Armenians and Turks.

Opunake Times, Volume V, Issue 208, 1 September 1896, Page 2

Armenians and Turks.

REIGN OF TEEROR. Constantinople, August 29. The Porte declares that an Armenian committee has organised on a vast scale and with wonderful secrecy a programme of disorder to terrorise the city. The rioters seized the banks, monastery an 1 othor defendable buildings, and, after li '. n ,' revolvers threw dynamite bomb . iu the street. The Ottoman Bank was seized at noon and the guards shot, their heads being thrown into the streets. Four Turkish ladies passing in carriages were subjected to a dynamite outrage. Hundreds of soldiers and many civilians were killed. A large quantity of stores and bombs were discovered in an Armenian church at Fera and elsewhere. The Bank was defended for many hours, and ultimately its assailants were conveyed on board a yacht, and probably will be expelled from the Bosphorous. The Armenian Patriarch has excommunicated the leader of the trouble.

Berlin, August 29.

Private accounts received here state that Turkish so! liers butchered hundreds of Arms li ,ns.

Constantinople, August 30.

The Armenian Committee notified the Porte and Embassies that they intended to seize the bank in order to coerce the Powers to settle the Armenian difficulty.

They threatened to dynamite, and thereby dect oy the securities, if molested.

Porters, who were thought to be carrying coin, introduced the bombs. The rioters entered singly and unnoticed. Revolvers were fired and bombs thrown.

A panic resulted, which enabled the rioters to capture the banks. The staff fled upstairs. Vfncant, the Governor of the Bank, and several directors escaped on to the roof. Two directors and 153 clerks were retained as hostages.

Twenty. pounds of dynamite were placed in the cellar, and a man placed in charge who had everything prepared to explode it. The rioters helped the cashier to lock up £IO,OOO worth of gold, and nothing was stolen. After fighting all day and losing half their number the rioters offered to surrender if allowed to proceed to England. Otherwise they would destroy the bank by dynamite aud kill the hostiges. The Government accepted these terras, and the rioters were escorted on board a yacht by British soldiers. A band of Moslems, who were furious at the reprisals, armed with iron club 3 and other weapons, paraded the streets, and massacred every Armenian seen..

It is estimated that from two to four thousand hideous scenes took place in the public thoroughfares, which resembled something akin to a battlefield.

The police were apathetic and looting was general. There was a sanguinary conflict in Pera on Saturday. The soldiers helped the mob to shoot armed Armenians.

British residents'are sheltering the refugees. The rioters who seized th 9 Ottoman Bank, accompanied by a number of foreigners, have sailed for Marseilles.