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Page 2 Genocide of the Assyrians and Armenians by the Ottoman Turkey The savage separation, or rather sorting out, of men and women gave occasion for a thousand scenes, each more cruel than the other. When the male flock had been herded at some distance from our convoy, the brigands, ready for their work of slaughtering whole Christian populations, approached us and searched our baggage and belongings for rope and string. With these cords they tied the men in couples, arm to arm, and led them away. Frozen with horror, knowing that they went to their death, we tore our hair and many fainted. Our dear comrades continued their dreadful journey to the place of slaughter, where fifteen hundred were shot.
But our martyrdom did not end with this. It had but begun. The butchers, proud of their work, returned in our direction. Soldiers drove us along like beasts into wild, open country, where, in some places, we noticed ruined houses. Nor did they even give us time to take our belongings. The cowards, knowing that we were at their mercy, and that no voice, however feeble, could be raised in our defense, subjected us to the most awful sufferings. The blows we received were nothing to the thrusts, which flung us down, bruised and wounded, upon the ground. One person, whose leg was broken, was actually ordered to arise and continue the march. It was asking the impossible. But the sufferer had to attempt it, or die under the blows of rifle butts and bludgeons.I need not speak here of the attempts made against our honour.
Crowded together in this wild spot, and starving, for we had had nothing to eat, three thousand of us spent the night in a penetrating drizzle, the sky our roof, the wet ground our bed. In our despair we moaned and wept, losing courage more and more.
Even during the night we were persecuted. Armed police filed through our ranks, using electric torches to find the most beautiful among us, and carrying them off for their orgies. Young girls, after being taken to a distance, were often massacred, after having been assaulted. Two or three hours' later the soldiers returned to seek other young women. At a loss to invent other means to make us suffer further, they would not even let us retire to a distance to satisfy the needs of nature. Not even the days of Nero saw horrors carried out with such extreme cruelty.
On the morning after this awful night we suddenly saw Madame Kalarian, her child, and Madame Arabian run breathless and terror-stricken out of a garden, as if they were being pursued. (It will be remembered that these women had paid a large sum for permission to leave the convoy). When she reached us, Madame Kalarian was at the end of her strength. She was ready to fall from starvation. All we could find to offer her was a piece of dry bread. This being insufficient to restore a woman in her state, one of my companions offered her her bread. This the poor woman took gratefully, and this restored her strength, as it would that of a little child. We were greatly touched. The officer, for fear of being compromised, had released Madame Kalarian and Madame Arabian, who had fallen into the hands of the Governor, who had put them through a series of questionings. He had them shut up in a room with police agents, who had subjected them to the most shameful outrages. Keghanoushe, the young so-called wife of the officer, had been kept by the Mutessarif as a prostitute. The poor child was only fourteen years of age.
One hundred and fifty girls and ten teachers belonging to a group of young women confided to the care of the American Mission, had been deported from Trebizond with a number of boys from fifteen to nineteen years of age. Four days afterwards some of the more handsome girls were chosen and carried off. The remainder, together with the boys, were shot down there and then, or otherwise done to death.
At 8 o'clock the convoy left the desolate spot. It was now composed only of women, all the men having been put to death. Lest we had not suffered sufficiently, Turkish and Kurdish women and children accompanied us, with all kinds of buffoonery, chasing us along the sides of the road.
Eventually we reached a mill, after a three hours' march. Captain Aghah Bey was no longer with us, having left us when our men were taken away. The lieutenant, who had rejoined us, however, came with two Tchettas and searched us all. I was the first victim. I had L.T. 320 on me, my mother-in-law had L. T. 200, and my sister-in-law L.T. 200, in addition to our jewelry. All this money belonged to me, but I had distributed it among my relatives in order that it might be carried more easily. Having taken everything, Lieutenant Falk Bey, in derision, gave me sixty paras (threepence) for expenses, and promised to return me my money at Erzindjan. In this way, be said, it would not be stolen by the brigands,, who infested the country through which we were to pass.
During the search, we had to suffer a thousand cruelties, receiving the usual blows with rifle butts, and our hair being torn from our heads. One of my f ormer pupils at the school at Trebizond, where I had taught from 1911 to 1913, before my marriage, had her two plaits completely torn out. Several women were entirely stripped, under pretence of being searched. Many swallowed their gold in order to use it later.
Early in the proceedings, when they came to search me, they said:
"When your husband was being bound, in order that he might be put to death, he admitted that you had all the money on you. He told us to take it from you, so you had better give it to us if you wish to save his life." It was only a trick to obtain my money. In the evening, after the search, we left the mill, in a disgusting state of dirt, not having washed since we left Trebizond. Sleeping on the bare ground and thinned by privations, we were veritable human rags. While we were skirting the river near the mill a woman named Madame Katchian tried to drown herself by jumping into the water. She was pulled out. As we left a village, its inhabitants followed, shouting insults after us and throwing stones." Get along, get along," they cried. You are all going to be exterminated soon."
They snatched from the convoy by force fifty girls and women and carried them off. We noticed the bodies of several men and young people stuck in the mud at the edge of this same river. They had been stripped and probably belonged to death, the Christian chiefs in towns of the Province of Trebizond, had been put to death in this way.
By six o'clock we were at a large village named Keussa, when we saw a considerable number of men shut up in a mosque and in yards, guarded by soldiers. Their isolation from their families caused them acute suffering, and, on seeing us, they called to us and waved their handkerchiefs from the windows. They wished to communicate with us by letter, but it was impossible to get near them. At this time there were to be seen daily floating down the river Yel-Deirmeni to ttle sea numerous mutilated bodies completely stripped, among them, those of women whose breasts had been cut off. " Treatment of the Armenians," p. 293, by Lord Bryce.
We were crowded into large yards kept for cattle. Suddenly we heard a bang. It was the explosion of a bomb. Lieutenant Faik told us, for our consolation, that they were killing some men after the German system. This was to line men up in files of ten and fire one shot through all ten; and also to gather a number of men together in a room and then destroy it with a bomb."The explosion you have just heard," he remarked, means that a good number have been executed." Terrified, and expecting the same fate, we wept, tore out our hair, and, hoping thus to disfigure ourselves, even our eyelashes and eyebrows. The madness of despair had taken possession of us.
On the Mountain of Sebicore
In the morning at 8 o'clock Faik Bey appeared and called out, "Haide, merchandise hazirlansin""Get ready the merchandise. We are off." and left with nearly five thousand other deported villagers, women, children and old men. At 10 a. m. a panic arose in the convoy. Cries of despair were heard everywhere. We believed that the slaughter had begun. Like a frightened herd, we scattered on each side of the road, running into the ploughed fields. I was plodding through the sticky soil when I discovered that in my wild rush I was tramping under foot a poor little baby. I shall never forget the screams of the unfortunate mite. Several infants had been abandoned in this way when their mothers had to take to flight. Some, indeed, foreseeing their tragic end, to stave off a lingering death, haa provided themselves with poison.
The soldiers chased us with bayonets and obliged us to assemble again, saying we had nothing to fear. In our terror we found it impossible to believe them. We learned eventually, however, that the cause of the panic was the pillaging of the poor peasants who had just joined us, and that their cries had caused the trouble. Many in despair during the panic had swallowed poison, some of whom died.
In this state of terror we continued our journey, and came to the mountain of Sebicore. It took an hour and a half to climb it. Two hundred of the villagers, who brought up the rear with their carts, were first despoiled and then kil.led by the soldiers. Likewise several persons, after being plundered, were murdered and thrown down the slope of the hill. When we reached at last the summit of the mountain a troop of fifty soldiers froi-n the barracks which guarded the Erzindjan Road, threw themselves upon us and relieved us of the rest of our belongings, scarfs and utensils. They treated in the same way the villagers of the new convoy. During the night the soldiers profited by the occasion to steal women and girls, with whom they went off into the mountains.
Next day at 8 a. m. we restarted, not, however, by the mountain path but over the rocks. Although hungry and dying of thirst we were not allowed to drink at a spring we passed. Our feet were swollen and began to bleed, as we were barefoot. On arriving at the foot of the mountain half an hour's journey from Erzindjan, we stopped in a meadow worn out and incapable of suffering further, we cried out:
"Kill us all here. We can do no more. We do not wish to live. We want to die." Our appeal was unheeded, and we passed the day and the night where we were. Turks from the neighbourhood came to trade with us and to sell us food. Bread cost L. T. 112 (Approximately $5.00) a small loaf, and a glass of water twenty piastres. (From 25 to 50 cents.)Next day we crossed the town amidst the shouts and insults of the people, who stoned and spat upon us. One Turkish lady, however, it is a matter of note, threw us from her roof many loaves of bread, and, assisted by little girls and children, by means of cords lowered us pails of water to quench our thirst. When we thanked her warmly she replied: My friends, I am doing no more than my duty."
The convoy camped in the Christian cemetery of the town, where the soldiers sold the girls to the Turkish and Kurdish civilians for from five to ten piastres each." Fifteen days had now elapsed since we left Trebizond. We found the Christian quarter in Erzindjan had been completely destroyed, Only ruins remained. The enormous cemetery was filled with the remains of deported victims from convoys which had passed before us. On the ground lay scattered in many places scalps, arms and feet.
Further out on the -plain we saw those who had been deported from Erzerum, all the men in magnificent tents. Near them, and well treated, were their -horses and their wagons. Sobs were heard throughout our convoy as we saw these men -alive and comfortable, while our husbands -had been killed and we ourselves reduced to so terrible a state.
The men of Erzerum soon came to us with large "sacks of -bread, meat and cheese, which they distributed among us. I was given -two loaves by M. Kosrof, an employee of a branch depot of a company formed -at Trebizond by my husband and two other merchants. I recognized him and it cut me to the heart to be obliged to accept alms from one of our former employees. Many women in despair made their way into the town and gavethemselves up to the Turks to become wives or servants in their harems. Others were taken off to houses of ill fame which had been opened by the Governor since the deportations.
Next day, towards evening, we heard a noise in the distance and found its origin to be the convoy corning from Trebizond, which had left a day after we had, and which now joined us at the cemetery. In its ranks were many girls who had been left with the American missionaries, among them my sister-in-law. They told us that they had suffered on the way the same treatment and atrocities as ourselves.
We left the town at 7 p. m. and halted an hour and a half later between the mountain and the Euphrates. At eleven Kurds fell upon us and stole whatever we still had once again making off with women and girls. During this time Faik Bey, indifferent to what was happening under his eyes, was occupied two paces away in preparing a meal, two girls from the convoy at his side.
In the morning some of the women and girls who had managed to escape from the Kurds, rejoined the convoy before we departed. On the way we saw innumerable bodies in the Euphrates, at this place the river to a width of over thirty feet was tinged with blood. The sight terrified us.
At midday ten Tchettas followed us on horseback, and, carving a way through the convoy with their huge knives, made off with some of the girls. Again the unhappy convoy became a prey to panic. Some threw themselves into the river, but, afraid to die, swam back. Others hid themselves in the mountains and rejoined us when the brigands had disappeared. One woman, at the end of her strength, cried out in Turkish:
"Allah sen Yetish! ("My God help you.")
At these words a soldier took a large, stone and threw it at her head, saying:
"Kiafir, Khenzir, Gaour, allahin Var issa seni kourtarsin." ("You vile infidel I You dog of a Christian! where is your God, to come to your help".)
Before we reached Kamakh at the bridge of Adjem Keuprusu, the Mudir of Gemerek arrived, dressed as a Tchetta. He gave full power and liberty of action to tile police agents, who thereupon began their foul work upon us. The Mudir himself carried off Gayane Gotoghian, a girl who was related to my husband, of whom Faik Bey made him a present. I remember particularly, also, the mother of six children. Some of the soldiers carried her off to ill treat her. She defended herself, and in their fury they seized her with her children and threw them all in the river, where they were drowned.