Turkey and Armenia: with a full and accurate account of the recent massacres by eye witnesses.(Excerpt)

1896

THE RECENT REPORTS concerning the massacre of the Armenians in Turkey and other places have been looked upon by many as incredible; not, however, to those acquainted with the character of the Kurds, who were the chief perpetrators. My intimate acquaintance with this people, and my knowledge of their hostility in my own Persian home, will help me to give a brief account of their history and present condition and also of the cruelties practiced by them on the unfortunate Christians of the Orient.

Kurdistan, which is a name very common in the East, is no more than a geographical appellation for the entire country inhabited by the Kurds. Its area is estimated to be more than 50,000 square miles. This region has no political boundaries, but includes both Persian and Turkish territory. It may be said to extend from Turkish Armenia on the north to the plains of the Middle Tigris and the Luristan mountains on the south. It contains many other people besides Kurds, among whom are Turks, Nestorians, Chaldeans, Persians and Armenians.

Their Origin

The origin and ancestry of the Kurds, like that of most Eastern nations, is still unsettled among ethnologists. They stand among the Asiatic races, like the Basques and Lapps in Europe, wrapt in obscurity. Whether they are of Iranian or Turanian origin, whether they are descendants of Medes or Parthians, or whether they are the Gardu, who at one time held the mountains north of Assyria, no one can say with certainty. It is safest to identify them with the Karduchie, with whom Zenophon and the ten thousand had so long a struggle. In regard to the Kurds, history is silent, except at certain epochs when they touched the more civilized world. It is said by some Eastern historians that the famous Saladin was a Kurd. Several governments of Western Asia have claimed them, but a people so rebellious has ever been a thorn in the side of every ruling power. In 1639 A.D. a treaty between one of the Sultans of Turkey and the Shah Sefavi of Persia established a frontier line between the two empires, which line, since that date, has served as a nominal division between the two. Their subsequent history is obscure. They are a people without a literature and almost without a history. They number about 2,000,000, 700,000 of whom are under Persia, the rest being under Turkey. They are divided into many independent tribes. The tribal feeling is very strong, a very fortunate thing for Turkey and Persia, for could the Kurds be firmly united, these empires might often suffer much at their hands. At the present time, however, they are more subject to discipline than at any previous epoch in their history.

Occupation and Character

Some of them are nomadic, not, however, wandering indefinitely, for they have well-defined circuits which they make annually. They spend the summer in the cool, bracing air of Northwestern Persia, and the winter in the milder plains of Assyria. It is interesting to watch them on the march during these migrations, moving with families, tents, flocks and herds, the hardy females bearing their little ones in cradles on their backs, the older children with only their heads emerging, being packed in large sacks, often with lambs to balance them, and thus slung over the backs of oxen or cows. Thus they move as the season advances, until midsummer finds them near the summits of the mountains or plateaus, in the neighborhood of perpetual snow, among cool rills, luxuriant pastures and blossoming flowers.