Constantinople, 4 September 1915.
Confidential.
Mr. Foreign Minister,
In continuation of my most respectful reports No. LXXVIII [78] of July 22, No. LXXXVII [87] of July 31, and No. IC [99] of August 18, I have the honor of reporting that the persecutions of the Armenians are continuing with great intensity, in spite of the promises made by the government here, and about which I have already reported.
At the reception Monday the 16th of August, the German ambassador [von Wangenheim] once again brought up these persecutions with the Grand Vizier [Said Halim], and asked him to induce his government to cease, - especially when it comes to the Armenian Catholics who have never participated in revolutions or interfered with politics and are still subjected to the most persistent persecutions.
Even the Gregorian Armenians, who have distanced themselves from all nationalist ideas to the extent that they have abandoned their mother tongue and have embraced the Turkish language as their own, are being persecuted.
The promises which the Grand Vizier gave to the German ambassador were not kept, and when the persecutions and killings continued, His Holiness Monseigneur Paul Pierre XIII, the Armenian-Catholic Patriarch, turned to the resident Spanish minister and asked him, in the name of Catholic Spain, to try to turn once more to the Grand Vizier to obtain that at least the safety of the Catholic Armenians were respected.
The Spanish minister [Marquis Julian del Arroyo], who consented and, using the words of the Patriarch, objected to the Grand Vizier at the reception last Monday, tells me that the His Highness, after having listened to him, showed his surprise about what had happened, and that he, when the minister firmly claimed that he had proof that the cruelties mentioned had actually taken place, noted it and promised to immediately order that the Armenian Catholics were spared.
However, both the minister and the Patriarch are convinced that these terrible persecutions will not cease, among other things because the central government has no power over the provincial authorities, who, when it suits them, do not obey the orders they receive from Constantinople, and – last not least – because the Germans in their opinion only pretend to protest against the persecutions and killings.
It is obvious, they say, that the Germans are interested in the extermination of the Armenians and in the Greeks fleeing fearing that the same thing should happen to them, so that they (the Germans) without effort can take over Turkey’s trade and become the only Europeans with a foothold here.
The authorities in the provinces and the Young Turks, they say, do not consider the German ambassadors application to the government as serious.
I shall briefly allow myself to give an account of the important and sad communications of the latest developments, that has been given to me by completely reliable and truthful source, and which is of such a nature that it will cause general regret everywhere in the Christian world.
The Turks are vigorously carrying through their cruel intention, to exterminate the Armenian people.
In Brussa they have forced the well-to-do Armenians to pay the police 300 Turkish pounds (approximately 5,000 Danish kroner) a person to be allowed to stay in the city, and yet the next day they have banished them from the city with their wives and children.
Where these unfortunate people are now, and what fate they have met after they have had to leave their homes, is not possible to learn even for the closest family.
In Adana the governor has ordered the posting of a proclamation which, in a French translation I have received from the Patriarchate, goes as follows:
2) Les propriétaires des fabriques sises à Mersina et à Adana, ainsi que les employés de celles-ci qui travaillent pour le compte du Département Militaire, son exemptés pour le moment: ils ne seront pas expédiés et seront employés comme auparavant dans leur travaux.
3) Les familles dont les soutiens ou les maris sont en service militaire ne seront pas expédiés.
4) Tout le monde doit, à partir d’aujourd’hui, régler et mettre en ordre ses affaires et se tenir prêt à l’ordre de monter en chemin de fer.
5) Il ne sera fait aucun cas de recours, qui seront faits pour une demande de prolongation de délai ou d’autres empêchements.
8) Pour les familles composées de plus 6 personnes, grandes ou petites, il sera permis le transport de 200 kilos de meubles.
9) La population musulmans de la ville et de la banlieue est obligée de fournir, pour cette expédition, les moyens de transport.
10) La commission nommée pour s’occuper des moyens de transport, a commencé déjà ses travaux.
11) Les familles qui se seraient procuré elles-même leur moyens de transport, sont autorisées, en vertu des pièces qui leur seront délivrées par les Commissaires de Police, à se rendre directement à Badjou et de là à Alep.
12) Par le train qui sera préparé le samedi 15 du mois courant, seront expédiés les quartiers de Akdjé, Nesjid, Saradjen, Kharab, Bagtché, Tchoukour, Kassab Bekir, Yarbachi, Tcinanli et Karan.
13) A partir de demain la population de ces quartiers devra absolument s’adresser à la Commission d’inscription placée sous la présidence de Adil Bey dans le Commissariat de Police et après s’être fait inscrire, devra prendre une pièce scellée et légalisée.
14) Ceux qui d’après l’inscription de leur état civil, sinon du nombre des habitants de ces quartiers et qui actuellement résident ailleurs, leurs domiciles actuels ne seront pas pris en considération, mais ils seront obligée d’aller se faire inscrire avec les habitants des quartiers auxquels ils appartiennent, et de partir, dans la même journée, avec les habitants de leur quartier d’origine.
15) Pour l’expédition soit des familles de militaires, soit des personnes qui se trouveraient habitant dans d’autres quartiers, il sera tenu compte, pour principe d’opération, de l’enregistrement de leur état civil.
16) Toutes les opérations qui ne seront pas faites par inscription, ne seront pas prises en considération.
17) La population de ses quartiers devra, au matin du jour désigné ci-haut à 12 heures à la turque, avec ses bagages, tel qu’il est dit à l’Art. 7 et avec les membres de la famille, se trouver à la Nouvelle Station.
20) A l’arrivée à Osmaniéh la susdite Commission fera diligence pour l’installation et le bien-être des groupes: par conséquent chaque quartier devra faire par l’intermédiarie de leur Mouhtar respectif, recours à la susdite Commission.
21) La quantité des personnes employées dont le séjour a été décidé, avant être notifié aux bureaux de la Police et de la Gendarmerie, il sera procédé, par les dits bureaux, à la séparation et au maintien de ceux-ci.
22) Là sera délivré par la direction de la police, aux personnes ainsi exemptées, des documents réguliers et légalisés, concernant leur maintien.
23) Si parmi la population des quartiers qui ont été avisées, il se trouvait des personnes, qui, à partir de demain, ne se présenteraient pas et ne se feraient inscrire, ou qui ne se trouveraient pas présentés à la Nouvelle Station au jour indiqué pour le départ soit le samedi 15 du mois courant à l’heure indiqué ou qui chercheraient à trouver des ruses ou des prétextes, les Mouhtars et les Conseils des vieillards sont obligés de prévenir les Autorités et si les habitants et le Mouhtar auraient contrevenu à tout cela, ils seront considérés comme ayant agi contre l’Autorité Militaire et les ordres de l’état de mobilisation et seront immédiatement déférés à la Cour Martiale et dans les 24 heures une sentence sera donnée et exécutée.
24) Les ordres formelles, comme il convent, ayant été donnés à tous les bureaux. Il est préférable de travailler à compléter ces préparatifs plutôt que de perdre du temps à chercher des prétextes et à faire des démarches inutiles.
In a letter received here from the bishop of Erzerum, Monseigneur Melchisédéchian, it is stated that the parish of Khodirtchour, which was made up of 12 villages, has been completely evacuated, and that no one knows what has happened to the vanished population.
That same prelate, on July 17 this year, reported that he himself had been forced to set out for an unknown destination, and nothing has been heard of him since.
The former bishop of that same district, Monseigneur Ketchourian, at the same time travelled to Constantinople, but disappeared along the way.
The bishop of Karput [Harput; Kharpert], Monseigneur Israëlian, on June 23 reported to the Patriarchate that he had been ordered to leave the town for Aleppo with all of his parishioners within 48 hours, and it has later been learned that this bishop and all the clergy that accompanied him have been attacked and killed between Diyarbekir and Urfa at a place where approximately 1700 Armenian families have suffered the same fate.
The whole of the population in the abovementioned parish are considered lost.
The populations in the parishes of Diyarbekir and Malatia have also been driven out of their villages, and it is not known what has happened to the bishops Tchélébian and Khatchadourian and their parishioners.
The sad message has also been confirmed that the archbishop of Mardin, Monseigneur Maloyan, and approx. 700 of his Catholic parishioners have been killed, and that the population in the town of Tallermen, which was purely Catholic, has been completely exterminated.
Reports are completely lacking on what has happened to the bishop of Mouch, Monseigneur Topuzian, and his parishioners, but there is reason to believe that they too have been killed.
It is feared that a similar fate has befallen the clergy and parishioners of Gurin.
In the parish of Sivas, the only village to have been spared is Pirkinik, where the archbishop, Monseigneur Ketchedjian, has escaped to. He, and one cleric that accompanied him, are the only survivors.
Trebisond, Samson, [illegible], Marsivan, and Amassia have been completely evacuated, and there is no knowledge of what has happened to the 47 clerics of these towns.
Tarsus, Hedzin, and Mersina have suffered the same fate.
In Angora, all of the men have been abducted from the town, and the women have been forced to marry Muslims; approximately 6000 men, approximately 70 clerics, and the bishop, Monseigneur Grégoire Bahaban, have been shot on the road to the place of banishment.
In the city of Ismid, the government has ordered that the Armenian Catholics who had been banished to Eskicheir should be allowed to return to their homes, but the governor would not let them enter the city, and sent them back. The same thing has happened many other places.
Even here in Constantinople Armenians are being abducted and sent to Asia, and it is not possible to get information of their whereabouts.
The Patriarchate has calculated that half of the Armenian-Catholic hierarchy has been lost; 7 bishops, approximately 100 priests, 70 other clerics, and thousands upon thousands of their parishioners have disappeared.
The Church formerly consisted of 16 districts (Constantinople, Mardin, Diyarbekir, Karput, Malatia, Sivas-Tokat, Mouch, Erzerum, Trebisond, Angora, Césarée [Cesarea, Kayseri], Brussa [Bursa], Adana, Marache [Marash], Aleppo, and Alexandrie [Alexandrette]), and according to the latest information only Marache, Aleppo, and Césarée have been spared outside of Constantinople.
The fate that thus has befallen the Catholic Armenians has with even greater cruelty befallen all the other Armenians, in that the aim of the government, as I have already had the honor to report, is to completely exterminate the Armenian people.
With the highest esteem I remain, Mr. Minister, yours faithfully
[Wandel]