Mr. Terrell to Mr.
Olney.
Legation of the United States,
Constantinople, November 12,
1895. (Received Nov. 25.)
No. 669.]
Sir: I have the honor to inclose a statement of
the case of Creecor Arakelian, with a memorandum furnished in July last
by the Rev. H. O. Dwight.
The release of the man being accomplished, I did not forward it, but do
so now that you may be in possession of this paper, should a demand for
indemnity be contemplated.
The pressure upon my time at this juncture of affairs here will, I hope,
excuse me from copying.
I have, etc.,
[Inclosure 1 in No.
669.]
The case of Creecor Arakelian, imprisoned at
Marsovan, District of Amasia, Province of Sivas.
Creecor Arakelian is a naturalized citizen of the United States,
domiciled at Fresno, Cal., where his father resides. He went to
Marsovan in August, 1892, at the wish of his father, to study
Armenian literature in Anatolia College, and has been a student in
the college since that date. On his arrival at the college he was
quite illiterate, being hardly able to write his own name. His
progress in study was very slow, owing to a lack of natural
aptitude, and in April, 1895, it was decided that he should leave
the college this year and return to his home in California. Since
that time he has been waiting for a money remittance from his father
to pay his traveling expenses.
In June, having received the remittance for which he was waiting,
Arakelian prepared to leave for the United States, and took out a
Turkish traveling permit for the purpose.
On the 1st of July a prominent man of Marsovan, Garabed Agha
Kouyoumijou, was assassinated by members of the Armenian
revolutionary party (see accompanying note for details). Upon this
the Ottoman authorities arrested all persons living near the scene
of the murder and all young men whose antecedents were not well
known to the Government. Among the persons thus arrested was Creecor
Arakelian. It is denied that his American citizenship has anything
to do with the arrest, which is merely a precautionary measure,
there being no charge and no ground of suspicion against him save
that he is a young man.
There is no taint of seditious connection or conspiracy in this man
and no reason why he should not be allowed to carry out his plan of
returning to his home in California.
The above statement was orally made to me by Professor Hagofrian, of
Marsovan.
H. O. Dwight.
July 19,
1895.
[Page 1300]
[Inclosure 2 in No.
669.]
The recent murder at Marsovan.
Garabed Agha Kouyoumijou is a leading member of the Protestant
community at Marsovan. He has rendered himself obnoxious to the
Armenian revolutionary party by throwing his influence against their
efforts to stir the people to sedition. For this he has been warned
that he would be killed, but he has been inclined to make light of
the warning. On the 1st of July Garabed Agha went to the Protestant
church about 5 o’clock in the morning to attend early morning
service, The door was not yet open, and Garabed Agha was waiting in
the street by the door when two men came up and engaged him in
conversation. While one of these men was talking with him, the other
moved around behind him and suddenly struck him in the back with a
dirk. Garabed Agha cried out and turned upon his assailant, when the
other man plunged a dirk into his abdomen. This blow brought him to
the ground, and the assassins continued to stab him until his body
was pierced with 15 terrible wounds. The assassins then fled. They
had done their work so quickly that no one had come up the street,
while the people of the neighboring houses who heard the cries of
the victim and looked out of their windows did not realize what was
taking place until the men had run away.
The police at once arrested all the people in the neighboring houses,
and all young men whom they met in the streets. About eighty men and
forty women were thus arrested and lodged in prison. Among those
arrested were the Protestant pastor, Kirmajian, and the sexton of
the Protestant church, and a naturalized American citizen named
Arakelian.
The moutessarif of Amasia, Bekir Pasha, at once came to Marsovan on
learning of this crime. He summoned the leading Armenians before him
and addressed them, urging them to aid him in finding the real
criminals—that is to say, those who procured the murder. The Pasha
at first spoke kindly, then menacingly, warning the Armenians that
by such crimes they could obtain nothing from the Government, would
alienate the sympathies of Europe, and could not secure their object
of creating another Sassoun massacre, since the Mohammedan
population has been warned of their design and of the necessity to
thwart it by patient endurance of wrong. Finding that the Armenians
remained deaf to all entreaty and argument, persistently replying
that they knew nothing, the Pasha threatened them with
extermination, reading what appeared to be a telegram of His
Highness Said Pasha, in which the moutessarif was ordered to “take
any measures deemed necessary,” leaving the responsibility of his
acts upon the grand vizier.
The situation at Marsovan is extremely critical, owing to the sudden
reappearance there of the revolutionist party. The revolutionists
have been encouraged to do their work by the apparent abandonment of
the reform scheme by England, This has discouraged the people, has
led evil-disposed Ottoman officials to threaten to make it worse for
the Armenians than if England had not acted, and has thus left the
people an easy prey to the revolutionist propaganda.
The headquarters of the revolutionists in that district are at or
near Amasia. The notorious Shemavan, a Russian Armenian, already
twice arrested for crimes of violence in connection with the
revolutionary movement and twice released through the Russian
embassy at Constantinople has again appeared at Amasia and is
directing the movements of the revolutionists.
A number of persons have been marked for destruction by the
revolutionists, among them two American and two Armenian professors
of Anatolia College.
The governor of Amasia, Bekir Pasha, has shown great energy and the
will to protect the college and the men whose lives are threatened;
but the ability of any Government official to cope with this secret
and unprincipled organization is somewhat doubtful.
