TUKKKY. 





apathetic, the Frochak undertook to plunge the 

 capital into anarchy and force the intervention of 

 Europe. Large bombs filled with dynamite were 

 smuggled in from abroad and placed in the hands 

 of Armenian? in vark-ii:- :ie city. Rude 



grenades charged with gunpowder were made in 

 s and distributed in like manner. 

 i> ,i men carrying sacks apparently holding 

 coin entered the Ottoman Bank in Galata by 

 and threes. When 26 had thus assembled unob- 

 served they suddenly began firing revolvers, killing 

 a kavassand three zaptiehs who came to his u 

 ance and exploding hand grenades in the vestibule. 

 ! Igar Vincent, the manager, fled with the other 

 officials to the upper chambers and into the Tobacco 

 Regie building, where several of them were cap- 

 tured. Gendarmes and soldiers quickly gathered 

 outside, but they were kept at bay by the Armenians, 

 who fired revolvers from the balconies and the roof 

 for an hour and a half, and when their cartridges 

 were spent hurled bombs among them, causing them 

 to run away. 



Meanwhile the holders of the Ottoman Bank re- 

 mained i;. .. They placed 15 pounds of 

 dynamite in the cellar, and threatened to blow up 

 the bank with all the money and securities in the 

 vaults, sacrificing their own lives and those of the 

 European. Turkish, and Armenian bank officers and 

 clerks that they held as hostages unless their lives 

 were promised them and a safe exit from the coun- 

 try. They demanded also that the powers secure 

 the rights of the Armenian people. The Russian 

 dragoman Maximoff and : Vincent came 

 at night, having gained the Sultan's reluctant con- 

 sent for the men to leave the country. They were 

 conducted secretly to Sir Edgar Vincent's yacht, 

 and on the following evening were transferred to a 

 French steamer bound for Marseilles. They did 

 not appropriate a single piece of the T 1.500.000 

 lying in the bank, but helped the bank officials to 

 store the gold and silver away, using only some 

 bags of dollars to barricade the doors. 



Almost instantly after the first explosions bands 

 of the lower order of Mussulmans arose, apparently 

 organized and prepared as well as the Armenian 

 revolutionists, for they all wore similar dress and 

 were armed with clubs and iron bars in a twinkling, 

 the weapons being distributed in som 

 Turkish officials and police agents. These bands 

 went through the streets, beating to death every 

 male Armenian that they encountered and break- 

 ing into houses to kill the men. The handicrafts- 

 men and tradesmen were sought out by their Turk- 

 ish competitors and murdered. Those who fled to 

 the quays were struck down in sight of the crews 

 and passengers of ships, and even those who suc- 

 ceeded in getting away in boats were followed and 

 murdered on the water. Bodies lay in heaps in the 

 streets, 50 in one place. No grown Armenian 

 escaped in this part of Constantinople unless he 

 was sheltered in the house of a Moslem or a Euro- 

 pean. One group of 45 women and children was 

 slaughtered on a roof. Low-caste Kin 

 Circassians. Albanians, and Turks came into Con- 

 stantinople from the Asiatic side to join in pillaging 

 Armenians and looting shops. There were disturb- 

 ances in Pera also, and in Kassim Pasha. The mil- 

 itary and the police, instead of stopping the riot, 

 joined sometimes in the murderous work. The Ar- 

 menians continued at intervals to fire dynamite 

 bombs on the heads of the troops or pedestrians. 



At the same honr that the bank was captured the 

 revolutionary committee forwarded to each of the 

 six embassies at Pera a petition recounting the griev- 

 ances of the Armenian nation, and formula! i: 

 proposals of reform based upon those that the p* 

 at the instance of England, had induced the Sultan 



spinf .11. Armene Ga: 



men of education and me- 

 committee. The others w.-re of the p 



When the fact of tl. 

 became k: : e follow r massacre 



: 



newed, though in ti. 

 had taken place the An. 

 attacked. The guard ships Ian 

 the emba- - juau froi; 



"Imogene" while marching through UK- 

 tacked some Turks that were beating Armenians. 

 The Porte subsequently complaine>: 

 ference, and the British charge d'affaires. Mr. 

 bert. replied that he could not prevent British sail- 

 ors from protecting Armenians who were being 

 murdered by Turks. Simultaneously with tl.- 

 tack on the bank the revolutionaries began to ex- 

 plode dynamite bombs in four different quart 

 the city in the vicinity of police stations. In Stam- 

 boul a band of revolutionists seized a khan, or 

 ness block, and poured a rain of bombs into the 

 streets on either side of the building. At Haskoi a 

 bomb was exploded at the guardhouse, killing the 

 officer in command and several soldiers. In the 

 Samatia quarter the revolutionists threw bombs 

 from the Sulu monastery and the school at thv 

 hammedans and the police, killing a great number 

 of persons before the troops forced the barri' 

 and arrested the rioters, A bomb was exploded 

 near the Galata Serai guardhouse in Pera, killing 

 and maiming several soldiers. At Voivoda and 

 Taxim similar demonstrations were made. At the 

 customhouse of Stamboul 250 Armenian hamals, 

 the harbor porters of Constantinople, created a dis- 

 turbance by killing a policeman and filing revol- 

 vers, causing a Mussulman crowd to gather. A 

 fight ensued in which many Armenians were killed. 

 ::llethan shots were fired upon the quarantine 

 guard. There, as elsewhere, Greeks and Jews joined 

 the Mussulmans in taking vengeance on the Arme- 

 nian disturbers, of whom 60 were killed. In the Kas- 

 sim Pasha and Haskoi quarters scarcely a single 

 male Armenian escaped the fury of the mob. In 

 the Psamatia quarter the destruction of Armenian 

 property was enormous. 



On Aug. 28 there were numerous arrests of Ar- 

 menians, which led to further sporadic outbreaks 

 During the day the police collected a large number 

 of bombs in the barricaded houses, monasteries, and 

 schools. A store of these was found in the Arme- 

 nian church of Baluk Bazar in Pera. On the 29th 

 the Turks were wrought up to frenzy again by Ar- 

 menians who threw bombs among the soldiers near 

 the Ottoman Bank and fired on the patrols from 

 shops. 



On Aug. 31 some Armenians tried to start the 

 riots afresh by discharging a bomb and firing re- 

 volvers in Galata, but the troops were in possession 

 of all the streets and maintained perfect order. A 

 demonstration of softas that was attempted in the 

 Sulimanieh quarter had been suppressed and many 

 of the participants arrested on Aug. 29. with the 

 result of quelling the inflammable fanaticism of the 

 Jmans. whose -re indeed checked, 



unless fresh provocation was given, by tl. - 

 trade issued in response to representations of the 

 powers on Aug. '21 in the evening. The searching 

 of the khans for concealed Armenians and forexplo- 

 vas conducted under the superintendence of 

 the foreign consuls. Some of the Armenians ar- 

 rested were disguised as mollahs and soldiers. The 

 police found several hundred priests" dresses. It 

 was inferred that the killing of some Greeks dur- 

 ing the riots by men habited as softas was the work 

 of Armenian revolutionaries. A part of the revo- 



