While this is the Turkish side of the situation, there is also another side which I shall give on the authority of men who have passed practically their entire lives in Turkey and whose names, if I dared mention them, would be recognised in both Europe and America as competent authority. According to these men, the decision has gone out from the Young Turk party that the Armenian population of Turkey must be set back fifty years. This has been decided upon as necessary in order to ensure the supremacy of the Turkish race in the Ottoman Empire, which is one of the basic principles of the Young Turk party. The situation, I am told, is absolutely analogous to that which preceded the Armenian massacres under Abd-ul-Hamid. So far, however, the Young Turks have confined themselves to the new system of deportation, dispersion and separation of families.
[1]. Memorandum by the Editor, page xli.
[2]. Memorandum by the Editor, page xl.
[3]. For instance, the conversation of a German officer reported in Doc. [108] p. 420. For the general attitude of the Turks and German towards the treatment of the Armenians, see “Historical Summary,” chapter V.
On the 11th January, 1916, Herr von Stumm, Chief of the Political Department of the German Foreign Office, gave the following answer in the Reichstag to a question from Dr. Liebknecht:
“It is known to the Imperial Chancellor that revolutionary demonstrations, organised by our enemies, have taken place in Armenia, and that they have caused the Turkish Government to expel the Armenian population of certain districts and to allot to them new dwelling-places. An exchange of views about the reaction of these measures upon the population is now taking place. Further information cannot be given.”
[4]. A copy of this letter was communicated to the Berner Tagwacht by Dr. Forel, a Swiss gentleman, and reproduced in the Journal de Génève, 17th August, 1916. It was signed by four persons—Dr. Gräter (of Swiss nationality), Dr. Niepage (of German nationality), and two others whose names have been withheld by Dr. Forel.—Editor.
[5].
AMERICAN COMMITTEE FOR ARMENIAN AND SYRIAN RELIEF.