Martyred Armenia
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MARTYRED
ARMENIA
BY
FA'IZ EL-GHUSEIN
BEDOUIN NOTABLE OF DAMASCUS
Translated from the Original Arabic
All Rights of Translation Reserved
NEW YORK
GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY
MCMXVIII
FOREWORD
I am a Bedouin, a son of one of the Heads of the tribe of El-Sulut, who
dwell in El-Lejat, in the Hauran territory. Like other sons of tribal
Chiefs, I entered the Tribal School at Constantinople, and subsequently
the Royal College. On the completion of my education, I was attached to
the staff of the Vali of Syria (or Damascus), on which I remained for a
long while. I was then Kaimakam of Mamouret-el-Aziz (Kharpout), holding
this post for three and a half years, after which I practised as a
lawyer at Damascus, my partners being Shukri Bey El-Asli and
Abdul-Wahhab Bey El-Inglizi. I next became a member of the General
Assembly at that place, representing Hauran, and later a member of the
Committee of that Assembly. On the outbreak of the war, I was ordered to
resume my previous career, that is, the duties of Kaimakam, but I did
not comply, as I found the practice of the law more advantageous in many
ways and more tranquil.
I was denounced by an informer as being a delegate of a Society
constituted in the Lebanon with the object of achieving the independence
of the Arab people, under the protection of England and France, and of
inciting the tribes against the Turkish Government. On receipt of this
denunciation, I was arrested by the Government, thrown into prison, and
subsequently sent in chains, with a company of police and gendarmes, to
Aaliya, where persons accused of political offences were tried. I was
acquitted, but as the Government disregarded the decisions given in such
cases, and was resolved on the removal and destruction of all
enlightened Arabs--whatever the circumstances might be--it was thought
necessary that I should be despatched to Erzeroum, and Jemal Pasha sent
me thither with an officer and five of the regular troops. When I
reached Diarbekir, Hasan Kaleh, at Erzeroum, was being pressed by the
Russians, and the Vali of Diarbekir was ordered to detain me at that
place.
After twenty-two days' confinement in prison for no reason, I was
released; I hired a house and remained at Diarbekir for six and a half
months, seeing and hearing from the most reliable sources all that took
place in regard to the Armenians, the majority of my informants being
superior officers and officials, or Notables of Diarbekir and its
dependencies, as well as others from Van, Bitlis, Mamouret-el-Aziz,
Aleppo and Erzeroum. The people of Van had been in Diarbekir since the
occupation of their territory by the Russians, whilst the people and
officials of Bitlis had recently emigrated thither. Many of the Erzeroum
officers came to Diarbekir on military or private business, whilst
Mamouret-el-Aziz was near by, and many people came to us from thence. As
I had formerly been a Kaimakam in that Vilayet, I had a large
acquaintance there and heard all the news. More especially, the time
which I passed in prison with the heads of the tribes in Diarbekir
enabled me to study the movement in its smallest details. The war must
needs come to an end after a while, and it will then be plain to
readers of this book that all I have written is the truth, and that it
contains only a small part of the atrocities committed by the Turks
against the hapless Armenian people.
After passing this time at Diarbekir I fled, both to escape from
captivity and from fear induced by what had befallen me from some of the
fanatical Turks. After great sufferings, during which I was often
exposed to death and slaughter, I reached Basra, and conceived the idea
of publishing this book, as a service to the cause of truth and of a
people oppressed by the Turks, and also, as I have stated at the close,
to defend the faith of Islam against the charge of fanaticism which will
be brought against it by Europeans. May God guide us in the right way.
_I have written this preface at Bombay, on the 1st of September, 1916._
FA'IZ EL-GHUSEIN.
MARTYRED ARMENIA
THE NARRATIVE
OUTLINE OF ARMENIAN HISTORY.--In past ages the Armenian race was, like
other nations, not possessed of an autonomous government, until God
bestowed upon them a man, named Haig, a bold leader, who united the
Armenians and formed them into an independent state. This took place
before the Christian era. The nation preserved their independence for a
considerable time, reaching the highest point of their glory and
prosperity under their king Dikran, who constituted the city of
Dikranokerta--Diarbekir--the capital of his Government. Armenia remained
independent in the time of the Romans, extending her rule over a part of
Asia Minor and Syria, and a portion of Persia, but, in consequence of
the protection afforded by the Armenians to certain kings who were
hostile to Rome, the Romans declared war against her, their troops
entered her capital, and from that time Armenian independence was lost.
The country remained tossing on the waves of despotism, now independent,
now subjected to foreign rule, until its conquest by the Arabs and
subsequently by the Ottoman power.
THE ARMENIAN POPULATION.--The number of the Armenians in Ottoman
territory does not exceed 1,900,000 souls. I have borrowed this figure
from a book by a Turkish writer, who states that it is the official
computation made by the Government previous to the Balkan war; he
estimates the Armenians residing in Roumelia at 400,000, those in
Ottoman Asia at 1,500,000. The Armenians in Russia and Persia are said
not to exceed 3,000,000, thus bringing the total number of Armenians in
the world to over four and a half millions.
THE VILAYETS INHABITED BY ARMENIANS.--The Vilayets inhabited by
Armenians are Diarbekir, Van, Bitlis, Erzeroum, Mamouret-el-Aziz, Sivas,
Adana, Aleppo, Trebizond, Broussa, and Constantinople. The numbers in
Van, Bitlis, Adana, Diarbekir, Erzeroum, and Kharpout were greater than
those in the other Vilayets, but in all cases they were fewer than the
Turks and Kurds, with the exception of Van and Bitlis, where they were
equal or superior in number. In the province of Moush (Vilayet of
Bitlis) they were more numerous than the Kurds; all industry and
commerce in those parts was in Armenian hands; their agriculture was
more prosperous; they were much more advanced than the Turks and Kurds
in those Vilayets; and the large number of their schools, contrasted
with the few schools of their alien fellow countrymen, is a proof of
their progress and of the decline of the other races.
ARMENIAN SOCIETIES.--The Armenians possess learned and political
Societies, the most important of which are the "Tashnagtzian" and the
"Hunchak." The programme of these two Societies is to make every effort
and adopt every means to attain that end from which no Armenian ever
swerves, namely, administrative independence under the supervision of
the Great Powers of Europe. I have enquired of many Armenians whom I
have met, but I have not found one who said that he desired political
independence, the reason being that in most of the Vilayets which they
inhabit the Armenians are less numerous than the Kurds, and if they
became independent the advantage to the Kurds would be greater than to
themselves. Hitherto, the Kurds have been in a very degraded state of
ignorance; disorder is supreme in their territory, and the cities are in
ruins. The Armenians, therefore, prefer to remain under Turkish rule, on
condition that the administration is carried on under the supervision of
the Great European Powers, as they place no confidence in the promises
of the Turks, who take back to-day what they bestowed yesterday. These
two Societies thus earnestly labour for the propagation of this view
amongst the Armenians, and for the attainment of their object by every
means. I have been told by an Armenian officer that one of these
Societies proposes to attain its end by means of internal revolts, but
the policy of the second is to do so by peaceful means only.
The above is a brief summary of the policy of these Societies. It is
said, however, that the programme of one of them aims at Armenian
political independence.
Any who desire further details as to Armenian history or societies
should refer to their historical books.
THE ARMENIAN MASSACRES.--History does not record that the Kurds,
fellow-countrymen of the Armenians in the Vilayets inhabited by both
peoples, rose in conflict with the latter, or that the Kurds plundered
the property of the Armenians, or outraged their women, until the year
1888, when they rose by order of the Turkish Government and slaughtered
Armenians in Van, Kharpout, Erzeroum, and Moush. Again, in the time of
Abdul-Hamid II., in 1896, when the Armenians rose and entered the
Ottoman Bank at Constantinople, with the object of frightening the
Sultan and compelling him to proclaim the Constitution, he ordered a
massacre at Constantinople and in the Vilayets. But hitherto there has
been no instance of the people of Turkey proceeding to the slaughter of
Armenians on a general scale unless incited and constrained to do so by
the Government. In the massacre of 1896, 15,000 were killed in
Constantinople itself, and 300,000 in the Vilayets.
Armenians were also killed in the Vilayet of Adana, some months after
the proclamation of the Constitution, but this slaughter did not extend
beyond the two Vilayets of Adana and Aleppo, where the influence of
Abdul-Hamid was paramount till the year 1909. I do not, however, find
any detailed account of this massacre, or any information as to the
numbers killed.
The goods and cattle of the Armenians were plundered, and their houses
wrecked, more especially in the slaughter of 1896, but many of their
countrymen[A] protected them and concealed them in their houses from the
officials of the Government.
The Government consistently inflamed the Moslem Kurds and Turks against
them, making use of the Faith of Islam as a means to attain their object
in view of the ignorance of the Mohammedans as to the true laws of their
religion.
[Footnote A: Presumably amongst the Turks and Kurds.--TRANSLATOR.]
DECLARATION OF THE OTTOMAN GOVERNMENT.--"Inasmuch as the Armenians are
committing acts opposed to the laws and taking advantage of all
occasions to disturb the Government; as they have been found in
possession of prohibited arms, bombs, and explosive materials, prepared
with the object of internal revolt; as they have killed Moslems in Van,
and have aided the Russian armies at a time when the Government is in a
state of war with England, France, and Russia; and in the apprehension
that the Armenians may, as is their habit, lend themselves to seditious
tumult and revolt; the Government have decreed that all the Armenians
shall be collected and despatched to the Vilayets of Mosul, Syria, and
Deir-el-Zur, their persons, goods and honour being safeguarded. The
necessary orders have been given for ensuring their comfort, and for
their residence in those territories until the termination of the war."
Such is the official declaration of the Ottoman Government in regard to
the Armenians. But the secret resolution was that companies of militia
should be formed to assist the gendarmes in the slaughter of the
Armenians, that these should be killed to the last man, and that the
work of murder and destruction should take place under the supervision
of trusty agents of the Unionists, who were known for their brutality.
Reshid Bey was appointed to the Vilayet of Diarbekir and invested with
extensive powers, having at his disposal a gang of notorious murderers,
such as Ahmed Bey El-Serzi, Rushdi Bey, Khalil Bey, and others of this
description.
The reason for this decision, as it was alleged, was that the Armenians
residing in Europe and in Egypt had sent twenty of their devoted
partisans to kill Talaat, Enver, and others of the Unionist leaders; the
attempt had failed, as a certain Armenian, a traitor to his nation and a
friend of Bedri Bey, the Chief of the Public Security at Constantinople
(or according to others, Azmi Bey), divulged the matter and indicated
the Armenian agents, who had arrived at Constantinople. The latter were
arrested and executed, but secretly, in order that it might not be said
that there were men attempting to kill the heads of the Unionist
Society.
Another alleged reason also was that certain Armenians, whom the
Government had collected from the Vilayets of Aleppo and Adrianople and
had sent off to complete their military service, fled, with their arms,
to Zeitoun, where they assembled, to the number of sixty young men, and
commenced to resist the Government and to attack wayfarers. The
Government despatched a military force under Fakhry Pasha, who proceeded
to the spot, destroyed a part of Zeitoun, and killed men, women and
children, without encountering opposition on the part of the Armenians.
He collected the men and women and sent them off with parties of troops,
who killed many of the men, whilst as for the women, do not ask what was
their fate. They were delivered over to the Ottoman soldiery; the
children died of hunger and thirst; not a man or woman reached Syria
except the halt and blind, who were unable to keep themselves alive;
the young men were all slaughtered; and the good-looking women fell into
the hands of the Turkish youths.
Emigrants from Roumelia were conveyed to Zeitoun and established there,
the name of that place being changed to "Reshadiya," so that nothing
should remain to remind the Turks of the Armenian name. During our
journey from Hamah we saw many Armenian men and women, sitting under
small tents which they had constructed from sheets, rugs, etc. Their
condition was most pitiable, and how could it be otherwise? Many of
these had been used to sit only on easy chairs [lit., rocking-chairs],
amid luxurious furniture, in houses built in the best style, well
arranged and splendidly furnished. I saw, as others saw also, many
Armenian men and women in goods-wagons on the railway between Aleppo and
Hamah, herded together in a way which moved compassion.
After my arrival at Aleppo, and two days' stay there, we took the train
to a place called Ser-Arab-Pounari. I was accompanied by five Armenians,
closely guarded, and despatched to Diarbekir. We walked on our feet
thence to Seruj, where we stopped at a _khan_ [rest-house] filled with
Armenian women and children, with a few sick men. These women were in a
deplorable state, as they had done the journey from Erzeroum on foot,
taking a long while to arrive at Seruj. I talked with them in Turkish,
and they told me that the gendarmes with them had brought them to places
where there was no water, refusing to tell them where water was to be
found until they had received money as the price. Some of them, who were
pregnant, had given birth on the way, and had abandoned their infants
in the uninhabited wastes. Most of these women had left their children
behind, either in despair, or owing to illness or weakness which made
them unable to carry them, so they threw them on the ground; some from
natural affection could not do this and so perished in the desert, not
parted from their infants. They told me that there were some among them
who had not been used to walk for a single hour, having been brought up
in luxury, with men to wait on them and women to attend them. These had
fallen into the hands of the Kurds, who recognize no divine law, and who
live on lofty mountains and in dense forests like beasts of prey; their
honour was outraged and they died by brutal violence, many of them
killing themselves rather than sacrifice their virtue to these ravening
wolves.
We then proceeded in carts from Seruj to El-Raha (Urfa). On the way I
saw crowds going on foot, whom from a distance I took for troops
marching to the field of battle. On approaching, I found they were
Armenian women, walking barefoot and weary, placed in ranks like the
gendarmes who preceded and followed them. Whenever one of them lagged
behind, a gendarme would beat her with the butt of his rifle, throwing
her on her face, till she rose terrified and rejoined her companions.
But if one lagged from sickness, she was either abandoned, alone in the
wilderness, without help or comfort, to be a prey to wild beasts, or a
gendarme ended her life by a bullet.
On arrival at Urfa, we learned that the Government had sent a force of
gendarmes and police to the Armenian quarters of the town to collect
their arms, subsequently dealing with these people as with others. As
they were aware of what had happened to their kinsmen--the _khans_ at
Urfa being full of women and children--they did not give up their arms,
but showed armed resistance, killing one man of the police and three
gendarmes. The authorities of Urfa applied for a force from Aleppo, and
by order of Jemal Pasha--the executioner of Syria--Fakhry Pasha came
with cannon. He turned the Armenian quarters into a waste place, killing
the men and the children, and great numbers of the women, except such as
yielded themselves to share the fate of their sisters--expulsion on foot
to Deir-el-Zur, after the Pasha and his officers had selected the
prettiest amongst them. Disease was raging among them; they were
outraged by the Turks and Kurds; and hunger and thirst completed their
extermination.
After leaving Urfa, we again saw throngs of women, exhausted by fatigue
and misery, dying of hunger and thirst, and we saw the bodies of the
dead lying by the roadside.
On our arrival at a place near a village called Kara Jevren, about six
hours distant from Urfa, we stopped at a spring to breakfast and drink.
I went a little apart, towards the source, and came upon a most
appalling spectacle. A woman, partly unclothed, was lying prone, her
chemise disordered and red with blood, with four bullet-wounds in her
breast. I could not restrain myself, but wept bitterly. As I drew out a
handkerchief to wipe away my tears, and looked round to see whether any
of my companions had observed me, I saw a child not more than eight
years old, lying on his face, his head cloven by an axe. This made my
grief the more vehement, but my companions cut short my lamentations,
for I heard the officer, Aarif Effendi, calling to the priest Isaac, and
saying, "Come here at once," and I knew that he had seen something which
had startled him. I went towards him, and what did I behold? Three
children lying in the water, in terror of their lives from the Kurds,
who had stripped them of their clothes and tortured them in various
ways, their mother near by, moaning with pain and hunger. She told us
her story, saying that she was from Erzeroum, and had been brought by
the troops to this place with many other women after a journey of many
days. After they had been plundered of money and clothing, and the
prettiest women had been picked out and handed over to the Kurds, they
reached this place, where Kurdish men and women collected and robbed
them of all the clothes that remained on them. She herself had stayed
here, as she was sick and her children would not leave her. The Kurds
came upon them again and left them naked. The children had lain in the
water in their terror, and she was at the point of death. The priest
collected some articles of clothing and gave them to the woman and the
children; the officer sent a man to the post of gendarmes which was near
by, and ordered the gendarme whom the man brought with him to send on
the woman and children to Urfa, and to bury the bodies which were near
the guardhouse. The sick woman told me that the dead woman refused to
yield herself to outrage, so they killed her and she died nobly, chaste
and pure from defilement; to induce her to yield they killed her son
beside her, but she was firm in her resolve and died heart-broken.
In the afternoon we went on towards Kara Jevren, and one of the drivers
pointed out to us some high mounds, surrounded by stones and rocks,
saying that here Zohrab and Vartakis had been killed, they having been
leading Notables among the Armenians, and their Deputies.
KRIKOR ZOHRAB AND VARTAKIS.--No one is ignorant of who and what was
Zohrab, the Armenian Deputy for Constantinople, his name and repute
being celebrated after the institution of the Chamber. He used to speak
with learning and reflection, refuting objections by powerful arguments
and convincing proofs. His speeches in the Chamber were mostly
conclusive. He was learned in all subjects, but especially in the
science of law, as he was a graduate of universities and had practised
at the Bar for many years. He was endowed with eloquence and great
powers of exposition; he was courageous, not to be turned from his
purpose or intimidated from pursuing his national aims. When the
Unionists realised that they were deficient in knowledge, understanding
nothing about polity or administration, and not aware of the meaning of
liberty or constitutional government, they resolved to return to the
system of their Tartar forefathers, the devastation of cities and the
slaughter of innocent men, as it was in that direction that their powers
lay. They sent Zohrab and his colleague Vartakis away from
Constantinople, with orders that they should be killed on the way, and
it was announced that they had been murdered by a band of brigands. They
killed them in order that it might not be said that Armenians were more
powerful, more learned, and more intelligent than Turks. Why should such
bands murder none but Armenians? The falsity of the statement is
obvious.
Zohrab and Vartakis fell victims to their own courage and firmness of
purpose; they were killed out of envy of their learning and their love
for their own people, and for their tenacity in pursuing their own path.
They were killed by that villain, Ahmed El-Serzi, one of the sworn men
of the Unionists, he who murdered Zeki Bey; his story in the Ottoman
upheaval is well known, and how the Unionists saved him from his fitting
punishment and even from prison. A Kurd told me that Vartakis was one of
the boldest and most courageous men who ever lived; he was chief of the
Armenian bands in the time of Abdul-Hamid; he was wounded in the foot by
a cannon-ball whilst the Turkish troops were pursuing these bands, and
was imprisoned either at Erzeroum or at Maaden, in the Vilayet of
Diarbekir. The Sultan Abdul-Hamid, through his officials, charged him to
modify his attitude and acknowledge that he had been in error, when he
should be pardoned and appointed to any post he might choose. He
rejected this offer, saying, "I will not sell my conscience for a post,
or say that the Government of Abdul-Hamid is just, whilst I see its
tyranny with my eyes and touch it with my hand."
It is said that the Unionists ordered that all the Armenian Deputies
should be put to death, and the greater number of them were thus dealt
with. It is reported also that Dikran Gilikian, the well-known writer,
who was an adherent of the Committee of Union and Progress, was killed
in return for his learning, capacity, and devotion to their cause. Such
was the recompense of his services to the Unionists.
In the evening we arrived at Kara Jevren, and slept there till morning.
At sunrise we went on towards Sivrek, and half-way on the road we saw a
terrible spectacle. The corpses of the killed were lying in great
numbers on both sides of the road; here we saw a woman outstretched on
the ground, her body half veiled by her long hair; there, women lying on
their faces, the dried blood blackening their delicate forms; there
again, the corpses of men, parched to the semblance of charcoal by the
heat of the sun. As we approached Sivrek, the corpses became more
numerous, the bodies of children being in a great majority. As we
arrived at Sivrek and left our carts, we saw one of the servants of the
_khan_ carrying a little infant with hair as yellow as gold, whom he
threw behind the house. We asked him about it, and he said that there
were three sick Armenian women in the house, who had lagged behind their
companions, that one of them had given birth to this infant, but could
not nourish it, owing to her illness. So it had died and been thrown
out, as one might throw out a mouse.
DEMAND FOR RANSOM.--Whilst we were at Sivrek, Aarif Effendi told
me--after he had been at the Government offices--that the Commandant of
Gendarmerie and the Chief of Police of that place had requested him to
hand over to them the five Armenians who were with him, and that on his
refusal they had insisted, saying that, if they were to reach Diarbekir
in safety, they must pay a ransom of fifty liras for themselves. We went
to the _khan_, where the officer summoned the priest Isaac and told him
how matters stood. After speaking to his companions, the priest replied
that they could pay only ten liras altogether, as they had no more in
their possession. When convinced by his words, the officer took the ten
liras and undertook to satisfy the others.