THE BAKU MASSACRES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 12856, 3 May 1905, Page 6

THE BAKU MASSACRES.

STREETS STREWN WITH THE .BODIES OF THE DEAD..

Till; Baku (Caucasus) correspondent of th» Daily Mail, writing on February 25. says:— It, is impossible to describe adequately what we have gone through here hi Baku during the terrible riots, which lasted from Sunday, February 19, to' Wednesday, February 22. This much I. am assured of, that no man's imagination could exaggerate the awful happenings that occurred on those days. • . /•

For more than a month it has been the general report in the town that the authorities have been looking for a pretext to set the Mahommedan element of the popula- • tion against the Armenians, -with a- view to diverting a great Socialist rising which. was expected. The ruth of the rumour I am not in a position to confirm, but- the facts of the.' outbreak's commencement are these:-— ' ',/' Owing to the arrest of a certain Tartar ot high position a well-known Armenian--was - shot. The Tartar afterwards while being: ' taken'to the prison by two Armenian; soldiers was told by them that if he chose to escape by jumping out of the cab they would let him go. He believed them, and was shot, dead the instant he left the cab. On Sunday at mid-day these two soldiers ■were shot by the" Tartars, I myself being present at, the killing of one of hem. A* five o'clock in the afternoon an officer, informed me that thirty Tartars and Armenians had fallen. Shooting was frequent and continued all night. • .••■ Walking to my office on Monday monnjß. ; ] was truvj><»»tit, a bazaar when a boy ot * about seventeen pushed me out of Ms *'"> and shot dead a Tartar just in front of me. After that I think I saw four more shot. > " I myself live in' the middle of the Tartar quarter, but just- opposite an Armenia"/ house. On Tuesday morning I saw y"' Tartars breaking holes in the walls of "lj house and pushing in under the l.0» korosened straw. . Finally they broke i". murdered an old man, the only occupant ot. the house, the rest having fled, and un» his body out of the window into the street. On every roof in the town there seamed to be men shooting down into the str ??.', and all day and all night the air was filled with a dull roar, such as yon hear on- approaching the Oval while a cricket mated , ; is in progress. .■, t . On Wednesday afternoon ihe firing />."{",. denly ceased and loud cheers were - r««e«1 immediately wont out. and even now,, J*j seiemsi impossible to believe wbat 1 « a>v - . Bodies were, lying in the streets in heaps 01 ( -. three and four at every few paces, most 0 them in a frightful state of mutilation. Many of the larger houses were still burn- . ing, while others had been completely de- ~ stroyed. The house of an Armenian 1 knew was completely gutted. In the street . before it lav a ghastly heap of dead. M»ny,. : women and -iris are missing, and tern pie talcs are told of how they were treated. a