of notorious murderers,
such as Ahmed Bey El-Serzi, Rushdi Bey, Khalil Bey, and others of this
description.

The reason for this decision, as it was alleged, was that the Armenians
residing in Europe and in Egypt had sent twenty of their devoted
partisans to kill Talaat, Enver, and others of the Unionist leaders; the
attempt had failed, as a certain Armenian, a traitor to his nation and a
friend of Bedri Bey, the Chief of the Public Security at Constantinople
(or according to others, Azmi Bey), divulged the matter and indicated
the Armenian agents, who had arrived at Constantinople. The latter were
arrested and executed, but secretly, in order that it might not be said
that there were men attempting to kill the heads of the Unionist
Society.

Another alleged reason also was that certain Armenians, whom the
Government had collected from the Vilayets of Aleppo and Adrianople and
had sent off to complete their military service, fled, with their arms,
to Zeitoun, where they assembled, to the number of sixty young men, and
commenced to resist the Government and to attack wayfarers. The
Government despatched a military force under Fakhry Pasha, who proceeded
to the spot, destroyed a part of Zeitoun, and killed men, women and
children, without encountering opposition on the part of the Armenians.
He collected the men and women and sent them off with parties of troops,
who killed many of the men, whilst as for the women, do not ask what was
their fate. They were delivered over to the Ottoman soldiery; the
children died of hunger and thirst; not a man or woman reached Syria
except the halt and blind, who were unable to keep themselves alive;
the young men were all slaughtered; and the good-looking women fell into
the hands of the Turkish youths.

Emigrants from Roumelia were conveyed to Zeitoun and established there,
the name of that place being changed to "Reshadiya," so that nothing
should remain to remind the Turks of the Armenian name. During our
journey from Hamah we saw many Armenian men and women, sitting under
small tents which they had constructed from sheets, rugs, etc. Their
condition was most pitiable, and how could it be otherwise? Many of
these had been used to sit only on easy chairs [lit., rocking-chairs],
amid luxurious furniture, in houses built in the best style, well
arranged and splendidly furnished. I saw, as others saw also, many
Armenian men and women in goods-wagons on the railway between Aleppo and