The treatment of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire Documents presented to Viscount Grey of Fallodon (part 4 of 4)
This leaves at least 1,000,000 to be accounted for by deportation and massacre, and probably 1,200.000 or more.
The third step is to estimate what proportion of these million Armenians has perished and what proportion survived, and here again our material is scanty and generalisation unsafe, the procedure of the authorities being erratic in this respect also. In certain vilayets, like Van and Bitlis, there was no deportation at all, but massacre outright; in others, like Erzeroum and Trebizond, and again at Angora, deportation and massacre were equivalent, the convoys being butchered systematically at an early stage on the road. In Cilicia, on the other hand, the men as well as the women seem to have been genuinely deported, and the convoys seem only to have been reduced by sickness and exhaustion. Yet even where there was no wholesale massacre on the journey, a convoy might practically be exterminated by degrees. A large combined convoy, for instance, of exiles from Mamouret-ul-Aziz and Sivas, set out from Malatia 18,000 strong and numbered 301 at Viran Shehr, 150 at Aleppo[263]. In this case, however, the wastage appears to have been exceptional. We have one similar instance of a convoy from Harpout which was reduced on the way to Aleppo from 5,000 to 213, a loss of 96 per cent.[264]; but in general the wastage seems to fluctuate, with a wide oscillation, on either side of 50 per cent.; 600 out of 2,500 (24 per cent.) reached Aleppo from a village in the Harpout district[265]; 60 per cent. arrived there out of the first convoy from the village of E. (near H.), and 46 per cent. out of the second; 25 per cent. arrived out of a convoy from the village of D. in the same neighbourhood[266]. We shall certainly be well within the mark if we estimate that at least half those condemned to massacre or deportation have actually perished.
We can check this estimate to some extent by the record of arrivals at certain important centres of traffic on the exile routes, or at the final destinations of the convoys. On the 16th August, 1915, for instance, an exceedingly competent neutral resident at Constantinople stated that, to his knowledge, there were then 50,000 exiles scattered along the route from Bozanti (the first break in the Baghdad line) to Aleppo; on the 5th November, another witness[267], who had just traversed this route, wrote back from Aleppo that he had passed 150,000 exiles between there and Konia. Again, 13,155 exiles had reached or passed through Aleppo by the 30th July, 1915, and 20,000 more arrived there between that date and the 19th August[268]. By the 3rd August 15,000 of these had been transmitted alive to Der-el-Zor, and this was only the beginning of the arrivals in the Zor district. No exiles reached Damascus before the 12th August, but between that date and the 3rd October, 1915, 22,000 of them had come through[269]. These are isolated data, and prove little in themselves, but in its Bulletin of the 5th April, 1916, the American Relief Committee has published a cable recently received in the United States from a competent source, in which the total number of Armenian exiles alive at that time in the regions of Der-el-Zor, Damascus and Aleppo is estimated roughly at 500,000[270]. This figure is possibly an exaggeration, but it is not incompatible with our two previous conclusions, that the total number of Armenians affected by the Young Turks’ scheme was at least a million, and that at least 50 per cent. of these have perished. To the alleged 500,000 survivors in the three regions mentioned we must add an uncertain but inconsiderable margin for the exiles who may have been planted at Mosul or who may still, in March, 1916, have been held up on the road; and this will raise the original number affected to something approaching 1,200,000, which we considered, on other grounds, to be nearer the real figure than the bare million which we accepted.
We can sum up this statistical enquiry by saying that, as far as our defective information carries us, about an equal number of Armenians in Turkey seem to have escaped, to have perished, and to have survived deportation in 1915; and we shall not be far wrong if, in round numbers, we estimate each of these categories at 600,000.
The exact quantitative scale of the crime thus remains uncertain[271], but there is no uncertainty as to the responsibility for its perpetration. This immense infliction of suffering and destruction of life was not the work of religious fanaticism. Fanaticism played no more part here than it has played in the fighting at Gallipoli or Kut, and the “Holy War” which the Young Turks caused to be proclaimed in October, 1914, was merely a political move to embarrass the Moslem subjects of the Entente Powers. There was no fanaticism, for instance, in the conduct of the Kurds and chettis, who committed some of the most horrible acts of all, nor can the responsibility be fixed upon them. They were simply marauders and criminals who did after their kind, and the Government, which not only condoned, but instigated, their actions, must bear the guilt. The peasantry, again (own brothers though they were to the Ottoman soldiery whose apparent humanity at Gallipoli and Kut has won their opponents’ respect), behaved with astonishing brutality to the Armenians who were delivered into their hands; yet the responsibility does not lie with the Turkish peasantry. They are sluggish, docile people, unready to take violent action on their own initiative, but capable of perpetrating any enormity on the suggestion of those they are accustomed to obey. The peasantry would never have attacked the Armenians if their superiors had not given them the word. Nor are the Moslem townspeople primarily to blame; their record is not invariably black, and the evidence in this volume throws here and there a favourable light upon their character. Where Moslem and Christian lived together in the same town or village, led the same life, pursued the same vocation, there seems often to have been a strong human bond between them. The respectable Moslem townspeople seldom desired the extermination of their Armenian neighbours, sometimes openly deplored it, and in several instances even set themselves to hinder it from taking effect. We have evidence of this from various places—Adana[272], for instance, and AF.[273] in Cilicia, the villages of AJ. and AK.[273] in the AF. district, and the city of Angora. The authorities had indeed to decree severe penalties against any Moslem as well as any alien or Greek who might be convicted of sheltering their Armenian victims. The rabble naturally looted Armenian property when the police connived, as the rabble in European towns might do; the respectable majority of the Moslem townspeople can be accused of apathy at worst; the responsibility cannot rest with these.
The guilt must, therefore, fall upon the officials of the Ottoman Government, but it will not weigh equally upon all members of the official hierarchy. The behaviour of the gendarmerie, for example, was utterly atrocious; the subordinates were demoralised by the power for evil that was placed in their hands; they were egged on by their chiefs, who gave vent to a malevolence against the Armenians which they must have been harbouring for years; a very large proportion of the total misery inflicted was the gendarmerie’s work; and yet the gendarmerie were not, or ought not to have been, independent agents. The responsibility for their misconduct must be referred to the local civil administrators, or to the Central Government, or to both.
The local administrators of provinces and sub-districts—Valis, Mutessarifs and Kaimakams—are certainly very deeply to blame. The latitude allowed them by the Central Government was wide, as is shown by the variations they practised, in different places, upon the common scheme. In this place the Armenian men were massacred; in that they were deported unscathed; in that other they were taken out to sea and drowned. Here the women were bullied into conversion; here conversion was disallowed; here they were massacred like the men. And in many other matters, such as the disposal of Armenian property or the use of torture, remarkable differences of practice can be observed, which are all ascribable to the good or bad will of the local officials. A serious part of the responsibility falls upon them—upon fire-eaters like Djevdet Bey or cruel natures like the Governor of Ourfa[274]; and yet their freedom of action was comparatively restricted. Where they were evilly-intentioned towards the Armenians they were able to go beyond the Central Government’s instructions (though even in matters like the exemption of Catholics and Protestants, where their action was apparently most free, they and the Central Government were often merely in collusion)[275]; but they might never mitigate their instructions by one degree. Humane and honourable governors (and there were a certain number of these) were powerless to protect the Armenians in their province. The Central Government had its agents on the spot—the chairman of the local branch of the Committee of Union and Progress[276], the local Chief of Gendarmerie, or even some subordinate official[277] on the Governor’s own administrative staff. If these merciful governors were merely remiss in executing the instructions, they were flouted and overruled; if they refused to obey them, they were dismissed and replaced by more pliant successors. In one way or another, the Central Government enforced and controlled the execution of the scheme, as it alone had originated the conception of it; and the Young Turkish Ministers and their associates at Constantinople are directly and personally responsible, from beginning to end, for the gigantic crime that devastated the Near East in 1915.
-----
Footnote 213:
The Paulikian exiles inspired the South-Slavonic Bogomils; the Bogomils inspired the Albigenses of Languedoc, and possibly sowed some of the seeds of the Hussite movement among the Tchechs and Slovaks.
Footnote 214:
With the possible exception of the Bulgars.
Footnote 215:
The Armenian Protestants have even been admitted to the Gregorian National Assembly—a notable departure from Near Eastern tradition.
Footnote 216:
There is a flourishing colony of Armenian fruit-growers as far afield as Fresno, California.
Footnote 217:
Though even in Irak there were Armenian settlers, especially at Baghdad.
Footnote 218:
The nomadic Kurds, for that matter, are only skin-deep Mohammedans.
Footnote 219:
Excluding the district of Hakkiari.
Footnote 220:
A Syrian sect whose doctrines diverged, like those of the Nestorians, from the creed of the Catholic and Orthodox Churches, but in the contrary direction.
Footnote 221:
It appears to be uncertain whether this is really the literal meaning of the word, its current connotation being purely the political one.
Footnote 222:
The word “Millet” means simply “religious sect” in the Arabic language, from which it was borrowed by the Turks.
Footnote 223:
Erzeroum, Van, Bitlis, Diyarbekir, Mamouret-ul-Aziz, Sivas.
Footnote 224:
Article 61.
Footnote 225:
There was an equally vague clause to the same effect in the special “Cyprus Convention” between Turkey and Great Britain, but in neither treaty was there any guarantee of its observance. The Berlin Treaty merely provided that the Ottoman Government should communicate its measures of reform to the Powers, but, as they were never carried out they were never reported.
Footnote 226:
Russia began to acquire territory south of the Caucasus at the beginning of the nineteenth century, when the last King of Georgia ceded his Kingdom to the Tsar, to save it from the hands of the Turks and Persians.
Footnote 227:
Tiflis, the former capital of the Georgian Kingdom and now the administrative centre of the Russian Provinces of the Caucasus, has become practically an Armenian city in the course of the nineteenth century, and Armenian settlements have spread far further into the interior of Russia.
Footnote 228:
Though the British Government was the only Government that attempted to put pressure on the Turks to desist. In Germany it was the mot d’ordre that the massacres were a British invention with a political purpose, and the German Emperor shortly afterwards sent his portrait to Abd-ul-Hamid as a complimentary gift.
Footnote 229:
In such publications as Vérité sur le mouvement révolutionnaire Arménien et les mesures gouvernementales (Constantinople, 1916); or Die Armenische Frage, von C.A. Bratter (Berlin, Concordia-Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1915).
Footnote 230:
Doc. 138.
Footnote 231:
In the pamphlet Vérité sur le mouvement révolutionnaire Arménien et les mesures gouvernementales, the following passages occur: “The Imperial (Ottoman) Government abstained from exercising any pressure or adopting any repressive measures against the Armenians until the day the revolt broke out at Van towards the middle of April, 1915” (page 10); “No coercive measure was decreed by the Imperial Government against the Armenians until the date of their armed revolt, which took place at Van and in the other military zones in the course of the month of June, of the year 1915, and until they had made common cause with the enemy forces” (page 15). These statements are direct falsehoods, as is also the statement (page 12) that—“After the occupation of Van by the Russians and Armenians, the Moslem population of the town was pitilessly massacred.” We have authoritative neutral testimony (e.g., Docs. 120, 121, 122 and 15) on both these points, by which the Turkish statements are refuted. Yet these lying statements are the pivot of the whole apologia presented in this pamphlet.
Footnote 232:
See Docs. 68, 82, 94 and 122.
Footnote 233:
Doc. 98.
Footnote 234:
Doc. 123.
Footnote 235:
Docs. 130 and 131.
Footnote 236:
According to an official calendar, published at Alexandropol by authority of the Katholikos of Etchmiadzin, from which extracts have been communicated to the Editor by Mr. H.N. Mosditchian, the statistics of the Armenian population in Russia, up to date, are 1,636,486 for the Caucasus, and approximately two million for the Empire as a whole. For the Ottoman Empire, statistics compiled at the Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople in 1912 estimate the Armenian population at 2,100,000; Turkish official statistics, on the other hand, admit no more than 1,100,000, which on their own showing would give Russia a majority.
Footnote 237:
For evidence of this loyalty, see Annexe B. to this summary.
Footnote 238:
Docs. 21 and 57.
Footnote 239:
The 25 recalcitrants at Zeitoun do not come into question, for the Zeitounlis were excepted from military service by special charter, and the attempt to conscribe them was a violation by the Ottoman authorities of Ottoman law.
Footnote 240:
Die Armenische Frage, von C.A. Bratter, Berlin, Concordia Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1915. The reference is to pp. 9-10.
Footnote 241:
Reproduced in the Paris journal Le Matin, 6th May, 1916, in a special despatch dated Zürich, 5th May.
Footnote 242:
The vast majority of secondary schools in the Empire being, of course, American, Armenian or Greek, and practically none of them Turkish.
Footnote 243:
See Annexe A.
Footnote 244:
The Delegation of 1912 was nominated by His Holiness the Katholikos of Etchmiadzin. Its President was His Excellency Boghos Nubar Pasha.
Footnote 245:
The Ottoman Government, for statistical reasons, added the Vilayet of Trebizond to the original Six, the Moslem element being here in a sufficient majority to balance, to some extent, the Armenian majority in the rest.
Footnote 246:
Doc. 129.
Footnote 247:
Proclamations announcing and justifying the deportation of the Armenians are quoted in Docs. 83 and 120 of this volume, while the alleged text of one of them has been published complete in the Philadelphia Saturday Evening Post of the 5th February, 1915, and is reproduced here as Annexe C. to this summary. The latter document differs in its wording and in the order of its clauses from the versions quoted in the places mentioned above, but there is no reason to doubt its genuineness. Probably the Central Government communicated its instructions to the local authorities by telegraph or secret despatch, and the local authorities embodied these instructions, at their own discretion, in a printed proclamation to the inhabitants of their province.
Footnote 248:
See, however, Doc. 64.
Footnote 249:
These Moslem immigrants were particularly in evidence in Cilicia, and in the Vilayets of Erzeroum and Trebizond.
Footnote 250:
Docs. 114 and 123.
Footnote 251:
Docs. 4 and 139.
Footnote 252:
Doc. 141.
Footnote 253:
Docs. 11 and 121.
Footnote 254:
Doc. 115.
Footnote 255:
Doc. 101.
Footnote 256:
Though not more extreme than in other parts of the Near Eastern World, like Hungary, where statistics of nationality are a burning question of political controversy.
Footnote 257:
For Armenian statistical material see Annexes D. and E. to this summary.
Footnote 258:
The former figure is taken from the American Relief Committee’s Fourth Bulletin, dated 5th April, 1916; the second from Doc. 131.
Footnote 259:
Doc. 88
Footnote 260:
Doc. 57 According to Doc. 53 the most authoritative of all those relating to Erzeroum, the number was actually 22.
Footnote 261:
The western districts of Erzeroum, which the Turks still hold, may be written off against Trebizond.
Footnote 262:
Bulletin of the 5th April, 1916.
Footnote 263:
Doc. 66
Footnote 264:
Doc. 137
Footnote 265:
Doc. 141
Footnote 266:
Doc. 70
Footnote 267:
Doc. 116
Footnote 268:
Doc. 139.
Footnote 269:
Doc. 143.
Footnote 270:
The items of this estimate are given in Doc. 139(d).
Footnote 271:
For further calculations see Annexe F.
Footnote 272:
Doc. 128
Footnote 273:
Doc. 126]
Footnote 274:
Doc. 119
Footnote 275:
See Doc. 87 relating to the town of X.
Footnote 276:
Docs. 72 and 128.
Footnote 277:
Doc. 70
ANNEXE A. “YESTERDAY A FIEF, TO-DAY OUR COUNTRY”; TRANSLATION OF AN EDITORIAL ARTICLE IN THE TURKISH JOURNAL “HILAL,” 4th APRIL, 1916, COMMUNICATED BY THE AMERICAN COMMITTEE FOR ARMENIAN AND SYRIAN RELIEF.
The telegraphic agencies gave us the day before yesterday a summary of a lecture given in Vienna by the German deputy Traub, on his return from a journey to Turkey. After having paid tribute to the military qualities of the Turkish soldiers whom he had occasion to know closely during his stay on the Peninsula of Gallipoli, the eminent lecturer expressed the following opinion: “Turkey must not be considered by Europeans as a country to be exploited.” Mr. Traub added that he was opposed to all missionary activities in the Turkish Empire.
These words are of the highest value to us, because in pronouncing them the Honourable German deputy expressed and recognised the profound change which has taken place in our country during these last years. In stating that foreigners must no longer consider Turkey as a vast field of exploitation, Mr. Traub has shown how the present situation of the Ottoman Empire differs from that of yesterday. At the same time he pointed out the necessity of abandoning the old ideas which had taken root with most Europeans as regards our country.
Turkey has always been considered by foreigners as a country where one could and should enrich himself by every possible means and without any charge or risk. For them it was a vast and magnificent fief which was to be exploited as a feudal lord managed his estate. Make as much money as possible, that was the motto of those who came to our country and who, actuated solely by the grasping desire for lucre, had no scruples or were untouched by the least noble or elevated considerations.
Whatever this conception may have been, and however reprehensible the conduct was of those to whom we refer, it would be unjust to consider them solely the result of the temperament of the Europeans living in Turkey. The regime of the Capitulations, odious for us, but full of delights for them, had contributed powerfully to form in our guests the strange ideas of which they were possessed. While the Sultan’s own subjects had to submit to all kinds of charges and taxes, the foreigners residing in this Empire were not only entirely exempted, but also enjoyed privileges as numerous as they were important. This strange distinction justified the privileged ones in considering the others as creatures whose sole duty was to suffer everything and to assure the happiness of those to whom they had offered their hospitality.
The Hamidian administration also tended to support the point of view of the foreigners by encouraging them and permitting them all sorts of liberties.
The Sovereign, his ministers, and all officers of the administration had only one sure object in view, to assure for themselves a brilliant and easy life, without any anxiety. This confession alone profoundly wounds our national self-respect. We do not hesitate, out of respect for the truth, to call the old regime, which only yesterday was still in force, the shameless exploitation of the Turkish People. As regards the latter, it bore everything, it was incapable of reacting, because it had not yet become self-conscious.
On the eve of the proclamation of the Constitution, Turkey resembled rather closely Peru or Mexico, which, having been conquered by Pizarro and Cortes, respectively, were for many centuries under an administration totally devoid of all scruples.
This situation did not change immediately after the 23rd July, 1908; a new regime had been introduced in Turkey, but a new spirit had not yet entered the mind of the Turkish People. It required the great shocks of the Balkan War to revolutionise profoundly our souls and to give us self-consciousness. The day when under the influence of anxiety and suffering the Turkish People asked themselves: “What am I? What have I done? What shall I do?”—that day was the real beginning of the new era for our country.
We need not dwell here at length on the changes which for nearly four years have taken place in all departments in Turkey. It is not our intention to write the history of the evolution of the soul of the Turkish People, and of the progress it has made. What we wish to speak of is the new situation which it has created for the foreigners.
The Turkish People, while it saw its own individuality develop, became conscious of its rights. It suddenly became evident to it that it was the only master in its own house and that nobody should exploit it or displace it in any field. The foreigners were in its eyes nothing but guests, who were entitled to its respect, but whose duty it was to become worthy of the hospitality they were enjoying.
The abolition of the Capitulations was the first manifestation of this new spirit we have just mentioned. Henceforth foreign subjects had to submit to the same burdens as the natives.
The suppression of the schools founded and directed by ecclesiastic missions or by individuals belonging to enemy nations, a measure which followed the abolition of the capitulary regime, was no less important. Thanks to their schools foreigners were able to exercise great moral influence over the young men of the country and they were virtually in charge of the spiritual and intellectual guidance of our country. By closing them the Government has put an end to a situation as humiliating as it was dangerous, a situation which, unfortunately, had already lasted too long. Other measures of a political and economic nature were taken to complete a work which might be called the taking possession of the country by its own sons, who had too long been deprived of their rights.
Thanks to this awakening, a little late but still in time, and thanks especially to this activity, Turkey has to-day become a “Fatherland,” like Sweden, Spain, or Switzerland. Our country is no longer an estate or fief for anybody; it is the country of a people which has just been recalled to life, and which aspires, in its independence and liberty, to happiness and glory.
It is to this happy change that Mr. Traub referred in his lecture. The German deputy was one of the first to proclaim that henceforth the Turkish People will be the only masters in their own house and that nobody may any longer think of exploiting it or in any way tread their rights under foot. We are particularly pleased that an eminent representative of the noble nation which is our friend and ally speaks in this manner.
ANNEXE B. LETTER FROM MR. E. VARTANIAN, AN ARMENIAN-AMERICAN VOLUNTEER IN THE RUSSIAN SERVICE, TO HIS BROTHER-IN-LAW IN EGYPT; DATED 9th/22nd JULY, 1915, AND PUBLISHED IN THE ARMENIAN JOURNAL “HOUSSAPER,” OF CAIRO.
We have been here three days. Some of us are going to be sent to Erivan; the rest of us are starting in two days for Van.
The enthusiasm here is very great. There are already 20,000 volunteers at the front, and they are trying to increase the number to 30,000. Each district we occupy is placed under Armenian administration, and an Armenian post is running from Igdir to Van. The Russian Government is showing great goodwill towards the Armenians and doing everything in its power for the liberation of Turkish Armenia.
When we disembarked at Archangel the Government gave us every possible assistance. It even undertook the transport of our baggage, and gave us free passes, second class, to Petrograd.
At Petrograd we received an equally hearty welcome, and the Governor of the city presented each of us with a medal in token of his sympathy. The Armenian colony put us up in the best hotels, entertained us at the best restaurants, and could not make enough of us. This lasted for five days, and then we continued our journey, again at the Government’s expense, to Tiflis.
Everywhere on the way the population received us with cheers and offerings of flowers. Just as we were leaving Archangel, a young Russian lady came with flowers and offered one to each of us. I also saw a quite poor man who was so moved by the speech in Russian that one of our comrades had made, that he came and put his tobacco into the pipe of a comrade standing next to me, and kept nothing for himself but a bare half-pipeful. A third, an old man, was so moved by the speech that he began to cry and nearly made off, but a little while after I saw him standing in front of the carriage window and, with a shaking hand, holding out a hard-boiled egg to our comrade the chemist Roupen Stepanian. Probably it was his one meal for the day.
And so at every step we found ourselves in the midst of affecting scenes. At Petrograd Railway Station the crowd was enormous. There was an Armenian lady there who offered each of us a rose. There were boys and young men who wept because they could not come with us. At Rostov a young Russian joined our ranks. He was caught more than once by his parents at the stations further down the line, but he always succeeded in escaping them and rejoining us. We have christened him Stepan.
When we arrived at Tiflis, we marched singing to the offices of the Central Armenian Bureau, with our flag unfurled in front of us, and the people marched on either side of us in such a crowd that the trams were forced to stop running.
That is enough for to-day. My next letter shall be written from Armenia itself.
Please say nothing to my sister about this resolution that I have taken. I hope, of course, that she would know how to sacrifice her affection for her brother to her love for the nation and for liberty. I should curse any of my relations who lamented my resolution; they would have committed treason against the nation. There are five of us brothers; was it not imperative that at least one of us should devote himself to the cause of our national emancipation? Let us keep up our courage, realise the urgency of the moment and do our duty.
ANNEXE C. ALLEGED TEXT OF THE OTTOMAN GOVERNMENT’S PROCLAMATION ORDERING THE DEPORTATION OF THE ARMENIANS; REPRINTED FROM AN ARTICLE BY MISS ELEANOR FRANKLIN EGAN IN THE PHILADELPHIA “SATURDAY EVENING POST,” 5th FEBRUARY, 1916[278].
Our fellow countrymen, the Armenians, who form one of the racial elements of the Ottoman Empire, having taken up, as a result of foreign instigation for many years past, with a lot of false ideas of a nature to disturb the public order; and because of the fact that they brought about bloody happenings and have attempted to destroy the peace and security of the Ottoman state, and the safety and interests of their fellow countrymen, as well as of themselves; and, moreover, as they have now dared to join themselves to the enemy of their existence[279] and to the enemies now at war with our state—our Government is compelled to adopt extraordinary measures and sacrifices, both for the preservation of the order and security of the country and for the welfare and the continuation of the existence of the Armenian community. Therefore, as a measure to be applied until the conclusion of the war, the Armenians have to be sent away to places which have been prepared in the interior vilayets; and a literal obedience to the following orders, in a categorical manner, is accordingly enjoined on all Ottomans:
First.—All Armenians, with the exception of the sick, are obliged to leave within five days from the date of this proclamation, by villages or quarters, and under the escort of the gendarmerie.
Second.—Though they are free to carry with them on their journey the articles of their movable property which they desire, they are forbidden to sell their lands and their extra effects, or to leave the latter here and there with other people, because their exile is only temporary and their landed property, and the effects they will be unable to take with them, will be taken care of under the supervision of the Government, and stored in closed and protected buildings. Anyone who sells or attempts to take care of his movable effects or landed property in a manner contrary to this order, shall be sent before the Court Martial. They are free to sell to the Government only the articles which may answer the needs of the Army.
Third.—Contains a promise of safe conduct.
Fourth.—A threat against anyone attempting to molest them on the way.
Fifth.—Since the Armenians are obliged to submit to this decision of the Government, if some of them attempt to use arms against the soldiers or gendarmes, arms shall be employed against them and they shall be taken, dead or alive. In like manner those who, in opposition to the Government’s decision, refrain from leaving or seek to hide themselves—if they are sheltered or given food and assistance, the persons who thus shelter or aid them shall be sent before the Court Martial for execution.
-----
Footnote 278:
Miss Egan writes that she managed to bring this document out of Turkey by copying it on the margins of the inner pages of a book, which she pretended to be reading when the Turkish officials searched her at the frontier. The book was examined, but the marginal pencilling passed undetected.
Footnote 279:
i.e., Russia.
ANNEXE D. [280]: STATISTICAL ANALYSIS OF THE RACIAL ELEMENTS IN THE OTTOMAN VILAYETS OF ERZEROUM, VAN, BITLIS, MAMOURET-UL-AZIZ, DIYARBEKIR, AND SIVAS[281]; DRAWN UP IN 1912 BY THE ARMENIAN PATRIARCHATE AT CONSTANTINOPLE.
────┬────────────────────────┬─────────┬─────────┬────────┬─────────┬────────── │ │ │ │ │Mamouret-│ Nos.│ Nations and Races. │Erzeroum.│ Van.│ Bitlis.│ ul-Aziz.│Diyarbekir. ────┼────────────────────────┼─────────┼─────────┼────────┼─────────┼────────── 1.│Turks │ 240,000│ 47,000│ 40,000│ 102,000│ 45,000 2.│Circassians (immigrants)│ 7,000│ —│ 10,000│ —│ — 3.│Persians │ 13,000│ —│ —│ —│ — 4.│Lazes │ 10,000│ —│ —│ —│ — 5.│Gipsies │ —│ 3,000│ —│ —│ — . 6.│Sedentary Kurds │ 35,000│ 32,000│ 35,000│ 75,000│ 30,000 7.│Nomadic Kurds │ 40,000│ 40,000│ 42,000│ 20,000│ 25,000 8.│Kizilbashis │ 25,000│ —│ 8,000│ 80,000│ 27,000 9.│Zaza-Tmbli-Tchariklis │ 30,000│ —│ 47,000│ —│ — 10.│Yezidis │ 3,000│ 25,000│ 5,000│ —│ 4,000 11.│ARMENIANS │ 215,000│ 185,000│ 180,000│ 168,000│ 105,000 12.│Nestorians, Jacobites, │ —│ 18,000│ 15,000│ 5,000│ 60,000 │and Chaldaeans │ │ │ │ │ 13.│Greeks and other │ 12,000│ —│ —│ —│ — │Christians │ │ │ │ │ ────┼────────────────────────┼─────────┼─────────┼────────┼─────────┼────────── │ │ 630,000│ 350,000│ 382,000│ 450,000│ 296,000 ────┴────────────────────────┴─────────┴─────────┴────────┴─────────┴──────────
────┬────────────────────────┬─────────┬─────────┬─────────────┬────────── Nos.│ Nations and Races. │ Sivas.│ Total.│ % │ Total % ────┼────────────────────────┼─────────┼─────────┼─────────────┼────────── 1.│Turks │ 192,000│ 666,000│ 25.4 │ } 2.│Circassians (immigrants)│ 45,000│ 62,000│} │} 3.│Persians │ —│ 13,000│} 3.4 │} Moslems, 4.│Lazes │ —│ 10,000│} │} 45.1 5.│Gipsies │ —│ 3,000│} │} . 6.│Sedentary Kurds │ 35,000│ 242,000│ 9.2 } 16.3│} 7.│Nomadic Kurds │ 15,000│ 182,000│ 7.1 } │} 8.│Kizilbashis │ —│ 140,000│ 5.3 } 8.2│} Various, 9.│Zaza-Tmbli-Tchariklis │ —│ 77,000│ 2.9 } │} 9.7 10.│Yezidis │ —│ 37,000│ 1.4 │⎭ 11.│ARMENIANS │ 165,000│1,018,000│ 38.9 │⎫ Christians 12.│Nestorians, Jacobites, │ 25,000│ 123,000│ 4.7 │⎬ 45.2 │and Chaldaeans │ │ │ │⎬ 13.│Greeks and other │ 30,000│ 42,000│ 1.6 │⎭ │Christians │ │ │ │ │ │ 507,000│2,615,000│ 100% │ 100% ────┴────────────────────────┴─────────┴─────────┴─────────────┴──────────
Moslems. Turks 666,000 } Kurds 424,000 } 45.1% Other Moslems 88,000 } ——-— TOTAL 1,178,000
Various Religions. Kizilbashis 140,000 } Zaza-Tmbli-Tchariklis 77,000 } 9.6% Yezidis 37,000 } ————— TOTAL 254,000
Christians. Armenians 1,018,000 } Nestorians 123,000 } 45.2% Greeks, etc. 42,000 } ————— TOTAL 1,183,000
Summary of Totals. Christians 1,183,000 = 45.2% Moslems 1,178,000 = 45.1% Various Religions 254,000 = 9.7% ————— GRAND TOTAL 2,615,000
-----
Footnote 280:
Reprinted from “La Question Arménienne à la Lumière des Documents,” par “Marcel Léart” (Paris, 1913).
Footnote 281:
The analysis excludes certain portions of these provinces where the Armenians are only a minor element. These portions are as follows:—Hakkiari, in the Vilayet of Van; the south of Sairt, in the Vilayet of Bitlis; the south of the Vilayet of Diyarbekir; the south of Malatia, in the Vilayet of Mamouret-ul-Aziz; the north-west and west of the Vilayet of Sivas.
ANNEXE E. [282]: STATISTICAL SCHEDULE OF ARMENIAN SCHOOLS IN THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE, DRAWN UP IN 1901-2 BY THE ARMENIAN PATRIARCHATE AT CONSTANTINOPLE.
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Geographical Schools. Boy Girl Teachers. Districts Pupils Pupils ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── THE SIX VILAYETS.
Sairt 3 163 84 11 Amasia-Marsovan 9 1,524 814 54 Shabin Kara-Hissar 27 2,040 105 42 Erzeroum 27 1,956 ,178 85 Kighi 27 1,336 367 43 Baïbourt 9 645 199 32 Diyarbekir 4 690 324 27 Harpout 27 2,058 496 58 Eghin 4 541 215 22 Tchemesh-Getzak 12 456 272 15 Arabkir 18 713 223 25 Tcharsandjak 12 617 189 18 Etesia 8 1,091 571 26 Gurin 12 736 78 20 Darandé 2 260 70 5 Divrig 10 757 100 20 Sivas 46 4,072 549 73 Bitlis 12 571 63 20 Erzindjan 22 1,389 475 63 Kamakh 13 646 28 16 Bayazid 6 338 54 13 Moush 23 1,034 284 35 Van 21 1,323 554 59 Lim and Gedoutz 3 203 56 6 Akhtamar 32 1,106 132 36 Derdjan 12 485 10 12 Isbir-Kiskim 3 80 — 3 Passin 7 315 — 7 Khnyss 8 352 15 12 Dikranakerd 2 180 — 5 Palou 8 505 50 15 Malatia 9 872 230 19 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 438 29,054 7,785 897 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── CILICIA.
Aïntab 9 898 708 58 Antioch 10 440 47 10 Aleppo 2 438 249 18 Hadjin 4 508 69 12 Zeïtoun 10 605 85 15 Sis and the Neighbourhood 7 476 165 19 Adana 25 1,947 808 69 Marash 23 1,361 378 44 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 90 6,673 2,509 245 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── THE REST OF THE EMPIRE.
Adrianople 6 314 251 22 Rodosto 9 1,017 856 48 Ismid 38 5,404 3,103 212 Biledjik 10 1,120 143 21 Kutahia 5 825 349 23 Smyrna 27 1,640 1,295 109 Angora 7 895 395 29 Kaisaria 42 3,795 1,140 125 Samsoun 27 1,361 344 59 Trebizond 47 2,184 718 85 Baghdad 2 68 46 11 Yozgad 12 1,197 557 43 Broussa 16 1,345 733 54 Balikesri-Panderma 8 700 634 35 Tokat 11 1,408 558 50 Kastamouni 3 110 50 2 Konia 3 213 137 12 Armasha 2 190 110 6 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 275 23,786 11,419 946 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── GRAND TOTAL 803 59,513 21,713 2,088 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
-----
Footnote 282:
Reprinted from “La Question Arménienne à la Lumière des Documents,” par “Marcel Léart” (Paris, 1913). These statistics appear to be the most recent available, but it must be noted that they are fourteen years out of date, and that the figures must have risen considerably by April, 1915.
ANNEXE F. STATISTICAL ESTIMATE INCLUDED IN THE FIFTH BULLETIN OF THE AMERICAN COMMITTEE FOR ARMENIAN AND SYRIAN RELIEF, DATED NEW YORK, 24th MAY, 1916.
1. The Extent of the Catastrophe.
The most extensive and most difficult work carried on by the American Committee for Armenian and Syrian Relief lies within the borders of the Turkish Empire. Here, in January, 1915, the Armenians numbered between sixteen hundred thousand and two million. Precise statistics do not exist. The estimates of the Turkish Government are usually considered to be too low and those of the Armenian Patriarchate sometimes too high, suggesting a tendency in the one case to minimize and in the other to exaggerate the size and consequent importance of the Armenian population.
Twelve months later, in January, 1916, from one-third to one-half of the Armenians in Turkey had fallen victims of deportation, disease, starvation or massacre.
As we note from a letter of Dr. Wilson’s, dated Erivan, Russian Caucasus, 4th February, 1916, there were then 182,800 Armenian refugees in the Caucasus and 12,100 in the districts of Turkey at that time conquered by the Russians. The subsequent extensions of the Russian conquests towards the west and south have brought to light numbers of Armenians who were in hiding. At the end of 1915, there were also 9,000 Armenian refugees in Salmas, Persia.
All these statistics are subject to fluctuation, due to the removal of the refugees from one region to another and also to the varying dates on which the enumerations or estimates were made. Bearing these critical considerations in mind we may tabulate the best figures as follows:—
Aleppo, Damascus, Zor 486,000
Refugees in other parts of Turkey 300,000
Russian Caucasus 182,800
Armenians in districts of Turkey conquered by Russia 12,100
Armenians in Salmas, Persia 9,000
————
If we may add to these numbers the undeported Armenian populations in Constantinople and Smyrna, perhaps 150,000 in all, we can perhaps estimate the total number of survivors at under 1,150,000. If we accept the estimate that the Armenian population of Turkey at the beginning of 1915 was between 1,600,000 and 2,000,000, we should compute the number of deaths at between 450,000 and 850,000. We shall probably be safe in saying that the Armenian dead number at least 600,000.
Six hundred thousand men, women and children died within a year. There was recently held in New York City a Preparedness Parade, which marched up Fifth Avenue twenty abreast and took about thirteen hours to pass a given point. From 10 a.m. till well into the evening, this great army of over 125,000 continued to tramp up the street. If the Armenian men, women and children who died in Turkey within a twelvemonth should rise again and march in solemn procession to beg the assistance of the American people for their surviving brothers, the procession would not be 125,000, but 600,000, four times as long. Marching twenty abreast it would take two days and two nights to pass Great Reviewing Stand.
The mortality was higher in some regions than in others. From certain Armenian villages in the neighbourhood of Harpout, whose population was about two thousand, only 15·2 per cent. reached the goal of their deportation. Even if we make generous allowance for the number of men from these villages who may be still alive in the Army, and for the women and children who may have saved their lives by becoming Moslems, the mortality is unspeakably high. From other regions perhaps 25 per cent. have reached their goal, after marching hundreds of miles across the mountains down into the hot plains. From those portions of Asia Minor which are so situated that the Railway could assist in the deportation, the percentage of loss of life was far smaller, though here insufficient food and insanitary concentration camps have swollen the tolls of death. Especially from the cities on or near the coast of Cilicia, namely, Mersina, Tarsus and Adana, the deportation did not involve great loss of life. The Armenian inhabitants of Constantinople and of Smyrna, who really live in those cities and had not recently moved thither from the country, have not been deported.
Consequently the total number of surviving Armenians in Turkey is greater than our Committee had feared. The fact that there are more survivors than we at first believed obliges us to enlarge our relief work till it becomes adequate to the crisis.
2. The Needs of the Survivors.
Mr. W.W. Peet, Business Agent and Treasurer of the four Turkish Missions of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions with headquarters at Constantinople, has sent information, received by the State Department on the 17th March, to the effect that there are at least eight hundred thousand refugees in Turkey who need help. One-half or more of these are reported by the American Consul at Aleppo to be in the districts of Damascus, Zor and Aleppo.
The general direction of deportation has been to force the exiles to go by train or on foot to the neighbourhood of Aleppo, whence they have been distributed in two directions. One of these is the region served by the Hidjaz Railway, built a few years ago to meet the needs of the Moslem pilgrims to Mecca. The station of Ma’an, near the ruins of the ancient city of Petra, the point beyond which the Hidjaz Railway has always declined to transport Christians, is the southernmost point where Armenian exiles are to be found.
The other territory to which large numbers of exiles have been deported is the region of Der-el-Zor on the Euphrates, six days’ journey east-south-east of Aleppo. The Armenians have had to walk thither from Aleppo, though some of them struck across by a more direct route from the Armenian cities on the north.
(Here follow, in the original, Documents 139(d) and 14 of this volume.)
Fortunately, the American Consul at Aleppo, Mr. Jackson, has the co-operation of the German Consul, Mr. Roessler in the work of relief.
Certain members of the American Committee have for months felt great anxiety as to the condition of the nearly 500,000 exiles distributed to the region east and south of Aleppo. Details as to their condition have been hard to secure. Now we know what we had suspected before—that many exiles have only grass to eat and that hundreds are dying daily of starvation.
3. The Way for Relief is Now Open.
In 1915, the Turkish Government declined to give cordial co-operation in the work of relieving the necessities of the Armenians. The authorities at Constantinople did not wish to have the Armenians helped by foreigners, because they thought it might encourage some of them in treasonable hopes. Constantinople therefore favoured having the relief money distributed through Turkish officials.
According to the New York Times of the 19th October, 1915, the Turkish Government informed the State Department at Washington that the American Red Cross would not be permitted to send surgeons and nurses to the aid of the Armenians in the Turkish Empire. The Turks barred not merely American Red Cross surgeons, nurses and relief agents, but also all other neutral foreigners.
Early in 1916 some obstacles have fallen. On the 23rd March, 1916, Mr. Phillips, the American Chargé d’Affaires at Constantinople, sent, on behalf of the Constantinople Chapter of the Red Cross, the following significant cablegram to the Secretary of State:—
“Turkish Government now welcomes help, and through Minister of Interior authorizes American Red Cross, co-operating with Red Crescent, to conduct relief work for civilians of all races. Great suffering throughout country, particularly at Constantinople and suburbs along the shores of Marmora, at Adrianople, Broussa and Smyrna. In these regions five hundred thousand, not comprising Armenian refugees, need help for bread. Hundreds dying of starvation. No relief in sight. Sugar and petroleum oil at famine prices. Typhus is spreading, high mortality. For immediate relief ten thousand pounds sterling estimated required for Constantinople Chapter administration before 1st May to procure foodstuffs. For more permanent relief, suggest importation supplies by sea from Roumania and America. Neutrality guaranteed by American Red Cross to Entente Powers. Distribution controlled by Constantinople Chapter through agencies, soup kitchens and dispensary. Some can pay cost price and industrial work proposed for others.”
In answer to this appeal, certain friends of our Committee raised £12,000 sterling and transmitted it to Constantinople, to be distributed by the Turkish Red Crescent for sufferers in Turkey, regardless of religious barriers.[283]
INDEX OF PLACES REFERRED TO IN THE DOCUMENTS IN THIS VOLUME.
The figures placed against the names in this index denote the number of independent witnesses who mention the places in question, in the various connexions specified in the headings to each column. Two or more documents emanating from the same source cannot be regarded as independent testimony and are, therefore, not separately enumerated.
The index includes references to names which have been withheld by the editor himself and are represented in the text by arbitrary signs, but not, of course, references to names which have been withheld from the editor and are represented in the text by blanks. The names of places beyond the Ottoman frontier where refugees have passed or stayed have been placed between brackets, to distinguish them from places in Ottoman territory through or to which exiles have been forcibly conducted by the Ottoman Government.
────────────────────────┬───────────────────────────────┬─────────────── │ -———Massacre, Forcible │ RC2~Arrival, │Conversion, or Deportation, of │ Passage of │ Armenian Inhabitants. │ Armenians │ │ Deported or │ │ taking Flight │ │from Elsewhere. │ Armenians │ No Mention of │ │Replacement by │ Mouhadjirs. │ NAME OF PLACE. │ Moslem │ │ │ Mouhadjirs │ │ │ (immigrants). │ │ A. │ │ │ Abijalu │ — │ 1 │ — Ada │ — │ 1 │ — Adana │ 1 │ 11 │ 3 Adana, vilayet │ — │ 1 │ — Adapazar │ 1 │ 5 │ — Adiaman—Hussi Mansour │ — │ 3 │ — Adiljevas │ — │ 1 │ — Adranos │ — │ — │ 1 Adrianople │ — │ 2 │ — Afiun Kara-Hissar │ — │ 1 │ 3 Aghja Daghi │ — │ — │ 1 (Aghtalia) │ — │ — │ 1 Agno │ — │ 1 │ — (Ailar) │ — │ — │ 1 Aintab │ — │ 10 │ 4 Ak Shehr │ — │ 2 │ — Alabash │ — │ 3 │ — Alashkerd │ — │ 3 │ — Alashkerd District │ — │ 1 │ — Alayund │ — │ — │ 1 Albek │ — │ 1 │ — Albustan │ — │ 5 │ 1 Aleppo │ — │ 2 │ 32 Aleppo, vilayet │ — │ 2 │ — Alexandretta │ — │ 1 │ — (Alexandropol) │ — │ — │ 2 (Alexandropol Town and │ — │ — │ 1 District) │ │ │ Alidjan—Aladin │ — │ 2 │ — Amasia │ — │ 7 │ 2 Angegh │ — │ 1 │ — Angora │ — │ 10 │ 2 Angora, vilayet │ — │ 2 │ — (Annenfeld) │ — │ — │ 1 Antioch │ — │ 1 │ 1 Antok │ — │ 1 │ — Arabia │ — │ — │ 2 Arabkir │ — │ 4 │ 1 Arab-Pounar │ — │ — │ 1 Ardishai │ — │ 1 │ — Ardjish—Akantz │ — │ 5 │ — Arghana │ — │ — │ 2 Arghana Maden │ — │ — │ 1 Armasha │ — │ 1 │ — Armasha Convent │ — │ 1 │ — Arslanbeg │ — │ 1 │ — Artamid │ — │ 1 │ — Artananz │ — │ 1 │ — (Arzap) │ — │ — │ 1 (Ashtarak) │ — │ — │ 2 Asia Minor │ — │ — │ 1 Asi Yozgad │ — │ — │ 1 Atabey │ — │ 1 │ — Attil │ — │ 1 │ — Avazaghpur │ — │ 1 │ — Ayash │ — │ 1 │ 1 Azizia │ — │ 1 │ — B │ │ │ Bab │ — │ — │ 2 Babylonia │ — │ — │ 1 Baghdad │ — │ — │ 5 Baghlou │ — │ 1 │ — Baghtché │ — │ 1 │ 1 Baghtchédjik—Bardezag │ — │ 10 │ — Baibourt │ — │ 8 │ 1 Bairak │ — │ 2 │ — Bairamoglu │ — │ — │ 1 Bakir Maden │ — │ — │ 1 (Bakou) │ — │ — │ 2 Balikesri │ — │ 1 │ — (Bambak) │ — │ — │ 1 Baranduz │ — │ 1 │ — Barbaroud │ — │ 1 │ — (Barsoun) │ — │ — │ 1 Bashkala │ — │ 6 │ 1 Batoum │ — │ — │ 1 Bayazid District │ — │ 1 │ — Baz │ — │ 1 │ — Beinam Boghazi │ — │ — │ 1 Beirout │ — │ 1 │ 1 Beitias │ — │ 2 │ — Beniani │ — │ 1 │ — Benli │ — │ 1 │ — Bergri-Kala │ — │ — │ 2 Berwar │ — │ 1 │ — Besné │ — │ 1 │ — Biredjik │ — │ — │ 1 Bisherig │ — │ 1 │ — Bitlis │ — │ 13 │ — Bitlis, vilayet │ — │ 4 │ — Black Sea Littoral │ — │ 1 │ 1 Boghaz Kessen │ — │ 2 │ — Bohtan District │ — │ 1 │ — Bor │ — │ 1 │ — Bosphorus, Villages on │ — │ 1 │ — the Upper │ │ │ Boulanik │ — │ 3 │ — Bozanti │ — │ 1 │ 5 Broussa │ — │ 7 │ — Broussa, vilayet │ — │ 1 │ — C │ │ │ (Caucasia, Cis—Northern │ │ │ Caucasia) │ — │ — │ 1 Cilicia │ — │ 5 │ — Constantinople │ — │ 6 │ 3 Constantinople, American│ │ │ School at │ — │ 1 │ — Cosi │ — │ 1 │ — D │ │ │ Dadush │ — │ 1 │ — Damascus │ — │ — │ 8 Darawar │ — │ 1 │ — (Delidjan) │ — │ — │ 3 Degala │ — │ 1 │ — Dengala │ — │ 2 │ — Derdjan │ — │ — │ 1 Deré Keui │ — │ 1 │ — Der-el-Zor │ — │ — │ 19 Derenda │ — │ 2 │ — Dersim │ — │ 1 │ 1 Develou │ — │ 1 │ — Deyirmeni River │ — │ — │ 2 Dhimotika │ — │ 1 │ — Dilgusha │ — │ 1 │ — Diliman │ — │ 3 │ 2 Divrig │ — │ 3 │ — Diyarbekir │ — │ 15 │ 2 Diyarbekir, vilayet │ — │ 3 │ — Djabaghtchour │ — │ 1 │ — Djera │ — │ 1 │ — Djerablous │ — │ 1 │ — (Djevanshir District) │ — │ — │ 1 Djevizlik │ — │ — │ 1 Djeziré │ — │ 1 │ — Djibal Mousa—Mousa Dagh—│ │ │ Djibal-al-Ahmar │ — │ 3 │ — Djoulamerk │ — │ 1 │ — (Djoulfa) │ — │ — │ 5 Dom │ — │ 1 │ — Döngöl │ — │ 1 │ — Dört Yöl │ 1 │ 11 │ — Doudjik—Tcharuk │ — │ 1 │ 1 Dersim—Tcharik │ │ │ Drtadli │ — │ 1 │ — Duzasar │ — │ 1 │ — E │ │ │ Egin │ — │ 3 │ — (Elenovka) │ — │ — │ 1 (Elizavetpol) │ — │ — │ 1 (Elizavetpol Government)│ — │ — │ 3 Enderessi │ — │ 1 │ 1 Entilli │ — │ — │ 3 Eregli │ — │ 1 │ 5 Eremer │ — │ 1 │ — Erendjik │ — │ 1 │ — Erer │ — │ 1 │ — (Erivan) │ — │ — │ 2 (Erivan Government) │ — │ — │ 5 Erzeroum │ 1 │ 17 │ — Erzeroum, vilayet │ — │ 6 │ — Erzindjan │ 1 │ 8 │ 5 Eski Shehr │ — │ 2 │ 2 Etchangeri—Kiangri—Kingri│ — │ 1 │ 1 (Etchmiadzin) │ — │ — │ 2 Euphrates District │ — │ — │ 1 Euphrates River │ — │ — │ 5 Euphrates River, │ — │ — │ 1 Tributaries of │ │ │ Euzerli │ — │ 1 │ — Everek │ — │ 2 │ — (Evlakh) │ — │ — │ 1 Ezli │ — │ 1 │ — F │ │ │ Fekké │ — │ — │ 1 Frank-norshen │ — │ 1 │ — Fundadjak_ │ — │ 3 │ — Furnus │ 1 │ 4 │ — G │ │ │ Gargar District │ — │ 2 │ — Garjgan │ — │ 1 │ — Gawar │ — │ 4 │ — Geben │ — │ 6 │ — Gegvé │ — │ 1 │ — Gemerek │ — │ 4 │ — Gemleyik │ — │ 1 │ — Geogtapa—Göktepé │ — │ 3 │ 1 Gereg │ — │ — │ 1 Geulik Station │ — │ — │ 3 Gheizin Han │ — │ — │ 1 Ginj District—Gendjé │ — │ 1 │ 1 Gishgishla │ — │ — │ 1 Göksoun—Gourksoun │ — │ 2 │ — Gotni │ — │ 1 │ — Govdoun │ — │ 1 │ — Gulpashan │ — │ 6 │ — Gumushkhana │ — │ — │ 2 Gurin │ — │ 2 │ — Gurla │ — │ 1 │ — Gvars │ — │ 2 │ — H │ │ │ Habesh │ — │ 1 │ — Habousi │ — │ 1 │ — Hadji-Habibli │ — │ 1 │ — Hadjin │ 2 │ 12 │ — Haftevan │ — │ 2 │ — Haiatzor—Hayotz-Tzor—(?)│ │ │ Haig Valley │ — │ 2 │ — Hai Keui │ — │ 1 │ — Hama │ — │ — │ 4 Hankeui │ — │ — │ 1 Harni │ — │ 2 │ — Harounia │ — │ — │ 1 Harpout—Kharput │ — │ 21 │ 3 Hassan │ — │ 1 │ — Hassan-Beyli │ — │ 6 │ 2 Hassan-Tchelebi │ — │ — │ 1 Hassanova │ — │ 1 │ — Hauran │ — │ — │ 3 Hazaren │ — │ 2 │ — Herag—Erba’a │ — │ 2 │ — Hergerd │ — │ 1 │ — Hirj │ — │ — │ 1 Homs │ — │ — │ 3 Husseinig │ — │ 1 │ — Hussi Mansour │ — │ 1 │ — I │ │ │ Idlib │ — │ — │ 2 (Igdir) │ — │ — │ 6 Ilidja │ — │ — │ 1 Ineboli │ — │ 1 │ — Iriawa │ — │ 2 │ — Islohia │ — │ — │ 2 Ismayil │ — │ — │ 1 Ismayil Agha’s Kala │ — │ 1 │ — Ismid │ — │ 6 │ — Ismid, sandjak │ — │ 1 │ — Isnik—Nicomedia │ — │ 1 │ — Istanos │ — │ 2 │ — Itchmé │ — │ 1 │ 1 Izoli Hadji │ — │ — │ 2 K │ │ │ Kachin Han │ — │ — │ 1 Kahdem │ — │ — │ 1 Kaisaria │ — │ 13 │ 2 Kaisaria, Villages in │ │ │ the District of │ — │ 2 │ — Kamakh │ — │ 2 │ 3 Kamakh Boghaz │ — │ — │ 2 Kangal │ — │ 2 │ — Kapou Kays │ — │ 1 │ — (Karabagh District) │ — │ — │ 1 Karadjalou-Garadjalu │ — │ 2 │ — Karagatch │ — │ 1 │ — Karagöz │ — │ 1 │ — (Karakeliss) │ — │ — │ 2 Karaman │ — │ — │ 1 Kara-Pounar │ — │ — │ 3 Karasu │ — │ 2 │ — Karer │ — │ — │ 1 Karmad │ — │ — │ 1 (Kars) │ — │ — │ 1 (Kars, Town and │ — │ — │ 1 District) │ │ │ Karsakh │ — │ 1 │ — Karspazar │ — │ 2 │ — Karsz │ — │ 1 │ — Kartzor │ — │ 1 │ — Kasha │ — │ 1 │ — Kassaba │ — │ 1 │ — Kavash District │ — │ 2 │ — (Kazakh) │ — │ — │ 1 Kazi Mahara │ — │ — │ 1 Keban │ — │ 1 │ — Keboussia │ — │ 1 │ — (Kedabek) │ — │ — │ 1 Keghi-Kighi │ — │ 4 │ — Keghvank │ — │ — │ 2 Keklik Tepé │ — │ — │ 1 Kelidj │ — │ 2 │ — Kerasond-Kiresoun │ 1 │ 1 │ — Keremet │ — │ 1 │ — Keshan │ — │ 1 │ — Kesirig │ — │ 1 │ — Kessab │ — │ 4 │ — Ketcheurd-Katchayourt │ — │ 1 │ — Ketch-Magara │ — │ 1 │ — Keumer Han │ — │ — │ 2 Khanishan │ — │ 1 │ — Khantzart District │ — │ — │ 1 Khantzod │ — │ 1 │ — Khashkhaldoukh │ — │ 1 │ — Khaskegh │ — │ 1 │ — Kheder-Bey │ — │ 1 │ — Kheiban │ — │ 1 │ — Khlat │ — │ 1 │ — Khnyss │ — │ 5 │ — Khoi │ — │ 1 │ 4 Khoronk │ — │ 1 │ — Khorsan │ — │ 1 │ — Khourakhon │ — │ 1 │ — Khozmo Pass │ — │ — │ 1 Kiakhta—Kyakta │ — │ — │ 2 Kilidjlar │ — │ — │ 1 Killis │ — │ 1 │ 1 Kirk Göz │ — │ — │ 1 Kizil Agatch │ — │ 1 │ — Komer │ — │ 1 │ — Koms-Goms │ — │ 3 │ — Konia │ — │ 6 │ 17 Konia, vilayet │ — │ 1 │ 2 Kotchan │ — │ 1 │ — Kotchesur-Kotch Hissar │ — │ 1 │ — Kotmo │ — │ — │ 3 (Kourpalou) │ — │ — │ 1 Kozolouk │ — │ 1 │ — Kudchi │ — │ — │ 1 Kurdistan │ — │ 2 │ — Kurdmeidan │ — │ 1 │ — Kurk │ — │ 1 │ — Kurtapa │ — │ 1 │ — Kurt-Belené │ — │ 1 │ — L │ │ │ Lappashli │ — │ 1 │ — Lebanon │ 1 │ — │ — Lsounk │ — │ 1 │ —
M │ │ │
Ma’an │ — │ — │ 1
Ma’ara │ — │ — │ 2
Makof │ — │ 1 │ —
Malatia │ — │ 4 │ 4
Malgara │ 1 │ 1 │ —
Maltepé │ — │ 1 │ —
Mama Hatoun-Derdjan │ — │ 1 │ 2
Mamouret │ — │ — │ 1
Mamouret-ul-Aziz, │ — │ 5 │ — vilayet │ │ │
Mandjaluk │ — │ 2 │ —
Mansouria—Monsoria │ — │ 1 │ —
Maragha │ — │ 1 │ —
Marash │ — │ 13 │ 3
Mar Audishu │ — │ 2 │ —
Mardin │ — │ 6 │ 1
(Markar) │ — │ — │ 1
Marmardjik │ — │ 1 │ —
Marmora, Coasts of │ — │ 1 │ —
Marsovan │ — │ 15 │ —
Marsovan District │ — │ 1 │ —
Mayadin │ — │ — │ 1
Mediterranean, Coasts of│ — │ 1 │ —
Meghd │ — │ 1 │ —
Mekragom │ — │ 1 │ —
Melashkerd-Melazkerd │ — │ 2 │ —
Mergavar │ — │ 1 │ —
Mersina │ — │ 5 │ —
Meskené │ — │ — │ 1
Mesopotamia │ — │ — │ 11
Mess Nor Keui │ — │ 1 │ —
Messoudia │ — │ 1 │ —
Mezré │ — │ 6 │ —
Miandoab │ — │ 1 │ —
Mikhalidj │ — │ — │ 1
Mirkedjia │ — │ — │ 1
Moks, kaza │ — │ 1 │ —
Morinig │ — │ 1 │ —
Mosul │ — │ — │ 11
Mosul, Region of │ — │ — │ 1
(Mouandjik) │ — │ — │ 1
Moumbidj │ — │ — │ 2
Mourad Su—Eastern │ — │ — │ 2 Euphrates │ │ │
Moush │ — │ 12 │ —
N │ │ │
(Nahichevan) │ — │ — │ 2
(Nahichevan, Town and │ — │ — │ 1 District) │ │ │
Nazi │ — │ 1 │ —
Nazlu District │ — │ 1 │ —
Nigdé │ — │ 1 │ —
(Nijni-Akhti) │ — │ — │ 1
Niksar │ — │ 2 │ —
Norag │ — │ 1 │ —
Nordoz │ — │ 2 │ —
(Novo-Bayazid) │ — │ — │ 1
(Novo-Bayazid, Town and │ │ │
District) │ — │ — │ 1
(Novo-Nikolaievka) │ — │ — │ 1
O │ │ │
Odjakli │ — │ 1 │ —
Olti │ — │ — │ 1
Ordou │ — │ 2 │ —
Ortakeui │ — │ 2 │ —
Osmania │ — │ — │ 9
Oulash │ — │ 1 │ —
Ourbadji Oglou Deré │ │ │ (near │ │ │
Baibourt) │ — │ — │ 1
Ourfa │ — │ 14 │ 4
Ourough │ — │ 1 │ —
Ovadjik │ — │ 1 │ —
P │ │ │
Palu │ — │ — │ 1
Panderma │ — │ 2 │ —
(Parakar) │ — │ — │ 1
Passin District │ — │ 3 │ 1
Pazou │ — │ 2 │ —
Pelou │ — │ 2 │ —
Pera │ — │ 1 │ —
Perkenik │ — │ 1 │ —
Perkhous │ — │ 1 │ —
Perri │ — │ 1 │ —
Pertchendji │ — │ — │ 1
Plel │ — │ 1 │ —
(Plour) │ — │ — │ 1
Polatlu │ — │ 1 │ —
(Port Said) │ — │ — │ 3
Q │ │ │
Quodshanis │ — │ 5 │ —
R │ │ │
Radjou │ — │ — │ 2
Rahva │ — │ 1 │ —
Rakka │ — │ — │ 5
Ras-ul-Ain │ — │ — │ 3
Rodosto │ — │ 1 │ —
Roumlou │ — │ 2 │ —
S │ │ │
Sabandja │ — │ 2 │ —
Sahajian District │ — │ 1 │ —
Sairt │ — │ 3 │ —
Salekan │ — │ 1 │ —
Salmas │ — │ 4 │ 4
Salmas District │ — │ 3 │ —
Salt Desert of Anatolia │ — │ — │ 1
(Samaghar) │ — │ — │ 1
Samsoun │ — │ 10 │ 3
Sarai │ — │ 2 │ —
Sassoun │ — │ 3 │ —
Scutari │ — │ 1 │ —
Selefka │ — │ 2 │ —
Severeg │ — │ — │ 1
Shabin Kara-Hissar │ — │ 6 │ —
Shadakh │ — │ 1 │ —
Shadakh Region—Shatakh │ — │ 3 │ — Kaza │ │ │
Shahbagh │ — │ 1 │ —
Shakh │ — │ 1 │ —
Shaklak │ — │ 1 │ —
Shar Kishla—Sari-Kishila│ — │ 3 │ 4
(Sharori) │ — │ — │ 1
Sheer—Shar │ — │ 3 │ —
Sheitan Dere <ssi> │ — │ — │ 2
Shekhlan │ — │ 1 │ —
Shivilgi │ — │ 1 │ —
(Shousha District) │ — │ — │ 1
Shushantz │ — │ 2 │ —
Silivri │ — │ 1 │ —
Sis │ — │ 5 │ 1
Sivas │ — │ 17 │ 4
Sivas District—Sivas │ — │ 10 │ — vilayet │ │ │
Slivan │ — │ 1 │ —
Smyrna │ — │ 1 │ —
Sordar │ — │ 1 │ —
Sortra │ — │ 1 │ —
Soudjboulak │ — │ 1 │ —
Soulouk │ — │ 1 │ —
Sourp Garabed Monastery │ — │ 1 │ —
Soushehri │ — │ 2 │ —
Sughurt—Sairt (?) │ — │ 2 │ —
(Suhoi Fontan) │ — │ — │ 1
Sultania │ — │ — │ 6
Süngürlü—Soungourlou │ — │ 2 │ —
(Surmalin) │ — │ — │ 1
Surudj │ — │ — │ 1
Suverek │ — │ 1 │ —
Syria │ — │ — │ 4
T │ │ │
Tabriz │ — │ 3 │ —
Tal │ — │ 3 │ —
Talas │ — │ 5 │ 1
Talas, Villages in the │ │ │
District of │ — │ 1 │ —
Tamar │ — │ 1 │ —
(Tarsa-Tchai) │ — │ — │ 1
Tarsus │ — │ 3 │ 8
Tasholouk │ — │ 1 │ —
Tchai │ — │ — │ 1
(Tchaikent) │ — │ — │ 1
Tchalgara │ — │ — │ 1
Tchamli-Bel │ — │ — │ 2
Tchamulan │ — │ — │ 1
Tcharbash │ — │ 1 │ —
(Tchardahli) │ — │ — │ 1
Tchargousha │ — │ 1 │ —
Tchar-Sandjak │ — │ 1 │ —
Tchar-Shamba │ — │ 2 │ —
Tchemesh-Getzak │ — │ 2 │ —
(Tchibouhli) │ — │ — │ 1
Tchiftlik, near Tokat │ — │ — │ 2
Tchingiler │ — │ 2 │ —
Tchomakli │ — │ 1 │ —
Tchorlu │ — │ 1 │ —
Tchoroum—Chorun │ — │ 4 │ —
Tchoukour │ — │ 1 │ —
Tchumbar │ — │ 1 │ —
Tchunkoush │ — │ 1 │ —
Tchutlug—Khoutlig │ — │ 1 │ 1
Tedjir │ — │ — │ 1
Teheran │ — │ — │ 1
Tel-Armen │ — │ 1 │ —
Telouk-Khaina │ — │ — │ 1
Ten │ — │ 1 │ —
Tergawar │ — │ 1 │ —
Tiari │ — │ 5 │ —
(Tiflis) │ — │ — │ 1
(Tiflis, Town and │ — │ — │ 1 District) │ │ │
Tigris River │ — │ — │ 2
Tireboli │ — │ 1 │ —
Tkhouma—Tkhoma │ — │ 5 │ —
Tokat │ — │ 6 │ —
Totz │ — │ 1 │ —
Toutlikeui │ — │ — │ 1
Trebizond │ — │ 10 │ —
Trebizond, vilayet │ — │ 3 │ —
Turchal │ — │ — │ 2
Tzeronk │ — │ 1 │ —
U │ │ │
Urmia—Urmi │ — │ 12 │ 1
Urmia District │ — │ 3 │ —
Ushnuk │ — │ — │ 1
V │ │ │
(Vaharshapat, Town and │ — │ — │ 1 District) │ │ │
Van │ — │ 14 │ 1
Van, vilayet │ — │ 3 │ 2
Van-Dosp District—Timar │ — │ 1 │ —
Varak Monastery │ — │ 2 │ —
(Veri Ailaulou) │ — │ — │ 1
Vezir Köprü │ — │ 3 │ —
Viran Shehr │ — │ — │ 2
Vostan │ — │ 2 │ —
Y │ │ │
Yalova │ — │ 1 │ —
Yarpouz │ — │ 2 │ —
Yeghek │ — │ — │ 1
Yenidjé │ — │ 1 │ —
Yeni Han (near Tokat) │ — │ — │ 1
Yeni-Shehr │ — │ — │ 1
Yerebakan │ — │ 1 │ —
Yermag │ — │ — │ 1
Yoghanolouk │ — │ 2 │ —
Yozgad │ — │ 2 │ —
Yulduz Han (near Sivas) │ — │ — │ 1
Z │ │ │
Zara │ — │ 1 │ —
Zeitoun │ 4 │ 19 │ —
Ziaret │ — │ 1 │ —
Zila │ — │ 1 │ 2
Zindjirderé │ — │ 1 │ —
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
150. MESSAGE, DATED 22nd JULY, 1916, FROM MR. N., OF CONSTANTINOPLE; COMMUNICATED BY THE AMERICAN COMMITTEE FOR ARMENIAN AND SYRIAN RELIEF.
N. desires his correspondents beyond the borders of Turkey to be confidentially informed:—
“That he has word from German Relief Agents at Aleppo, sent through German Embassy, who report visits of their helpers to wide district, including Der-el-Zor and other places on Euphrates and in desert. They have seen thousands of deported Armenians under tents in the open, in convoys on the march, descending River in boats and in all phases of their miserable life. Only in few places does Government issue any rations, and those quite insufficient. People therefore themselves forced to satisfy their hunger with food begged in that scanty land or found in the parched fields. Agents found them eating grass, herbs, and locusts, and in desperate cases dead animals and human bodies are reported to have been eaten. Naturally, death-rate from starvation and sickness very high, and increased by brutal treatment of the authorities, whose bearing toward exiles as they are being driven back and forth over desert is not unlike that of slave-drivers. With few exceptions no shelter of any kind is provided, and the people coming from cold climate are left under scorching desert sun without food or water. Temporary amelioration can only be obtained by the few able to pay officials.
“Misery and hopelessness of the situation is such that many are reported to resort to suicide. Illustrating methods employed, agents report gathering group of one hundred children whom they placed in care of educated young widow from Hadjin. Two weeks later these children were deported, and from two survivors found further down convoy route it was learned that the rest had perished. House mother, crazed by treatment of her charges, was among deported moving on. Boat-loads sent from Zor down the River arrived at Ana, one hundred and thirty miles away, with three-fifths of passengers missing. There appears, in short, to be steady policy to exterminate these people, but to deny charge of massacre. Their destruction from so-called natural causes seems decided upon.”
-----
Footnote 283:
The Ottoman Government appears to have placed new difficulties in the way of this relief, before it could be brought into practical operation.—EDITOR.
GUIDE TO THE READER.
This volume has been made, as far as possible, an exhaustive collection of evidence. It therefore necessarily contains much that is only of slight interest to the ordinary reader, and many of the documents are duplicate accounts, from independent sources, of identical events, which, while of the highest value from the evidential point of view, are superfluous to those who wish merely to form a general idea of what occurred.
It has therefore seemed advisable, in the reader’s interest, to single out forty or fifty of the most important documents (about one in three of the whole series), and direct his attention, in the first place, to these. They are detailed, with an indication of their contents, in the following list:—
Doc. 9. Letter conveyed out of Turkey in the sole of a refugee’s shoe.
” 12. News in German missionary journals suppressed by the German Censor.
” 15. Siege of Van: an American lady who went through it.
” 18. Van: a German Missionary’s letter.
” 22. Sassoun: the last stand of the Armenian mountaineers.
” 23. The massacres at Moush: a German eye-witness.
” 24. Moush: a victim of the massacres.
” 31. How the missionaries saved 17,000 refugees at Urmia: a diary.
” 40. How the Nestorian Patriarch fought for his people: letter from his sister.
” 43. The flight from Urmia: story of a pastor’s wife.
” 47. Scenes on the refugees’ road.
” 53. Erzeroum: notes from an American who stayed there till the Russians came in.
” 59. Baibourt: the horrors of deportation, described by an exiled lady.
” 62. Erzindjan: the passing of the exiles, described by two Danish Sisters in the German Red Cross.
” 64. A Turkish “Government Orphanage”: experiences of another Danish Red Cross Nurse.
” 65. A town on the exile route.
” 66. The sufferings of an exile-gang.
” 69. The fate of a Christian College: report by the College Principal.
” 72. Trebizond: wholesale drowning at sea.
” 73. Trebizond: interview with the former Italian Consul-General.
” 78. Exiles on the march: letter from an American lady who accompanied them.
” 82. Adventures of an Armenian peasant who defied the deportation decree.
” 87. “Cleaning out” a town: testimony of a foreign Professor.
” 88. The same town: narrative of a foreign lady.
” 89. The rescue of deported school-girls, by the same lady.
” 96. The butchery at Angora: the same witness.
” 102. Adapazar: the bastinado in the Church.
” 104. A railway journey during the deportations, by a foreign doctor.
” 108. Afiun Kara Hissar: a brave Armenian doctor’s wife.
” 114. On the Baghdad Railway: a lady’s diary.
” 117. The concentration camps: two Swiss ladies.
” 118. Journey from Smyrna to Damascus and back, by a foreign traveller.
” 121. Cilicia: emptying the hill villages.
” 122. Zeitoun: the Protestant Pastor.
” 123. Zeitounlis in exile: diary of a foreigner in the Plains.
” 126. What happened to a mountain town: statement by a foreign resident.
” 130. Jibal Mousa: five villages which held the Turks at bay, and were rescued by the French Fleet.
” 133. What happened at Ourfa.
” 137. Births on the road: the fate of the babies and the mothers.
” 139. Reports from Aleppo.
” 141. Collecting the dead at Aleppo.
” 143. Damascus: arrival of the exiles.
” 144. On the banks of the Euphrates: death by starvation.
” 145. Der-el-Zor, the exile station in the desert: by a German traveller.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Transcriber’s Note
The first item in the Table of Contents mentions a map of the districts affected, but there is no map in edition used to prepare this book. The TOC entry is retained, nonetheless. An editor’s note also mentions a map (the same map?) to accompany the Index of Place Names at the end of the volume. In any case, there is no such map in this edition.
Some compound words appear both with and without hyphens. Where the word breaks on a newline, the hyphen is retained if it appears elsewhere.
Annexe D contains a very wide table, which was separated into two tables, both still wide.
Errors deemed most likely to be the printer’s have been corrected, and are noted here. The references are to the page and line in the original.
xii.33 that these [T/t]wenty-two documents Replaced.
41.33 working for our prot[e/é]gés Replaced.
56.18 to revolt and mass[s]acre the Turks Removed.
87.46 by the gendarmes [j]ust like the rest Restored.
139.7 brought me some [j]ewellery Restored.
195.2 it is indispensable to instal[l] medical Added.
258.14 that has reached [t]he Vatican Restored.
290.45 of the [l]ocal branch of the Ottoman Bank. Restored.
400.49 they said, [“]but now we see Added.
451.11 is the most [i]mportant factor Restoured.
473.18 composed of familie[t/s] Replaced.
475.6 There are many theories[.] Added.
516.42 the dense [underbush] sic underbrush?
545.28 to Damascus, Beirout and Medina[.] Added.
649.49 the number was actually 22[.] Added.