In the same month, in a camp outside Bitlis, I saw collected about 500 women, girls, and children, guarded by gendarmes. I asked the latter what was to become of these people. They said that they were being deported, but that they had orders to let the Bands deal with them on the way. The Bands had been organized by the Turkish Government for the purpose of massacring the Armenians. They were formed by Kurds, Turkish gendarmes and criminals who had been specially set free.[3]
On the river at Bitlis I saw quite a number of bodies of Armenians floating on the water, and some washed up on the banks. The smell was pestilential and the water undrinkable.
In the same month of August, in the country at a distance of about two hours from Zaart, I saw the bodies of about 15,000 massacred Armenians. They were piled up on top of each other in two ravines. The Armenian Bishop of Zaart was, at his own request, taken to a cave near by and shot.
On my return from Zaart to Mush, in a village of the suburbs of Mush over 500 Armenians, mostly women and children, were herded up in a stable and locked in. The gendarmes threw flaming torches through an opening in the ceiling. They were all burnt alive. I did not go near, but I distinctly saw the flames and heard the screams of the poor victims.
I heard from reliable persons that women in the family way had their bodies cut open and the child snatched out and thrown away.
At Mush the streets were strewn with bodies of Armenians. Every Armenian who ventured out of doors was instantly killed.
Even men of great age, blind and invalids, were not spared.
From Mush to Hinis, at short distances from each other, I saw piles of bodies of Armenians in the fields alongside the road.
Between Sherkes-Koi and Hinis I saw two ravines filled with corpses of Armenians, about 400 in each ravine, mostly men. Another ravine was filled with bodies of little children.
At Khara-Shuban I saw a large number of bodies of Armenians floating on the river Murad.