Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, With the Annual Message of the President, Transmitted to Congress December 2, 1895, Part II
Mr. Terrell to Mr. Olney.
Constantinople, Dec. 29, 1895. (Received Jan. 13, 1896.)
Sir: I have the honor to inclose for your information the copy of a letter from ——, dated at Harpoot, December 7, and also a tabulated statement showing the number killed (11,682) and houses destroyed in one province. While the butchery of a Christian race is progressing, it has been deemed proper to furnish you such facts as seem authentic, illustrating this bloody era.
I have, etc.,
Dear Sir: This is my fourth letter to you. The last was dated December 4. All have been sent by registered post.
Last week we called the attention of the Government to the fact that our garden was being destroyed. Four houses were burned, a fifth pulled down, and now 26 trees have been cut down and carried off. We said that you had demanded protection for us, and the Sultan had promised it; but our houses had been plundered and burned and none had been furnished, therefore evil doers were emboldened and they were now despoiling our garden. The Government sent officers to the garden on Saturday. On the way they met donkeys laden with wood cut from our gardens, and they arrested the owners and sent them to the Belladuya with the wood as evidence. Several persons were arrested hi the vicinity of the garden, and they were to have been sent to prison on Saturday. This is the first instance of punishment meted out to raiders. * * * A member of the court of appeals, Haji Khairee, is now in prison on charge of harboring Koords, inciting them to plunder, etc. His brother, Lutfailah, a notorious rowdy, is also in prison on a similar charge. They are doubtless guilty of more than is charged to them. A telegram was sent to Constantinople in their behalf, and the rumor gained currency that Dr. Barnum had sent it. This was false. Haji Khairee sent to Dr. Barnum asking him not to interfere in his behalf, fearing, I presume, that our advocacy would hurt him with Moslems more than it would help him. But he was disposed to be friendly on account of our supposed friendly attitude, and he let drop the remark, “I can prove that the colonel and the soldiers led the attack upon the houses of the Americans and broke open their safes.”
On the day of the attack we noticed the village raiders gathered together and holding aloof for a time. We now learn that they were afraid to attack such large buildings belonging to foreigners until the soldiers opened fire upon our houses and encouraged them to attack them.
[Page 1424]We also learn that a band of the raiders were gathered in the mosque before the attack. When they came out a member of the court of first instance, Delli Haji by name, one of the leading ulema of the city, spread out his hands and offered a prayer for their success, and said to them, “May your swords be sharp to do their work.”
Moreover, the owner of the house occupied by Mustapha Pasha, commander in chief of the division of the army, says that on November 11 Mustapha Pasha watched the attack through a field glass from his house in Wezreh. When he saw the other buildings burning and four of our buildings still intact, he sent word to the colonel commanding in the city, “Why are those houses still standing?” It was upon the receipt of this message that the colonel sent to us to induce us to come out of the college building and intrust ourselves to his protection. When we positively refused to leave the building, even if it should be set on fire, he sent back reply, “They are in the building and will not come out.” Mehemet Effendi, the alai bey, who was sent by the acting governor to aid us, has full knowledge of these things if he chose to reveal them, which is not likely.
The Turkish commissioners sent out to investigate these outrages are expected here shortly, and a certain kind of preparation is being made for their reception. In the villages the Christians are being forced to sign papers exculpating the Turks. In Ichuneh, at the point of the sword, the Christians were forced to sign a paper saying that they were about to attack the Turks when the latter attacked them. In many villages the aghas force the Christians to sign that they have suffered no injury from the Turks of their village, and so on.
The official reports of these occurrences are falsified to make it appear that the Armenians were the aggressors. The official report of the killed in this city is, we learn, 23 Christians and 8 Turks.
Now, there were 45 Christians killed in this quarter of the city and about 100 in the whole city, and not one Turk was either killed or wounded. The rowdy referred to above says, “The authorities asked us to find the body of at least one dead Turk, but we could not.” In the village of Husenik, a mile distant from the city, the official report says 120 Christians and 80 Turks were killed. The latest returns from the village show that 200 Christians were killed and as many more wounded, and not one Turk was either killed or wounded. So far as I can learn, not one Turk was injured in anyway in this vicinity. The fact is that the Armenians have given up their weapons and committed themselves to the protection of the Government. Our own attitude toward the commissioners who are expected is one of distrust. * * *
Another matter to which I should like to call your attention is the interference with our posts. It is very rare that we receive any newspapers. My Semiweekly Tribune conies, perhaps, semimonthly. For weeks we have not seen the New York Independent or Boston Congregationalist, and we have reason to think that our letters also are interfered with. I have already written you of the translation of our English telegrams and their revision by the Government here.
We have been hoping to hear of money for relief work. Winter is upon us and thousands are in danger of starvation. The Government gives a small allowance, 40 to 60 drams daily, and this pittance is seldom continued more than ten days. It is just in order that they may say to the world that the sufferers are being cared for by the Government We are giving work to needy men and women in clearing away the ruins and in making bedding and underclothing for the destitute. [Page 1425] Our aim is to help without pauperizing, but we have as yet received no assurance that money will be forthcoming for relief work on a large scale. If money is sent to us a very strong order should be secured for permission to engage in such work, to be given by the local authorities, otherwise we should not be allowed to do anything. I should like once more to call your attention to the importance of securing a firman for the college and permission to rebuild. We desire to rebuild in the spring. The work would afford employment to many who are destitute. The local authorities would undoubtedly oppose our rebuilding unless we have permission from Constantinople. We must depend upon the indemnity also to supply the funds for rebuilding. It cost the constant labor of Dr. Wheeler’s lifetime to secure the money for the buildings that have been burned, and erect them. If we must appeal to the Christian public in America for these funds the prospect is disheartening in the extreme. The Government ought to pay for these buildings, and I hope our Government will take strong ground in this matter.
As reports continue to come in from the villages they reveal an awful state of things. Everywhere the Christians are being forced to become Moslems. In some places they are circumcised by force. To-day word has come from Perching that this is being done there. A carpenter who was about to come here was thus circumcised.
The same is being done at Reawan, which lies between Serf and Mardin. A sheikh is teaching the Christians there the tenets of Islam.
In Choonkoosh between 600 and 700 Christians were killed, and the neighboring village of Adish was almost exterminated. The Koords set fire to the house of the Choonkoosh pastor, and he thought to perish in his house, but his family gathered at the windows, and the Koords set up timbers and took them out; the pastor then came out with his family. He was at once confronted with the alternative, “Accept Islam or die.” He refused to accept. He was badly burned. They kept him alive a few days and then killed him. Many accepted Islam for the sake of their wives, daughters, and sisters—to save them from being carried captive. The Protestant school teacher married one of the pastor’s daughters to save her. Another man married his brother’s wife. They were married by a moolah.
I do not wish to weary you with the repetitions of the sad tales that come to us day after day, each adding to the burden of sorrow we are carrying. I simply wish to state what is made more and more clear to us, that we are confronting a Moslem crusade, the avowed object of which is to leave no Christians here. My responsibility goes no further. I must leave it to the Christian nations to say whether they will permit Islam ruthlessly to invade Christian homes and by force propagate its faith among Christians. I wish I could picture to you one-fourth of the wretchedness and woe here in the interior. It is awful, awful, awful! If I should simply take our own students—two have been killed; one has lost 25 relatives, including father and brothers; of the family of another only one escaped. Two boys yesterday heard of the death of their fathers; one girl heard of the death of her father, another of the death of her father and two brothers; and so it goes on from day to day. We know of 13 Protestant pastors and preachers who have been killed.
I wrote you last week that the Turks of the city said if war ensued they would slaughter the remaining Christians. We have now proof that in the court of appeals the Turks, members of that court, said, [Page 1426] “If there is any European intervention we shall finish up the Christians.”
December 10.
Some of the commissioners arrived in Mezorh yesterday, and they have summoned a number of Turks and Christians to meet them. The Christians summoned are in great trepidation, and fear to speak the truth.
December 11.
I have just seen two of the Armenians who were summoned. The Moslems and Christians were called separately. They all stood in their presence. After the Moslems had had an interview of about half an hour the Christians were called. The two commissioners and officers of the Government were present. The first commissioner, whose name I have not yet learned, recited the clemency of the Sultan, and the seditious practices of the Armenians, and exhorted them to abandon them. Then the second, Abdulla Pasha, began in a much more violent strain. He accused the Armenians of sending men to Washington and Chicago to agitate, of publishing secret newspapers, of stirring up strife, etc. Then he said if either Turk or Armenian makes trouble hereafter there will be no more imprisonment, but the death penalty, and if the Armenians begin anything of this kind again the name of Armenian will not be left to them. They will all be blotted out. He said, “What we have received we received with blood, and if we give up this morsel we will give it up with blood.” Then he signified to the Christians that they might go. This was all. The commissioners harangued the Christians, laying all the blame on them, and gave them no opportunity to answer questions or make any defense. This, I soppose, is the method that has been adopted for restoring tranquillity.
December 12.
The commissioners are to leave this morning for Diarbekir. I learn the name of the first one is Sand Bey.
I inclose you a memorandum of the attacks upon different places of which we have knowledge. It shows 138 towns and villages desolated, 5,064 houses burned, and 12,708 persons killed. There are many other places in regard to which we have as yet learned no particulars. Outrages upon women and nameless indignities offered to men were very common. There is still great tension, and danger is not by any means past.
There are hundreds of towns and villages in the Harpoot mission fired. We have at different times occupied some 90 of them for evangelical work. At present less than 60 are thus occupied. We receive reliable reports from few places; but I have compiled what we have received, taking lowest estimates where they differ.
* * * * * * *
These are the only places in regard to which we can get figures. No one counts the wounded in most places. The number of deaths increase daily. In the villages which I have around Peri and Pal a we have no particulars. The sum total must be dreadful in the extreme. I have not tried to keep count of the outrages upon women. They come from every quarter, and hardly attract notice.