There is a great deal to tell of the misery of the people during the last winter; it was a life too wretched for humanity. Those that were used to comfortable beds now slept on the bare ground. For five months of captivity we lived expecting death every minute, surrounded by sick people who needed help ; our little children died of measles ; our young and strong ones could not stand the terrible epidemics of typhoid and typhus, while the elderly people could not live such a hard life ; they died in the first weeks, of dysentery.

-- The wife of Rev. David Jacob of Urmia, published in the Armenian Journal "Ararat" of London, January, 1916.