All of the attempts to receive information on the fate of Padres Meghmuni and Krikor Hadigian as well as the nuns of the Congregation of Nerapolum were fruitless. Inquiries on the part of the consulates, including the German ones, are considered by the authorities as being very unwanted interference in inner state matters. Like all churches, schools and private property of the entire population, the church and the presbytery of the Catholic Armenians have been officially seized and sealed, including that of those who have converted to Islam.
The news that has arrived here from the interior on the fate of the unlucky people is shocking: whoever did not convert to Islam died supposedly either under the executioner's axe, swung by murderous gangs called in by the government, or will die of want and privation. Apparently, women and young girls have been dragged off to the harems and the children – insofar as they do not die during the journey – have been given to Moslem families. Even those who have converted to Islam are not allowed to remain in their home town. It appears that they are being individually distributed throughout the entire country among the Mohammedan people in the interior of Asia Minor. No Armenian is permitted to stay on the coast.
The government measures that have recently been introduced here show how thoroughly things are being done: some Armenian mothers had hidden their children with Greek families. Upon threat of heavy punishment, these poor creatures, among them babies, were torn away from their foster parents who showed only Christian kindness! The Greek Christians are trembling, and with good reason, for at the first opportunity they are sure to suffer the same fate as the Armenians: should Greece go over to the enemy camp, its brethren and sisters in faith in Turkey are lost!
Nebukadnezar and Abdul Hamid were good-natured people, pure bunglers as far as their talent for annihilation was concerned, for neither they nor Tschingiskhan, Tamerlan and the old, Turkish sultans managed to completely eradicate with such success a people spread out over a wide country within a few weeks as we are now experiencing with a shudder.