TURKEY. 



745 



Armenian Troubles. Armenians in Athens, 

 London, New York, and other cities, banded in 

 the Henchagist Society, which has for its object 

 the emancipation of Armenia from Turkish rule 

 by force of arms, the Philarmenic Society, .which 

 aims to bring about relief from the hard rule of 

 Turkey by peaceable means, and other simi- 

 lar leagues and committees, have carried on an 

 agitation in Armenia and a propaganda in other 

 countries ever since the achievement of Bul- 

 garian independence in the hope of securing the 

 independence of their own coxmtry through the 

 interposition of the powers. By Article XVI of 

 the Treaty of Berlin, the Porte assumed the obli- 

 gation to carry out without further delay the im- 

 provements and reforms demanded by local re- 

 quirements in the provinces inhabited by the 

 Armenians, and to guarantee their security 

 against the Circassians and Kurds, and promised 

 to make known periodically the steps taken to 

 this effect to the powers, who would superintend 

 their application. In the secret convention under 

 which the British occupied Cyprus England en- 

 gaged to defend Turkish Armenia from Russian 

 invasion by force of arms, while the Sultan prom- 

 ised to introduce necessary reforms, to be agreed 

 upon later between the 2 powers, into the Govern- 

 ment and for the protection of the Christians and 

 other subjects of the Porte in these territories. 

 The British Government has from time to time 

 reminded the Porte of the obligations assumed, 

 but no complete definite scheme of reform has 

 been agreed upon or discussed. 



An attempt was made in the early days of 1894 

 to murder Simon Bey Mahsoud, an Armenian 

 official, and for this crime two Armenian revo- 

 lutionists were sentenced to death. In March an 

 attempt was made on the life of the Armenian 

 patriarch in Constantinople. When, later, that 

 dignitary retired the Porte found difficulty in 

 getting a qualified person to accept the duties 

 of locum tenens, which Monsignor Himayak at 

 first refused to assume.- On Feb. 11, in Amasia, 

 28 Armenians were arrested for killing a fellow- 

 Christian who was suspected of being a police 

 spy. They were taken to Yuzgat, and were fol- 

 lowed by the women of their village, who 

 accused the Turkish police officers of committing 

 outrages, and called upon the Armenians of the 

 city to avenge them. Thus appealed to, an 

 Armenian mob in Yuzgat attacked the police, 

 and in the fight the police were overpowered 

 after they had killed 30 and wounded 50 rioters. 

 The United States diplomatic and consular 

 authorities have several times interceded in be- 

 half of Armenians who are American citizens 

 when they have been imprisoned in Turkey on 

 the charge of seditious practices, usually with 

 the result of their being released and expelled 

 from the country on condition that they should 

 never return. In consequence of the disturb- 

 ances at Yuzgat, which were renewed when a 

 commission came from Constantinople to inves- 

 tigate, a great number of persons were arrested 

 in the province of Sivas. During April, 5 men 

 were executed and many more were sentenced 

 to prison for the Yuzgat affair. Near the end of 

 the month the Mufti of Yuzgat was found 

 hanged, and pinned to his sleeve was a note say- 

 ing that this was the first installment of the 

 debt of the Armenians to Turkish officials. 



More serious troubles occurred about 250 miles 

 east of Sivas, later, in the district of Sassun. m-.-ir 

 Mush, where the Armenians and their Mussul- 

 man neighbors are more lawless, and where the 

 taxgatherers, many of them Kurds, are extor- 

 tioners, and brigandage is common. The Turk- 

 ish Government stationed a large force of troops 

 on the confines of this district when the Arme- 

 nian agitation began to bear fruit there. TOWM r< 1 

 the end of July, according to an official Turkish 

 statement, the men of 10 Armenian villages 

 having formed bands and armed themselves with 

 guns, knives, and hatchets at the instigation of 

 an agitator named Hampartzum, attacked the 

 tribe of Delikan, killing some men, and after- 

 ward the Bekirah and Badikan tribes, and rav- 

 ished women and tortured and massacred the 

 men in these Armenian villages ; after which they 

 ravaged and burned villages inhabited by Mus- 

 sulmans until they were dispersed by Turkish 

 troops, and their leaders, Hampartzum and the 

 priest Mighirditich, were arrested. The refusal 

 of the people of the district to pay taxes and the 

 unwonted zeal of the authorities in collecting 

 them, prompted by the rebellious attitude of the 

 Armenians, soon brought them into sharper con- 

 flict with the sovereign power, and roused the 

 hopes of the military commander, Zeki Pasha, 

 that the expected Armenian insurrection would 

 be started here, affording him the opportunity 

 of gaining distinction by suppressing it. The 

 farming population had been accustomed to pay 

 the local Kurdish beys in service and in kind for 

 protection and immunity not only from Kurd- 

 ish raids but from imperial taxation. When, 

 therefore, the taxgatherers came with guards of 

 irregular Kurdish soldiers and began roughly to 

 distrain for taxes, Kurds and Armenians com- 

 bined and drove away the soldiery. The revolt 

 spread among the Armenians until they mus- 

 tered a force of 3,000, intent upon reprisals 

 against the Kurdish gendarmes who had invaded 

 their houses and committed acts of violence, and 

 determined to defend their homes and property. 

 They were inflamed with the spirit of revolution 

 and nationalism by Bohazian, alias Mourah, a 

 graduate of an American Protestant mission 

 school, and by other agitators. On Aug. 27 the 

 Kurdish irregulars encountered the rebels and 

 killed 300. The military authorities became more 

 determined and energetic in their support of the 

 police and the taxgatherers. The regular troops, 

 however, did not move until, at the solicitation 

 of the local authorities, they were ordered by the 

 Central Government to intervene. 



Kurdish soldiers, with legal authority or with- 

 out, drove off a large number of cattle in the 

 night of Sept, 18. The Armenians gave chase, 

 and a bloody affray followed in which 3 Kurds 

 and 2 Armenians were killed. The Armenians 

 recovered their cattle, and the Kurds complained 

 to the authorities. Gendarmes and soldiers were 

 sent, who searched houses and were guilty of acts 

 of rapine and violation. The Armenians, to avoid 

 arrest or fearing a massacre, betook themselves 

 to the mountains. It was noised abroad that 

 they were in open rebellion. Zeki Pasha, the 

 Mu'shir commanding the troops at Erzingan, re- 

 ceived orders from Constantinople to proceed with 

 regular troops into the district and suppress what 

 was represented to be a widespread revolt. The 



