Читать книгу The Armenian Crisis in Turkey онлайн
34 страница из 37
NAREG: ANCIENT CHURCH AND MODERN HOVELS.
No. 9.
[Later from the same place as the preceding extract. Evidence of a regular soldier who helped dispose of the dead.]
E..., Dec. 17, 1894.
The soldiers who went from here talk quite freely about matters at Sassoun. A. heard one talk the other day. He said the work was mostly finished before the E... soldiers got there. There was great spoil—flocks, herds, household goods, etc.—but their chief work was to dispose of the heaps and heaps of the dead. The stench was awful. They were gathered into the still standing houses and burned with the houses. They say that the work of destruction was wrought by the Hamediéh, i.e., the newly organized Kourdish regiments. Those regiments are one of the chief elements of danger to the country now.
No. 10.
[From a city some distance from the scene.]
B..., Dec. 22, 1894.
You may believe most all that the papers say about the mountains west of Moosh. I wrote you giving you a few more authenticated details. I hope that letter reached you. I give the outline here again. In August the Armenians were declared in rebellion. The regular soldiers and Hamediéhs were ordered to the spot. Orders were issued from Constantinople to put down the rebellion. Both regulars and Hamediéhs were used. The massacre began after the middle of August—about the 18th—and continued to about the 10th of September. The safe estimates put the number of victims at about four thousand, not less than three thousand five hundred, and, in all probability, more than four thousand.