File 705/1916 Pt 2 'Arab revolt: Arab reports; Sir M Sykes' reports' [‎53r] (103/450)

ARMENIAN ATROCITIES
(Statement by an eye-witness.)
V/
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If, 1 ! ; ef n t A1 , e PP° 011 the 3rd February and reached
Eunhr^ee ^^r 1Ve h0 ?r 3 ’ pa ^ in « the bridge ever the
jup..irat.„,b, u iicn was wall guarded. At Ras-ul-Ain sonp 1? non
hSedf of Fnr^ nc a entmted + U 2 der V^dianshi? of loir 000
the urbsn riff refftribes, but from
Ss W^e Hiha f L 0 a llfoaul .Bitlis, and Diarbekir. These
niu ub ^ere called gendarmes, but were m reality mere butchers-
Armerians th ff ZF PUblicl ? 0rde ^d to, take mrtiefof r ’
th?S+ a ? 3, + 01 sexes, lo various destinations, but had
women ^ X o + , d03tr °y the males, children and old
ffiTrffnf p03 f 01 the young women among the villagers of
tfobh S laln - -iiese Kurds always returned after absence of
h-lfv 0 r°ur days on such expeditions. One of these
gendarmes confessed to killing 100 Armenian men himself on
the various journeys he had taken.
The Armenians were dying of typhus and dysentery, and the
roads were littered with their decomposing bodies, The emptv
desert cisterns and caves were also filled with coroses. Both
0 fti?ers agree that this was the most appalling state'of
aiiairs, and tnat, unlsss it had been a matter of ocular
demons orauion, it would be incrediole. The Turkish officers
of tne battalion were^horrified at the sights they saw, and
one regimental chaplain*, on coming across a number of bodies,
dismounted his horse and publicly prayed that the Divine
punisnment of these crimes should be averted from Moslems,
ana, by way of expiation, himself worked at digging graves for
trie dead bodies. When marching from Ras-ul-Ain to-Er-Radi the
soldiers of the battalion often put up their hands to avert
the sight of numerous bloated naked corpses of murdered women
who lay by the roadside. Two sayings were common among the
common soldiers: "Ras-ul-Ain is a shambles" and "ho man can
ever think of a woman’s body except as a matter of horror,
instead of attraction, after Ras-ul-Ain." Ras-ul-Ain was used
as a place of concentration for Armenians, and 12.000 was the
number usually there. The average number of the incoming
parties and outgoing parties (vis., those going to be murdered)
cannot be estimated accurately.
*A Moslem Divine.