'General information on Persia for any future edition, 1895' [‎79v] (149/211)

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and frighten away the thieves, guns, as was their custom under like circumstances,
were fired for several nights by the tenants of the houses in the quarter above-
mentioned ; one night, however, they fired without intermission several hundred times.
The report of firing and the tumult caused by it alarmed the Kaimakam, and he
thought something was going wrong in the town, so, accompanied by several gendarmes,
he hastened to the spot, where he found a large number of Armenians, armed and in
an excited state, assembled in the streets, whereupon he caused the arrest of seventeen
of them as ringleaders and lodged them in prison, notwithstanding their protestations
of innocency and statement of the cause of their excitement. The Ka'imakam
telegraphed to the Governor-General <.i Diarbekir, stating that the Armenians in Palu
were attempting to rise against the Government. The Yali, as a matter of course,
communicated this to the Porte, at the same time instructing the Governor of Arghani
Yladen to proceed at once to Palu for an investigation of the affair: the result of this
inquiry was the removal of the accused to Maden, where they were put upon their
trial after being detained in the prison there about five months; nine of the prisoners
were acquitted and the rest convicted of sedition and sentenced to seven years’
imprisonment. I am not yet, however, in a position to state whether this means a
simple detention, or if they are condemned to penal servitude.
The trial took place in open Court, and there were, either out of interest or
curiosity, a large number of people present, and I am informed from different sources
that the evidence produced by the Public Prosecutor proved nothing of a treasonable
nature against the accused, except the senseless act of firing guns and their shouting,
when arrested, that if the Government was unable to protect their persons and
property they would know how to do it for themselves. This was construed as a
seditious declaration, inciting the Armenians to rise against the Government.
I must not omit to state that the condemned appealed at once to the Court of
Cassation for a reversion of this severe Judgment, and at the same time forwarded a
telegraphic Petition to the Sultan, praying for his Imperial clemency. It is to be
hoped that by the command of His Imperial Majesty, whose solicitude for seeing
justice done to his subjects is so well known, the above-mentioned Court will take
the matter in hand, and do justice to the condemned by quashing this most harsh and
undeserved sentence, as I am told some of the condemned had nothing to do with the
affair, and were found in the street only as spectators.
I have, &c.
(Signed) THOMAS BOYADJIAN.
No. 58.
Mr. Fane to the Marquis of Salisbury .— [Received July 24.)
My Lord. Therapia, July 20, 1891.
I HAY E the honour to forward to your Lordship herewith copy of a despatch
addressed by Mr. Vice-Consul Devey to Her Majesty’s Acting Consul at Erzeroum
respecting the advantage of steam navigation for Lake Van.
I have, &c.
(Signed) EDMUND PANE.
Inclosure in No. 58.
Vice-Consul Devey to Acting Consul Hampson.
Sir, Fan, June 24, 1891.
SO much has been said on various occasions by my predecessors as to the self-
evident advantages of having steam communications upon Lake Van, that it seems
hardly necessary to refer to the subject once again. But I believe fresh proposals
with this view have once more been laid before the Porte.
If I am not mistaken, a Company of Van merchants was about to be formed
some few years ago with a capital of ]L0,000/. for this purpose, but the project lapsed.
Ihe Local Government have also more than once entertained some such idea. A
Russian Company, whether of the Caspian or the Volga navigation, made propositions
to undertake steam traffic on Lake Van, but these were also rejected. In 1887 some
Ottoman navy officers carefully inspected the lake, and found its conditions very