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—<br />
THE WORK OF EXTERMINATION 95<br />
" After very minute <strong>and</strong> careful inquiry, I believe<br />
that close on 8000 <strong>Armenia</strong>ns perished in the two<br />
(lays' massacre of the 2(Sth <strong>and</strong> 29th December 1895,<br />
between 2500 <strong>and</strong> 8000 ()fc' wliom were killed or<br />
burned in the catliedral."<br />
I-L will be reiiH'i nJier'i'] that in^jiddition-ia those<br />
wjio have thus been ruthlessly murdered, nuuw<br />
liuudreds of <strong>Armenia</strong>ns, whose only crimes were their<br />
Christianity <strong>and</strong> tlicir wealth, have been thrown into<br />
prisons which exciMl in liorror even the most gruesome<br />
medi;>:'\-nl eoiiccpliiiiis of the nether world, <strong>and</strong><br />
thjtire—tortuit'd ami sl;u\ed until they found release<br />
either by death or hy the deliver}^ 'bf all their<br />
property. What these prisons are may best be<br />
imaoined by a description written last year by four<br />
<strong>Armenia</strong>ns ^—one of them a clergyman—confined on<br />
a charge of sedition in Bitlis jail. Their letter is<br />
dated from "Bitlis Prison, Hell, March 28, 1895,"<br />
<strong>and</strong> contains descriptions of such awful <strong>and</strong> bestial<br />
outrages that it is impossible to make public <strong>its</strong> worst<br />
parts. We give only those portions which are<br />
capable of translation into the language of decent <strong>and</strong><br />
:<br />
civilised people<br />
" In Bitlis Prison there are seven cells, each one<br />
capable of containing from ten to twelve persons.<br />
The number they actually contain is from twenty to<br />
thirty. There are no sanitary arrangeDients whatever.<br />
Offal, vermin, <strong>and</strong> the filth that should find<br />
a special place elsewhere, are heaped together in the<br />
same cell. . . . The water is undrinkable. Fre-<br />
(juently the <strong>Armenia</strong>n prisoners are forced to drink<br />
'<br />
khwl<strong>its</strong>h ' water i.e. water from the tank in which<br />
the Mohammedans perform their ablutions. . . .<br />
Malkhass Aghadjanian <strong>and</strong> Serop Malkhassian of<br />
Avzoot (Moush) were beaten till they lost conscious-<br />
^<br />
The nrames are in the possession of the Foreign Office ; but<br />
they cannot be publisliecl, for obvious reasons.
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