To: hknozcan@***; llitvan@*** ; esm@***
Sent: Friday, October 19, 2007 4:36 PM
Subject: Open Letter
Gentlemen, I beg to be excused for addressing a previous letter I just sent, for your joint, since it can shed some light on the matter.
If you think that you have no time to read even that much, then you will be as superficial like the rest 99.9% commenting on this delicate . . subject, without any depth at all. Your contribution to unearth the truth from this mud of slander and distortions - exaggerations, shall be highly appreciated by an old man.
Mr. Edward Schumacher-Matos
Re:
I read your article posted in the web site of Turkish Armenians, (where over 100 of my postings were published and which you can easily reach) entering my name as label. This web site has been active for slightly over two years and as you can see they are up to number 2100 in about 2 years time, which means that the amount of serious-documented information they have issued is around 20.000 pages in this lettering. Any one who may dig through these articles, plus another some 15.000 posted by Holdwater , may find everything readily under their fingers. Anyone who cares to read everything with given references, needs not to go into libraries, plus the fact that several books are available in the electronic library.
Since I happen to have read, all referred information, plus at least some other 20.000 pages of neutral or anti-Turkish writers,(not to mention another 10.000 pages of material in Turkish), I have a pretty good idea and
Documentation from anti-Turkish sources of what has happened, and I can evidence every word of it, which I excerpt from reliable sources.
There are three reasons why I am sending this message to you:
1- I thank you for your “mostly” objective evaluation, although I do not justify any preferences that you imply because of the importance of Turkey. The subject is how far we can can reach truth and separate it from propaganda lies, aimed to embezzle money by some!. The name of the game is to “use the sympathy for Christian poor Armenian sufferings” make large collections in USA, distribute some for campaigns and embezzle the difference, which no one asks, or counts! So, this is not a matter of PREFERENCE or humane justice done, but it is matter of who is lying and cheating, and who is sincere enough to call it a bi-lateral carnation.
2- I have had and still have too many valuable Armenian friends and we know that the present wave of hatred, is the sales-item of Dashnakist (ANCA) and AAA leaders who are a small minority of not more than 10% of the diaspora community but have a iron clad grip on nearly 100%, and there is no power to oppose them. You just pay and do what they say! My feeble efforts, is to pull down the mask of those
Charlatans of national identity. I certainly need any help from “truth seekers”!.
3. I am attaching a similar letter I had to write to another columnist, contents and attachments of which
are self explanatory. If you will carefully study the section relative to population dilemma, and take a guess regarding the true population of Armenia in 1914 and how much of that lived in Eastern Anatolia, and how many came back, or went to other countries or were reported living in 1918 when the
Ottoman Empire surrendered, you will have to admit that you cannot kill 1.5 million people out of some 600.000. Let’s try to stick to some written records, instead of inventing figures and killings by slanders. If you want to read and learn more, please place your question, and I will try to answer it from my library and present study to shortly come out in a book in English. My finding under logic and existing valid historical documentation, is that the Ottomans never had any cause, any plan, any time and any means for any premeditated annihilation. Parties do not speak that all population of the subject areas were removed from the war zones, and Armenians were not even 20% of the people! The other deported Muslims, Kurds, Turks etc. were not provided transit camps or kitchens and suffered much worse than the relocated Armenians, which you can see from the people living in Camps that arrived there safely. A recent book on the subject by Ret. Col. Mr. Masud A. Shaikh is rightly named Lies, Lies and More Lies!
The Genocide is not ANY PROVEN FACT, it is a huge SLANDER and LIE, which the Turkish governments paid no attention to study and reply, and they still do not know the reason behind it, nor the written facts based on Armenian, British, Russian, American, French sources. Just look at the attached newspapers headlines and ask if all these American Papers were LYING when things happened!
Your continued support for finding and teaching the truth and challenging impostors, will be appreciated.
Yours cordially
Sukru S. Aya - Istanbul
Attachment
Dear Mr. Wes Allison,
I read your article of Oct.11th, “Deaths in WWI Era”, and since you gave your e-mail, I do hope that this message will have the luck to be read and considered, among a multitude of mostly protesting letters or messages.
Dear Sir, you do not know me, or my knowledge or reason of my concern in this subject, which has been propagated for over a century, and has brought nothing but tragedy to the “believers and followers, who did not exercise care or suspicion” in learning the truth, as expressed at the very bottom of this message.
My age is 77, I have been traveling at least twice a year to USA, for the past 55 years, I have a home in USA and also in Turkey. I have a multitude of American friends I made through business and social life, and many other Armenians, with whom I continue my warm relations and bilateral compassion. Since I do not wish to be on the wrong side, in the past ten years I have covered considerable research on the subject, bypassing thousands of Turkish archival documents or some American historians, who are never questioned or read in USA, because they disapprove this great tale of world-wide swindling. I have concentrated my study, shortly to come out in a book in English, based on anti-Turkish or neutral writers or sources, such as Newspapers, Articles, Reports, Official British-French-American records and I am horrified to see the shallowness of most people, who endorse a Ku-Klu-Klax clan type verdict of lynching, without studying the matter deep enough or listening to the other side for what he may have to speak up in defense! I watched the video of the HS 106 hearing, and I am amazed to the self-assurance of the Voters, who are not judges, jurors or authority of international tribunal! They are neither historians or
Whilst many members of the committee are on the payroll of the Armenian strong lobby organization (learn more by reading Heather S. Gregg’s thesis of 2002) and others are dependant on the votes of some Armenians, they totally fail to understand that they are on the wrong side, joining a lynch mob, and doing the most Anti-American shame: NOT LISTENING TO THE OTHER SIDE OR ASK FOR EVIDENCE OF CHARGES!. Many have said, for evidence that this was ‘admitted by so and so States, so it has to be right!’ What a dreadful mentality for persons in the highest democratic institution of the World, proving that corrosion, if not corruption could climb up there! Billions believe in the tall or mythical tales of the Holy Books, written by clergies, supposingly based on what “angels told them”! Do I have to take this absolute nonesens, just because billions of people believe, and act-pray accordingly! What a pity to see the House in such a mental primitivity!
This is not a matter of opening “Pandora’s box or rubbing Aladdin’s lamp and letting the genocide genie out” or judging today’s Turkey for some alleged crime, which did not happen, could not have happened, and has been never proven and documentary- wise! This a gossip and slander, used by a small group of wise “World-Wide Mafia Style” group to collect money in various ways,- pay or use some of it- and embezzle the rest! How come that the honorable members of the Congress, never question why Armenia is the second largest recipient of AID from USA, (not credit like most countries) or feel unrest for the probability that some of the money donated to their election campaign, may be originating from the U.S. tax-payers’ money, donated by the same lobby groups “to Armenia” for relief!
I am hardly in a position to defend the laziness, inability, and deficiencies demonstrated by the Turkish Governments in the past 40 years, despite the fact that over 40 diplomats were assasinated by the same ANCA people during 70s and 80s. For evidence, please watch NBC Documentary and acquaint yourself with Mr. Murad Topalian, sitting at the same table with Clinton. As a decent and truthful person that I try to be, I hate the bilateral blackmailing language of the Congress and the possible retalliation of the Turkish Goverfnment within sight, destroying the image of U.S. people in Turkey or vice versa!. We were betrayed by a small group of Armenians, about a century ago, who brought tragedies to all mankind around them a century ago! Watch out if you are not used as a tool being cheated by words of lies, lies and more lies! They had betrayed Ottomans for better outside promises, and they may be repeating the same to USA! But sooner or later, the public must have enough doubt to try to discover scholarly the truths behind such flooding propaganda! Why no one ever thinks of the possibility that you are being cleverly used and manipulated, to market greed and hatred, thinking that Turks will ever accept to be labeled as criminals, when they have not been even HEARD! What a shameful type of democracy and justice! Is it because most members of the U.S. Congress owes so much to Armenian lobbies and voters, that justifies such unethical cowardly condemnation? What about the rights of the silent 299 millions non-Armenian Americans? Don’t they deserve to learn the TRUTH?
Sir, if you would kindly enter my name or dig through the past postings of Turkish Armenians, you can find almost 10.000 pages of reliable documentation that the whole thing was a prejudice and bigotry and still continues to be despite the improved communication. Further classified information is also available at here
I am hereby kindly invite your goodself or any official or person, WHO CAN PRESENT ANY SOLID EVIDENCE THAT SUCH AN INTENDED CRIME EVER TOOK PLACE or that the numbers are close to realities… to lay down these openly, and not in general terminologies, such as “unambiguous and documented overwhelming evidence”! What a big lie! Tell me what the evidence is and I will show you how far you can depend on it. Isn’t that cheap-cowardly slander?
Thank you for at least mentioning that Armenians have revolted, which is not mentioned by others, making all Armenians look like angels. Armenians were never a population of 2 millions in Turkey. I am attaching a chapter from my book draft, giving you the available sources and ask you to make your own estimate! The highest estimate of TOTAL Armenian population is 1.5 to 1.6 million, and again according to the survey made jointly by Armenian-French committee in 1914 the number of Armenians living in Eastern Anatolia was counted 542.000! Are we to make an estimate by logic and evidence, or an auction of figures? Will you tell me, how is ever possible to kill 1.5 million out of 550.000 or say 600.000 or 700.000 people the highest possible number. And this being the true, the other truth confirmed by their Prime Minister, also historian plus reports given at the Paris Peace conference is that in 1918 there was about 1 million people alive in Armenia. By year 1920, 200.000 died of starvation in Armenia! This is again confirmed by various sources written by Armenian Historian Nassibian, reports of the Relief Commission and other missionary reports which I can provide on request! Please observe the words of Associated. Press reporter George A. Schreiner to Morgenthau in his letter of Sept.1918, “after Morgenthau’s ordered slander book” came out:
But it has been easy to slander the dead… Nor did you possess in Constantinople the omniscience and omnipotence you have arrogated to yourself in the book. In the interest of truth, I will also affirm that you saw little of the cruelty you fasten upon the Turks. Besides that you have killed more Armenians that ever lived in the districts of uprising. The fate of those people was sad enough without having to be exaggerated as you have done. I have probably seen more of the Armenian affair than all Armenian attaches of the American embassy together…To be frank with you, I cannot applaud your efforts to make the Turk the worst being on earth….(Note: Schreiner was probably the only reporter in the battlefields < Feb. to Dec. 1915 in Turkey. Refer to NEWS sent by him to Reuters and others papers, see Chapter 29 for Media Scanner of Old News)
I am attaching chapter 29 from my book draft with a list of some of the news in U.S. papers, which were all anti-Moslem! Don’t these headlines, speak loud and clear enough? Please also read the Dutch and German paper articles!
Regarding the famous Hitler’s fabricated quotation, which was rejected by Nuremberg Tribunal being fake, if you are interested, I can send you still another chapter, proving that the statement is totally a tall lie, and that it has provided access of some 25.000 Nazi soldier Armenians, to be admitted into USA, as innocent Russian prisoner Armenians. We are speaking documented, photographed facts! If you ask, I can just send you another chapter with clear evidence, so that you can find out that the (Butcher) Nazi General Dro-Dramstad Kanajan, who fought against USA, being in the German Army’s Armenian battalions, was accepted into USA as a hero, and now medals are being given in his name {for his bravery to fight against Turks in WWI, and later for rounding up Jews and fighting against Russians and the Allies in WWII }! In the past ten years, after having read quite a bit and saw the damages inflicted by religious bigotry (which no one dares to mention), I believe only in human logic, decency and intelligence. Let people believe in what they want, but keep clergy off the forums of decency and intelligence. I kindly invite you to address anything that bothers your mind and ask what I can say about it!. Not one of 30 points of HS 106 speaks the truth. If you want I can E-mail all answers. I want to close this message with two remarks and ask you to fight for TRUTH! (Forget nationalities, religions etc. TRUST human decency only and beware of leverage by divinity, versus common sense!)
* Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. (Mathew 7/15)
* We have been told that the tall tales of the Bible (or Genocide) are ‘revealed truth’! What we need now is to have that ‘revealed truth’ revealed, for as yet it never has been. What follows are but scraps of required knowledge. (Lloyd M. Graham)
Your short acknowledgement, shall be appreciated, whether you take the interest to look deeper, or prefer the easy style, throw TRUTH in the WASTE BASKET!
Thanks for your article and sincerity! I invite you to be suspicious and scratch the rusted thin crust of banditry!
Sincerely
Sukru S. Aya – Istanbul,
Attachments
Chapter 29 - MEDIA SCANNER OF OLD NEWS:
Nearly all press releases about the events within the Ottoman Empire were biased and anti-Turkish for several good reasons. We name a few here:
“Reuters” –
- The London was the center of news distribution all over the world and of course serving the Wellington House Propaganda Center. Turkish newspapers correspondents did not know foreign languages (maybe a few familiar with French). The “dragomans-translators” were mostly Armenian speaking some English, or Greek or Hebrew, acquainted with French. Turkish press was, of course, censored, and could only write what they heard from local sources to please the public and the government. The network of missionaries and consuls throughout Anatolia was the main source of news ‘distorted to please their Embassies or expectations of their governments or general public involved in the defense of Christianity’. Hence, news was frequently re-written in embassies with the help of Armenian translators, who were employed also in Ottoman state organizations due to a need for their services. Such reports could be freely circulated and carried in the “diplomatic bags of the consulates”. The Wellington House under Lord Bryce’s leadership and talented young A. Toynbee’s work, was the center where news was tailored for the press centers in the world, distributed by cable or wireless.
- The students of foreign French, German, Italian schools and Robert College were mostly Christians. Boarding Turkish students were permitted only at military academies. The student body of Robert College was mainly Armenian, Bulgarian, Greek, totaling some 15 nationalities. While there had been only two Turkish graduates from its founding until 1915, this had changed dramatically by 1930, when there were about 400, representing half of the student body. Ottomans had to employ their citizens, mostly Armenians in all important positions, even in the military cipher rooms. There were very few missionaries who had learned any Turkish, instead of Armenian which was their priority. They had to tailor news to serve their purposes, generally blaming Turks-Moslems for every incident. Previous excerpts contain examples of such news distortions and exaggerations, to please each other’s goals.
Chapter 16 contains headlines from a few Australian papers, which can be compared with similar news quoted in American and other papers. It should be understood, that some of the news were based on the “expected Armenian-Christian victories” and were boastful. These quotes should give reliable independent evidence that the Armenians, on the whole, were not victims, but villains encouraged by the Colonial Powers in search of an independent country, though they constituted less than 20% of the living population. This study does not include a wide variety of books written by Armenian authors about their fights, braveries and victories over the Turks, or posters of their volunteer gangs and their leaders! Under these circumstances it would be very unrealistic to argue that a Government at war from all sides and from within, had the time and means to investigate who is guilty and who is innocent! The facts speak for themselves from various sources. For example, two important articles (No.20-21) at the end of below list, give unbiased “reliable” information. The first one is the report in a Dutch newspaper dated May 25th, 1920 explaining the bilateral butchery and retaliation between feuding local people. The murders by Armenians are confessed even by biased missionaries or historians, which loosens the claim that they were “victims” only! Their torturous crimes are undeniable. The second is another important article with the statement of General Bronsart von Schellendorf, who was assigned in Turkey as the ADC to Enver Pasha and knew every move he made. They were side-by-side in the disastrous Sarikamish Battle and barely escaped captivity during the joint Russian - Armenian Volunteers’ counter-offensive. Even in Germany, Armenian influence over the judicial system was omnipresent. Prime Minister Talat Pasha who had fled Turkey after the war, was assassinated by an Armenian named Tellerian that he, the most reliable eyewitness, could not be hauled into court to provide testimony!
NOTE. Actual screen shots of most of below USA articles can be seen in full version by entering:
Innocent Armenians {Thanks to Gokalp}
1 – “The Galveston Daily News August 13th, 1890
ARMENIAN TROUBLES.
Constantinople, August 13th.—Further conflict have occurred between the Kurds and Armenians in the Alasbgerd district. It is reported that a band of young Russo-Armenian volunteers, mounted and well armed, have appeared at Erzurum and are recruiting adherents fast. The report has caused a panic among the Turkish authorities. The governor of Erzurum has ordered the expulsion of 50 Armenians suspected of having promoted the recent disturbances. “
2- “The New York Times” Dec.4, 1894
TURKISH LIGHT ON MASSACRE – Legation at Washington Declares Armenian Reports are False
3 – “The New York Times”, August 23rd, 1895
”THE SASSOUN MASSACRE
Proof of the Assertion that Armenian Revolutionists Caused It.
Testimony of Rev. Cyrus Hamlin
A protest Against Americans Helping England to Realize Political Aspiration in the East.
To the Editor of The New York Times (Note: unreadable letters are left blank or dotted)
In our previous letter we affirmed that the Sassoun troubles were brought about by the criminal efforts of Armenian Revolutionary committees, and that no reliance whatever ought to be placed on Armenian testimony and assertions. We now propose to prove these two affirmations, not by Turkish that is to say Mussuilman-testimony, but by American and European- namely Christian testimony.
First – The man who, above all, gave the most explicit and true account of the Armenian revolutionary movement is the Rev. Cyrus Hamlin himself. On Dec. 23rd, 1893, or, in other words, only a few months before the revolt in Sassoun, he published in the Congregationalist a truly prophetic statement the perusal of which is absolutely necessary for an impartial understanding of the case.
Here is the statement: “ An Armenian ‘revolutionary’ party is causing great evil and suffering to the missionary work and the whole Christian population of certain parts of the Turkish Empire. It is a secret organization, and is managed with a still deceit which is known only in the East’. In a widely distributed pamphlet the following announcement is made at the close. A very intelligent Armenian gentleman, who speaks fluently and correctly English as well as Armenian, and is eloquent defender of the revolution, assured me that they have the strongest hopes of preparing the way for Russia’s entrance into Asia Minor to take possession. In answer to the question as to how, he replied ‘These Huntchakist bands, organized all over the empire will watch their opportunities to kill Turks and Kurds, set fire to their villages and then make their escape in to the mountains.
The enraged Moslems will then rise and fall upon the defenseless Armenians and slaughter them with such barbarity that Russia will enter in the name of humanity and Christian civilization and take possession. When I denounced the scheme as atrocious and internal beyond anything ever known, he calmly replied: ‘It appears so to you undoubt, but as Armenians are determined to be true. Europe listened to the Bulgarian hotheads and made Bulgaria free and will listen to our cry when it goes up in the shi… and blood of millions of women and children. I urged in vain that the scheme would make the very name of Armenians hateful among all civilized people. He replied: We are desperate, we shall do it. But your people do not want Russian protection. They prefer Turkey bad as she is. There are hundreds of miles if coterminous territory into which immigration is easy at all times. It has been so far all the centuries of Moslem rule.
If your people preferred the Russian Government there would not now be an Armenian family in Turkey. ‘Yes’, he replied and for such stupidity they shall have to suffer. “I have had conversations with others who avow the same things, but no one acknowledged that he is a man but of the party. Falsehood is of course justifiable where murder and arson are. In Turkey the party aims to excite the Turks against Protestant missionaries and against Protestant Armenians. All the troubles at Marsovan originated in their movements. Tacts(?) are cunning, unprincipled and cruel. They terrorize their own people by demanding contributions of money under threats of assassination - a threat which has often been put into execution. I have much of the mildest possible dis… of … … abominations of this Huntchakist revolutionary party. It is of Russian origin, Russian gold and … govern it.
Let all missionaries, home and foreign denounce it. Let all Protestant Armenians everywhere denounce it. It is …. to enter every Sunday school and deceive and pervert the innocent and ignorant into supporters of this craft. We must therefore be careful that befriending Armenians. We do nothing that can be constru… into an approval of this movement which all should abhor. While yet we recognize the probability that some Armenians in this country ignorant of the real … and cruel designs of the Huntchakists are led by their patriotism to join with them, and while we sympathize with the sufferings of the Armenians at home we must stand aloof from any such desperate attempts which contemplate the destruction of Protestant mission churches schools and Bible work involving all in a common … that is diligently (?) and c...tfuly sought. let all home and foreign missionaries beware of any alliance with or countenance of the Huntschakists. We do not really know whether the Rev. Cyrus Hamlin is considered to be a prophet in his own country, but his prophetic faculties as t… as the last Armenian revolt is concerned are not denied (?) in Turkey.
They are simply marvelous – for months before the occurrence of the Sassoun troubles the Rev. Cyrus Hamlin was bold enough to say that the above statement was written by him only “to show the absurdity of the revolutionary plotters”. The reverend gentleman must have a candid and innocent soul. Otherwise he would not have attempted to prove to fan-minded Americans that the “bloodthirstiness” of the Armenians revolutionary plotters is synonymous to their “absurdity”. We suppose that the Rev. Cyrus Hamlin will also attribute to the “absurdity of revolutionary plotters” the following statement showing his past guilty interference in Turkish affairs. One of these Armenian plotters made sometime ago to the Boston Herald this extraordinary admission which, for the honor of Robert College, if not for his own, the Rev. Cyrus Hamlin ought, if he can contradict. ‘Several years ago’, writes the Armenian ‘I heard him lecture at Amherst Mass. How proud he was to tell his audience the important part taken by the Bulgarian graduates of Robert College in securing the freedom and independence of their country’.
I ask Rev. Cyrus Hamlin if he was not aware of the existence of patriotic societies among his Bulgarian students ….t in order to show that the Rev. Cyrus Hamlin’s prophecy holds good, let American readers reflect on the following passage of a letter written by the special correspondent of the Associated Press, who visited Turkey after the Sassoun revolt, and who, although bitterly opposed to the Turkish Government, wrote as follows: ‘It is a fact that certain of the Armenian conspirators arranged to murder the Rev. Edward Riggs and two other American missionaries at Marsovan and fasten the blame upon the Turks. In order that the U.S. might inflict summary punishment upon the Turkish Government, thereby making possible Armenian independence. One will search a long time in the pages of history for a more diabolical plot thank that.
Moreover, the missionaries would have been murdered had not an Armenian friend warned them. Dr. Riggs had unselfishly given his life to the education of Armenia youth in the missionary schools and done more that any Armenian has ever tried to do towards making Armenians worthy of autonomous government. Yet the revolutionary conspirators apparently gave that fact little thought. * * * it is of course, impossible to say that to what extent radical ideas prevail among the revolutionary propagandists, but the plans of some of the leaders are shocking in the extreme…In brief, their plans are to commit atrocities upon Turks, in order that the infuriated Turks shall shock the Christian world by the fiendish outrages of their retaliation. When remonstrated in regard these un-Christian plans, the men whoa are responsible for them merely says “it may seem to you cruel and barbarous, but we know what we are doing, and why we are doing it’.
The financial methods of these men are almost and ingenious as their plans of political agitation. Certain Armenians of a lower grade mental ability are required to furnish so many thousand piastres to the committee, and the means of obtaining the money are plainly mapped out. Here is a case in point(*): ‘ A wealthy Turk in the service of the Government in Constantinople received a letter one morning, saying that unless he deposited 12,000 piastres in a certain place within 24 hours he would be killed. An investigation led to the discovery of the fact that the letter was written by an Armenian who had been in his employ for as a trusted servant for several years. The servant confessed his guilt, but he asserted in self-defense that revolutionary agitators had compelled him to write the letter under penalty of death. It was a case of choice of wills, and the poor wretch saved his life at the expense of a long term imprisonment. It is believed that a great deal of money is raised that way, but whether or not this money gets beyond the pockets of the revolutionary agitators, no men pretends to know.
There is a theory that this money is used in the purchase of rifles and ammunition, but that is a matter known only to agitators themselves.’ The reason why English public opinion is generally in favor of the Armenians is both political and religious. No real esteem for Armenians themselves exist in England. Besides everybody admits in Europe that Armenians are, as a race, much inferior to the Turks. Armenians even in older times, showed no greatness. Their influence in the world has been absolutely null. In science, in art, in literature, in warlike achievements, they have left no trace. But, they are Christians, and this is one reason why English public opinion is in their favor. The political reason lies in the fact that England wishes to harass Turkey for the just opposition of the latter to English scandalous encroachments on Egyptian territory which, after all, belongs legitimately to the Sultan.
It is just as if England had taken possession of one your states and at the same time were fomenting discontent for, and disapprobation of your treatment of the Indian race which Columbus found supreme on this continent. Such being the real state of things, we consider that it is quite time public opinion in the united states to see how erroneous and even anti-American is the policy which consists in helping England in her political aspirations in the Eastern American public opinion ought to remain aloof from European intrigues. It ought especially to learn to estimate correctly the value of Armenian assertions and of the Armenian moral standard. ‘If’ writes the Associated Press correspondent above quoted ‘the detailed facts of the Sassoun massacre are ever established, it must be independently of Armenian testimony, or their value may be seriously questioned. In the first place, every Armenian with whom it has been my lot to come in contact seems to have a very vague idea of the value of truth. In the second place, in his anxiety to make out a case against the Turks, he is willing to publish as a fact any grotesque rumor that he may chance to fall over in the street.
In the third place he does not really know what actually took place in the Sassoun mountains but his vanity will not permit him to acknowledge it, and so, to be up with the times and to help along the cause of his people, he embellishes the rumor that he hears and frequently says that he is in secret communication with friends in Moosh and Bitlis, who are harboring refugees. The average Armenian cannot be believed on oath.’ In this deportable condition of Armenian honesty we find a true explanation of the following remarkable incident, an account of which was given at the time, as follows, by all the newspapers. The story which has been thrilling the world for some time past of the wife of the Armenian leader Grego, who, rather than suffer dishonor at the hands of her Turkish persecutors, threw herself, with her child in her arms, into an abyss, and was followed by other women until the ravine was filled with corpses, has been exploded, as many persons predicted it would be, at the time is was sprung upon the public. It has been discovered that the horrible narrative is a reproduction, with additions and embellishments to suit the occasion, of an old tale told in poetry by Mrs. Hemans years ago, under the title of ‘the Sullote mother’.
In the face of all the innumerable Armenian falsehoods of this kind, word has just reached us that Mr. Gladstone, in his Chester speech, asserted that the world is on possession of independent American testimony favorable to the Armenians. No greater error has ever been made. Mr. Gladstone ought to have known better. There is absolutely no American testimony regarding the Sassoun troubles. And the reason is very simple. No Americans was at the Sassoun district at the time of the revolt. The Rev. F. D. Greene, it is true, published a slanderous pamphlet on the “Armenian Crisis in Turkey” in which he printed a few documents supposed to be well authenticated. But as no American-born citizens saw anything of the Sassoun disturbances it follows necessarily that said documents were written either by Armenians or by American missionaries, under the inspiration of Armenians. Therefore the Rev. F. D. Greene’s pamplet is based upon Armenian falsehoods.
This makes it utterly and completely valueless. Mr. Gladstone owes to us to show where and how he was able to find a single genuine American document favoring the Armenian allegations that is to say, the allegations of a people who “cannot be believed on oath”. Facts however, have very seldom disturbed Mr. Gladstone’s fanaticism. We trust that Americans having no political views on Turkey will see how dangerous it is to encourage, either by word or by moral help Armenians revolutionists, for the simple reason that they are Christians. ‘Armenia’ wrote some time ago the correspondent mentioned above, ‘is preparing for war. The revolutionary party has both money and guns. During the past eight weeks money has poured into the revolutionary treasury in a steady stream from the Armenian colonies in Batoum, Tbilisi, Baku, Yerevan, Etchmiadin and other places in Russia, and from Rescht Kazvin, Teheran, Tebriz, Khoi and other cities in Persia. I have not visited the Armenian colonies on the north coast of the Black Sea, nor the large colony on Ispahan in Southern Persia, but I am reliably informed that revolutionary agents have been as busy there as elsewhere.
I have myself seen a considerable sum of money raised publicly, and I am told that the wealthy Armenian merchants in the cities I have named have made large private contributions, with promises of more for future use if needed. The money raised publicly has been obtained by means of balls, social entertainments theatrical performances, and lotteries. These functions were ostensibly for the `benefit of Sassoun refugees`. But it was a very thin disguise. It was thoroughly understood what the money was wanted for, and that the Sassoun refugees would not see a penny of it except in the shape of rifles and ammunition…The cries, therefore, in favor of the Sassoun refugees and the famished are either based on Armenian falsehoods or uttered by those who have political aims to further and attain. Could Americans be deceived by such a “very thin disguise”? We doubt.
Constantinople, August 8th
(Notes: * See also Chapter 30- conclusion. (Illegible spots are marked … or **)
4 – “Centralia Enterprise and Tribune - Nov.12th, 1895”
ARMENIANS IN REVOLT – 26,000 in Zeitut Mountains Defy the Sultan
Constantinople, Oct. 30th - The most alarming news yet received from Armenia was made public here today. It is said that the situation is so grave that in the Zeitout Mountains and in that district there are 20,000 Armenians in revolt against the rule of the Sultan. The Turkish Government, in view of the gravity of this outbreak, has decided to call out the army reserves.
Washingtom, D.C. - Oct. 30th – U.S. Minister Terrell has cabled to State Dept. in practical confirmation of the press reports of the recent Armenian massacres. He has given formal warning to the Porte, by direction of Secretary Ohrey (?), that Turkey will be held responsible for the safety and security off all American missionaries in that country.
5 – “The Lima Times Democrat” – May 16th, 1903
DISQUIET PREVALENT
Among Turks Over the Invasions by Armed Bands of Armenians
Constantinople, May 16th – The Turkish authorities are disquieted at the recent appearance of bands of Armenian revolutionists, coming from Russia in the districts of Bayazid and Sasun. Armenia and are adopting rigorous measures to guard the frontier. The Armenians cross in small parties in the neighborhood of Bayazid and than thither make their way to Sasun mountains, where they are safe from pursuit. It is alleged here that the Russian authorities of Kars, Asiatic Russia, are aware of the movement of the Armenian revolutionists, but that they do not interfere. It is believed that appearance of these bands indicates a revival activity on the part of the old Armenian committees, who are understood to be anxious to be in a position to take advantage of possible complications arising from the Macedonian situation, in which case the claims of the Armenians will be revived and the same advantages gained by the Macedonians from European intervention will be demanded for Armenia…
The Turkish Government has notified the Bulgarian Exarch that Gerasimos, bishop of Strumitza, Macedonia, has been removed, and has invited the Exarch to appoint his successor. The Exarch however refuses to recognize the authority of the Turkish Government to remove the bishop and has advised Gerassimos, who is practically a prisoner in his own house to remain firm. It is alleged that the Bishop Gerassimos is a supporter of the Macedonian movement, but it is also stated that the charges are brought by the jealous Greek clergy…The prisons of Macedonia, are overflowing with Bulgarians, the Turkish authorities hoping thereby paralyze the action of the Macedonian committees. It was announced today, that the Turkish troops entered Ipek, Albania, yesterday and not on May 8th, as previously announced, after meeting with strong opposition.
6 – “The News”, May 2nd, 1904
FIGHTING IN TURKEY
Troop Lose. 20 Killed and 23 Wounded In Battle With Armenian Rebels.
Constantinople, May 2nd.—According to official advices there has been serious fighting In the Sassun district of Asia Minor between the troops’ and Armenian insurgents numbering 2,000. The troops lost 20 killed and 23 wounded. 12 villages in the Talori district have been destroyed, but whether by insurgents or Kurds Is not known. There” are 10,000 troops in the disturbed area. Private advices say that the Kurds attacked two villages north of Sassun, losing 26 killed. The Sassun district of Asia Minor became notorious in 1894 because of a series of massacres of Armenians by Kurds. In the same year there were massacres of Armenians In the neighboring districts of Bitlis and Mush.
7 – “The Washington Post” - Sept. 6th, 1904”
ARMENIANS FIGHT TURKS
Insurgents Successfully Resisting Sultan’s Troops at Van.
Paris, Sept. 5th —A despatch to the Temps from Constantinople, by way of Sofia, says that an official report which, has reached one of the foreign consuls there states that Armenian insurgents at Van, Asiatic Turkey, are successfully resisting the Turkish troops, which until yesterday had been unable to reduce or disperse them. The Armenians advanced to within about 400 yards of the French consulate. The population of Van is seeking refuge in the-schools and convents. It is expected that Turkey will mobilize the 4th Army Corps and draw troops from Asia Minor In order to suppress the uprising. it was announced from Constantinople on Sept. 2nd that a fierce fight between Armenian Insurgents and Turkish troops had occurred at Van on August 31st and that more than a score were killed. About 150 Armenians raided the town, captured four houses, and barricaded themselves. Troops attacked the houses, and m the fight which followed two soldiers and 20 other persons were killed The authorities set fire to a number of adjoining houses, so that the troops might be better enabled to besiege the insurgents It was said by the authorities that other Armenian bands were preparing to cross the Persian frontier.
8- “The Washington Post” – Aug.10th, 1904
TURKISH GARRISONS ATTACKED BY ARMENIAN REBELS
Revenge for Massacre - Several Hundred Sold?ers K?lled ?n F?ght?ng Aroundf Sassun
Destruct?on of F?ve V?llages and Massacre of the Male Population Followed by Desperate and Successful Counter Attack…..
_____________________________________________________________________________________
9 – “The New’s, Maryland, USA” - May 2nd, 1914
Fighting In Turkey
Troops Lose 20 Killed and 23 Wounded In Battle With Armenian Rebels. – Constantinople May 2….
10- “Daily Kennebec Journal” – May 28th, 1914
Armenian Volunteers are to be Increased to 15.000 - Assoc.Press Corres. T?fl?s, Apr?l 28
_____________________________________________________________________________________
11 – “Iowa Recorder” - June 1st, 1914
Destroy Many Towns
According to a dispatch from the Vali of Bitlis, Asiatic Turkey, 17 villages have been destroyed by Armenian insurgents in the district of Sassun. More than 600 Armenian families have taken refuge at Mush, a town in Bitlis.”
12 – “The Washington Post” USA - August 10th, 1914
Slain With Bombs Turkish Garrisons Attacked by Armenian Rebels . .
Revenge For Massacre - Several Hundred Soldiers Killed in Fighting Around Sassun
13 – “Fort Wayne Journal” – Nov.6, 1914
ARMENIANS JOINING RUSSIAN ARMY
_____________________________________________________________________________________
14 - “The New York Times” - Nov.7th, 1914
Armenians Fighting Turks - Besieging Van – Others Operating in Turkish Army’s Rear
_____________________________________________________________________________________
15 – “ Manitoba Free Press” – Nov. 7th, 1914
Campaign Against Turkey
The Armenians are aiding- the Russians in the campaign against Turkey. The Turkish town of Van, 140 miles southeast of Erzerum, Turkish Armenia, is being besieged by the Armenians.
16- “The New York Times” - Nov.10th, 1914
Russians Take Erzurum - In pursuit of Kurdish Cavalry – Armenian Students Volunteering in Hundreds
_____________________________________________________________________________________
17 – “Fort Wayne Journal Gazette” – Nov. 11th 1914
ARMENIANS ACTIVE IN EUROPEAN WAR
Petrograd (via London) Nov. 13th 2:50 pm: Reports reaching the Russian capital from the Turkish border attach increasing importance to the part the Armenians are playing in the Russian – Turkish war. In several towns occupied by the Russians, the Armenian students have shown themselves ready to join the invading army, and explained that they had prepared themselves for the Russian approach by constant drilling and by gathering arms secretly. All along the line of march, according to these dispatches, the Armenian peasants are receiving Russian troops with enthusiasm and giving them provisions freely.
Armenian newspaper, referring to this crisis in the history of Armenia, published the following:
“The long anticipated day of deliverance for the Turkish-Armenians is at hand, and the Armenians are prepared for any sacrilege made necessary by the performance of their manifest duty”.
From this border country there has come to Petrograd further reports of armed conflicts from the refusal of Armenians to become Turkish conscripts and surrender their arms. It is now rumored that the important city of Van is today besieged by Armenian guerilla bands in great force. In Feituen these bands is said to exceed 20,000 in number and they are reported to have defeated all Turkish troops sent against them.”
18 – “The Ogden Standard”- Nov.12th, 1914
ARMENIANS HAIL TROOPS WITH JOY
Long Ant?c?pated Date of Del?verance from Turks at Hand – People Prepared for Sacr?f?ce
_____________________________________________________________________________________
19 – “Fort Wayne Journal” - Nov.13th, 1914
ARMENIANS ACTIVE IN EUROPEAN WAR
…reports of armed confl?cts from the refusal of Armen?ans to become Turk?sh conscr?pts and surrender the?r arms. …c?ty of Van is today besieged by Armenian guerilla hands in great force…
_____________________________________________________________________________________
20 – “Manitoba Morning Free Press” - Nov. 13th, 1914
UNEARTHING GUNS AND AMMUNITION
German Buried Big Supplies on Battlefields Outside Warsaw -
Armenians in Revolt - Gathered Arms Secretly
In several towns occupied by the Russians the Armenian students have shown themselves ready to join the invading army and explained that they had prepared themselves ready to join the invading army and explained that they had prepared themselves for the Russian approach by constant drilling and by gathering arms secretly. All along the line of march, according to these dispatches, the Armenian peasants are receiving the Russian troops with enthusiasm and giving them provisions freely.
An Armenian newspaper referring to this crisis in the history of Armenia, published the following: “Thee long anticipated day of deliverance for the Turkish Armenians is at hand, and the Armenians are prepared for any sacrifice made necessary by the performance of their manifest duty”.
21 – “Elyria Evening Telegram” - Nov. 13th, 1914
ARMENIANS READY TO SIDE WITH RUSSIANS
Want to Get Into War in Order to be Delivered From Turkish Rule, Says Dispatch From Petrograd
Petrograd. Nov. 13, via London – Reports reaching the Russian capital from the Turkish border attach increasing importance to the part the Armenians are playing in the Russian-Turkish war.
In several towns occupied by the Russians the Armenian students have shown themselves ready to join the invading army and explained that they had prepared themselves for the Russian approach by constant drilling and by gathering arms, secretly. All along the line of march, according to these dispatches, the Armenian peasants are receiving the Russian troops with an enthusiasm and giving them provisions freely.
An Armenian newspaper, referring to this crisis in the history of Armenia, publishes the following:
“The long anticipated way of deliverance for the Turkish Armenians is at hand, and the Armenians are prepared for any ‘sacrifice grade necessary by the performance of their manifest duty’”
From this border country there have come to Petrograd further reports of armed conflicts arising from the refusal of Armenians to become Turkish conscripts and surrender their arms.
It is now rumored that the important city of Van is besieged by Armenian guerilla bands in great force. In Feitun the bands are said to exceed 20,000 in number, and they are reported to have defeated all the Turkish troops sent against them, causing the Turks heavy losses.
A dispatch received here from Constantinople says that the Turkish cruiser Goeben was penetrated by a shell at her water line during the recent bombardment of the Dardanelles by the allied Anglo-French fleet. The damage inflicted is described as serious.
The Goeben is one of the two German cruisers taken over by Turkey after the outbreak of the war.”
22 – “The Washington Post” – Nov. 13th, 1914
ARMENIANS JOIN RUSSIANS AND 20,000 SCATTER TURKS NEAR FEITUN
DEAL BLOW TO TURKS
Russians Scatter a Big Army Occupying Batumi Valley – Are Near Erzurum Fortress
British Capture Turkish Torpedo Boat and Czar’s Troops Damage the Former German Cruiser Goeben – Americans Join Russians – 20,000 Defeated
London, Nov. 12th – The Russian Army of Armenia, whose base is on Kars, Transcaucasia, is approaching the Turkish fortress of Erzurum. A dispatch from Petrograd says:
“A graphic account has been received here of the demise of the Russian transport Truth, which was scuttled rather than surrendered to the Turkish cruiser Goeben. When called upon to surrender, her captain steered the Truth for the shore, opened the valves and blew a hole in the bottom of the vessel.
Sailors Sing as Ship Sinks
Lt. Ragowsky perished while attempting to fire off a second round of explosives. Part of the crew got off in boats, while others jumped into the water, to be picked up by Turkish ships.
‘The ship’s chaplain and a handful of men stayed aboard. As the ship went down, the chaplain was seen on deck giving his blessing to the men, who remained about him cheering and singing the national anthem.’
A Turkish torpedo boat which escaped from the Dardanelles has been captured off Tenedos, an island five miles off the northwest coast of Asia Minor, according to an Athens dispatch.
An Amsterdam dispatch says the Kaiser has ordered that all Mohammedxans captured from the allied armies be sent to Constantinople to serve in the Turkish Army
Austrian Officers for Turkey
A telegram from Bucharest, Romania, says that Halil Bey, uncle of Enver Bey, the leader of the Young Turks, has arrived there on a special mission in behalf of Turkey.
Rome – Nov. 12th - Advices from Constantinople say that the Ottoman Army still lacks 700 officers and that the authorities at Berlin were requested to supply them. Berlin replied that it would be impossible to send all Germans but would supplement them with Austrians, who would travel in Constantinople individually as civilians. Petrograd, Nov. 12th – A dispatch received here from Constantinople says that the Turkish cruiser Goeben was penetrated by a shell at her waterline during the recent bombardment of the Dardanelles by the allied Anglo-French fleet. The damage inflicted is described as serious.
Russians Take Many Turks
An official communication from the general staff of the Caucasian army under date of Nov. 10th, says:
Small skirmishes in the region beyond Tchoruk River is the neighborhood of the province of Batumi has occurred. “We maintained our position at Koprukent. Turkish attempts to envelope many prisoners and large quantities of ammunitions. We have occupied all of the valley of the Alaschkertska.
Armenians Fighting the Turks
“In several towns occupied by the Russians the Armenian students have shown themselves ready to join the invading army. Reports tell of armed conflicts arising from the refusal of Armenians to become Turkish conscripts and surrender their arms. It is now rumored that the important city of Van is besieged by Armenian guerilla bands in great force. In Feitun the Armenians are said to exceed 20,000 in number and they are reported to have defeated all the Turkish Troops sent against them causing the Turks heavy losses.“
23 – “Newark Advocate” - Nov. 17th, 1914
AMERICANS (should be ARMENIANS) are Fighting Turks in Self-Defense
AP Telegram - Petrograd via London, Nov. 7th – A dispatch received here from Tbilisi says: Armenian refugees reaching there report that volunteer bands of Armenians have had several sharp engagements with the Turkish garrison at Van on Lake Van in Armenia, and about 145 miles southeast of Erzurum.
The Sebands of Armenians have come together in the interior of Turkey for self defense.
24 – “Reno Evening Gazette”- Jan 7th, 1915
ARMENIANS FIGHT FOR RUSSIA
London, Jan. 7th — Reuter’s Petrograd correspondent transmits a message from Tbilisi stating that a detachment of Armenian volunteers had arrived there from America. The volunteers received an enthusiastic reception”.
25 – “Manitoba Morning Free Press”- Jan. 8th, 1915
Armenian Volunteers at Tbilisi
London, 7 – Reuter’s Petrograd correspondent transmits a message from Tbilisi stating that a detachment of Armenian volunteers had arrived there from America. The volunteers received an enthusiastic reception.
The Armenian volunteers evidently are to serve with the Russian Army in the campaign against Turkey, whose troops were advancing in the direction of Tbilisi until as reported in Petrograd two days ago, they were defeated disastrously. Tbilisi is a Russian city in the trans-Caucasian region. The territory known as Armenia, which is not a political unit, includes part of the trans-Caucassus.
26- “Indianapolis Star” – Jan.8th, 1915
ARMENIANS JOIN RUSSIANS – Detachment of Volunteers Arrive at Tiflis for Army Service
_____________________________________________________________________________________
27- “The New York Times” - Jan.8th, 1915
FROM AMERICA TO FIGHT – Detachment of Armenians Welcomed at Tiflis
_____________________________________________________________________________________
28 – “Daily Kennebec Journal,” - May 28th, 1915
ARMENIAN VOLUNTEERS ARE TO BE INCREASED TO 15,000
(AP Correspondence) Tbilisi, April 23rd - A visits to the general staff of the Armenian volunteers disclosed active preparations to raise their contingents from about 5000 to a full division of about 15,000. Five Armenian detachments are now arriving from Batumi to Tabriz. It is planned to unite all but one in a single body Volunteering is proceeding briskly having begun even before Turkey entered the war Armenian subscriptions defray all costs and the management is in the hands of the Armenian National Bureau, in which all elements of the Armenians rare are represented.
………….. (?) has ended party disputes which used to be as fierce as they were unintelligible to the outside world. There is entire confidence in the allied armies.
The outbreak of war instantly recalled the general inspectors newly created upon the initiative of Russians and it is now one of the absorbing questions of the Caucasus whether England and France will not leave the determination of the fate of Armenians to Russia alone.
` The Armenians are consoling themselves with the assurance that the Russian Government does not want to arm Turkish Armenia, though they would be very glad if they had even vague promises held out.
But the most striking of the historic Armenian antinomies at this time is that, while making larger preparations to fight the Armenian leaders would much prefer that there should be very little fighting in Turkish Armenia, as every advance of the Russian Armies would be preceded by massacres and the grant of autonomy would find the Armenian people too weak to utilize their new privileges of self government. There are however words of caution against waiting for peace negotiations to drop into their laps the ripe fruits of diplomacy.
In any case, it is considered doubtful whether Turkey would yield more gracefully to diplomacy than to allies. It is feared she would rather repeat in the form of reduction of their numbers, the historic argument that the Armenians are really negligible minority. There is believed to be danger in delay. The diplomatic chess board is more uncertain than the military. Even if everything should go well with the triple entente, it is believed in the end Turkey will have to be coerced by arms and will almost certainly revenge itself on the helpless Christian subjects. “
29 – “The Washington Post” - Aug. 22, 1915
THROW OFF TURK YOKE
Armenians in Vilayet of Van End 600 Years’ Oppression - Schoolmaster is Governor – May be annexed to Russia or Be Granted Autonomy After the War
30 – “ The New York Times” - October 9th , 1915
Why We Aid Armenians.
Reventlow says it’s because we’re bought by Anglo-French Gold.
Special cable to The New York times.
London, Oct. 8 – The Times says this morning:
It is noteworthy that the monstrous article by Count Reventlow which was quoted by Lord Cromer in the House of Lords on Wednesday night is the only reference in recent German newspapers to the Armenian massacres. The article was based upon a report that the American Government had invited Germany to intervene in favor of the Armenians. In addition to the brutal remarks already published Count Reventlow sharply criticized all American action.
After a contemptuous reference to the American Ambassador in Constantinople, he said that England and Russia were using the Armenian question for their own purpose, and proceeded:
“It is probably well known that it has become a popular habit among Americans to take as active a part as possible in questions of this kind, even when the events happen in southeastern Europe and the Monroe Doctrine hardly provides an excuse. Such interference would be specially striking at the present moment, because Turkey is a belligerent power, fighting for her life, and the United States pass and want to pas as neutrals. There can hardly be any doubt that the Angio-American fraternization in the recent financial transaction in the recent financial transaction is already showing its consequences in this matter.”
31 – “Oakland Tribune” – Feb. 21st, 1916
ARMENIANS SLAY TURKS IN REVOLT
Grand Duke’s Victory Disrupts Islam
Rome, Feb 21st - It is stated in dispatches received here that the Germans are preparing to leave Constantinople, where their position has become difficult.
The Russian line is reported already from 30 to 60 miles west of Erzurum.
The Turkish debacle in Armenia surpasses all imagination. No units remain intact
32 – ”New Oxford Item” - Feb. 24th, 1916
RUSSIANS WIN VAN DISTRICT
Drive South Menaces Turks’ Mesopotamian Army - SLAVS ARE NEAR TRABZON
Turkish Losses In Past Two Weeks’ Fighting Said to be Nearly 100,000. - Bitlis Reported Evacuated.
The Russians have occupied the entire Lake Van district, the Turks retiring southward and even evacuating Bitflis, according to a Petrograd dispatch received in Rome and given out by the wireless press. On the other wing, according to the dispatch, the Russian advance guards have arrived within a short distance of Trabzon, on the Black sea coast. Earlier dispatches show that the Russians are pressing their advance on both flanks. Driving the Turkish rear guards before them with heavy losses, one of their armies is advancing rapidly toward Diyarbak?r, on the Tigris River. Diyarbak?r is only 50 miles from the Constantinople-Bagdad railway, the only line of communication for the Turkish Army in Mesopotamia. Turkish losses in the past two weeks’ fighting with the Russians are said to be nearly 100,000 men in killed, wounded and prisoners. The Kaiser is reported to have sent an imperative message to Field Marshal von Per Goltz, the chief military adviser of the Turkish Army, that the advance of the Russians must be stopped at any cost. It is reported on excellent authority that a big German force is being massed east of Constantinople for the protection of the Turkish capital. The menace of the Russian invasion of Turkey is more dangerous that at any other time during the course of the war. Approximately 250,000 Russians have poured through the passes of the Caucasian mountains supported by enormous quantities of artillery. Along the Black sea littoral Russian warships are bombarding Turkish towns. Information received in Rome that the Turkish rout in the Caucasus surpasses all imagination. No unit remains intact and the debris of the army in flight is being massacred by the insurgent population. All able-bodied Armenians who escaped from Turkish conscription have enlisted in the Russian Army. Grand Duke Nicholas, it is reported, now has 50,000 Armenian volunteers under his command.
33 – “Reno Evening Gazette” - August 8th, 1916*
TURKS ALARMED
By Cable and AP – Constantinople, August 12th -
Further conflicts have occurred between the Turks and Armenians in Alashgerd district. It is reported that a band of young Russo-Armenian volunteers, have appeared at Erzurum and are recruiting adherents first. The report caused a panic among the Turkish authorities.
34 - “ALGEMEEN HANDELSBLAD AMSTERDAM” - Tuesday, May 25th, 1920
ARMENIA: THE ARMENIAN-TURKISH QUESTION (Note: A very important object?ve report!)
We have received the following interesting letter from one of our staff members in the Balkans, the content of which gives a different view on the Armenian question from the customary one in Western Europe. We have the greatest trust in the objectivity of this staff member. The way in which he relates his story contains the proof that he is deserving of this trust- and we have therefore printed his correspondence unchanged and without comment.
Just as under the reign of Sultan Abdulhamid abhorrent reports of mass slaughtering of the Armenians have been coming in again from Cilicia, as a result of which the nerves of the dulled world are once again shocked. In absolutely no way is it my intention to justify slaughter, no matter by whom it is performed, and to try and protect the most heinous of all murders, [that is] murder committed on religious grounds. But there are two sides to every truth and when the Armenian press-propaganda manages to exploit the Armenian bloodbath in Cilicia against the Turks in the sense that she thus is trying to realize the complete destruction of Turkey by the Entente, then I am of the opinion that it is in the interest of truth to investigate whether truly only the beastliness of the Turks is to blame for these mass murders.
I believe that I have some right to state this since, during the war, I had the opportunity to see Turkey, in a manner of speaking, in her negligee and of all places there where the Armenian and the Turkish tribes fought each other with the bitterest of hatreds.
In the spring of the memorable year 1918, when as a result of the Russian defeat, Turkey started the offensive again and the flag of the Prophet waved victoriously in alien countries, which had not happened since the peace of Kücük Kaynarca, I happened to find myself in the Armenian-Russian border region and so witnessed a part of the Turkish advance in the area that was predominantly inhabited by Armenians.
Whosoever knows what waging war is all about will have to admit that there is no better opportunity for getting to know a country and a people than during a war, where all human passions are expressed with violence, where the thin layer of culture and pretense disappears before the higher necessity of waging war. At the time I happened to find myself the only European in the critical surroundings and so I have been perhaps the only European witness of in what manner the events during the Turkish advance in Russian-Armenia occurred and how these two people related to one another.
Before I started my journey I already favored the Armenian side. During my stay in Constantinople, in the years 1916/17 I had already heard plenty of revolting details on the Armenian mass murders in Turkish Armenia and the Europeans, who were more or less well informed about the events in Armenia, therefore attributed blame to the Turks alone and they regarded the Armenians as the innocent sacrifices to (/victims of) the Turkish religious hatred and to the bestial pleasures of a barbaric people.
My relationship with the Turks was good enough to also discuss with them this difficult issue that many a European did not even dare to bring up. The position taken up by the Turks was to strengthen me in my convictions that the Armenians were innocent and that the Turks were to blame for everything. For with a quaintly brusque rejection I was answered by every Turk whom I had asked for information with regard to the pros and cons of the Armenian question: “Yes, everything is true what people say about us. We have killed millions of Armenians; it was a horrible bloodbath, but we were within our right and we are only accountable to ourselves for that.” I did not succeed in finding out further details, or grounds for these horrible acts. And so I could only arrive at the conclusion … In the released passions of the war the religious fanaticism towards the Christians was given a free reign wherever there was opportunity. And that happened in the highlands of Armenia, where, cut off from the entire world, the Armenians were entirely in the hands of the Turks.
In the spring of 1918 I arrived in Trabzon from where, as is known, runs the only passable road to the interior of Upper Armenia.
In 1915 Trabzon itself was witness to an Armenian bloodbath and three years later the Greek- and the Levantine Europeans still managed to relate to me in every detail the indescribable scenes of horror that occurred within the ancient city walls of Trabzon in 1915. How the streets of Trabzon ran red with the blood of Armenians! How the Armenian quarters went up in smoke and flames and that for days and weeks after the bloodbath the bodies of children continued to wash up against the ancient Constantine Dam in the harbour of Platana. I saw ruined stretches [of the city] and people told me that these had once been the Armenian quarters. People showed me Christian Churches. These were the Churches of the Armenians. People raked over dung heaps and bones and decomposed bodies appeared. These are the bodies of Armenians, people told me.
These are such awful realizations that one is never able to forget them and they evoke the same wish with everyone: God preserve every one of us for this barbarity and for the religious hatred of Moslems!
But a Prior of the Franciscan monks, a simple old priest, who undoubtedly stood on the side of the Christians, shook his head, when I started to curse the Turks. “You are mistaken”, he said, “the Turks are not the only ones to blame. Yes, someone who comes from Europe and who wishes to judge Asia with a European understanding will [undoubtedly] condemn the crime of the extermination of this people. But it is not the entire truth that you have seen and heard. You ought to look upon these things through Asian eyes and have understanding for the fact that here two peoples have been going to battle with a hatred and bitterness that are centuries old. One has two mentalities here, the Turkish and the Armenian and both mentalities were saying that one of them had to go down. Everything was arraigned against them and they were made to suffer defeat. But are you convinced of it that the Armenians, under the same circumstances, would not have done or in fact did exactly the same!? I have my reports from missions, sent forth by my order in Beyazit, Van, Erzurum, Erzincan; from the reports I know that in 1915 when the war with Russia started, it was the Armenians who, behind the Turkish Army, were fanning the revolution and who were depopulating Turkish villages and settlements and razed them to the ground. The subsequent events that happened in Turkey afterwards were only the consequences of this first hostile attitude of the Armenians. I admit that horrible things have happened and that never before so much blood was spilt. But the Armenians were not [exactly] innocent in how this bloodbath came about. And when the Turks went further than they had to, then the blame for that does not solely lie with the Turks, but with the mentality of Asia, where the hatred for a people runs deeper than with the European peoples and where war assumes beastly shapes.”
Just look at Trabzon, for instance. You have seen the burned down Armenian quarters, but did you also see the burned down Turkish quarters? Did you happen to pay attention to the graves of the Turkish population that were still fresh? No! You can see that when the Armenians found themselves in the same position as the Turks, when they advanced victoriously under the protection of the Russian Army, the same spectacle occurred as in the year of 1915, but that time it was the Turks who got it in the neck. Wherever the Armenians found a Turk he was mercilessly hacked down, wherever they saw a Turkish Mosque it was plundered and set on fire. Turkish quarters went up in smoke and flames just like the Armenian quarters. You are presently about to travel round the country and you will still be able to follow in the footsteps of war: Bayburt, Erzincan, Erzurum, and Kars. You will still see smoldering heaps of rubble; you will still smell blood and corpses, but it so happens that these were Turkish corpses.”
The Franciscan Father only told the truth. For months I traveled all across Armenia and Kurdistan and I found confirmation of what people had been telling me. After the withdrawal of the Russian Army, which followed after the Russian peace, the troops of the so-called Armenian Army, took over the military operations in the occupied Turkish areas. During the Russian occupation the Russians protected the lives and properties of the Turks. What happened after the withdrawal of the Russians is heart rendering. The smallest Turkish settlements were killed down to the last man by the gangs of the Generals Adronits and Murat and Churches were destroyed down to the very last stone.
Back then the Armenian expectations were still highly strung. Their plans reached far, encompassed the entire Turkish Empire. And they were hoping that they could settle the score with the old hereditary enemy, down to the last man, the last woman, the last child. I have seen ruins in Erzincan where hundreds of bodies of strangled Turks lay amidst the rubble. I have had light shone down wells that were full of bodies. I have seen with my own eyes that graves were opened in which the bodies of men and women were thrown haphazardly across one another, hundreds of them. Who did this? Those victorious Armenians.
These spectacles accompanied me on the distant and long road through Upper-Armenia, Kurdistan right up into Russian-Armenia. And is it a wonder that the Turks, when they in their turn became the victors, exacted revenge, repaid evil with evil? I have to admit that during the Turkish advance to Russian-Armenia the murdering was continued by the Turks. On the other side of the border of the Sarikamish the Armenian settlements, of which there were many, were depopulated with the aid of fire and iron. The most bitter of racial hatred was raging against the former victors, presently those who were conquered, in a bestial form, a wild country particular to Asia. Our European brains fail to comprehend this unrelenting hatred that sets people against people whipping them into a frenzy in which the worst atrocities are committed. But we should not forget that Upper-Armenia is a country the civilization of which can be compared to the primitive culture of the European peoples. The peoples there do not form nations, but rather hordes. And just like in the primitive situation of peoples a meeting of two hordes meant the annihilation of one them, thus in the mountains around Great Ararat, people’s minds are still not directed towards coexistence, but rather towards destruction. In the bare mountains of Upper-Armenia there exists no compromise, only a fight to the death. The victor will live all the conquered can do is die.
During my stay in Alexandropol (Gümrü) the following happened, which casts a good light on the mentality of the people there. From the direction of the group of mountains, the Alagöz, people one day heard the thunder of canons being fired. The Armenian population, which lived in fear behind the Turkish front line, explained this rumble of canons as that the English were advancing against the Turks. And they were under the conviction that within several hours the Turks would be beaten. Immediately there arose a rebellion behind the Turkish front line, and the weak Turkish posts in the Armenian villages were tortured to death in an ingenious manner. But the English did not come. A detachment of Kafkas-Armenians had tried to break through the thin Turkish front. Hence the reason for the rumbling canons. And when the fight was over only a couple of hours later there followed the revenge. The villages, in which Turkish soldiers had been murdered, were destroyed. Can one then say that the Armenians were not to blame?
In Alexandropol itself, in a purely Armenian city, where, despite the Turkish occupation, the Armenians quietly continued to do their work, I often came in contact with leading Armenian figures. The were continually living under a terrible fear that one day due to an ill-considered act of Armenian gangs the Turks would take revenge and that they would then be among the first to bear this revenge. A number of the Armenian people, the best part, were in favor of a peaceful coexistence with the Turks. For it so happened that they were more or less compelled to live together. And in that case only tolerance could put a stop to the murdering. But the greater number of the people and the gangs, the so-called soldiers, did not wish to know of peace. Their slogan was: “Them or us, one will have to go down.”
The men, who preached tolerance and reconciliation, were cursed by the greater part of the Armenian people. People in Armenian circles openly said to me: “At present those Turks are in control. But soon we will be lord and master again and then we will not suffer a single Turk that falls into our hands to live. No agreement is possible between us. We have a score to settle that is centuries old. Our fight is as old as our people. This fight started on the day on which the Turks entered our lands and it will last until the day on which they will be brought down. We do not wish to have reconciliation. Cursed are they who befriend Turks.”
Such was the mood in a time in which the Armenians had no hope ever to be freed from the Turks. It looked as if the victorious crescent would be making the whole of Russian-Armenia her own.
With this in mind one can judge what happened when the Turks were forced to withdraw and the Turkish settlements once again fell into the hands of the Armenians.
A comparison is only possible between civilized peoples. With the peoples of the wildest [part of] Asia there only exist hatred and destruction. “The Turks are guilty. They have murdered [people].” However, are the Armenians less guilty, who also murdered as soon as they had the power to do so?
One can only judge Asia with Asian eyes.
35 – “DEUTSCHE ALLGEMEINE ZEITUNG“ - #342 July 24th, 1921 (Note::Important objective reading)
A Witness for Talat Pasha, from Lt.Gen. a.d. Bronsart von Schellendorf, former Chief of the General Staff of the Turkish Field Troops, recent Commander of the Royal Prussian Infantry Division.
In the process of the Armenian assassin Teilirian, witnesses were called who were unable to make any real statements, or who were able only to relate what they had heard about the situation. Eyewitnesses, who had seen the truth were not called. Why did one not take the statements of German officers, who were assigned at the time and were there to see the results of Armenian atrocities. Our witness accounts could have played such a decisive role in this process.
We were notified to be prepared to testify, yet never called. For this reason, I am following my duty as witness, although it is late because I had to gather all of this material, to help truth find its rightful place.
In order to understand how it was possible to place the blame for the Armenian atrocities, it is necessary to look back. Armenian atrocities are age old. They have happened ever since Armenians and Kurds have lived in close proximity in the borderlands of Russia, Persia, and Turkey. Kurds are nomads and raise animals. The Armenians are acre farmers, artisans, or businessmen. The Kurd has no school experience, doesn’t know money or the worth of money, and knows that being taxed is forbidden through the Koran. The Armenian, as business man, uses the inexperience of the Kurd in a scrupulous manner, and takes advantage of him. The Kurd feels that he has been cheated, takes revenge on him, and the Armenian atrocities are ready. It must be said that differences in religion never have anything to do with this.
The ages old discordance received new nourishment as the Armenians, during the big war, started a dangerous revolt in the eastern border provinces of Turkey for no particular reason, because the reforms that the ‘powers’ initiated, were putting through, were just beginning to take effect. The Armenians had seats and voices in the new parliament, produced even a Foreign Minister of Armenian descent.
They had the same social and political Rights as the rest of the population of the state. Peace in their lands was kept by a Gendarmerie, trained by the French General Baumann.
The revolt had been prepared way before it took place, as the many bulletins, brochures, weapons, ammunition and explosives found in the areas populated by Armenians made it clear. It was surely instigated and funded by Russia. An Armenian conspiracy against high government works and officers in Istanbul was discovered on time.
Since all the able Moslem men were in the army, it was easy for the Armenians to begin a horrible slaughter of the defenseless Moslem inhabitants in the area. They did not just go against the Turkish Eastern front army from a flank or at its back, but they simply cleaned out the Moslem inhabitants in those areas. They performed gruesome deeds, of which I, as an eye witness honestly say that they were much worse than what Turks have been accused of as an Armenian atrocity.
At first, the Army attempted to bring order to the area, but being strapped to the fight against the Russians, they finally left it to the Gendarmerie, which was subordinated to the Ministry of the Interior as all the states were.
The Minster of the Interior was Talat, and he had to make the decisions and give the directives. The Army was in its most vital stage of fighting. The Moslem inhabitants were fleeing from the terror of the Armenians. In this critical situation, the whole ministry came to the difficult decision to name the Armenians dangerous to the state, and to remove them from the border areas to a less inhabited, but fruitful area, to Northern Mesopotamia. The Minister of the Interior gave the task to the Gendarmerie, trained to deal with this assignment.
Talat was no thoughtless murderer, but a far sighted statesman. He saw in the Armenians, who now were under the influence of the Russians and others who had Great-Armenia dreams, but in quieter times, were very useful citizens, hoped that removed from the Russian influence and away from the Kurdish quarreling, they would, with their intelligence and work ethics make their new home luscious and fruitful.
He also saw further on that the Entente press would use the relocation of the Armenians as a hypocritical propaganda of Anti-Christianism, and he would have even for that reason alone avoided any harsh treatment of the Armenians.
Talat was right. The propaganda began and successfully had everyone in other countries believing this stupidity of Anti-Christianism. One should know that in a country that is closely allied with Christian countries, that has Christian officers and soldiers in its own army…has nothing to do with anti –Christians.
Now I come to the deployment of the plan … the relocation of the Armenians.The Ottoman Empire was stretched over large distances and there was not always sufficient communication between the various provinces. The governors had more or less a lot of freedom to decide on when and where and how things ought to be done. It was not that they disobeyed, but did not always have clear directives and this kind of governing went down the ladder of command, where occasionally unwise decisions were made.
The unusually difficult task to keep thousands of Moslem refugees and in an other area Armenians on their assigned marching ways, to lead, feed, find shelter for them all, was over-whelming to the too few who could not cover the masses, nor most often had no idea of how to do so. Talat did his utmost to help. Even into my hands came requests and demands to the Army to assist whenever possible, to provide food, shelter, doctors and medicine to the civilians under way. Unfortunately, even with all the help that was possible, thousands of Moslems as well as Armenians died.
Here lies the question of whether one could have foreseen these disastrous results of the relocation. Considering that there would not have been any way to stop the Moslem population from fleeing, removing the Armenians was necessary.
Let us take, for instance, our present situation (1921). If a ministry found, it had the power and the right to order: All Polish activists will be removed from Upper Schlesien and put into prison. Or All violent Communists will be put into boats and dropped off at the Russian coast…Wouldn’t there by applause heard throughout the country?
Perhaps the judges of the Teilirian process will ask themselves these questions and see the Armenian situation from a different point of view.
Talat refused to have registered all Greeks living on the Mediterranian coast because only sabotage was done there, not a dangerous uprising, though thoughts of that were near. Talat was a statesman, not a murderer.
Now that the atrocities that were deliberately done to Armenians. were witnessed so often that there is no doubt that they are real. I begin with the Kurds. Of course, this folk, these people, used this seldom, probably never again opportunity to rob and at times even to beat to death the hated Armenians who had on top of everything done horrible things to other Moslems. The train of Armenians going to their destination went for many days and weeks through Kurdistan. There was no other way to get to Mesopotamia.
About the Gendarmerie that was assigned to accompany the Armenias, different judgments have been made. In some instances the Gendarmerie defended their charges against Kurdish bands. In other instances they were said to have fled. There were also claims that they worked together with the Kurds, or even alone, robbing and killing Armenians. That they were acting upon higher orders was not brought up. Talat cannot be made responsible for these acts, which took place 2000 km from where he was. And the Gendarmerie had a different training than the Turkish troops…their training was French.
One can also not deny that some Turkish officers took advantage of the Armenians, but where such dealings were discovered, immediate military action was taken. Thus, Vehib Pasha had two of his officers shot according to military law.
Enver Pasha punished the governor of Aleppo, a Turkish general, who enriched his coffers at the cost of Armenians, by taking away his commission and giving him a long jail sentence.
I think that these examples show that one did not want an Armenian disaster. But it was war, and customs and manners degenerated. I remember the gruesome acts the French did to our wounded and prisoners of war. Has the rest of the world heard of these shameful acts?
Besides the murdered Grand Vezir, Enver Pasha also has been attacked before the German court, I hear. Enver loves his fatherland immensely. He is an honorable soldier of great talent and unmatched bravery, whose eye witness I was repeatedly. The newly formed Turkish field army exists due to his genius, and his spirit, that fought for years against heavy might, and today it still fights for the homeland. No German officer is more able to judge him and his friend Talat Pasha than I am, who stood from 1914 to the end of 1917 as Chief of the General Staff of the Turkish Field Army in closest ties to those two men.
Talat Pasha has become an offering, a sacrifice of love for his fatherland.
May Enver Pasha, when his time comes, be able to lift his fatherland to new heights.
That both of these men, through difficult times, gave me their full trust, I may say, that they gave me their friendship, is a proud memory for me”.
(Translated from German by R.S. Ozan)
Attachment 2: Chapter 15: POPULATION: CONTROVERSY or MATHEMATICAL AVERAGE?
The “opening code” of the whole genocide puzzle, of course is concerned with the number of people in question. As you will see from below figures, given estimates differ greatly. However, looking to the “reliability and neutrality of the source”, readers will still have to make a guess. The most competent historian in demography is Prof. Justin McCarthy, but since he is labeled “pro-Turk”, we will try to use other ‘general data’ and reach to an estimate by logical ‘average’. (Mc Carthy, in his book ISBN 944675-71-9 “Who are the Turks” writes that 40% of the Muslims – Armenians and people in the evacuation areas died of same reasons. Detailed data can be found in ISBN 0-87850-094-4 “Death and Exile”)
The “genocide balloon” may speak of 1 500 000 or even 2 000 000 people killed. Is that possible? To start with, let us see how many Armenians lived in the Ottoman Empire, how many of them were relocated, how many reached their destinations in 1915, but returned with the Russian or French Armies or immigrated to the Greek Islands, Cyprus, France, the U.S., Egypt, Palestine, Lebanon and Russia in large numbers or returned to Turkey.
Below are various estimates, made for “Christian Armenians living within Ottoman Empire borders:”
a.Kirkor Zohrab, estimate of the Patriarchate 2,560,000*
b.Armenian historiani K.J. Basmachian 2,380,000*
c.By Armenian delegation given at the Paris Conference in 1919 2,250,000*
d.30.12.1918 Given by Venizelos at the Paris Confer.(pre-World War I, 1914) 2,100,000
e.Living in 1918 Difference 840,000 dead or immigrated 1,260,000*
f. Letter by Bogos Nubar to French Ministry 11.12.1918 declaring - Relocated
Alive in Caucasus-Persia-Syria-Iraq Difference 310.000 dead or immigrated 700.000 *
390.000
g.1895 - Francis de Presence 1,260,000
h.1900 – Tournbize 1,300,000
i.1905 - Ottoman state census 1,294,851
j.1912 – British Blue Book (Annual Register) 1,056,000
k.1913 – L.D. Contenson 1,400,000
l.1.3.1914 Report joint French-Armenian committee for land distrib.( East.Antat.only) =542.421 1 280,000
m.Armenian Patriarch Ormanian 1 579,000
n.Lepsius 1 600,000
o.1915 - October, pg.329 Nat. Geographic (All area including Russia, Persia) 2,000,000
p.Grabill, pg.51, All over the Empire in 1914 1.800.000 to 2,000,000
q.New York Times, Oct. 22, 1915 1.200.000
r.Zurcher, pg.119 - 120 “Turkey” 1,500,000
s.Encyclopedia Britannica – 1914 1,500,000
t.1918 - July, pg.61, Nat.Geographic (Total Empire population. 18,000,000) 2,000,000
u.Katchaznuni, living in 1920 (after emigration and losses) nearly 1,000,000
v.Armenian historian Lalaian – detailed, living in Armenia only-- in 1918 885,000
w.Armenians living in Armenia only, in1920 (Lalaian) 690 500
x.Deaths in Armenia under the Dashnak-ruled Republic (famine-epidemics (Lalaian) 195,000
y.Armenian historian Kevork Aslan 1,800,000
z.Revue de Paris 1,300,000
Arnold Toynbee’s book “Nationality and the War” 1915, written before
he joined Propaganda Division had indicated Armenian population as:
City of Tbilisi and area
City of Constanza (Romania) and area
Russian Provinces (Yerevan, Kars, Nakchivan, Shura, Alexadropol)
The Six Turkish provinces
Total according to Toynbee in 1915
155,000+
161.000+
750.000+
600.000+
1,511,000 =
(The above figures exclude those in relief camps, or who returned or migrated to other countries or lived undisturbed in other parts of Western Turkey and large cities)
The readers or researchers who do not want to use Justin McCarthy’s head-count figures must make a guess or take an average, between a low of 1,000,000 and a high of 2,000,000, and estimate that the total number of Ottoman-Armenians within the “large borders of 1914” should be 1,500,000, with a 10% ± margin…
Readers are reminded that the figures indicated with asterisks were inflated somewhat by the Armenians just before the Paris Conference, ‘to justify that they had a large enough population to fill the huge land area they were expecting from Black Sea down to the Mediterranean.’ One of the reliable sources would be the British Blue Book, based on American missionary reports, as well as their own Consuls spread throughout Ottoman Empire, down to cities with only 20,000 inhabitants.
It will be a paradox to expect the British to reduce the numbers, for any advantage or arguments in favor of Turks. Statistics show that the Armenian population in the areas they named ‘Turkish-Armenia’ was no more than 20% of all the people living in the area.
According to Turkish state statistics, out of the total 1,300,000, the number that lived in the six provinces was a mere 628,000. But according to the Istanbul Armenian Patriarchate’s later declaration, the total number was 1,200,000, of which 1,018,000 were said to be living in the subject provinces. The difference here is 390,000. The Armenians claimed they comprised 38% of the population in the area; The Turks claim that it was about 20% and even in two cities (Van, Erzurum) where Armenians were concentrated, they still were a minority!
Discrepancies exist even for population of Istanbul, where census taking should have been easier.
- Edwin Grosvenor indicates in his explicit book of 1877, Armenians in Istanbul only 165,000
- The memo given to Paris Conference in 1919 shows (Istanbul + Izmir + Syria) 230,000
- 1913 Armenian Patriarchate figure for Armenians in Istanbul 163,670
- Estimate of British Officers on the spot after occupation of Istanbul in 1920 83,000
The second phase of the controversy arises in the number of Armenians living in the six provinces who were relocated to the southern parts of the empire, particularly to the Zor District in Syria. We need to take into consideration the fact that many Armenians employed in key occupations or professions (doctors, pharmacists, important artisans etc.) were excluded from the relocation process. Shortly thereafter in late June 1915, Catholics and Protestant Armenians were too exempted/excluded.
While there were many Armenians fighting in volunteer gangs or brigades against the Turks, there were others fighting alongside the Turks at the Dardanelles, or handling the correspondence in the army encryption and decoding sections, because “only they could speak other languages”.
We have to make another estimate regarding the number of Armenians (Turks were simply deported, without any provisions) relocated from the subject six provinces overland to Syria.
Head of the Turkish Historical Society Yusuf Halacoglu, based on archive records, gives the figure 428,758 for those who were relocated. Those who traveled by train from Cilicia region, were never attacked. Few columns from other districts traveling overland on foot or ox-carts, were in some cases attacked by Circassian and Kurdish brigands, mostly in retaliation of what Armenians gangs had done to them. The routes were the only available roads, that even military had to use. Some provisory gendarmes (the good ones were in the fighting army) performed well, whilst others were unwilling or unable to risk their lives to protect the columns they were guarding. Many of them were later put on trial and some punished by the Army. Yusuf Halacoglu gives the number of about 60,000 persons who died because of hardships, fatigue, starvation, widespread epidemics such as typhus, which is about 15% of the moved people. Full text of the “Regulation” has been quoted in Chapter 14. The relative law, referred in several excerpts, did not even mention the name “Armenian” since it applied to “every one in the war zones”. Needless to say that the results of such applications, depended on the “man and money power and capability of each governor”.
Bearing in mind that the whole country was suffering epidemics and shortages of food, even the army fighting on three fronts (plus internal against Armenian fifth-columns) was short of clothing, boots and provisions. The province governors were conducting such a large scale movement for the first time, with no additional staff but very little extra allowances. Imaginable dramatic conditions, (shortage + incapacity + inability) cannot be classified as an “intended annihilation”. Just a few months earlier in January, 80,000 soldiers starved, froze to death on the Russian front, because of the imprudence of the Ottoman administration. Did things improve (!) much in three months?
According to German Army records, their loss of soldiers because of epidemics and shortages was about 10% of the total force, dying in the rear lines. Even their commander in chief General Goltz died of typhus in the Southern front. The situation with the Turkish Army was reported to be much worse, due to lack of sanitary means and personnel, poor clothing and less than one-third of the daily standard food ration. The death rate in the Turkish armies, in the rear lines, was said to be close to 30%.
Now let us see what others said about the number of deported or relocated people:
a- A British memorandum on “relief needs” dt. Oct. 30, 1918 speaks of deportation of “over 1.000.000 “
b- Cypriot historian Sonyel gives this figure as 800,000 deported.
c- Raymond Kevorkian speaks of 870,000 deported to Syria.
d- Boghos Nubar, head of Paris delegation, states in 1918 that the deported number was 700,000 only and that
390.000 were alive (loss of 310.000 from 1915 until 1918)
e- British Foreign Office, Geographical Section, indicated the total living population in subject provinces
(Erzurum, Sivas, Diyarbakir, Harput, Van, Bitlis) as 3,601,075 of which 665,815 were Armenians and 2,687,748 Moslems, the rest Greek, Nestorian and others.
According to these figures, how can the French Parliament and others, plus some ignorant writers or historians speak of 1,500,000 killed in the process of relocation? This is an absurd claim, having nothing to do with historical scholarship or minimal arithmetic. Maybe the above excerpt of Guenther Lewy and the report by Bergfeld helps explain the habit of “blatant exaggeration” succeeds and convinces dupes at all times.
The third and most important issue concerns the Armenians who survived, and safely reached their destinations. Some settled there and started new business, some went back after the surrender of the Ottoman Empire in 1918. Some returned with French and British armies from the south, Zor areas.
Again, we have different sources and records:
a - The most important and reliable document is the letter of American Consul J.B. Jackson, one of the most bigoted men from consular pool, dated Feb. 8th, 1916 in which he gives a broken down list of survivors in 10 main cities, reporting to ambassador Morgenthau that a total of 486,000 are alive.
b - Ataturk, in his only book “Nutuk” (The Speech) quotes a cable dated 31.5.1919 he received from the Ministry of War (under occupation), attaching a Note of the British Embassy in which they were asking the status of the Armenians in the Sivas area. (Ataturk) Mustafa Kemal, then the Inspector General sent by the Ottoman Army for the security of the area, replied to this message with his encrypted cable dated 3.06.1919, informing that “the Armenians living in Sivas and around, as well as the immigrants who came later, are safe, engaged in their own business, and that there has been no incident at all”. These historical documents imply that by 1919, the Armenian population which was deported or relocated out of this area in 1915 had returned, most of them resettled in their old homes, while there was another lot of migrating Armenians looking for settlement. Logically, these should have been the Armenians who came with the Russian occupation of the area, but stayed after the Russians pulled out in 1917 due to the Revolution.
Some excerpts in previous chapters give plenty evidence of the Armenian presence and crimes in the area.
c- Another very reliable source is the report of Dr. F. Nansen, head of the “League of Nations Emigrants
Committee” who according to Akabian’s book (pg.253) was giving the following figures:
* Emigrated from Turkey to Russian Armenia and Caucasus 400,000
* Refugees who fled abroad 400 or 300,000 min. 300,000
* Living in Istanbul, Izmir, Syria (Venizelos report Paris Confer.) 230,000
* Remaining cities of Anatolia (declared by Venizelos in Paris Conf.) 150,000
Total number-living persons according to Armenian sources-1919 1,080,000
Note: We have various confirmations that 150,000 Armenians went back to Cilicia when occupied by France and their special Battalion D’Orient – (see other chapters) which committed atrocities. However, after the French agreement with Kemalist Turks in 1920, and French evacuation of the “internal war areas” in these provinces, 150,000 Armenians, plus a few Greeks, left with the French Armies causing an economic vacuum. (Grabill pg.260)
d- Katchaznuni, in his manifest of 1923 wrote that nearly 1,000,000 Armenians were alive in 1918 prior
to the evacuation of 1917 by Russians after the Revolution and founding of their short lived Republic.
e - Historian Lalaian in separate excerpts speaks of 885,000 Armenians alive (in those areas only) and
that by 1920, they lost 195,000 lives because of starvations and bad management by the Dashnaks.
f - 880,000 reported to the Paris Conference by Venizelos (Boghos Nubar’s claim) as living in 1919.
g - Akaby Nassibian gives other breakdowns as follows in her book: (pg.249, 253, 211, 72)
- According to joint British Arm. Relief committee: Greece – Syria – Palestine – Caucasus 750,000
- Immigrated to Russia from Turkey, 310,000 or 400,000 other sources say 500,000
- Fled to other countries 350,000
- In Egypt waiting acceptance 5,000, plus at Basra waiting transport 14,000 19,000
h - James Barton, (head of American Board of Foreign Missionaries and Relief Organization) reported to the Paris Conference in April, 1919 that 100,000 Armenian refugees in Aleppo and Damascus were waiting to return to their homes. Stanley Kerr, an American Relief Official wrote that 170,000 of these were eventually repatriated.
i - George Montgomery, an American official at the Paris Conference, gave a detailed tabulation of Armenians alive in Turkey in 1919, which amounted to 594,000 + 450,000 in Caucasus + 60,000 in Persia = 1,104,000 Total (Apart from those in other countries or who already immigrated)
j - German missionary J. Lepsius, arrives to a total of 948,500 or rather 1,108,000 survivors in 1921, including those in Caucasus – Armenia, Palestine, Arab lands under British-French mandate and by 1925 more than 30,000 had emigrated to France and about 100,000 to U.S.
k - According to Caleb F. Gates, president of Robert Collage, the Armenian population statistics in January, 1921, as confirmed by the Armenian Patriarchate, was as follows: Armenians in Ottoman provinces, approximately 600,000; Armenians alive: 944,900; = Armenian total losses: 355,000.
Naturally, Armenians (although they received 98% of all relief supplies – guarded by Turkish soldiers when within borders of the Empire) were not immune to epidemics and starvations, which swept out some 20% of population in areas where there was no war) and like over 500,000 Moslems who died in inter communal wars, exiles, epidemics, starvations, they too suffered. Death made no selection. It will be very improper to count these deaths as “massacred by Turkish armies” and declare Armenian race “immortal” (much that they claim to be of noble Arian race). Let us not forget that more than half of the people returned to their homes after mid-1915 when deportations were stopped and in larger numbers with the advance of Allied forces after Ottomans lost the war. Those coming back from Russia, had to go back when Kemalist forces took control over the area and the Republic of Armenia had to surrender in 1920 with the treaty of Gumru. It is not known, how many people took these hard long trips by ox-carts or on foot back and forth, but it is not difficult to guess that some 30% of those traveling or camping died. We have two reliable Armenian authorities confirming that almost 200,000 died within two years in Caucasus under the rule of the Armenian Republic and these are counted as massacred by Turks as well.
Looking at the people alive before 1914, those who were moved and those who survived until 1920, we can take a guess that at least some 200,000 Turkish-Armenians living in the six provinces, died of various natural causes (maybe some 30,000 – 40,000 killed in bilateral butcheries). The Ottoman State ruling at that time, (fighting wars on three fronts for their existence) may be found “guilty of being unable to provide proper means during the relocation process”. But those who make an assessment of “massacre or genocide” fail to remember that it was the same government which lost 80,000 of their 90,000 soldiers in less than two weeks on the Russian front, (because of deprivations, lack of management and prudence), and that this disaster was partly caused by the sudden and unexpected resistance put by the Armenian Volunteer forces fighting for Russians. The Ottomans “naively thought in August, 1914 Erzurum Congress of Dashnaks” that they would fight on the side of the Turks, against the gift of “promised autonomy, in the long wanted six provinces”. The refusal of that generous offer, was the first breakpoint; the Sarikamish disaster in which the Armenians played an effective part knowing the area was the second breakpoint and finally the Van Revolt in March-April ending with the occupation of the city by Armenians and delivery to Russians on May 20th, was the third breakpoint; and with the landing of ANZAC forces in late - April in the Dardanelles, attack in the South Suez front, and Russian advance, plus the fifth-column activities of some 25,000 – 40,000 volunteer units, the Ottomans had “every justification” to push out “all people” from the war zones, and had no time to distinguish between the guilty and the innocent. This is “my evaluation”.
According to Richard Hovannisian, “Armenia on the Road of Independence”, Berkley Univ. Press, pp.14-15,
“By the end of 1916, nearly three hundred thousand Ottoman Armenians had sought safety in Transcaucasia, where nearly half were destined to die from famine and disease”. Even if half of the refugees died, by 1917, with addition of new refugees, the population of Armenia would be around 340 000 which accords with other reports referred above.”
0 comments:
Post a Comment
Please Update/Correct Any Of The
3700+ Posts by Leaving Your Comments Here
- - - YOUR OPINION Matters To Us - - -
We Promise To Publish Them Even If We May Not Share The Same View
Mind You,
You Would Not Be Allowed Such Freedom In Most Of The Other Sites At All.
You understand that the site content express the author's views, not necessarily those of the site. You also agree that you will not post any material which is false, hateful, threatening, invasive of a person’s privacy, or in violation of any law.
- Please READ the POST FIRST then enter YOUR comment in English by referring to the SPECIFIC POINTS in the post and DO preview your comment for proper grammar /spelling.
-Need to correct the one you have already sent?
please enter a -New Comment- We'll keep the latest version
- Spammers: Your comment will appear here only in your dreams
More . . :
http://armenians-1915.blogspot.com/2007/05/Submit-Your-Article.html
All the best