Mr. von Scheubner-Richter reported the following from Mosul on the 5th of this month:
”On the journey from Erzurum to Mosul via Khinis, Mush, Bitlis and Sairt, all the villages and homes I came across, all of which used to be inhabited by Armenians, were found to be totally empty and destroyed. I did not see any living male Armenian. It is said that a number of them fled into the mountains. Around 500 Armenian women and children find themselves in deplorable conditions in the Armenian church in Bitlis. Armenian women are thought to be held captive in Turkish households. On the entire journey, I and the German gentlemen who were accompanying me, saw the corpses of Armenian men, women and children: most displayed signs of multiple bayonet wounds. This was seen despite the route having been cleared of corpses by gendarmes at the instruction of the Government. According to statements given by Kurds, all Armenians in the area around here had been murdered. According to my information a revolution or an uprisings prepared by Armenians had taken place only in Van, in other places it was self-defence. The Turks, among them officers, have spread the news and in many cases actually believe it themselves, that the German government arranged for the extermination of the Armenians.
Sister Alma Johansson (a Swede) who has recently arrived from the orphanage supported by the German Christian Charity-Organisation for the Orient has given us in-depth details concerning the eradication of the Armenians in Mush, and the destruction of the Armenian quarter in Mush as well as the Armenian villages in that area.
Following this report almost nothing remained of the Armenian population except for some refugees and a few women who had been robbed. The Armenian homes were set alight and then razed to the ground. These incidents, which took place in the first half of July, were, according to the accounts given by the above-mentioned Sister, ordered apparently due to the approach of Russian troops, who after occupying Achlat, Bulanik, Gop and Lisch were active just one or two days’ march from Mush.
Miss Johannsson, who left Mush in August, stayed a few months in Harput (Mezré, Mamuret-ul-Aziz), then arrived here by way of Sivas, stated at the end of her description that in official circles as well as in Mush, Mezré and also in Sivas it was generally believed that the Germans had pressed the Turkish Government to instigate the Armenian persecutions.