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TURKEY : THE BLIGHT OF ASIA

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AMERICAN INSTITUTIONS UNDER TURKISH RULE

    THIS cursory account of the methodical extermination of Christianity at the hands of the Turk should convince any one that he now has no intention of allowing it to be revived and propagated in his domains in foreign schools. An earlier chapter gave an account of the aid and support, both moral and financial, furnished American missionary and philanthropic institutions by the Greeks during their occupation of the Smyrna region, and at Saloniki. The following statement of their treatment under Turkish rule is from the pen of Dana K. Getchell, well known in missionary circles:

    "In 1914, when the World War began, Anatolia College, Marsovan, Turkey, had an enrollment of four hundred twenty-five students and the Girls’ School had about three hundred; a total of about one thousand individuals all together were on the American premises, including professors’ families, servants and their families and the American colony. At the close of 1914, the Americans bad just finished the building of a large hospital which was occupied by the Turks before the American doctor had the opportunity of moving in."

    "In 1915, the Armenian deportation took place in the early spring of that year. Out of our faculty of fifteen native teachers and a servant list of fifteen more, twenty of these individuals, men, were deported and, as far as the college authorities knew, were killed, as they have never been heard from since."

    "Our college steward, during this time, went to the market for his usual work and never returned. A noted Turkish lawyer of the city, at that time connected with the college, informed me that if I would go with him to a certain spot in a vineyard near the city he would show me the well into which this man’s body was thrown. He was perfectly in sympathy with this deed that was committed."

    "During the month of June, 1915, I escorted a party of ten American ladies and children to Constantinople, via Angora, the Black Sea route having been closed. While in Constantinople, I learned of the deportation of the Armenians in the interior, especially from Marsovan and vicinity. I worked for days to get permission from Talaat Pasha to return to Marsovan, but his excuse was that ‘things were doing’ in the interior and it was not a good time for foreigners to be traveling. Later, upon hearing that more than four hundred Armenians had crowded into the American premises, information was taken to Talaat and his promise received that no Armenian within the American premises should be deported. Upon the strength of this promise, I sent a telegram to my associates in Marsovan, and having received permission to travel in those days, I hastened back to my work. Upon my arrival in Marsovan, I found that the first great deportation of those sheltered in the American premises had taken place the day before."

    "Two days later, the Turkish gendarmes and police came to our premises and demanded the girls, forty-nine in number, from the American school. These demands were persisted in and on that day, by the order of the Turkish Government, all these girls were started on the road to Sivas, a journey of six days interior from Marsovan. Two of the American teachers, Miss Willard and Miss Gage, by persistence, secured permission to follow these girls one day after they had started on their journey and overtook them just as they were entering Sivas, six days later. By working with the vaii of the province for days, permission was finally given to these American ladies for all these girls to return to the Girls’ School at Marsovan."

    "At the beginning of the deportations in 1915, Marsovan was inhabited by twelve thousand Armenians. When the deportations were finished scarcely one thousand of that nationality could be found in the city. This complete destruction of the Armenians in this city is only an example of what took place throughout the Vilayet of Sivas."

    "In January, 1916, the Greek deportations from the Black Sea began. These Greeks came through the city of Marsovan by thousands, walking for the most part the three days’ journey through the snow and mud and slush of the winter weather. Thousands fell by the wayside from exhaustion and others came into the city of Marsovan in groups of fifty, one hundred and five hundred, always under escort of Turkish gendarmes. Next morning these poor refugees were started on the road and destruction by this treatment was even more radical than a straight massacre such as the Armenians suffered before."

    "In 1917, in the dead of winter, a second deportation of Armenians from the Black Sea coast began and the same treatment was undergone by those who were obliged to flee from their homes."

    "On May 16, the fifteen Americans, men, women and children were obliged to undergo this hardship—to leave their homes and property—for this long overland journey. On that date the American premises were occupied by Turkish soldiers and the buildings all taken over as a base hospital."

    "Six weeks later four of this group returned to Marsovan by permission from Talaat Pasha, with the understanding that they would be able to occupy their homes and use the school buildings for educational purposes. The buildings, with the exception of the houses, which wore obtained with great difficulty, were never returned but were in constant use by the Turkish military authorities up to the time of the Armistice, March, 1919."

    "The treatment of Americans and American property throughout Turkey was the same as that experienced by the Americans in Marsovan. The schools and colleges in Sivas, Caesarea, Harput, Aintab and other places were closed and for the most part the American workers were sent out of the country. Since the Armistice, this same treatment of Americans throughout the interior has continued. The schools have not been allowed to open and property to the value of many thousands of dollars, has continually been occupied by Turks."

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