Footnotes
PRELIMINARY
1. Memorandum by the Editor, page xli.
2. Memorandum by the Editor, page. xl.
3. For instance, the conversation of a German officer reported in Doc. 108, p. 420. For the general attitude of the Turks and Germans towards the treatment of the Armenians, see "Historical Summary," chapter V.
On the 11th January, 1916, Herr von Stumm, Chief of the Political Department of the German Foreign Office, gave the following answer in the Reichstag to a question from Dr. Liebknecht :
"It is known to the Imperial Chancellor that revolutionary demonstrations, organised by our enemies, have taken place in Armenia, and that they have caused the Turkish Government to expel the Armenian population of certain districts and to allot to them new dwelling-places. An exchange of views about the reaction of these measures upon the population is now taking place. Further information cannot be given."
4. A copy of this letter was communicated to the Berner Tagwacht by Dr. Forel, a Swiss gentleman, and reproduced in the Journal de Genève, 17th August, 1916. It was signed by four persons---Dr. Gräter (of Swiss nationality), Dr. Niepage (of German nationality), and two others whose names have been withheld by Dr. Forel.---EDITOR.
5. AMERICAN COMMITTEE FOR ARMENIAN AND SYRIAN RELIEF. 70, Fifth Avenue, New York.
Including work of the Armenian Relief, the Persian War Relief, and the Syrian-Palestine Relief Committees.
James L. Barton, Chairman.
Samuel T. Dutton, Secretary.
Walter H. Mallory, Field Secretary
Charles R. Crane, Treasurer.
| Arthur J. Brown. | John Moffat. |
| Edwin M. Bulkley. | John R. Mott. |
| John B. Calvert. | Frank Mason North. |
| John D. Crimmins. | Harry V. Osborne. |
| Cleveland H. Dodge. | George A. Plimpton. |
| Charles W. Eliot. | Rt. Rev. P. Rhinelander. |
| William T. Ellis. | Karl Davis Robinson. |
| James Cardinal Gibbons. | William W. Rockwell. |
| Rt. Rev. David H. Greer. | George T. Scott. |
| Norman Hapgood. | Isaac N. Seligman. |
| Maurice H. Harris. | William Sloane. |
| William I. Haven. | Edward Lincoln Smith. |
| Hamilton Holt. | James M. Speers. |
| Arthur Curtiss James. | Oscar M. Straus. |
| Frederick Lynch. | Stanley White. |
| Chas. S. MacFarland. | Talcott Williams. |
| H. Pereira Mendes | Stephen S. Wise. |
6. Doc. 121.
7. In other words, wherever the title of a document is given without such a footnote, that means that the Editor is in possession of the author's name, even if the name is not published but represented by a symbol (e.g., " Dr. W'), or by such periphrases as " A foreign resident," &c.
I. GENERAL DESCRIPTIONS
8. For full text see Doc. 146.
9. See " Historical Summary," Chapter V.
10. Compare Doc. 101.
11. For the real facts see Section II.
12. See Doc. 59.
14. See Doc. 82.
15. See Section XV.
17. See Section III.
18. See Doc. 53.
19. See Docs. 59, 60, 61, 62. The witnesses at Erzindjan were not Norwegians but Danes---EDITOR.
22. See Doc. 59.
23. See Doc. 99.
24. See Doc. 123.
25. The author of the letter has been identified by an Armenian resident abroad who recognised his hand-writing.----EDITOR.
26. Author of Docs. 56 and 57.
27. "We have just picked up fifteen babies. Three are already dead. They were terribly thin and ailing when we found them. Ah! If we could only write all that we see."---Extract from a letter dated Marash, 4th June, 1915, published in "Sonnenaufgang," September, 1915.
28. See Doc. 139, d.
II. VILAYET OF VAN
29. The shelling of the mission buildings is also described by Mr. Yarrow, in an interview published in the New York " Times," 6th October, 1915, the day after his arrival in America :---
"For twenty-seven days 1,500 determined Armenians held Van against 5,000 Turks and Kurds, and for the last three days they were shelled with shrapnel from a howitzer brought up by a Turkish company headed by a German officer. I myself saw him directing the fire of the gun.
"Two days before the Russians came to Van, the Turks deliberately fired at the mission buildings. They stood out prominently and could not be mistaken, and also flew five American flags and one Red Cross flag as a protection. The firing was so accurate that the shots cut the signal halyards and brought the flags to the ground."
30. See Doc. 23, page 89.
31. The Russians had made a preliminary incursion over the border after the Turkish declaration of war---Editor.
32. Miss Knapp gives the number as 3,000 (Doc. 15).
33. Miss Knapp makes the following observation at this point
"The fact cannot be too strongly emphasised that there was no 'rebellion.' As already pointed out, the Revolutionists meant to keep the peace if it lay in their power to do so. But for some time past a line of Turkish entrenchments had been secretly drawn round the Armenian quarter of the Gardens. The Revolutionists, determined to sell their lives as dearly as possible, prepared a defensive line of entrenchments."
35. "About 1,500 trained riflemen possessing only about 300 rifles." (Miss Knapp).
36. "A man escaping from Ardjish related the fate of that town, second in size and importance to Van in the Vilayet. The Kaimakam had called the men of all the guilds together on the l 9th April, and as he had always been friendly to the Armenians they trusted him. When they had all gathered, he had them mown down by his soldiers. Many of the village refugees had stopped short of the city, at the little village of Shushantz, on the mountain side near the city. Here Aram. bade them remain. On the 8th May, we saw the place in flames, and Varak Monastery near by, with its priceless. ancient manuscripts, also went up in smoke. These villagers, now flocked into the city." (Miss Knapp).
38. See Doc. 21.
39. Of Lazic nationality (?)----Editor.
III. VILAYET OF BITLIS
40. See preceding section.
41. At that time in hiding in the forests of Sourp Garabed.
IV. AZERBAIJAN AND HAKKIARI
45. Note by Miss Platt---The term Syrian, as used here, applies to the Christian nation who speak the Syriac language, and who are Nestorians by religious belief. In America they call themselves Persian-Assyrians.
46. Christian quarter of the city, adjoining the mission property.
47. A toman is about four shillings.
48. Ismael Agha's Kala. See page 162 below.
51. For a fuller version of Mr. Shimmon's statement see p. 577 below.
52. Mr. Shimmon is a graduate of Columbia University, New York, and has been resident at Urmia for the past fourteen years. He was an eye-witness of the events he relates ; and, after the retreat of the Turks and Kurds, he was appointed Commissioner for the Baranduz District of Urmia (under the authority of the Russian Consul and the Persian Governor) for the restoration of plundered Christian property. He has since undertaken a mission to Great Britain and the U.S., as the representative of His Beatitude Mar Shimun, the head of the Nestorian Church.
53. 1 toman=10 krans, and its actual value in English money is about 3s. 4d.---Editor.
55. A dignitary of the Nestorian Church, second in rank to the Patriarch, Mutran (or Matran) =Metropolitan.
57. Youngest dearly loved brother to Surma.
59. Sister-in-law; her eldest little boy, Theodore, will succeed his uncle as Patriarch.
60. Before the War, there were three main groups of Nestorians in the region between Lake Urmia and the Tigris, each group numbering about 30,000 souls. There were the villagers of the Urmia plain, the mountaineers of the Zab, and these other plainsmen in the Bohtan district, round the confluence of the Bohtan River and the Tigris. The present document describes the general massacre of many, or perhaps nearly all, the Nestorians of this third group, whose chief settlements were at Djeziret-ibn-Omar on the Tigris Mansouria (Monsoria) and Shakh.
V. THE REFUGEES IN THE CAUCASUS
VI. THE VILAYET OF ERZEROUM
64. The author of Doc. 57 estimates them at 300,000 only; but consult Annexe D. to the "Historical Summary."
66. Mr. Stapleton's total period of service at Erzeroum is thirteen years. For a letter from Mr. Stapleton himself, see Doc. 149, page 589---EDITOR.
67. See Doc. 62.
68. "4000-5000"---Doc. 2.
72. They were at work in the German hospital at Erzeroum from October, 1914, to April, 1915.---EDITOR.
73. 7th June---Allgemeine Missions-Zeitschrift, November, 1915.
74. Amounting to about 20,000-25,000 people in all---Allgemeine Missions-Zeitschrift, November, 1915.
75. One of the two authors of the present statement, which has been drafted in the first person by the other witness, but represents the experiences of both. The Editor is in possession of the drafter's name, but does not know the identity of Sister B., Dr. A., or Mr. G.---EDITOR.
76. A defile, 12 hours' journey from Erzindjan, where the Euphrates flows through a narrow gorge between two walls of rock.
77. i.e., after the departure of the last convoy of exiles from Erzindjan (10th June), not after the narrators were informed of the massacre by their cook and by the two Armenian girls. The passages about the cobbler, the cook, and the two girls are evidently in parenthesis, and interrupt the sequence of the narrative. --- EDITOR.
78. The further details are given in the Allgemeine Missions-Zeitschrift, November, 1915: "When we exclaimed in horror: 'So you fire on women and children !' the soldiers answered : 'What could we do ? It was our orders.' One of them added : 'It was a heart-breaking sight. For that matter, I did not shoot.' "---EDITOR.
79. On the evening of the 11th, we saw soldiers returning to town laden with loot. We heard from both Turks and Armenians that children's corpses were strewn along the road.
80. Every day ten or twelve of the men had been killed and thrown into the ravines. ---Allgemeine Missions-Zeitschrift.
81. This was not the route followed by the convoys of exiles.
VII. THE VILAYET OF MAMOURET-UL-AZIZ
83. This incident was communicated to Mr. DB. by DC. Effendi, a gentleman who had held high office under the Ottoman Government till the outbreak of the War.
84. Mr. Vartkes was an Armenian deputy in the Ottoman Parliament, who was murdered, together with another deputy, Mr. Zohrab, when he was being escorted by gendarmes from Aleppo to be court-martialled at Diyarbekir (see Docs. 7 and 9).---EDITOR.
87. See Doc. 78.
89. See Doc. 9, page 21.
VIII. THE VILAYET OF TREBIZOND, AND SANKJAK OF SHARIN KARA-HISSSAR
90. "The women."---American version.
91. The origination of this plan is recorded in an earlier (undated) report from the same hand, from which the following sentences are a quotation
"The children attending the American school conducted by -----, also those children left with them by persons being deported, have all been taken and placed in a school organised by a local committee, of which the Vali is president and the Greek Metropolitan vice-president. Into this school all the Armenian children, females up to fifteen years and males to ten years of age, are being placed as soon as the parents are sent off. Children above these ages go with their parents."
92. Signor Gorrini left Trebizond on the 23rd July, 1915, in the interval between the Italian declarations of war against Austria-Hungary and against Turkey. He hired an open motor-launch with a Lazic skipper and crew, and took with him two servants and the Montenegrin Kavass of the local branch of the Ottoman Bank. The coastwise voyage from Trebizond to Constantinople took seven days and nights. They touched at Kerasond, Samsoun, Sinope, Ineboli, Kidros, Zonguldak, Zacharia, Chilé and Faro d'Anatolia, without landing, however, at any of these places. From Constantinople Signor Gorrini travelled via Dedeagatch and Palermo to Rome, where he gave this interview to the representative of "Il Messaggero."
93. "I hired the motor launch for myself and three members of my household, one of them a Montenegrin kavass who was under our protection."The Italian Consul, Signor Gorrini, in the interview published in the Rome journal "Il Messaggero," 25th August, 1915.
94. This was written before it was known Armenians of Kara-Hissar had been overwhelmed by force and massacred to the last woman and child, with their bishop at their head.---EDITOR.
95. "I hired the motor launch for myself and three members of my household".---Signor Gorrini in the Rome journal "Il Messaggero," 25th August, 1915,
96. Of the 200 Armenian families at Ordou, 160 have embraced Islam, under pressure of threats and violence. Of the 400 Armenian families at Kerasond, 200 have embraced Islam to escape persecution ; the rest have been deported."----New York Journal "Gotchnag," 28th August, 1915.
97. Including Muggerditch Zarmanian, a contractor employed by the Ottoman Army---information furnished to the writer by Armenian refugees in Roumania.
IX. CIVAS THE CITY AND PARTS OF THE VILAYET
99. See Docs. 68, 94, and 122.
101. As the Russian fleet had blockaded the Black Sea ports and transport by water was difficult, the Turks appear to have been using the Anatolian Railway to Angora, the terminus of the line, for their communications, proceeding thence to Erzeroum through Sivas by horse and camel---[Note by the interviewer.]
X. SANDJAK OF KAISARIA.
103. For other versions of the official proclamation see Doc. 120 and Annexe C. to the Historical Summary."
XI. THE TOWN OF X.
106. The witness started from X. on the 18th August,- Preliminary Report dated 7th October, 1915, from the witness' hand.
107. "At Mirkedjia alone, the station-master told us there were 30,000 exiles. Many were weak from hunger, others almost dead."---P.R.
109. This Professor had relinquished his association with this society before entering our employment."---P.R.
110. "He remained unconscious for a day, and could not walk for a month. ---P.R,
112. "Professors E. and FF."---P.R.
113. "£275 Turkish, in all."---P.R.
115. " On the road to W."---P.R.
116. "A German farmer reported to our Consular Agent that he had seen 50 Armenian corpses in a well, and long trenches on the mountain side where other victims had been buried."---P.R.
117. The author of the Present address gave further particulars of these men's fate to an acquaintance who interviewed him at Athens on his way from Turkey to the United States. This gentleman is the author of the letter dated Athens, 8th/21st July, Doc. 8 of this collection. The information he obtained from his interview with the author of the present document is presented in a subsequent letter, dated Athens, 1st/14th October, 1915, from which the following paragraph is taken :--
"The Kavass of the College, a Circassian, who was ordered to accompany the deported Armenians, returned a day or two afterwards and told how these 1,200 men or more were roped together in rows of five, and were marched towards Y. On each side rode zaptiehs with fixed bayonets. Those who could not walk were flogged, and finally, when any one of the five in a batch could walk no further, the whole five would be made to fall out of the procession and several zaptiehs would remain with them, who, after ten or twenty minutes, would rejoin the column with the ghost of butchery shining in their eyes. Somewhat more than half the prisoners reached Y. On their arrival at that town a fire broke out in the Armenian quarter, and the Turks began looting and massacring the women of Y., while the newly arrived prisoners were accused of being the incendiaries, and were all led out of the town to a place already prepared. Here the prisoners were halted and led in successive batches of five to what appeared to be tents. Groans were heard from within, and the prisoners outside, realising what was happening, tried to break through the cordon. But they were bound hand to hand, and when one or two in any batch had been shot, the survivors could only trail the corpses along with them until they gave up the effort in exhaustion. They were all picked up afterwards and carried off to be butchered. They were butchered with axes."
118. "On the 2nd July."----P.R.
120. "At Z. the servant's were separated from the teachers and pupils and sent southwards towards V."---P.R.
121. "The town of L. was similarly emptied of its Armenian population ; also Y., BT. and U."---P. R.
122. The Constitution of 1908.---EDITOR.
123. Name given in the original---Mr. BZ.
124. Name withheld. It is possible that the scene of the events described by this witness may be, not X but Cilicia.----EDITOR.
125. Six of the names here follow in the original: M., 00., AN., AO., AP., AQ., AR.
126. Four names here follow in the original: AS--- AT., AU., AV.
127. Seventeen names here follow in the original: C. BC., O., B., D., BR, G., BR, BF, AN., BG., BR, Bl., BJ., R, BK, BL.
128. Greek and Armenian, respectively, for " Good morning. "-EDITOR.
129. The treatment of this victim is described in more detail in a narrative subsequently published by the author of the present document :
"Some died as a result of torture. I saw Garabed GG., who, after having been whipped and beaten a whole day and night, at intervals of two hours, was moaning in his bed with excruciating pain. He was confined to bed for weeks. He related to me how one gendarme had sat on his mouth, that he might not scream, while two others had held up and bastinadoed his feet, which were bound with ropes attached to a strong rod. Sometimes they would beat him on any part of his body, indiscriminately. The poor fellow, a strong, brave young man, the leader of the college firemen, who, in the presence of all the leading Turkish officials, had extinguished some time ago a big fire in the town, was in despair and longed to die. His body was all blue as a result of the beating."
130. Further details in the narrative subsequently published:
"I visited a great many Armenian families while they were preparing for this Babylonian captivity. I could not stand the sight, neither could I find any words of comfort for them. The scene varied from house to house but everywhere there was the same feeling of suspense, dread and despair. In some houses one saw a feeling of true resignation and heroism. There was a retired pastor, sixty-eight years old. He did not pack anything in the house, but left it as it was. Taking his staff in his hand, he said: I am ready to go wherever they send me. The Lord is my guide !"
131. The fate of Mr. 00. himself is recorded in the narrative subsequently published :
"Mr. OO. was put to death at Z. with excruciating tortures---his eyes being gouged out, and red-hot irons driven under his nails."
132. Daughter (?). See Doc 94----EDITOR.
133. Further instances of Turkish kindness are recorded by the writer in his subsequently published narrative :
"The poor Armenians sold their few possessions, but the transaction was really a legalised plunder. Every thing was sold at one-tenth of its value. Here is a conversation between two Turks in a coffee house: 'What a pity things were sold at such a low price! I could not stand the sight in the streets ; I saw many cheap things, but my conscience would not permit me to buy anything.' The other fellow replied : 'Well done! What a conscience you have! If you really pitied them, you should have bought something and offered them a good price! If you and I do not buy, to whom will the poor people sell ? ' It is to their credit that many of the old school Turks really took pity on the persecuted Armenians. During the massacres of 1895 many Turks had shielded and saved Armenians, but in this instance no one dared express his feelings or do an act of kindness, It is said that a Turk was hanged in front of his own house in Vezir Köprü, in the Vilayet of Sivas, for giving shelter to an Armenian."
134. This is brought out very clearly in the narrative subsequently published by the same writer :
"A blind old man named CZ., whose son is a physician in the United States, was scarcely able to walk, even with the aid of a staff. The Mohammedan neighbours took pity upon him and promised to take care of him if the Government permitted. I appealed to the Kaimakam and the commandant of the gendarmes. The answer was : 'Impossible ; all have to go ; no Armenian is to be left behind, whether blind, deaf or paralytic.'
"The Kaimakam regretted that he found himself in office at such a time ; he was sorry he had ever entered the official life. His father, a professor in the Turkish University in Constantinople, had advised him to go into business, but, as he had had no capital, he entered the Government Service."
135. See Docs. 68, 82 and 122.
136. We know from other sources that Mr. CC. was put to death.---EDITOR.
XII. THE CITY OF ANGORA.
XIII. THRACE, CONSTANTINOPLE, BROUSSA, AND ISMID.
XIV. THE ANATOLIAN RAILWAY.
146. Slightly less than a pound sterling.
149. Slightly more than twopence.
150. Slightly more than a penny.
152. Mother of the "Miss B." of Sect. I, Doc. 8.
155. The "Miss A." of Sect. XI.
156. Note by Dr. Rockwell:---This letter, by a man, is inserted here to reflect the situation from a man's point of view.
157. See Section XI
XV. CILICIA (VILAYET OF ADANA AND SANDJAK OF MARASH)
158. See Doc. 83 and Annexe C. to the Historical Summary.
159. The passages included between brackets are taken from the (fuller) Armenian version of Pastor Andreasian's narrative (Doc. 130), "A Red Cross Flag That Saved Four Thousand." These passages have been translated for the Editor by Mr. G. H. Paelian.
161. The author of Doc. 123 states (page 483 line 24) that the first batch of Zeitounlis were deported the morning following the night on which the insurgents in the monastery escaped. This would be the 8th April. The author of Doc. 121, on the other hand, states (page 475, line 44) that the first deportation from Zeitoun took place on a Saturday. This would be the 10th April, 1915.---EDITOR.
163. The 14th May, 1915, was a Friday.---EDITOR.
164. Author of Doc. 125.
165. The 26th May, 1915, was a Wednesday.---EDITOR.
XVI. JIBAL MOUSA.
167. The dates given in this report do not tally with those in Mr. Andreasian's narrative, except that both accounts put the arrival of the refugees at Port Said on the 14th September. Mr. Andreasian puts the intervention of the Guichen on Sunday, the 12th September; but as he also states that the voyage took two days, while the present report makes the embarkation take a day and a half, the date given here for the appearance of the Guichen upon the scene, namely, the 10th September, is probably correct. On the other hand, Mr. Andreasian speaks from first-hand knowledge when he places the official summons to deportation on the 13th July (instead of the 30th July), the first fighting on the 21st July (instead of the 8th August) and the total length of the siege at 53 days ; so that his statements on these points are likely to be more accurate.---EDITOR.
168. See Doc. 143, page 559.
XVII. THE TOWNS OF OURFA AND AC.
169. See Doc. 144.
170. Date unspecified ; the place of writing was apparently Cairo.
171. One of the four hundred foreigners of Entente nationality in the Syrian provinces who were interned at Ourfa after the outbreak of war.
172. "Outside AC., a woman gave birth to a child in the refugee camp. She was taken to the College and put into a small, room there. In spite of the best of care, she died in a few days and the child a little later. In her most delicate condition, she had been driven, cursed and beaten along the road from BM., some sixty miles away."---Earlier and less detailed statement by the same witness.
173. "More than a thousand."---Earlier statement.
174. "The Protestant pastor and a doctor were also killed." ---Earlier statement.
175. "Later, another convoy of exiles came up, and took this party of forty women on with them."---Earlier statement.
182. See Doc. 68, page 272, and Doc 69, page 278.
XIX. VILAYET OF DAMASCUS AND SANDJAK OF DER-EL-ZOR.
185. Moslem immigrants from Europe.
XX. DOCUMENTS RECEIVED WHILE GOING TO PRESS.
186. 400 families, the largest village in the district.
187. Nearest village to the city of Urmi.
188. Only one barn said to be left standing.
A SUMMARY OF ARMENIAN HISTORY UP TO AND INCLUDING THE YEAR 1915.
I. THE EUROPEAN WAR AND ARMENIA.
189. There seems to be no available name to convey the Janus-character of this region. "Balkan" has all the connotation, but the word is allocated already to a much too limited geographical area. "Levantine" covers a wider geographical field, but suggests merely the superficial characteristics which the Near Eastern peoples share with many others in a certain transient stage of development.
190. The limits of the Near East are not easy to define. On the north-west, Vienna is the most conspicuous boundary-mark, but one might almost equally well single out Trieste or Lvov or even Prag. Towards the southeast, the boundaries are even more shadowy. It is perhaps best to equate them with the frontiers of the Arabic language, yet the genius of the Near East overrides linguistic barriers, and encroaches on the Arabic-speaking world on the one side as well as on the German-speaking world on the other. Syria is essentially a Near Eastern country, and a physical geographer would undoubtedly carry the Near Eastern frontiers up to the desert belt of the Sahara, Nefud and Kevir.
II. AN OUTLINE OF ARMENIAN HISTORY.
191. There is one physical type, classified by ethnologists as "Armenoid " or "Anatolian," which seems to be both indigenous and persistent in the Anatolian Peninsula and in the triangle included between the Black Sea, the Mediterranean and the Caspian. Its characteristics are very individual ---a "sugarloaf" skull, broad from side to side and sliced off at the back ; prominent cheek-bones; a fleshy, hooked nose; and a rather clumsy, thick-set body. These features are distinguishable in the ancient Hittites of Eastern Anatolia, as they are portrayed in the native and Egyptian monuments of the 14th and 13th centuries B.C.; in the modern Tchatchadzé nomads of Lycia (the extreme South-West of the Peninsula) ; and in a considerable percentage of the living Armenian people, scattered all over the Near East.
192. Called "Ararat" in the Bible and "Alarodioi" by Herodotus.
193 "The City of Dhuspas (Tosp) in the land of Biaina (Van)." In the course of history the names have been transposed ; Van is now the town, and Tosp the district.
194. Round the present town of Isbir, in the Tchorok Valley.
195. The chief evidence for the racial unity of all these primitive populations is the survival of the name of Khaldis, the national god of Urartu, throughout the Armenian plateau. On the banks of the Aras we have the district of Khaldiran, and the northern affluents of the river ate fed by Lake Khaldir. Further west, the modern Vilayet of Trebizond was called the Province of Khaldia under the late Roman Empire, and there is still a Diocese of Khaldia maintained by the Orthodox Greek Church in the immediate hinterland of Trebizond.
196. The original focus from which the Indo-European languages spread having been situated apparently in what is now Austria-Hungary and the Ukraine.
197. It is equally possible that the modern Armenian language was introduced into the country at an earlier date, and existed there side by side with the official language of the Urartu inscriptions. Egyptian records show that an Iranian people, the Mitanni (Matienoi), were established in Northern Mesopotamia as early as the 16th century B.C., and their name flung to the Urmia basin as late as Strabo's day. They were the western outposts of Indo-European settlement on the Iranian plateau. On the whole, however. the Mitanni are more likely to have been the originators of the Kurdish language than of the Armenian.
198. In the classical form, of which the spoken language of to-day is a development.
199. Probably a synthesis of Hittite and Cimmerian, corresponding to the Urartu-Scythian blend which we have suggested as the origin of Armenian.
200. The traditional date varies from 261 to 301 A.D
201. A suggestive parallel to the way in which another foreign missionary, St. Patrick, has become the national hero of Ireland.
202. In 553 A.D. the national individuality of the Gregorian (Armenian) Church was given formal expression by the foundation of a new ecclesiastical era.
203. Herodotus' "Province of the Matienoi, Alarodioi and Saspeires."
204. This is the probable extent of Herodotus' puzzling "Province of the Armenians and Paktyes," and the certain extent of the later Sophene.
205. The provenance of this name is as obscure as every other problem of Armenian origins. It may mean "the land of Erimenas," a king of Urartu, known from an inscription on a votive offering at Van, just as the neighbouring province of Azerbaijan derives its name from the satrap Atropates ; or (as Lord Bryce suggests) it may be a "portmanteau word," perhaps compounded of Urartu and Minni, the Assyrian name for the upper basin of the Greater Zab. The name of Kat-Patuka (Cappadocia) is a possible analogy to this latter suggestion,
207. The Seleucid Dynasty had inherited most of the Asiatic dominions acquired by Alexander the Great when he conquered the Achaemenid (Persian) Empire.
208. This is the view of Mr. Herbert Adams Gibbons, the most recent historian of the early Ottoman Empire.
209. The people of the East Roman Empire in its latter days were Greeks in the sense that they spoke the "Romaic" modification of the Ancient Greek language; but most of them had only become Greeks by the loss of their native language at the date when the Armenians, unlike them, had successfully preserved theirs.
210. The Osmanlis besieged Vienna twice, and held a frontier within ninety miles of it for a century and a half.
III. DISPERSION AND DISTRIBUTION OF THE ARMENIAN NATION.
211. The Paulikian exiles inspired the South-Slavonic Bogomils ; the Bogomils inspired the Albigenses of Languedoc, and possibly sowed some of the seeds of the Hussite movement among the Tchechs and Slovaks.
212. With the possible exception of the Bulgars.
213. The Armenian Protestants have even been admitted to the Gregorian National Assembly---a notable departure from Near Eastern tradition.
214. There is a flourishing colony of Armenian fruit-growers as far afield as Fresno, California.
215. Though even in Irak there were Armenian settlers, especially at Baghdad.
216. The nomadic Kurds, for that matter, are only skin-deep Mohammedans.
217. Excluding the district of Hakkiari.
218. A Syrian sect whose doctrines diverged, like those of the Nestorians, from the creed of the Catholic and Orthodox Churches, but in the contrary direction.
IV. THE ARMENIAN PEOPLE AND THE OTTOMAN GOVERNMENT.
219. It appears to be uncertain whether this is really the literal meaning of the word, its current connotation being purely the political one.
220. The word "Millet" means simply "religious sect" in the Arabic language, from which it was borrowed by the Turks.
221. Erzeroum, Van, Bitlis, Diyarbekir, Mamouret-ul-Aziz, Sivas.
223. There was an equally vague clause to the same effect in the special "Cyprus Convention" between Turkey and Great Britain, but in neither treaty was there any guarantee of its observance. The Berlin Treaty merely provided that the Ottoman Government should communicate its measures of reform to the Powers, but, as they were never carried out, they were never reported.
224. Russia began to acquire territory south of the Caucasus at the beginning of the nineteenth century, when the last King of Georgia ceded his Kingdom to the Tsar, to save it from the hands of the Turks and Persians.
225. Tiflis, the former capital of the Georgian Kingdom and now the administrative centre of the Russian Provinces of the Caucasus, has become practically an Armenian city in the course of the nineteenth century, and, Armenian settlements have spread far further into the interior of Russia.
226. Though the British Government was the only Government that attempted to put pressure on the Turks to desist. In Germany it was the mot d'ordre that the massacres were a British invention with a political purpose, and the German Emperor shortly afterwards sent his portrait to Abd-ul-Hamid as a complimentary gift.
227. In such publications as Vérité sur le mouvement révolutionnaire Arménien et les mesures gouvernementales (Constantinople, 1916), or Die Armenische Frage, von C. A. Bratter (Berlin, Concordia-Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1915).
228. Doc. 138.
V. THE DEPORTATIONS OF 1915: ANTECEDENTS.
229. In the pamphlet Vérité sur le mouvement révolutionnaire Arménien et les mesures gouvernementales, the following passages occur : "The Imperial (Ottoman) Government abstained from exercising any pressure or adopting any repressive measures against the Armenians until the day the revolt broke out at Van towards the middle of April, 1915 " (page 10) ; "No coercive measure was decreed by the Imperial Government against the Armenians until the date of their armed revolt, which took place at Van and in the other military zones in the course of the month of June. of the year 1915, and until they had made common cause with the enemy forces" (page 15). These statements are direct falsehoods, as is also the statement (page 12) that---"After the occupation of Van by the Russians and Armenians, the Moslem population of the town was pitilessly massacred." We have authoritative neutral testimony (e.g., Docs. 120, 121, 122 and 15) on both these points, by which the Turkish statements are refuted. Yet these lying statements are the pivot of the whole apologia presented in this pamphlet.
230. See Docs. 68, 82, 94 and 122.
231. Doc. 98.
232. Doc. 123.
234. According to an official calendar, published at Alexandropol by authority of the Katholikos of Etchmiadzin, from which extracts have been communicated to the Editor by Mr. H. N. Mosditchian, the statistics of the Armenian population in Russia, up to date, are 1,636,486 for the Caucasus, and approximately two million for the Empire as a whole. For the Ottoman Empire, statistics compiled at the Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople in 1912 estimate the Armenian population at 2,100,000 ; Turkish official statistics, on the other hand, admit no more than 1,100,000, which on their own showing would give Russia a majority.
235. For evidence of this loyalty, see Annexe B. to this summary, Docs. 21 and 57.
236. The 25 recalcitrants at Zeitoun do not come into question, for the Zeitounlis were excepted from military service by special charter, and the attempt to conscribe them was a violation by the Ottoman authorities of Ottoman law.
237. Die Armenische Frage, von C. A. Bratter, Berlin, Concordia Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1915. The reference is to pp 9-10.
238. Reproduced in the Paris journal Le Matin, 6th May, 1916, in a special despatch dated Z¸rich, 5th May.
239. The vast majority of secondary schools in the Empire being, of course, American, Armenian or Greek, and practically none of them Turkish.
240. See Annexe A.
241. The Delegation of 1912 was nominated by His Holiness the Katholikos of Etchmiadzin. Its President was His Excellency Boghos Nubar Pasha.,
242. The Ottoman Government, for statistical reasons, added the Vilayet of Trebizond to the original Six, the Moslem element being here in sufficient majority to balance, to some extent, the Armenian majority in the rest.
243. Doc. 129.
244. Proclamations announcing and justifying the deportation of the Armenians are quoted in Docs. 83 and 120 of this volume, while the alleged text of one of them has been published complete in the Philadelphia Saturday Evening Post of the 5th February, 1915, and is reproduced here as Annexe C. to this summary. The latter document differs in its wording and in the order of its clauses from the versions quoted in the places mentioned above, but there is no reason to doubt its genuineness. Probably the Central Government communicated its instructions to the local authorities by telegraph or secret despatch, and the local authorities embodied these instructions, at their own discretion, in a printed proclamation to the inhabitants of their province.
245. See, however, Doc. 64.
246. These Moslem immigrants were particularly in evidence in Cilicia, and in the Vilayets of Erzeroum and Trebizond.
249. Doc. 141.
251. Doc. 115.
252. Doc. 101.
253. Though not more extreme than in other parts of the Near Eastern World, like Hungary, where statistics of nationality are a burning question of political controversy.
254. For Armenian statistical material see Annexes D. and E. to this summary.
255. The former figure is taken from the American Relief Committee's Fourth Bulletin, dated 5th April, 1916; the second from Doc. 131.
256. Doc. 88.
257. Doc. 57. According to Doc. 53, the most authoritative of all those relating to Erzeroum, the number was actually 22
258. The western districts of Erzeroum, which the Turks still hold, may be written off against Trebizond.
259. Bulletin of the 5th April, 1916.
260. Doc. 66.
261. Doc. 137.
262. Doc. 141.
263. Doc. 70.
264. Doc. 116.
265. Doc. 139.
266. Doc. 143.
267. The items of this estimate are given in Doc. 139(d).
268. For further calculations see Annexe F.
269. Doc. 128.
270. Doc. 126.
271. Doc. 119.
272. See Doc. 87 relating to the town of X.
274. Doc. 70.
ANNEXES
ANNEXE C
275. Miss Egan writes that she managed to bring this document out of Turkey by copying it on the margins of the inner pages of a book, which she pretended to be reading when the Turkish officials searched her at the frontier. The book was examined, but the marginal pencilling passed undetected.
ANNEXE D
277. Reprinted from " La Question Arménienne à la Lumière des Documents," par "Marcel Léart" (Paris. 1913).
278. The analysis excludes certain portions of these provinces where the Armenians are only a minor element. These portions are as follows :---Hakkiari, in the Vilayet of Van ; the south of Sairt, in the Vilayet of Bitlis ; the south of the Vilayet of Diyarbekir ; the south of Malatia. in the Vilayet of Mamouretul-Aziz ; the north-west and west of the Vilayet of Sivas.
ANNEXE E
279. Reprinted from "La Question Arménienne à la Lumière dos Documents," par Marcel Léart " (Paris, 1913). These statistics appear to be the most recent available, but it must be noted that they are fourteen years out of date, and that the figures must have risen considerably by April, 1915.
ANNEXE F
280. The Ottoman Government appears to have placed new difficulties in the way of this relief, before it could be brought into practical operation.---EDITOR.
