Page:Islam, Turkey, and Armenia, and How They Happened.djvu/196

190. Even the priests and the ministers of the gospel were not left out of this detrimental persecution.

Correspondence and traveling were strictly guarded and almost entirely prohibited. Immigration to any foreign country, and even to the Turkish seacoast cities was absolutely forbidden to the Armenians. Many Armenians who had official pass-ports for some Turkish city, as Constantinople, Smyrna or Beirout were arrested, imprisoned in the ports of Trebizond, Samsoun, Mersina and Alexandretta or sent back to their own town. All the Armenians who escaped to Europe or the United States could do so only by suffering terrible hardships and perils and by bribing the police. An Armenian was several times captured and sent back to Harpoot, and at last, in his sixth attempt, succeeded in reaching a French steamer for the United States by swimming about two miles to where it was anchored.

The clergy and influential men were forced to sign false reports or accusations prepared by the government. Blackmailing became a universal practice among the Turkish officers, every town and village was besieged, every road was watched by detectives and officious officers ever ready to rob the innocent. The news of the Sassoun massacres in 1894 was not heard in other parts of Armenia and Asia Minor until four months after the event. No one could go safely in the streets with a manuscript in his pocket, however harmless it might be. Any policeman would at any time attack him and get the paper and take it,