Show RED SIN S-IN ARMENIA A Correspondent Says Thereye Are Two Sides to the Story I THE SASSOUN MASSACRE I 1 F 7J S ABOUT IT WILL EVER BE KXOX I I 3ICH Women nuiL Children Murdered In Cold llldod nail IVith no 3forc Compassion Than if They Had Heeii n Flock of Ducks Xnmclccs horrors of the Kurdish Frontier Ptt thc IhIlOlaricN have Played London Feb Copyrighted 1S03 by the Associated PressA letter has been received here from the special I correspondent of the Associated Press I who was sent to Armenia from London I to investigate the reported Armenia atrocities and who at present is in Armenia It contains the first authentic authen-tic news from Armenia direct and s says saysWhatever Whatever secrets may lie under the I snow on the Armenian mountains it seems beyond dispute from what I have heard from many lips that theTh published stories of ferocious butchery butch-ery and red horror in the villages have at least a reasonable foundation of truth and that any change author j ized by further investigation will deal more with numbers than with degree I de-gree of horror I Two Siilcs to the Story II i But no matter what light we throw upon the spasmodic wickedness of the Turk or upon the ingenious deviltry of the revolutionary conspirators we find that it is still the innocent that suffer most The Turks declare that the Armenians Ar-menians have inflicted shocking outrages i out-rages upon Turkish men and women I For instance it is reported that as a means of inciting the Turks to commit com-mit outrages that will bring down upon them the wrath of a civilized world Armenians have thrust gunth cartridges into the bodies of living I Turkish men and women and have exploded I ex-ploded them and that in the case of one man a hole was made just be I I low J the bones of the chest for the insertion in-sertion of a quantity of gun powder which was then ignited as a sort of a bomb Truth Vill Never He Known The correspondent also remarks The impartial truith of the Sassotin massacre will probably never > be known for the dead tell no tales A rcareJful sifting of all the facts obtainable from trustworthy sources in Constantinople Skssoun Kerasund Trebizonde and Bitlis indicates thut this is what happened hap-pened Certain Armenian peasants to the number of several thousands were tend ing their herds and Hocks in their summer sum-mer pastures in the Sassoun mountains along the borders of Kurdistan They were living in temporary villages They were under contract to defend them against the raids of cattle steal ers and Kmdish Wands A short time before the villagers were ready to re turn to tiheir homes in the valleys with their fattened cattle a band of Kurdish bandits industriously searching for a winters supply of provisions raided their stock The villagers and the KurdiSh protectors made a vigorous defense They wouldhave ended it but before the fighting was over the Turk ish I government came into the affair and then the real trouble began Some of them telegraphed that a con piracy was in progress among the Armenians Ar-menians in the mountain villages and the order came straight from the palace pal-ace acePunish the villagers to the utmost extremity Fought Without Hope I The palace had not paused to inquire into i the truth of the rumor and the officers offi-cers entrusted with the execution of tile order did not stop to investigate the facts wilson the troops arrived on the < ground The Kurdish bandits jdined forces with the Turkish regulars and t even the Kurds Who had been defend ing i the Armenians turned traitors and swelled the number of the government troops The poor Armenian peasants were then left to the mercy of a force of Turkish regulars and two bands o > r I Kurds The outrage of Armenian women and children by the Turks in that part of the country Is socommon a thing even at times of absolute quiet that there can be no doubt that this massacre was uttended with outrage and attro i city too horrible to think of The Armenians FI F I Ar-menians in Athens and Constantinople I assert that fortytwo villages were destroyed de-stroyed and nearly 10000 persons massacred mas-sacred hut more impartial and equally well informed persons put the number at twentyfive vHags and from 1000 to 3000 persons killed I I As for the Turkish commission it is i such a fraud that it is a waste of j breath to talk about it I What the European residents of 1 Constantinople are really looking forward for-ward to with confidence in is the investigation 1 in-vestigation of the whole affair by an European commission They believe that the Turkish commission will bring in such an unsatisfactory report that i the Christian nations will appoint a I I I i commission and make an investigation whether the Turks like it or not i The sultans promise of reform will not be binding upon the Armenian revolutionary agents no matter what may come and until the revolutionary ngitation is provided for one way or another by the Christian powers of the world there will be no end to the disturbances dis-turbances in Armenia Too Horrible to Think Of Not only should the Sassoun massacre mas-sacre be probed to the bottom but ail the attending circumstances should be carefully considered For one thing the state of morals in Armenia and especially es-pecially along the Turkish frontier should receive the closest scrutiny The facts that are now and then told as merest matters of course are most appalling ap-palling in the depth of depravity When an Armenian girl is to be married she is taken from her home and outraged by bands of Turks and Kurds and any member of her family who lifts a hand in defense of her honor is shot down On the Kuixlish frontlier the ravisher do not even wait for the approach of a jjirVs wedding but they seizs her wham she has reached certain age ana carry 2 = iii J I her off to the mountains where ehe is i most Shamefully treated In a few days sine is allowed to return w her Siome This infamous practice is so common that it is declared there is not a young Armenian woman living atong the I KurdQh frontier wh has not been a i victim of it Even children of tender years tire nat exBmpft tenet some have I actually died in the most ffrightfuL agony The Situation As the situation now stands one is forced to belisve bach Turk and Armenian forn menian are In the wrong So far as the Turk declares that he is trying to suppress sup-press a revoiutTonary movement he is unquestionably m the rignt Host of the acts of the leaders of this movement move-ment are 110 less shocking than theta of the Turks opposing it Nt one can b ame the Turks for trying to suppress revoIiutionary moveraawts or for baking prompt measures to maintain the integrity in-tegrity of his empire yet wuatmust be said of him when he obtains the destruction of two dozen viiilaigas upon the mere rumor tiha > an uprising la In progress We have only to seek the counteipart its cruelty among soma of the 1sad rs of the Armenian revolutionary revolu-tionary movements It is a tick certain of these Armenian conspiraitord arranged ar-ranged to murder the Rev Edward Bigg and other Arm = nhn mls Ionairiea at IMarsovian and fasten tthe blame upon the Turks in order thait the United States might infliCt summary punsh I merat upon the Turkish government thereby making pofsible Armnian in I dependsnce One will seairch a long I time in the pages of history for a more I diahdlicail plot than that for the murder mur-der of the miosionaries I In his hatred of Christianity and his rage at revolutionary conspiracies the Turk believes and would like to prove the Armenian missionaries are responsible respon-sible for the revolutionary movement I Missionary York 1 I As a matter of faot the Turk is much i ivearer right than he has any idea of 1 The missionaries are responsible fore I th for-e revolutionary movement but not in j the way the Turk believes lh yare y-are responsible for having educated the theF jiaw Armenian youth for having made F a man of him and brought him to I k now Die has an immortal soul The I education and civilizing influences of I i free America have been brought to the wilds of Armenia and the younger Armenian Ar-menian has begun to feel he is a man and not a Moslem slave The missionaries mission-aries are making men of the Armenians Arme-nians and therefore they are responsible responsi-ble for the revolutionary feelings It is i the etory of Bulgaria over again It should be born in mind with this view of the situation the missionaries of Armenia do not try to make r 3gious convents The missionaries are doing a grand work in tire inteifrst of civilization and humanity and for the Turks to say they are directly or indirectly inciting j the Armenians to revolution is quite as ridiculous as the portes assertion that 1 outrages in the Sascoun villages were committed by the villagers them selves |