Page:Islam, Turkey, and Armenia, and How They Happened.djvu/198

192 these nineteenth century hells of Turkish barbarity."

4. Another step as a preparation for the Armenian massacres was the organization of the "Hamidieh troops." These troops, which consisted largely of Kurdish chiefs and their allies, were at first supposed to be the means of precaution against the impending invasion of Russian Kossacks from Caucasia, near Kurdistan, but soon after it was clearly seen that the plan was for an internal massacre of the Armenians, with whom these Kurdish tribes lived for centuries, sometimes on friendly terms and very often in severe enmity. The Turks, however fanatical they may be, are cowardly and lazy, especially prone to plunder property and outrage women, while Kurds, not inferior in the same barbarities, are ferocious murderers. During the last massacres how often the leaders of the government were heard to cry aloud among the mobs, "Stupid Turks! you are absorbed again in plunder and are not killing giaours! Kill the men, and the women, and the property will naturally be yours! Kill the bee, and the honey is yours! Allah!" And this is a proved fact, that wherever the Kurdish Hamidieh troops were let loose, as in Ourfa, Gurin, Severek, Egin, etc., the devastation and butchery was complete. Kurds are more murderous than religious Moslems, and whenever the drum of slaughter sounds in their ears they can not control their blood-thirsty natures, be it excited against Christians or Turks. In the history of Turkish militia this organization may be regarded the most malicious device next to that of Janissaries.