http://www.kultur.gov.tr/****tal/default_en.asp?belgeno=3D3350
ARMENIAN ISSUE
ALLEGATIONS-FACTS
ARMENIAN REBELLIONS AND MASSACRES
Veteran and Eyewitness Accounts
Muhammet Resit Guleser
Father's Name : Abdullah
Mother's Name : Habibe
Place of Birth : Van
Date of Birth: 1900
I was a young student at the (Teachers' training college) school,
around 15 or 16
years old during the Armenian massacres, and remember what happened
quite well.
Before the First World War, we had good neighbourly relations with the
Armenians
(whose population was said to be approximately 17,000).
With the declaration of the constitutional monarchy in 1908, they
started to exploit
the principles of independence, equality, and justice to their benefit.
Their leader
in Van, Aram Pasha, was in the delegation that notified Sultan Hamit
that he would
have to leave his throne. The Armenians set up an underground
organization in Van,
and dug tunnels which extended from near the Great Mosque (B=FCy=FCk
Camii) all the way
to the old section of town. It was even possible to go through these
tunnels on
horseback. One day some parts of the tunnel collapsed so was discovered
by a guard
incidentally. Aram Pasha was caught near the Great Mosque upon the
intelligence of
an Armenian but was released without punishment due to the political
sensitivities
of the time.
In short, the Armenians organized themselves very well and became rich
financially
in commerce. After the Armenians and Jews were permitted to join the
military, some
groups of Armenians, joined the military with their weapons during the
retreat of
the Van division. Our soldiers were carrying German-made primitive
weapons which
could only fire four shots and the fifth one would drop to the gound.
According to
what we had heard from Mr. Haci Latif and the others who later returned
to Van, the
Armenians in the Van division were shooting our soldiers in the back.
There were
also several cases of Armenian doctors and nurses poisoning our wounded
soldiers who
were treated in the hospitals in Van after returning from the eastern
front.
As to the situation in Van, the Russians were approaching from three
fronts,
Muradiye, =D6zalp, and Baskale. The Armenians in the city were rebelling
and continued
an aggressive campaign against the Muslim population for 29 days. We
had three
barracks, Haci Bekir, Aziziye, and Toprakkale. Ten soldiers would guard
each one.
They attacked to these barracks and slaughtered the soldiers like sheep
by cutting
their throats off. Ali Cavus, our neighbour, was also slained there.
While our weak
militia were digging trenches to trying to fight, the Armenians made
holes in the
walls and were firing shots with machine guns, pouring cans of
kerosene, lighting
fires, and escaping through the deep tunnels. This brutal attack lasted
29 days. The
decision of retreat was finally made so that the Muslim population
would not suffer
any more deaths. Those with carts used them; those without them were
under desperate
conditions, but we all joined the exodus. People left their children on
the roads,
others died from hunger and disease.
It should be remembered that the Armenians not only committed large
massacres in
Van, but in the villages as well. The homes in the villages of Timar,
Bakale, and
=D6zalp were stuffed with hay and set on fire. Those that tried to
escape were killed
with bullets and bayonets. The inhabitants of a few villages in Zeve
got organized
and fought against the Armenians, but almost all of them -from seven
different
villages- were killed. Mass graves are still being uncovered in these
villages and a
memorial was built.
Eight of the twelve ****ps carried the Muslim refugees from Van, four
****ps carried
government employees and their families. All the sailors aboard the
vessels were
Armenians. The Armenian bandits by the help of these sailors, forced
the four
government employee boats to dock at the Adir Island, and killed all
the passengers.
As to the remaining other eight boats they were taken to another island
near Tatvan
where Armenian bandits were waiting, but they managed to escape with
few casualties
because they were armed.
When we left Van, we first went to Bitlis, and later to Diyarbakir. We
witnessed the
Armenian savagery along the way. Finally, I will tell you about what we
saw and
heard upon returning to Van. The Armenians applied all types of torture
to the
inhabitants, God bless their souls. They paraded Isa Hodja, who was
over 100 years
old, on a donkey through the village, raided and looted homes, and
gathered women
and girls into Mr. Ziya's home where they repeatedly raped them. They
threw the
bodies of the dead into wells, and even filled the well of our mosque
with the
bodies of victims.
When General Cevdet entered Van for the first time, he asked the
gendarmes to escort
130 women, whose husbands were at the front, to Diyarbakir. They were
in bad
situation in Van because they did not have any trans****tation. About 30
of them
stayed in our house. They spun wool to survive. They were also given
military
rations. They told us that there was no end to the torture and
cruelties they
suffered at the hands of the Armenian bandits. The Armenians skinned
the men,
castrated them, and raped the women.
We returned to Van four years later. In the beginning we stayed two
years, but were
forced to flee again when the Russians arrived. This time we went as
far as we could
go. Finally we arrived to Siirt. When we returned, 200-250 Armenian
families were
seeking refuge on the Carpa**** Island. They were hoping that the Turks
would leave,
and that they would resettle in Van. Most of them were artisans. A
short time later,
a new decree was issued, and they were sent to Revan under the
protection of the
government. However, Van was raided seven times by the enemy, was
completely
destroyed except for the Armenian quarters. We rebuilt the city
afterwards.
+++++++++++++++++++
http://www.kultur.gov.tr/****tal/default_en.asp?belgeno=3D3351
ARMENIAN ISSUE
ALLEGATIONS-FACTS
ARMENIAN REBELLIONS AND MASSACRES
Veteran and Eyewitness Accounts
Seyh Cemal Talay
Father's Name: Cimsid
Mother's Name : Fatma
Place of Birth : Van
Date of Birth: 1901
The Russians were providing weapons for the Armenian bandits. With
military
assistance of Russia and encouragement of England, France and the
United States -all
had consulates in Van- Armenians increased their hostilities in the
beginning of
1915. The Russians were secretly providing them weapons hidden in food
supplies,
which they sent to Russia through the ****t of Trabzon. Those supplies
were
trans****ted by caravans to Van. The goods on the caravans were
distributed in the
centre of the old city, and the hidden ammunition was secretly
distributed to the
Armenian militants. The leader of the Armenian revolt in Van was Aram
Pasha. But I
don't remember the name of the Dash****s' leader. They all had land
claims,
especially in Van. The 11th squadron was assigned to Van, but went to
Erzurum to be
mobilised. The Armenian bandits increased their activities and started
their
terrorist campaigns against the Muslim inhabitants.
The militants were raiding the Muslim villages and neighbourhoods. The
only thing we
had to fight them with was a militia led by Imam Osman, composed of
those either too
old or too young to join the army.
Let me tell you a story which I will never forget. I went to a school
located near
the government mansion. Armenian children also studied at the same
school. Some of
the students in the Armenian underground went to get a Muslim student
named Rustu
from his home with an excuse of studying. They took him to the Isitma
bridge near
the industrial park. After insulting him, they raped and killed him,
leaving his
body for his family to find the next day. The family later composed a
ballad to
honour his memory.
I can remember the beginning of the skirmishes between the Muslims and
Armenians.
Our militia, which would meet in the Mahmut Aga barracks across the
street from the
Van State Hospital, was on duty, a day before the war with the
Armenians started.
The Armenians prepared the night before and positioned themselves. They
dug holes in
the State Mansion, and when our militia was preparing for morning
prayer at a
fountain nearby, the Armenians showered them with bullets. Many of our
soldiers were
killed. The fighting between local Muslims and Armenians began. There
was a big
confusion in the streets from both sides. Despite this, we got up and
went to
school. We had two teachers, one from Salonica, one from Edirne. They
said "Come on
kids, let's all forgive each other, we might not see each other again"
and suggested
we use the side streets to avoid Armenian bullets. I left school with
some friends,
but decided to take our regular route. We saw that weapons and
ammunition were being
distributed in front of a storage area for protection against the
Armenians. We then
noticed a few Armenians creeping up from behind, and notified the man
distributing
the weapons. He threw them down in his hand and fired on them, and they
ran away.
The war started on April 2 and 3 in 1915. In 1914, the Russians were
not able to
penetrate the front line, but they surrounded our soldiers from behind
by passing
Caldiran-Bahcesaray, and established headquarters in the Molla Hasan
village.
It was difficult to provide our soldiers with military supplies since
the young
students and elderly people carrying the equipment could not go further
because of
the cold weather. Many of them died.
We couldn't go anywhere. But in the spring the Armenians went
completely crazy. On
May 10, 1915, the Russians were moving towards Van. With Governor
Cevdet's orders we
evacuated Van, taking with us what we could carry. During the war,
Armenian
brutality reached a stage that no one, including the old, sick,
captive, women or
children could escape. The atrocities reached the degree that even the
Armenians'
main sup****ters, the Russians, were trying to prohibit their actions.
My grandmother Mihri couldn't flee with us because one of my uncles was
paralysed
from the waist down. Unable to speak because of the shock of what
happened in our
absence, she later learned to speak by sign in order to explain what
happened. They
shaved my uncle's moustache along with his flesh, and then took them to
a house
which they used as a detention centre and tortured him and the other
captives until
the Russians arrived.
When we became refugees there were 23 members of our family. We lost
most of our
family on the road to Bitlis and Urfa. Only two of us returned to Van.
Our first
stop on the road was Bitlis where we arrived in eleven days, and then
went to Siirt,
where we had relatives with whom we stayed for a few months. When we
heard about the
Russian advance, we again fled to Diyarbakir. Our convoy consisted of
250 people. We
suffered from hunger and thirst on the way. We went through Kurtalan
and Diyarbakir
and the village of Kebir, where we did not stay long, and again took
the road to
return to Van. When we reached Kurtalan, we learned that the Russians
had entered
Van again and went to Siirt. In the spring of 1916, we went to Baghdad,
but fled to
Mardin when the English Army advanced. In 1917, we arrived to Urfa. The
French who
entered Urfa started tormenting the Muslims by bringing the Armenian of
Aleppo to
the city. This time we fought for twenty-two days.
We left Van in 1915. When we were finally able to return, only two
people remained
from the 23-membered family. Van was totally destroyed. The Armenians
burned and
demolished everything except for the Armenian houses. In fact, when the
Turkish army
entered Van, around 2.000 Armenian artisans, expecting retaliation for
their
repression of the Turkish population, sought refuge on the island of
Adir. The
Turkish government instead ensured their safe passage to Revan.
+++++++++++++++++++
http://www.kultur.gov.tr/****tal/default_en.asp?belgeno=3D3352
ARMENIAN ISSUE
ALLEGATIONS-FACTS
ARMENIAN REBELLIONS AND MASSACRES
Veteran and Eyewitness Accounts
Salih Tasci
Father's Name: Mirza
Mother's Name: Hane
Place of Birth: Van
Date of Birth: 1883
The Armenians who revolted by the Russian assistance began to fight
against the
Muslims though they had lived together for many years. Their intention
was to steal
our lands and to establish an Armenian state. They had dugouts
underground and they
were easily hiding in them after they killed the Turks.
They tortured people especially in central Van and in the castle. Their
leader was a
man called Aram Pasha. We were defeated by them as they had rich
ammunitions. Then
we decided to migrate to safer places as we did not want to suffer more
casualties.
Some people went to Bitlis by way of land and some went by sea. The
ones who stayed
were all killed. The refugees of Van were spread everywhere in country.
>From Bitlis
to Diyarbakir, Elazig, Nazilli, Burdur... However, the Armenians
undertook massacres
in the villages of Van.
In those villages the Armenians and the Russians closed the roads. They
killed all
the men and raped all the women there. Later, Armenian bandits gathered
in Van and
carried massacres out there too. In short, it was like the doomsday. In
Lake Van
there were sailing boats. They really tortured so much that they got
bored from
killing people. They put the people into the boats and threw them in to
the lake.
Those Armenians nailed our elders to the walls from their hands and
foreheads. We
resisted them as much as we could do and fought. We did everything
necessary. But,
we never touched any Armenian child or women; we just fought against
men. Armenians
were so cruel. After I returned from the Iranian Front in 1921, I found
Van in a
ruin. All the Turkish districts were burnt by the Armenians and the
Russians; all
the Muslim properties were plundered. But, the Armenian houses were
still standing
out. Van was empty. Later, the Muslims returned one by one. Everybody
began to
rebuild his house; we have rebuilt the city.
++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.kultur.gov.tr/****tal/default_en.asp?belgeno=3D3353
ARMENIAN ISSUE
ALLEGATIONS-FACTS
ARMENIAN REBELLIONS AND MASSACRES
Veteran and Eyewitness Accounts
Bekir Yoruk
Father's Name : Yusuf
Mother's Name : G=FClnaz
Place of Birth : Van
Date of Birth: 1900
Q: Can you tell us what you can remember and what the Armenians did in
Van and
Gevas?
A: We lived in the same neighbourhoods with the Armenians. We were
living in Norsin
neighbourhood and got along well until the Russians intervention. In
those days, the
Armenian youth established committees by Russian encouragement, and
started causing
trouble. They killed the police superintendent and threw him in the
park. They
killed the postman in Hasbagi. They bombed a building, which is a bath
now, and
twenty people died in the explosion. When the constitutional monarchy
was declared,
the mufti and the priest shook hands and declared the brotherhood of
Muslims and
Christians. The Mufti cried as he shook hands, but events developed
against us. The
committee members became increasingly out of control and the rebellion
began. We
fought the Armenians for 29 days in Hasbagi. We had no weapons. When
the division
went to Erzurum we remained completely defenceless.
The Armenians who joined the army after the establishment of the
constitutional
monarchy used our weapons to shoot at us, and those who remained in the
army shot
our soldiers from behind. They also bombed the barracks. The young
people and the
elderly left in the Muslim neighbourhoods took turns guarding against
the Armenians.
Meanwhile, the Russians sent gold to Armenians to finance their effort.
This struggle lasted 29 days until the arrival of the Russians. The
elderly
Armenians didn't approve this fight because they were the wealthiest
inhabitants of
the area, and feared losing their standard of living. Armenians owned
up to 1,000
stores and sold European cloth in the old part of the city of Van. When
these events
broke out, inhabitants of nearby villages and towns all fled to Van,
and those
stores disappeared within two days.
Later on, fifty vessels full of people left Van, carried wounded
soldiers. Cevdet
Pasha saw the passengers off at the pier. We went to Adir Island, where
the
Armenians were training underground. We stayed on the island for nine
days. The
waves destroyed some of the ****ps with wooden sails. The island had
wells and two
bakeries. No one brought any supplies from Van. We were hungry and
perplexed. My
elder brother was an officer and came back wounded from Erzurum. My
brother realised
that the Armenians would cut us off. He convinced his captain, and ten
****ps left
the place but we couldn't go very far. Thank God that we stayed close
to the shore.
The next day, we reached Tatvan under difficult cir***stances. The day
we left Van
the Armenians set everything ablaze. There were wounded soldiers from
all parts of
Turkey in Van, and the Armenians set the apartment buildings on fire
used as a
hospital where they were teken care of. That is why Van is a sacred
place with
martyrs from 67 provinces (in Turkey).
My uncle, Terren Aga, was very old, and we couldn't take him with us
when we left
Van. His wife, daughter, and two grandchildren remained with him.
Armenian hoodlums
beat my uncle and the children with an ax and killed them. His daughter
was hiding
in an abandoned American school. When the Armenians found her, they
killed her by
throwing her from the second floor.
We went to Bitlis from Tatvan where we stayed for nearly two months.
When the
Russians arrived, we set off on the roads again. We then went to Hizan
and
Diyarbakir. After we left, the Gendarme commander who was crying like a
baby-
brought my uncle (who was Deputy Governor Omer Bey) a re****t. A soldier
named Mansur
was also present in the room. When we asked him to explain what
happened, he said
that three days after Van was evacuated they went to pick up the
bodies. Hundreds of
elderly women were impaled on stakes. They still had their scarves on
and looked as
if they were sitting. When they got closer they saw that they were
killed before
being impaled. They saw a woman who was split into two parts and her
unborn child
was placed on her chest.
Muslims who witnessed these thousand of examples of inconceivable
brutality
tearfully re****ted the incidents to Omer Bey, who then told Mustafa
Kemal. When the
Russians finally arrived, they were displeased with the savageness
which resulted in
the destruction of four-fifths of Van. In addition to those massacred
by the
Armenians, many people also died as they were fleeing. Many collapsed
on the road
from hunger and disease. No one was able to take anything with them
when they left
Van.
When we returned to Van from exile three years later, we found the
Muslim
neighbourhoods destructed, but the areas owned by Armenians, were left
undamaged.
When we returned there were about 2,000 Armenians living in Van who
fled to the
islands when the Turks started returning. Two years later, the
government sent them
to Revan.
Q: Did you ever participate in the fighting or use a weapon?
A: No. I have never used a weapon. I didn't have a gum, plus they
didn't give me one
because I was too young and didn't know how to use it. Instead. I would
bring food
and water to the combatants.
Q: What kind of equipment were the Armenians using?
A: They had the latest equipment which was provided by Russia and
England. They gave
them weapons and had them fight against us. The Armenians couldn't do
anything to
us, but when the were armed, the balance was upset.
Q: Did many people die in these and other clashes?
A: Of course, thousands of people died. After fighting for 29 days, the
then
Governor Cevdet Pasha commanded us to leave Van when he heard that the
Russian
forces were approaching. Cevdet Pasha was actually a very courageous
man, but we had
neither guns nor ammunition. while the Russians were armed with top of
the line
weapons.
Q: Didn't the Ottoman State take any precautions against the Armenians
arming
themselves to this extent? Didn't a word get around?
A: People knew, and the government knew. Yet the military was on the
fighting front,
and only a few gendarmes were left in Van. They couldn't do anything
about it.. The
Armenians first shot Police Lieutenant Nuri Efendi, and blew up the
Hamitaga
barracks. Many soldiers were killed. Then they placed bombs in the
Norsin Mosque and
Haci Naci Hodja Mosque. They blew up Hafiz Hodja with his son using
granedes. Our
women were raped, and our children shot.
Q: How was the evacuation carried out?
A: We left this place on 50 ****ps. That day the weather was stormy and
rainy, as if
hell broke loose. The ****ps ran into each other. They were unable to
approach the
pier for a long time. The weather was not warm enough-I think it was
April. We left
before the Russians arrived. There were about 250 people in our group,
and 60 died.
Some died at the hands of the Armenians bandits, other from cholera,
diseases, and
hunger.
My uncle, his family and children, were all cut into pieces with a
hatchet under a
mulberry tree in our neighbourhood. They (Armenians) massacred all
those who stayed
behind when we left. We lived in Norsin neighbourhood at the time. They
burned Van
entirely. All was planned by the Armenian committees that treacherously
manipulated
the Armenian population.
Q: Do, you remember the names of those committees?
A: Dash**** was the most prominent one. There were others as well, but I
don't
remember their names now. They received money and gold from Russia and
Britain.
Q: Did the Armenians kill a lot of women and children?
A: The elderly didn't bother much, but all the young people were armed.
They killed
whoever they could catch. They killed them and threw them into the lake
or onto the
fire. For example, a woman was baking bread in a nearby village, and
had her young
child was at her side. The Armenians went into her backyard and asked
her what she
was doing. When she answered that she was baking bread, they insisted
she needed a
kebab as well, and pierced her child and threw him into the fire and
burned him
alive.
What else can I tell you? God knows the extent of what went on. During
our escape,
we took off on the ****ps, and stayed around the islands for four days.
We couldn't
sleep at nights because of the wails and screams we heard all night.
These were the
cries we heard from the surrounding villages: Zeve, Bardakci, Kalac,
and Molla
Kasim. I hope God ensures that we don't have to get back to those days
again, ever.
Q: Where did you go after the islands?
A: From the islands we went to the Dervis village. It took us all day
to get there.
Ten ****ps were tied together at the edge of the lake. We were very
frightened. In
the morning we left toward Tatvan, and finally reached our destination.
We were able
to rest there, and later left toward Biths.
Q: Do you remember how many people were with you in your convoy?
A: There were between 10 and 20 thousand people in our convoy.
Q: Did many people from your convoy die in the exodus?
A: Of course.
Q: Could you tell us how they died?
A: The women could not take care of their children. Some would leave
them in far
areas. Hunger and disease were at its peak. For example, Omer Efendi
wrapped his
child in rags and left him alive under a tree as we approached the
Bitlis creek.
There were many other children like this thrown into the Bitlis creek
or buried,
then they died. But, Omer Efendi regretted what he did, and a few days
later went to
save the child and brought him back alive.
Q: How long were you a refugee?
A: Three years.
Q: What did you find when you returned to Van? How was Van, was there
much damage?
A: I saw Van; it was completely destroyed and burned. When we were in
Bitlis, the
Deputy Governor =D6mer Bey was there. He would regularly receive re****ts
on the
situation in Van. We would learn about the situation of the Russians
there. One day
a soldier, Mansur, came to Bitlis. He was from Aleppo and used to live
near the
Norsin Mosque. He was in tears as he told us the story of how they
entered Van, and
saw that the women were lined up in a row with their head scarves still
on. As they
approached, they saw that they were impaled and killed. They removed
them and buried
them. The soldiers left all their work and buried them. Later, they
went to another
location where the women had been raped and then killed. There was
blood everywhere.
A similar incident occurred in the Amik village which is close here.
The inhabitants
took refuge in the castle and pulled up the ladder when the Armenians
arrived. The
Armenians approached and convinced them to let down the ladder because
they were now
friendly and there was no reason to be afraid of. As soon as they
ascended the
stairs, they separated the children and men and threw them down the
hill. Some of
the women threw themselves from the castle, while the others were taken
to an
unknown location.
Q: Did you hear about similar incidents at the time?
A: Of course I did, but what else can I tell you? Dignity, chastity,
and integrity
all was gone. We suffered so much, some people even ate flesh like
cannibals. But we
were so merciful that, when we found Armenians hiding on the island, we
didn't do
anything to them.
Q: Were they the Armenians who stayed when you fled?
A: No, they were Armenians remaining on the island. During the exodus
they brought,
many Turks to this island and killed them. The ****p captains were
Armenians. Many of
our, people were maliciously killed in this way on the ****ps. As I told
you earlier,
we couldn't sleep because of the wads in those days. When we left, Van
was burning,
and it was still burning when the soldier Mansur came.
Q: Will you tell us about your situation in Bitlis?
A: When we arrived in Bitlis as refugees, they were angry with us
because we
abandoned Van. Initially the people of Bitlis were not very kind to us,
asking us
why we ran away and did not fight against the enemy. We answered that
we had no
other choice because we did not have guns or ammunition. Not long
after, the
population of Bitlis had to flee as well, and they understood our
position. The heat
was extreme. There was no food or water. Cholera and diseases were
spreading out.
Many people died. One day we saw some vehicles coming from Elazig. The
army corps
came with Armenian drivers to bring salt to Harput.
Q: Were the drivers Armenian?
A: Yes. Armenian soldiers who were carrying salt. There was a captain
leading them
and my brother approached him and asked him to stay and send a
telegraph to arrange
for a truck to carry us. We obtained permission from Mustafa Kemal
Pasha and they
started to trans****t us to Divarbakir. There was neither food nor water
on the way.
Many people died from diseases. At that time, there was a landowner
named Mehmet. He
later died, but he was a unique person. He gave food to the army and
fed their
horses as well. He also handed the keys of his stables over to the
army. A year
later Mustafa Kemal Pasha came, talked to him, and asked how much the
government
owed him. When he said "for what?", Mustafa Kemal explained that the
army had
depended on him for a year. He answered that "they are welcomed for the
remaining
food, as well". Anyway, when he saw us, he gave the order to set up a
feast table
right away. Wheat, rice, lentil, and meat were prepared. Everyone ate.
Let me tell you another story. I saw many of the men who had been
tortured by the
Armenians with my own eyes. In some places they had no meat on their
bones. From
hunger they ate human flesh. There was a milkman called Faik whose
father was
carrying a child when we saw him. When I asked him what he was doing,
he said if he
didn't carry the child away, they would eat him too.
I hope God doesn't make us live through those days again. Hunger and
disease left us
with nothing. No dignity, chastity, no nothing.
++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.kultur.gov.tr/****tal/default_en.asp?belgeno=3D3354
ARMENIAN ISSUE
ALLEGATIONS-FACTS
ARMENIAN REBELLIONS AND MASSACRES
Veteran and Eyewitness Accounts
Ibrahim Sargin
Father's Name : Halil
Place of Birth: Van-Zeve
Date of Birth: 1903
I am from the well-known Zeve village, site of the most rampant
Armenian massacres.
Q: How old were you when the Armenians rebelled?
A: I had just turned 11 at the time.
Q: Were your parents alive at the time?
A: Yes, they were.
Q: Were they subjected to Armenian atrocities?
A: I will tell you all about that later. I first want to try to explain
the
situation of the Armenians. We know how untrustworthy the Armenians and
Russians
were, and about their efforts to stab the Ottoman State from behind by
forming bands
of rebels. At that time, Russians were paying Armenians wages. However,
the
Armenians were paying the Ottoman State only one gold coin in taxes
while those
unable to pay that much, were paying five silver coins. There were
certain changes
during the rule of Sultan Hamid and Sultan Resad. They extended equal
rights to the
Armenians, declaring that they would be equal to Muslims, like
brothers. They passed
a law aboli****ng the tax imposed on them, and made them equal to us.
There was
jubilation in the streets. Armenian priests and our religious leaders
hugged each
other and kissed. At this time, it was also decided that Armenians
would serve in
the army with us and study in our schools. The Armenians were thrilled
with these
changes. As soon as they had the op****tunity, they established
committees and asked
for money from France and England and arms from Russia. They figured
they could co-
operate with the Russians, receive military supplies from them, and
attack the
Ottomans while the Russians could advance from the outside.
What did the Russians do? They constructed storage bins out of the
stove pipes and
stove metal. These bins were three feet long and one and a half feet
wide, and
filled with arms and munitions. Some of our supplies including kerosene
came from
Russia at the time. The Russians delivered these military supplies to
the Armenians
by hiding them in the bins and covering them with kerosene containers.
Having armed
the Armenians in this way, the Russians sent a member of the secret
revolutionary
society from Russia. His name was Aram, and he was blind in one eye. A
Russian
Armenian, they named him Aram Pasha. Then they brought someone named
Antranik to
Mus, and called him Antranik Pasha. Plus, there was an Armenian
revolutionary
committee leader nicknamed Sahin (Falcon) in the Karagunduz village of
the Ercek
region. They would set up committee organisations and head for the
Turkish borders.
They crossed into the Turkish villages where they would attack and kill
Turks, and
then retreat. They carried weapons and bandits to Karagunduz on
horseback.
Q: Do you remember the revolutionary committees in the region and the
names of their
leaders?
I named some of them a little earlier. I don't remember any other
names. They armed
themselves with the help of the Russians, and came on horses. They
created storage
areas in the Sisanus village, and moved to a lake village which was
completely
inhabited by Armenians who had moved into the village earlier. On the
lake there
were enormous ****ps which could carry 500-600 people. These ****ps would
carry arms
and ammunition to Adilcevaz, Ahlat, Ercis, and Gevas. Some would later
be sent to
Tatvan, Mus and Bitlis. The Armenians armed themselves well with these
supplies, and
started to form guerrilla groups. More specifically, they organised
fighters and hid
them on the Islands of Akdamar, Carpa****, and Kadin Tbese fighters
later scattered
throughout the area, insulting and provoking the public. After a while,
they decided
to get along with the Russians. After the Russians declared war to the
Ottoman
Empire, all of our soldiers left the area. Some went to the Caucasian
front line,
while others went to the Iranian front line. The Armenian soldiers
accompanied our
soldiers. After the two sides started fighting, our soldiers noticed
that they were
being shot from behind. The doctors could not understand why soldiers
who should be
hit from the front were hit from behind. Then they realised that
Armenian soldiers
would kill ours whenever the op****tunity arose. We lost perhaps
thousands of our
soldiers in this way, but it was too late when it was discovered. Some
of the
traitors were found, while some joined the Russian fighters. This war
lasted two and
a half years. Our soldiers were in terrible shape, and were forced to
retreat. The
Russian military started to advance. When they arrived at the Caldiran
plains, they
came across the Hamidiye regiment which was formed during the reign of
Sultan Hamit
and was composed of tribes. The Russians used the Hamidiye organisation
for their
own means, telling them to provide soldiers to defend the area, while
they would
provide munitions and arms.
A soldier who heard that the Russians arrived in Caldiran ran to his
village
(Derebey) and told the village headman that it was futile to work in
the fields
since the Russians had already arrived in Caldiran, which meant they
would be in the
village either that day or the next. He told the villagers they would
all be killed
if they didn't flee. Hearing this, the villagers gathered together,
took some food
and whatever they could carry, and left toward Van. They first reached
the Zorava
village, which is Circassian. When the inhabitants asked them what was
going on,
they told them that they were headed to Van because the Russians had
entered
Caldrran and were advancing toward Muradiye.
Hearing this, the villagers in Zorava joined the refugees. Later there
were eight
villages which joined this caravan to Van; Hakis, Zorava, Derebey, Sih
Omer,
Sihkara, Sihayne, Hidir and G=F6ll=FC. They had no idea that Van was
emptied and that
its inhabitants had migrated. When they arrived at the Everek plains,
they saw some
Armenians who asked them in Armenian: "Where are you mindless people
going?" to
which they answered, "We're going to Van. We will go wherever the
inhabitants of Van
go." To this the Armenians showered them with insults and added "Turks
left Van over
six or seven days ago, and are refugees. The administration of Cevdet
Pasha was over
long time ago. Aram Pasha's Administration was formed. All of the
wounded,
hospitalised, women and children in Van were killed. Mosques were
torched, barracks
burned. We cut up all of the Muslims in Van. There were only 20-30
women remaining,
and we gave them to Aram Pasha." To this, Circissian Ibo said that they
would become
prisoners, and proposed that they go to Zeve, which was very close to
the lake. He
suggested they could find a ****p there and save the women and children.
By the time this group of refugees reached our village (Zeve), we saw
that there
were over 2,000 of them. When we asked them what happened, they
responded, "We were
fleeing to Van, but Armenians stopped us and told as that the
inhabitants of Van had
already migrated, so we came here to acquire a ****p in the hope of
saving our women
and children."
It was spring and it was not easy to settle the refugees in our small
village, but
we did our best. We settled them in homes, tents, and barns. There were
more than
2,000 of them, and they stayed with our villagers who numbered about
500. In
addition, soldiers disbanded from the army came home to our village.
You should have
seen them. They had long beards, their uniforms were torn, they were
full of lice.
We settled them, too. One was my brother Necip, my cousin Mustafa, my
brother-in-law
Mehmet, my cousin Ilyas, Recep, son of Saban, Mustafa's son Seyyat, and
Emrah's son
Sukru. They were emaciated -just skin and bones. They took of their
clothes and
burned them and pulled of the lice. My uncle Yusuf was a good barber.
After
scrubbing their heads with hot water, he shaved them with a razor.
Believe me,
because of the lice, blood was dripping from their faces and eyes. They
were
somewhat more comfortable after that.
Two days had passed. On the third day, the village Hodja began his
morning call to
prayer. Those who wanted to pray and the others went to work, There was
a river in
the middle of our village. If flows all the way from the Iranian
border, and becomes
a lake in the spring when the snow melts. But we were never sure
exactly where this
water came from. One day we heard a woman's voice from the other side
of the river
calling for someone to carry her to our side. On hearing this, my uncle
grabbed his
purse, followed the sounds, and was suprised to see, Esma, the daughter
of Ahmet,
who married someone in the Molla Kasim village.
She promised to tell her story after my uncle helped her cross the
river. He helped
her onto the saddle and brought her to this side of the river. At this
time the
villagers had already finished their morning prayer and gathered around
them. She
told them to defend themselves that Hamit, Molla Kasim, and Ayanos had
been killed,
and that the perpetrators would be in our village any day now. The
Hodja addressed
the crowd with "Friends, we are Muslims. It doesn't fit our religion
for us to die
needlessly. We have about 60 weapons, 2 chests full of ammunition, and
eight or nine
soldiers with guns and bullets. Let's defend our village. My father's
cousin, Hodya
Osman who served with Cevdet Pasha had sent 60 guns and the
ammunition."
There were hills near our village, below the bridge. There were plains
on the top,
and grasslands below. The villagers took their positions on the top
part of the
hills, and waited for the Armenians to advance. When the Armenians
surrounded the
village on three fronts and attacked, our villagers were prepared. They
fought the
Armenians until noon. When our side charged them, the Armenians were
startled. Some
of them fled to Mermit village, while other went to Vadar village.
Afterwards they
started to re-grouping. There were other Armenian villages such as the
enormous Alay
village comprised of 400 homes. They gathered together, all of the
Armenians, and
again started a battle which continued until the end of the
mid-afternoon prayer.
After the mid-afternoon prayer, there were up to one hundred horses
speeding down
Erzurum Street which originated in Van. The villagers thought that they
were Ottoman
soldiers who came to their assistance after hearing gunfire, but soon
saw that they
were Russian Armenians who heard the gunfire and came to the village.
The fighting
started again, and our villagers started to run out of bullets. The
Armenians saw
this as an op****tunity and entered the village by killing the Turks who
were
guarding it. The village was burning, and herds of people numbering two
or three
thousand started to flee. The Armenians were throwing small children in
the air and
piercing them with bayonets or sticking them in the stomach with
bayonets. The
children let out shrill cries and foil to the ground like baby birds.
In
desperation, some of the women and young girls threw themselves into
the river,
while others lit fire to bails of grass and threw themselves into the
bonfire.
They captured Cor****al Seyat alive, laid him one the ground, undressed
him, and
skinned him alive. They also carved out his shoulders and carved into
his sides,
taunting him by saying that Sultan Resat promoted him and gave him a
medal. The
Armenians also set fire to the grass and threw some of our women and
children into
the fire and burned them alive. They sliced the throats of the rest of
the survivors
as if they were sacrificial lambs. Not one child survived. After
massacring the
entire village, they killed the five most attractive women; my cousin
Sober, Esma,
the headman's wife, a distant relative Hayriye, my aunt Aye, and
G=FCll=FC. Then they
left. I'll explain to you how I survived even though the Armenians
vowed to continue
the massacres until we were all dead. My father was very well known,
and he had
extended much kindness to the Bardakci village. My father had once
saved the life of
Kirbe, and his son Asvador was among the Armenians. Although at the
time my father
was in Iran as a reserve officer, Asvador came to us during the
massacre. Asvador
told the Armenians not to touch me, my mother, and one of my sisters
and saved our
lives. After the Armenians left, Asvador took us out of hiding. The
wounded were
moaning from pain, begging for someone to wrap their wounds or give
them some water.
Asvador brought us to the Bardaci village where we stayed for some
time. My cousin
Sema in Bardakci would swear to us that in the evening the Armenians
would come and
pick out ten or eleven women out of the 150, and rape them until the
morning. The
women were covered with blood, and after they dropped them off they
were unable to
sit.
Meanwhile a Russian government was established in Van and Aram Pasha
became its
leader. Aram Pasha's government proclaimed that any refugee who is in
need of food
or water is welcome to Van. My father at this time was in the Hacik
village where he
and my uncles were on Halil Pasha's boat. From there they went to a
village in the
Hosap region. When my uncles heard the proclamation they went to Van.
They were
shocked to see that the city was burned and completely destroyed. The
city used to
be at the foothill of the castle. Everything was completely destroyed:
the
buildings, barracks, mosques, bathhouses, and government buildings.
My father was from the Hacbahan neighbourhood where there were Armenian
homes and
stores. Coincidentally, Asvador ran into him on the street. After the
customary
greeting, my father asked him if he had any news about our village.
Asvador
responded that they had slaughtered all of Zeve, but that his younger
wife, child
and daughter were safe with him. He volunteered to hand us over to my
father. My
father acknowledged the favour by Asvador, but feared that the
Armenians would kill
him if he went to the village, so he suggested that Asvador bring us to
him instead
so that he could take us away. When Asvador came to see us that night,
he told us
that he ran into my father, and that we should prepare ourselves so
that he could
take us to him. In the morning he loaded us onto an ox cart, took us to
Van, and
delivered Lis to my father. We didn't stay long because the Armenians
were raiding a
village; many people were fleeing either towards Iran, Mardin or
Diyarbakir to save
their lives.
Q: Mr. Ibrahim, can you tell us about what happened in Van. Apparently
the first
revolt took place, where the castle was toppled by cannon fire, the
city was
completely destroyed, and an Armenian government was set up. Since you
were in Zeve
you may have seen the troubles in Van. Do you have any knowledge of the
incidents in
Van?
A: They used cannon fire to burn the castle. At that time we were in
the village of
Bardakci, and could see the fire in Van from there. Mosques, buildings
and barracks
were burned. After capturing the castle, they aimed some of the cannon
fire
downhill. The mosque near the castle also was burned and destroyed, as
well as the
Hamitaga barracks. They butchered almost all of the Muslims there -only
a few women
survived. After the Russian government was established, these women
complained
Armenians to the Russian authorities, and asked for protection because
they trusted
the Russians more. The Russians had the women guarded and did not
violate their
virtue, but the Armenians raped our women and massacred the children
and the
elderly.
Q: Mr. Ibrahim, is it possible that one of the reasons that the Russian
soldiers did
not touch your women was the possible presence of Turks in the Russian
army?
A: Yes. There were Crimean and Caucasian soldiers and officers. They
protected our
women because they too were Muslims. In fact, they even sent them back
to their
villages including the Molla Kasim village. During the massacres they
could only
send 30 of the 150 women. They planned to stay in the Molla Kasim
village until the
Ottoman military arrived. However, they were subject to even further
hard****ps. When
the Russians retreated, the Armenians stayed behind. The Armenians
suggested that
the Russians leave their weapons, ammunition, cannons, and supplies, so
they could
fight the Ottoman government. When the Russians left all of their
equipment to them,
the Armenians became even more ruthless and continued the massacres.
When our army
starting arriving from Bitlis to Gevas and cla****ng with these
Armenians, the
Armenians headed to Van toward Muradiye and Kars. They ultimately went
to Russia and
Iran. Only a handful of Armenians remained behind. They stayed on small
islands in
Lake Van such as Carpa****.
Q: Were there any Armenians in yourk Zeve village?
A: No, none.
Q: Where were you at the time that the Armenians established an
Armenian government
with the Russians?
A: We were in Zeve at the time.
Q: How many people from Zeve survived?
A: Including to myself, six women were saved from Zeve, and that was
only because of
a good deed my father had done earlier. Everyone else was murdered,
including many
women and children.
Q: They say that a mosque near the Van castle was burned. Was this
mosque in Van or
Zeve?
A: It was in Van, but mosques in Zeve were burned down as well. In Van
they burned
other mosques such as the Kayacelebi, Ulu, and H=FCsrev Pasha, as well
as many smaller
mosques. You can still see all of their traces.
Q: Were there any people inside the mosques in Van when they were
burned down?
A: Without a doubt.
Q: How about in Zeve?
A: Many had gone into the mosque for protection. Among them were uncle
Hamza,
Dervis, and Derebeyli. I don't remember the names of the others except
for a great
personality in Zeve whose name you may have heard; Sultan Haci Hamza.
He built the
first dervish lodge in the area.
Q: Isn't it true that during the massacres the Turks sought refuge in
the lodge
thinking that they would not be killed?
A: They sought shelter in the tomb, not the lodge.
Q: They say that the Armenians burned down the tomb, is that right?
A: It is true. They set fire to the tomb too, and threw everyone inside
killed, but
three people survived. Unfortunately, mosques, tombs made no difference
to them.
They burned them down with everyone inside. I hope God will protect us
from similar
events in the future.
++++++++++++++++++
http://www.kultur.gov.tr/****tal/default_en.asp?belgeno=3D3355
ARMENIAN ISSUE
ALLEGATIONS-FACTS
ARMENIAN REBELLIONS AND MASSACRES
Veteran and Eyewitness Accounts
Ayse Sevimli
Father's Name : Dervis
Mother's Name : Hayriye
Place of Birth : Van-Zeve
Date of Birth : 1897
When the villagers heard that the Armenians were coming, they took as
many
precautions as possible. They dug positions in the hills. The
inhabitants of seven
villages filled up our village. There was little room in the village to
manoeuvre
around the people and carts. on the day that we heard the Armenians had
almost
reached the village, the men ran to take their positions and began
fighting.
We had no ammunition or weapons assistance. When the Armenians entered
our village,
some of our men died fighting; others were burned in their homes. I hid
with my
mother and some others in a barn further away from the fighting grounds
I got under
a large basket. The Armenians killed everyone they found and also fired
at the
barns. A bullet hit my mother's scarf, but she was not hurt. I know of
only two
other women who survived.
The Armenians went to Bardakci before they came to our village. My God,
when we went
out at night, blood, gunfire, mourning, and wailing filled the air. I
saw them
torturing people by cutting "pockets" out of skin while mockingly
telling them they
were decorating them with medals. When we approached the Bardakci
village, I saw
that on the other side of the brook, in the field near Mehmet's house
they had tied
the arms of five men together and were shooting at them. When they fell
to the
ground, they stabbed them with bayonets. My mother handed them all of
her money and
valuables so that we would not be hurt. They then brought us to Van,
and tortured
the prisoners in unmentionable ways. We stayed in the military barracks
for four
months. We later became refugees and remained as such until April 1918.
++++++++++++++++++
http://www.kultur.gov.tr/****tal/default_en.asp?belgeno=3D3356
ARMENIAN ISSUE
ALLEGATIONS-FACTS
ARMENIAN REBELLIONS AND MASSACRES
Veteran and Eyewitness Accounts
Haci Zekeriya Koc
Father's Name : Yakup
Mother's Name : Nadide
Place of Birth : Van
When the Armenian incidents broke out we were in our village. Ayanis..
Zeve.
Mollakasim and Ayanis were the villages in the region inhabited
entirely by Muslim.
There were five or ten Armenian homes in the other villages. Before
these problems
broke at, we had excellent relations with the Armenians. We got along
particularly
well with Armenian-inhabited Alak=F6y. We would invite each other to
banquets, and
there were no hostilities between us.
Then when everything started and the residents of Van fled, we decided
to migrate as
well. We got together, filled four carts as much as possible, and got
on the road.
As we were leaving the village, a man came from Van, and asked us where
we were
going. When we told him, he urged us to stay, saying he, had cannons,
guns, and
military supplies. on his encouragement, everyone returned home. Three
days passed.
On the fourth day, we were at my grandmother's. I was standing and
eating a piece of
buttered bread my grandmother prepared for me. Three villagers were
there helping us
out. We heard one gunshot, and the men said "This noise is from
Armenian guns, it
buzzes like tin. Our weapons clatter. Something is going on."
Meanwhile someone came from Mollakasim, stood on tire hilltop of our
village, and
yelled Why are you still around? Kurds raided and plundered Alakoy, and
the
Armenians are attacking villages." Right after this my cousing Dursun
showed up. An
elderly woman asked him why he came. He had a bullet on his thumb and
said, "They
destroyed the village and I ran away. Before the villagers had a chance
to organize,
the Armenians surrounded the village. The Armenians captured our
livestock near the
cemetery and took them to Alak=F6y. The Armenians went into the villages
and separated
the men and stuffed them into a room. Their leader was Hamados Pasha,
who had paid
Iranian Kurds to fight with him. He told his fighters to separate all
males over the
age of seven, and add them to the men to he burned.
They spoke Turkish almost as well as we did. At that time I was seven
years old. My
mother immediately wrapped a scarf around my head, put a loose dress on
me, and
pulled me by her side. I survived, but they picked out four or five
people from
among us and took them away near the men. As soon as they added them to
the men they
poured gasoline on the crowd and lit a fire. The screams emanating from
there
reached the skies. They rounded up the women and took them outside.
They would mock
them saying "ladies why don't you sit here and rest. Look how nicely
the dogs are at
each other's throats. "The "dogs" they referred to were someone's son,
husband,
father or uncle. They were crying "oh my God" in agonizing pain. They
made us sit
there for up to an hour. When we walked by the cemetery, one of the
Armenians began
singing a ballad mocking us.
At that moment we saw that the Armenians shot my mother's cousin with
her child
still nursing on her breast, then an Armenian came and killed the child
with a
bayonet. They killed a lot of people in that area. Those that could run
away
escaped, those that couldn't had gas poured over them and were burned.
We were
forced to sit there for quite a while.
Hamza, Haci Ummet's uncle lived in our village. He always carried a
dagger. The
Armenians were going to carry him away and kill him, but he ran toward
them. He was
either going to kill them or be killed. Unfortunately he was not able
to overcome
them. Before they killed him they carved out "pockets" in his thighs
and placed his
hands inside. Excuse my language, but they cut his organ and placed it
in his
mounth, and cut his nose and placed it in his behind.
They then took us to a hilltop in Alakoy before taking us into the
village. There
they packed us into a barn. The children in the group were starving and
began to
wail from hunger. The Armenians cut off the hands, feet and other
organs of the dead
men, cooked and brought them as food. The children could not
differentiate, but the
women said that it was preferable to starve, and explained the truth to
the
children. When nightfall came, they flooded the barn with water. The
women had
placed the children on their shoulders and were shouting. After some
time they
emptied the water out of the barn by opening a trench. The next day the
women were
escorted out, and dried their clothes on rocks outside the village. The
women of
Molakasim lived a little further down our place. The Armenians had
killed the men in
the village there and imprisoned the women.
In other words they were raiding Muslim villages, killing the men, and
imprisoning
the women in Alakoy then led us onto the road towards Van. When we
arrived at the
Mermit stream, some of the women threw themselves into the water to
kill themselves
rather than die in the hands of their captors. The infidels shot them
from behind
and killed some of them. They broke the arms and mashed the heads of
some that
wanted to jump into the water. I was with my mother, aunt, and
grandmother. My
mother was still nursing my sister. When my mother wanted to throw
herself into the
water and kill herself, my grandmother held onto her and would not let
her go. The
Armenians put blockades by the stream to prevent people from jumping.
The next thing
we knew, an Armenian came to us and asked my grandmother who we were,
and from which
village we came from. My grandmother was rude at first, but told him
when he
insisted. When she responded that we were from the village of Ayanis,
and that my
grandfather's name was Muhittin, her sons Yakup and Niyazi. He grabbed
the sides of
her skirt and said he would never want or permit harm to come to us. We
were
stunned. He then told us a story that when they were coming from
Bahcesaray to Van
in eight wagons, my father prevented some men who wanted to kill the
Armenians from
doing so, instead, he escorted them all the way to Van then went back
to the
village.
That man gave us some bread, old cheese, and yogurt. In the morning
they took us
from there and brought us to Bardakci. At night we slept in the plains
of the
village with armed guards at our sides. What harm could women do
anyway? There were
about 700-800 of us. Then in the morning they woke us up, and took us
to the foot of
the castle in Van. There the governor of Van, Cevdet Pasha, had a
three-storey
detention center. They brought a lot of people there before us. One of
the women who
was there gave birth to a baby. The Armenians threw the child off the
roof of the
building; and the child was lost. We stayed there for five days. In the
afternoon
they let us go out in the fields, and people gathered whatever they
could find to
eat.
After five days, they brought two more groups of people. In the
afternoon they moved
us to Haci Bekir's detention center near the old Governor's home. They
also brought
the inhabitants of the Muslim village P=FCr=FCt there. Before they passed
out bread,
they added sulphir and other things to it. Up to 70 people a day died
as a result.
The Armenians dug ditches along the wall across from the barracks and
brought in the
dead on stretchers and threw them there. Here too, we ran across one of
the
Armenians which my father had saved. That Armenian fed us for a few
days. People
were attacking upon the food.
A week went by, and they told us the Russians arrived. One day a major,
a captain,
and two soldiers came into the barracks and counted and recorded the
prisoners. The
next day we were fed with rice and meat, and taken outside where there
were Russian
guards. The Russians asked about our villages, and told us they would
take us there.
When we all wanted to go to Mollakasim, they accepted. In the morning
they loaded us
onto 70-80 wagons and took us to Mollakasim. After our arrival, we
stuck together
out of fear of the Armenians. We chose a leader from among us and lived
that way
until the Turkish army came to Van. After some time, we rehabilitated
the villages
which the Armenians had burned and plundered.
+++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.kultur.gov.tr/****tal/default_en.asp?belgeno=3D3357
ARMENIAN ISSUE
ALLEGATIONS-FACTS
ARMENIAN REBELLIONS AND MASSACRES
Veteran and Eyewitness Accounts
Hikmet Saylik
Father's Name: Ziver
Mother's Name: S=F6hret
Place of Birth: Van G=FCls=FCnler
Date of Birth: 1901
I am from the village of Gulsunler, which used to be called Sihkara. We
left the
village when the Armenians raided the villages and started massacring
the Muslim
population. We were going toward Van, but the Armenians stopped us
before we
arrived. We had no choice but to return. About 300 people from the
village gathered
in Zeve, while an equal number returned to the village. We fled toward
Hosap as a
group. Turkish soldiers were in Hosap, and they told us to leave as
soon as possible
and get out of the line of fire.
In spite of the difficulties we faced, we went as far as Siirt. Many of
the refugees
suffered and died due to widespread hunger and disease. From there, we
arrived in
Diyarbakir, Mardin, and finally in Adana. We then went to Konya,
because the French
had occupied Adana. The government then sent us to Mersin, but when the
Turkish
military took back Van, we returned. But Van and its villages were
completely
ruined, burned, and destroyed. There, hundred people were martyred in
our village.
They gathered the people in houses and burned them alive. The
inhabitants of Van
fled, and those that remained were cut up by the Armenians. When we
returned, not
all of the Armenians had left. Some of the villages, such as Alak=F6y
remained as they
were, and the Muslims did not hurt anyone there. The government later
sent the
Armenians to Russia.
Many members of my family were martyred in this village including my
mother, father,
brother Mustafa and other relatives. Around 30-40 families fled with
us, but only
ten families returned. Those that stayed and those that went to Zeve
were all
massacred. I found the skeletons of nearly 200 Muslims killed by
Armenians. I buried
them here, but could not afford to provide headstones to be put in the
graveyard.
This includes the graves of my mother and father, as the Armenians had
burned them
alive.
++++++++++++++++++
http://www.kultur.gov.tr/****tal/default_en.asp?belgeno=3D3358
ARMENIAN ISSUE
ALLEGATIONS-FACTS
ARMENIAN REBELLIONS AND MASSACRES
Veteran and Eyewitness Accounts
Mehmet Saar
Father's Name: Tevfik
Mother's Name: Rukiye
Place of Birth: Van-G=F6ll=FC
Date of Birth: 1901
I am from the Gollu village. The Armenians revolted when the army in
Van retreated
towards Erzurum. The Armenians killed all our parents. My father was a
gendarme
sergeant and he was among those who were killed. The villagers in
Mollakasim, Amik,
Sihayne, Gollu, Hidir, Kurtsatan, and Koprukoy were also murdered. Some
of our
villagers were hidden in Zeve and were later killed, but we were able
to escape.
Armenians tortured and practiced all types of cruelties on the people
they
kidnapped. They cut up pregnant women and removed the unborn children
with their
bayonets. They raided and burned all of the Muslim villages, murdering
men, women,
children and the old. The Muslim population, which fled from the
villages, I
mentioned, tried to escape by crossing the bridge on the Ablengez
River. The
Armenians demolished the bridge, and threw the bodies of their
prisoners into the
river. In the spring when the snow melted, the bodies were carried away
into the
lake. During the day time, my mother, my two sisters, and I stayed in
the hills. We
knew that if the Armenians found us they would kill us. My mother died
before we
reached Diyarbakir. I later lost my two sisters, and was left all
alone. I stayed in
Diyarbakir for three years, and returned to my village the fourth year.
Van and the
Muslim villages were all burned and destroyed, we settled down in an
Armenian
village since they remained intact. We later returned to our villages
which we
rebuilt with our own hands.
Words cannot express the torture we suffered at the hands of the
Armenians. We lost
our homes, families, and possessions. After losing my mother, father,
and two
sisters, I also lost my cousin and other relatives who were trying to
escape to
Tatvan by ****p with thousands of other people. All of the passengers on
the ****p
were brutally slaughtered by the Armenians near the Parket village near
Adilcevaz.
+++++++++++++++++
http://www.kultur.gov.tr/****tal/default_en.asp?belgeno=3D3359
ARMENIAN ISSUE
ALLEGATIONS-FACTS
ARMENIAN REBELLIONS AND MASSACRES
Veteran and Eyewitness Accounts
Kadriye Duran
Father's Name : Hamid
Mother's Name : Nigar
Place of Birth : Van-Kavunlu
Date of Birth: 1904
I was ten years old when we became refugees. Before we fled, Degirmen
was an
Armenian village which included 80 Armenian families and three Muslim
Turkish
families. One day the Armenians gathered the three families, cut them
up, and tossed
them into a well. They tortured and killed the young men by cutting
"pockets" into
their thighs and crucified them by nailing them to the walls by their
foreheads.
Roughly 30 young people died this way.
A woman whose father-in-law lived in the Degirmen village came to tell
a cleric in
our village what was going on in Degirmen. After this, conflicts arose
with the
Armenians living in our village, and a few Armenians were killed. After
what
happened in the Degirmen village, a weapon was distributed to every
home in our
village as a precaution. My father was the headman of our village.
Since the
surrounding villages were Armenian, the Muslim population feared that
our village
would be attacked, and gathered in the mosque. We filled sacks with
sand and used
them as barriers.
During this time, two young Armenians were locked into a home because
our villagers
could not stand to kill them. But they dug a tunnel under the house,
and fled to
Degirmen village carrying news. Then the inhabitants of three villages,
Degirmen,
Farih and another Armenian village raided our village. The fighting
lasted for more
than an hour. The Armenians controlled the bridge above the stream, and
invaded
Ziyaret as well. The stream overflowed with melted snow, and it was
pure chaos when
we tried to cross the stream. When my mother entered the water, it
reached her
chest. Naturally, people broke their arms, legs, or heads, while
children were
carried away by the water. It was hell, pure hell. The Armenians were
throwing the
dead bodies onto heaps of wheat. The bodies had piled up like hills. My
father
jumped on his horse and went to Van from Akkopr=FC. Since Sihke was an
Armenian
village, they didn't give him permission to pass through. My father
explained the
situation to the governor of Van, Cevdet Pasha and asked for his help.
One hundred
soldiers came to our rescue, and the Armenians fled. We hid in the
village of
Dirandaz which was Muslim. After spending the night there, my father
went to Van in
the morning and asked those entering the city if we should return to
our village.
They said that we shouldn't, so we were forced to become refugees. My
sisters and I
wore men's clothing and hit the road.
We were going towards Edremit when the Armenians raided Van. The city
was burning,
and the houses were in flames, which reached to the sky. We reached
Edremit, but
they raided that too. We went from there to Bitlis, from Bitlis to
Siirt, to
Diyarbakir, and then to Siverek. We stayed there three years. There
were eight
people in our family who became refugees. On the way, my brother Ali
was captured.
The rest died on the road. Only my mother and I were able to return to
Van. We were
not the only ones affected. The inhabitants of Van, Edremit, and Van's
Muslim
villages all became refugees. Those that didn't run were killed at the
hands of the
enemy, while most of those that got away died on the road.
A few years later, my mother and I returned to Van, and could not
believe our eyes!
There were ruins everywhere, a few people, but they were all hungry,
thirsty, and
miserable. Neighbourhoods and houses were empty. There was no bread,
wheat, or
anything. We were compelled to return to the village of Coravanis. The
wheat there
was starting to mature. We cracked the bitter seeds, boiled them, and
drank the
water. The Armenians took furniture, goods, animals and everything they
have found.
They destroyed our houses as well. A man on a horse who saw us alone in
the village
told us that there was a grain storage area near the pier. My mother
and I went to
get 60 kilos of flour there, but it was later stolen. The Armenians had
not yet
withdrawn completely. There were bandits everywhere. One time my mother
and I went
to the Erek mountain to gather pieces of metal which we wanted to trade
for bread
with the soldiers. We ran into six Armenians who were going to kill us,
but when it
suddenly started to rain and hail, we ran away and hid in a cave. We
barely saved
our lives.
We suffered considerably. Three years later my brother died in
captivity. We were
told that the Armenians were going to kill him, but the Russians
objected. They had
made him build roads in Armenian villages by hand. We rebuilt our
homes, planted our
fields, and started a new life.
+++++++++++
http://www.kultur.gov.tr/****tal/default_en.asp?belgeno=3D3360
ARMENIAN ISSUE
ALLEGATIONS-FACTS
ARMENIAN REBELLIONS AND MASSACRES
Veteran and Eyewitness Accounts
Abd=FClbari Barlas
Father's Name: Mehmet Emin
Mother's Name: Ayse
Place of Birth: Van-Saglamtas
Date of Birth: 1919
As I have heard from my father, the Russians invaded our country, but
there were no
phones, no radio so the villagers could not understand where abouts the
enemy come
from. My father had a cousin named Abdulkadir and my father had told to
him "I am so
sick and my son (my brother) is a soldier on the Iranian front, he
fights against
the Russians. Go and get information". So Abdulkadir goes. There is a
meadow behind
those hills, when he climbs up the hill, he sees that the people of
Ercis are
running away. Abdulkadir comes to my father and says "All the people of
Talat Aga
are running away". Then my father decides to leave the village. They
immediately
begin preparations.
The season is spring, they leave the village with ox carts, but the
animals are not
ready for such a journey and they quickly get tired. They go as far as
the hill
standing on the southeast border of the village. But most of the
villagers give up.
The imam of the village asks my father "where are the Russians, where
are the
Armenians? Who are you running away from?" My father answers "this is
not a clan
war! This is the Russian war. We do not have cannons, rifles. We have
to run away."
In the morning my father's family and the Sheikh family set up again.
However,
people of the other thirty-eight houses stay.
The day after my father leaves the village; the villagers see that the
Russians
guided by the Armenians are coming. All the villagers begin to run
through the
stream, but the horsemen circle them and they immediately kill most of
them. Later
they gather the others in to a house on the hill. Two armed Armenians
watch the
door, and two Armenians kill all people with bayonets. Only a woman and
a little
girl are alive by remaining in silent among the dead bodies. As she
told my father
later that her name was Azime and the girls was Rusen.
As Ms. Azime told, she waited until the night in silence. She
straightened out she
called out if there was anybody who was alive. Only that little girl
answered her.
So she takes that girl and goes to Siirt passing through the mountains,
which is a
long and painful story.. Everyone knows the place of those martyrs.
But, I don't
know under which ruin they are in. But, there are many other places as
such. As I
told you before, the Armenians passed through the hill by killing
everybody they saw
on the way.
My father's family and the Sheikh family went to Diyarbakir, Farikin.
When they
arrived, they harvested the crops. Later on the government sent them to
Konya
because of epidemy where they stayed for three years. Later, they
returned to our
village.
* Cousin of Abdulbari Barlas, Abdulhamit Barlas showed the place where
the Turkish
villagers were killed by the Armenian bandits. He said that the
villagers who
migrated found countless human bones here. As those bones could not be
collected
under the cir***stances of that time, they all disappeared. In this
village, the
Armenians killed 150-200 people.
+++++++++++++
http://www.kultur.gov.tr/****tal/default_en.asp?belgeno=3D3361
ARMENIAN ISSUE
ALLEGATIONS-FACTS
ARMENIAN REBELLIONS AND MASSACRES
Veteran and Eyewitness Accounts
Sait Kaya
Father's Name: Ahmed
Mother's name : Emine
Birth Place: Van Province Ercis District
Birth Date: 1898
I am living in Ercis since I was born. The Armenians revolted a Friday
and planned
to kill the Moslems in m*****. When this was heard our man got together
and killed
the Armenian leaders by swords. I mean the only leader males, because
our religion
prohibits the killing of children, women and innocent and armless
people.
Later when the Armenian priest was together with the Armenian Nishan
Subgovernor, he
said "It is a pity that you did not allow us, we should have killed
them one week
earlier." Then became spring, we migrated from the Armenian tyranny. We
escaped but
the majority stayed. The Armenians captivated them and put them inside
the barns and
killed them. Just because we migrated early, no one from my family was
killed by
Armenians. However several Moslems were slaughtered and burned by the
Armenians. We
first moved to Diyarbakir and then to Urfa.
We stayed there for three years. From there, we moved to Antalya. As we
were not in
peace with Italy, the governor did not allow us to the city, so went to
Denizli and
stayed there for eight years. Finally we returned back to our hometown
Ercis. They
had already burned and destroyed most of the houses. We worked for
years and rebuilt
them.
+++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.kultur.gov.tr/****tal/default_en.asp?belgeno=3D3362
ARMENIAN ISSUE
ALLEGATIONS-FACTS
ARMENIAN REBELLIONS AND MASSACRES
Veteran and Eyewitness Accounts
Yamin Tosun
Father's Name : Osman
Mother's Name : Hanim
Place of Birth: Van-Ercis-Haydarbey
I am from Haydarbey village. We became refugees when the Armenians
revolted and the
Russians came. We moved to Urfa, where my mother, father, and brothers
died of the
famine occurred that year. When the Russians retreated, Armenians took
over the
place, but the Turkish army pushed them back to Revan. We returned to
our homes, and
found Ercis, the Muslim village and our village completely burned down
and=20
demolished.
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