Dwight, H.G.O., und Smith‚ Eli, Missionary Researches in Armenia, Boston und New York, 1833

Bd. 2, S. 267-271 (Ausschnitte)

April 12 [1831]. (...) The road from Khoy to Bayezeed is not beset by openly lawless banditti, or a regular guard would have been necessary. The only risk is a slight one from Kürdish borderers in crossing the frontier; and we took this attendant as an insurance in case of accident from them. For his presence made the Persian government responsible for whatever might befall ourselves or our property.

We left Khoy at a quarter before 11 A. M. and at 1 P. M. reached the extremity of the plain, just beyond the village of Perch. In the warm recesses at the foot of the mountains were a number of black tents of Kurds. They were just leaving their winter-quarters in the villages of the plain, and beginning to ascend the mountains for their nomadic summer residence. The mountains before us might be considered the eastern boundary of the country of the Kurds, being entirely overrun in the summer by their flocks. They are here subject indeed to the Persian government, and in the parts nearest Khoy contain some moslem villages of the Turkish language and of the sheey faith; but extending southward between the lakes of Oormiah and Van, they become more exclusively the possession of the Kurds; and finally in the Hakary country are entirely independent. Our ascent of them was gradual but long. An arable tract succeeded, with some villages upon it. At the farthest of them, named Zoraba, we stopped at a quarter past 6 P. M. (...)

April 13. (...) we were leaving the Persian part of Armenia.. (...) stopped at a village (...) named Keleeseh, or the church, from the ruins of an old church around which it is built. Its former inhabitants were Armenians; but they had emigrated to the Russian provinces, and it was now occupied by a few poor moslem families from Erivan. They completely disregarded the authority of our guide; and after scolding long, and threatening them with the wrath of the prince to the complete destruction of their village, he was unable to procure us even a room. We applied money instead of threats, and obtained whatever we wanted (...).

April 14. Leaving Keleeseh at half past 5 A. M. we ascended and rode for an hour or two over a high and dreary mountain, covered almost entirely with deep snow. It is perhaps the Niphates of the Greeks, and forms, we supposed, the boundary between Persia and Turkey; for the village where we spent the night is in Persia, and the next place is Bayezeed in Turkey. It was not an unfit place for border tales; and on its top five or six Persians from the district of Ovajik, stopped us to complain, that the men of Bayezeed had stolen from them cattle to the amount of 500 tomans, besides inducing five or six villages of their Armenian neighbors to remove into the Turkish territory. They had plead for redress at Bayezeed, they said, in vain; and now begged that we, as elchies (embassadors), would present their case to their consul at Erzroom. We descended, at 8 o'clock, into the head of a plain extending to the west. (...) Tourning nothward, we were in full view of the back of mount Ararat. (...) The foot of it on this side is inhebited by a body of that singular sect, the Yezeedis, reputed worshippers of Satan. They number about 300 families, and inhabit three villages, one of which is named Kara-boolak.

Continuing northward over a few barren hills, we came in sight of Bayazeed.. (...) We entered the town. It was in a miserable, ruined state, and we saw not one decent house beside the pashas's. (...) The Russians had left behind them the same desolation as at Erzroom and at Kars.

The Armenians of Bayezeed are said once to have been numerous, but now they are only about 190 families of that nation. Their school has not been revived since the war.(...) The moslem inhabitants amount to only three or four hundred families. They are nearly all Kurds. Kurdish is the common language of the place, and in fact, the whole pashalik of which it is the capital forms an integral part of Kürdistan. The pasha himself is of a native Kürdish family; but he receives his commands, if not his office, from the pasha of Erzroom, and has only the rank of two tails. His subordination seems now to be complete, and he no longer dares act the robber, as when M. Jaubert was here so long imprisoned, and so cruelly treated. Soldiers of the Sultan's new discipline [yeni nizam] were maneuvring with drum and fife in his citadel, and his own son was exercising himself in the European tactics. He was now absent on a visit to his superior at Erzroom, but his kakhia [Stellvertreter] received our fermans with great respect; a tartar was immediately provided to conduct us safely to Erzroom; and, no regular posts having yet been established since the war, an order was offered us for horses from village to village. We accepted the tartar for the same reason that we had taken a guide from Khoy —to make the government responsible in case of accident; but fearing trouble in procuring the horses we declined the order for them, and hired caravan horses for the whole distance.