Saw Turkish Atrocities -nyt19190131
SAW TURKISH ATROCITIES
Elkus Tells of a Maine Girl Who May Give Valuable Testimony
FEBRUARY 1, 1919
Special To The New York Times. CHICAGO, Jan, 31. -- Hidden in a Maine town is a young American woman who may be the only living eye-witness, except the Turks themselves, of the atrocities practiced upon the Armenians in the enforced deportations from Armenia, and who, by virtue of her knowledge, may some day find herself advanced from a waitress in a Portland restaurant to a position of international importance.
Abram I, Elkus, former American Ambassador to Turkey, told of her in Chicago for the first time today. He declined to make public her name or address, giving as his reason the statement:
"She has escaped a lot of dangers, but it is not too late for something to happen to her yet."
Her testimony would be mainly valuable, Mr. Elkus explained. as evidence that the Turks could control the outrages upon Armenians when they had sufficient reason.
"This young woman had married a barber in Portland," and had gone with him to his native country to claim a patrimony when the war broke out. She became an eye-witness to the Turkish atrocities, was taken prisoner by the Turks, confined in a prison in Aleppo, and subsequently released on the urgent denied of the American Ambassador and returned to the United States."
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