“I
LEFT here on the sixteenth of September, 1915, for Aleppo. I first saw the
Armenians at Afion Karahissar where there was a big encampment— probably of ten
thousand people—who had come down from the Black Sea. They were encamped in
tents made of material of all descriptions, and their condition was
deplorable.”
“The
next place I saw them was at Konia, also a large encampment. There I saw the
first brutality; I saw a woman and her baby separated from her husband; he was
put on our train while she was forcibly held behind and kept from getting on the
train.”
“The
next place where there was a large encampment was at Osmanieh, where there was
said to be about fifty thousand; their condition was terrible. They were camped
on both sides of the railway track, extending fully half a mile on each side.
Here they had two wells from whence they could get water, one of which was very
far from the encampment, the other at the railway station platform. At daybreak,
the Armenians came in crowds, women and children and old men, to get to the well
to get water. They fought among themselves for a place at the well, and the
gendarmes, to keep them in order, whipped several people. I saw women and
children repeatedly struck with whips and sticks in the hands of the gendarmes.
Later I had occasion to pass through the camp on the way to the town of Osmanieh
and had an opportunity to see the condition of the people. They were living in
tents like those above described and their condition was miserable. The site of
the encampment had been used several times by different caravans of Armenians
and no attempt at sanitation had been made by either the Turks or the Armenians
themselves, with the result that the ground was in a deplorable condition, and
the stench in the early morning was beyond description. At Osmanieh, they were
selling their possessions in order to obtain money to buy food. One old man
begged me to buy his silver snuff-box for a piaster in order that he might be
able to buy some bread.”
“From
Osmanieh, I traveled by carriage to Rajo and passed thousands of Armenians en
route to Aleppo. They were going in ox-carts, on horseback, donkeys and on foot,
the most of them children, women and old men. I spoke to several of these
people, some of whom had been educated in the American Mission Schools. They
told me that they had traveled for two months. They were without money and food
and several expressed their wish that they could die rather than go on and
endure the sufferings that they were undergoing. The people on the road were
carrying with them practically all their household possessions and those who had
no carts or animals were carrying them on their backs. It was not unusual to see
a woman with a big pack wrapped up in a mattress and a little child a few months
old on the top of the pack. They were mostly bareheaded, and their faces were
swollen from the sun and exposure. Many had no shoes on, and some had their feet
wrapped in old pieces of rags, which they had torn from their clothing.”
“At
Intily there was an encampment of about ten thousand and at Kadma a large
encampment of one hundred and fifty thousand. At this place, adjacent to their
encampment, were Turkish troops who exacted “backshish” from them before they
would let them go on the road to Aleppo. Many who bad no money had had to stay
in this camp since their arrival there about two months before. I spoke with
several Armenians here and they told me the same story of brutal treatment and
robbery at the hands of the gendarmes in charge, as I had beard all along the
road. They had to go at least half a mile for water from this encampment, and
the condition of the camp was filthy.”
“From
Kadma on to Aleppo I witnessed the worst sights of the whole trip. Here the
people began to play out in the intense heat and no water, and I passed several
who were prostrate, actually dying of thirst. One woman whom I assisted was in a
deplorable condition and unconscious from thirst and exhaustion, and farther on
I saw two young girls who had become so exhausted that they had fallen on the
road and lay with their already swollen faces exposed to the
sun.”
“The
road for a great distance was being repaired and covered with cracked stones; on
one side of the road was a footpath, but many of the Armenians were so dazed
from fatigue and exposure that they did not see this footpath and were walking—
many barefooted—on the cracked stones, their feet, as a result,
bleeding.”
“The
destination of all these Armenians is Aleppo. Here they are kept crowded in all
available vacant houses, khans, Armenian churches, courtyards and open lots.
Their condition in Aleppo is beyond description. I personally visited several of
the places where they were kept and found them starving and dying by the
hundreds every day.”
“In
one vacant house, which I visited, I saw women and children and men all in the
same room lying on the floor so close together that it was impossible to walk
between them. Here they had been for months, those who had survived, and the
condition of the floor was filthy.”
“The
British Consulate was filled with these exiles, and from this place the dead
were removed almost every hour. Coffin-makers throughout the city were working
late into the night, making rough boxes for the dead whose relatives or friends
could afford to give them decent burial.”
“Most
of the dead were simply thrown into two-wheeled carts, which made daily rounds
to all the places where the Armenians were concentrated. These carts were open
at first but afterward covers were made for them.”
“An
Armenian physician whom I know and who is treating hundreds of these suffering
Armenians who have become ill through exposure on the trip, hunger and thirst,
told me that there are hundreds dying daily in Aleppo from starvation and the
result of the brutal treatment and exposure that they have undergone on the
journey from their native places.”
“Many of these suffering Armenians
refused alms, saying that the little money so obtained will only prolong their
sufferings and they prefer to die. From Aleppo, those who are able to pay are
sent by train to Damascus, those who have no money are sent over the road to the
interior toward Deir-El-Zor.”
“In Damascus I found conditions
practically the same as in Aleppo; and here hundreds are dying every day. From
Damascus, they are sent still farther south into the Hauran, where their fate is
unknown. Several Turks, whom I interviewed, told me that the motive of this
exile was to exterminate the race, and in no instance did I see, any Moslem
giving alms to Armenians, it being considered a criminal offence for any one to
aid them.”
“I
remained in Damascus and Aleppo about a month, leaving for Smyrna on the
twenty-sixth of October. All along the road I met thousands of these unfortunate
exiles still coming into Aleppo. The sights I witnessed on this trip were more
pitiful than those I had seen on my trip to Aleppo. There seems to be no end to
the caravan which moves over the mountain ridge from Bozanti south; throughout
the day from sunrise to sunset, the road as far as one can see is crowded with
these exiles. Just outside of Tarsus I saw a dead woman lying by the roadside
and farther on passed two more dead women, one of whom was being carried by two
gendarmes away from the roadside to be buried. Her legs and arms were so
emaciated that the bones were nearly through her flesh and her face was swollen
and purple from exposure. Farther along, I saw two gendarmes carrying a dead
child between them away from the road where they had dug a grave. Many of these
soldiers and gendarmes who follow the caravan have spades and as soon as an
Armenian dies they take the corpse away from the roadside and bury it. The
mornings were cold and many were dying from exposure. There are very few young
men in these caravans, the majority are women and children, accompanied by a few
old men over fifty years of age.”
“At
Bairainoglou, I talked with a woman who was demented from the sufferings she had
undergone. She told me that her husband and father had both been killed before
her eyes and that she had been forced for three days to walk without rest. She
had with her two little children and all had been without bread for a day. I
gave her some money, which she told me would be taken, in all probability, from
her before the day was over. Turks and Kurds meet these caravans as they pass
through the country and sell them food at exorbitant prices. I saw a small boy
about seven years old riding on a donkey with his baby brother in his arms. They
were all that was left of his family.”
“Many
of these people go without bread for days, and they become emaciated beyond
description. I saw several fall from starvation, and only at certain places
along this road is there water. Many die of thirst. Some of the Armenians, who
can afford it, hire carriages. These are paid for in advance and the prices
charged are exorbitant.”
“At
many places like Bozanti, for example, where there is an encampment of Turkish
soldiers, there is not enough bread for these Armenians and only two hours from
Bozanti I met a woman who was crying for bread. She told me that she had been in
Bozanti for two days and was unable to obtain anything to eat, except what
travelers like myself had given her. Many of the beasts of burden belonging to
the Armenians die of starvation. It is not an unusual sight to see an Armenian
removing a pack from the dead animal
and putting it on his own shoulders. Many Armenians told me that although
they were allowed to rest at night, they get no sleep because of the pangs of
hunger and cold.”
“These
people walk throughout the whole day at a shuffling gait and for hours do not
speak to one another. At one place where I stopped along the road for lunch I
was surrounded by a crowd of little children, all crying for bread. Many of
these little tots are obliged to walk barefooted along the road and many of them
carry little packs on their backs. They are all emaciated, their clothes are in
rags and their hair in a filthy condition. The filth has given rise to millions
of flies and I saw several babies’ faces and eyes covered with these insects,
the mothers being too exhausted to brush them away.”
“Diseases
broke out in several places along the road, and in Aleppo several cases of
typhus fever among the Armenians were reported when I left. Many families have
been separated, the men being sent in one direction and the women and children
in another. I saw one woman, who was with child, lying in the middle of the road
crying, and over her stood a gendarme threatening her if she did not get up and
walk. Many children are born along the way and most of these die as their
mothers have no nourishment for them.”
“None
of these people have any idea where they are going or why they are being exiled.
They go day after day along the road with the hope that they may somewhere reach
a place where they may be allowed to rest. I saw several old men carrying on
their backs the tools of their trade, probably with the hope that they may some
day settle down somewhere. The road over the Taurus Mountains in places is most
difficult and often times crude conveyances drawn by buffalos, oxen and
milk-cows are unable to make the grade and are abandoned and overturned by the
gendarmes into the ravine below. The animals are turned loose. I saw several
carts, piled high with baggage on the top of which were many Armenians, break
down and throw their occupants in the road. One of the drivers, who was a Turk,
and who had collected an advance from the people whom he was driving, considered
it a huge joke when one woman broke her leg from such a
fall.”
“There
seems to be no cessation of the stream of these Armenians pouring down from the
North, Angora and the region around the Black Sea. Their condition grows worse
every day. The sights that I saw on my return trip were worse than those on my
trip going, and now that the cold weather and winter rains are setting in,
deaths are more numerous. Roads in some places are almost
impassable”
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