ARMENIAN MASSACRES

Evening Star, Issue 16225, 21 September 1916, Page 6

ARMENIAN MASSACRES

GERMANY’S RESPONSIBILITY. CHARGE BY GERMAN TEACHERS. WHAT HAPPENED AT ALEPPO. “A STAIN FOR GENERATIONS.” Press Associaiion-By Telcgraoh-Copvright Australian and Association. /o • 0RK ’ September 20. (Received September 21, at 9.15 a.m.) T hc Jwbarous and revolting stm-v avair- lu l °* - fcho Jccrne's agams,. .he Armenians as printed by the hew lork limes,’ which is in possession whKh°^tbq 5 p l 3 u I'h o, original documents, ql 1 1 Tf' Culty of the German High *-cJiool at Aleppo (Turkey) lodged as a protest with the German Po^nOffice n l( t ' 1 l ls protest the faculty stated ; tion'lf ° Ur dl / tyto draw the attenon ot the Foreign Office to the fact that t is impossible to carry on cur school ’J;/! 11 ® Germany ends the brutalities inflicted here on the exiled wives and chilclren of murdered Armenians. Owing to Ue horrible scenes wiliich daily take place near the school our work is absolutely lalneloss. Girls, boys, and w-oraen, practieady maimed, lio on the ground amid ’nnoV' oV ng lo recelve them. Out of o.UOO healthy peasant women driven hero troni Upper Armenia only 50 are left, and they are reduced to skeletons. The goodlocking ones have been- decimated by fhn vice of the gaolers, and the ugly ones are victmuscd by beatings, hunger, and thirst, i.iose lining the waters edge are not allowed to drink, and Europeans are prohiluted from distributing bread. Over a hundred corpses are taken daily from’ Aleppo. -All tliis is witnessed bv high Inrkish officials. Fifty people, reduced to skeletons, are lying in a heap near the schoo,. They are practically insane, and have forgotten how to eat/ The natives declare that the Germans are responsible. Educated Turks and Arabs shake their heads sorrowfully when’ they see brutal soldiers drag through the town pregnant women, whom they beat with cudgels. The scenes we have witnessed are degrading to mankind, and unless stopped mil be a tei rible stain ou Germany’s honor for generations to come.”

Dr Graetner. in an accompanying letter. s<nvs: "This is not only massacre, but an attempt to exterminate the Armenians in Turkey, lalaat Bey's officials cynically admitted this to the German Consul. Eighteen thousand Armenians were driven out of Gha-i put and Sivas, bub only 350 of them reached Aleppo. 'Many o r ‘those were driven to the Syrian steppes, where the survivors drag out a miserable existence. I have .seen many corpses floating on the Euphrates or lying on the steppes. With few exceptions the Germans witness these things unperturbed, saying they are afraid to interfere, lest they offend the Turks. The Armenians at XJrfa, aeeirig the fate of their compatriots, refused to leave tho_ town, whereupon Count Wolf A'on Wolfskel ordered its bombardment. After a thousand Armenians had surrendered he had not the power to prevent all being massacred.'’