In early June, the 15 Armenian towns and villages in the kaza of Kemah, with a total population of 6,396 were also attacked by squadrons of approximately 200 çetes, under the command of Armedanli İsmail, Erzinganli Kasab Memduh, Ziya Hasan Çavusoğlu and Boyağlı Sefer, who had also taken part in the massacres in Tercan, Kıği, and Erzincan.
The victims were massacred where they were found. A few young Armenian men nevertheless managed
to cross the çetes’ lines and flee to Dersim, as did 200 women from the little town of Kemah.
In the kaza of Refahiye/Gerjanis, the eradication of the Armenians began on 3 June 1915.
Three Armenian villages in the district – Gerjanis, Horopel, and Melik Sherif, with a total population of 1,570 – were surrounded by çetes, who killed their inhabitants on the spot.
The inhabitants of the six villages of the kaza of Kuruçay, which had an Armenian population of 2,989 – Greater Armdan, Lesser Armdan, Apshda, Hasanova, Tughud, and Dantsi – as well as those in the six towns and villages of the district de Koziçan, which had an Armenian population of 4,700, were not massacred in their villages, but deported.
Most of the men were exterminated near Lecki Bridge while the women and children had their throats slit in the vicinity of Acem Dağ under the supervision of the parliamentary deputy from Kemah, Halet Bey, together with Şevki Abbas Oğlu, Hüseyin Ağa of Gerjanis, Elias Oğlu Mehmed Ağa, and Hüseyin Bey Zâde Hasan.
Şevki Abbas Oğlu personally murdered the brothers Parsegh and Markar Avoyan and sent their heads to themutesarif, Memduh, as a form of homage.
The 862 Armenians living in the kaza of Pülumur/Polormor – in the villages of Perkri, Gersnud and Dantseg – were massacred there in late May.
To be continued
Note- this chapter is from Raymond Kévorkian’s book ARMENIAN GENOCIDE: A Complete History, p. 311.
In picture- today’s Kemah
