1916-07-10-DE-002

1916-07-10-DE-002

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Link: http://www.armenocide.net/armenocide/armgende.nsf/$$AllDocs/1916-07-10-DE-002
Source: DE/PA-AA/BoKon 101/Bl. 29-30
Embassy register: 10-12/1916/6266
Edition: Genocide 1915/16
Embassy/consular serial number: K. No. 72/No. 1934
Translated by: Vera Draack (Translation sponsored by Zoryan Institute)
Last updated: 03/27/2012

From the Consul in Aleppo (Roessler) to the Ambassador on Extraordinary Mission in Constantinople (Wolff-Metternich)

Report

Aleppo, 10 July 1916
The Imperial Consulate in Adana will have reported on the deportation of the Armenians employed to build the Baghdad railway in the District of Adana, which was ordered by the government during the middle of last month and later partly reversed at the instigation of the construction department. Those, however, whom it was not possible to keep on the railway, were soon sent from the Vilayet Adana to Marash Aintab Biredjik Urfa, so that the Consulate in Aleppo is responsible for reporting on their journey. I, therefore, have the honour of submitting an enclosure to Your Excellency for your information: the translation of a letter from a certain Leon Hatshadurian to Sister B. Rohner that, compared with the news which has otherwise become known here, stands out for its down-to-earth description. It concerns a troop of about 1,000 people. I was unable to find out reliably whether or not and how many others were deported from the railway at this opportunity.

I am sending the same report to the Reichskanzler.

Roessler

Enclosure

Aleppo, 9 July 1916

I have been working as a railway worker for Engineer Koeppel in Enteli for 6 months. On 16 June, while we were working, we were suddenly led away by gendarmes, without any consideration for the sick, children and old people, and with no possibility of taking our possessions with us. We were driven with blows from the butts of guns as far as Bulanek-Baghché, which was already full of workers from Keller, Yarbashi, Airan and other towns. You could have believed that the Day of Judgement had dawned. You only had to look at the women and children to get an impression of what was happening. After three days, the government wrote down the names of all the workers who had no families and, without giving us any bread or the opportunity of buying something for ourselves, we were driven forwards with blows from the butts of guns to Tshakiroglu, Fundadjak, Marash, Karaküjükli, Aintab, Nisib, Biredjik, Urfa, Karasu: in other words, probably a distance of 200 km, with old and sick people and children among us. About 70 men were killed by rifle shots in the area around Marash, namely near Fundadjak. We had to buy water near Marash that not even animals would have accepted. The gendarmes sold us a glass of tea made of this water for one piastre. There were 250 to 300 people from Marash among us. Their relatives came, but were not allowed to speak to them. They brought bread, but were not allowed to distribute it. We were driven to Karaküjükli with blows from the butts of guns and sticks, where we were given two loaves of bread, i.e. which we were allowed to buy for three metallics. There was nothing to eat until Biredjik; in Biredjik each of us received bread for 6 metallics. When we left Urfa we received nothing. There were 1,000 of us in the beginning; 623 of us were left in Urfa and Karasu. I do not know what happened later on. The Arabs assured us that the gendarmes would lead us to our death. I managed to escape here with great difficulty. I can neither speak nor write of the details. I arrived in Aleppo without a pfennig [German penny].

[Leon Khatschadurian]