Home / Genocide, Uncategorized / The Turkish genocides (part 2)

The Turkish genocides (part 2)

France, who praises the French revolution and detested the “outdated Christian faith”, went to the extreme of printing cartoons depicting Armenians storming Muslim mosques, killing their brave defenders, and praised the sultan for his courageous defence of Turkey against the Armenians! Only in England the public opinion after the massacres were so upset that they were able to force the government into action, but too late.

In connection with these killings German and American Christian organisations started an aid campaign, in particular for the orphans whose mothers and fathers had been murdered for refusing to become Muslims. One of those who ventured out to help was Karen Jeppe, who due to her efforts later earned the name “Mother of the Armenians”.

Karen Jeppe

In front of Gyllings parsonage stands a stone in honour of a women who few probably remember today: Karen Jeppe.

Coincidently, in 1876 during the first large Armenian pogroms, a small girl by the name of Karen Jeppe was to see the light in Gylling, not far from Odder. The child had one leg somewhat shorter than the other, and the midwife said: “Surely, the fist piglet rarely comes out right.” Ingeborg Sick writes that Karens mother refused to let herself be daunted by the rough comment. “Her mother takes her little piglet with her and would not leave her for anything in the world.” (p. 20)

Karen was baptised in Gylling church, and though she physically remains a weakling, it turns out that her spirit grows to compensate. Before one year she speaks. At the age of two, she tells long, intricate tales, prays the Lord’s Prayer at the age of three and spells at four. At the age of five years she reads fluently, and at six she starts ploughing through the historical novels of Ingemann. She lives and breathes the heroes so vividly depicted by Ingemann, great Christian men and women who fight for their country and their faith. Such deeds were the ones Karen wished to do for Denmark and for God.

One day her mother initiates Karen into a secret: When Karen was one year, she contracted a serious pneumonia, a disease often lethal for children. The doctor from Odder was called in. After having examined Karen he told the parents that she might not survive the night, and her mother decides to stay awake in prayer. As the hours passed, she prayed thus: “Lord, if my little girl is to turn into a bad or useless being, better take her to You now. But if she can come to serve You and your cause, please save her from death, as is in your power.” Towards morning something changed. The breathing became normal, and the fever left little Karen.

Karen became a very active child, talking when fitting and when not, noisy, but good at tending smaller children. She loves to do this. And she absorbs enormous amounts of knowledge. Karen’s father is a teacher, and he teaches her English and takes her half a year to German-occupied Als, where she learns German. Her father wanted Karen to become a doctor. He sends her to courses in Latin, and extend courses in physics, mathematics and Nordic language. But Karen has a will of her own: she does not want to become a doctor, she prefer to study maths. Karen takes philosophy with excellence, but one day a dizziness catches her, and it becomes worse.

The doctor diagnoses exhaustion, and that her brain is on the verge of breaking. The cure: rest, rest and rest. But Karen is of a different nature. Soon she is highly restless, then exited, or deeply moved. She can’t remain in rest, which causes her three years of disease, where she’s hardly able to do anything, but her close relation to professor Fanny Frederiksen has deep impact on her in this period.

First the tale from the professor of a small, frail church with a huge oversized organ and great tonal range makes her change her style of living. The professor tells in this fairytale that the organ player in the frail church should not play the organ on all pipes at one time, but just a select few, or the church would collapse when shaken by the full power of the instrument. This is similar to the way Karen is built.

Karen understands the tale and starts to live in accordance with it. At the same time, the professor is a tremendous religious inspiration. The faith of Karen is deepened. One day during a lecture in 1902 professor Frederiksen reads an article by Aage Meyer Benedictsen, who was a strong spokesman for suppressed people. She hears about the Turkish massacres against the Armenian people. Karen is happy to follow the lectures, but in spring 1903 a sentence keep coming up in her mind: “You must!”

But she resists, for if she travels to Armenia, she will be unable to use her knowledge. The calling voice within her gets the eventual victory. She contacts Aage Meyer Benedictsen and hears about the Danish committee for Armenian children, which finances ten boys at the Dr. theol Lepsius orphanage for Armenian children in Urfa.

The call is obvious, but her father initially resists with nails and teeth. Eventually he gives up his resistance and even pays for her equipment, but also her old local priest in Gylling needs to be convinced, and only gives in when preaching the text of the 13th Sunday after Trinitatis. He ends his sermon with these words: “If one shouting for help shouts so loudly that he cannot be ignored, one must of course go out and help him.”

Karen arrived at the orphanage of Urfa, where she assisted during the summer of 1908. That summer the joyous message reached the home that the sultan, who had initiated the murders and killings, had been brought down. Now the Young Turks had entered Constantinople, and promises were given for freedom and better times. But the promises turned out to be paper thin. The Turks soon declared only one religion to be valid, namely Islam, and that no other religion had any role to play within Turkey – in spite of this being the land of Christians before being conquered by the Muslims. Thus everything was to happen much differently than Karen had expected.

One of the first persons she was to meet in Urfa was the American woman Corinna Shattauck, who was not afraid of throwing herself into the struggle for the Christian Armenians. She was leader of the American mission and had with her own eyes witnessed the earlier massacres. One day, standing at the window in the mission house, she saw the first move of the massacre. A Turk attacked an Armenian to kill him, but when his wife sought to protect her husband, the Turk cut off both her arms. At that moment two gendarmes broke into her living room, and she exclaimed: “For the sake of God, get this stopped!” They merely replied: “No one can do so, for it is the will of Allah. But we will guard your house, you must not leave it.”

Corinna then jumped to the gate, opened it, raised the star sprangled banner over the mission house, shouted out and called the refugees. And in the three days of terror that followed in Urfa, 300 wounded Armenians fled, crept and sneaked to her. Everywhere they were, in the living room and on the church floor, and eventually placed on cloth in the yard. She saved, nursed help and fed them. Six major powers stood helpless and passive, but one women kept them at bay and forced the killers of the Armenian people to bring bread to the house. She became an important example for Karen, along with Dr. Lepsius.

Amongst the Armenians she gains many friends at the orphanage, which provides shelter for several hundred children, and she adopts two as her own: Misak, and his bride-to-be, Lucia. One Saturday evening in July 1914 Musak comes from the city to the summer residence of Karen and tells “There is war in Europe, but I shall not disturb your sleep.” The rumour turns out to be true. All men are to be drafted. Karen pays Misak free of military service, a wise decision it turned out, as most Armenian were murdered shortly after being drafted.

One day a terrible noise is heard. Why would the children of the orphanage make such an unrest? It turns out that Turkish soldiers are throwing out the Armenian children and taking over the building. Karen has to move into the hospital of Dr. Lepsius. Soon more terrible events take place. A strange train filled with miserable humans arrives in Urfa. They are called Muhadjirs, deported. All are Armenians and they are to be moved to another place in the country, but where?

They related that they have been driven from their homes on hours notice without having time to bring even the most essential items. They sleep in and around the orphanage. Karen gets food for them, bandage their naked bloody feet, but next day the police forces them on. The next day another crowd of more than a thousand arrives, far more desperate than the first, women have given birth on the way and other women who in desperation had thrown their children in the river. Many are old sick and even dying. That night many die at the orphanage. The feeling is panicky. What will come next?

After New Year the attitude of the Turks grows increasingly hostile. All Armenian with an education are to be imprisoned. They are then subjected to torture: Nails and teeth are pulled out, ears and noses cut off, while drumbeats are played to overwhelm the screaming. The Armenians storm to Karen and ask her what is going on, if they are all destined to die? Karen senses something terrible: The fear of death. One train after another with deportees arrives in transit, people driven by soldiers as if they were animals. They throw themselves down and consume dirty waste water. Others are only able to crawl. Men and women are separated, and gendarmes rob them of everything.

Each train of shabbily clad persons tell their gruesome tales. Now only women and children arrive. Where are the men? They were forced to dig their own graves, shot and thrown therein. Karen works at full power to get the Armenian fathers of the house to help her organise food and drink.

But now the imprisonments also start in Urfa. Their beloved bishop is captured and
decapitated along with 50 others outside the city. From that day the church bells are silent. The order now has become clear: “No one is barred from having guests, but housing people wanted by the government is outlawed. In that case we shall proceed as needed!”

Soon hundreds of Armenian soldiers are massacred outside the city; they had been
commanded to repair the road. The remaining Armenians take to self-defence. Malaria breaks out. A bullet whistles through the window of the orphanage. In the garden more bullets, and shell fragments. Then deep beats over the general noise. It is the storm bell, the death bell calling the Christians in Urfa, the Edessa of king Abgar.

The last desperate fights roar in the streets and alleys. A male voice sounds from a house: “Mohamedans, you have driven us to despair. Promised us human conditions – and now only furthered the destruction of the Armenians. Killed and vandalized all over the country. Now our turn has come, but we shall die fighting!” Two days the battles raged on. Eventually the white flags went up. All who surrendered were massacred, some by hanging. The gallows are built extraordinarily tall that the dead may be seen wide and far and induce fear in everyone.

One day a Turkish officer told her the following: A girl with her little brother in her hand went off without her family in one of the death marches. He felt pity for her and suggested: “You can be saved by going with a young Turk or Kurd, who will have you and be happy with you.” She replied: “No, I will rather die with my own kin. But please have the mercy to kill my brother first, that I won’t need to worry what became of him.” This he promised, and she called him: “Jacob, you are going home to our Lord, have no fear, for I shall join you. We will find each other in Jesus. Kiss me now, and be calm.”

The boy embrace her with both arms. She kissed him and then gave him over to the
gendarme, who broke his skull with his axe. “Thank you”, said the girl. “Now please kill me the same way, with one strike.” She covered her eyes with her small hands, and in one swing she was killed. The gendarme told this himself, and added: “But I have mourned over the little girl until this day. She was so young – so beautiful and so brave.” He also remembered the young girl, who the leader of the deportation march had set his eyes upon. She was hiding for him, until he addressed the crowd: “I shall destroy you all unless she’d coming along to my tent!”

Then they all grovelled at her feet and begged her to go with him. She cried, cried all day long. But when darkness fell, she went, as for her execution. The next day she was found outside the camp. She lifted her hand and waved goodbye. Then she ran up a brink and was gone. Behind the brink was the great river Euphrates, calm and quiet.

Then the Armenian fathers in the orphanage are arrested and murdered. The entire house is emptied of children. The American leader of the home goes insane and kills himself. The home is ransacked by the police. Misak, Karen’s adopted son, has hidden himself under a large stack of blankets. The blankets are searched and Karen prays to God to blind their eyes. And the miracle occurs, the police doesn’t notice him. Suddenly she saw everything in a new light. She saw the chief of police and the cops standing there, and perceived them as mere shadows, without any power.

She asked the mountain to stand still, and it stood still. And they were blind. Karen says: “Then and there I understood that it is the heroes of faith who accomplish things in this world. But the rest of us should be grateful if we even once catch a glimpse of the glory that can be opened in the eyes of faith.” At dusk that day Lucia was standing by the garden gate, unharmed. The three of them then sat there, Karen with her beloved children, much to talk about and be thankful for.

Karen now decides to set her life at stake. Under the home a cavern is dug. This is hard work. Here a group of 12 doomed Armenians survive the remaining time. By night they are up one at a time. As the priest has been murdered, Karen now conducts the morning prayers. One day typhus breaks out. The wife of the deacon, miss Künzler gets infected, and then Lucia. Nursing takes a toll on Karen. She tends the ill, and manages to get them over the crisis, but she is herself suffering an increasing chronic exhaustion. What is the ending of the parable of the little, frail church with the oversized organ? Was the player one day seduced to play at full strength, demolishing the church? Thus asks Ingeborg Maria Sick in her biography of Karen Jeppe.

One day Karen says: “Misak, take Lucia down, I need to be alone.”

“What is the matter?”, Misak asks worriedly.

“Misak, something has broken inside me! I can’t stand it any longer! But Lucia should not see it, she is still weak.” Karen is put to bed. It is as if a foreign force rages her body. She is deadly exhausted but cannot find ease. “Remember, Misak, that it is not sufficient that my body dies. Also the soul needs to come along. Otherwise it will have too much work in the other world, as it always had here.” Then Karen falls quiet. The world slips away from her, the world too hard to live in for those with hearts of inextinguishable fire.

The Norwegian depute among the Kurds, baroness Wedell Jarsberg, was one of the first to bring the message of the horrors to the north. She had only been able to leave Turkey if she swore that she would never mention what she had seen to any man. She broke her oath during a private dinner, and was asked to get Karen back to Denmark.

But Karen was too ill. She stayed in Turkey – also to protect the 12 doomed Armenians in her basement. Usually there was no mercy with Europeans who protected the rebels. No witnesses were tolerated.

The first travellers who met Karen after the war were stricken by the terrible marks the atrocities had left at Karen. At a meeting, where she reported from the events, she asked to not interrupt or question what she told. “No one would benefit from me sitting here fainting.” When someone disregarded her request and asked if many had been murdered during her stay in the country, she replied: “Yes, just one million.”

Karen came home, but already in 1920 she went out again, this time to Aleppo. On her way there she went through Adfan, were 30,000 Armenians had been murdered during a large congress for teachers and priests which had attracted people from all over Armenia. In Aleppo she was to represent the League of Nations and from 1921 onwards organize the work to track down Armenian women who had entered Muslim slavery, and Armenian children who had been abducted. The women she found were to be given education. But she encountered a great difficulty.

The women they found were discouraged, weak and damaged in their minds. All had been raped, had lived as slaves, their husbands murdered, their children dead. When they were to sew, they had forgotten how, forgotten the stings and the patterns they used to know. Then Karen finds the old Armenian patterns, and the painful faces start to glow. The women weep, strew incense over the patterns, as if they were their murdered children.

The first to venture out with the message of freedom for the captives is Karen’s own adopted son, Misak Melkonian, who even becomes leader of all the collecting stations. It was not easy everywhere. In spite of guarantees from the allied powers, many of the commissioners were killed. In the city of Hassitsche a young Armenian enthusiastically and efficiently joined the work and brought streams of children and women from the keepings of Turks and Arabs back into freedom. He was to die, killed by the men whose women and slaves he helped escape.

Thousands were ‘saved’, but with serious and incurable wounds on body and soul. More than a thousand terrifying accounts of the destinies of women and children in the Turkish and Arab houses were committed to paper by Karen Jeppe. She didn’t quit until her body was worn out.

Outside the parsonage in Gylling stands erect as a cliff, a stone found in the nearby fields, with this brief inscription:

Karen Jeppe
Mother of the Armenians
Died in Aleppo 1934

Danish encyclopaedias spend – at best – a line or two on her life and work.

The year before Karen’s death Hitler had seized power in Germany as leader of the German National Socialist party. He had learned from Turkey and the Osmannic Empire and knew that no one in the west or elsewhere would lift a finger in case he pursued a solution against the Jews similar to the one the Osmannic Empire had executed against its Christian populations.

But Hitler miscalculated. He didn’t become a hero after the war. Except in the Middle East. In the years between the world wars the leading figure of the Turkish genocides, Talat, settled in Berlin, in order that the French or British would not catch him. Here he taught Hitler the trade. Hitler noticed that no Turk or Muslim was punished in spite of six major genocides during 40 years, and that all seemed forgotten. It is no wonder that Hitler at the conference at Wannsee suggested that noone would do anything for the Jews, in his famous statement: “Who, after all, speaks to-day of the annihilation of the Armenians?”

The direction was laid out. The entire procedure had been tested several times in the Turkish Islamic caliphate. Marking the doomed with special yellow signs, banning trade, forced deportations to non-existing lands, train transport in cattle wagons, death marches and starvation, letting the victims dig their own graves, mass cremations etc.

‘Holy’ warriors in all Islamic countries are alike in their thinking and acting, and surprisingly in line with communists and Nazis, who even stand as exemplary in their brutality. “Mein Kampf” is now the second most popular book in Islamic countries, second only to the erringly similar Quran.

Everything had been throughoutly tested for efficiency. The deserts used for annihilation were replaced by camps in the remotest possible places. In contrast to the Osmannic Empire the ordinary population were not to take part in the killings, only selected SS units who would be able to remain quiet. Not only the famous SS divisions Leibstandarte and Totenkopf were effective, likewise the two Islamic SS divisions in the extermination of Serbs and Jews in the Balkans. The Islamic SS divisions were created by the grand mufti of Jerusalem, third highest among the Islamic clergy. The Nazis received due punishment. After the war they paid the bill, errors were admitted, and all the leading persons received capital punishment. In Turkey, nothing happened, and in 1955 the time had come for ethnic cleansing of the final remains of the original population of Asia Minor. An atrocity which caused no public outcry, but was tolerated by the west without complaint, because Turkey was an important NATO ally.

The genocides in the Osmannic Empire 1908-1918

Sultan Abdullah Hamid was ousted in 1908 after 32 years of rule by a military group in Istanbul who called themselves the ‘Young Turks’. The proclaimed a liberal program of reforms, which earned them sympathy and help from Europe, but over time it became clear that the reforms were not to be applied to the Christians. Their slogan was: ‘Osmannize!’ Christians had no room in the new Turkey. That meant a complete annihilation of all Christian elements. The Young Turks invented a new systematic plan for deportations and murder, intended to remove all Christian Armenians from the country

In order that Europe should not wake up over this final genocide, it was decided to deport them to areas where they could be eliminated without any risk. This plan was initiated through decrees and a command from the ministry for internal affairs on May 26th 1915. That the killings could take place in the shadow of the first world war was convenient, as neither England, Russia or France were able to effectively criticise them. Now systematic and well prepared deportations started, and no Christian was to be spared. Thereby the Armenian lands occupied by Islam finally could be assimilated by the occupying power. Armenian land and property could be distributed.

Serphuhi Tavoukdjian relates of his own destiny as Armenian (p. 19): “I shall ask my readers to keep the three following things in mind. Firstly: The Armenians were driven from their homes and murdered, not for inciting a revolt against the government or any crime, but simply because they were Christian.” This was the common practice towards Armenians and other subjected people in the Turkish caliphate: In the conquered territories the choice was given to either become Muslim or remain Christian. The latter was possible by paying the special tax (djizja) for Jews and Christians. But the hard tax caused increasing numbers to convert to Islam. Infidels and adherents of other religions were eliminated without mercy if they did not adopt Islam. In this way, Islam turned into the religion of the majority. This system is called ‘Millet’ after the name it had in the Osmannic Empire. Non-Muslims living under Muslim rule are called ‘dhimmis’. In the Osmannic Empire these were to
wear a special clothing according to them being Jewish or Christian.

In the early years of Islam, the entire North Africa – then a Christian area – was conquered, then Spain, and the Muslim armies penetrated deep into France. Later the Byzantine Empire (present-day Turkey) fell bit by bit, until the Ottoman Empire conquered Constantinople in 1453. The Turks had already made significant inroads in the Balkans. After the fall of Constantinople Hungary fell, and in 1529 the Turks laid siege to Vienna. The Islamic jihad was largely financed by the heavy ‘djizkya’-tax put on non-Muslims. But when the tax was increased to levels where many felt forced to convert to Islam to avoid the tax, bans were issued against Christians and Jews converting.

In a Muslim society like the caliphate, dhimmis have fewer rights than the Muslims. For instance, a dhimmi cannot inherit a Muslim, his testimony in court has no value against a Muslim, killing non-Muslims was rarely taken to court if the killer was Muslim or claimed that the killed had insulted Muhammad. In general, the legal status of a non-Muslim dhimmi is really low. But the “People of the Book” or “People of the Scripture” are, in spite of these Quranic verses, privileged compared to other non-Islamic groups. The People of the Scripture are, after all, a part of the system of Allah, though of lower rank and class. Those outside the system of Allah have no right to exist. Other religions (idolaters, atheists, communists etc.) have not even the right to life. They have no place in an Islamic society.

When references are made to Islam as a “Religion of tolerance”, it is always to the ‘rights’ that these three groups had in the Islamic society. They had the right to live and to work, as long as they submitted themselves to the Islamic authority. Due to the mandatory ‘war tax’ paid by the ‘protected’ to the Islamic wars, the sultans were not always interested in converting the Jews and Christians. Some were needed to pay the taxes. One can say that the dhimmis were living at the mercy of Islam and subject to changing contracts, which from the first caliphs had a typical form:

“We promise not to build churches or cloisters any longer, not to rebuild churches in decay or repair them that exist in areas where Muslims live. We oblige ourselves to admit Muslim travellers to our houses and provide free boarding for three days. We oblige ourselves to not have spies or foreign visitors in churches or cloisters… We promise not to tell our children anything negative about the Quran. We promise not to hold sermons openly or to recommend our preachings. We understand that any Christian freely can become Muslim. It is our duty to treat Muslims friendly, to always stand up when they are sitting down… We understand that our hair must be cut short in front as a sign, and to own neither books (Bibles) or crucifixes in Islamic areas.” (al-Turtushi, Siradj al-Muluk, Cairo 1972 p. 135 ff.). This treaty is modelled after the treaty between the Christians in Syria and caliph Umar in 635, three years after the death of Muhammad. Similar rules existed for Christians and Jews under all sultans also in the Osmannic Empire. Dhimmis were often required to wear a distinctive mark, just like the Jews were to wear a yellow star under the Islamistic Taliban rule in Afghanistan and in the Third Reich.

The war tax, which was to be paid in accordance with the laws of the Quran, could also be paid in the form of children. This duty to deliver your children was inspired by the example of Muhammad towards the tribes he subdued. For instance, the prophet took over most of the children from the subdued tribes in Medina; but he sold the children as slaves to gain money for weapons. In the Osmannic Empire this tradition became an institution.

In Serbia, Bosnia, Armenia, Albania, Romania, Bulgaria and Macedonia Christian fathers were to bring their small boys to the marketplace. Here a Muslim judge would select the prettiest, healthiest and most robust children as a tax to the Muslims. This ‘boy harvest’, as it was called, had several purposes:

1. To increase the Muslim population and decrease the Christian.
2. To strengthen the Islamic army, as the boys were to be brainwashed to be fanatic Muslims with an intense hatred towards all Christians. These boys later formed the foundation of the Janissary regiments, Muslim elite soldiers, whose units were always first in line during attacks.
3. This lead to another gain: In case of a rebellion or opposition from the subdued Christians, the Janissary units would be used, thus causing the parents to fight against their own children.

The Devshirme institution, the idea of ‘harvesting’ the Christian boys by a number of 8000-12,000 a year, was developed further by corrupt civil servants ‘harvesting’ many more boys than demanded by the sultan. These became an extra income to the servants, who would either sell them into slavery or back to their parents.

Abolishing the Devshirme institution did not mean the end of children being taken from their Christian parents. In connection with the massacres against the Armenians we saw how many, mostly young girls, were taken from their parents to be sold as slaves in Syria and Arabia. Others came as co-wives bought by traders from the Middle East. After the great Armenian massacres in 1915-1918 the allied troops, British and French, just in the area of Aleppo found 20,000 Armenian girls and women, whose parents or husbands had been killed, had been given as slaves or concubines to Muslim men in order to give birth to Muslim children.

A change in Muslim practices

The practices in the Islamic empire used to vary quite a bit from caliph to caliph. They would follow the Islamic law Sharia the example of the prophet Muhammad and the Sunna, which however contains many contradictory elements. According to the Quran it is permissible to conquer the land of the infidels and take booty. It is also permissible, even mandatory, that the subdued, in case they are not Muslims, must pay war tax to the Muslims, which would in turn finance further wars. The laws about spoils of war and war tax are clearly set out in the Quran:

Spoils of war: The entire Sura 8, entitled “Spoils of war”. Sura 33:27: “And he (Allah) gave you their (the infidels’) land, their houses and fortunes to inherit, and land that you have not yet set foot upon. Allah has power over all things.” Sura 8:1: “They ask you about the spoils of war. Say that the spoils of war belongs to Allah and the messenger. Fear thus Allah and let there be peace among you (when you distribute it) and obey Allah and his messenger when you are believers.” The exact rules for distributing the spoils are given in Sura 8, Sura 48:20, Sura 59:7 and Sura 6:11.

Tax of war: This revelation obligate non-Muslims to pay a special tax to the Muslims in those area where Islam has the power. Sura 9:29: “Fight against those who (1) believe not in Allah, (2) nor in the Last Day, (3) nor forbid that which has been forbidden by Allah and his Messenger (Muhammad) (4) and those who acknowledge not the religion of truth (i.e. Islam) among the people of the Scripture (Jews and Christians), until they pay the Jizyah with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.” Something less clear is how exactly to treat the subdued people. This has been very variable in practice, due in part to the great variation the prophet himself applied to the tribes he subdued. Some tribes were merely requested to hand over their property to the prophet. Others were exiled after having delivered their land and their property. And in some cases all men were executed while women and children were distributed as loot or sold into slavery.

The Muhammad biography by Ibn Ishaq, written by request of caliph Mansour in Baghdad, shows in detail the practices applied by the prophet. Muhammad initially would use the rigorous approach of practically eliminating non-Muslim tribes. Later he realized that there was greater economical benefit in subduing the tribes and forcing them into the Islamic system, take ownership of the land and let the non-Muslims farm the land in return for paying war tax to the prophet. In the following we shall look closer at the practices of the prophet: (Ibn Ishaq: The Life of Muhammad p. 437-445: The deportation of the B. al-Nadir AH 4)

The prophet went out with his men and attacked Banu Nadir (a Jewish tribe, who previously had entered a treaty with him). He laid siege to them for six days. Then came the revelation of the wine ban. The Jews barricaded themselves in their fortified houses. But when the prophet commanded to cut down their palm trees and burn them, they shouted to him: “Oh, Muhammad! You have yourself forbidden this kind of destruction and reprimanded those who did so. Why do you cut down our palms and burn them?”

Of the tribe Banu Auf were some men, among them the enemy of Allah Ibn Ibajj and others, who had given this message to the Jews of Banu Nadir: “Hold your ground and defend yourselves. We shall not forsake you. If they fight you, we shall fight with you, if they deport you, we shall go with you.” Now the Nadir tribe expected the help that had been promised, but it did not come. Then Allah filled their hearts with terror, and they begged the prophet to let him exile them from their houses and lands, but to let them keep their lives and as much of their property as their camels could carry, except for their weapons. The prophet agreed to this. And they carried away as much as their camels could bear.

Another practice taken up in the Osmannic Empire was exemplified by the prophet by his treatment of the Jewish tribe Banu Quraiza. Here was a detailed prescription for the behaviour of a devoted Muslim when he was to show his power. This quote also from Ibn Ishaq: Life of Muhammad, p. 461-469:

Zuhri told that during the midday prayer the angel Gabriel came to the prophet. The angel was wearing a brocaded turban, and the saddle of the mule he was riding was also covered with brocade. He asked the apostle if he had abandoned fighting, and when he said he had, he said that the angels had not yet laid aside their arms and that he had just come from pursuing the enemy. “Allah commands you, Muhammad, to go to B. Qurayza. I am about to go to them to shake their stronghold.”

The prophet ordered it to be announced that none should perform the afternoon prayer until after he reached B. Qurayza. The apostle sent Ali forward with his banner and the men hastened to it. Ali advanced until when he came near the forts he heard insulting language used of the apostle. He returned to meet the apostle on the road and told him that it was not necessary for him to come near those rascals. The apostle said: “Why? I think you must have heard them speaking ill of me.” and when Ali said that it was so, he added: “If they saw me, they would not talk in that fashion.” When the apostle approached their forts, he said: “You brothers of monkeys, has Allah disgraced you and brought His vengeance upon you?” They replied: “O Abu’l-Qasim, you are not a barbarous person.”

The apostle passed by a number of his companions in al-Saurayn before he got to B.
Qurayza and asked if anyone had passed them. They replied that Dihya b. Khalifa al-Kalbi had passed upon a white mule with a saddle covered with a piece of brocade. He said: “That was Gabriel who has been sent to B. Qurayza to shake their castles and strike terror to their hearts.”

The apostle besieged them for twenty-five nights until they were sore pressed and Allah cast terror into their hearts. When they felt sure that the apostle would not leave them until he had made an end of them, Ka’b b. Asad talked to them (..)

Then they sent to the apostle saying: “Send us Abu Lubaba, brother of B. Amr b. Auf, that we may consult him.” So the apostle sent him to them, and when they saw him, they got up to meet him. The women and children went up to him weeping in his face, and he felt sorry for them. They said: “Oh Abu Lubaba, do you think we should submit to Muhammad’s judgement?” He said: “Yes”, and pointed with his hand to his throat, signifying slaughter.

Abu Lubaba said: “My feet had not moved from the spot before I knew that I had been false to Allah and his apostle [by signifying what would happen]. Then he left them and did not got to the apostle, but bound himself to one of the pillars in the mosque saying: “I will not leave this place until Allah forgives me for what I have done.” and he promised Allah that he would never go to B. Qurayza and would never be sent in a town in which he had betrayed Allah and His apostle.

When the apostle heard about him, for he had been waiting for him a long time, he said: “If he had come to me I would have asked forgiveness for him, but seeing that he behaved as he did, I will not let him go from his place until Allah forgives him.” Yazid b. Abdullah told me that the forgiveness of Abu Lubaba came to the apostle at dawn while he was in the house of [his wife] Umm Salama.

In the morning they submitted to the apostle’s judgement. .. Muhammad chose Sa’d, who had recently converted to Islam, and had been wounded by an arrow at the battle of the Trench, to pass judgement over the Jewish tribe. He said: “The time has come for Sa’d in the cause of Allah, not in any man’s censure.” When he had come to the prophet and the Muslims, Sa’d said: “Do you covenant by Allah that you accept the judgement I pronounce on them?” They said ‘Yes’, and he said: “Then I give the judgement that the men should be killed, the property divided, and the women and children taken as captives.”

Then they surrendered, and the apostle confined them in Medina in the quarter of d. al-Harith, a woman of B. al-Najjar. Then the apostle went out to the market of Medina (which is still its market today), and dug trenches in it. Then he sent for them and struck off their heads in those trenches as they were brought out to him in batches. Among them was the enemy of Allah Huyayy b. Akhtab and Ka’b b. Asad, their chief. There were 600 or 700 in all, though some put the figure as high as 800 or 900. As they were being taken out in batches to the apostle, they asked Ka’b what he thought would be done with them. He replied: “Will you never understand? Don’t you see that the summoner never stops and those who are taken away do not return? By Allah it is death!” This went on until the apostle made an end of them.

Huyayy was brougt out wearing a flowered robe in which he had made holes about the size of the fingertips in every part of it so that it should not be taken from him as spoil, with his hands bound to his neck by a rope. When he saw the apostle he said: “By God, I do not blame myself for opposing you, but he who forsakes God will be forsaken.” Then he went to the men and said: “God’s command is right. A book and a decree, and massacre have been written against the Sons of Israel.” Then he sat down and his head was struck off.

Then the apostle divided the property, wives and children of B. Qurayza among the Muslims, and he made known on that day the shares of horse and men, and took out the fifth. A horseman got three shares, two for the horse and one for his rider. A man without a horse got one share. One the day of B. Qurayza there were thirty-six horses. It was the first booty on which lots were cast and the fifth was taken. According to its precedent and what the apostle did the divisions were made, and it remained the custom for raids. Then the apostle sent Sa’d b. Zayd al-Ansari of b. Abdu’l-Ashhal with some of the captive women of B. Qurayza to Najd and he sold them for horses and weapons.

The apostle had chosen one of their women for himself, Rayhana d. Amr b. Khunafa, one of the women of B. Amr b. Qurayza, and she remained with him until she died, in his power. The apostle had proposed to marry her and put the veil on her, but she said: “Nay, leave me in your power, for that will be easier for me and for you.” So he left her. She had shown repugnance towards Islam when she was captured and clung to Judaism. So the apostle put her aside and felt some displeasure. While he was with his companions he heard the sound of sandals behind him and said: “This is Tha’laba b. Sa’ya coming to give me the good news of Rayhana’s acceptance of Islam” and he came up to announce the fact. This gave him pleasure.

Also the prophet’s conquest of Chaibar in the month of Muharram was an important guideline for the Osmannic Empire in their battle against the infidels, as quoted after Ibn Ishaq: “The apostle seized the property piece by piece and conquered the forts one by one as he came to them. The first to fall was the fort of Na’im; there Mahmud b. Maslama was killed by a millstone which was thrown on him from it; then al-Qamus the fort of B. Abu’l-Huqayq. The apostle took captives from them among whom was Safiya d. Huyayy b. Akhtab who had been the wife of Kinana b. al-Rabi b. Abu’l-Huqayq, and two cousins of hers. The apostle chose Safiya for himself.

Dihya b. Khalifa al-Kalbi had asked the apostle for Safiya, and when he chose her for
himself, he gave him her two cousins. The women of Khaybar were distributed among the Muslims. The Muslims ate the meat of the domestic donkeys and the apostle got up and forbade the people to do a number of things which he enumerated.

Abdullah b. Amr b. Damra al-Fazari told me from Abdullah b. Abu Salit from his father: The apostle’s prohibition of the flesh of domestic donkeys reached us as the pots were boiling with it, so we turned them upside down.

Abdullah b. Abu Najih told me from Makhul that the apostle prohibited four things that day: carnal intercourse with pregnant women who were captured; eating the flesh of domestic donkeys; eating any carnivorous animal; and selling the booty before it had been duly allocated.”

The apostle besieged the people of Khaybar in their two forts al-Watih and al-Sualim until when they could hold out no longer, they asked him to let them go, and spare their lives, and he did so. Now the apostle had taken possession of all their property – al-Shaqq, Nata and al-Katiba and all their forts – except what appertained to those two.

When the people of Fadak heard of what had happened they sent to the apostle asking him to let them go and to spare their lives, and they would leave him their property, and he did so.

When the people of Khaybar surrendered on these conditions they asked the apostle to employ them on the property with half share in the produce, saying: “We know more about it than you, and we are better farmers.” The apostle agreed to this arrangement on the condition that “if we wish to expel you, we will expel you.” He made a similar arrangement with the men of Fadak. So Khaybar became the prey of the Muslims, while Fadak was the personal property of the apostle, because they had not driven horses or camels against it.

The following principles from the Quran and the example of Muhammad was used in the Osmannic Empire during the annihilation of Armenians, Macedonians, Bulgarians and Greek:

1. Request everybody to hand over their weapons under the pretence of protecting anyone handing over their weapons voluntarily.
2. Then people are faced the choice of death or conversion to Islam.
3. The subdued will dig their own mass graves.
4. Killing of the men. The special ways of killing of infidels by cutting their throats and chopping off their fingers or crucifixion are written in the Quran and practised in accordance with the Islamic law, Sharia. (Sura 2:216-218)
5. Women and children are distributed among the Muslim men or sold into slavery.
6. Muslims have the right to the land and property of those killed, as spoils according to the guidelines of the Quran (Sura 33:27, 6:11 and all of Sura 8).
7. Subdued non-Muslims who are not killed will have to pay a special tax according to the rules of the Quran, and have strictly limited rights compared with Muslims according to the directives of the Quran (Sura 9:29).

Until 1895 the Islamic caliphs had mainly followed the general Islamic practice to kill only non-Jewish and non-Christian people. That meant that for instance Buddhists and Hinduists could be killed at will, and they were. Christians and Jews could be useful, as long as they paid the taxes. This practice changed as the amount of conquered Christian territory increased. The number of Christians within the empire had become too high and had to be reduced. Forced Islamisation attempts were executed in many places. A targeted policy of extermination of the infidels was mainly employed against those who resisted these attempts.

This policy of violence increased in frequency as the frequency of armed riots among the Christians increased in attempts to get rid of the Islamic occupying forces. Hungary was liberated. Then Greece had success in liberating large portions of their territories, albeit with great sacrifice of human lives and terrible retributions from the Turkish side. Later rebellions took place in Bulgaria, Serbia, Bosnia and Macedonia.

To avoid that the Muslim rulers would lose more of the occupied territories, preventive measures were enacted, namely the annihilation of the infidels before they had time and opportunity to liberate themselves. The Armenians were to suffer most from this. Had not Russia in the beginning of the 19th century had luck and courage to conquer the north eastern ¼ of Armenia and liberate this part from Turkish rule, the entire Armenian population would most certainly have been extinguished.

A report from US State Department, authored by Noel Barber, describes one of the deportations like this:

In the beginning of June 1915 from the city of Harpoot a death convoy of 3000 Armenians was sent out, later reaching a total of 18,000 – mostly women, girls and children. All the way to Ras-ul-Ain, the first stop for this transport, was one long horror. Gendarmes rode out in advance to inform the Kurdish tribes in the mountains that several thousand Armenian women and girls would soon arrive. Arabs and Kurds assaulted the young girls, raping and killing the women, abducting the girls. The gendarmes took part in the orgies. One after one the few Armenian men in the transport were murdered.

When the convoy finally reached Euphrates, everything had been so effectively robbed from the poor people that they had nothing left but a few torn clothes. And these last clothes were now taken from them by the Kurds. As a consequence, the entire convoy of women and girls marched completely naked for four days under a burning sun. The next four days they were deprived of any form of food or water. Hundreds fell each day, with swollen tongues stretched out of their mouths. When finally they reached a well, the entire convoy stormed forwards. But policemen kept the thirsty from drinking even a single drop of water. The last stretch lasted 7 days. Of 18,000 deported a mere 150 women and children arrived in Aleppo alive. (Poul Fregosi p. 405)

Where did the deported go?

It is obvious that the purpose of the deportations was to let the evacuated die on the way from thirst and starvation, and to enrol usable girls as breeding machines for the Muslim society. The American consul in Mosul writes on July 28th from Trapezunt about these transports:

The entire Muslim population has been informed in advance that when a transport arrives, it is legal booty, and they are treating them like criminals. In Trapezunt on June 25th a proclaimation was made that it is not legal for any Armenian to buy anything, or for others to buy anything from an Armenian. (Brentjes p. 10)

Those who did not die under ways were led into the desert of Syria, where they were shot and thrown into mass graves, or merely disposed of without any kind of ‘burial’. Some were thrown into the Euphrates while still alive.

The German priest, Dr. Lepsius, who undertook great efforts to save the Armenians, wrote: “On April 15th 1916 four forced deportations with a total of 19,000 Armenians were sent to Mosul (in present-day Iraq), 300 km across the desert. From these transports, on may 22nd a mere 2500 arrived to the city of Mosul.”

A letter written by a German diplomat Bünter and two German officers who in 1917 wanted to see where the deported ended up. They had themselves experienced four transports in 1916 and to see with their own eyes what had become of them.

Bünter writes: “Aleppo, May 11th 1917. In the days from April 1st to 6th I have travelled with major Loeschebrandt and officer Lagenegger. We walked from Buseir by the Euphrates upwards, and found on the left side of the river heaps of bleached human craniums and skeletons, many craniums having holes form bullets. In several places we saw old funeral fires filled with scorched craniums and bones. Opposite to Kischka Scheddade was found great amounts of these fires. The people living there told that in this place alone, 12,000 Armenians had been shot and their bodies burned and thrown into the river.” (Burchard Brentjes p. 13)

From other reports it can be seen that the Syrian desert was the execution ground for thousands, often forced to dig their own mass graves before being executed. Non-Muslim witnesses to the massacres were frequently killed. The American consul in Trapezunt told about a locally known Russian by the name Wartan, who sailed from the city with the Armenians in several large boats. On the way all Armenians were killed, and two days later the Russian returned with a large wound in his head, heavily confused and having difficulties speaking. All he could say was “Bum, bum.” The next day he died in the hospital. (Brentjes, p. 11)

The consul also writes of the many drowned Armenians:

“I have talked to travellers, who related that many naked bodies were stuck in trees and branches in the river. The stench must have been terrifying.

Eyewitness accounts of the massacres 1915-1918

Serpouhi Tavoukojian, who grew up in Armenia as the daughter of Aaron Tavoukojian, experienced on her own body the call for annihilation of the Armenian people. Her father was a clothes merchant and lived in a large three story house, where the goods of the father was being sold from the ground floor. On the second floor was the family apartment. Being traders, the family was rich compared to many other Armenians in Turkey. Serpouhi grew up in a flock of 7 children. It was a happy home and a happy childhood until one day in 1915:

One day it happened! As a bolt from the blue, sunny sky: Turkey enters the world war as the ally of Germany. At the same time came an official announcement from the government in Constantinople. (Christian Armenians were still calling the city by its ancient Christian name, even after the Turks had conquered the city and given it the name Islambul.) The announcement said that the government now intended to clear all Turkish areas completely of the hated Christian Armenians. The first we heard of the trouble was a declaration from by the public announcer in the city of Ovajik. All the (Armenian male) dignitaries of the city were commanded to the schoolhouse. There they were received by Turkish officers who announced, that all healthy and able men between 20 and 45 were to enrol in the Turkish army immediately.

It was further announced that their families would have four days – and only four – to collect clothes and food for a long journey. The officer let it be clear that this deportation would be a travel forever from our homes and a final departure from those we hold dear. The mean were beaten by the Turks as a proof that they had entered military service already, and were then given 24 hours to say goodbye to their families. My father was one of those called to the schoolhouse. When he returned home and told us the startling news, we became very sad and bewildered, hardly knowing what to do. But we knew we were in the hands of a merciless enemy and should not expect any kind of pity.

The time soon came for our father to leave us. The departure was heartbreaking. He collected us in the living room for one last prayer. We prayed intensely the all-wise heavenly father to care for his dear and spare their lives, if it were to be His will. And we, who could not speak for tears, sent a prayer for him, that he may be spared. He tenderly bid each of us goodbye, wiped our tears and reminded us that even in the case that we would not meet again in this world, we would eventually be assembled as a fully numbered family in the kingdom of God. Then there was no more time. We followed him to the door and stood there watching him disappear. We were alone. He was gone.

I was merely a girl of 10 years, but how I remember these four sad days of preparation! My mother was sick from sorrow and pain. Into our clothes we sewed money and jewellery which might be traded for food on our travels, when the small ration we were able to bring would run out. The Turks, both the soldiers and the civilians, ransacked our houses, supposedly for weapons, but in reality to plunder our every possession. The stole the rolls of fine clothing from fathers shop, and destroyed the toyshop of my brother Lazarus before our very eyes.

Now everything we had was stolen. What were we to bring along? Desperately we ran around in the homely, beloved rooms we were about to abandon. In the very last hours my sister had sewn a small tent, which my brother Lazarus rolled up and tied to his back. We wore double sets of clothing. I believe that my mother was even wearing three dresses. We had also some items along from what we dared to take. We carried this in a big bundle. The food was packed. Everything was confusion.

Then came the last hour. The last moment. The mounted Turkish soldiers with guns and long knives ready for use ordered us to start walking. Where to? We didn’t know, and did not dare to ask. There was hardly time to say goodbye to our beloved home. Scared, sorrowful and confused we were driven like animals and united first with hundreds, then with thousands of compatriots, all as scared as we were.

Those who had money to pay with permitted the Turks to take the first, that is, the shortest, part of the travel by train. In spite of the payment the train didn’t consist of passenger wagons. Instead we where crammed into cattle wagons, with no space to sit. The Turks took great effort to make sure that no comfort was possible. Already on the first night the train stopped, the doors were opened, and my little bundle was stolen. All I had left now was a small doll and a fork. Those two things I carried on the long, long death march until it was over. Even though we took the train, the Turks forced us to walk through the cities. We were to walk through the cities of Eskisher and Konieh. When we exited the train, they took from us everything and even examined our hair.

We walked, hundreds of thousands of Armenians. The Turks had marked the route we were to follow. Then we were divided into groups of perhaps a thousand persons each. Each group was driven forwards by an armed cavalry unit. Group after group were driven forwards at gunpoint and bayonets. To where? Our demeaning spirits enjoyed telling us that we were to be driven into the Arabic desert, where all, who were not dead en route, were to be killed. The Armenian people was to be annihilated, forever. God saw us, day and night we were driven onwards, with little or no rest. After a while we had little to eat and suffered terribly from hunger, thirst and exhaustion. Instead of walking on the level road, the soldiers forced us to walk beside it, where it was rough and full of stones. When we walked through the Turkish villages, people would shout “Christian pigs” and throw rocks at us. They would sell us neither food nor let us drink from their wells. When we passed Armenian villages, which had not yet been deported, it was carefully monitored that no one would ease our suffering. If we didn’t move promptly on order, they certainly would get us going. Our guardians would frequently beat us with lashes.

How we prayed for salvation, or for dying. While we dragged ourselves along during daytime, the Turkish soldiers would keep watch of the beautiful girls. When night fell, they were taken to the hills, raped, and returned sadly mistreated at dawn, sure that the events would be repeated the next night. At times we would never see them again. When the screams of terror from the helpless victims frequently filled our ears, our blood would stiffen and we prayed to God that he would salvage us from our destiny. Beauty was not attractive then. Good looking girls would smear their faces with dust and attempt to look as disgusting as possible.

As the march became longer and longer, many committed suicide. Mothers went insane and threw their children in the river to end their sufferings. When we walked through the Turkish towns, the men came to watch us. If a girl attracted one of them, he didn’t hesitate to catch her for his harem. At times he didn’t succeed in catching the girl he wanted, and he could then pay the soldiers to buy the desired girl. Many Turks were interested in purchasing Armenian girls, and the girls would often be happy to be liberated from the unbearable sufferings. One day a mounted Turkish soldier came to us and wanted to buy me. My sister answered no. We had the chance to escape. My cousin threw a heap of blankets over me and pretended that she had no idea of my existence. The soldier didn’t find me, and when he had left, I again joined my mother and my sisters on the long march.

One morning, dragging ourselves along besides the stony road, we suddenly faced another army, Arabs on their way to join Mustafa Kemal Pasha. They didn’t wear much in the way of clothing. Their long hair was falling free. They looked even more dangerous and ferocious than the Turks, and we were afraid of them. All us children kept close to our mother. She held me firmly in my hand, when suddenly one of them grabbed me and tore me away from my mother, dragging me after him. I shouted in full force, and I managed to create such commotion that some of the Armenian men in our group joined my mother. They managed to catch up with the man, and I was saved. My mother wiped my tears and squeezed me tight to calm my little heart, which was hammering from fear, while the guards were driving us back to the rows of the deported. Mother had been ill already from the beginning of the march, and now she was weakening further due to lack of food.

This pitiful caravan of despairing people, which we were a part of, walked kilometre after kilometre from the northernmost Turkey down into Syria. It was truly a death march. Thousands fell to the ground so exhausted from hunger that even one additional step was impossible. They were left in the wayside to die alone. Also the old, the sick and the small children fell in the wayside never to rise again.

When the orders for the deportations came to a town or a village, it was precise and detailed. Every Armenian was to depart on a certain day and time towards an unknown destination. There were NO exceptions. Hunger is terrible. We heard of some turning to cannibalism and eating human flesh. The entire family except me fell ill from walking day and night without food or drink. For days we ate only grass. My oldest brother Lazarus and my two sisters Ahavne and Rebekka were now so ill that they could hardly continue, and it looked as if every step might be their last. But threatened by gunpoint and bayonets they crept along.

A night during a break I was lying on a big rock facing the stars, and there I spoke to my heavenly Father about our great sufferings. He alone could help me in my misery. I spoke to Him loudly and trusted him to answer me in the way He found best. I could not sleep, so I repeated the passages from the Bible our father had taught us to know and to love: “All good things work together for those who love God.” and “The Lord encamps those who fear him.” The dreaded signal to march on came before dawn…

One day I saw a Turkish soldier peel an orange and throw the peel on the ground. Immediately I grabbed the peel and hurried back to my dear who were so ill. My brother Lazarus was lying completely still on the barren ground. He did not reply when I spoke to him. I ran to him and said: “Look, Lazarus, what I have for you to eat.” He did not move, did not answer, and made no sound. His eyes were closed. I tried to open them, but could not. I tried to open his mouth, but his teeth were clenched tight. I could not comprehend what had happened to my joyous elder brother, who had always been so kind to me. I turned to my mother and asked: “Why does not Lazarus speak to me?” Mother came close to us and said with tears in her eyes, taking my hand and stroking it: “My dear Serpouhi, Lazarus is dead – starved to death!” We bowed down by is side, my mother, Arasig and I – the other girls being too weak to move – and prayed that we who were still alive might remain faithful, as he had been, and meet our brother again in a better, brighter and happier realm than this.

After that some neighbours helped to manage a superficial funeral, by laying him in the wayside and covering as well as possible with the stones, they could lift. Lazarus was left behind amongst the wild, barren rocks, but not quite alone, for doesn’t our heavenly Father take care of his children, whether dead or alive?

Very early the next morning we were ordered to march again. … Mother prayed for her children. But the officer on guard was a large, strong and brutal man. My mothers’ prayers were of no interest to him. What different made two dying Armenian girls among these thousands? His ferocious face became red from anger, and his large moustache, twisted twice in each end, was sticking out. He raised his hand and hit mother. This was too much, and I shouted: “Oh, please don’t hit my mother!” But he just hit her again, hissing an oath. He had the right to hit and abuse us as he pleased, and he did! The more of these Armenian pigs were to die on the way, the less he would have to murder at the end of the road. Poor mother stood up, weak and poor, as she was, and my smaller brother now carried the tent that provided us with a bit of shelter. But my sisters could not get up again. They were too weak. It was not possible.

I ran to see if anyone could help. But everyone had plenty to do with their own trouble. Everywhere laid people dying. Many were already dead, and nobody were left to bury them. But then came a cart provided by Armenians who had converted to Muhammedanism to save their lives. Many of those had become rich in this manner, some even millionaires. They were not unmoved by our sufferings and arranged this cart. The two dying sisters were laid in the cart, but mother could not keep up with it. I even had to drag her along. We walked in fear and insecurity for the safety of the girls, but there was no mercy to be found except what came from God.

We could not keep up, the cart vanished from our sight, but little brother tried to keep up, whereby he soon also vanished from our sight. Poor little brother! I can still see him stumble along – his swollen belly, his body but skin and bones, his eyes sunken, and looking as if the apathy of death was drawn in his face. His fate on the further tour is unknown to us.

(After many days of transport they reach a village. They attempt to hide, but the inhabitants of the village hunt them back into line with sticks and stones, screaming: “Armenian pigs, Armenian pigs!” Finally they reach the river Ontos, where they are permitted to drink and find a large opening with many dying humans. Eventually the two sisters of Serpouhi are found).

Will I ever forget this dreadful sight? Rebekka, who had just turned 14, was just about to die. Hunger, and its fellow, suffering, had done their terrible work. Mother screamed: “Oh Rebekka, my child, what has happened?” Rebekka opened her big, brown eyes and looked first at mother, then at me, but could not speak a word to either of us. A few minutes later it was over. We had arrived just in time to see her die.

CONTINUED HERE.