Horrible Tales of Turks’ Atrocities

Evidence of Alleged Crimes in Armenia Presented by American Committee

No Equal in 1,000 Years

Whole Cities Reported Deported, Men Tortured and Killed, Women Violated and Children Massacred

New York, Oct. 3. – Documentary evidence of the atrocities inflicted by the Turks upon the Armenians was made public tonight by the committee formed by Charles R. Crane, Cleveland H. Dodge and others to investigate the facts of the Armenian massacres and which also is taking steps to aid sufferers.

The committee says the evidence was collected from sources of unquestioned veracity, but that for obvious reasons their names cannot be given, and in most cases names of towns and cities must concealed.

The report gives quotations from 24 sources, some of which describe in detail instances where Armenians have been put to death, women violated and children slaughtered; of robbery, torture and death by starvation and of terrible privations endured in long marches to the desert regions to which the Armenians have been exiled – crimes described by the committee as surpassing “in their horror and cruelty anything that history has recorded during the past thousand years.”

Driven from Homes

“The idea of direct attack and massacre, carried out in former times,” says one authority, writing under date of August 3, “has been altered somewhat in that the men and boys have been deported in great numbers and disapeared en route and later the women and children have been made to follow. For some time stories have been prevalent from travelers arriving from the interior of killing of males and of great numbers of bodies along the roadsides and floating in the Euphrates river; of the delivery to the Kurds by the gendarmes accompanying the convoys of women and children, of all the younger members of the parties; of unthinkable outrages committed by gendarmes and Kurds, and even the killing of many victims. At first theses stories were not given much credence, but as many of the refugees are now arriving no doubt longer remains of the truth of the matter.

Expulsions Authorized

Describing under date of jUne 20 the wholesale deportation of 26,000 Armenian inhabitants of Zeitoun to the Koneih region and Mesopotamai, one writer gives the text of the Turkish government order giving authority for the expulsion. It reads:

“The commanders of the army, of independent army corps and of divisions may, in case of military necessity and in case they suspect espionage or treason, send away either singly or enmasse, the inhabitants of villages or towns and install them in other places.”

“Whole villages were deported at an hour’s notice, with no opportunity to prepare for the journey, not even in some cases to gather together the scattered members of the family, so many little children were left behind,” says the writer. “In many cases the men were bound tightly together with ropes and chains. Women with little children in their arms or in the last days of pregnancy were driven along under the whip like cattle.”

Another writer tells of the cruel use of the bastinado in a certain prison where Armenians were held.

Youth is Beaten to Death

“At the time of the Romans,” he writes, “40 strokes were administered at the very most; in this place, however, 200, 500 and even 600 strokes were administered. A young man was beaten to death within the space of five minutes. Apart from the bastina doing other methods were employed, such as putting hot irons on the chest.”

Another authority describes the use of the bastinado and fire torture, in the efforts of the Turkish authorities in an unnamed town, to extract information as to arms in the possession of the Armenians. Telling of the expulsion of the Armenian inhabitants he writes:

“On July 5, before the order for the expulsion of the women was carried out – went to the government to protest. He was told the order came from those higher up.

The panic in the city was terrible. The women believed that they were going to worse than death, and many carried poison in their pockets to use if necessary.”

Believes Many Were Drowned

In a description of scenes attending the expulsion of Armenians from another community a writer says:

“A number of lighters have been loaded with people at different times and sent off toward – . It is generally believed that such persons were drowned.

“A number of bodies of women and children have lately been thrown up by the sea.”

In a near by village, says the same writer, he was informed by a reliable witness that 45 men and women were taken a short distance from the village, the women violated and the men shot.