Bleeding Armenia: Its history and horrors under the curse of Islam

by Augustus Warner Williams; M. Smbat Gabrielean

A Common Scene in the Streets of Erzeroum.

All the circumstances showed that with this flagitious rupture of the Sultan’s plighted word, the person directly and primarily chargeable was the Sultan himself. He sanctioned the plot of extermination, if he did not personally concoct it in 1890, the relentless though disavowed execution of which at last provoked the interposition of Christian Powers. No sooner had Kiamil Pasha been reluctantly permitted to agree to the reforms exacted for Armenia, than he was summarily dismissed by Abdul Hamid from the Grand Vizierate, lest he should execute the agreement in good faith. The new Ministers selected by the Sultan were drawn mainly from the scum of Constantinople, and their first act was to protest that time must be given to the Porte for the proper enforcement of the reform project. Time was needed to render reforms superfluous through the sweeping destruction of its intended beneficiaries. It was needed to perpetrate the design of annihilation on a scale of vast proportions. The Sultan well wished to hide his privity to such a devilish transaction, but he dared not disavow his agents, lest they should divulge his instructions. Accordingly, when high Turkish officials, unmistakably implicated in the Armenian enormities, were subjected to the nominal penalty of a recall at the imperative instance of England’s representative, they were decorated and promoted by Abdul Hamid, whose secret aims and wishes were thus betrayed.

On November 10, the Kurds made an attack on Harpoot, but were easily repulsed. On November 11, a party of the soldiers and leading Turks met the Kurds in conference, during the progress of which a bugle was sounded, at which signal the soldiers withdrew. The Kurds thereupon advanced with yells. There was no effort on the part of the soldiers and Armenians to resist, and the Turks joined in the killing and plundering. The Armenian school was burned, and then began an attack upon the Christian quarter, the buildings in which were also set on fire. The Christians were without weapons of any sort, and trusted entirely to the Government to protect them. The Armenians remained in the girls’ seminary until that building was set on fire, and then they appealed to the Governor for protection. They obtained a guard of soldiers, all but two of whom afterward deserted. These two remained and carried out the orders issued to them, to fight the fires which had been kindled.

The burning continued for three days. The Armenians were stripped of everything but their clothing. All the Christian villages around were burned by the Kurds. The outrages continued unchecked until the Government at Constantinople ordered the troops to take action. Fourteen Kurds were then shot, when the murders and pillaging ceased instantly. The districts of Diarbekir, Malatia, Arabkir, Kyin and Palu were made desolate. Thirty-five villages were destroyed, and thousands of the inhabitants embraced Islamism in consequence of the pressure brought to bear upon them.

The Turkish troops which were on their way to Zeitoun to suppress the trouble there, were concentrated at Marash, where they awaited the return of the delegation sent to Zeitoun to negotiate with the Armenians in control there for their surrender.

The Government said they were projecting more extensive relief work, and would welcome foreign aid through a joint commission.

Despite this promise of greater relief, the Government was bent on continuing the work of extermination—all promises to the contrary notwithstanding.

The tidal wave of horror and indignation swept over Europe, and found expression in most intense and emphatic speech; it was even felt in the Cabinets of Diplomacy and in Constantinople. There seemed to be more iron in their blood and energy in their action and purpose in their speech.

The general situation was not changed, but it was apparent that a change was about to take place. The representatives of the Powers, some of whom were awaiting instructions from their Governments in regard to the matter of sending additional guardboats into the Bosphorus, seemed to be unanimous in their insistence on the issue of permits for the admission of such boats by the Sultan, and the Ambassadors held a meeting to consider the situation as presented by the Sultan’s refusal to permit the passage of the additional boats through the straits, and to decide on a concerted plan of action.