The relations of the victims themselves were compelled to take down the corpses from the gallows.
Only the women and girls were permitted to go over to Islam. When the Governor was petitioned to allow the infants to be entrusted to charitable Moslem families, to save them from dying on the journey, he replied:—
“I will not leave here so much as the odour of the Armenians; go away into the deserts of Arabia and dump your Armenia there.”
[99]. Date unspecified.
[100]. See Docs. [68], [94], and [122].
[101]. Kotch Hissar.
[102]. As the Russian fleet had blockaded the Black Sea ports and transport by water was difficult, the Turks appear to have been using the Anatolian Railway to Angora, the terminus of the line, for their communications, proceeding thence to Erzeroum through Sivas by horse and camel.—[Note by the interviewer.]
[103]. Name withheld.
[104]. For other versions of the official proclamation see Doc. [120] and [Annexe C.] to the “Historical Summary.”