Dr. W. S. Vanneman, the head of the mission hospital at Tabris, Persia, wrote to the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church, N. Y. City, under date of March 14, 1915:
“About ten days ago the Kurds in Salmas, with the permission of the Turkish troops, gathered all the Nestorian and Armenian men remaining there, it is reported, about eight hundred. Four hundred were sent to Khosrova and four hundred to Haft Dewan under the pretense of giving them bread. They were held a few days and then tortured and massacred. Many women and children were taken away and ill-treated. This happened a day or two before the advancing Russian army took Salmas.
“We are very anxious about Urumia. A letter dated March 1st from Dr. Shedd came through two days ago. He said things were getting worse. Gulpashan, which hitherto had not been disturbed, had been plundered and ruined. I think this was the only village which remained. Fifty-one of the most prominent men of this village were taken out and shot. The women and girls were violated. This was done by the Turkish soldiers.
“Forty men had been taken from the Roman Catholic mission in Urumia city, kept prisoners a few days, then shot.”
Under date of March 21, Doctor Vanneman wrote:
“We are more anxious than ever about Urumia. On March 17th, Turkish troops attacked our mission and the Roman Catholic mission and took five native Russian priests from our compound and treated them badly. We do not know yet if they were killed. Mr. Allen was also treated badly because he had sent out three messengers away from Urumia.
“Some native Christian preachers have been crucified and some burned....”
The testimonies of the German and American missionaries confirm and supplement one another, and show the fearful results of the holy war. For the Persian Armenians and Nestorians—Persia itself—had nothing to do with Turkey. But the object of the Young Turks and their allies was to arouse the Mohammedans of Persia—the only Mohammedan power besides Turkey—against Russia, and Turks and Tatars in Transcaucasia, and that thus they might spread the fire of the holy war. But they have signally failed in the main.
When the Turkish army had to retreat from Persia before the advancing Russians and fell back into Armenia proper in Turkish territory, they let loose the demons—the Turkish regular and Kurdish irregular troops upon the Armenian population. Their barbarities, outrages, mutilations, murders, the devastations of numerous Armenian villages, by the sword and fire, are beyond the possibility of description. The few that could escape came to Van and told the people of the horrors they witnessed and passed through.
The Armenians of Van knew that the same fate would soon come to them. What should they do? Be loyal, submissive, passive, be butchered by the Turkish soldiers and by their inveterate enemies, the Kurds? Or should they make an attempt of self-defense, and let it cost the Turks and Kurds something more than the mere time, labor and ammunition to massacre the Armenians of Van? And that even if they should be declared rebels against the lawful authorities by the Prussian and Turkish officials? They decided upon the latter. And they did not decide too soon either. For on the 20th of April, Jevdet Bey, the governor of Van, and the Turkish soldiers commenced an attack on the city. The Armenians armed themselves as best they could, and making such barricades and defenses as time and materials could permit, they stood a siege of twenty-seven days—only about 1500 defenders against 5000 assailants well equipped with artillery. The Turks and Kurds on hearing of a Russian force approaching left them and fled southward. On the 17th of May, the Russians occupied Van.