Rensselaer Republican, Volume 28, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 December 1895 — HORRORS IN ARMENIA [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

HORRORS IN ARMENIA

TURKS AND KURDS ARE THIRSTING FOR BLOOD. > All Ate Becoming Aroused— SUoull the Prophet Declare War. Butcheries Would Be Terrible—Sultan Hopes the Powers Will Quarrel Alarm for Constantinople. The heart grows sii-k over tlm rnritnl 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 s» eiw -of disturbance. - But as report after report cattle In they only confirmed the Inhuman treatment heaped upon the helpless followers of Christianity. The testimony from a number of sources, whose reliability is iiriiispnted. is that the worst has vet to be told. The latest advices are that the extermination of the Armenians goes right on despite the pro-. tests of-Christendom and the presence of the warships of the civilized powers in Turkish waters. The Sultan eannot stop the butchery even if he so willed. His time is taken up inxpJanning 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 eheckrein 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-Turksimd 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_ xlisplay of plunder, have inflamed the lowest: classof Moslems. They are ready to seize upon the slightest provocation for an attack. It is unwhdlesomely Significaht'of this state qf affairs that the government is seizing and deporting daily nu mbe rs ofAr mentans of:t lie poo restbut r most robust class.

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 public 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 tn Armenia, only a few months ago, 500,500 people have perished or are on the verge, through starvation and suffering, of the grave. Of these 50,000 have been butchered outright and day day the outrages and the tragedies continue, the Unfortunate Armenians being crushed from the earth nt 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.

t Holy War May Conic. The condition of'things in Turkey under Abdul EicjUid is strikingly like what It. was nearly twenty years ago under .Abdul Aziz. Turkey was insolent then ns she is now. In 1876 the massacres wore in Bulgaria. Now they are in Armenia. Then it was the slaughter of Tu r ks 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 iu turn has been put down with ferocious cruelty by the Sultan. In 1876 Abdul Aziz was called upon by the powers to .introduce reforms which wore tantamount to giving his Christian subjects immunities and rights not guaranteed to ’Jiis Mohammedan subjects. The result was that the latter were inflamed to a ■dangerous pitch of revolt. That experi- * nee is duplicatedr how. Nothing more dreadful could happen to Christian humanity in the remote east than the outbreak of a “holy” war, a war in which tho-fullowcrs of M-’-honift should draw the sword of extermination against not only etery Christian missionary. but every citizen of a Christian slftth-where-evor found. \ ' j • ' When it 4s borne in mind'that the followers of Mahomet number at the lowest calculation 200,000.060. some ideapmay bo gained qf what a general religious outbreak against Christianity among them Wbuld mean. There are 5,000,000 in Egypt. Vast numbers in the colonies of Southeastern Austria, at least 40,000.000 In India tlnd 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 Nfohammed. There is only one way of ptoclaiming a holy war. There is only ope man who can proelaimjt. 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 ■the powers in sharper form than ever. Great Powers Foes 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 tlrat there-4s- anyreal accord among them. They are rivals _to. the bitter end-iu-the-East. Theirob-

jects 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 ent ityAhe-gmwtwsJffiiiuhl have.more. ble 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 mttfe£ 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 Corcan imbroglio.

But the matters at stake there are a mere bagatelle compared with those at the Bosphorous. It has been the steady policy 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 This is the Eastern question: to do with Constantinople? The pbwrirs would take all the risks of :i 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 THIS DARDANELLES. Wfaat Gunboats Would Encounter En Route to Constantinople. Nnval engineers are of the opinttfn that Coiistantinople cannot be successfully assaulted by water. They claim that the

Dardanelles and the Bosphorus offer a protection that practically means the destruction of anyT fleet that should attempt ta approach Ihe city- witbout the Turk’s consent. TheiijDardaiiellesfrom Hestos and Abydos to the Sea of Marmora is filled with torpedoes. The, high, rocky Shores bristle with a double line of fortresses. The entrance to the Dardanelles is narrow. The current isstrong 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 ami mount Krtipp

guns of heav.v caliber. The two largest forts are at the narrows, the one called the Namazieh battery at Kilid Bahar and the other the Medjidieh, a little to the northward of the town of Chanak. Both command the approach to the narrows and can deliver a cross fire that would make a big hole in any modern fleet. . . The 1 forts...are not. the -ch ief re liance.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. The bottom of the Dardanelles is lined with torpedoes, and there are a -uumber-uf. submarine mines. The~Tdry' pedoes are arranged to be fired by electricity from shore. -Nearlya 11 t hese fortresses along the Dardanelles have been built for many years, some for centuries. They have been remodeled again and again to keep pace with the modern progress in warfare. The Dardanelles is the Hellespont, or sea of Helle, of Hieancien s. It directly connects the archipelago, an arm of the Mediterranean, with the Sea of Marmora, which is practically the immense harbor of Constantinople. It is very narrow, and, resembles rather a river at its mouth than a veritable sea. Defenses on the Bosphorus. •- ’Coming to Constantinople from the east, through the Bosphorus from the Black Sea, are heavy batteries on almost every point on either,side. At the two Kovas, where Jhc channel of the Bosphorus narrows, ther'e is a formidable array of fortifications. They pre-arranged for a cross-fire, and five of them are o/ recent construction. "These mount 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 Europg; stand on either shore of the Bosphorus; about’ half way up, whofeThe channel is unusually narrow, and at a point once traveled byithe celebrated bridge of Darius. The fort of Asia, Anadoli Hissari, rises on the lip of a pleasant rivulet, which empties it self into the Bosphorus, J*lie fort of Europe, Roumeli, Hissari, on the oposite shore, is of singular tion. The ground plan forms the characters of 'the prophet’s name, by whom 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 sea, running along the whole length ,of the harbor and terminating in the celebrated fortress of the Sexen..Towcrs. At some points the foundation of the walls is formed by 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 Marmora, 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 known as the Seraglio Point, where the

apex of the triangle divides the Proporiuf from the port, and instead of being peopled by multitude of the city, is silent in the stateliness of. its gilded palace and overhanging groves. These, walls that are now’ landing were built over 1,900 years ago. The body of an unknown girl, who commTtted’sulimreat'Tr fashiorntbic -boa rding house, { and who is supposed to be from Canada, lies at the morgue at Buffalo." It is thht of a young woman About 24 years old. There is no elew to her identity and even the marks on her linen have been obliterated as if with careful purpose. - » A s The Paris. Figaro reveals an alleged secret in President FJajire's family history which proves to liavj been simply that his wife's mother was abandoned by her Jmabahd two months aftw her marriage.

MAP SHOWING THE APPROACHES TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

STRAITS OF THE BOSPHORUS.

THE DARDANELLES.