THE ARMENIAN ATROCITIES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 10267, 26 January 1895, Page 2

THE ARMENIAN ATROCITIES.

THIRTSMWO VILLAGES DESTROYED.

Twenty refugees from the district of Sasun, in Armenia, from which sensational reports oE wholesale massacres and terrible atrocities hays recently been received, arrived in Athens on Sunday, 2nd December. Those who came from Ilalvorig informed Renter's special, correspondent at the Greek capital that several women escaped from that place with them, bat died near Erzeroum from the effects of sabre wounds inflicted by their oppressors prior to .fcheir etjcajxj. £arge numbers of, Armeniano, they assert, are fleeing from their homes on account of the reign of terror which has set in; bat many' of. the fugitives hava been captured by the ' Turkish . troops, and thrown into, prison. The refugees declare that for nearly IS months past tha province of Sasun has been surrounded by Turkish troops, no person being allowed to enter or leave the district. About four months ago the Turks learned that the inhabitants of a village named Varternie, just outside tha frontier of Sasun, were sending the neces< varies of life into the village of Dalvorig, lying withia the closely guarded district. "For this offence the village .was raided by troops, and many of the inhabitants, ruthlessly massacred. Similar outrages took place a year ago. Ona of the refugees, named Ktmdjik, states that his uncle and aunt.were killed, the latter having been previously, violated.,, He also declares that; sin Armenian.priest named Kevout, was killed for xefusing-to celebrate .Turkish rites in his church at Vartemis. The. village contained 325 houses belonging to Armenian*; of these only 25 were left standing. ~ When these outrages becsme known at Dalvorig, which is the largest village in gasun, the inhabitants attacked the troops on the frontier.'., The Turks thereupon sent 12 soldi«ra into Dalvorig to learn what had occurred. ■ The Armenians killed them all. A body of Turkish troops Vas then sent into the village with cannon, ■ and - a general massacre began. Every house v/es razed to the ground. Selo .Bey,, the Bey of, Icitzoum, and a Kurd belonging to the Kurdish cavalry, went with tha soldiers to the village of Semal, and forcibly took the Armenian priest from his church. They defiled the sacred, vessels,!and, placug them ia the priest's hands,-bound him oa a donkey, and, at a distance-of a few yards, shot both the priest and the donkey dead. In the same village the soldiers entered* an Armenian home and, having outraged a woman and her daughter—the latter a child of 14—killed them both. Selo Bey tent eight Armenian girls ta his harem at Initzoum. The village of Keli> chuzeu was entered, bj Kurdish and regulartroops before dawn, and while the people were still sleeping was get: on. fire. A. man named Arakiel and hig wife, who were found asleep, were tortured ■in the most revolting mannec with red'hob irons and killed: A priest named Margos and 20 other, persons, residing in bis house were burned alive, nob one escaping. The chief of the village—Chineg—was bound aod, with his two daughters, scalded to death. Inexpressible horrors were perpetrated in tbo village of Sebghsnb by 25 soldiers belonging to the regular cavalry, They violated the girls ia the village school, and then destroyed tha building. Ifeo Bey, a notorious Kurd brigand belonging to the village of Djibran, and a colonel in the regular army went with troops ta the Armenian villages of Bshlouj Hatzgent, and Kornk,'and there committed outrages p£ the most abominable description. They drove out .the men, and collected the women and children at Bohlou to the number of about 200. -After ravishing tha: women they killed them all, shooting them-and cutting them down with swords. They then regaled themselves with'trine, and feasted upon the spoils the? had collected. Kurdish regulars from Kizaa and Bohran entered the. Armenian villages of Aliandzig and Aghpeg, slaughtered tha inhabitants, and' reduced the houses to ruinsi In all 32 villages were destroyed. Tha refugees, who are all fine stalwart men, have been provided with temporary lodgings in Athene, in small windowless rooms, where they sleep huddled together in groups sf four or five on the ground. They, are absolutely destitute, but are receiving assistance iv the form of food and olothiog from their fellow-countrymen here, though the latter themselves arts extremely poor. The refugees spent' 4-8 days in getting to the Piriieus. An Armenian, writing from Constantinople, give? further particulars of tha outrages odminitted on his fellow-countrymen by Turkish troops. According to a despatch in the Daily Ohrdnlcl* of the 6th December, be puts the number of Victims at 6000, and saya that pregriant ■ Women were' ripped open by soldiers, and their unborn babes carried upon spears through the streets. The writer makes a pathetic appeal to British chivalry fer help.