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ARMENIA AND THE NEAR EAST
288
to which they belonged, simply in order to give the Govern
ment a good pretext for saying that there was an insurrection.
At length something happened which furnished a pretext
for striking. On the 3oth of September, 1895, a procession
of a couple of thousand Armenians passed through the streets
of Constantinople to the Sublime Porte in Stamboul, to hand
the Grand Vizier a petition setting forth the grievances and
demands of the Armenian population. There was a quarrel
with some Turkish students (sof/as), a few shots were ex
changed, and then the police swooped down; numbers of
Armenians were shot ; others were arrested and bayoneted
at the police-stations ; the Armenian lodging-houses were
stormed at night ; and crowds of Armenians who took
refuge in the Armenian churches were only saved by the
intervention of the foreign embassies.
This was an unmistakable rising ; the Sultan could safely
give the word. Immediately the blow fell in every Armenian
town and village ; the disarmed Armenians were massacred
by armed roughs led by the police, by Kurds—including the
Sultan’s new bamidije cavalry—and by Turks. The regular
troops kept order, seeingthat " the work" wasproperly done,
and intervening on occasion if the Armenians defended
themselves in their quarters, which were then bombarded.
The Sultan’s organized brigands " worked " quite satisfac
torily, and Armenian blood flowed in rivers everywhere—in
Akhissar, Trebizond, Erzinjan, Baiburt, Bitlis, Erzerum,
Arabkir, Diarbekir, Meratia, Kharput, Sivas, Amasia, Aintab,
Mersivan, Marash, Cæsarea, and other places, ending with Urfa,
where 1,200 Armenians were burnt alive in the cathedral at
Christmas 1895. Some belated butchery also took place in
1896 in Van, Constantinople, and other towns, where circum
stances had made it inconvenient to arrange for this before.
A proclamation issued by the authorities in Arabkir has
been preserved, and runs as follows : " All who are children
of Muhammed must now do their duty and kili all Armenians,
sack their houses and burn them to the ground. Not om
Armenian is to be spared. Such is the command of the
Sultan Those who do not obey will be regarded as Arme
nians and killed also. Therefore every Musulman must
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