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ARMENIA IN MODERN TIMES 301
disturbances, in which gendarmes were involved, at a village
called Shatakh on April I4th, Jevdet Bey induced one of the
chief Armenian leaders and three other Armenians, under the
cloak of friendship, to go there and pacify the villagers ; but
on the way he had them murdered while they were asleep.
At the same time (April i6th) he enticed another Armenian
leader to come to him, and had him thrown into prison, and
then sent away, and murdered en route. Next day he prepared
to attack the Armenian quarters in the town of Van simultane
ously with the commencement of massacres in Ardjesh and
the villages in the Hayoz-dzor Valley. In order to save their
women and children the Armenians fortified themselves in
their quarters in Van. The vali had ordered them to surrender
three thousand men for the army ; but they knew only too
well what the fate of these men would be, so they answered
that it was impossible ; they could raise four hundred, and
would purchase the exemption of the rest by degrees. But
the vali refused to agree in this proposal.
On the morning of April 2oth some Turkish soldiers tried
to rape an Armenian woman, and when some Armenian
soldiers came to the rescue the Turks shot them dead. The
German missionary, Herr Sporri, was an eyewitness. There
upon the shooting began ; the Turks shelled the Armenian
part of the town, and swept it with rifle-fire. The Armenians
defended themselves ; they had some rifles, but not much
ammunition, and had therefore to use this sparingly, while
they encouraged the Turks to expend theirs. They made
bullets, and manufactured three thousand cartridges a day,
besides gunpowder, and even in the end a couple of mortars.
Meanwhile Turkish soldiers and Kurds ravaged the country
round, massacring or mutilating men, women, and children,
and burning their houses. Some villages were unprepared,
others defended themselves as long as they had anything to
defend themselves with. Refugees and their wounded
flocked to the mission stations in Van, which were soon filled
to overflowing.
The siege and bombardmcnt lasted for four weeks, until
May i6th ; then it suddenly came to an end, and Jevdet Bey
and the Turks retired. It turned out that unknown to the
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