Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 December 1895 — HORRORS IN ARMENIA [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

HORRORS IN ARMENIA

TURKS AND KURDS ARE THIRSTING FOR BLOOD. AH Moslems Are Becoming Aroused— Should the Prophet Declare War, Butcheries Would Be Terrible—Sultan Hopes the Powers Will Quarrel Alarm for Constantinople. The heart grows sick over the recital of the outrages and butchery of the Armenians by. the Turks. So fearful were the massacres that it was hard to place reliance upon the eariler reports from the scene of disturbance. But as report after report came in they only confirmed the inhuman treatment heaped upon the helpless followers of Christianity. The testimony from a number of sources, whose reliability is undisputed, is that. the worst has yet to be told. The latest advices are that the extermination of the Armenians goes right on despite the protests of Christendom and the presence of the warships of the civilized powers in Turkish waters. The Sultan cannot stop the butchery even if he so willed. His time is taken up in planning to ward off the assassins who are seeking his life. Therefore the murderous Turks are left free to carry out their blood-thirsty propensities. Until a checkrein can be applied to these uniformed ruffians the massacre will go on in spite of the appeals brought to bear to have them stopped. For days past Turks and Kurds have been pouring into Constantinople from the devastated regions of Asia Minor. Their primary object is the disposal of the plunder which they have obtained during the massacres. They are also hopeful of a richer harvest in the event of the Sultan’s permitting a rising at Stamboul. Their stories, coupled with the display of plunder, have inflamed the lowest class of Moslems. They are ready to seize upon the slightest provocation for an attack. It is unwholesomely significant of this state of affairs that the government is seizing and deporting daily numbers of Armenians of the poorest but most robust class. f l( It is hard for the unseeing to believe — to realize that at this very moment, men, women and children are being butchered within sound of the guns of the fleets of Christian Europe. But such is the actual state of things, and while the sword of the Moslem runs red with Christian blood, Europe stands idly by uttering pub-‘ lie protests, whereas she should enforce her demands until the Turk was rendered harmless for oppression or wiped from the face of the earth. There should be no compromise when civilization meets savagery and fanaticism—the latter should go down to a resurrectionless grave. Since the beginning of the Turk’s rule of the sword in Armenia, only a few months ago, 500,000 people have per-

ished or are on the verge, through starvation and suffering, of the grave. Of these 50,000 have been butchered outright and day after day the outrages and the tragedies continue, the unfortunate Armenians being crushed from the earth at the rate of nearly a thousand a day. What the sword leaves undone starvation completes, and by the time Europe awakes to its responsibility the Armenian question shall have settled itself by the complete extermination of the Christian population of the country. Holy War May Come. The condition of things in Turkey under Abdul Hamid is strikingly like what it was nearly twenty years ago under Abdul Aziz. Turkey was insolent then as she is now. In 1876 the massacres were in Bulgaria. Now they are in Armenia. Then it was the slaughter of Turks by Bulgarian Christians who despaired of help from the powers that provoked the horrible slaughters in return. Now the Armenian Christians, despairing of help from the powers, have planned and carried out an uprising, which in turn has been put down with ferocious cruelty by the Sultan.* In 1876 Abdul Aziz was called upon, by the powers to introduce reform* which were tantamount to giving his. Christian subjects immunities and rights not guaranteed to his Mohammedan subjects. The result was that the latter were inflamed to a dangerops pitch of revolt. That experience is duplicated now. Nothing more dreadful could happen to Christian humanity in the remote east than the outbreak of a “holy” war, a war in which the followers of Mahomet should draw the sword of extermination against not only every Christian missionary, but every citizen of a Christian state whereever found. When it is borne in mind that the followers of Mahomet number at the lowest calculation 200,000,000, some idea may be gained of what a general religious outbreak against Christianity among them would mean. There are 5,000,000 in Egypt, vast numbers iu the colonies of Southeastern at least 40,000,000 in India and 20,000,000 more In other British colonies.. The Sultan is the recognized head of the whole Moslem world, save Persia and Morocco, where the head of the faithful is Ali, son-in-law of Mohammed. There is only one way of proclaiming a holy war. There is only one man who can proclaim it. The Sultan is that man. When the formal words declaring war against a foe are uttered, according to strict Moslem ritual, every Mohammedan in Asia or Europe must respond as he hopes to attain paradise. All Turkey would be in an uproar at once. The fate of Christian missionaries to the southwest and southeast of the Sea of . Marmora would be sealed. Bloodshed would follow in all quarters of the East. Of course the powers would win in the end. The struggle would be a long one, so far as Abdul Hamid is concerned. His declaration of a holy war would mean his

own deposition; but, In the meantime, and afterward, what? In the meantime, one of the bloodiest wars of history, and afterward the revival of the rivalries of the powers in sharper form than ever. Great Powers Foea at Heart. Although the powers of Europe have agreed to act in combination and probably will maintain that attitude for the present, it is not believed that there is any real accord among them. They are rivals to the bitter end in the East. Their objects are conflicting, and it is only mutual fear which avails to preserve mutual deference. The powers do not care a whit for Turkey or its sovereign, and would sweep Abdul Hamid and his system off the face of the earth if they acted upon their impulses. But to do away with the Turkish empire means to invite a condition of things perhaps ten-fold

worse than that which now exists. If Turkey were effaced as a geographical entity the powers would have more trouble in agreeing as to the division of the land among the conquerors than they have had over any problem of European politics. Turkey must stand intact under some form of government, if the outward accord of the powers is to be maintained. The jealousies of England and Russia in Asia have been forcibly illustrated during the last twelvemonth in the JapanChina war and in the Corean imbroglio. But the matters at stake there are a mere bagatelle compared with those at the Bosphorous. It has been the steady policv of Russia for a hundred years to lose no move on the European chessboard that brings her nearer to Constantinople and the control of the Marmora Sea, and it is the determination of Europe that Russia shall not occupy Constantinople. This is the Eastern question: What to do with Constantinople? The powers would take all the risks of a holy war if they could be sure that the overthrow of

the Turkish empire and its partition would not fatally disturb the balance of power. FORTS OF THE DARDANELLES. What Gunboats Would Encounter En Route to Constantinople. Naval engineers are of the opinion that Constantinople cannot be successfully assaulted by water. They claim that the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus offer a protection that practically means the destruction of any fleet that should attempt to approach the city without the Turk’s consent. The Dardanelles from Sestos and Abydos to the Sea of Marmora is filled with torpedoes. The high, rocky shales bristle with a double line of fortresses. The entrance to the Dardanelles is narrow. The current is strong and nature has done everything to make the straits impregnable, except to furnish the guns. The forts on each side are built upon modern principles and mount Krupp guns of heavy caliber. The two largest forts are at the narrows, the one called

the Namazleh battery at Kilid Bahar and the other the Medjidieh, a little to the northward of the town of Ohanak. Both command the approach to the narrows and can deliver a cross fire that would make a big hofci in any modern fleet. The forts are not the chief reliance. The Turk has taken to the torpedo in a way that will astonish his enemies. The recent naval battles at the Yalu River and Port Arthur show the terrible effect of the modern torpedo when intelligently handled. Th? bottom of the Dardanelles is lined with torpedoes, and there are a number of submarihe mines. The torpedoes are arranged to be fifed by electricity from shore. Nearly all these fortresses along the Dardanelles have been built for many years, some for centuries. They haye been remodeled again and again to keep pace with the modern progress in warfare. The Dardanelles is the Hellespont, or sea of Helle, of the

It directly connects the archipelago, aa arm of the Mediterranean, with the Sea of Marmora, which is practically the immense harbor of Constantinople. It ia very narrow, and resembles rather a river at its mouth than a veritable sea. Defenses on the Bosphorus. Coming to Constantinoule from tha east, through the Bosphorus from the Black Sea, are heavy batteries on almost every point on either side. At the two Novas, where the channel of the Bosphorus farrows, there is a formidable array of fortifications. They are arranged for a cross-fire, and five of them are of recent construction. These mouna thirty heavy Krupp guns each and are capable of sinking any war ship. The Turk has been busily fortifying his frontiers since his last war with Russia, and he is now in a better position to fight than ever before.

The old fortresses of Asia and Europe stand on either shore of the Bosphorus, about half way up, where the channel is unusually narrow, and at a point once traveled by the celebrated bridge of Darius. The fort of Asia, Anadoli Hissari, rises on the lip of a pleasant rivulet, which empties itself into the Bosphorus. The fort of Europe, Roumeli, Hissari, on the oposite shore, is of singular construction. The ground plan forms the characters of the prophet’s name, by wljom tradition says it was built in six days, by permission of the Greek Emperor. This fort possesses great strength, strategic and defensive. It is well supplied with water and the means of storing provisions. The city of Constantinople itself occupies a triangular promonotory above the Propontis. It has been strongly fortified on all sides, including the side washed by the sea and that which is the base of the triangle and connects it with the mainland. The walls extend twelve miles, sweeping from sea to isea, running along the whole length of the harnor and te/ minuting in the celebrated fortress of the Seven Towers. At some points the foundation of the walls is formed hy huge masses of rock, a species of architecture still to be traced in a few of the most ancient Grecian structures and formerly termed Cyclopaean. In other ports, particularly on the side of Marmorn, the masonry commences regularly from the edge of the water. The most ancient portion of the walls is necessarily that which incloses the ancient Byzantium, now Iriiown as the Seraglio Point, where the apex of the triangle divides the Propontis from the port, and instead of being peopled by the busy multitude of the city, is silent in the stateliness of its gilded palace and overhanging groves. These walls that are now standing were built over 1,000 years ago.

MAP SHOWING THE APPROACHES TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

STRAITS OF THE BOSPHORUS.

THE DARDANELLES.