam_, May 30th, 1916).

THE ARMENIANS AND THE ARAB TRIBES.--As I approached Diarbekir, I pa.s.sed through many Arab tribes, with whom I saw a number of Armenians, men and women, who were being well treated, although the Government had let the tribes know that the killing of Armenians was a bounden duty. I did not hear of a single instance of an Armenian being murdered or outraged by a tribesman, but I heard that some Arabs, pa.s.sing by a well into which men and women had been thrown, drew them out when at the last extremity, took them with them, and tended them till they were recovered.

THE ARAB AND THE ARMENIAN BEGGAR WOMAN.--[M] ...

[Footnote M: The narrative concludes with the relation of an instance of courageous charity on the part of a Baghdad soldier to an Armenian woman begging in the streets of Diarbekir.--TRANSLATOR.]

CONCLUSION

If the Turkish Government were asked the reasons for which the Armenian men, women, and children were killed, and their honour and property placed at any man's mercy, they would reply that this people have murdered Moslems in the Vilayet of Van, and that there have been found in their possession prohibited arms, explosive bombs, and indications of steps towards the formation of an Armenian State, such as flags and the like, all pointing to the fact that this race has not turned from its evil ways, but on the first opportunity will kill the Moslems, rise in revolt, and invoke the help of Russia, the enemy of Turkey, against its rulers. That is what the Turkish Government would say. I have followed the matter from its source. I have enquired from inhabitants and officials of Van, who were in Diarbekir, whether any Moslem had been killed by Armenians in the town of Van, or in the districts of the Vilayet. They answered in the negative, saying that the Government had ordered the population to quit the town before the arrival of the Russians and before anyone was killed; but that the Armenians had been summoned to give up their arms and had not done so, dreading an attack by the Kurds, and dreading the Government also; the Government had further demanded that the princ.i.p.al Notables and leading men should be given up to them as hostages, but the Armenians had not complied.

All this took place during the approach of the Russians towards the city of Van. As to the adjacent districts, the authorities collected the Armenians and drove them into the interior, where they were all slaughtered, no Government official or private man, Turk or Kurd, having been killed.

As regards Diarbekir, you have read the whole story in this book, and no insignificant event took place there, let alone murders or breaches of the peace, which could lead the Turkish Government to deal with the Armenians in this atrocious manner.

At Constantinople, we hear of no murder or other unlawful act committed by the Armenians, except the unauthenticated story about the twenty bravoes, to which I have already referred.

They have not done the least wrong in the Vilayets of Kharpout, Trebizond, Sivas, Adana, or Bitlis, nor in the province of Moush.

I have related the episode at Zeitoun, which was unimportant, and that at Urfa, where they acted in self-defence, seeing what had befallen their people, and preferring death to surrender.

As to their preparations, the flags, bombs and the like, even a.s.suming there to be some truth in the statement, it does not justify the annihilation of the whole people, men and women, old men and children, in a way which revolts all humanity and more especially Islam and the whole body of Moslems, as those unacquainted with the true facts might impute these deeds to Mohammedan fanaticism.

To such as a.s.sert this it will suffice to point out the murders and oppressive acts committed by the Young Turks against Islam in Syria and Mesopotamia. In Syria they have hanged the leading men of enlightenment, without fault on their part, such as Shukri Bey El-Asli, Abdul-Wahhab Bey El-Inglizi, Selim Bey El-Jezairi, Emir Omar El-Husseini, Abdul-Ghani El-Arisi, Shefik Bey El-Moweyyad, Rushdi Bey El-Shamaa, Abdul-Hamid El-Zahrawi, Abdul-Kerim El-Khalil, Emir Aarif El-Shehabi, Sheikh Ahmed Hasan Tabara, and more than thirty leading men of this cla.s.s.

I have published this pamphlet in order to refute beforehand inventions and slanders against the faith of Islam and against Moslems generally, and I affirm that what the Armenians have suffered is to be attributed to the Committee of Union and Progress, who deal with the empire as they please; it has been due to their nationalist fanaticism and their jealousy of the Armenians, and to these alone; the Faith of Islam is guiltless of their deeds.