ARMENIAN HORRORS

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2600, 23 October 1915, Page 6

ARMENIAN HORRORS

TURKS ALLEGE COUNTER, ATROCITIES By IWojra»li-Pr«3 Assodation-OopyriElit Washington, October'2l. The Turkish Embassy lias issued an official report' that the Russians are committing atrocities against Moslems. The Armenians themselves are torturing Turks whenever .possible. The Turkish Embassy asserts that tho Armenians pieroe the cheeks of Turkish babies, so tiiat they will starve to death. ■ Unofficial reports reaching Washington indicate that over a million Armenians have been exiled. Three-quarters of them were either killed or enslaved by the Turks.' ■ Two'hundred thousand &»ve fled to Russia.

THE EXTERMINATION. In a recent: article, the "Journal do Geneve" gives, a .short .survey .of the . attempts which- aro being inado by the Turks to exterminatethe Armenians in . their territory/.-'- <■■■['• • ' The extermination :is : being carried out by three means—massacre, deportation, and forced, conversion to Islam. Throughout the'whole of the/country it is tlio same, story... At.Siwas ihe .wliolei population was' deported to the •south'y probably to- Mosul. Men, .women,- and-children were made to:-leave hi troops of.between fire and six hundred. • They-are; not;. allowed to take anything, with them. C'lf,tliey. succeed in concealing any money on; them they are robbed on the way. with the utmost. brutality. Once they have set • out -their houses and shops are:handed over to Turks. - > : i;

The Government "Las released from prison 34,000 criminals whom it has organised and enrolled. It is these criminals who are, 'charged with escorting the Armenian convoys, and there is no y Lrutalitv which they do not commit. Precis© information is to hand concerning the convoys' which left Erzerum, Baiburt, and Erzingan for the south. It is known.that a very considerable number of those who left did not reach "the subsequent stations, having died, on the way through misery or ill-treat-ment. At various parts the women . and children were kept oil route by the Tunis, who .carried them off. AF Shabin-Karahissar .there was an. .'attempt at resistance;'the town was burnt,, all the population massacred, as well .as' the population of the villages surrounding. The roads, the fields, the mountains are covered with corpses of men, women, and- children. In all the'towns on the coast, Kerasun, Ordu, Samsun, abjurations of the Christian ■religion have besn frequent. The rest of- the population has been expelled, ■at Bardijak, at Arabajan, near the • Sea of 3Tarmora, in the ■ interior at AlMslan, at Gurun, at Kharput'all the population has! been,deported...','.,ln all' vthe other towns /where there are , Armenians it is known that numerous im- , prisonmonts, executions, and hangings took place. It is known,. moreover, from the most . trustworthy sources that the Young Turks have declared that the complete and final extermination 01 the Armenians is essential for Turkey, and nothing ; can turn thenr aside from their plan.

i Streams of Refugees. What will remain over, then, of this unfortunate Armenian population of Turkey? Mere debris —those who, have been forcibly converted to Mahometanism, and those, happily in a greater liumber, who have been able to take refuge in. tho Caucasus.-/ With regard to the latter biv informing letter has Jieen sent from Etchmiadzin by M. SamEouju. Haroutioun, the president of tho Central- Armenian Committee, to the journal "Horizon," of TiQis. The letter is dated August 12. The w/iter says:— I have visited Igdir, and stayed there_ two days. Refugees arrive every day" without interruption. From Etchmjad T , nin to tho Turkish frontier all the country is full of them.. The vineyards in tho neighbourhood of Etchmiadzin and Igdir are occupied by them. At Igdir, the first station on the way into the interior of Russia, there are already 20,000; at Etchmiadzin 45,000. From these two localities tliey set out ill bands to divers destinations. From Igdir to the Turkish frontier patrols of cavalry : scour the country in order to pick up tho children and old men who have fallen by the wayside and the bodies of 'the dead. At Igdir every day sees tlio arrival of some, fifty orphans, who are placed in different places or sent on to Etchmiadzin, where the number of infants amounts to 400, some of them barely nine days old. . The refugees from Van and other places havo made tho journey on foot; many of them are 111, half of them starving, since they had no time to tako anything with them. No attacks we re made on them by Kurds except at Berk-ri-Kala, where a baud cut the chain of ■ defenceless refugees,- and left some twenty thousand of theso unfortunates to an unknown fate.

It is impossible to fix the number of these refugees, for they still continue to arrive. At Igdir I convoked the representatives of the different groups of refugees, and with the help of Aram, the Governor of the vilayet of Van, wo fixed the : number of. refugees approximately as follows:— 203,000 from the region cf Van, 80,000 from Melaskert, without counting those who arrived before. The rate of mortality at lgdir is 18 per cent.; at Etclimiadzin 40 per cent: The task of looking after tho refugees devolves upon our public organisations,, principally the "Fraternal Aid," of Etchmiadzin, and iho Central Armenian Committee.

TALKING ACROSS THE ETHER

GREAT FEAT IN WIRELESS TELEPHONE. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright, (Rec. October 23, 1.30 a.m.) New York, October 22. 'Arlington, in Virginia, talked 'to Paris; in France, by wireless telephone. Tho Honolulu operator also heard the Arlington operator talking. A message lias been received from Paris stating that tho greater part of tho messago was heard distinctly.

DECREASE IN CASES OP DYSENTERY

By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright ("Times" and Sydney "Sun" Services.) (Kec. October 22, 6.5 p.m.) London, Octobor'2l. The cases of dysentery at the Dardanelles show a gratifying decrease for the last month. CONVALESCENT HOSPITALS IN SICILY FOR SOLDIERS FROM GALLIPOLI. By' Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright Malta, October 21. 'A Commission has gone to Sicily to considor the establishment of hospitals for convalescents and slightly wounded soldiers from tho Dardanelles.