Show r ks Drive Into Desert Starvation lis Is s fa rate Fate te of Cities Huge HUfe tj fv Death H w JT CT W I hap Armenia a p L I I. I B By Dr Br Fred P P. P Haggard P FF Secretary American Commission for Armenian and Syrian Relief copyright right 1917 by r Ent Enterprise Association This Thle 1 Is the fourth of Sl six articles on t the ha ho horrors horros In Armenia told by an Ameri Amer American Amerl can authority on the subject Dr Fro are Fred d P. P Haggard has spent pent much time In the atrocities of the German German dominated dominated Turks and Is III head d of the Armenian Ar the Un United States Written especially for The Th ela and n Syrian relief work In Telegram I HE awful story of ot the sl slaughtering slaughter I T THE ing of thousands of defenseless Armenians by Turks with axes at the edge of trench graves the Armenians had first been c compelled to dig themselves is nothing nothing noth nothing ing to tho the tragedy which tame came with the spring and summer Bummer of 1915 Then began co the deportations of I I Greeks along the coasts of the Aegean and Black seas to the desolate desolate deso deso- late regions of the interior Greeks resident in Turkey which Turkey which remember remember remember ber is under complete Prussian domination dom dom- have have shared the same fate as the Armenians and Syrians The Greek colonists were scattered all along the seacoast of the Mediterranean Mediterranean Mediterranean in the adjoining islands and south into Palestine also along the Bl Black ck sea coast and at cities in the interior They with the Armenians and Syrians have formed the most progressive intelligent nt and prosperous prosperous prosperous prosper prosper- ous ous el element ment in the Turkish empire I PERISH According to the latest reliable reports reports reports re re- ports from at least Greeks have been thus driven into the desert and strange parts of tile the country to perish of hunger At a sweep the entire Greek element ele ele- dc- dc me meat ment t along the seacoasts were wiped out Thousands died of starvation in the great forced exodus and their skeletons skeletons tons now lie on the roadsides A letter recently received from Athens signed by a professor in the university and the president of the college at Athens says Seventy five per cent of the un un- un- un fortunate Gre Greeks ks deported Into tile the purely Turkish places in the interior interior interior inte inte- Of ot Asia Minor 1 died of hunger cold coid and untold sufferings and mortal mortal mortal mor mor- tal disease MOTHERS TORTURED I In their enforced painful march to toI I the interior the infants and the lit little little lit Ut- tle children and the weaker mothers died Mothers were not allowed to bury their dead lead Even those Greeks who for one reason reason rea rea- son soli or other were allowed to remain in their houses are In extreme distress distress distress dis dis- tress and destitution The entire country is famine stricken stucken its people people people peo peo- dying ill in the streets from epidemics epidemics epi epi epidemics such euch as typhus and cholera Many cities are literally in iii rags The first blow to the Greeks came came through the mobilization of 1914 The bread winners of the Greek families in Turkey aIl an between 16 and 55 were first taken for foI the tho army then for labor receiving for far their services services ser ser- vices nothing but a loaf of bread per day Then came the deportations In one case where Greek peasants had been deported from a village of survivors who managed managed managed man man- aged to reach Constantinople eighty soon perished from froni starvation and exhaustion LIKE FLOCKS OF SHEEP A prominent bishop writes Many thousands of families have been coming from Black sea seacoast ea coast during durin the last few days da I saw them with my own eyes as they were ere coming comin like flocks of sheep for weeks on the high mountains amid rains rams and snows The number of these unfortunate Christians will amount to souls in fifteen days At one ono time there were over 15 15 Greek refugees In They were absolutely penniless and nearly naked They spent the tho intensely cold ni nights in open fields From near Smyrna nearly nearly nearly near near- ly Greeks were deported en masse to Iconium of the New Testament I This story o or of tho the atrocities perpetrated perpetrated perpetrated by tho the Turks on the unoffending ing Greeks is quite supplementary to I the tragic fate of the Armenians of I whom from to have lave have I been massacred tir have died from I starvation and more are arenow arenow I now barely keeping themselves alive in exile I |