[5] One of the two authors of the present statement, which has been drafted in the first person by the other witness, but represents the experience of both. The Editor is in possession of the drafter’s name, but does not know the identity of Sister B., Dr. A., or Mr. G.—Editor. [↑]
[6] A defile, 12 hours’ journey from Erzindjan, where the Euphrates flows through a narrow gorge between two walls of rock. [↑]
[7] i.e., after the departure of the last convoys of exiles from Erzindjan (10th June), not after the narrators were informed of the massacres by their cook and by the two Armenian girls. The passages about the cobbler, the cook, and the two girls are evidently in parenthesis, and interrupt the sequence of the narrative.—Editor. [↑]
[8] The further details are given in the Allgemeine Missions-Zeitschrift. November, 1915: “When we exclaimed in horror: ‘So you fire on women and children!’ the soldiers answered: ‘What could we do? It was our orders.’ One of them added: ‘It was a heart-breaking sight. For that matter, I did not shoot.’”—Editor. [↑]
[9] On the evening of the 11th. we saw soldiers returning to town laden with loot. We heard from both Turks and Armenians that children’s corpses were strewn along the road. [↑]
[10] Every day ten or twelve men had been killed and thrown into the ravines.—Allgemeine Missions-Zeitschrift. [↑]
[11] This was not the route followed by the convoys of exiles. [↑]
[12] This incident was communicated to Mr. DB. by DC. Effendi, a gentleman who had held high office under the Ottoman Government till the outbreak of the War. [↑]
[13] Mr. Vartkes was an Armenian deputy in the Ottoman Parliament, who was murdered, together with another deputy, Mr. Zohrab, when he was being escorted by gendarmes from Aleppo to be court-martialled at Diyarbekir.—Editor. [↑]