Submitted by Msgr. Dolci
2. Contrary to all promises, on 16th inst., the Catholic and Protestant Armenians of Baktchedjik were also deported. By chance five nuns and three priest remained in Nicomedia and their people were transported by train. We ask you either to send these priests and sisters back to Baktchedjik or have them sent to Constantinople. Also to send the Catholic and Protestant people back to their village or retain them in Eskischehir.
3. Give the railway officials the order to treat these ill-favoured people in a slightly more humane manner.
4. We should be allowed to give charity to these poor people.
I. Urgent Request
2. Contrary to the promises made very recently that the Protestant and Catholic Armenians would be spared, on 16th inst., the entire population of Baktchedjik - a purely Armenian village opposite to Nicomedia - was deported. Only by chance did the three Catholic priests and five nuns remain behind at the station in Nicomedia. Their people have already all left. We implore you to allow those remaining either to return to Baktchedjik or to Constantinople and the people who have already left to at least stay in Eskischehir if it is not possible for them to return to Baktchedjik.
Eskischehir, Kütahia, Afion Karahissar und Konia are central places where they are collected in masses outside the towns on an enclosed field, for example near Eskischehir, when 10 - 12000 children, women and old people were turned out into the open and exposed to the unpredictable whims of the people and the weather. A reliable eye witness told how he had seen hundreds of bodies lying on the field in Eskischehir a few days after a thunder-storm, in particular children’s corpses which the Christian railway officials had not allowed to take shelter under the station roof.
Also, the railway officials did not always behave considerately. The people piled up in the fields without any means are whipped three times a day in order that they move on because they cannot travel by train. Nobody knows what happens to the Armenians who are deported on to Konia. God bless those who relieve the suffering of these poor people.
Aziz Bey will present the matter to the Minister and remarked that according to the latest instructions the Catholic Armenians from Angora and Adana would be excepted from the privileges.
I had particularly requested that, in respect of the Catholic and Protestant Armenians who have already been deported to Eskischehir and Konia and interned in concentration camps there, telegraphic instructions be sent to the administrative district of the mutessarif Eskischehir and the Vilayet Konia regarding the adjournment of their further deportation or the return of those interned.