Germany -- Foreign relations -- Turkey; Turkey -- Foreign relations -- Germany; World War, 1914-1918 -- Turkey
Humann was not the only important German who expressed this latter
sentiment. Intimations began to reach me from many sources that my
“meddling” in behalf of the Armenians was making me more and more
unpopular in German officialdom. One day in October, Neurath, the German
Conseiller, called and showed me a telegram which he had just received
from the German Foreign Office. This contained the information that Earl
Crewe and Earl Cromer had spoken on the Armenians in the House of Lords,
had laid the responsibility for the massacres upon the Germans, and had
declared that they had received their information from an American
witness. The telegram also referred to an article in the _Westminster
Gazette_, which said that the German consuls at certain places had
instigated and even led the attacks, and particularly mentioned Resler
of Aleppo. Neurath said that his government had directed him to obtain a
denial of these charges from the American Ambassador at Constantinople.
I refused to make such a denial, saying that I did not feel called upon
to decide officially whether Turkey or Germany was to blame for these
crimes.
Yet everywhere in diplomatic circles there seemed to be a conviction
that the American Ambassador was responsible for the wide publicity
which the Armenian massacres were receiving in Europe and the United
States. I have no hesitation in saying that they were right about this.
In December, my son, Henry Morgenthau, Jr., paid a visit to the
Gallipoli peninsula, where he was entertained by General Liman von
Sanders and other German officers. He had hardly stepped into German
headquarters when an officer came up to him and said:
“Those are very interesting articles on the Armenian question which
your father is writing in the American newspapers.”
“My father has been writing no articles,” my son replied.
“Oh,” said this officer, “just because his name isn’t signed to them
doesn’t mean that he is not writing them!”
Von Sanders also spoke on this subject.
“Your father is making a great mistake,” he said, “giving out the facts
about what the Turks are doing to the Armenians. That really is not his
business.”
As hints of this kind made no impression on me, the Germans evidently
decided to resort to threats. In the early autumn, a Dr. Nossig arrived
in Constantinople from Berlin. Dr. Nossig was a German Jew, and came to
Turkey evidently to work against the Zionists. After he had talked with
me for a few minutes, describing his Jewish activities, I soon
discovered that he was a German political agent. He came to see me
twice; the first time his talk was somewhat indefinite, the purpose of
the call apparently being to make my acquaintance and insinuate himself
into my good graces. The second time, after discoursing vaguely on
several topics, he came directly to the point. He drew his chair close
up to me and began to talk in the most friendly and confidential manner.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account