Reuter's correspondent at Constantinople has forwarded a full account of
the latest massacre of Armenians at Eghin, a prosperous town about one hundred and twenty-five miles south of Trebizond. Early in September the chief Turkish official went away, and was replaced by another, who was speedily reinforced by Hadgi-Mahommed of Sarajuk, a man said to be experienced in massacres. On Septem- ber 15th the Kurds descended into the town, the soldiers joined them, and both attacked the Armenians, house by house. The male inmates were slain, the house was pillaged, and then it was set on fire. The Armenian men, who were un- usually prosperous and civilised, were killed to the number of eight hundred, besides fifty-two women and a number of children, who were laid on their backs and their throats cut. The women were driven into the yard of the Govern- ment building and other places, and then the handsomest among them were outraged. The most hopeless features in the massacre were that the Armenians never struck a stroke, even with atlas, in their own defence—they had no arms— and that the Government immediately reported to Europe that the Armenians of Eghin had burned their own houses and fled to Persia. It is an aggravation of the crime that one or two Massulmans sheltered fugitives, as showing that the immense majority sinned against light.
Previous page
