Witnesses To A Forgotten Genocide

‘It’s not possible for a Muslim to commit genocide.’

 - Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashi

I wonder how many schoolchildren are taught about Sudan’s genocide or what Atatürk did to millions of Armenians. The answer to the former isn't clear - at least as it pertains to the roots and partisans, but the answer to the latter is apparently, 'No!' As an example of Armenian Genocide Denial (AGC), Kjetil Elsebutangen, the formerly of the Norwegian Foreign Ministry: 'There is no legal evidence that the 1915 events in the Ottoman Empire were ‘genocide.'

 

In fact, the very word ‘genocide’ was not coined to describe what Hitler did to Jews, Poles, and Gypsies, etc., in World War II. It was coined by Raphael Lemkin, a Polish-Jewish legal scholar, in 1943 to describe what the Ottoman Turks and, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's forces in particular, perpetrated against the Armenian people during World War I, now called the Armenian Genocide.  As Lemkin made clear in a 1949 interview with Quincy Howe, which was broadcast on CBS: 'I became interested in Genocide because it happened so many times. It happened to the Armenians, then after the Armenians, Hitler took action.'

Yet, the Muslims in Turkey, who were ‘incapable of committing genocide,’ didn’t just kill millions of Armenians either. They killed Greeks (500,000) and Assyrians (750,000), too. Then, there were the forced deportations involving death marches, starvation in labour camps, concentration camps, etc. - were referred to as ‘white massacres’ - which caused untold number of indirect deaths. Most people have heard about the Kraków Ghetto and Amon Göth's cleansing of the ghetto on 13 March 1943 as the Jews were herded off to the Płaszów concentration camp, but many have never heard of the Great Fire of Smyrna. Hundreds of thousands of Greeks, Armenians, and Assyrians had been herded into ‘Infidel Smyrna’ (Gavur Izmir). By September 1922, however, Kemal's forces occupied the town. They sealed off the Armenian quarter and began systematically butchering the 25,000 inhabitants. They set fire to it to incinerate any survivors, according to Niall Ferguson and other historians with some putting the death toll from Smyrna alone at over 100,000.

Renowned Turkish journalist and author, Falih Rifki Atay, was quoted at the time as lamenting that the Turkish army had burnt Smyrna to the ground. 

He said:

‘As why were we burning down Izmir? Were we afraid that if waterfront konaks, hotels and taverns stayed in place, we would never be able to get rid of the minorities? When the Armenians were being deported in the First World War, we had burned down all the habitable districts and neighbourhoods in Anatolian towns and cities with this very same fear. This does not solely derive from an urge for destruction. There is also some feeling of inferiority in it. It was as if anywhere that resembled Europe was destined to remain Christian and foreign and to be denied to us.

If there were another war and we were defeated, would it be sufficient guarantee of preserving the Turkishness of the city if we had left Izmir as a devastated expanse of vacant lots? Were it not for Nureddin Pasha, whom I know to be a dyed-in-the-wool fanatic and rabble-rouser, I do not think this tragedy would have gone to the bitter end.’

So, not only are Muslims capable of ‘genocide,’ the very word was coined to describe the ethnic cleansing carried out by and genocidal actions of Muslims.

‘The real purpose of the deportation was robbery and destruction; it really represented a new method of massacre. When the Turkish authorities gave the orders for these deportations, they were merely giving the death warrant to a whole race; they understood this well, and, in their conversations with me, they made no particular attempt to conceal the fact....I am confident that the whole history of the human race contains no such horrible episode as this. The great massacres and persecutions of the past seem almost insignificant when compared to the sufferings of the Armenian race in 1915...They have drawn from the fields the male population and thereby destroyed their agricultural communities. They have annihilated or displaced at least two thirds of the Armenian population and thereby deprived themselves of a very intelligent and useful race....Deportation of and excesses against peaceful Armenians is increasing and from harrowing reports of eyewitnesses it appears that a campaign of race extermination is in progress under a pretext of reprisal against rebellion.’

- Henry Morgenthau, Sr, United States Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, 1913–1916

 

‘It may look amazing, but the reality that what happened in 1915 was a mass murder was accepted by everybody having lived in that period, and was never the object of an argument.’ 

- Taner Akcam

‘As to their preparations, the flags, bombs and the like, even assuming there to be some truth in the statement, it does not justify the annihilation of the whole people, men and women, old men and children, in a way which revolts all humanity and more especially Islam and the whole body of Moslems, as those unacquainted with the true facts might impute these deeds to Mohammedan fanaticism.....Annihilation seemed to be the sole means of deliverance; they found their opportunity in a time of war, and they proceeded to this atrocious deed, which they carried out with every circumstance of brutality — a deed which is contrary to the law of Islam.’

- Faiz El-Ghusein, Sheikh and member of Ottoman parliament

 

‘During my few days of service in this government I've learned of a few secrets and have come across something interesting. The deportation order was issued through official channels by the minister of the interior and sent to the provinces. Following this order the [CUP] Central Committee circulated its own ominous order to all parties to allow the gangs to carry out their wretched task. Thus the gangs were in the field, ready for their atrocious slaughter...The 'mission' in the circular was: to attack the convoys and massacre the population ... I am ashamed as a Muslim, I am ashamed as an Ottoman statesman. What a stain on the reputation of the Ottoman Empire, these criminal people ...’

- Reşid Akif Paşa, Vali of Sivas, Council of State, and cabinet minister in the Ottoman government

 

'It is unlawful to designate the Armenian assets as ‘abandoned goods’ for the Armenians, the proprietors, did not abandon their properties voluntarily. They were forcibly, compulsorily removed from their domiciles and exiled. Now, the government through its efforts is selling their goods ... Nobody can sell my property if I am unwilling to sell it. Article 21 of the Constitution forbids it. If we are a constitutional regime functioning in accordance with constitutional law we can't do this. This is atrocious. Grab my arm, eject me from my village, then sell my goods and properties, such a thing can never be permissible. Neither the conscience of the Ottomans nor the law can allow it. Let's face it, we Turks savagely killed off the Armenians. In a statement in the Ottoman Parliament, Rize referred to the Special Organization as ’murderers and criminals’.

- Ahmet Reza, Young Turk politician and President of the first Ottoman parliament

 

'During World War I Gorrini openly denounced the Armenian Genocide through press articles and interviews and didn't hesitate to describe the policies of massacre perpetrated against the Armenians. He said if everyone had seen what he had, the condemnation of those acts would have been universal especially on the side of the Christian powers. He was in touch with American Ambassador Morgenthau and the Apostolic delegate to Constantinople Angelo Dolci, and this way he managed to save 50,000 Armenians from deportation and mass murder.

In 1911–1915, he served as Italian Consul in Trabzon and was an eyewitness to the massacres in and around the area. In August 1915, with Italy's participation in the war effort and their subsequent declaration of war against the Ottoman Empire, Gorrini was forced to leave his office. ‘The local authorities, and indeed the Moslem population in general, tried to resist, to mitigate it, to make omissions, to hush it up. But the orders of the Central Government were categorically confirmed, and all were compelled to resign themselves and obey. It was a real extermination and slaughter of the innocents, an unheard-of thing, a black page stained with the flagrant violation of the most sacred rights of humanity ... There were about 14,000 Armenians at Trebizond — Gregorians, Catholics, and Protestants. They had never caused disorders or given occasion for collective measures of police. 

When I left Trebizond, not a hundred of them remained.'

‘As for the Armenians, they were treated differently in the different vilayets. They were suspect and spied upon everywhere, but they suffered a real extermination, worse than massacre, in the so-called 'Armenian Vilayets.' from the 24th June onwards, the Armenians were all ‘interned’ — that is, ejected by force from their various residences and dispatched under the guard of the gendarmerie to distant, unknown destinations, which for a few will mean the interior of Mesopotamia, but for four-fifths of them has meant already a death accompanied by unheard-of cruelties.’

- Giacomo Gorrini, Italian Italian Consul of Trabzon, 1911–1915

 

American businessman Walter Mackintosh Geddes provided a detailed account of the situation of the Armenian deportees in the Syrian Desert. While in Aleppo, he witnessed thousands die of exposure and starvation. Upon returning from Aleppo back to Smyrna, Geddes remarked ‘the sights that I saw on my return trip were worse than those on my trip going’. Greatly saddened and affected by the scenes he witnessed, he ultimately committed suicide on 7 November 1915.

‘Several Turks[,] whom I interviewed, told me that the motive of this exile was to exterminate the race. The destination of all these Armenians is Aleppo. Here they are kept crowded in all available vacant houses, khans, Armenian churches, courtyards and open lots. Their condition in Aleppo is beyond description. I personally visited several of the places where they were kept and found them starving and dying by the hundreds every day.'

- Walter M. Geddes, American Businessman

Unlike most of his companions in the German consulate, Metternich openly condemned the Turkish and German governments for collaborating and conspiring against the Armenians. He was particularly bothered by the German media which he accused of encouraging the ongoing measures against Armenians. He was quoted as saying, ‘Their successes are due to our work, to our officers, to our cannons and to our money. Without our help, the inflated frog is bound to collapse’. Metternich was among the few German diplomats in the Ottoman Empire who openly held Talat Pasha responsible for the massacres, accusing him of being ‘the soul of the Armenian persecutions.’

‘In its attempt to carry out its purpose the delegate of the Pope, nor by the threats of the Allied Powers, nor in deference to the public opinion of the West representing one-half of the world....In the implementation of its scheme to settle the Armenian Question through annihilation of the Armenian raceto resolve the Armenian question by the destruction of the Armenian race, the Turkish government has refused to be deterred neither by our representations, nor by those of the American Embassy, nor by, the Turkish government did not allow itself to be distracted...Nobody has any more the power to restrain the multi-headed hydra of the [CUP] Committee, and the attendant chauvinism and fanaticism. The committee demands the extirpation of the last remnants of the Armenians, and the government must yield. The authority of the committee is not limited to the Ottoman capital where Ittihad is organized and functions as a party in power. The authority of the committee reaches into all the provinces. A committee representative is assigned to each of the provincial administrators, from vali down to kaymakam, for purposes of assistance and supervision...Turkification means license to expel, to kill or destroy everything that it not Turkish, and to violently take possession of the goods of others.’'

- Paul Wolff-Metternich, German Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, 1915–1916

George Horton is particularly remembered for his book The Blight of Asia, which describes the systematic ethnic cleansing of the Christian population up until the Great Fire of Smyrna Becoming American Consul of Izmir once again during the time of the Great Fire of Smyrna, Horton became an eyewitness to the destruction of the city and notes that the goal of the Ottoman government was to get rid of all Christian peoples in the Empire. Horton believed that Mustafa Kemal Atatürk continued the policies of the Young Turks.

'The Turks were now making a thorough and systematic job of killing Armenian men. The squads of soldiers were chiefly engaged in hunting down and killing Armenians. I have also other statements from eyewitnesses, not natives of this country, of the highest standing in the religious and educational world, which leads me to believe that what is now taking place in Armenian Turkey, surpasses in deliberate and long protracted horror and in extent anything that has hitherto happened in the history of the world. From what all these people worthy of the highest credence tell me, from 800,000 to 1,000,000 human beings are now going through this process of slow and hideous torture, and the movement instead of waning is increasing in ferocity, so that before it is finally over, in the neighborhood of 2,000,000 people will be affected, a very large percentage of whom will certainly perish as they are driven along for weeks and months without food or shelter and without the means of procuring these.  The murder of the Armenian race had been practically consummated during the years 1915–1916, and the prosperous and populous Greek colonies, with the exception of Smyrna itself, had been ferociously destroyed.’

 - George Horton, American Consul of Izmir, 1911–1917 

 

Rafeal de Nogales Méndez was hired by the Ottoman army as a mercenary while serving for the German army. During his service in the Ottoman army during World War I, Nogales Méndez witnessed the massacres of Christians in and around the eastern provinces of the Ottoman Empire and described them to be ‘unjustified massacres of the Christians. He believed that the massacres were committed by Khalil bey, the Commander and Chief of the Expeditionary Army he volunteered to serve.[ Nogales Méndez reported that the civil authorities found it preferable to murder at night with the help of local Kurds. When visiting Aghtamar, an island in Lake Van where the Armenian Cathedral of the Holy Cross is located, he notes that he uncovered the corpses of many priests.  Nogales Méndez visited Diyarbakir in 26 June 1915 and spoke with the governor Mehmet Reşid, who was to be later known as the ‘butcher of Diyarbakir’. Nogales Méndez recounts in his memoirs that Reşid mentioned to him that he received a telegram directly from Talat Pasha ordering him to ‘Burn-Destroy-Kill’.

‘At dawn I was awakened by the noise of shots and volleys. The Armenians had attacked the town. Immediately I mounted my horse and, followed by some armed men, went to see what was happening. Judge of my amazement to discover that the aggressors had not been the Armenians, after all, but the civil authorities themselves! Supported by the Kurds and the rabble of the vicinity, they were attacking and sacking the Armenian quarter, I succeeded at last, without serious accident, in approaching the Beledie reis of the town, who was directing the orgy; whereupon I ordered him to stop the massacre. He astounded me by replying that he was doing nothing more than carry out an unequivocal order emanating from the Governor-General of the province to exterminate all Armenian males of twelve years of age and over.’ 

’The civil authorities of the Sultan kill noiselessly and preferably by night, like vampires. Generally they choose as their victim's sepulcher deep lakes in which there are no indiscreet currents to bear the corpse to shore, or lonely mountain caves where dogs and jackals aid in erasing all traces of their crime. Among them I noticed some Kurds belonging to a group of several hundred which, on the following morning, was to help in killing off all the Armenians still in possession of some few positions and edifices around the town. Seeing that the enemy's fire was dwindling down, and unable to endure any longer the odor of scorched flesh from the Armenian corpses scattered among the smoking ruins of the church.’

- Rafael de Nogales Méndez, Venezuelan officer in the Ottoman army

Abdülmecid II was the last Caliph of Islam from the Ottoman Dynasty and Heir-Apparent to the Ottoman Throne. He is often noted for his intervention and confrontation with Enver Pasha before the latter's support of initiating the deportations and subsequent massacres. In an interview with an Istanbul Special Correspondent of a newspaper based in London, Abdülmecid II describes the encounter. 

‘I refer to those awful massacres. They are the greatest stain that has ever disgraced our nation and race. They were entirely the work of Talat and Enver. I heard some days before they began that they were intended. I went to Istanbul and insisted on seeing Enver. I asked him if it was true that they intended to recommence the massacres which had been our shame and disgrace under Abdul Hamid. The only reply I could get from him was: 

'It is decided. It is the program.'

- Caliph Abdulmecid II, last Turkish Caliph of Islam of the Ottoman Dynasty, 1922–1924

 

Jakob Künzler was known as the ‘Father of Armenian Orphans.’ With an invitation from Protestant missionary Johannes Lepsius, he visited Urfa and was his assistant. With the start of World War I, Künzler was heavily preoccupied by providing medical assistance to the needy. During his time in the Ottoman Empire, Künzler with his wife Elisabeth helped the destitute and wounded Armenian orphans in the Syrian Desert. He was especially involved with the Near East Foundation and is known to have saved thousands of Armenian lives. In his memoirs, In the Land of Blood and Tears, Künzler recounts the massacres he had witnessed in Ottoman Turkey and especially in Urfa.

 ‘... two Turkish officials who appeared in Urfa. The rumor was that they hurried out in order to drive forward the extermination of the Armenian people with all their might, and they had the sanction of the highest state authority for doing so. They ordered on this basis, scarcely the moment they arrived in Urfa, the killing of all gathered prisoners. '

Why should we feed them any longer?' they said.’ 

‘I resolved to serve that people as a true brother. Ever since, I have come to deeply believe that all barbaric schemes to destroy the Armenian people will always be destined to fail.’

 ‘After what I experienced, I had felt that I had been summoned from the Heavens, the Lord had shown me the path [and] led me to a people, who, despite all adversities and miseries, had resolved to remain faithful to their God and the Lord

 ... Isn't this the same people who just a couple of years ago [1894–1896] had been subjected to horrible massacres? Their villages razed, plundered, and tens of thousands massacred? And yet, this very people, with resolute faith in God, continue to remain hopeful that better days are yet to come and that they will be more felicitous. God dispatched me to such a people so that I can attend to their wounds as their true brother.’

- Jacob Künzler, Swiss Surgeon and Orientalist

 

Friedrich Freiherr Kress von Kressenstein, was a German General and the head of Ottoman army operations in the Caucasus during World War I. Additionally, he was, as well as the chief of staff in Syria and Palestine. 

 It was during his time in the region that he reported that the policy implemented towards the Armenians by the Turkish government as a ‘military necessity’ was in actuality a policy to ‘justify the murder of hundreds and thousands of human beings.’ Kressenstein was also known in his reports for scorning the misinformation by Turkish authorities in regards to the situation of the Armenians. He also noted that the refusal of providing aid to the Armenian refugees was ‘proof’ in itself that the Turkish authorities had the ‘resolve to destroy the Armenians. The Turkish policy of causing starvation is an all too obvious proof for the Turkish resolve to destroy the Armenians. The Turkish policy vis a vis the Armenians is clearly outlined [zeichnet sich klar ab]. 

The Turks have by no means relinquished their intention to exterminate the Armenians [ihre Absicht . . . auszurotten]. They merely changed their tactic. Wherever possible, the Armenians are being aroused, provoked in the hope of thereby securing a pretext for new assaults on them.’

- Friedrich Freiherr Kress von Kressenstein, German General and head of Ottoman army operations in the Caucasus, as well as the chief of staff in Syria and Palestine during World War I.

Abdülmecid II was the last Caliph of Islam from the Ottoman Dynasty and Heir-Apparent to the Ottoman Throne. He is often noted for his intervention and confrontation with Enver Pasha before the latter's support of initiating the deportations and subsequent massacres. In an interview with an Istanbul Special Correspondent of a newspaper based in London, Abdülmecid II describes the encounter. 

‘I refer to those awful massacres. They are the greatest stain that has ever disgraced our nation and race. They were entirely the work of Talat and Enver. I heard some days before they began that they were intended. I went to Istanbul and insisted on seeing Enver. I asked him if it was true that they intended to recommence the massacres which had been our shame and disgrace under Abdul Hamid. The only reply I could get from him was: 'It is decided. It is the program.'

- Caliph Abdulmecid II, last Turkist Caliph of Islam of the Ottoman Dynasty, 1922–1924

Jakob Künzler was known as the ‘Father of Armenian Orphans.’ With an invitation from Protestant missionary Johannes Lepsius, he visited Urfa and was his assistant. With the start of World War I, Künzler was heavily preoccupied by providing medical assistance to the needy. During his time in the Ottoman Empire, Künzler with his wife Elisabeth helped the destitute and wounded Armenian orphans in the Syrian Desert. He was especially involved with the Near East Foundation and is known to have saved thousands of Armenian lives. In his memoirs, In the Land of Blood and Tears, Künzler recounts the massacres he had witnessed in Ottoman Turkey and especially in Urfa.

‘... two Turkish officials who appeared in Urfa. The rumor was that they hurried out in order to drive forward the extermination of the Armenian people with all their might, and they had the sanction of the highest state authority for doing so. They ordered on this basis, scarcely the moment they arrived in Urfa, the killing of all gathered prisoners. 'Why should we feed them any longer?' they said.’

‘I resolved to serve that people as a true brother. Ever since, I have come to deeply believe that all barbaric schemes to destroy the Armenian people will always be destined to fail.’ 

‘After what I experienced, I had felt that I had been summoned from the Heavens, the Lord had shown me the path [and] led me to a people, who, despite all adversities and miseries, had resolved to remain faithful to their God and the Lord ... Isn't this the same people who just a couple of years ago [1894–1896] had been subjected to horrible massacres? Their villages razed, plundered, and tens of thousands massacred? And yet, this very people, with resolute faith in God, continue to remain hopeful that better days are yet to come and that they will be more felicitous. God dispatched me to such a people so that I can attend to their wounds as their true brother.’

- Jacob Künzler, Swiss Surgeon and Orientalist

Friedrich Freiherr Kress von Kressenstein, was a German General and the head of Ottoman army operations in the Caucasus during World War I. Additionally, he was, as well as the chief of staff in Syria and Palestine.  It was during his time in the region that he reported that the policy implemented towards the Armenians by the Turkish government as a ‘military necessity’ was in actuality a policy to ‘justify the murder of hundreds and thousands of human beings.’ Kressenstein was also known in his reports for scorning the misinformation by Turkish authorities in regards to the situation of the Armenians. He also noted that the refusal of providing aid to the Armenian refugees was ‘proof’ in itself that the Turkish authorities had the ‘resolve to destroy the Armenians. The Turkish policy of causing starvation is an all too obvious proof for the Turkish resolve to destroy the Armenians. The Turkish policy vis a vis the Armenians is clearly outlined [zeichnet sich klar ab]. The Turks have by no means relinquished their intention to exterminate the Armenians [ihre Absicht . . . auszurotten]. They merely changed their tactic. Wherever possible, the Armenians are being aroused, provoked in the hope of thereby securing a pretext for new assaults on them.’

- Friedrich Freiherr Kress von Kressenstein, German General and head of Ottoman army operations in the Caucasus, as well as the chief of staff in Syria and Palestine during World War I.

James Harbord was sent to the Caucasus to lead an American Military Mission to Armenia in order to provide detailed information about the country to the United States. Upon returning to the United States, Harbord wrote Conditions in the Near East: Report of the American Military Mission to Armenia, which was a summary of the expedition that provided various details of the mission. The report includes maps, statistics, and historical analyses of the country and its population. In addition to such details, Harbord collected evidence and information regarding the massacres of Armenians and was an eyewitness to them. 

‘The dead, from this wholesale attempt on the race, are variously estimated at from five hundred thousand to a million, the usual figure being about eight hundred thousand. Driven on foot under a hot sun, robbed of their clothing and such petty articles as they carried, prodded by bayonets if they lagged, starvation, typhus, and dysentery left thousands dead by the trail side.’ 

‘Massacres and deportations were organized in the spring of 1915 under definite system, the soldiers going from town to town. The official reports of the Turkish Government show 1,100,000 as having been deported. Young men were first summoned to the government building in each village and then marched out and killed. The women, the old men, and children were, after a few days, deported to what Talat Pasha called ‘agricultural colonies,’ from the high, cool, breeze-swept plateau of Armenia to the malarial flats of the Euphrates and the burning sands of Syria and Arabia ... Mutilation, violation, torture, and death have left their haunting memories in a hundred beautiful Armenian valleys, and the traveler in that region is seldom free from the evidence of this most colossal crime of all ages.’

-James Harbord, American Lieutenant General in the United States Army

Martin Niepage, a German schoolteacher in Aleppo Martin. Niepage was a teacher of the German Realschule in Aleppo from 1913 to 1916.  Niepage had tried to stop the massacres from happening by appealing to the local German authorities in order ‘to put a stop to the brutality with which the wives and children of slaughtered Armenians are being treated here’. He also indicated that the campaign of forceful starvation was just one of the methods employed to annihilate the Armenian nation altogether. Martin Niepage wrote an account of his experiences in Aleppo entitled The Horrors of Aleppo. Niepage was later sentenced to death in absentia by the Turkish government for publishing the account.

 ‘A newspaper reporter was told by one of these gentlemen ‘Certainly we are now punishing many innocent people as well. But we have to guard ourselves even against those who may one day become guilty.’ 

On such grounds Turkish statesmen justify the wholesale slaughter of defenceless women and children. A German Catholic ecclesiastic reported that Enver Pasha declared, in the presence of Monsignore Dolci, the Papal Envoy at Constantinople that he would not rest so long as a single Armenian remained alive.

The object of the deportations is the extermination of the whole Armenian nation.’

‘I was told, to cover the extermination of the Armenian nation with a political cloak, military reasons were being put forward 

... After I had informed myself about the facts and had made enquiries on all sides, I came to the conclusion that all these accusations against the Armenians were, in fact, based on trifling provocations, which were taken as an excuse for slaughtering 10,000 innocents for one guilty person, for the most savage outrages against women and children, and for a campaign of starvation against the exiles which was intended to exterminate the whole nation.’ 

‘The German Consul from Mosul related, in my presence, at the German club at Aleppo that, in many places on the road from Mosul to Aleppo, he had seen children’s hands lying hacked off in such numbers that one could have paved the road with them.’ 

 ‘When I returned to Aleppo in September, 1915, from a three months' holiday at Beirut, I heard with horror that a new phase of Armenian massacres had begun which were far more terrible than the earlier massacres under Abdul-Hamid, and which aimed at exterminating, root and branch, the intelligent, industrious, and progressive Armenian nation, and at transferring its property to Turkish hands.’  

- Martin Niepage, German schoolteacher in Aleppo, who tried

to stop the massacres

Mehmed Celal Bey, Turkish Governor of Aleppo and Konya Celal Bey was known for saving thousands of lives during the Armenian Genocide and is often called Turkish Oscar Schindler. During his time as governor of Aleppo, Mehmet Celal Bey did not believe that the deportations were meant to ‘annihilate’ the Armenians:

‘I admit, I did not believe that these orders, these actions revolved around the annihilation of the Armenians. I never imagined that any government could take upon itself to annihilate its own citizens in this manner, in effect destroying its human capital, which must be seen as the country's greatest treasure. I presumed that the actions being carried out were measures deriving from a desire to temporarily remove the Armenians from the theater of war and taken as the result of wartime exigencies.’ 

Celal Bey had later admitted that he was mistaken and that the goal was ‘to attempt to annihilate’ the Armenians. When defying the orders of deportation, Celal Bey was removed from his post as governor of Aleppo and transferred to Konya.  As deportations continued, he repeatedly demanded from the central authorities that shelter be provided for the deportees. In addition to these demands, Celal Bey sent many telegraphs and letters of protest to the Sublime Porte stating that the ‘measures taken against the Armenians were, from every point of view, contrary to the higher interests of the fatherland.’

His demands, however, were ignored. Mehmet Celal Bey compared himself to ‘a person sitting by the side of a river, with absolute no means of saving anyone. Blood was flowing in the river and thousands of innocent children, irreproachable old people, helpless women, strong young men, were streaming down this river towards oblivion. Anyone I could save with my bare hands I saved, and the others, I think they streamed down the river never to return.’

‘Yes, let us say that the Armenians assisted the enemy. And that some Armenian parliamentary deputies preferred to join the ranks of the rebels and decided to murder. The government did not take up the responsibility to arrest the perpetrators of these crimes, but instead, decided to resettle the entire Armenian population, whether they were friendly or not. A rebel is capable of anything since he is a rebel. The government is supposed to track them down. However, just like the governors of back then, having never forgotten their rebellious spirit, have conducted the deportation in the most audacious manner that even the guerrillas couldn't possibly have imitated. Instead of attacking the Russians at the Sakarya valley and utilizing the Armenians for assistance, the government at that time decided, as a precaution, to relocate them all throughout Ankara, Konya and Eskişehir. At the time, the Russians had fully supplied themselves with dreadnoughts while the Yavuz and Midilli dominated the Black Sea whereas, it was impossible for the Russian troops to send troops to the Sakarya basin. Okay, let us accept this as a possibility ... but why were the Armenians of Bursa, Edirne, and Tekirdag removed? Was this part of the Sakarya basin as well? Why were they sent to Aleppo, a place whose population was only one-twentieth Armenian? Right or wrong, for the sake of the fatherland the Armenians were removed from their lands, how is this a practical policy? Has the government even thought about the implications of deporting these helpless Armenians without food or shelter to Der Zor where Arab nomadic tribes solely reside? If so I ask: how much food was provided and how many shelters were built for these deportees? What is the purpose of deporting the Armenians, who have lived for centuries on these lands, to the deserts of Der Zor without water and lumber to construct their new settlements? Unfortunately, it is impossible to deny and distort the facts. The purpose was to annihilate [imhaydı] and they were annihilated [imha edildiler]. It is impossible to hide and conceal this policy conducted by the İttihat and Terakki which was drafted by its leaders and was ultimately accepted by the general public.’

- Mehmed Celal Bey, Turkish Governor of Aleppo and Konya Celal Bey

Maria Jacobsen wrote the Diaries of a Danish Missionary: Harpoot, 1907–1919, which according to Armenian Genocide scholar, Ara Sarafian, is a ‘documentation of the utmost significance’ for research of the Armenian Genocide. Jacobsen will later be known for having saved thousands of Armenians during the aftermath of the Armenian Genocide through various relief efforts

‘It is quite obvious that the purpose of their departure is the extermination of the Armenian people.’  ‘Conditions now are completely different from what they were during the massacres of 20 years ago. What could be done then is impossible now. The Turks know very well about the war raging in Europe, and that the Christian nations are too busy to take care of Armenians, so they take advantage of the times to destroy their ‘enemies’.

- Maria Jacobsen, Danish Christian missionary

Oscar S. Heizer worked at the American Consul in Trabzon. While serving in his diplomatic post in Trabzon, Heizer witnessed the Armenian Genocide and often risked his own life to save the lives of Armenians. Being one of the first to report massacres, Heizer's initial reporting to the American consulate in Constantinople said that it was permissible ‘whenever the parents so desire’ to leave children – girls up to the age of 15 and boys up to the age of ten – in the ‘orphanages by the Turks.’  Heizer also describes how some children were assimilated into Muslim Turks in a matter of weeks.  Often writing about the systematic drowning of Armenians in the Black Sea, Heizer exposed the direct link and collaboration between the central Ottoman government and local members of the Committee of Union and Progress.

 ‘This plan did not suit Nail Bey ... Many of the children were loaded into boats and taken out to sea and thrown overboard. I myself saw where 16 bodies were washed ashore and buried by a Greek woman near the Italian monastery.’

‘It is impossible to convey an idea of the consternation and despair the publication of this proclamation has produced upon the people. I have seen strong, proud, wealthy men weep like children while they told me that they had given their boys and girls to Persian and Turkish neighbors. Even a strong man, without the necessary outfit and food would likely to perish on such a trip ... The People are helpless but are making preparations to start on the perilous journey.’

- Oscar S. Heizer, American American Consul in Trabzon

Hans Freiherr von Wangenheim served as the German Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, 1912–1915. During the deportations and as World War I was going on, all of the diplomats representing Allied powers were expelled from the country. Due to the German-Turkish alliance, Germans along with Austrians remained. While major newspapers were talking about the massacres, Wangenheim was at first reluctant to talk about the massacres, but he eventually conceded by saying that there ‘no longer was doubt that the Porte was trying to exterminate the Armenian race in the Turkish Empire.’ While Wangenheim did not go further in his formal testimony against the massacres, his successors and others in the German diplomatic staff reacted more strongly.

‘On the other hand, the German Government cannot disguise the dangers created by these rigorous measures and notably by the mass expatriations which include the guilty and the innocent indiscriminately, especially when these measures are accompanied by acts of violence, such as massacre and pillage.’ ‘The manner in which the matter of relocation is being handled demonstrates that the government is in fact pursuing the goal of annihilating the Armenian race in Turkey.’

- Hans Freiherr von Wangenheim served as the German Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, 1912–1915

Mustafa Arif (since Surname Law Mustafa Arif Deymer) served as Interior Minister succeeding Talat Pasha after the latter had stepped down from office,

 In regards to the massacres, Arif was especially known for establishing a governmental commission that examined the events. On March 18, 1919, the commission concluded that 800,000 Armenians died during World War I. The figure became reputable after other Turkish historians such as Yusuf Hikmet Bayur used the figure in their research and writing.[36] ‘Surely a few Armenians aided and abetted our enemy, and a few Armenian Deputies committed crimes against the Turkish nation ... it is incumbent upon a government to pursue the guilty ones. Unfortunately, our wartime leaders, imbued with a spirit of brigandage, carried out the law of deportation in a manner that could surpass the proclivities of the most bloodthirsty bandits. They decided to exterminate the Armenians, and they did exterminate them.  

‘The atrocities committed against the Armenians reduced our country to a gigantic slaughterhouse.’

- Mustafa Arif Deymer, served as Turkish Interior Minister

Einar af Wirsén, the Swedish Military Attaché, wrote much about the Armenian Genocide in his memoirs Minnen från fred och krig (‘Memories from Peace and War’). In his memoirs, Wirsén dedicated a chapter to the massacres entitled Mordet på en nation (‘The Murder of a Nation’). He believed that the deportations were a way of concealing the massacres. The memoirs provide an important analysis of the deportations and massacres from a country who was not involved in World War I.  

‘Officially, these had the goal to move the entire Armenian population to the steppe regions of Northern Mesopotamia and Syria, but in reality they aimed to exterminate [utrota] the Armenians, whereby the pure Turkish element in Asia Minor would achieve a dominating position’. ‘The annihilation of the Armenian nation in Asia Minor must revolt all human feelings ... The way the Armenian problem was solved was hair-raising. I can still see in front of me Talaat's cynical expression, when he emphasized that the Armenian question was solved’.

- Carl Einar Ture af Wirsén, Swedish Military Attaché

Henry H. Riggs, an American Christian missionary and president of Euphrates College, was stationed in Kharpert during the Armenian Genocide. His book Days of Tragedy in Armenia: Personal Experiences in Harpoot, 1915–1917, is considered to be one of the most detail accounts of the Armenian Genocide in the English language, provides an important eyewitness account of the events. Riggs concluded that the deportation of Armenians was part of an extermination program organized by the Ottoman government.

‘The attack on the Armenian people, which soon developed into a systematic attempt to exterminate the race, was a cold-blooded, unprovoked, deliberate act, planned and carried out without popular approval, by the military masters of Turkey.’

‘Very good evidence exists for the belief that both there and Ras-ul-Ain, also in the same desert, the people were massacred wholesale as soon as they left the villages where they had been quartered. At the beginning of the period under discussion, that is, at the beginning of 1916, there were in exile in that district something like 485,000 Armenians. Fifteen months later, after the last deportation had been completed, not more than 113,000 out of that throng could be located. Out of the 372,000 who had perished most had died from starvation and disease, but many thousands were also massacred at the last moment, when apparently the Turkish government had tired of the pretense of carrying out the theory of deportation.’

- Henry H. Riggs, American Christian missionary and 
president of Euphrates College

Mustafa Yamulki, Turkish Ottoman military officer and head judge of the Turkish Courts-Martial of 1919–1920 Also known as ‘Nemrud’ Mustafa Pasha, Yamulki was the head judge of the Turkish Courts-Martial of 1919–1920 since the day of its creation on February 1919.[91] The Courts-Martial's was later known for condemning Talat, Enver, Cemal, and others to death for their role in the massacres against Armenians. ‘Nemrud’ Mustafa Pasha had a reputation for being honest and was instrumental in exposing the crimes and corruption scandals of the Ottoman Empire during World War I.  Due to his open accusations against the massacres, ‘Nemrud’ Mustafa Pasha was sentenced to three months imprisonment. The sentences he gave condemning various Turkish officials for conducting massacre were overturned.

‘Our fellow countrymen committed unheard of crimes, resorted to all conceivable methods of despotism, organised deportations and massacres, poured gas over babies and burned them, raped women and girls in front of their parents who were bound hand and foot, took girls in front of their parents and fathers, appropriated personal property and real estate, drove people to Mesopotamia and treated them inhumanly on the way ... they put thousands of innocent people into boats that were sunk at sea ... they put Armenians in the most unbearable conditions any other nation had ever known in its history.’

- Mustafa Yamulki, Turkish Ottoman military officer and head judge of the Turkish Courts-Martial of 1919–1920

Like his predecessor Hans Freiherr von Wangenheim, Kühlmann was initially reluctant to expose the massacres against the Armenian population. Kühlmann, who held sympathetic beliefs toward Turkish nationalism, repeatedly used the term ‘alleged’ and excused the Turkish government for the massacres. Kühlmann, in defense of the Turkish government and the German-Turkish World War alliance, stated that the policies against the Armenians was a matter of ‘internal politics’,] However, Kühlmann eventually conceded in calling the massacres ‘a large scale destruction of Armenians.’

‘The destruction of the Armenians was undertaken on a massive scale. This policy of extermination will for a long time stain the name of Turkey.’

- Richard von Kühlmann, German Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, 1916–1917

Bodil Katharine Biørn was a Christian missionary stationed in Mush when the Armenian Genocide started. She was instrumental in saving thousands of Armenian lives Biørn wrote much of what she witnessed in her personal diary. She is also noted for taking hundreds of photographs of the situation providing details of the events in the back of each photograph. Bodil eventually took care of Armenian orphans in Syria, Lebanon and Constantinople. In 1922 she founded an orphanage named ‘Lusaghbyur’ in Alexandropol, Soviet Armenia. Then she continued her work by aiding the Armenian refugees in Syria and Lebanon. By the initiative of the Armenian community of Aleppo, the Norwegian city of Kragero has erected a statue honoring Bodil Biorn.

‘Of the Armenian part of Mush, where 10,000 people lived, only ruins were left. It happened during the warmest time of the year, the heat and the smell from the burning houses and all the people who were burnt to death and all the killed, was almost impossible to bear. It was an awful time. Almost the whole Christian population was murdered, often in a gruesome manner. 40 ox wagons with women and children were burned in this manner. 11 canons were put on the heights above the city and fired at the Armenian quarters. Some managed to flee to the mountains, some fled through Persia to the Armenian republic, some were deported, but the majority was killed. The Armenian part of the city and all Armenian villages were in ruins.’

- Bodil Katharine Biørn, Norwegian Christian missionary

Vehip Pasha assumed the commandment of the Third Army in February 1916 from Mahmud Kâmil Pasha, after much of the deportations concluded. During his post, Vehip Pasha received an order to send 2,000 Armenians as labor battalions for the construction of the Baghdad-Berlin Railway. However, Vehip Pasha was ‘outraged’ after receiving word that the Armenians he had sent were massacred. Vehip Pasha set up a court-martial for the man in charge of the transfer and massacre, Nuri Efendi. During the court-martial, Nuri Efendi blamed the governor of Sivas, Ahmet Muammer, for the massacres. Ahmet Muammer was eventually relieved by Talat Pasha who subsequently positioned him outside of Vehip Pasha's supervision. Though Vehip Pasha is largely known for his commandment during the Caucasus Campaign in 1918, he also condemned the massacres against Armenians that happened prior to his appointment as commander of the Third Army in 1916.

‘The massacre and destruction of the Armenians and the plunder and pillage of their goods were the results of decision reached by Ittihad's [the Young Turks] Central Committee ... The atrocities were carried out under a program that was determined upon and involved a definite case of premeditation. It was [also] ascertained that these atrocities and crimes were encouraged by the district attorneys whose dereliction of judicial duties in face of their occurrence and especially their remaining indifferent renders them accessories to these crimes.’

‘In summary, here are my convictions. The Armenian deportations were carried out in a manner entirely unbecoming to humanity, civilization, and government. The massacre and annihilation of the Armenians, and the looting and plunder of their properties were the result of the decision of the Central Committee of Ittihad and Terakki. The butchers of human beings, who operated in the command zone of the Third Army, were procured and engaged by Dr. Bahattin Şakir. The high ranking governmental officials did submit to his directives and order ... He stopped by at all major centers where he orally transmitted his instructions to the party's local bodies and to the governmental authorities.’

- Vehip Pasha, Turkish General in the Ottoman Army and commander of the Ottoman Third Army during the Caucasus Campaign

After World War I, Ahmet Refik wrote Two committees two massacres (İki Komite iki Kitâl), an account of the massacres during the War. Though Refik writes about massacres conducted on both sides, he concludes that the massacres against the Armenians was an attempt by the Turkish government to ‘destroy the Armenians’.

‘The criminal gangs who were released from the prisons, after a week's training at the War Ministry's training grounds, were sent off to the Caucasian front as the brigands of the Special Organization, perpetrating the worst crimes against the Armenians.’

‘In a situation such as this, a just government which is confident of its force would have punished those who rebelled against the government. But the Ittihadists, wanted to annihilate the Armenians and in this manner eliminate the Eastern Question.’

‘It was said that the most distressing tragedies occurred in Bursa and Ankara; houses were ransacked, hundreds of Armenian families were put into cars and hurled into streams. Many women went insane in the face of such awful murders. Houses of wealthy Armenians were bought, but the payments were recovered by fiat upon transfer of title. This conduct was a murder against humanity. No government, in any age, had brought about a murder this cruel.’

- Ahmet Refik, Turkish historian, poet, and writer

BE SURE TO READ: The Forgotten Genocide: Why It Matters Today


* It's Sunday and I sprained or tore some ligaments in my foot/ankle.  So, you'll have to tolerate heavy usage of wikipedia and my own photographic styling!