Chapter VI: The Deportations of 1915: Procedure (3)

“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.”

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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.

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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.