Legation of the United States,
Constantinople, December 12,
1895. (Received Dec. 28.)
No. 720.]
[Inclosure in No. 720.]
Massacre at Sivas.
[The following has been received from perfectly
trustworthy sources in regard to the massacre at Sivas.]
The outbreak began on the 12th (November) and was permitted to
continue for seven days. During this bloody week about 1,200
Armenians and 10 Turks were killed. Suddenly at noon, as if at a
given signal, the Turkish laborers seized their tools, clubs, or
whatever was at hand; soldiers, Circassians, and police their arms
(all under command of officers), and, aided by the Moslem women and
children, they rushed to the market to begin their dreadful work of
killing, stripping the dead, and looting the houses. No resistance
was made by the Armenians, who seemed overpowered in the suddenness
of the onslaught, the number of their armed assailants, and the
relentless ferocity with which they were pursued to their death. The
shops of the Armenian merchants, whether wholesale or retail, were
looted by rioters and soldiers. Many of the merchants and their
clerks were killed; thus at one blow the Armenian element is
eliminated from the trade at Sivas. As the importing business has
been in their hands almost exclusively it is difficult to foresee
anything to avert the impending financial disaster. The Armenian
villagers in that vicinity have been robbed of everything, and the
people are left to beg and die. The suffering on the approach of
winter will be very great.
* * * * * * *
As the fury of this storm of blood and greed subsided the stricken
Armenians of Sivas slowly gathered the mangled and naked bodies of
their kinsmen to their cemetery, where a great trench had been dug
to hold the horrid harvest of death, a single priest read a short
service over the long and ghastly rank, and thus was closed another
chapter in the yet unfinished story of cruelty, lust, and
fanaticism.
