AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU'S STORY
CHAPTER XXVI
ENVER PASHA DISCUSSES THE ARMENIANS
All this time I was bringing pressure upon Enver also. The Minister of War, as I
have already indicated, was a different type of man from Talaat. He concealed
his real feelings much more successfully; he was usually suave, cold-blooded,
and scrupulously polite. And at first he was by no means so callous as Talaat in
discussing the Armenians. He dismissed the early stories as wild exaggerations,
declared that the troubles at Van were merely ordinary warfare, and attempted to
quiet my fears that the wholesale annihilation of the Armenians had been decided
on. Yet all the time that Enver was attempting to deceive me, he was making open
admissions to other people---a fact of which I was aware. In particular he made
no attempt to conceal the real situation from Dr. Lepsius, a representative of
German missionary interests. Dr. Lepsius was a high-minded Christian gentleman.
He had been all through the Armenian massacres of 1895, and he had raised
considerable sums of money to build orphanages for Armenian children who had
lost their parents at that time. He came again in 1915 to investigate the
Armenian situation in behalf of German missionary interests. He asked for the
privilege of inspecting the reports of American consuls and I granted it. These
documents, supplemented by other information which Dr. Lepsius obtained, largely
from German missionaries in the interior, left no doubt in his mind as to the
policy of the Turks. His feelings were aroused chiefly against his own
government. He expressed to me the humiliation which he felt, as a German, that
the Turks should set about to exterminate their Christian subjects, while
Germany, which called itself a Christian country, was making no endeavours to
prevent it. From him Enver scarcely concealed the official purpose. Dr. Lepsius
was simply staggered by his frankness, for Enver told him in so many words that
they at last had an opportunity to rid themselves of the Armenians and that they
proposed to use it.
By this time Enver had become more frank with me---the circumstantial reports
which I possessed made it useless for him to attempt to conceal the true
situation further---and we had many long and animated discussions on the
subject. One of these I recall with particular vividness. I notified Enver that
I intended to take up the matter in detail and he laid aside enough time to go
over the whole situation.
"The Armenians had a fair warning," Enver began, "of what would happen to them
in case they joined our enemies. Three months ago I sent for the Armenian
Patriarch and I told him that if the Armenians attempted to start a revolution
or to assist the Russians, I would be unable to prevent mischief from happening
to them. My warning produced no effect and the Armenians started a revolution
and helped the Russians. You know what happened at Van. They obtained control of
the city, used bombs against government buildings, and killed a large number of
Moslems. We knew that they were planning uprisings in other places. You must
understand that we are now fighting for our lives at the Dardanelles and that we
are sacrificing thousands of men. While we are engaged in such a struggle as
this, we cannot permit people in our own country to attack us in the back. We
have got to prevent this no matter what means we have to resort to. It is
absolutely true that I am not opposed to the Armenians as a people. I have the
greatest admiration for their intelligence and industry, and I should like
nothing better than to see them become a real part of our nation. But if they
ally themselves with our enemies, as they did in the Van district, they will
have to be destroyed. I have taken pains to see that no injustice is done; only
recently I gave orders to have three Armenians who had been deported returned to
their homes, when I found that they were innocent. Russia, France, Great
Britain, and America are doing the Armenians no kindness by sympathizing with
and encouraging them. I know what such encouragement means to a people who are
inclined to revolution. When our Union and Progress Party attacked Abdul Hamid,
we received all our moral encouragement from the outside world. This
encouragement was of great help to us and had much to do with our success. It
might similarly now help the Armenians and their revolutionary programme. I am
sure that if these outside countries did not encourage them, they would give up
all their efforts to oppose the present government and become law-abiding
citizens. We now have this country in our absolute control and we can easily
revenge ourselves on any revolutionists."
"After all," I said, "suppose what you say is true, why not punish the guilty?
Why sacrifice a whole race for the alleged crimes of individuals?"
"Your point is all right during peace times," replied Enver. "We can then use
Platonic means to quiet Armenians and Greeks, but in time of war we cannot
investigate and negotiate. We must act promptly and with determination. I also
think that the Armenians are making a mistake in depending upon the Russians.
The Russians really would rather see them killed than alive. They are as great a
danger to the Russians as they are to us. If they should form an independent
government in Turkey, the Armenians in Russia would attempt to form an
independent government there. The Armenians have also been guilty of massacres;
in the entire district around Van only 30,000 Turks escaped, all the rest were
murdered by the Armenians and Kurds. I attempted to protect the non-combatants
at the Caucasus; I gave orders that they should not be injured, but I found that
the situation was beyond my control. There are about 70,000 Armenians in
Constantinople and they will not be molested, except those who are Dashnaguists
and those who are plotting against the Turks. However, I think you can ease your
mind on the whole subject as there will be no more massacres of Armenians."
I did not take seriously Enver's concluding statement. At the time that he was
speaking, massacres and deportations were taking place all over the Armenian
provinces and they went on almost without interruption for several months.
As soon as the reports reached the United States the question of relief became a
pressing one. In the latter part of July, I heard that there were 5,000
Armenians from Zeitoun and Sultanié who were receiving no food whatever. I spoke
about them to Enver, who positively declared that they would receive proper
food. He did not receive favourably any suggestion that American representatives
should go to that part of the country and assist and care for the exiles.
"For any American to do this," he said, "would encourage all Armenians and make
further trouble. There are twenty-eight million people in Turkey and one million
Armenians, and we do not propose to have one million disturb the peace of the
rest of the population. The great trouble with the Armenians is that they are
separatists. They are determined to have a kingdom of their own, and they have
allowed themselves to be fooled by the Russians. Because they have relied upon
the friendship of the Russians, they have helped them in this war. We are
determined that they shall behave just as Turks do. You must remember that when
we started this revolution in Turkey there were only two hundred of us. With
these few followers we were able to deceive the Sultan and the public, who
thought that we were immensely more numerous and powerful than we were. We
really prevailed upon him and the public through our sheer audacity, and in this
way we established the Constitution. It is our own experience with revolutions
which makes us fear the Armenians. If two hundred Turks could overturn the
Government, then a few hundred bright, educated Armenians could do the same
thing. We have therefore deliberately adopted the plan of scattering them so
that they can do us no harm. As I told you once before, I warned the Armenian
Patriarch that if the Armenians attacked us while we were engaged in a foreign
war, that we Turks would hit back and that we would hit back indiscriminately."
Enver always resented any suggestion that American missionaries or other friends
of the Armenians should go to help or comfort them. "They show altogether too
much sympathy for them," he said over and over again.
I had suggested that particular Americans should go to Tarsus and Marsovan.
"If they should go there, I am afraid that the local people in those cities
would become angry and they would be inclined to start some disturbance which
might create an incident. It is better for the Armenians themselves, therefore,
that the American missionaries should keep away from them."
"But you are ruining the country economically." I said at another time, making
the same point that I had made to Talaat. And he answered it in almost the same
words, thus showing that the subject had been completely canvassed by the ruling
powers.
"Economic considerations are of no importance at this time. The only important
thing is to win. That's the only thing we have on our mind. If we win,
everything will be all right; if we lose, everything will be all wrong anyhow.
Our situation is desperate, I admit it, and we are fighting as desperate men
fight. We are not going to let the Armenians attack us in the rear."
The question of relief to the starving Armenians became every week a more
pressing one, but Enver still insisted that Americans should keep away from the
Armenian provinces.
"How can we furnish bread to the Armenians," Enver declared, "when we can't get
enough for our own people? I know that they are suffering and that it is quite
likely that they cannot get bread at all this coming winter. But we have the
utmost difficulty in getting flour and clothing right here in Constantinople."
I said that I had the money and that American missionaries were anxious to go
and use it for the benefit of the refugees.
"We don't want the Americans to feed the Armenians," he flatly replied. "That is
one of the worst things that could happen to them. I have already said that it
is their belief that they have friends in other countries which leads them to
oppose the Government and so brings down upon them all their miseries. If you
Americans begin to distribute food and clothing among them, they will. then
think that they have powerful friends in the United States. This will encourage
them to rebellion again and then we shall have to punish them still more. If you
will give such money as you have received to the Turks, we shall see that it is
used for the benefit of the Armenians."
Enver made this proposal with a straight face, and he made it not only on this
occasion but on several others. At the very moment that Enver suggested this
mechanism of relief, the Turkish gendarmes and the Turkish officials were not
only robbing the Armenians of all their household possessions, of all their food
and all their money, but they were even stripping women of their last shreds of
clothing and prodding their naked bodies with bayonets as they staggered across
the burning desert. And the Minister of War now proposed that we give our
American money to these same guardians of the law for distribution among their
charges! However, I had to be tactful.
"If you or other heads of the Government would become personally responsible for
the distribution," I said, "of course we would be glad to entrust the money to
you. But naturally you would not expect us to give this money to the men who
have been killing the Armenians and outraging their women."
But Enver returned to his main point. "They must never know," he said, "that
they have a friend in the United States. That would absolutely ruin them! It is
far better that they starve, and in saying this I am really thinking of the
welfare of the Armenians themselves. If they can only be convinced that they
have no friends in other countries, then they will settle down, recognize that
Turkey is their only refuge, and become quiet citizens. Your country is doing
them no kindness by constantly showing your sympathy. You are merely drawing
upon them greater hardships."
In other words, the more money which the Americans sent to feed the Armenians,
the more Armenians Turkey intended to massacre! Enver's logic was fairly
maddening; yet he did relent at the end and permit me to help the sufferers
through certain missionaries. In all our discussions he made this hypocritical
plea that he was really a friend of this distracted nation and that even the
severity of the measures which he had adopted was mercy in disguise. Since Enver
always asserted that he wished to treat the Armenians with justice---in this his
attitude to me was quite different from that of Talaat, who openly acknowledged
his determination to deport them---I went to the pains of preparing an elaborate
plan for bettering their condition. I suggested that, if he wished to be just,
he should protect the innocent refugees and lessen this suffering as much as
possible, and that for that purpose he should appoint a special committee of
Armenians to assist him and send a capable Armenian, such as Oskan Effendi,
formerly Minister of Posts and Telegraphs, to study conditions and submit
suggestions for remedying the existing evils. Enver did not approve either of my
proposals; as to the first, he said that his colleagues would misunderstand it,
and, as to Oskan, he said that he admired him for his good work while he had
been in the Cabinet and had backed him in his severity toward the inefficient
officials, yet he could not trust him because he was a member of the Armenian
Dashnaguist Society.
In another talk with Enver I began by suggesting that the Central Government was
probably not to blame for the massacres. I thought that this would not be
displeasing to him.
"Of course I know that the Cabinet would never order such terrible things as
have taken place," I said. "You and Talaat and the rest of the Committee can
hardly be held responsible. Undoubtedly your subordinates have gone much further
than you have ever intended. I realize that it is not always easy to control
your underlings."
Enver straightened up at once. I saw that my remarks, far from smoothing the way
to a quiet and friendly discussion, had greatly offended him. I had intimated
that things could happen in Turkey for which he and his associates were not
responsible.
"You are greatly mistaken," he said. "We have this country absolutely under our
control. I have no desire to shift the blame on to our underlings and I am
entirely willing to accept the responsibility myself for everything that has
taken place. The Cabinet itself has ordered the deportations. I am convinced
that we are completely justified in doing this owing to the hostile attitude of
the Armenians toward the Ottoman Government, but we are the real rulers of
Turkey, and no underling would dare proceed in a matter of this kind without our
orders."
Enver tried to mitigate the barbarity of his general attitude by showing mercy
in particular instances. I made no progress in my efforts to stop the programme
of wholesale massacre, but I did save a few Armenians from death. One day I
received word from the American Consul at Smyrna that seven Armenians had been
sentenced to be hanged. These men had been accused of committing some rather
vague political offense in 1909; yet neither Rahmi Bey, the Governor General of
Smyrna, nor the Military Commander believed that they were guilty. When the
order for execution reached Smyrna these authorities wired Constantinople that
under the Ottoman law the accused had the right to appeal for clemency to the
Sultan. The answer which was returned to this communication well illustrated the
extent to which the rights of the Armenians were regarded at that time:
"Technically, you are right; hang them first and send the petition for pardon
afterward."
I visited Enver in the interest of these men on Bairam, which is the greatest
Mohammedan religious festival; it is the day that succeeds Ramadan, their month
of fasting. Bairam has one feature in common with Christmas, for on that day it
is customary for Mohammedans to exchange small presents, usually sweets. So
after the usual remarks of felicitation, I said to Enver:
"To-day is Bairam. and you haven't sent me any present yet."
Enver laughed.
"What do you want? Shall I send you a box of candies?
"Oh, no," I answered, "I am not so cheap as that. I want the pardon of the seven
Armenians whom the court-martial has condemned at Smyrna."
The proposition apparently struck Enver as very amusing.
"That's a funny way of asking for a pardon," he said. " However, since you put
it that way, I can't refuse."
He immediately sent for his aide and telegraphed to Smyrna, setting the men
free.
Thus fortuitously is justice administered and decision involving human lives
made in Turkey. Nothing could make clearer the slight estimation in which the
Turks hold life, and the slight extent to which principle controls their
conduct. Enver spared these men not because he had the slightest interest in
their cases, but simply as a personal favour to me and largely because of the
whimsical manner in which I had asked it. In all my talks on the Armenians the
Minister of War treated the whole matter more or less casually; he could discuss
the fate of a race in a parenthesis, and refer to the massacre of children as
nonchalantly as we would speak of the weather.
One day Enver asked me to ride with him in the Belgrade forest. As I was losing
no opportunities to influence him, I accepted this invitation. We autoed to
Buyukdere, where four attendants with horses met us. In our ride through the
beautiful forest, Enver became rather more communicative in his conversation
than ever before. He spoke affectionately of his father and mother; when they
were married, he said, his father had been sixteen and his mother only eleven,
and he himself had been born when his mother was fifteen. In talking of his
wife, the Imperial Princess, he disclosed a much softer side to his nature than
I had hitherto seen. He spoke of the dignity with which she graced his home,
regretted that Mohammedan ideas of propriety prohibited her from entering social
life, but expressed a wish that she and Mrs. Morgenthau could meet. He was then
furnishing a beautiful new palace on the Bosphorus; when this was finished, he
said, the Princess would invite my wife to breakfast. Just then we were passing
the house and grounds of Senator Abraham Pasha, a very rich Armenian. This man
had been an intimate friend of the Sultan Abdul Aziz, and, since in Turkey a man
inherits his father's friends as well as his property, the Crown Prince of
Turkey, a son of Abdul Aziz, made weekly visits to this distinguished Senator.
As we passed through the park, Enver noticed with disgust that woodmen were
cutting down trees and stopped them. When I heard afterward that the Minister of
War had bought this park, I understood one of the reasons for his anger. Since
Abraham Pasha was an Armenian, this gave me an opportunity to open the subject
again.
I spoke to him of the terrible treatment from which the Armenian women were
suffering.
"You said that you wanted to protect women and children," I remarked, "but I
know that your orders are not being carried out."
"Those stories can't be true," he said. "I cannot conceive that a Turkish
soldier would ill-treat a woman who is with child."
Perhaps, if Enver could have read the circumstantial reports which were then
lying in the archives of the American Embassy, he might have changed his mind.
Shifting the conversation once more, he asked me about my saddle, which was the
well-known "General McClellan" type. Enver tried it and liked it so much that he
afterward borrowed it, had one made exactly like it for himself---even including
the number in one corner and adopted it for one of his regiments. He told me of
the railroads which he was then building in Palestine, said how well the Cabinet
was working, and pointed out that there were great opportunities in Turkey now
for real-estate speculation. He even suggested that he and I join hands in
buying land that was sure to rise in value! But I insisted in talking about the
Armenians. However, I made no more progress than before.
"We shall not permit them to cluster in places where they can plot mischief and
help our enemies. So we are going to give them new quarters."
This ride was so successful, from Enver's point of view, that we took another a
few days afterward, and this time Talaat and Dr. Gates, the President of Robert
College, accompanied us. Enver and I rode ahead, while our companions brought up
the rear. These Turkish officials are exceedingly jealous of their prerogatives,
and, since the Minister of War is the ranking member of the Cabinet, Enver
insisted on keeping a decorous interval between ourselves and the other pair of
horsemen. I was somewhat amused by this, for I knew that Talaat was the more
powerful politician; yet he accepted the discrimination and only once did he
permit his horse to pass Enver and myself. At this violation of the proprieties,
Enver showed his displeasure, whereas Talaat paused, reined up his horse, and
passed submissively to the rear.
"I was merely showing Dr. Gates the gait of my horse," he said, with an
apologetic air.
But I was interested in more important matters than such fine distinctions in
official etiquette; I was determined to talk about the Armenians. But again I
failed to make any progress. Enver found more interesting subjects of
discussion.
He began to talk of his horses, and now another incident illustrated the
mercurial quality of the Turkish mind---the readiness with which a Turk passes
from acts of monstrous criminality to acts of individual kindness. Enver said
that the horse races would take place soon and regretted that he had no jockey.
"I'll give you an English jockey," I said. "Will you make a bargain? He is a
prisoner of war; if he wins will you give him his freedom?"
"I'll do it," said Enver.
This man, whose name was Fields., actually entered the races as Enver's jockey,
and came in third. He rode for his freedom, as Mr. Philip said! Since he did not
come in first, the Minister was not obliged, by the terms of his agreement, to
let him return to England, but Enver stretched a point and gave him his liberty.
On this same ride Enver gave me an exhibition Of his skill as a marksman.
At one point in the road I suddenly heard a pistol shot ring out in the air. It
was Enver's aide practising on a near-by object. Immediately Enver dismounted,
whipped out his revolver, and, thrusting his arm out rigidly and horizontally,
he took aim.
"Do you see that twig on that tree?" he asked me. It was about thirty feet away.
When I nodded, Enver fired-and the twig dropped to the ground.
The rapidity with which Enver could whip his weapon out of his pocket, aim, and
shoot, gave me one convincing explanation for the influence which he exercised
with the piratical crew that was then ruling Turkey. There were plenty of
stories floating around that Enver did not hesitate to use this method of
suasion at certain critical moments of his career; how true these anecdotes were
I do not know, but I can certainly testify to the high character of his
marksmanship.
Talaat also began to amuse himself in the same way, and finally the two
statesmen started shooting in competition and behaving as gaily and as carefree
as boys let out of school.
"Have you one of your cards with you?" asked Enver. He requested that I pin it
to a tree, which stood about fifty feet away.
Enver then fired first. His hand was steady; his eye went straight to the mark,
and the bullet hit the card directly in the centre. This success rather nettled
Talaat. He took aim, but his rough hand and wrist shook slightly---he was not an
athlete like his younger, wiry, and straight-backed associate. Several times
Talaat hit around the edges of the card, but he could not duplicate Enver's
skill.
"If it had been a man I was firing at," said the bulky Turk, jumping on his
horse again, "I would have hit him several times."
So ended my attempts to interest the two most powerful Turks of their day in the
fate of one of the most valuable elements in their empire!
I have already said that Saïd Halim, the Grand Vizier, was not an influential
personage. Nominally, his office was the most important in the empire; actually,
the Grand Vizier was a mere place-warmer, and Talaat and Enver controlled the
present incumbent, precisely as they controlled the Sultan himself. Technically
the ambassadors should have conducted their negotiations with Saïd Halim, for he
was Minister for Foreign Affairs; I early discovered, however, that nothing
could be accomplished this way, and, though I still made my Monday calls as a
matter of courtesy, I preferred to deal directly with the men who had the real
power to decide all matters. In order that I might not be accused of neglecting
any means of influencing the Ottoman Government, I brought the Armenian question
several times to the Grand Vizier's attention. As he was not a Turk, but an
Egyptian, and a man of education and breeding, it seemed not unlikely that he
might have a somewhat different attitude toward the subject peoples. But I was
wrong, The Grand Vizier was just as hostile to the Armenians as Talaat and Enver.
I soon found that merely mentioning the subject irritated him greatly. Evidently
he did not care to have his elegant case interfered with by such disagreeable
and unimportant subjects. The Grand Vizier showed his attitude when the Greek
Chargé d'Affaires spoke to him about the persecutions of the Greeks. Saïd Halim.
said that such manifestations did the Greeks more harm than good.
"We shall do with them just the opposite from what we are asked to do," said the
Grand Vizier.
To my appeals the nominal chief minister was hardly more statesmanlike. I had
the disagreeable task of sending him, in behalf of the British, French, and
Russian governments, a notification that these Powers would hold personally
responsible for the Armenian atrocities the men who were then directing Ottoman
affairs. This meant, of course, that in the event of Allied success, they would
treat the Grand Vizier, Talaat, Enver, Djemal and their companions as ordinary
murderers. As I came into the room to discuss. this somewhat embarrassing
message with this member of the royal house of Egypt, he sat there, as usual,
nervously fingering his beads, and not in a particularly genial frame of mind.
He at once spoke of this telegram; his face flushed with anger, and he began a
long diatribe against the whole Armenian race. He declared that the Armenian
"rebels" had killed 120,000 Turks at Van. This and other of his statements were
so absurd that I found myself spiritedly defending the persecuted race, and this
aroused the Grand Vizier's wrath still further, and, switching from the
Armenians, he began to abuse my own country, making the usual charge that our
sympathy with the Armenians was largely responsible for all their troubles.
Soon after this interview Saïd Halim ceased to be Minister for Foreign Affairs;
his successor was Halil Bey, who for several years had been Speaker of the
Turkish Parliament. Halil was a very different type of man. He was much more
tactful, much more intelligent, and much more influential in Turkish affairs. He
was also a smooth and oily conversationalist, good natured and fat, and by no
means so lost to all decent sentiments as most Turkish politicians of the time.
It was generally reported that Halil did not approve the Armenian proceedings,
yet his official position compelled him to accept them and even, as I now
discovered, to defend them. Soon after obtaining his Cabinet post, Halil called
upon me and made a somewhat rambling explanation of the Armenian atrocities. I
had already had experiences with several official attitudes toward the
persecutions; Talaat had been bloodthirsty and ferocious, Enver subtly
calculating, while the Grand Vizier had been testy. Halil now regarded the
elimination of this race with the utmost good humour. Not a single aspect of the
proceeding, not even the unkindest things I could say concerning it, disturbed
his equanimity in the least. He began by admitting that nothing could palliate
these massacres, but, he added that, in order to understand them, there were
certain facts that I should keep in mind.
"I agree that the Government has made serious mistakes in the treatment of the
Armenians," said Halil, "but the harm has already been done. What can we do
about it now? Still, if there are any errors we can correct, we should correct
them. I deplore as much as you the excesses and violations which- have been
committed. I wish to present to you the view of the Sublime Porte; I admit that
this is no justification, but I think there are extenuating circumstances that
you should take into consideration before judgment is passed upon the Ottoman
Government."
And then, like all the others, he went back to the happenings at Van, the desire
of the Armenians for independence, and the help which they had given the
Russians. I had heard it all many times before.
"I told Vartkes" (an Armenian deputy who, like many other Armenian leaders, was
afterward murdered), "that, if his people really aspired to an independent
existence, they should wait for a propitious moment. Perhaps the Russians might
defeat the Turkish troops and occupy all the Armenian provinces. Then I could
understand that the Armenians might want to set up for themselves. Why not wait,
I told Vartkes, until such a fortunate time had arrived? I warned him that we
would not let the Armenians jump on our backs, and that, if they did engage in
hostile acts against our troops, we would dispose of all Armenians who were in
the rear of our army, and that our method would be to send them to a safe
distance in the south. Enver, as you know, gave a similar warning to the
Armenian Patriarch. But in spite of these friendly warnings, they started a
revolution."
I asked about methods of relief, and told him that already twenty thousand
pounds ($100,000) had reached me from America.
"It is the business of the Ottoman Government,"' he blandly answered, "to see
that these people are settled, housed, and fed until they can support
themselves. The Government will naturally do its duty! Besides, the twenty
thousand pounds that you have is in reality nothing at all."
"That is true," I answered, "it is only a beginning, but I am sure that I can
get all the money we need."
"It is the opinion of Enver Pasha," he replied, "that no foreigners should help
the Armenians. I do not say that his reasons are right or wrong. I merely give
them to you as they are. Enver says that the Armenians are idealists, and that
the moment foreigners approach and help them, they will be encouraged in their
national aspirations. He is utterly determined to cut forever all relations
between the Armenians and foreigners."
"Is this Enver's way of stopping any further action on their part? " I asked.
Halil smiled most good-naturedly at this somewhat pointed question and answered:
"The Armenians have no further means of action whatever!
Since not far from 500,000 Armenians had been killed by this time, Halil's
genial retort certainly had one virtue which most of his other statements in
this interview had lacked---it was the truth.
"How many Armenians in the southern provinces are in need of help?" I asked.
"I do not know; I would not give you even an approximate figure."
"Are there several hundred thousand?"
"I should think so," Halil admitted, "but I cannot say how many hundred
thousand."
"A great many suffered," he added, "simply because Enver could not spare troops
to defend them. Some regular troops did accompany them and these behaved very
well; forty even lost their lives defending the Armenians. But we had to
withdraw most of the gendarmes for service in the army and put in a new lot to
accompany the Armenians. It is true that these gendarmes committed many
deplorable excesses.
"A great many Turks do not approve these measures," I said.
"I do not deny it," replied the ever-accommodating Halil, as he bowed himself
out.
Enver, Halil, and the rest were ever insistent on the point which they
constantly raised, that no foreigners should furnish relief to the Armenians. A
few days after this visit the Under-Secretary of State called at the American
Embassy. He came to deliver to me a message from Djemal to Enver. Djemal, who
then had jurisdiction over the Christians in Syria, was much annoyed at the
interest which the American consuls were displaying in the Armenians. He now
asked me to order these officials "to stop busying themselves in Armenian
affairs." Djemal could not distinguish between the innocent and the guilty, this
messenger said, and so he had to punish them all! Some time afterward Halil
complained to me that the American consuls were sending facts about the
Armenians to America and that the Government insisted that they should be
stopped.
As a matter of fact, I was myself sending most of this information, ---and I did
not stop.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction Chapter I Chapter II Chapter III Chapter IV Chapter V Chapter VI Chapter VII Chapter VIII Chapter IX Chapter X Chapter XI Chapter XII Chapter XIII Chapter XIV Chapter XV Chapter XVI Chapter XVII Chapter XVIII Chapter XIX Chapter XX Chapter XXI Chapter XXII Chapter XXIII Chapter XXIV Chapter XXV Chapter XXVI Chapter XXVII Chapter XXVIII Chapter XXIX
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