Richmond times-dispatch. [volume], May 09, 1915, Image 56

About Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current

Image provided by: Library of Virginia; Richmond, VA

                
How the Savai
Turned Lot
tians, Have At
Missionary
Priests, Tortnn
Children m
These Are the Savage Kurcls About to Go Forth to Massacre Christiana on the Persian and Turkish Frontier.
AM Hill CANS now have convincing: proof of
the meaning of the "Holy War" pro
claimed by Turkey when Ehe entered
into tho struggle against the English-French
Russian alliance.
One of the most promising American mis
sionary fields, the whole of northwestern Per
sia h;is been ravaged and desolated by savage
Kurds and Turks. This field is under the direc
tion of the Hoard of Foreign Missions of the
Presbyterian Church
Christian men. -women and children have
th'-re been ruthlessly slaughtered with accom
paniments of unspeakable cruelty and torture
Not less than Su.Ol'O Christiana are dead or
missing, of whom many have been massacred.
Children who were showing the most beauti
ful results of American missionary training
have been murdered in cold blood Pretty
-rhurche.- ar.J peaceful villages have been
burnt down and their people exterminated
The Christians who took rt-fuge in the
American missionary compounds and those
who were able to fiee northward into Russia
were ,'*!most the only oner- who escaped the
murdering Kurds
American missionaries were assaulted and
ir..-u!tPd while protecting their converts and
ofner helpless natives Man\ other natives
were murdered in the presence of our Araeri
i. can missionaries, who were powerless to do
more than protect those they had placed be
hind wails.
ft is to be iearcd thai before this appears
some of The American inis.sionarit; ; . , have
paid for their devotion to their proteges wi-.b
their live?
Why l.?3 this American missionary field,
nominally situated in a neutral countrj neen
thus murderously invaded? Persia, an ancient,
"but feeble country, which in recent years, has
heoD pathetically striving for freedom, Ilea,
roughly speaking, east of Asiatic Turkey "and
couth of Russia. The last-named country has
acquired a great interest in northern Persia,
and on this pretext the Turks invaded the
country and slaughtered the inhabitants -with
every possible atrocity. It is true that the Rus
sians drove the Turks back with heavy slaugh
ter. but this was of very little advantage to the
untortunate natives, who had already suifered
terribly After this the Russians were com
pelled to retire agala.
When the Turks declared a "Holy War"
against all the enemies of Islam they gave an
implied license to the savage Kurds to commit
every atrocity they desired upon Persians, Ar
menians and Christians of all kinds. The
Kurds can hardly be biamed, for they know no
other method of warfare.
There are, it is estimated. 3,000.000 Kurd3 in
Asiatic Turkey and in Persia They live a sav
age. nomadic and tribal existence. As a rule
they inhabit the mountains and large pastoral
plains of Turkc-y and Persia, regions which per
mit the wandering existence they desire.
In religion they are partly Mohammedan and
partly belong to pagan sects with the most fan
tastic forms of idolatry Some of them are ad
dicted to devil worship.
They wander spoilt in bands, always armed.
Their weapons include anything from mediaeval
arms to modern rifles They are always ready
for a fight, .lust a3 our Apache Indians used
to he
The Kurds are really the licensed assas
sins of the Turkish Empire. Again and again
they have attacked the Christian Armenian
towns and massacred the inhabitants. To-day
they are being UBed against the Chriutian Per
sians on the pretext of war.
The United StateB Government has been ap
pealed to for help for the American mission
aries and native Christians, but finds it difficult
to do anything. The only power that can re
strain the savage Kurds is the Turkish Govern
ment at Constantinople, and that Government
has declared a "Holy War."
It is suggested that the American Govern
ment should appeal to Germany to induce Tur*
key, with which It Is in alliance, to restrain
the Kurds in their attacks on defenseless
Christians.
Urumia. In norihwestern Persia, a very im
portant American missionary centre, has been
the scene of the most shocking massacres by
the Turks and Kurds.
The dispatches have told us that the Turkish
Consul at Urumia led the Kurdish raiders in
their attacks on Christians.
It was early in January that the Turks and
Kurds first attacked Urumia. This place, it
should be explained, is a considerable town,
situated on a vast plain which bears the same
name. In the villages of the plain are many
Christian natives, while the region also fur
nishes pasturage to many nomadic Kurds.
The Kurds and Turks fell upon the Urumia
villages, devastated the homes, confiscated pri
vate property and inflicted dreadful tortures
upon the defenseless Christians who fell Into
their hands.
Fourteen thousand took refuge with tho
American and French missionaries, and were
settled in the compounds in Urumia and Tabriz,
where, for the time being, they were apparent
ly safe from violence.
Ab time went on, however, the Turks and
Kurdish raiders becamc dally bolder and more
bloodthirsty.
Seventy-Turkish regular troops entered the
mission, hanged the orthodox Bishop, Mar Ella,
and four orthodox clergymen, and beat and In
sulted the Rw. E. T. Allen, an American mis
sionary. A hanging polo -was erected in the
American Mission yard, and on this Ave refu
gees were hanged.' Shortly before that sixty
refugees had been dragged from the French
Mission and executed in spite of the pleas of
the ijuns.
At Culpashan the Kurds were particularly
cruel. This was the last of a total of 103 villages
to hold out. and it was occupied two months
ago. Tho Kurds ordered all the male citizens
into the streets, tied them in groups of Ave,
marched them to the graveyard and killed thorn
barbarously to the last boy. Glr! babies and
the older women were then executed with groat
atrocity, while the younger women wero carried
away as slaves.
The Christians fought their assailants brave
ly, and as long as they had ammunition they
were victorious.
The missionaries wero untiring in their ef
forts to help the people, and they are spending
money to this end freely. In Urumia they have
been disbursing the equivalent of $400 dally.
Disease is prevalent among the refugees.
In addition to the cable dispatches, some
account of theso outrages has been received
by the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions
from Persian Christians who had fled In Janu
ary and had returned to Urumia with funds and
supplies for the relief of their countrymen.
Of the ten American missionaries in this ?eo*
Hon several have been heard from.
The Rev. Robert M. Larabee, of Urumia,
Persia, in a personal letter to Secretary.Robert
E. Speer, of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign
Missions, writes as folows;
"Tlflls, Persia, March 8, 1916.
"Up to the middle of February the refugees
were still In the Urumia Mission yards, most
of them supported by our mission. The revised
figures are about 12,000 In our yards, both city
and college, and 3,000 in the French Mission.
? 9 ?
"When on January 2 of this year the Russian
troops withdrew suddenly and without warning,
not only from Urumia, but from all Azerbajan
Province, there -was absolutely no human
power left seemingly competent to protect the
Christian population of the border districts
from the savage vengeance of the.wild Kurdish
tribes, made many times more Intense by
reason of recent events on which I cannot
dilate in this report.
"It was an awful situation, and'all who could
leave, especially In the northern part of Urumia
plain, started immediately on a long and pain
ful Journey to the Russian border, realizing
The Fiskc Seminary at Urumia, Persia, in the Compound of Which 15,000 Native Christians Took
Kehige. Five Refugees Were Hanged by the Kurds in the Courtyard.
Harry P.' Packard, the Brave Doctor of tho Amer
ican Missionary. Station at Urumiah, Persia.
that only bo could they Bavo their lives. The
details of that dreadful Journey I have written
before. Some can never be written, and even
now as I recall the Buffering by the way thero
la a tugging at my heart that la real pain.
"But while many thousand fled, leaving
everything behind and enduring the intense
privations of a foot journey In the snow and
mud. without any preparation for It, along with
their wlV68 and little children, still many thou
sand remained behind, simply because they
could not leave, their villages being so sit
uated that flight was impossible. Some of theso
remained In their villages, and only the future
can give us a correct roll of those murdered
In cold blood and with cruel tortures, of tho
women and girls carried off to a life that 1b
many times worse than death, and of children
lost and families separated In the time of this
terrible catastrophe. All who could fled to the
city and found the one shelter that gave them
the best hope of safety. It was our American
Mission property, guarded by tho American
flag and, what was ?>ven more potent than the
flag, the position of Influence and confidence
earned by long years of aervlce of our mis
sionaries.
"Then came days or fhe utmost anxiety.
Wo'.ild the leadens of the Invading force respect
our flag and, oven If fl^ey did, could they hold
their lawless followers in check? It was thr-n
that the value of years of unselfish, straight
forward dealing with -all classes of the com
munity began to show itself; and it was then,
too, that all the long experience of dealing with
the natives of every nationality and grade could
be utilized for the Balvatlon of this helplesB mul
titude. I said before that the American flag
did much (thank God that at this time our
nation has been neutral), but much more was