'General information on Persia for any future edition, 1895' [‎87r] (164/211)

Acting Vice-Consul Boyajian to Acting Consul Hnmpson.—(Received at the Foreign Office,
October 16.)
(Extract.) Kharput, September 19, 1891.
I HAVE the honour to call your attention to the state of affairs in the district of
Palu, where lawlessness has always more or less existed, but it appears that disorgani
zation is now more than complete, and the authority of the Government less felt.
2. The district in question, I am told, is infested with brigands, who, under the
protection, and perhaps at the connivance, of the local Beys and Chiefs, are roaming
about unrestrained, and committing excesses of every description.
3. The crimes committed by these gangs of marauders within the last few months
amount, I am told, to a fearful number; hut the following facts, which I obtained the
other day from different sources, will suffice to give you an idea of the extent of the
lawlessness prevailing in the said district, and the consequent deplorable condition of
the helpless peasants.
4. Some two months ago a certain Mahmud of the Barata Kurdish race, in
company with the nephew of Hasaranly Osman, together with their followers,
attacked a village and carried off 400 head of cattle. On being apprized of the fact,
the Kaimakam sent a few gendarmes to pursue them, hut could only succeed in getting
hack a part of the spoil. A few days after they fell upon an Armenian traveller and
took from him £ T. 50 and all his effects; then they passed to Djabakhtshoor, and were
in the act of plundering a caravan composed of Armenian pilgrims going to a
monastery near Moosh, when the Sub-Governor, having received information of the
case, hastened with a sufficient force to the spot, and succeeded in capturing two of the
gang, but the rest returned again to the district of Palu, and on that very night
carried away seven mules, the property of a certain muleteer, and then passed to the
Kharput Plain, doing much mischief there, and giving annoyance to the inhabitants.
5. I have also to bring to your notice another gang under the leadership of
Dersimly Kaya, a notorious criminal, who, on account of several murders committed
by him some fifteen years or more ago, is wandering about from one region to
another in order to avoid being arrested; during all this time, he has been causing
depredation in the Palu and Charsandjak districts. A illages occupied by the
Armenians have been sacked by him, and the inhabitants subjected to the most cruel
treatment, and, in consequence of their inability to defend themselves against such a
daring desperado, they have consented to pay him annually a certain sum as black
mail, and he appears* periodically to collect‘this unjust exaction. By the stringent
order of the late Vali of Diarbekir, the authorities at Palu last year exerted themselves
to capture Kaya and his followers, but they were able only to apprehend his son, who
since then has been imprisoned in that place.
6. I must not omit to cite two other most revolting instances of violence which
came to mv knowledge only the other day. I am told that the servants of a certain
Sherif Bey, of Til (a" village of the Palu Caza), for the purpose of avenging their
master, who was on bad terms with Nadjib Bey, of Palu, descended upon Havar
(another village owned by the latter and tenanted by his Armenian farmers), and,
seizing on several women, brutally violated them in broad daylight. A similar case
occurred ten days since in Zartarich, a village 18 miles east of Kharput, the victim
being a young ‘Armenian woman. The Governor-General, his Excellency Sounouhi
Beyfwas exceedingly indignant when informed of this shameful act, and gave strict
orders for the arrest of the offenders, and X have the satisfaction of stating that they
have been secured and lodged in the prison of this place, and it is to be hoped that
they will receive an exemplary punishment.
I have, in conclusion, to remark that full information as to the deplorable state of
things in the above-mentioned district has most likely ne'ver been icceived at tne
proper quarters. 1 feel sure tbat it the sufferers had the courage to lay their
grievances before his Excellency Surry Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. , the present Governor-Geneial of
Diarbekir, who is perfectly honest, and whose sole ambition is to insure the peace and
safety of everv class of subjects ot Ills Imperial Majesty the Sultan under his
administration*he would without hesitation take such effective measures as to deliver
the defenceless inhabitants of the district from the above-described evils, and bring
the malefactors to their senses.