DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4752#0221
THE ARMENIANS 211
crimes which seem to us so unnatural as to imply
insanity in the perpetrators.
To appreciate what was the situation to the
verge of which the Armenians were often brought
and which they felt as a danger continually
threatening them in case they displeased their
masters and a riot was roused, one must conceive
what has been always the character of a thorough-
going Turkish massacre. It does not mean merely
that thousands are killed in a few days by the
sword, the torture, or the fire. It does not mean
merely that everything they possess is stolen, their
houses and shops looted and often burned, every
article worth a halfpenny taken, the corpses
■stripped. It does not mean merely that the sur-
vivers are left penniless—without food, sometimes
literally stark naked. That is only the beginning,
the brighter and lighter side of a massacre in
Turkey. Sometimes, when the Turks have been
specially merciful, they have offered their victims
an escape from death by accepting Mohammedan-
ism. But as to the darker side of Turkish massacre
■—personal outrage and shame—take what the
more freespoken historians of former times have
told ; gather together the details of the most
horrible and indescribable outrages that occasional
criminals of half-lunatic character commit in this
country ; imagine those criminals collected in
crimes which seem to us so unnatural as to imply
insanity in the perpetrators.
To appreciate what was the situation to the
verge of which the Armenians were often brought
and which they felt as a danger continually
threatening them in case they displeased their
masters and a riot was roused, one must conceive
what has been always the character of a thorough-
going Turkish massacre. It does not mean merely
that thousands are killed in a few days by the
sword, the torture, or the fire. It does not mean
merely that everything they possess is stolen, their
houses and shops looted and often burned, every
article worth a halfpenny taken, the corpses
■stripped. It does not mean merely that the sur-
vivers are left penniless—without food, sometimes
literally stark naked. That is only the beginning,
the brighter and lighter side of a massacre in
Turkey. Sometimes, when the Turks have been
specially merciful, they have offered their victims
an escape from death by accepting Mohammedan-
ism. But as to the darker side of Turkish massacre
■—personal outrage and shame—take what the
more freespoken historians of former times have
told ; gather together the details of the most
horrible and indescribable outrages that occasional
criminals of half-lunatic character commit in this
country ; imagine those criminals collected in