DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4752#0215
THE ARMENIANS 205
the Euphrates — where, for a number of years,
Turkish administration has been carried on under
constant dread of European interference, and where
the Christian population has been saved from wrong-
by that dread. Yet even there, take the following-
example out of many which reached my ears, on
the authority of Mr. Barkley {Ride through Asia
Minor, p. 109), not a man who has any prejudice
in favour of Armenians (as any reader of his book
will see). " In October, 1877 ... at an Armenian
village, eight hours from Yuzgat, a band of recruits
arrived one evening. They . . . ordered the
villagers to bring them- everthing they had, money,
food, etc. The people in a panic obeyed "...
(only hiding their raki, which the soldiers rum-
maged till they found). " Then they made a hell
of the place. Every woman, young and old, was
insulted and outraged in presence of husband,
fathers, and brothers. All the cattle, horses, and
sheep were either stabbed or shot, and finally
the village was burnt to the ground. Then the
ruffians departed for Yuzgat, forcing the men of
the village to accompany them as porters, the
soldiers even riding on the men themselves ; some
of the old and feeble soon broke down, but were
forced to continue by being pricked forward with
knives and bayonets. One old man actually died
on the road." But the British consul, a man of
the Euphrates — where, for a number of years,
Turkish administration has been carried on under
constant dread of European interference, and where
the Christian population has been saved from wrong-
by that dread. Yet even there, take the following-
example out of many which reached my ears, on
the authority of Mr. Barkley {Ride through Asia
Minor, p. 109), not a man who has any prejudice
in favour of Armenians (as any reader of his book
will see). " In October, 1877 ... at an Armenian
village, eight hours from Yuzgat, a band of recruits
arrived one evening. They . . . ordered the
villagers to bring them- everthing they had, money,
food, etc. The people in a panic obeyed "...
(only hiding their raki, which the soldiers rum-
maged till they found). " Then they made a hell
of the place. Every woman, young and old, was
insulted and outraged in presence of husband,
fathers, and brothers. All the cattle, horses, and
sheep were either stabbed or shot, and finally
the village was burnt to the ground. Then the
ruffians departed for Yuzgat, forcing the men of
the village to accompany them as porters, the
soldiers even riding on the men themselves ; some
of the old and feeble soon broke down, but were
forced to continue by being pricked forward with
knives and bayonets. One old man actually died
on the road." But the British consul, a man of