The American Red Cross Bulletin (Vol. IV, No. 4, October 1909)

by American National Red Cross

Thursday evening the Kessab scouts brought word into the town that great crowds of armed Turks and Arabs had gathered in the nearest Moslem village. It was an anxious night. Before daylight, Friday morning, rifle shots told of the enemy’s advance. By three separate mountain trails, from the north, northeast, and east, thousands of armed Moslems came pouring up the valley. Their Martini rifles sent the bullets whizzing into the Kessab houses, while the shotguns of the 300 Christians who were posted on the defense could not cover the long range. It was a desperate struggle, and the Kessab men realized their straits. The plan which they thereupon made is to their honor and credit. They resolved to hold out as many hours as possible, so as to furnish time for the women and children to escape into the clefts and caves of the mountains to the south. For five hours the fusillade continued with fierce determination. By midafternoon Turks from the Antioch villages had circled around Jebel Akra on the north, so as to command a position above Kessab. The Arabs had flanked the town on the southeast. Meanwhile the vanguard of the Ordou Moslems had captured and burned the adjacent villages just below Kessab, and had set fire to three of the houses at that end of the town. Their cries and frantic threats could be heard distinctly. The women and girls gathered up the little children on their backs and in their arms, hastened along the west trail over the ridge toward Kaladouran, and clambered up into the cliffs and crevices which overlook the sea at an altitude of 5,000 feet. Some in small groups, others entirely alone, hid themselves underneath the thorny underbrush or in the natural caves. Toward evening the men had been compelled by the overwhelming odds to give up the defense. They fell back without any panic or noise. And the Turks and Arabs who rushed into the streets of the town were so seized with the lust of plunder that they did not pursue the rear guard of the Christians. Angry must have been the scenes as the plunderers fought with one another over the stores of raw silk, the chief product of Kessab. Cattle, mules, copper kettles, bedding, clothing, and rugs were carried out by the Turks in feverish haste, as one after another the houses were set on fire. Some of the aged Armenians, who had not the strength to flee, were caught in their houses and barbarously put to death. Others, who had delayed flight in order to gather up and rescue a few valuables, were likewise put to the sword. Axes and knives finished up what the rifles had spared. But the instinct to escape had been so strong among the Christians, and the greed of plunder so absorbing among the Mohammedans, that in all the day’s fray only 153 Armenians and a handful of Turks were killed.

A Kessab girl named Feride, 20 years of age, had a remarkable escape. She had gone over to the village of Ekizolook (Twin Hollows) to save the little bridal trousseau of one of her friends. It was well on in the afternoon when she had gathered up the garments into a bundle. And when she hurried out into the street to join the fugitives she found, to her dismay, that everyone had gone beyond sight and hearing. A moment more and she saw a host of Arabs rush up through the street. She dashed through several little gardens and reached the rocks and underbrush above the village. On and on she made her way without being discovered. In a deep cleft between the rocks she hid and listened. She had dropped the precious bundle, but kept in her hand her New Testament, which was more precious than anything else. As she listened and watched many Arabs and Turks ranged past the entrance to the cleft. Then came one who peered in closely. Their eyes met. He gave a cry to his comrades, “There is a maiden here!” and sprang forward. She summoned her whole strength and leaped up the side of a great rock which rises up above the village. It was a feat which no athlete could commonly have done. At first the Arab could not follow her. He cried again to his companions. They replied by shouting to one another, “Surround her! Surround her!” She was now standing on top of the rock in full sight of fifteen or sixteen Arabs, all in her pursuit. They called fiercely to her to come down. She answered in Arabic, “You may shoot me, but I will never give myself up.” Then they ordered her to throw down to them the purse she had in her hand. She told them it was not her purse, but her Holy Gospel. And she held out her hands in prayer to God. Just then the Arab who had first seen her made a spring up the side of the rock. She leaped in the opposite direction down into some brushwood, but was caught at the side of the rock by branches of briar. The Arab came on over the top of the rock and had reached out his arm to seize her, when a Christian young man, who had taken refuge in another part of the brushwood, fired and shot him dead. He gave a long groan, threw up his arms, and fell prostrate upon the rock. The other Moslems were startled by the unexpected shot and retreated for a time. This gave Feride time to escape into the caves farther up the mountainside, where she remained entirely alone all night and part of the next day. When I was in Ekizolook the Arab had not yet been buried. I took his headdress—a coil of black wool and the “keifiyye” which goes with it—as a trophy. Feride herself told me the story of her escape. Her eyes were bright and her cheeks flushed as she recalled the dangers through which she had passed. She said that after she was discovered in that cleft of the rocks all fear left her. A strange courage came over her, and she felt sure that God would save her from being captured.

One of the school teachers, named Mariam, was caught by the Arabs not far from where Feride had hidden. The Arab who captured her ordered her to become a Moslem. When she refused he threatened to kill two little boys she was trying to protect. Then he raised the axe which he carried and placed the edge against Mariam’s neck, threatening her three separate times. Each time she said she would never become a Mohammedan, nor deny her faith in Christ, nor surrender her honor. The Arab snatched the money which she had with her and tore off the dress and shoes which she was wearing. He told her he would make her his slave. Just then some Turks from Ordou came up and recognized among the women the wife of Dr. Apelian. The doctor had often served these Turks medically. A sharp skirmish ensued, which ended in the defeat of the Arabs. The women were that night taken in safe conduct by these Turks to a Greek house in Ordou, where they were kindly cared for until the fighting was over and they could return to Kessab.

One of the saddest experiences was that of Azniv Khanum, wife of the preacher in Kaladouran. Ten days before the massacre she had given birth to twin children, a boy and a girl. When the flight to the mountains took place she had not the strength to climb with the others, so her husband hid her and their four children among the rocks near the edge of the village. The babies were wrapped in a little quilt and the other children clung to their mother, while the father hid in a cave close by. Before long Azniv Khanum and the children were discovered by the Turks. One of the plunderers snatched up the quilt, despite the mother’s entreaties. The two babies rolled out, one in one direction and one in another, over the rough stones. Then the Turk rudely laid hold of the mother, and, holding his revolver against her breast, ordered her to become a Moslem. She bravely refused. “You are my slave,” he said, and beat her with the flat of his sword. He commenced to drag her down in order to tie her on his horse. Her foot tripped, she fell, and rolled over and over for about eight yards. There she lay on the rocks, bruised and exhausted, in the hot sun. The Turk seeing a chance to plunder, abandoned her. Afterwards other Turks took her money and her dress and shoes and her little girl about four years old. It is wonderful that she lived through it all. One of the little babies lived a week, the other about ten days, after that. When I was in Kaladouran we buried the little boy. It was a very touching service out under the trees.

Now, to return to the narrative. Friday evening it occurred to Dr. Apelian that if he could reach the seaport of Latakia, forty miles to the south, he could telegraph for assistance by sea. With a trusty guide he set out that same evening for the house of a Moslem chief in the mountains. This Turk agreed to ride with him to Latakia, and thus give him protection along the way. Without this escort the doctor could never have made this trip. Even as it was he took his life in his hands. They arrived in Latakia at 2 o’clock at night, called the British and French consuls to Dr. Balph’s home, sent telegrams to Alexandretta and Aleppo, and at dawn notified the Mutasarrif (Lieutenant-Governor) of the attack on Kessab. Turkish soldiers were dispatched at once, and a Messageries steamer started to the rescue from Alexandretta.

Meanwhile, all day Saturday the sacking and burning went on. The large village of Kaladouran was devastated. The Moslems increased in numbers as raiders from distant villages arrived. In the afternoon Selhan Agha, captain of gendarmerie, arrived with forty cavalrymen. He joined in the sack of the town, taking for himself and his company the most valuable share of the booty, the raw silk found in the merchants’ shops. He and the cavalrymen were afterward intercepted at Idlib, on their way to Aleppo, and their saddlebags were found to be crammed full of plunder. Selhan Agha, with the forty horsemen, had been dispatched from Jissr by orders from Aleppo, Thursday afternoon, to go at once to protect Kessab from any mob violence. He could have gone in eight hours, or even less, from Jissr to Kessab. At that time the attack had not yet commenced. Instead of going directly to Kessab he went to Sheikh Keoy and spent the night there. The next day all the Moslems from that village were out on the warpath, while Selhan Agha turned far out of his way and made a sixty-mile detour to many other Mohammedan villages and to the city of Antioch. Finally he reached Kessab, forty-eight hours after receiving his orders, and when he arrived he did not stop the burning and looting, but himself became a plunderer. This whole disgraceful affair has been probed by the Aleppo Commission, and their findings substantiate all of the above statements. I have most of the evidence, however, directly from one of the gendarmes named Mehmet Ali.

BOYS’ GRAMMAR SCHOOL, KESSAB. BURNED APRIL 23-24.

By Saturday night there was not much valuable plunder left. The iron bars were wrenched out from the windows and the household pottery smashed to pieces out of sheer vandalism. As the loot became exhausted the Moslems commenced to range the mountainsides, exploring the caves, and firing into the bushes in the effort to exterminate the Christians. One woman’s husband was cut to pieces before her very eyes, and she herself was severely wounded in the side. She escaped to the deep ravines near the summit of Mount Cassius and lived on snow for twelve days. She is now in the American hospital at Latakia.

All the tradesmen’s shops and merchants’ storehouses in Kessab are burned. In fact, the whole market is in ashes. The Roman Catholic and Protestant Churches are completely burned. The latter was a spacious building, seating a congregation of 1,800. The American Mission residence, occupied by Miss E. M. Chambers, was burned; so, also, the Girls’ High School (American property), the Boys’ Grammar School, and the Protestant parsonage; 530 houses, including the homes of all the well-to-do families in Kessab, are also destroyed by fire. The 700 houses which remain, plundered, but not burned, are small one-room or two-room houses, belonging to laborers and other poor people. In Ekizolook 38 homes are burned; 22 remain. In Kaladouran 65 are gone; 135 are left. In Duz Aghaj 24 are burned; 1 remains. In Keorkine 55 are burned; 45 remain.