Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 40, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 December 1907 — KURDS LOOT AND BURN IN LAWLESS ORGIES [ARTICLE]

KURDS LOOT AND BURN IN LAWLESS ORGIES

Many Villages in Armenia Are Plundered and Then Put to the Torch. SPARE THE PEOPLE’S LIVES. Erzerum, Betlis, Van, Khar put and Draibeker Scenes of Speculation by Vicious Hordes. Constantinople advices say the lawless activity of the Kurdish tribes la the Armeno-Kurdish districts of Erzerum, Bitlls, Van,Kharput and Dlarbekir is causing lively concern at the Porte, particularly as the foreign omhassips are interesting themselves ami are nrg tng that prompt measures be taken by the government to prevent a possible massacre. Under the protection of the notorious Ibraham Pasha, who is known as the “despot of Kurdistan,” Kurdish horsemen are making raids without discrimination,Turkish villages suffering equally with Armenian homesteads on the plains around Diarbekir and Jezireh-Ybn-Omar. Sixteen villages have been pillaged and burned within the last month in these districts and eight villages in the Sert district have met with the same fate. Several of these villages were composed entirely of Moslems and in most cases the lives of the inhabitants were spared, though they were deprived of all their possessions. The pinch of hunger already Is being felt, as everywhere, there Is a scarcity of food, fodder and fuel. The missionaries are doing their best to mitigate the misery, but outside help is urgently needed if the danger of a severe famine Is to be averted. The movement in favor of autonomy is gaining ground in Asia Minor as the popular disaffection against the Constantinople government Is very -strong. But at the same time there is a great degree of loyalty among the Moslems, and this constitutes a powerful support to the present regime. Mass meetings are being held at which the ••ernoval of Ibraham Paslja is being demanded. The Porte has ordered troops from Kbarput and Rieppo against the refractory Kurds, and it will endeavor to induce Ibraham Pasha by friendly persuasion, to come Into Aleppo. Some of Ibraham’s villages were snelled recently by Turkish troops and sixty Kurds were killed.