1914-10-16-DE-001-M

Source: DE/PA-AA/R14085
Publication: DuA Doc. 011 (abbr.)
Translator: Linda Struck

From the Consul in Aleppo (Roessler) to the Reichskanzler (Bethmann Hollweg )

J. No. 2480
Copy

Aleppo, 16 October 1914

German female missionaries from Marasch are reporting that the hitherto still active and passive opposition by the inhabitants of Zeitun against the enlisting into the army of the conscripts of this Armenian city has been broken from Turkish side. Their leader, Nasar Tschausch, head of those deserters who were roaming the mountains for months and who became, in time, the brigand chieftain and was regarded even by the Armeniens as a plague because of his tyranny, was captured by Turkish troops around the beginning of October through cunning and perfidy, and was brutally tortured to death.
The inhabitants of Zeitun blame German officers with the implementation of conscription in their town, too, and revile the German name. The acute antipathy towards Germany shown also by most of the Armenian inhabitants of Marasch was fanned by the city’s French Vice-Consul. Even the American Mission, which views our mission as an inconvenient competitor, is surely not working to ensure us a friendly atmosphere amongst the populace. Only women remain in the German Mission now. Under these circumstances I would appreciate it very much if the Imperial Embassy could provide leaflets in Turkish on the war as well as elucidating articles to be distributed in Marasch. The propaganda which is distributed by this consulate in Aleppo is in Arabic which is no longer understood in Marasch.

[Roessler]