Chapter 6:
WW I

At the opening of the Great War (WWI) in the summer of 1914, the Russians were in control of the Urumia region. When the order came for mobilization there was great excitement. It looked like all the Russians would withdraw leaving the Christians defenseless. As it was a small force of Russians stayed behind, fortifications were made around the city and preparations were made for its defense. Turks and Kurds began to gather at the border and in September the Christians of the border region abandoned their villages and came to Urumia.

Before Turkey’s entrance into the War in October an attack under Turkish officers was made upon the city of Urumia. The Russians brought their mountain guns into action from a position near the Mission. The missionaries and others living in the compound watched from their rooks. They followed the flight of cannon balls through the trees and with telescopes saw them strike among the rocks where the enemy was stationed. Kurds and Turks were ready to sack the city if it fell but the city was saved by a fresh supply of Russian troops. All the people of the city were looking to the American compound as a haven in case the city fell. The Persians had a widespread sympathy for the Turks due to their hatred of the Russians and to the actions of Turkish agents working to get them ready for the war with Russia.

Shedd said, “The Nationalist movement in Persia which had begun a decade previously was a genuine popular movement – but it failed. It neither established a stable, representative government nor produced an enlightened despot. It left behind it in Persia a smoldering Nationalist aspiration discontented because of its failure for which it largely blamed Russian influence. It left behind a set of professional revolutionaries. Many were forced to flee but found asylum in Turkey. Persia’s sympathies were with Turkey.”

Urumia was a strategic location for both Turkey and Russia. It furnished a road from the Russian railway at Julfa through Khoi to Van in Turkey. This was a possible avenue for the movement of troops from Mesopotamia to the Caucasus.

During the last weeks of 1914 the Russians gave assurances to the people of Urumia that they would hold the front at all costs. Without any warning the order came to the Russian troops for the evacuation of the whole region and during the night of January 1, 1915 they began to move out. In the morning there was panic everywhere as the news of the evacuation spread. The Christian population was at the mercy of the Turks and Kurds and Persians. Dr. Shedd hurried to the Russian Consulate and found it dismantled and everybody ready to leave. The missionaries got together to face the situation. No one wanted to leave. There was a lot of uncertainty as to how and where to go that it was decided to stay. Tabriz was the nearest American Consulate but they did not know if the roads would be open nor whether that city would be any safer than Urumia.

With the Russians gone and the Persian government in disarray, everyone looked to Dr. Shedd for leadership. In the next 5 months he became the advocate and protector of thousands of helpless people who had nowhere else to go. One that first day he said, “I called upon the majtahid, the principle religious leader of the city and urged them to take measures to secure the establishment of some sort of government. In the afternoon the chief men of the city got together to plan. They did not dare set up a governor because the Russian governor was still in the city. There was an unusual number of high officials in Urumia but there was neither unity nor efficiency in the lot. It was impossible to get vigorous action for the protection of the city itself while murder and robbery ruled in the villages.”

The English missionaries decided to leave; the French decided to stay. The Belgium head of customs brought his rugs and piano for us to keep and the Russian mission sent some of its goods. The next day there were more conferences with the city people. Shedd says, “That Sunday was a terrible day. When I walked out to the city gate early in the morning everything was quiet, not a Russian in sight, they were all gone. Soon a crowd gathered, Moslems, and plundering began. People came in from the villages and started filling up our premises.”

Shedd sent a letter to Karini Agha, the principle Kurd approaching the city. He sent back a favorable reply. Dr. Packard started out to meet Karini Agha. He found the people of Geogtapa, the largest of the Christian villages fleeing to the city running the whole 6 miles a veritable gauntlet of roughs who robbed them of everything they had.” When Dr. Packard returned he brought with him 1500 or more of the Geogtapa people whom he had rescued from massacre through his influence with the Kurdish chief.

By the morning of Jan 3 the people began pressing into our yard in crowds – most of them had only their clothes on their backs. It was winter with snow and slush on the ground. The temperature was between -10 and -20 degrees F. Many suffered greatly on the road. Shedd emptied the schoolrooms and the storerooms. The big study hall was full of desks and not thought suitable for living but this is where fires were built and the shivering women and children brought in to get warm. They remained there for months and many of them were carried to their greaves from that room. On the desks and under them, on the platforms and in the aisles they lived and sickened and died. The church filled up with mountaineers. The Press, administration building, boys school, college and hospital buildings all filled up. Still they came, first from nearby villages and later from more distant ones, until every hallway, washhouse, cellar and closet was packed full, not with people lying down but with them sitting up!

In our houses, in the kitchens, the dinning rooms, parlors, hallways, and bedrooms were the relatives of the servants and our special friends. As the refugees continued to pour into our yards by the 1000’s and as our own buildings filled up, we took the surrounding yards, all of which belonged to the Syrians who were eager to connect their yards with ours by cutting holes in the walls or by ladders where the walls were low. These yards were soon overflowing with relatives and friends of the Syrians. Then we took houses across the street and farther out in the Christian quarters. Later we used the Nestorian Church, the Russian school and the houses left vacant by the Russians and native Christians who had fled. We opened the large British Mission adjoining ours and an American flag was placed over the gate. We had more than 50 properties occupied with refugees; these had to be controlled and protected and most of them fed. The people referred to this time as their “Captivity.”

More Chapter 6 to come.

Updated 4/8/06