Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 278, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 November 1920 — Harem Victim Tells Story [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Harem Victim Tells Story

Stolen from her home on the night before her wedding and imprisoned for five years In a Turkish harem, Aghavni Millian, a beautiful nineteen-year-old Armenian girl from Bitlis, has at last been discovered by her lover and through the assistance of the Near East Relief forcibly taken from her master and brought to one of the American Rescue Homes in Constantinople. Here she will stay until arrangements can be made for her mar-

riage and her return to her old home.

“My story—it is Like hundreds of others," Aghavni said simply. “I was stolen from my home on the night that the massacres first began in Bitlls. It was the night before 1 was to have been married. I was just folding my wedding veil away when the Turkish soldiers broke Into the house. They carried m® off. I— They took me

up to Constantinople to the bouse of the man”— She stopped and put one hand over her eyes, a hand that bore the tell-tale tattoo of her Turkish master. “But what does my story matter!" she exclaimed. “I am only one of so many. It Is my people and their future that matters. Somehow we must rebuild our nation and show to the Turks who tried to beat out our life hnd to the whole world that, despite what we have suffered, Armenia is still unconquerable.” Aghavni Millan is, as she says, only one of many. It is estimated that one hundred thousand girls are still held capt’ve In Turkish harems. The Near East Relief, America’s official agept In Armenia, is making this work of rescue one of the most important features of its program, and it is to them and the support they receive from the American people that Aghavnl’s unfortunate sisters,, still captive, must look for their release.

AGHAVNI MILLIAN.