Germany, Turkey, and Armenia: A Selection of Documentary Evidence Relating to the Armenian Atrocities from German and other SourcesAnonymous
History
Germany, Turkey, and Armenia: A Selection of Documentary Evidence Relating to the Armenian Atrocities from German and other Sources
Anonymous
Armenian question; World War, 1914-1918 -- Armenia
One old priest was tortured so cruelly to extract a confession
that, believing that the torture would cease and that he would be
left alone if he did it, he cried out in his desperation: "We are
revolutionists." He expected his tortures to cease, but on the contrary
the soldiers cried: "What further do we seek? We have it here from his
own lips." And instead of picking their victims as they did before,
the officials had all the Armenians tortured without sparing a soul.
Early in July 2,000 Armenian soldiers were ordered to leave for
Aleppo to build roads. The people of Harpout were terrified on
hearing this, and a panic started in the town. The Vali sent for the
German missionary, Mr. Ehemann, and begged him to quiet the people,
repeating over and over again that no harm whatever would befall these
soldiers. Mr. Ehemann took the Vali's word and quieted the people. But
they had scarcely left when we heard that they had all been murdered
and thrown into a cave. Just a few managed to escape, and we got the
reports from them. It was useless to protest to the Vali. The American
Consul at Harpout protested several times, but the Vali makes no
account of him, and treats him in a most shameful manner. A few days
later another 2,000 Armenian soldiers were despatched via Diyarbekir,
and, in order to hinder them the more surely from escaping, they were
left to starve on the way, so that they had no strength left in them
to flee. The Kurds were given notice that the Armenians were on the
way, and the Kurdish women came with their butcher's knives to help
the men. In Mezré a public brothel was erected for the Turks, and all
the beautiful Armenian girls and women were placed there. At night the
Turks were allowed free entrance. The permission for the Protestant
and Catholic Armenians to be exempted from deportation only arrived
after their deportation had taken place. The Government wanted to
force the few remaining Armenians to accept the Mohammedan faith. A
few did so in order to save their wives and children from the terrible
sufferings already witnessed in the case of others. The people begged
us to leave for Constantinople and obtain some security for them. On
our way to Constantinople we only encountered old women. No young
women or girls were to be seen.
Already by November [5] we had known that there would be a
massacre. The Mutessarif of Moush, who was a very intimate friend
of Enver Pasha, declared quite openly that they would massacre the
Armenians at the first opportune moment and exterminate the whole
race. Before the Russians arrived they intended first to butcher
the Armenians, and then fight the Russians afterwards. Towards the
beginning of April, in the presence of a Major Lange and several other
high officials, including the American and German Consuls, Ekran Bey
quite openly declared the Government's intention of exterminating
the Armenian race. All these details plainly show that the massacre
was deliberately planned.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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