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« on: April 26, 2010, 12:40:42 pm » |
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Towards 15:00 in the afternoon, one of the Russian officers
Lieutenant Lipskiy reported to me on the phone that several
Armenians caught six Turkish men in the streets, and having
interrogated them in a corner in the courtyard they started to beat
them, and the beating would likely to end in murder. Lieutenant said
that he could not help those Turks. Because the Armenian soldier
threatened him with fire arms for he attempted to save those Turks.
An Armenian officer, there, refused to stop those soldiers.
Taking three Russian officers, nearby, I ran to the barracks to save
those desperate Turks.
On my way, Lieutenant Lipskiy and the Mayor of Erzurum Stavrovskiy
intercepted me saying that they were looking for a Turkish friend of
theirs among the Turks caught by the Armenians.
They said the soldiers resisted to their entrance in the barracks
courtyard. We moved a little further. When we approached the
barracks, we saw some 12 Turks running away through the courtyard
door in fear, struck with terror. We managed to stop only one of
them, but we could not talk to him as we did not have a translator
there. Without meeting any obstacles I entered the courtyard. I told
them to take me to the place where they took the innocent people
whom they had gathered in the streets. They said there was nobody
from the public in the barracks. I began to search the barracks. I
found 70 Turks locked up in the barrack baths in fear and struck with
terror. I immediately launched an investigation. Arresting the six
soldiers who were declared to be the instigators, I set all the arrested
Turks free.
During the investigation I learned that an Armenian, whose name I
could not learn, shot an innocent, sick old man standing on the roof
of one of the houses around with a rifle on the same day.
Unfortunately, I lost the list, on which the names of the Turks I saved
were written, and the official documents of the Artillery Command I
had during the Turkish units delivering Erzurum from occupation on
March 12. This event may be brought to daylight by questioning of
the Turks who were kept there under pressure. I still meet people in
the streets who pronounce their sincere words of gratitude for saving
their lives. The translator Ali Bey Pepenov, scrivener at the office of
the Mayor of Erzurum, Stavrofskiy, knows them well. He himself had
written the minutes of the investigations and drawn the list.
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