Massacre of 6,000 Armenians

Scene is Van, Asiatic Turkey

“Armenians are Defending Themselves”

London, May 17 – Six thousand Armenians have been massacred at Van, in Armenia, Asiatic Turkey, according to a dispatch received in official quarters in London today from the Russian consul at Urumiah, Persia.  

This message is dated May 15.*  it adds that the Armenians are defending themselves to the utmost against the Turks and Kurds, but that help is urgently needed.

Armenians have Risen in Asiatic Turkey

London, May 17 – A dispatch to the Times from Cairo says it is reported that the Armenians in Zeitun and Cilicia, Asiatic Turkey, have risen, and that the energies of two Turkish reserve divisions are required to meet the situation.

Armenian newspapers, the correspondent adds, give harrowing details of a massacre of 2,000 Armenians by Kurds of Turks in Trans-Caucasia

News dispatches from Persia, Armenia, and Transcaucasia, in Russia, have set forth for several weeks that the position of the Armenians in Turkey, as well as in Northwestern Persia, was one of grave danger, but no message has conveyed any indication of such extensive massacring as does this report to London.  If it is true the Armenian situation has entered upon a period which threatens to rival the conditions of 1895.  

Kurds and Turks have been persecuting the Armenian residents of these localities for several months.  Many have been killed, while large numbers have been driven away as slaves.  The city of Van normally has 30,000 inhabitants.  It is the seat of an important American mission and the missionaries have taken an active part in the protection of Armenians from Turkish and Kurdish attacks.  

Terrible massacres of Armenians in 1895, which resulted in international action for enforcement of reforms, occurred in October and November.  Something like 15,000 people were killed in these months.