Here is another instance of suppressing the Armenian rebellion. The detailed news was published on September 4th, by the Armenian journal, Gotchnag of New York:
“Incredible news comes in about the massacres at Bitlis. In one village 1000 Armenians—men, women, and children—have been crowded into a wooden house, and the house set on fire. In another large village of the district, only thirty-six people have escaped the massacre. In another, they roped together men and women by dozens, and threw them into the Lake of Van. A young Armenian of Bitlis, who was in the army, and who, after being disarmed and employed on road-making, succeeded in escaping and reaching Van, related that the ex-vali of Van, Djevdet Bey, has had males between the ages of fifteen and forty massacred at Bitlis. He has had their families deported in the direction of Sert, but has kept with him all the prettiest girls. Bitlis is now occupied by tens of thousands of Turkish and Kurdish mouhadjirs (refugees).”
The condition of affairs in northwestern and western Armenia and in the provinces of Asia Minor was not any better. It was, in fact, a great deal worse. Because there was no Russian army to protect them, or in case of danger, to take them into a friendly country, no matter with what terrible hardships they may get there. They were absolutely helpless and completely at the mercy of the ruthless cruelty of the Turkish officials and mobs.
In April, the central government, from Constantinople, sent orders to the local authorities in Armenia and Asia Minor to the effect that the Armenians having been found to be a great danger to the security of the state, they should be severely suppressed in advance in order that they might be made harmless, and the empire might be safe. Most of the local authorities at once understood what the orders meant, and were not slow to undertake the work. The orders were carried out in the following manner:
On an appointed day, the governor of a town or city, whichever it might happen to be, summoned all able bodied men of Armenian race to present themselves either in a government building or some such designated place. A sufficient number of police and gendarmes are on hand to see that this demand is obeyed by all. If any Armenian has the audacity to disobey, he is dragged there by force. Then these men were led into a lonely spot and were disposed of. The gendarmes or the police who did the work of execution returned into the town. If the number was too large to take them all at once, the process was repeated until all the work was done in the same manner.
Following is the description of one of scores of its kind:
“In the town of Agantz a list of those to be executed was sent to the local governor, and 2500 (men) were summoned to appear at the governor’s house and listen to the reading of a proclamation. The natives knew the meaning of the order, and many of them ignored it. They were later dragged to prison by gendarmes and held for execution.
“It is conservatively estimated that 2500 listed men were held in prison here. They were taken out in groups of fifty, led to a trench and there shot down. The fifty dead were tossed to one side, a fresh group of fifty led to the trench. This tremendous execution was continued until the entire 2500 men were massacred.”
One more instance:
“... One night towards the end of June (1915), suddenly, without any warning, the houses of most of all of the Armenians who still remained in the city were forcibly entered by the police and gendarmes. The men were arrested and held as prisoners in the soldiers’ barracks at one side of the city. Their whole number amounted to 1213.[165] Two more of our leading Armenian professors were arrested on this occasion....” These men “were told that they were to be sent away into exile at Mosul, in the deserts of Mesopotamia, six or seven hundred miles away.... These 1213 men, after being held for a few days, were bound together in small groups of five or six men each, and sent off at night in companies of from fifty to one hundred fifty under the escort of gendarmes. Some fifteen miles from the city they were set upon by the gendarmes and by bondsmen called chettes and cruelly murdered with axes.... One of the gendarmes who helped drive away these 1213 men boasted to our French teacher that he had killed fifty Armenians with his own hands, and had obtained from them 150 Turkish Pounds. The chief of police at —— stated that none of these 1213 men remained alive. Our Consular Agent visited the place of this slaughter early in August, and brought back with him Turkish ‘Nufus tezkereses,’ identification papers, taken from the bodies of the victims. I personally saw these papers. They were all besmeared with blood.”