Russians Seize Port Of Rizeh -nyt19160309
RUSSIANS SEIZE PORT OF RIZEH
RUSSIANS SEIZE PORT OF RIZEH
Turkey's Black Sea Coast Defenses Crumbling Under Fire of Fleet.
GREAT MASSACRE BY KURDS
40,000 Armenians Driven from Erzerum and Killed, According to Petrograd
Only 16 Armenians Alive in Erzerum
THURSDAY, MARCH 9, 1916.
LONDON, March 8.--The Russians found only sixteen Armenians alive in Erzerum out of the usual Armenians population of 40,000, according to information received in Petrograd and forwarded by Reuter's correspondent in the Russian capital.
"The Turkish inhabitants or Erzerum," the correspondent adds, "stated that a few days before the capture of the fortress by the Russians all the Armenians in the town were driven out by the police in a westerly direction, where the Kurds, who had been forewarned, massacred all of them."
Armenian Refugees Here
The armed Italian liner America arrived in the bay yesterday from Naples and Geneva with 187 cabin passengers and 1,727 steerage passengers, the largest number of immigrants bought to this country on any one ship since the war began. Many of the Italians on board were young and able-bodied, but they explained that the Italian Government had released they had families in this country.
On the boat were forty-five Armenian refugees, who had been brought to this country by the American Committee of Armenian and Syrian Relief. All were formerly inhabitants of the villages Habatlee and Batyas on Mount Moses, bordering on the Mediterranean, eighteen miles from Antioch.
Late last Summer, they said, the 10,000 inhabitants of the two villages received word from Turkish officials that they had been ordered deported to a desert in the interior. During the time given them for preparation to leave their village, about 5,000 men, women, and children fled to refuges on Mount Moses, the remainder being driven under a guard of soldiers to some place in the interior from which none are known to have escaped. The refugees on the mountain twice repulsed a force of Turks sent to dislodge them. Finally they stole from the mountain fastnesses to a slope near the Mediterranean which was patrolled by numerous French ships. Here they said out a huge square of white cloth, made by sewing sheets together, with a large red cross in the center made of cloth from garments. This was observing by a French cruiser, which brought rescue to the whole party, which numbered at the time 4,200.
All were taken to port Said, and many of them will be brought to this country in small numbers by the American Committee.
A hard copy of this article or hundreds of others from the time of the Armenian Genocide can be found in The Armenian Genocide: News Accounts From The American Press: 1915-1922