Slaughter of Armenian in Harput District

[Anthea]

MASSACRES IN HARPUT DISTRICT.

The city of Harput stands on a hill in a plain to the east of the Euphrates. It is a city of 30,000 inhabitants, of whom less than one-half are Armenians, the others being Turks. The plain stretches out in rolling country, except to the north, where lies a hilly and even mountainous region. The Harput plain has long been noted as one of the most fertile in Asia Minor or Eastern Turkey.

The inhabitants are quiet, peaceful folk, both Armenians and Turks. The different villages are prosperous, and there has been a good degree of intelligence and of self-restraint among this people. The wave of revolutionary feeling that extended over the region of Marsovan and Yuzgat scarcely seemed to touch Harput, and up to the close of 1895 there were no indications of any trouble.

The city is the centre of a large mission work and the seat of the Euphrates College, together with a theological seminary and a flourishing girls’ school. The students are gathered from the whole of Eastern Turkey, and represent the better element of the Armenian nation throughout that section of the empire.

From the very beginning of the Armenian question, strong influence was exerted in favor of entirely peaceful action in the effort to secure reform, and all overt opposition to the government was strongly discountenanced. Turkish officials were always welcomed at the exercises in the college and repeatedly expressed their pleasure at its conduct.

The missionaries had always been on excellent terms with the officials, especially with the governors of the province, who were located at the town of Mezereh, about four miles below the city on the plains. So far as was apparent, not a sign of revolutionary influence was manifest anywhere in the region, and friends of the missionaries located there felt that they at least were in no danger from the disturbances.

The first indication of danger was the appearance on the plain of bands of Kurds from the regions north and east. Villages were attacked, looted and burned, while the villagers were killed or scattered. For a time the marauders seemed to hold aloof from the city itself, but as they kept on their course of pillage their appetite for plunder was whetted, and they looked with avaricious eyes at the city on the hill.

They were joined, too, by the Turkish rabble, both in the city and villages, and it became evident that there was danger, even for the Americans. Dr. H. N. Barnum went to the city officials and was assured that nothing should happen to them; that no Kurds would be allowed to enter the city. What followed is best told in the words of an eye-witness.

“We were surrounded for a week or ten days by a cordon of burning villages on the plain. Gradually the cordon of fire and fiendish savages drew nearer the city. The attack in the city was planned for Sunday, November 10th, and some of the city rabble began to make demonstrations; but the soldiers drove them back.

The invading Kurds, Redifs (Turkish soldiers in disguise as Kurds), were not ready for the onset. On Monday, November 11th, the attack began on Husenik (a village of the plains only a short distance from the city), where 200 were killed and as many more wounded, then up the gorge to Sinamood (a rocky hill on which stands the ruins of an old fortress) and the east part of the city. Then a body of men appeared in the Turkish cemetery below the city. They came near a body of soldiers posted on the hill with a cannon. Big Turks came down to them from the city; a conference seemed to be held.

Apparently the invaders were forbidden to touch the markets (from which, of course, they knew that both Christians and Turks had removed their goods to their houses). Then the soldiers withdrew and were posted on the road higher up, apparently to better defend the empty markets. Then the invaders, with a great cry of “Ash! ash!” began to fire their guns. The soldiers also began to fire.

It was soon apparent that this was only a little sham fight; but it was too thin to cover the nefarious design of the men who planned this thing. Then began the attack on the houses in this quarter. (The American houses are in the western part of the city, quite a distance from the markets.) The soldiers protected the raiders, and not a finger was lifted by the military officers on the ground to protect the people or us from the plundering, murderous mob.

There were hundreds of plunderers. Scarcely a house in this quarter escaped, and a large number were set on fire. A crowd of refugees were in our court and house and girls’ school. “ Soon our outside gate was attacked, and the crowd of fugitives fled for their lives.

One company pressing through a narrow passage were fired upon; the bullets fell like hail around them; four were wounded. A cannon-ball went through the same passage-way. This company fled to the hill and were taken into the city (twenty-seven school-girls in the crowd; they suffered untold misery in a khan that night; delivered next day, and brought away under an escort of soldiers).

The rest of the refugees took refuge in the yard of the girls’ school, surrounded by a high wall. At the last moment I ran out to see if our heavy front gate was standing. I saw a hole a foot wide made, and instantly the loud report of a rifle warned me to retreat. We had been in the yard but a few moments when the marauders were at the door of the yard inside the school buildings.

We made another start and hurried out from the gate, and this time for the College (boys’) building as our last refuge. I was on the outside of the fleeing crowd, our invalids, Mr. W. and Mrs. A., borne in strong arms. Suddenly a savage-looking Turk appeared at the corner of the building outside. I instinctively raised my hand to prevent his coming toward the fleeing crowd. Instantly he drew and flourished a revolver and deliberately pointed at me. I thought for an instant it was only to frighten us and make us hasten our flight, but two shots from his pistol convinced me that his purpose was to murder.

Some thirty or more had been shot down in the houses just below us. Again, before we were all through the gate, he aimed at Mr. Gates and Miss Wheeler and fired a third time; but no one was hit. We breathed more freely as we pressed into the three-story stone building with the more than four hundred fugitives. Soon the smoke began to rise from the front of my house and Mr. Brown’s; some say the house was set on fire by bombshells.

Soon the whole of the houses connected with the Girls’ College were on fire, and the large college building was no doubt set on fire; also fifty to seventy houses were burning below ours. Then the chapel close to us was set on fire, and the intense heat would have set fire to the large high-school building between the college and chapel; but with our new fire engine and a plentiful supply of water, Mr. Gates was able to save it from taking fire. Here in the college building, with 450 persons, we spent the night, with little bedding and only dry crusts of bread to eat.

“The plan was evidently to destroy all the buildings, and thus render our stay here impossible. One of the houses was fired in three places, but the fire went out. A bombshell was fired into Mr. Barnum’s study, and burst in the room from which they had fled only a little before. Mr. Gates’ house would have been burned — oil was poured in two places — but happily was left unburned. Three nights we remained in the college building, then went into a room in the Gates’ house; the Barnums also went to theirs.

“ The next morning after the attack, the Turkish military commander advised and urged leaving the college building, saying: ‘I can’t protect you here.’ Mr. Barnum replied: ‘ The time has come for plain talk. I saw you standing on the hill there yesterday when our houses were plundered and burned, and you did nothing to prevent it. If you wish to protect us, you can do it better here than anywhere else.’

The same officer had said two days before that he would be cut in pieces before he would allow a Kurd to enter the city. He now brazenly replied: ‘ What could I do against 15,000 Kurds?’ They wanted to get the people scattered in the city, and us out of the buildings, and then they would have been burned. But I must not write more, although there is much to tell.

We write to Constantinople, but can’t be sure of our letters getting through. We have telegraphed a good many times, but telegrams can’t tell all. The pressure on the villages to become Moslem is terrible; large numbers have been instantly shot down or butchered who would not instantly abjure their Christian faith.

We have already heard of the murder of seven of our pastors and six preachers. But I have not time to enter on these horrible details. If I can get letters sent on, perhaps I will send again; 45 killed in the west quarter, 100 in the whole city. Husenik, 200 killed, 200 wounded. Official reports will represent Turks killed. There has not been a single one killed or wounded.”

Northwest of Harput is the city of Arabkir, one of the most prosperous in the whole region. The Armenians are enterprising and thrifty, and for the most part have been on good terms with the Mohammedans. The American. Missionaries have had considerable influence there and at the time of the massacres two of the ladies were in the city. The time had come for them to return to Harput, but every possible difficulty was put in their way. There was intense excitement on every side and the Armenians were in terror. At last, by giving a heavy present the ladies secured a muleteer and a guard and started on their journey home.

One of them has written of the journey as follows:

“Our journey was through a country infested with robber bands. Twice they stopped our zaptieh and demanded permission to rob us. We had the hardest time to get away from Arabkir, for the governor declared that he had no zaptieh, and we finally had to go to him in person to insist upon his furnishing one. Then we did not find a muleteer for nearly a week; he was a Kurd, and his animals were so lazy and slow!

We traveled as if all was as safe and pleasant as possible. The first band of robbers who insisted upon the satisfaction of ‘ cutting us to pieces’ numbered seven fierce Kurds. I sat up straight on my horse and passed them quickly without looking, as if nothing was going on at all, and after me came the rest of our caravan, in the same spirit.

The second band numbered 20, all fully armed. Again we pushed past and left our zeptieh to parley. The latter band had one man who took a fancy to my horse, and he proposed to shoot me and take Nejib for himself! There were many other robbers to be seen. We stayed the following night in a lonely khan, where we were in great danger.

“ This khan was on the other bank of the Euphrates, which was crossed early the next morning. Our zaptieh was to be changed at the town of Maden, just there. Again the governor would give us none. I was obliged to go to him myself, whereupon he gave orders that the one who brought us to Maden should take us on.

What a fierce and cruel-looking man that governor was! But he had a little pity in his heart, for, when he saw our servant loading up in the market, he said: ‘ Make haste, Yavroom (a term of endearment used for animals), go quickly.’ He must have known what was coming.

Our zaptieh took us on for a big price. I would have given him anything that he had asked. He was, to us, kind and good. How more than glad we were to get out of Maden. All were in fear, and the very next day the blow fell. It was a very worldly place, and all were busy, trying alone to hide their worldly goods. Oh, the pale faces and long-drawn sighs!”

At Arabkir and at Malatia, another large and prosperous city farther south, the Armenians undertook to defend themselves. They, however, succeeded merely in stirring the greater anger of the Turks, with the result that they suffered terribly, while comparatively few Turks were killed. Estimates made soon after the massacre put the number of Armenians killed in Malatia at 5,000 and at Arabkir at 2,000, while in all probably not over 500 Turks suffered.

In Malatia, all the Armenians, Gregorians, Roman Catholics and Protestants gathered in two churches and fought for their lives until compelled to surrender. One churchful first gave up their arms on condition of being protected, but after that they were surrounded and many of them were killed. Space does not permit complete statements, but the following table and notes, prepared in regard to the Harput region, will give an idea of the terrible work.

The list embraces only a single month, commencing with the latter part of October, 1895. The items have been gathered with great care, and may be relied upon as within the truth rather than as exaggerated. The number of houses is given rather than the population, because that method is far more reliable. The number of people to a house varies from 5 to 30. Probably 8 to 10 would be a reasonably fair average.

Link to Article and Table:

http://armenianhouse.org/bliss/turkey/2 ... arput.html

[Anthea]

The general picture of Armenian education in the Harput plain is very impressive.

The whole region, at the beginning of the 20th century, has a superb and vast network of boys’ and girls’ schools. Almost all the Armenian villages have their own schools that are no longer old-fashioned centres of elementary education, but are generally two-storey modern buildings constructed in the newest style. In the towns, each Armenian quarter has more than one school.

The town of Harput itself, whose Armenian population is approximately 15,000, has one college, three high schools and at least ten middle and first schools. The town of Mezire (Mamuretül-aziz), with a population of about 12,000 Armenians, has a college, three high schools and more than ten first and intermediate schools. A village like Hussenig, made up of 700 families, has seven educational establishments.

Link to really Interesting site about Armenian education and way of life, including fantastic photos:

http://www.houshamadyan.org/en/mapottom ... art-i.html