[231]. In the pamphlet Vérité sur le mouvement révolutionnaire Arménien et les mesures gouvernementales, the following passages occur: “The Imperial (Ottoman) Government abstained from exercising any pressure or adopting any repressive measures against the Armenians until the day the revolt broke out at Van towards the middle of April, 1915” (page 10); “No coercive measure was decreed by the Imperial Government against the Armenians until the date of their armed revolt, which took place at Van and in the other military zones in the course of the month of June, of the year 1915, and until they had made common cause with the enemy forces” (page 15). These statements are direct falsehoods, as is also the statement (page 12) that—“After the occupation of Van by the Russians and Armenians, the Moslem population of the town was pitilessly massacred.” We have authoritative neutral testimony (e.g., Docs. [120], [121], [122] and [15]) on both these points, by which the Turkish statements are refuted. Yet these lying statements are the pivot of the whole apologia presented in this pamphlet.
[232]. See Docs. [68], [82], [94] and [122].
[236]. According to an official calendar, published at Alexandropol by authority of the Katholikos of Etchmiadzin, from which extracts have been communicated to the Editor by Mr. H.N. Mosditchian, the statistics of the Armenian population in Russia, up to date, are 1,636,486 for the Caucasus, and approximately two million for the Empire as a whole. For the Ottoman Empire, statistics compiled at the Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople in 1912 estimate the Armenian population at 2,100,000; Turkish official statistics, on the other hand, admit no more than 1,100,000, which on their own showing would give Russia a majority.
[237]. For evidence of this loyalty, see [Annexe B]. to this summary.
[239]. The 25 recalcitrants at Zeitoun do not come into question, for the Zeitounlis were excepted from military service by special charter, and the attempt to conscribe them was a violation by the Ottoman authorities of Ottoman law.
[240]. Die Armenische Frage, von C.A. Bratter, Berlin, Concordia Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1915. The reference is to pp. 9-10.