Memories of Eyewitness-Survivors of the Armenian Genocide

1 (1).
YEGHIAZAR KARAPETIAN'S TESTIMONY
(Born in 1886, Taron, Sassoun)

The Hurriyet of 1908 gave liberty to all the political prisoners, after which the Armenians, Turks, Kurds would have equal rights. According to the fraternal treaty of the Young Turks and the Armenian Dashnak Party the Armenian national-liberation struggle would come to an end and all the nations living in Turkey, filled with patriotism, would defend, with united forces, the Ottoman Empire, its newly created Constitution and the government: the creator of progressive laws. By a special decree the fedayis were invited to Moosh. Under the leadership of Ruben the group of haiduks came forth without guns. The Hurriyet (Liberty) offered freedom to all the political prisoners, after which the Armenians, Turks and Kurds would have equal rights. Everywhere cries of joy were heard. The law of Hurriyet put an end to the humiliation, beating, blasphemy, robbery, plunder and contempt of the Armenians. Anyone involved in a similar behavior would be subject to the severest punishment; he would even be liable to be sent to the gallows. The two nations were put in a state of complete reliance. The Armenians would have the right of free voting, were allowed to elect and propose their delegate. This was a new renaissance in the life of the Western Armenians. The new parliament in its first session issued a series of laws, among them the military service of the Armenians in the Ottoman army.

Sultan Hamid was still reigning when on March 31, 1909 thirty thousand Armenians were slaughtered in Cilicia. In April 1909 Sultan Hamid was dethroned and his senior brother Muhammed Reshad succeeded him. Enver, Talaat, Djemal and Nazim's new government came to power. They cancelled the laws issued by Sultan Hamid and the centuries-old dream of the Armenian people: "Peace, equality, fraternity" came true.

The central committees of the two Armenian political parties: the Hnchaks and the Dashnaks were in close and friendly relations outwardly. Every day the leaders of the two parties gathered in clubs and delivered patriotic speeches dedicated to the Constitution. The Turk and the Armenian leaders in turn invited each other to feasts and banquets, walked in the streets arm in arm, visited government official establishments and the Armenian Patriarchate together.

The Armenians enjoyed great privileges: they even interfered with the law suits and the complicated disputes.

Reverend Mihran brought the news of World War I. On August 3 the eclipse of the sun took place.

Enver pasha's relative, Servet pasha, came to collect the needs of the army using brutal means.

The hatred towards the Armenian subjects was getting deeper and deeper. The fury was not limited only to the Armenian volunteers who had joined the Russian army and were fighting against them.

To worsen the irritation of the Turks against the Armenians, the government spread turbulent news declaring that the Armenian soldiers and officers serving in the army deserted the front when they seized the convenient opportunity and passed to the Russian side, betraying them and conveyed military secrets and turned their guns against the Turks. To this were added also the old spite and revenge. Talaat's and Enver's constitutional Turkey decided, by means of sword and fire, to eradicate the Armenians, their subject citizens who had always made the country flourish. An order came to disarm the Armenian soldiers serving in the Turkish army and form from them "Amele Tabours." They took the guns from all the Armenians serving in the Turkish army, formed labor battalions and made them construct roads and carry loads in the severe winter cold.

From the very first day of war the attitude of the Turkish government towards the Armenians was not friendly and hopeful. They always considered them enemies. And the shots from the fugitives of the water-mill and the burning of thirteen gendarmes in the village of Koms would weigh heavily on the Armenians.

On February 20, at night, eighty representatives, invited from fifteen villages, gathered in the Arakelots Monastery for consultation and to get prepared for self-defense. The Sassounites had one thousand and five hundred rifles.

On February 22 shots were heard from the Arakelots Monastery.

On March 13 Sheikh Hazret was in the market-place of Moosh. There he had a consultation with Servet Pasha, Hadji Moussabek and the leaders of the Young Turks and decided to slaughter the Armenians.

On April 7 an unequal fight started between the Turkish government and the Armenians of Van. During the fighting at the St. Arakelots, where Armenian fedayis were combating near the Astvadsadsin (Holy Virgin) Church, Ahmed pasha was killed. Mouteserif Servat pasha of the Sassoun province delivered a speech at the burial of Ahmed pasha where he said: "Ahmed, my son, sleep in peace. I swear on your grave that so many Armenians will be killed as many hair you have on your head." This was the last oath and the last words of the mouteserif, who had lost his patience and was filled with revenge: He would never forget it, and the sacred promise would be realized in the near future.

In 1915 the Kurds attacked the Alivan village of Sassoun and slaughtered the Armenians. On April 22, one thousands armed Kurds from Sarma, Mouser and Bakran, having Avdul Aziz as their chief, attacked the 20 villages of Psank. They killed and plundered ruthlessly. The unarmed Armenians, after a short defense, left everything and ran away to save their lives: women and children took refuge in the mountains. The Kurds invaded the village, plundered it and then set it on fire. About 150 men, women and children not being able to escape to the mountains found refuge in the monastery, headed by the superior of the monastery, Stepan Vardapet, and Aghdjé from the village of Gomrter. Guessing that the Armenians were in the monastery, Avdul Aziz surrounded them, and the fighting went on. The Kurds couldn't enter the fortress and they closed the water-pipe from outside to force the Armenians to surrender. Almost a fortnight the besieged Armenians lived without water in great despair. A Kurd woman, named Sosseh, an acquaintance of Aghdjé, went and secretly opened the water-valve by night. It was so unexpected, and the Armenians rejoiced greatly. They filled the jars and all the pots with water till morning. At dawn the Kurds guessed it and stopped the water again.

The besieged Armenians, having no communication with the outside world, fought for a whole month and defended themselves, but, at last, noticing that the situation was getting worse and worse and no hope of survival was left, they wrote a letter to Andok describing their extremely hard situation and sent the letter with the Vardapet and a young man, Aghdjé Sahak, through a secret way. They entreated Andok to send them immediate help or advise them what to do. In his answer Ruben said that he wasn't able to send any help and their staying there was aimless, so, he suggested that they should find a way to come out of the monastery and join him.

One night after being surrounded for 30 days, the Armenians broke through without any loss, reached the hills of Talvorik and from there to the mount of Andok. The Kurds competed with each other in killing and plundering the Armenians; their greatest desire was to loot the Armenians' possessions and livestock.

On May 2, the Khian and Badkan ashirats, under the leadership of Kor Sleman agha (from Parga), invaded the Talvorik villages having in mind to occupy Andok, disperse the Armenians who had gathered there and to capture large booty. But they gave great losses and couldn't approach it. During the fighting 200 armed Kurds from the Balak ashirat, climbed up the Dsovasar by night. At dawn they attacked a pasture of the village of Aghbik and took away the whole herd. The Kurds of Shegotan, who were the landlords of the Aghbik Armenians, hearing about the plunder accomplished by the Kurds from Balak decided, instead of avenging them, to pillage whatever had remained. On May 6, the chief of the Shego ashirat, Habeyi Yousouf living in the village of Dalerdzor, his uncle Fado's two sons, Khalo and Mousso, and twenty armed Kurds went to Aghbik to persuade the Armenians: "Some misfortune may befall you, and others may take your possessions, so it's better you trust us your livestock. We are your landowners: we'll keep them for you. Who knows, maybe later you will get free and you will get back your property."

Seeing them approach, the Armenian youth opened fire. The fighting lasted the whole day, till sunset. The Kurds lost eleven people, among them Khallo and Mousso, the Armenians lost five. Yousouf ran away. This event affected the Muslim Kurds greatly, as, in those days, one thousand Armenians weren't worth a hen, while one Kurd was worth one thousand Armenians.

On the 14th of May the Balak and Shego ashirats, composed of 2000 armed Kurds, joined and attacked the Armenians villages of Garmak and Kob in two directions.

The Armenians didn't have regular guns; they defended themselves with chakhmakh rifles and moved to the village of Semal over mountains and dales. On their way they asked for help from the chief of Tapik village, Talib efendi, but when the latter noticed the Kurds' invasion and the Armenians' flight, he immediately entered his kyoshk (residence - in Turk.) together with his gendarmes and shut the door. Losing all hope, the Armenians took up their position near the village of Iritsank and held back the Kurds. The fight was intense. The news had reached Semal. At midday, Koryun, Vardan and 300 armed Sassounites came to their assistance. After fighting violently for an hour the Kurds retreated taking away with them the booty.

The attacks of the Kurds on the Armenians were, seemingly, of an unofficial character, but there was a general belief that they were all performed according to the instructions of the government, something which was proved by the fact that the Armenians' protests were not heard and their appeals remained unanswered.

Vahan Papazian's house was searched when he was not at home.

Servet pasha, a Young Turk, was the pasha (governor) of the district and a man faithful to Islam. Consequently, he had to perform his duties as the other pashas of the other districts.

Beginning from June 10, the Kurd ashirat-leaders, surrounded with numerous horsemen, entered Moosh, received instructions and returned to their homes. Every night, weapons and bullets were carried with carts out of the town to arm the Kurds.

A special program had been designed by the government with a view to successfully bringing to an end the massacre of the Armenians; a division of the villages had been planned, the day and the hour of the attack had been determined in such an accuracy that the extermination of the Armenians of one hundred and five villages of the Moosh plain would be completed in a single day, not sparing a single child. The distribution had been planned as follows: the massacre of the thirty-five villages situated on the right of Moosh till the source of Meghraget River had been entrusted to Hadji Moussabek, who had at his disposal three thousand five hundred Kurd horse- and infantry-men. The slaughter of the fifteen villages situated on the north-western side of the town had been consigned to Sleman agha from Fatkan, who had under his command one thousand armed Kurds. The carnage of the Armenians of the twenty villages of the region of Soorp Karapet had been committed to the assistant chieftain, the Young Turk Rashid efendi, who had a force of five hundred brigand-horsemen, which was reinforced by the garrison stationed at the Soorp Karapet Monastery and the superintendent at the village of Ziaret with his gendarmes. On the north-eastern flank of the field, the massacre of the fifteen villages had been assigned to Derboyi Djendi from Djebran, to Kolotoyi Zuber and to the superintendent of Aghchan, who had at their disposal more than a thousand Kurds and gendarmes. On the right flank of the field, the extermination of the twenty villages of Chekhour had been consigned to Sheikh Hazret, who had under his command one thousand two hundred horsemen composed of Kurds from Zilan and Kossour.

Besides these regular forces, a sacred task had been assigned to all Mohammedans: to kill and exterminate without mercy any Armenian they met.

The existing state of things suddenly changed. The Armenians could no longer go from the villages to the town and come back; the Turks violently beat and tortured the Armenians they met, cases of murder also occurred. Aged women, who were obliged to go on an errand to town, were always subjected on their way to pursuit and disgraceful blasphemies. People were filled with anxiety; they had no sleep and no rest.

On the 22nd of June, one hundred Kurd horsemen from Bakran settled on the slopes of the Krenkan Gyol Mountain. On the following day ten horsemen came to our village and claimed from the village notables ten sheep, ten measures of flour and ten felt-gowns. They received all this free of charge and without any objection and being well-acquainted for a long time with the denizens of Havatorik or being conscience-stricken, Ali of Tamo said: 'Armenians, I have often eaten your bread and salt, now I have to tell you a truth. An order has come from the Sultan that we have to mercilessly massacre all the Armenians living on the Ottoman soil. Now if you stand up and have a look at the Slivan field, you will see that the wheat fields have ripened and the spikes have fallen one upon the other, but there is not a single sparrow there. It is deserted. We have completely exterminated the Armenians of that locality and the government has called us here with the purpose of slaughtering the Armenians of the Moosh plain and of Sassoun. In a few days, massacres will begin also here and it should be so that men giving the name of Jesus Christ will not remain alive on this land.' The Kurds took away what they demanded, while we remained pensive.

On the night of June 23, gun shots were heard from the village of Aragh. At night groups of runaway youths from Aragh reached Havatorik. They told that two young men of Aragh, determined to bring evil on the Armenians, had fired their rifles in the darkness of the streets, had rushed into the two-storied residence of the agha and had told him that Zorik had fired at them from his pistol. Mameh efendi, joining the mutineers, had started firing with them from the windows of his house. Fearing that the army in the monastery might hear them and move towards Aragh, they had run away and come to us. Indeed, on the following day, the militia from the monastery entered Havatorik. The whole day they had been running here and there. We learned later that eleven Armenians had been killed. The next morning a few mothers and mournful women had gone, with tearful eyes to the government to protest against the crime, but the gendarmes had driven them with whips out of the town. This was the signal to begin slaughtering the Armenians of the plain, while we expected mercy from them. The Kurd tax-collectors continued their forcible tax-collecting so as to get their own share before the beginning of the massacres. The runaways from Aragh told: "Yesterday afternoon more than two hundred gendarmes, militiamen, sergeants and corporals under the command of a Captain Kamil efendi, came from Moosh, entered the village, closed the roads, gathered all the males in Alibek's stable and killed them there."

On June 26, in the daytime, Servet pasha summoned, through the chief police officer Behjet efendi, the well-known merchants, the Armenian officials working in the government, the primate Vardan Vardapet, three hundred and fifty men in all, and told them: "Armenians, for unknown reasons to me there is an order to deport you temporarily from Moosh to Diarbekir till war is over." After this announcement, the pasha didn't let them go home. They were taken away to an unknown place, and none of them came back.

The 28th of June was the Sunday of Vardavar (the Transfiguration of Christ), the merry holiday of the Armenian nation, which, alas, was converted into the Sunday of Mardavar (burning of people) for the Armenians of the Taron plain. On Sunday and the following night innocent and unarmed women and children were slaughtered in the villages of the Moosh plane. On Saturday three men were killed in the village of Aragh, fifty-five to sixty people were arrested; the army had not left the village. In the morning they moved from Aragh to Havatorik. The whole night Yussuf efendi and his gendarmes neither took off their clothes, nor slept. They sat gun in hand: they were afraid that the fedayis would come and kill them.

The thief Kurd Dondo said to the Armenians: "The Turk Osman onbashi just told me that yesterday Aziz Chavoush had told him that on the next day the deportation and the massacre of the Armenians would begin for sure." And indeed, Moussa bey came to the plain of Taron with numerous horsemen. One part made its way to Berdak, the other - to Aragh, a third part - to Mokounk, another - to Tergevank, and the shooting began. Killing the men watering the fields, the reapers and the shepherds, they swiftly invaded the village. The Young Turk government, together with the Kurd beys, aghas and sheikhs turned the plain of Moosh into a wilderness: that Sunday tens of thousands women and children were suffocated and roasted in smoke and fire. And the fifty-five men from Aragh were taken, hands tied, to the vicinity of the monastery. Kamil efendi, sat on a high place and ordered to open fire on the tied Armenians, killing them on the spot. The upper villages were subjected to fire and plunder; the lower ones - Norashen, Azizrnan, Sokhgom, Oghonk, Hunan villages were still living in an ordinary life, but very soon, they were also besieged, plundered and set on fire.

On June 28, about ten to twelve thousand Armenian women, children, old and young people were burned down to ashes in the stables and barns of Krdagom, Khasgyough and Hunan. In that same night, Sheikh Hazret, Moussa Bey's two brothers - Khassoum and Nerho Beys, Koloto, Zuber and the Chechens, Rashid efendi and the Mudur of Ziaret, Sleman agha from Fatkan organized the same butchery in Avran and the surrounding villages, in the vicinity of the St. Karapet Monastery, in Ghzlaghadj and the neighboring villages. The same was repeated in the vicinity of the town by the general commander of the bandits, the leader of the Young Turks of Moosh, Falamaz agha together with the gendarmes. On Monday morning not a single Armenian soul was left alive all over the plain. A thick smoke had settled on the burnt villages, the smell of burnt grease had filled the air, which reached our mountains.

Thus, this Armenian-populated province, which was bound to the land and the plough for centuries became, in the course of one day and one night, deserted and uninhabited, while its real owners were slaughtered with swords, burned in fire, drowned in water by the hands of the ruthless Turks and Kurds in a monstrous operation; its victims were the Armenian dwellers, of both sexes, of one hundred and five villages, totaling seventy to eighty thousand souls in number. Their wealth, worth millions, was pillaged. The small groups, organized by Koryun and the Dashnak rural committees, uncertain of their small forces, remained detached from one another and could offer no resistance.

One of the main reasons for falling into disappointment and an uncertain condition was that each village thought that the day's attack had been made only on it, and that the other villages were still free. The women and the children also hindered them to some extent, for they thought that the massacre wouldn't be spread on them, and if resistance would be shown, they would be victims as well.

That morning the youth of the Alidjan village fought bravely till evening against the numerous Kurds led by Jndi and did not give up the village; in the evening the Kurds left, the Armenians sent all the old people, women and children to the village of Aghchan, to the headman, so that they might get protection from him, and about fifty-sixty men headed for the Kana Mountain. On their way they passed through the Odonk, Sokhgom, Alizrnan villages, saw slaughtered people's corpses with their own eyes and they saw the destroyed and deserted villages and only then they understood that there had taken place a general massacre on the whole plain.

That night the fugitives reached the Kana Mountain, but those five-six hundred people sent to Aghchan were filled in barns and burnt by the hands of the headman and the gendarmes. The men of the Avran village, which had four hundred families, fought against the Chechen and Kurd hordes led by Zuber, but were defeated and martyred only then when their scanty bullets were used up.

To the north-east of Moosh at a distance of five kilometers from the town was the village of Garnen, which had three hundred and fifty families. For two days and nights they fought a battle of life-or-death against the bandits of Falamaz agha, the gendarmes from Moosh and other bashibozuks till they were completely exhausted and fell into the enemy's hands. The slaughterers entered the village, burned the whole village, killed and buried in fire about one thousand three hundred innocent people.

In some other villages, individuals or groups of three or four people fought, sheltered in houses, took their revenge for their martyred kinsfolk, but, unable to find a way out, they also perished in the fire. The inhabitants of the town had no information about how the massacre of the plain was organized and realized. On the night of the above-mentioned Mardavar Sunday, a group of armed and unarmed young people, forty-fifty in number, tried to get out of the city and run to Sassoun.

At midnight they moved very cautiously from the district of Gavaretsots to turn round and enter the canyon of Shekhants in order to be safe, but on the Sayky plain the entrenched soldiers noticed them and fired. Encountering that obstacle, half of the boys went back to the town, and the other half came out of the line and moved through the dense orchards to Havatorik. These, too, passed through the Mokunk and Tergevank villages and saw the slaughtered corpses and understood with terror what disaster had struck the Armenians. The firing at night and the fact that those three hundred and fifty noted Armenians had not returned arose alarm and suspicion. These events made men and women lose their sleep.

On Monday morning, the 29th of June, the streets were empty, no human being was seen: there was neither whisper nor movement. Only the ominous caws of thousands of black crows were heard from the tall poplars. At the moment when the sun had quite risen in the sky, all of a sudden the shrill voices of the Turkish town criers were heard in the Armenian districts: "Armenians, by the order of the mutasarrif pasha, you must gather together with your carts, mules and all your property and family, at the government door today at 10 o'clock to go to Diarbekir. Whoever refuses to obey the order, his property will be confiscated and his family will be exiled by force." No one obeyed the order. About noon the police and the gendarmes moved to the Armenian Verin Tagh (Upper District) to draw the Armenians by force out of the town and in unknown directions. They boldly approached and stopped before Asatour agha's two-storied house, which was locked from within. They knocked at the door and ordered to open it. When the door didn't open, the gendarmes began to force open the door. On the second floor, a dozen of armed young men were watching under the command of Aslanian Levon. From above the boys took aim and fired at the crowded police and gendarmes. Eight of them were killed, and the rest ran away wounded or alive to the government building and told Servet pasha about the event. Hearing the news that at Bashmahleh the Armenians had opened fire on the police and killed eight out of them, he immediately gave the order and cannons thundered crosswise on the Armenian four quarters. One thousand three hundred inhabitants stood before a dreadful agony under the shower of cannon-balls and bullets and tried to fight hand-in-hand and die with honor.

At the time when thousands of cannons and guns were thundering over the Armenian quarters, pitiless voices of the town criers were heard from the Turkish districts: "Hey, Muslims, the command of the government for all of you: if any of you dares to take into his house and protect an Armenian child, girl, woman or man will be considered gâvur, when discovered, and his house and property will be burned down on his head."

Thus, the hope of getting help from anywhere was lost: the Russian imperial armies were resting in Bassen and Manazkert, while the butchers of Constitutional Turkey acted freely and boldly according to the instructions of the German representatives; having taken the plain of Moosh and the town under fire, they were killing and exterminating all the Armenians from big to small. The boundaries of Havatavorik included approximately a 300-350 km2 territory, completely comprised of impregnable mountains, branched mountain - wings, deep valleys and glens, caves and rocks, and that network was joined with the Sassoun highlands from Moosh to Diarbekir, from Bitlis to Gendj and still further. The largest part of that area was covered with woods, thickets and dense herbage. There were a few pieces of arable land belonging to the village in the valleys and on the mountain-slopes where the peasants had build their houses and lived there with their families. Wherever possible, the land was cultivated and the field of wheat, barley and millet were either sown or reaped. At every step, there were cold-water fountains, crystal-clear babbling brooks and streams, green vegetation, the sweet scent of numerous flowers. The nature was beautiful, the air fresh and all this had given the possibility for cattle breeding: and the Havatorikites had a great quantity of sheep and cattle.

Feeling that danger was at hand, they had secretly buried a month before, their valuable property, jewelry and ornaments, with the hope that one day they would get free and enjoy them again.

On July 1, only a few old people were left in the village, two-three blind women, dogs and cats and about two thousand clay beehives from which millions of bees flew out and in, like rain, splitting the air with the speed of light, brought their yearly provision of honey from the hills and dales, but they could not understand that in the near future, they would become preys to the barbaric fire.

One thousand two hundred people, taking with us ten thousand sheep, two thousand cattle, loads of pots and pans, felt and rugs, withdrew to the south, 12-13 km from the village, in the valley of Khrok, near Shekhnist, on the east of which, next to the main valley, stretched Krnkan Gyol, surrounded with forests and the mountain range with its open peaks. We all settled down in the thick woods: soon pots and pans were on fires, meat was roasting, and to while away the troublesome day, people began joking, laughing, mourning and weeping. We heard babies crying, lambs bleating, calves mooing, dogs howling ominously, and all this was harmonious to the sighs and moans of women. Thus, half asleep, half awake the second day of July opened. There were two hundred and fifty men, but we were to defend ourselves with only 8 ordinary rifles and about fifty tinder rifles. From afar a group of Bagran Kurds came, riding on horseback. They negotiated that they should be given a gift: it was agreed on twenty-four gold coins, which the Armenians collected and gave. Then they began firing at the Armenians hidden in the wood, killed five men, kidnapped a twenty-two-year-old pregnant woman and drove away thirty-five oxen and cows. The Bagran Kurds had always killed and robbed the Armenians when they were lawful, now why should they spare them, when the Armenians had become outlaws, and the government had given them the right to kill all the Armenians.

We had become a persecuted nation: the state authorities had driven us to slaughter-houses, had put the sword on our throat, the blood of Armenians was being shed everywhere. Our last hours had approached, our revenge on the slaughterers would remain unpaid, since, as we had no guns we had our arms folded on our chests, and human rights and justice had remained in the hands of the barbarians.

To avoid further danger we left the valley of Khrok, went back westward, climbed higher through Sinamerik to the place called Kapredavi and placed watching guards. The people and animals settled down in the small glade surrounded by thick trees.

Koryun, together with a group of soldiers, was on the heights of Kurdek, guarding the border between Moosh and Sassoun. He was looking at the town in fire, heared the cannonade, his heart ached and he demanded Semal to send armed forces, so that he could attack the city by night, arouse confusion among the Turks and open a way out for the Armenians. The Sassounite were eager to help the besieged Armenians of the town. But, according to Ruben, that was dangerous. Ruben, Vardan and Manuk from Petar climbed, at the head of a large group of Sassounites, from Semal up to Kurdek, to Koryun, in order to attack the Turks by night. Near Kurdek, on the top of Archklor, the Turk guards had taken up a position. Manuk, with his friends, climbed the top and occupied the post at Archklor. According to former agreement, an immediate help would come from Kurdek when gun sounds were heard from Manuk's group, in order to begin the attack on the town. Manuk waited till morning, but no help came. They returned, in despair, to Kurdek and found there dispute and disagreement. Leaving there a few guards, they descended again to Semal. "Ruben's whim was fulfilled - his sole aim was to remain alive," said the privates, but the result was the loss of Sassoun.

It was the last night of the tragedy, the cannons were still thundering. The houses of Verin Tagh and St. Mariné district were in flames, and tens of thousands Armenians had gathered and crowded in the houses and cellars of the valley district. The end was near. It was very hard for people to die an unlawful and cruel death. Therefore, mature men and youths, gathered in groups under the walls and in dark corners, were speaking and organizing ways to get out of the town secretly, parting from their beloved ones: who would die and who would live! In groups of twenty-thirty they took to flight in different directions. The best way was to go down the stream running through the city. About forty young men swam and came out behind the village of Ter-Gevank and hid in the rocks. The next group of seventy people also entered the water, but the Turks noticed them and shot them all.

In the morning of the 6th of July, the army moved on from the right and left, entered the valley district, drove out of the houses ten thousand women, children, old people, youths and men, shot them on the spot, and the remaining people were driven out of town, to the nearby villages, were filled in barns and burnt alive.

The Armenians' properties and riches were plundered. The government gathered its share in the churches of St. Mariné, St. Gevorg and Shek Avetaran (Blond Bible - in Arm.) and the rest was taken away by the Kurd ashirats and the town Turks. The unarmed Armenians of Moosh fought and defended themselves heroically during seven days, but the barbaric sword of Talaat and Enver beheaded them, and their homes were leveled to the ground. With the exception of five-six bakers who were separated from their families and enclosed in special bakeries to bake bread for the Turkish army, no Armenian was left on his feet either in the fields or in the town. From far away only the dreadful deserted territory was seen and groups of Kurds running up and down for plunder.

On the night of the 7th of July, Vahan Papazian and Avetis, together with forty soldiers from Moosh and the plain, came from Semal to Kapredavy. The presence of the guests delighted the desperate people and they were accepted open-heartedly as an armed aid. From Semal to our place they had passed 35 km. So they were very tired and hungry. They ate and fell asleep. In the morning we went to survey the positions. On top of the Izam stone we erected a shelter of green branches and Papazian made it his center. Beginning from the top of Tsir till its foot and all the wings of the mountain range, the Arakelots Monastery, the largest part of the plain, the mountains of Gana and Marnik were clearly spread before us like a mirror. After a short consultation the arrangement and the guidance of the fighting forces was entrusted to Avetis, and the general command - to Papazian.

Avetis divided the armed boys in tens and appointed corporals over them. The groups took silently their positions along the mountain wing. Every day the militiamen, who were in the monastery, came to our positions and opened fire on us from afar. We also fired on them reciprocally till darkness fell. Then they returned to the monastery.

In the province, four self-defensive groups were created for the Armenians who were temporarily saved from sword and fire. They were as follows.

The first place was the Andok Mountain: the settlers here were the Sassounites who hadn't undergone any massacre yet. They had come from Slivan, Bsherik, Sgherd and other places, numbering about forty-five - fifty thousand people.

The second place was situated on the Kana and Havatorik Mountains, where the refugees were from the plain and the town, numbering about 10-12 thousand people.

The third were the woods around the St. Karapet Monastery, where the thick shrubs hid and protected the refugees from Vardov and the surrounding villages amounting about two thousand people of different gender and age.

The fourth was in Chkhour, beginning from the source of Meghraget and stretching to the north-east, a large swampland and a dwelling of wild pigs, where about one thousand five hundred women and children from Vardenis, Aghbenis, Ardok, Kars and other villages had taken refuge.

Once, disguising Tigran as a Kurd - he spoke Kurdish well - we sent him to the Russian army for help, but he didn't bring hopeful news. We sent him for a second time, but he didn't come back. Every minute, the field-glasses on our eyes, we observed carefully the Arakelots Monastery, where the Turkish army soldiers were moving in and out. The militia were pulling down from outside the altar walls of the ancient church and rolling down the stone.

On July 15, half of the militiamen, about two hundred people, remained with their captains, in the monastery, the other 200 men under the leadership of Kamil efendi climbed up the mount and pitched tents near Mirza agha's fountain, took up their positions along the mountain wing till the peak of the Tsir Mountain. Seeing this, we, too, took up positions nearer to the summit of the mount: now we stood facing each other. The Turks used to fire at us once in a while and then stopped. Similarly, fighting was going on around Andok, where our enemies were the Kurd ashirats.

Though Havatorik was deserted of its inhabitants, but it was still at our disposal: the army and the Kurds didn't dare to enter the valley. The barley had ripened in the fields surrounding the village. Our people would starve if we didn't use it: men in groups climbed down by night to the fields, reaped the barley and threshed it. Part of it they took to the mill, ground it, and they brought the flour, at down, to the top of the mount. The rest was roasted, made into pokhindz and used and preserved economically for a rainy day. But it was difficult to feed tens of thousands of people so they fed them on meat from their own cattle and sheep. It was summer and the people could live in the open air. The guard posts were in action, firing sounds were heard, and we lived thus till 29th of July. Nearly a month had passed after the plain and town massacre. As I've already mentioned, still sixty-five thousand Armenians lived in the enemy besiegement.

In the morning of July 25, the Moosh plain, which had become desolate, was now groaning under the feet of hundreds of thousands people and animals, who were coming like a flood, from Akhlat, Bulanikh, Khnous and other places and were moving towards west - to the Khozmo Mountain.

We noticed that they were Turk and Kurd peasants retreating before the advancing Russian army. General Abatsiev, at the head of thirty thousand soldiers and with the Armenian volunteers had advanced through Khadavin and Akhlat and entered Chkhour - into the Moosh plain. But the Russian army soon retreated. Vahan Papazian's conviction that on the next or following day the Armenian refugees would join the Russians didn't succeed. He took a belated and desperate step. On July 27 he called a few friends and told them to go and reach the Russian army. Avetis, who knew Russian, and Martiros, the teacher from Bulankh, set off. Soon Martiros came back. They had met Kurds on their way. Avetis had fought against the Kurds for a whole day and had shot himself with his last bullet.

In the morning of the 1st of August cannons began to thunder. About fifteen to twenty-thousand soldiers and Kurds had come from everywhere to the foot of Andok and began climbing it by fighting fiercely. The eastern side of Andok - the peak of the Ambers was called Koryun's position. The southern side towards the Kablor Mountain was called Moushegh's, Davit's and Tigran's position. The western side - the peak of St. Jacob became Manuk's position, and the northern side - the pit of Merger was Chalo's and Ghazar's position, and Ruben, Mkrtich and Vardan stayed in the center at Sekhtor-stone to keep discipline at the rear and to supply the warriors with armament, bread and water. The Turks had placed the cannons in pairs at Kapre-Sherif Khan, on the heights of Grekol, and from there they shelled and destroyed the Armenians' stone-made positions. Under the explosion of the bombs, soldiers, women and children were killed. Encountering the Armenians' stubborn resistance and giving heavy losses, the Turks moved forward with great difficulty. A few hundred Armenians were fighting against the Turks who had a large army, cannons, guns, artillery and infinite weapons. After four months of unequal and constant fighting, Armenians ran short of bullets, so, they divided the lead balls into two, added new cartridges and fired. During the last desperate moments the unarmed Sassounite men and women attacked the enemy's positions with stones and sticks.

On August 3, news spread that Koryun had been killed while going from one position to another. David and Tigran had also been killed. During four days of terrible fighting many of the soldiers and chiefs were killed. Half of the armament became useless. Confusion and escape were inevitable.

In the evening of August 4, the Turks occupied St. Jacob positions from the south-western wing of the Andok, assaulted on unarmed women and children with yells and cries. Frightened to death, people started running to such places where no human feet had ever stepped. That night the army and the Kurd ashirats remained in Andok busy with the thirty to forty thousand cattle and sheep left behind. They rested, ate khorovads and waited till dawn. Until noon they plundered what they found and killed whom they saw. In the afternoon, in the deep valley of Geliessan, the slaughterers butchered and shot twenty-five thousand wandering women and children, whose blood flowed to mix with the waters of the Sassoun River, crept down to Eastern Tigris, then to the Persian Gulf. ...That evening the military corps of Sassoun lost its military forces, lost also its rights and lost everything for its existence. During the night of confusion, cries and tears, Ruben Ter-Minassian disappeared, together with a few boys, without informing his comrades in arms and without making any arrangements, and escaped to the impregnable rocks of Talvorik and hid himself in a cave near Ferfer Stone until the perquisitions subsided and at last the greatest part of the army left Sassoun. For two months, Ruben was hiding in the mountains.

After fighting for four months against the plundering and killing Kurd races for their existence, the heroic Armenians were knocked down by the government at guns and cannons. They disposed from the Andok summit of a group of forty-five armed Armenians, throwing them down the rocks into the deep precipices. The Armenians were defeated, for they were deceived, they had no one to protect them. From Shatakh to the end of Talvorik all the Armenian villages were burnt down to the ground, never to be restored again: one couldn't find even a small hut to shelter a hen.

Captain Kamil efendi had received supplementary gendarme forces from the town, had called the militiamen from the monastery, had gathered the Kurds around him and was waiting for the fall of Andok. When he got the news that the Armenians had been defeated, he attacked, by the evening, our positions from the northern and eastern sides of the Tsir peak, together with the six hundred gendarmes, militia and the Kurds. Our fighters had thirty guns and were firing thriftily: for we had few bullets, while the enemy had six hundred guns and innumerable bullets. The unequal fight lasted for two hours. Sahak from Arindj was killed, Armenak and Ashot from Moosh were wounded, and the rest fled away. Five kilometers down the battle-field, in the valleys and woods 10.000 refugees, caught in fear and horror, were waiting for their destiny. A great number of men wanted to fight against the enemy, but how, with what? The people's hope was Papazian. Suddenly a messenger arrived, bringing news that no more bullets were left to fight the enemy. The people got in complete despair and confusion. Those from Havatavorik still had a great number of sheep and cattle, pots, pans and beds; to gather all that and run away was not an easy task.

Dawn broke. Gun shots began to be heard. The Turks were firing, running, coming to our side. At night the Armenian soldiers had left their positions had come down and had approached the Izam Stone, where Papazian was. They had taken a counsel and had decided to escape together with the people. Ten thousand people and ten thousand sheep and cattle mixed together, began to roll down like a snowball from the Dick mountain-side to the great valley. The strong ones trampled the weak and passed forward. A horrible scene was created. Until the foremost part of the people reached the other side of the valley, the Turks had already occupied the Izam Stone and began shooting at the fugitive crowd from above.

Kamil efendi broke, together with 150 militiamen, into Havatorik from the western side of the village and began burning the chapel, the school next to it and the two-storied house of the Reverend. Then they set fire to our house. They burned 60-70 houses. They also burned about 2000 beehives, which were filled with honey. With 600 men they turned our village upside-down, and pillaged it. They found 3 blind women in a barn and killed them, too. Before the sunset they left behind the burnt village and under the mournful melody of the homeless bees returned to the Arakelots Monastery. The people moved from the mountains of Havatavorik to the mountains of Kana. The exhausted and hungry crowd scattered in the woods. The Turkish soldiers had gone and reached Manazkert, till the valley of Alashkert. When the enemy, composed of 20.000 soldiers and ruffians, destroyed Andok and daily massacred several thousands of Armenians, no one could be of any help to us. Papazian announced: "Let everyone save himself." He and his group got separated from the people and went to Burtel.

Khchurtsi (khach = cross, uratsogh = denier - in Arm.) Avdula brought news saying that Hadji Moussabek and others would attack the Kana Mountain and massacre the remaining Armenians. The Havatorik Armenians went to the woods to confer with the Khchurtsi Kurds. At that time 300 slaughterer militiamen and Kurds appeared, but Avdula sent them away. The Kurd scoundrels had set a trap for the Havatorik Armenians: deceiving them, they had taken them to the valley of Shouzheng as a safe place, but Kazim bey was to go there. And the Kurds of Dampel and Pirzin had gathered near the valley of Shouzeny and were waiting for a rich booty. They took from the Armenians 8000 sheep and cattle saying: "Hide yourselves in the valley. We'll watch you from afar till the army goes away."

After being expelled from their homes, the Hovatorik people lived in the mountains for forty days. They were completely plundered, they lost all their property, and taking the advice of the traitor Khchurtsi Kurds, they sheltered themselves in the valley of Shouzheng to save their lives. But the malicious Kurds, after realizing their dark plans, sent news to Kazim bey, informing him that there were many Armenians hidden in the valley. The mountains roared with the thunder of thousands of guns. The massacre started. Corpses fell down. The blood of men and innocent children began to flow. It's above my power to describe in detail how the mountains and the valleys were filled with screams and shrieks, how terror-stricken women and children ran from stone to stone, from shrub to shrub and that how in a minute they were shot dead and fell to the ground. Numerous and numberless killers had encircled and closed the roads of escape, they were firing, yelping driving out of their hiding places the poor victims and killed them all. The slaughterers butchered and massacred till evening darkness fell as a deliverer and with its black veil covered the luminous face of the sun that had become our enemy.

At night Kazim bey had returned to Sassoun together with his army, Kamil efendi had gone back to the Monastery of Arakelots with the militia, Hadji Moussabek had gone to Chkhour together with his Kurds, and the plunderer ashirats to their dwellings to divide the booty among each other.

A man came from Sassoun and told that Kazim bey had left binbashi Mourad bey together with 500 gendarmes and militiamen in the village of Shenik, in order search every day, with the help of the local Kurds, for any Armenian left alive and to annihilate him, and he himself, together with his defense brigade, had gone to Bitlis. The slaughterers' brigade which had come from Diarbekir had also left Sassoun. Thus, Mourad bey and his five hundred soldiers settled in Sassoun to do away with the Armenians left alive. Captain Kamil efendi, together with 300 militiamen and gendarmes, took made his seat near the fountain of Mirzagha - four kilometers from the Arakelots Monastery. The commitment to do away with the Armenians still roaming on the borders of Havatorik or other places and to eradicate the Armenians hidden in the Kana and Marnik woods had been entrusted to Hadji Moussabek.

As far as I understand there isn't in the world a more difficult and exhausting task than the killing of man. A barbaric trade which got its sources from the wild races and chieftains and developed during centuries, and included the civilized world, people, who, for the sake of their glory and interest, wage wars shedding the blood of millions of innocent people.

During those months the soldiers of Talaat and Enver had killed and burned so many unarmed Armenians in the field of Taron and the mountains of Sassoun, that they were already tired and exhausted of that "work," and now they were seeking a supernatural power to replace it, so that they might somehow get rid of that task and return home.

In August 1915 the government granted a pardon, which was a lie. There couldn't be any real forgiveness on the part of a cruel government who had exterminated the Armenians and there couldn't be any freedom for us.

In the autumn of 1915, there was left no bed, no clothing and nothing to eat in the fields. Typhus was spreading. "Forgiveness" was a lie: under that pretence Kamil had hunted 60-70 naïve Armenians.

All those, who were sent to Diarbekir to live, were taken to the Mourad River and drowned, thus, about 250 innocent victims lost their lives. Mihran Hovhannissian has told the episode as he had been a lad of twelve then: a kind Kurd woman had saved him from the river and kept him. Afterwards, he graduated as an engineer from the Polytechnical Institute of Yerevan.

...In the night of February 4, the Armenian General Nazarbekov's army and Commander Dro's volunteers occupied Moosh.

When the Russian army entered the plain of Taron and the town, it brought liberty to the Armenians for a while.

On the 3rd of February, the Russians occupied Erzroom, on the 4th - Bitlis. On February 13 they entered Brnashen breaking the weak resistance of the Kurds.

The Armenians wandering in the mountains and valleys gathered in Moosh and congratulated each other. But the October Revolution had started, Kerenski's Temporary Government was overthrown, political fights had started in Russia. In November, the army disobeying orders deserted the front in brigades, in battalions, in troops, one after the other they withdrew to the rear day and night. When one asked where they were going, they would answer unanimously, "Domoy, domoy" (Home, home - in Rus.). And thus, the Russian army left the Turkish territory, from Van to Trapizon, and everywhere they left great quantities of cannons, machine-guns, rifles, millions of bullets, innumerable sacks of flour, sugar, butter, canned food, cereals and other kinds of goods and returned to their country...

We heard that a treaty had been signed in Brest according to which Russia was to leave all the fronts and return home.

In the night of February 27, 1918, a telegram was received informing that Andranik had left Erzroom to the Turks, because the soldiers hadn't obeyed his orders, and that the Armenian army had retreated to Hassanghala, toward Sarighamish.

On February 28 the Turks and the Kurds attacked from the mountain heights, having received new reinforcements.

On March 1, families and armed groups were leaving by the newly-constructed road of Khnous, together with the battalions of Colonel Samartsov; the large quality of armaments and material riches were left to the Ottomans. We walked eastward through deep snow, over Dutagh, Ghlichgetuk, Diadin and Korun-Mossun.

In the morning of March 16, we were on the upper part of the village of Khoudjakh. We were standing on the old Russian-Turkish border and for the first time, the Ararat plain opened before us: on the right was old Massis, in front of us was Alagyaz.

Allow me to stand on this high mountain and for the last time to bid "Good-bye" to my orphaned Motherland, to her consecrated monasteries, monuments, fragrant mountains, fertile fields, rivers and fountains, and as a refugee, together with my few compatriots, to be a guest and an inhabitant of Eastern Armenia, condemned to famine, migration and bloodshed.

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