Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 December 1894 — MURDEROUS TURK. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

MURDEROUS TURK.

HORRORS SUFFERED AT HIS HANDS BY CHRISTIANS. Unparalleled Indignities Offered the Armenians by Cruel and Ferocious Kurds and Circassians—Land Where There's No Justice and No Lavr. Cling to Their Faith. The recent horrible massacre of the Christians by the Turks in Armenia, * via Minor, draws attention to that high-

ly picturesque but unfor tn na t e and most unhapy region of the earth. Armenia claims the honor of being the cradle of the human race. According to tradition, the Garden of Eden was within her bounds, and after Noah left the ark on Mount Ararat he made his home in the midst of her territory. Armenia is as

full of famous cities of the dead as Greece or Italy, but the fame belongs to a remoter and less familiar past. There is Bayazed, paved with fragments of sculpture, fashioned when Moses was a boy in the house of the Pharaohs: Ani, the city of colossal ruins, in which the treasures of the King of Kings were preserved; Takhti-Soliman, the reputed birthplace of Zoroaster, where burned the holy fire descended from heaven, and visited forages by the Magi in quest of light for their torches, which kindled all the fires that blazed within the great empire of Persia. Petrifying lakes occupy the sites of other populous cities which flourished when this earth was young, and new cities flourish on the beds of exhausted lakes. Mgr. Krimlan, the head of the Armenian Church, bears the title of CatholIkos. He resides at Etchmiadzin, a monastery near Erivan, said to be the oldest monastic institution in the world. He

was previously Archbishop of Jerusalem, and has been Patriarch of Constantinople, but was banished from the Turkish capital and deprived of his rights as an Ottoman subject on account of his patriotic views. He was chosen Catholikos in 1892. The Oldest People. According to their own annals, the Armenians are the oldest people in the world and the earliest Christian nation. They trace their origin back to Haig, the grandson of Noah, who, 2,000 years be’ore the Christian era, established a dynasty of sovereigns that continued to rule until Vahe, the sixtieth in succession, fell In battle against Alexander the Great. In their earlier history they were a conquering nation aud their empire once stretched from the Caspian Sea, on the east, to Cicilia, on the Mediterranean, on the west, and from the borders of Pontus, on the north, to the confines of Assyria, on the south. Then the population was 35,000.000 souls. Though the Armenians are brave and seem to have all the elements of a military people, they have been held under subjection most of the time for 3,000 years. After being made at different times, away back in the dim past, part of tho Assyrian, Medean and Persian empires, Armenia fell under the Greek kings of Syria, about 200 B. C. Since then the land has been conquered or overrun in turn by Romans, Parthians, Saracens, Mongols, Russians, and, last and worst, Turks, who first established their supremacy nearly five hundred years ago.

The country is now parceled out among the three nations—Turkey, Russia and Persia. Through all their vicissitudes the Armenians have preserved their faith intact. They profess to have been converted just after the ascension of the Savior by St. Thaddeus, the apostle. The Bead Fed to Bogs. Since the Turk has asserted his sway over part of Armenia, atrocities almost beyond belief have been common. The sacking of a church, the desecration of an altar and the most fiendish treatment of women are every d'ay affairs, and only attract the attention of the civilized world when, as now, great numbers of people are murdered. It is a matter of daily occurrence, says an American who has traveled in Armenia, to have funeral processions mobbed, the mourners dispersed, the dead taken out,of the coffin and thrown to the dogs in the streets. Wedding festivities are stopped by means of revolvers, and the bride is dishonored. The young Armenian wife and the blushing maiden are entirely at the mercy of the unbridled Moslems; while horses, cattle, crops, merchandise; furniture, and even houses are coolly appropriated by the cruel, ferocious Kurds and Circassians, with the tacit sanction of corrupt Turkish officials. Armenian Christians are not permitted to carry arms, while the Circassians and ! Kurds are armed and are encouraged to hunt them. The Chris-tian-Armenians generally live in the valleys and cultivate the soil, while the Kurds and Circassians are nomadic people and live high up on the mountains where they tend their flocks. Whenever they desire they swoop down upon the valleys, gathering in the fruits of the peaceful Armenians’ labors and carrying away flocks and herds. There » no justice and no law for the

Armenian. An Atmentan is not allowed to testify agaii it a Turk and the latter hardly ever thinks of carrying out any obligation he may owe the Armenian. The tax collectors travel in bands and swoop down upon the vil-ages like harpies, collecting all that is possible to get without regard to rate or value. If the farmer has no money, off he goes to prison until he pays, and the prisons are now full to overflowing with unfortunates such as these. And the shame of these awful outrages lies at the door of England which fails to carry out her obligations tn protect Christians in Turkey.

MGR. KRIMIAN.

MOUNT ARARAT, ARMENIA.

PEASANTS OF SASSOUN. [These are types of the people who were massacred.]