ENPages
SEP 27 1915 [on it side]ACK'D
Newark, N.J. Sept. 22, 1915.
My dear Tumulty:
Some personal Armenian friends in New York, who have been living in this country for many years and are naturalized citizens have interested me in the present situation of the Armenian people in Turkey. They are very much disturbed over the continued reports of massacres and other outrages perpetrated upon the Armenians by the Turks. Their feelings in this regard reflect the feeling of thewhole Armenian population of this country, numbering some hundred thousand of that nation.
These distressing reports come not only through the press, (many of which you have undoubtedly seen, and a few clippings from which I enclose), but also through female relatives who have been obliged to flee to this country (men not being permitted to leave), the testimony of returned American missionaries, and reports from our Ambassador and various consular representatives. These unfortunate people in Turkey have been
murdered, imprisoned, banished to desert places to starve, their women and children outraged, and their property confiscated, or are forced to become Mohammedans; thus they are obliged to pay the penalty of their loyalty to the Christian faith.
In this situation the Armenians of this country, realizing their helplessness feel a very strong desire to elicit the aid and sympathy of the President. I do not know what, if anything, he can do in the matter. but they desire to have thesituation laid before him, that they may feel he has personal knowledge of it and will be thereby impelled to so whatever can be done in the circumstances to end these terrible conditions.
They have asked he if it would be possible for me to obtain an interview with the President for the purpose of laying this matter briefly before him. Will you let me know whether I can see the President if I
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Hon. Joseph Tumulty come to Washington for that purpose, and when it will be most convenient, or if I could see him when he comes on here. I promise you to take but a very few moments of his time, realizing that he is already overburdened with the many important affairs of State which are now imposed upon him.
Even though it may be impossible for the President to do anything in the matter the fact that he has granted an interview and taken the matter under consideration will have a most excellent impression upon the very large number of Armenians here, most of whom are naturailized citizens. Some of the leading Armenians in this country are interested in this request.
Sincerely yours,
Mablhbell
Hon. Joseph P. Tumulty, Washington,
D. C.
H. V. Oshome
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Evening Star 16 Sept
Armenians Face Extermination
Turks Massacre All Males and Carry Off Women
CONSTANTINOPLE (via courier to Dedeaghatch), Sept. 16.— The Turks have resumed their methodical extermination of Armenians in all the provinces of the empire. Frightful scenes are being enacted, according to reports brought here. Women are being outraged or sold into slavery; males are being massacred and whole communities driven off into the desert countries.
Nearly 200,000 Armenian villagers between Veni Chedir and Afion-Karahissar, in Asta Minor, have abandoned their homes and are feeing to the mountains. They are pursued by irregular bands who are shooting down stragglers and carrying off women who fall exhausted by the roadside.
In some villages the local authorities have presided in person at horrible scenes of massacres, according to private advices from the interior. Women and children in some instances were divided among civil and military officers, who were given carte blanche in their treatment of the helpless Armenians. Robust boys have been sold into service in private families.
The Young Turks ordered the deportation to the interior of all the Armenian Inhabitants of Smyrna, but Rahmey Bey, the local Vall, who since the beginning of the war has protected French, English and other Enropeans within his jurisdiction, refused to execute the order. He has just arrived in Constantinople to explain his action to the War Office.
Le Tanine, official organ of the Young Turk party, announces in an editorial that Turkey will not be safe until the Armenians either are exterminated or forced to accept the Mohammedan religion. The Armenians are denounced as traitors and accused of aiding Turkey's enemies.
Mgr. Dotel, the Papal Nuncto co Constantinople, has renewed his appeals to the Sublime Porte to end the ersecutions of the Armenians. It is reported that he acted under instructions from Pope Benedict. Thus far these appeals from Rome have had little effect.
PARIS, Sept. 16.— A French cruiser has arrived at Alexandria with several hundred Armenian refugees from the region of Alexandretta, Asia Minor, according to despatches received here to-day. The Armenians declared that the arrival of the cruiser saved them from massacre at the hands of the Turks.
ANSWER MORCENTHAU BY HANCING ARMENIANS
He Protests Against the War of Extermination Now in Progress.
Special Cable to THE NEW TORK TMES
LONDON, Thursdar, Sept 16-A Times correspondent, lately in Salonika, says that all the reports from Turkey are agreed as to the terrible character of the Turkish atrocities against Armenians. It is believed that it is the official intention that this shall be a campaign of extermination, invoiving the murdering of 800,000 to 1,000,000 persons. Christians can escape murder by embracing Mahomedanism, in which case all the female members of the converts family of marriageable age--wife, sisters, or children--are distributed around to other Turks, making the reversion to Christianity in future practically impossible. The American Minister at Constantinople is said to have protested recently against the massacre, in view of the danger to which they exposed the American missionaries. The only response to his protest was the hanging [page damage]wenty leading Armenians the next [page damage]in the streets of Constantinople.
Morning Times
Sept 17th
MISSION BOARD TOLD OF TURKISH HORRORS
Correspondents Confirm the Reports of the Wiping Out of Armenians.
SCATTERED OVER EMPIRE
Christian Cities Cease Such and Inhabitants Are Driven Far from Home.
Under the caption "In Darkest TurKey." The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions says that it has at hand "abundant and undeniable evidence" confirmatory of the newspaper reports concerning the persecution of the Christian subjects of the Ottoman Empire.
This evidence," says the board. "does not come through letters from the missionaries; they write briefly and of their own affairs; they refrain from the cussing political affairs. The seek to maintain a neutral attitude in in this time of strife.
But from other sources, in rundabout but absolutely reliable ways, come to the board rooms accounts of proceedings in many parts of Turkey that are so appalling as to be almost beyond bebelief. They indicate a systematic, authorized and desperate effort on the part of the rulers of Turkey to wipe out the Armenians.
Apparently the uprising of Armenlan revolutionists at Van, which paved the way for Russian occupation of that city without resistance, has been seized by the Turks as a pretext for general attack upon the Armenians everywhere. In some cases by massacre, more often through torture and exile, they are being eliminated from the field; they are being put where they need no longer be considered.
Along the track of the Russian armies toward the Persian border, from Van to Moush and Bitlis, in the cities of Eastern Turkey, such Diarbekir, Harpoort and Mardin, and especially in Central Turkey and the region stretching to the south, this cruel, relentless persecution has been for some time under way.
Report by a British Restdent.
"A British resident of Constantinople who had left that city and was temporarily at a Mediterrancan port beyond the reach of the censor, writes as follows:
You have probably learned something of the sad condition of the Armenians from the papers, but probably nothing gets through that in any adequate way portrays the desperate straits in which these poor people find themselves.
You may have heard that Zeitoon has ceased to exist as an Armenian town. The inhabitants have been scattered, the city occupied by Turks and the very name changed. The same is true to a large extent of Hadjin, except. I believe, the name has not been altered. The Armenians of the regions of Erzrum, Bitlis and Erzingen have under torture, been converted to Islam. Mardin reports 1895 conditions (the year of the infamous massacre) as prevalling there. The tale is awful to the last degree.
If generous sums of money reach the missionaries in the intertor soon thousands may be saved, otherwise the outlook is hopeless. The inhabitants of cities like Zeltoon and Hadjin are driven out like cattle and made to march long distances under a burning sun, hungry and thirsty. For instance. large numbers from Zeitoon have recently reached Adana utterly destitute, many having been left to die along the road.
More than a thousand families from Hadlin recently arrived in Aleppo in the last degree of misery, and yet the purpose is to send them much further. Husbands are forcibly separated from wives and sent to places long distances apart. Children are similarly separated from parents.
The board also makes the following report from persons in Northern Syria not connected with the missionary circle, but said to be of unquestioned reliability:
Between 4,300 and 4,800 families[news missing rest]