Million Armenians Killed or in Exile – The New York Times, December 15, 1915
Million Armenians Killed or in Exile – The New York Times, December 15, 1915
American Committee on Relief Says Victims of Turks Are Steadily Increasing
POLICY OF EXTERMINATION
More Atrocities Detailed in Support of Charge That Turkey Is Acting Deliberately.
December 15, 1915
In a statement issued yesterday from the offices of the American Committee for Armenian and Syrian Relief at 70 Fifth Avenue, further atrocities committed by Turks upon Armenian Christians were detailed and additional evidence was given to support Lord Bryce’s assertion that the massacres are the results of a deliberate plan of the Turkish government to “get rid of the Armenian question,” as Abdul Hamid once said, by getting “rid of the Armenians.”
Professor Samuel T. Dutton, Secretary of the committee said:
“According to all the best evidence which the American Committee has received, it is probably well within the truth to say that of the 2 million Armenians in Turkey a year ago, at least 1 million have been killed or forced into Islam, or compelled to flee the country, or have died upon the way to exile, or are now up on the road to the deserts of Northern Arabia, or are already there. The number of victims is constantly increasing. Surely there can be no greater need of immediate help, even in these troublous times, then the desperate need of the Armenian refugees. The American Committee has already done much in collecting and sending funds, as has also the English Committee, but there is still the direst need of generous contributions. All contributions should be sent to Charles R. Crane, Treasurer, 70 Fifth Avenue.”
Walter H. Mallory, Executive Secretary of the American Committee, said that the committee was in close touch with the Lord Mayor’s committee of London and that “daily authentic reports of almost unbelievable atrocities” were received. In the statement made public there was an excerpt from a letter received by the American Committee from the English committee, which read:
“The committee knows that there are 180,000 refugees still in the Caucasus besides 30,000 who have died there, and 70,000 who have returned to parts of Turkey and Persia.
A large part of the statement is taken up with a letter received by the American Committee from a missionary stationed in Konia. In part, the letter read:
“Soon after the great deportation that preceded the arrival of the new Vali, Miss C. and I drove out to Kachin Han, the first station of the railroad toward Eregli. Just to follow the crowd, as a large number had been driven off on foot with the expectation of taking the railroad later on. Kachin Han is about three hours from here by carriage, and even so near to Konia as this we found about one hundred people, sitting and lying about the station in utter desolation. They had been there three days: most of them had eaten up all the provisions they had and looked haggard and emaciated, veritable famine victims such as one sees in pictures of a scene in India.
“The train from Konia arrived while we were there, and the greater number of the of the people dragged themselves to the cars in an effort to get on board, but were pushed back by the gendarmes, partly because they had no tickets and partly because there was no room: so the poor people were forced to turn back.