Germany -- Foreign relations -- Turkey; Turkey -- Foreign relations -- Germany; World War, 1914-1918 -- Turkey
“Then you go back to the German Embassy,” I said, “and tell Wangenheim
that I said, to go ahead and have me recalled. If I am to suffer
martyrdom, I can think of no better cause in which to be sacrificed. In
fact, I would welcome it, for I can think of no greater honour than to
be recalled because I, a Jew, had been exerting all my powers to save
the lives of hundreds of thousands of Christians.”
Dr. Nossig hurriedly left my office and I have never seen him since.
When I next met Enver I told him that there were rumours that the
Ottoman Government was about to ask for my recall. He was very emphatic
in denouncing the whole story as a falsehood. “We would not be guilty of
making such a ridiculous mistake,” he said. So there was not the
slightest doubt that this attempt to intimidate me had been hatched at
the German Embassy.
Wangenheim returned to Constantinople in early October. I was shocked at
the change that had taken place in the man. As I wrote in my diary, “he
looked the perfect picture of Wotan.” His face was almost constantly
twitching, he wore a black cover over his right eye, and he seemed
unusually nervous and depressed. He told me that he had obtained little
rest, but had been obliged to spend most of his time in Berlin attending
to business. A few days after his return I met him on my way to Haskeuy;
he said that he was going to the American Embassy, and together we
walked there. I had been recently told by Talaat that he intended to
deport all the Armenians who were left in Turkey, and this statement had
induced me to make a final plea to the one man in Constantinople who had
the power to end the horrors. I took Wangenheim up to the second floor
of the Embassy, where we could be entirely alone and uninterrupted, and
there, for more than an hour, sitting together over the tea-table, we
had our last conversation on this subject.
“Berlin telegraphs me,” he said, “that your Secretary of State tells
them that you say that more Armenians than ever have been massacred
since Bulgaria has come in on our side.”
“No, I did not say that,” I replied. “I admit that I have sent a large
amount of information to Washington. I have sent copies of every report
and every statement to the State Department. They are safely lodged
there, and, whatever happens to me, the evidence is complete and the
American people are not dependent on my oral report for their
information. But this particular statement you make is not quite
accurate. I merely informed Mr. Lansing that any influence Bulgaria
might exert to stop the massacres has been lost now that she has become
Turkey’s ally.”
We again discussed the deportations.
“Germany is not responsible for this,” Wangenheim said.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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