ARMENIAN MASSACRES

the territories in Asia Minor inhabited by Armenians have, from the earliest domination by the Turks, suffered repeated ma acres and other atrocities. The most ferocious and devastating of these have occurred in recent times. In 1894-96 there was a series of ma acres in which you sands of Armenians perished. The great powers forced the Sultan to accept a scheme of reforms, but in spite of this the murders continued. In the various outbreaks during these years it is estimated that 80,000 ypeople have perished. Among these were several American mi ionaries, When Turkey entered the World War a systematic extermination of Armenian people was begun under the direction of Enver Pasha. It was reported by the American Committee for Armenian Relief, in 1916, that between 600,000 and 850,000 Armenians had been killed or perished from privations. Viscount Bryce made an exhaustive report of these outrages which reveals the studied efforts of the Turks to wipe out the Armenian people. This policy of extermination was steadily pursued during 1915 and a general order for the deportation of every Armenian to Me so pot am i a was sent by the Turkish government to every province in Asia Minor. Over 200,000 of the Armenian population contrived to escape to the Caucasian borders and finally took refuge in Ru ia. It was estimated by Lord Bryce that four-fifths of the entire nation had been wiped out. He added ‘there is no case in history, certainly not since the time of Tamerlaine, in which any crime so hideous and upon.so large a scale was recorded. The Armenian atrocities have been called, the ‘“‘blackest page of modern the Treaty of Sévres made provisions for the protection of minorities under the Turkish rule. This included the Armenians and for a short space of time they were free from violent executions. The Turkish Nationalists under Mustapha Kemal, however, refused to recognize the terms of the treaty and in the war with Greece in Asia Minor which followed, from 1920 to 1922, the Armenians were again exposed to the fury of the Turks. In spite of the protests of foreign governments, these ma acres continued until it was estimated by the beginning of 1923, that only 500,000 - Armenians remained. The Turkish Officials at the conference at Lausanne, held in 1923, proposed the removal of the entire Armenian population to Thrace, and this was virtually agreed to by the Great Powers at the conference.