738 



TURKEY. 



with the desire to revenge themselves on the Ar- 

 menian revolutionists. The Armenians of the town 

 and neighboring villages who escaped the fury of 

 the Mohammedan mobs, flocked to the American 

 mission, where the English vice-consul, Major 

 Williams, raised the British flag and defended them 

 with a strong guard placed under his command by 

 the Turkish Vali. All the respectable Moslems of 

 the towns harbored fugitive Christians in their 

 houses. The Turkish troops were engaged in keep- 

 ing the Kurdish horde from entering and sacking 

 the town. They refrained from attacking the Ar- 

 menian revolutionists, who were strongly posted in 

 the center of the town, for fear that, if they drove 

 them out by force, this would lead to a general 

 massacre of Christians and the irretrievable ruin of 

 the town. The authorities appealed in their per- 

 plexity to Major Williams, who proposed a series 

 of conditions which, though they were exceedingly 

 lenient to the revolutionists, were accepted by both 

 the Turks and the Kurds. The Armenian leaders, 

 instead of grasping this opportunity to escape 

 from their hopeless position, delayed accepting 

 the proffered terms, promising an answer on the 

 following morning. In the night a Turkish official. 

 Hamdi Bey, was shot, sharp firing broke out .-ill 

 over the town, and it was with the greatest diffi- 

 culty that the authorities could restrain the Turks 

 and the soldiers. The Turkish officials then held 

 a conference with the English, Russian, and Per- 

 sian consular representatives, and fresh terms were 

 drawn up, severer than the fir>t, yet still offer- 

 ing amnesty to all Armenians except the revo- 

 lutionary agitators, of whom the foreigners, about 

 40 in number that had come in from I'ersia, would 

 be handed over to their own governments for trial, 

 while the others would be tried by Turkish, law. 

 Major Williams and Dr. Raynolds, of the American 

 mission, laid these conditions before the revolution- 

 ary leaders, pointing out that by their acceptance 

 of these they could save the Armenian population 

 from wholesale massacre. They again promised to 

 give their answer the following moniing. and again 

 firing broke out in the night, each party accusing 

 the other of being the aggressor. The Turkish 

 commander then fired upon the position held by 

 the revolutionists with mountain guns, and the Ar- 

 menians replied with a rifle fire till they were driven 

 back to their central position. At night they offered 

 to surrender, but hesitated to accept the terms that 

 were offered, and while the leaders asked for a fur- 

 ther parley all the revolutionists secretly left the 

 town with their arms during the night. The au- 

 thorities ordered the Kurdish irregulars to pursue 

 the fleeing band, which numbered 1,500 Armenians. 

 The troops overtook and dispersed them, but they 

 escaped into Persia. The Turks believed that they 

 were still hiding in the town, and the Moslem 

 fanaticism and predatory passions of the lower 

 classes broke loose. Burning and pillaging con- 

 tinued for two days. The 15,000 refugees in the 

 American mission were saved by the bravery of the 

 Turkish soldiers guarding them. All the monas- 

 teries were destroyed, including Varrak, with its 

 libraries of priceless manuscripts. The town was 

 wrecked and the prosperity of the vilayet was in- 

 jured beyond repair. The official report to the 

 Porte gave the number of persons killed and 

 wounded in the fighting as 257 Mohammedans and 

 99 Armenians. The affair was followed by frontier 

 disturbances between Turkish and Persian Kurds 

 and by the massacre and pillaging of villages in 

 the vilayet by Turks. Persians, and Armenians un- 

 til the Turkish troops were able to restore order 

 after thousands of persons had been slain. 



Campaign against the Druses. When the 

 Druses of Haurun revolted in December, 1895, after 



some preliminary successes, the Turks lost a body 

 of troops that fell into an ambuscade near the camp 

 at Busra el Harir, which the army had removed 

 after 3,000 of the 38,000 men had died of fever and 

 dysentery at Sheikh Meskin. The Turks were vic- 

 torious in a battle with 10,000 Druses on the follow- 

 ing day, but in the night the enemy returned to the 

 attack, and in the confusion one Turkish division 

 fired upon another. \Vhen the Druses were finally 

 put to flight, the dilatory tactics of the aged Turk- 

 ish commander, Edhem Pasha, gave them time to 

 block the roads, so that the army, composed in part 

 of brave Albanian soldiers, were virtually besieged 

 in Sueideh, and suffered from famine until a more 

 efficient general was sent to take charge of the 

 operations. The Druses were finally compelled to 

 sue for peace, and bribery played a part in the 

 settlement. One of the conditions of peace was that 

 the Druses should be liable for military service. 

 When the Turkish authorities attempted to enforce 

 this condition a serious engagement took place, with 

 heavy losses on both sides. Finally the soldiers cap- 

 tured about 1,500 men of all ages, and shipped them 

 off to Europe. In June, 1896, some bands of Druses 

 caused fresh trouble, and an expedition of 600 sol- 

 diers was sent out from the garrison town of Basra 

 el Harir. These were overwhelmed by Druses south 

 of Sueideh, who killed three fourths of the Turkish 

 battalion and captured the rest and two pieces of 

 artillery, losing 350 of their own men. It being 

 evident that the Druses had not been disarmed at 

 the end of the former revolt, the Governor of Da- 

 mascus. Osman Xouri Pasha, was removed from his 

 post. The Druses were now more united than be- 

 fore, and had the Arabs with them. The Syrian 

 Redifs were called out, and re-enforcements were 

 sent out from Smyrna and Salonica. On. July 18 

 the Turkish troops gained a victory near Suiedeh, 

 after several engagements in which the Druses were 

 dispersed only to assemble again. On July 23 they 

 were routed again at Sobba, the troops being aided 

 by Arabs and Circassians, who got the cattle cap- 

 tured from the Druses. The troops suffered heavy 

 losses in battle, and they were incapacitated by lack 

 of supplies and the ravages of disease. The Druse 

 women fought with their husbands, and the Druses 

 often inflicted severe losses on the Turkish troops 

 when armed only with swords and axes. At one 

 point a detachment of 300 Redifs intrenched be- 

 hind a wall was annihilated. Some of the Redifs 

 of the Hauran refused to fight the Druses. The 

 leaders of the Druses asked the intervention of the 

 French and Russian consuls general, and the Otto- 

 man authorities authorized their mediation, and at 

 the same time undertook an inquiry into the state 

 of affairs in the Hauran. Hostilities were therefore 

 suspended in the beginning of August. Conditions 

 of peace were offered by the Turkish authorities, 

 which some of the Druse leaders accepted. Others 

 refused because they feared that they would be left 

 at the mercy of the Kurds and Circassians if they 

 laid down their arms. 



Riots in Constantinople. The Armenian revo- 

 lutionary societies aimed at the overthrow of the 

 Turkish Government through the intervention of the 

 European powers. They were said to be organ i/ed 

 on the system of the Italian Carbonari in committees, 

 named the Huntchak, Frochak, and Abdag, to which 

 later Gaizag and Votchintchak were added, whose 

 members had no knowledge or communication with 

 any except their fellows on the same committee. 

 The committees acted on orders received from a 

 mysterious central committee. The Huntchak or- 

 ganized the demonstration and attack on the police 

 that provoked the disorders in Constantinople on 

 Sept. 30, 1895. When the uprising at Van and the 

 fresh disturbances in Anatolia left the powers still 



