Armenian Atrocities in Historical Archives - Part I

  25 November 2015    Read: 14731
Armenian Atrocities in Historical Archives - Part I
1. The centers of revolutionary activity in Turkish Armenia were Zeitun, Van and Erzurum. The Zeitun Rebellion of 1862 was the beginning of extensive uprisings directed against the Ottoman government. (Louise Nalbandian, The Armenian Revolutionary Movement, Caliornia, 1963.)

2. The Zeitun rebellion took place between October 24th-January 28th, 1896. 50 officers and 600 soldiers were taken prisoner. Most of the prisoners were killed and 56 of them managed to escape, from the beginning until the end of the insurrection, 20.000 Turks were killed against only 125 Armenians. (Aghasi, Zeitoun-Traduction d`Archag Tchobanian, Paris, 1897.)



3.French commander Romieu stated that during 1878 and the following years, armed Armenian militant groups carried out acts of terrorism and cherished hate against the Turks in his reports, which he submitted to the French War Ministry. (National Archives of France, Guerro Mondial 1914-1918, Turquie-Volume 890, Legion d`Orient.)

4.During the Van rebellion between 185-1896, 758 Moslems were killed by the Armenian militants and Armenians suffered from 1.934 casualties. (General Mayewski, Statistique des Provinces de Vant ET de Bitlis – The British Blue Book.)



5.The raid on the Ottoman Bank was organized by the Dashnak Committee on 26 August 1896. The raiders were led by a Dashnak revolutionist named Babken Suni. Gerard Libaridion describes this attack as `the first recorded act of urban terrorism`. According to British sources, 120 soldiers were killed and 25 wounded. (Gerard Libardian, Armenia at the Crossroads, USA, 1991 – Vartanian, History of Dashnaksutiun.)

6.During the second Sassun Rtebellion in 1904, 1.000 Turks were killed and just 19 Armenians died. (K.Kukulyan, The Antranik Battles, Beirut, 1929.)



7.The official Ottoman archives stated that 523.000 Muslim Turks were killed by the Armenian militant groups in Anatolia between 1910-1922. (Ralph J Henham, the Criminal Law of Genocide-International, Comparative and Contextual Aspects, 2007.)

8.According to Turkish author Hudavendigar Onur, during the incidents between 1914-1918, 2.5 to 3 million Muslims died as a result of the unrest caused by the Armenians. (Hudavendigar Onur, Milleti Sadikadan Haykin Cocuklarina, Istanbul, 1999.)



9.These Armenian volunteers in order to take avange their compatriots who had been massacred by the Kurds, committed all kinds of excesses. More than 600.000 Muslims were killed bwtween 1915-1918 in the Eastern provinces of Turkey. (Hasan Arfa, The Kurds, Oxford University Press, 1996.)

10.The telegraph sent by the French Foreign Ministry to the Russian consulate in Paris, dated 14 May 1915 stated that during the Van rebellion, 6.000 Muslims were killed by the Armenian insurgents in the region. (Yusuf Halacoglu, Surgunden Soykirima Ermeni Iddialari – National Archives of France, Guerre Mondial 1914-11918, Turquie – Volume 890.)

11.On 19 August 1915, the Austrian ambassador mentioned about `the large scale massacres` committed against the Turks by Armenians, the mutual killing and clashes between the Turks and Armenians. (Guenter Lewy, The Armenian Massacres in Ottoman, Turkey, A Disputed Genocide, 2005 – Ohandjanian, Österreich, and Armenian - Volume 6.)



12.In 1918, Armenians slaughtered 800 civilians in Erzincan. During the night of 26th-27th of February, Armenians killed 3.000 to 8.000 Muslims in Erzurum. (Lt. Col. Tverdohlebov, I witnessed and Lived Through, 1918 – Halil Kemal Turkozu, Armenian Atrocities according to
Ottoman and Russioan documents, 1986 – Muammer Demirel, birinci dunya harbinde Erzurum ve Cevresinde Ermeni Haraketleri, 1914-1918.)



13.Armenians burned 250 villages in the region before the Ottoman army recaptured Eastern Turkey in May 1918. (Justin McCarthy, 1995.)



14.The Ottoman document, dated 16 July 1919 states that the Armenians attacked and killed the Muslims in Sharur and Nakhcivan regions, depleted Sharur`s folk to the Aras river and assaulted 45 villages. (Recep Karacakaya, Kaynakcali; Ermeni Meselesi Kronolojisi, 1878-1923, The republic of Turkey Prime Ministry General Directorate of the State Archives Publication.)



15.Armenian Lt. Col. Melik Sahnazarov stated in his divisional report that 30 Turkish villages were captured, plundered, their residents were killed and asked for permission to do the same to another 29 Turkish villages.

During 1920, the Turkish and Kurdish population of Kars province were killed and villages were looted by the Armenians.

In 1920, an Armenian officer stated in his report that he ordered the extermination of the Turkish population in Besar-Gecar without any segregation. (Mehmet Perincek, Tashnak Party has nothing to do anymore, The Manifesto of Havannes Katcchaznouni, the first Prime Minister of Armenia, 1923 – The State Archives of Armenia, Gosarhiv Armenii – A.Lalayan, Kontrerevolyutsionny – Dashnaksutyun, 1936 – Imperialisticeskaya Voyna 1914-1918, Revolyutsionniy Vostok.)



16.In July 1919, British Lt. Col. Albert Rawlinson stated in a telegraph he sent to the British General Headquarters in Istanbul that the Armenians committed a massacre from Oltu town until Beyazid border. (Kars Ardahan ve Batumda Ermenilerin Turklere Yaptigi Mezalim, Ataturk University – Alfred Rawlinson, The Adventures in the Middle East, New York, 1923.)

17.The Ottoman document, dated 4 December 1920 states that the Armenians carried out massacres in 13 villages of Sarikamis region by slaughtering 1.975 people and destructing 276 houses. (Karacakaya, BOA. HR. SYS. 2878-63.)



18.All Turkish children also should be killed as they form a danger to the Armenian nation, Hamparsum Bayaciyan-Murad, Ottoman Armenian Parliamentary-Guerilla Leader, 1914. (Mikael Varandeon, History of Dashnaksutyun.)

19.I have it from absolute first-hand information that the Armenians in the Caucasus attacked Tartar-Muslim villages that are utterly defenseless, bombarded these villages with artillery, murdered the inhabitants, pillaged and often burned the villages. (Rear Admiram Mark Bristol, The United States Navy, The Bristol Popers-General Correspondence, Letter to Mr. Bradley, 14 September 1920.)



20. We closed the roads and mountain passes that might serve as ways of escape for the Tartars-Turks, and then proceeded in the work of extermination. Our troops surrounded village after village. Little resistance was offered. (Ohanus Appressian, Memories of an Armenian Officer, Men are like that, 1926.)

21. Many massacres were committed by the Armenians until our army arrived in Erzurum. 2.127 Muslims were buried in Erzurum`s center. These are entirely men. Lungs of the bodies were removed and sharp stakes were struck in the eyes. There are other bodies around the city. (Official Telegram of the Third Royal Army Command to the Supreme Command, 19 March 1918, Atose Archives.)



22. These Armenian gangs (10.000 militants) were advancing by plundering and pillaging the properties of the Muslim villages they passed through. They massacred and destroyed even the babies in cradles. (Ottoman Royal Army Report – B. A. Boryan, Armeniya Mejdunarodnaya Diplomatiya, Moscow, 1929.)

23. There is a systematic plan of destruction of the Turkish villages and extinction of the Muslim population. This plan is being carried out by Greek and Armenian bands, which appear to operate under Greek instructions and sometimes even with the assistance of detachments of regular troops. (Arnold Toynbee, the Western Question in Greece and Turkey.)



24. The Armenian bands carried out overwhelming destruction at Erzincan. They literally eradicated the whole population living in the villages. (Bussche, German Diplomat, 28 February 1918.)

25. Armenians were the favored portion of the population of turkey, or that in the Great War, they traitorously turned Turkish cities over to the Russian invader. They boasted of having raised an army of 150.000 men to fight a civil war, then they burned at least 100 Turkish villages and exterminated their population. (John Dewey, The Turkish Tragedy, The New Republic, 12 November 1928.)



26. As a result of the massacres committed by Armenians during the March Events between 30th of March – 3rd of April, 1918 in Azerbaijan, 3.000 to 12.000 Azerbaijanis and Muslims from other ethnic groups were killed. The houses of Azerbaijanis were burned. (Journal of the Royal Central Asian Society 1992 – Todeusz Swietochowski, Brian C. Collins, Historical Dictionary of Azerbaijan 1999 – The New York Times, 20 May 1918 – New Republics in the Caucasus, The New York Times current history, March 1920 – Michael Smith, Anatomy of Rumor - Murder Scandal, The Musavat Party and Narrative of the Russian Revolution in Baku, 1917-1920 – Journal of Contemporary History – Volume 36, 2001 – James B. Minahan, Miniature Empires – a historical dictionary of the Newly Independent States, 1998.)



27. I arrived in Bayburt on 8 August 1917. What I saw was terrifying. Armenians under the Russian command were committing horrifying, wild atrocities against the Turks in Bayburt and Ispir. The rebels named Arshak and Antranik slaughtered the children in the orphanage I worked at with their dagger, raped young girls and women. (Tatiana Karameli, Russian Red Cross, Memoirs, 1917-1918, Ottoman Archives BOA. HR. SYS. 2877-1.)



28. I have no doubts about the will of Armenians about killing their Muslim neighbor. Dashnak militants are working with extraordinary savagery. (British Foreign Policy Documents, Mr. Kitson to Sir E. Craw, 28 November 1919.)



29. Axis forces used Armenians to reach their goods in the Near East. The French invaded Cilicia and appointed Armenian Dashnak volunteer regiments to carry out acts of violence against Muslims. Dashnaks launched a campaign of ethnic cleansing to realize the dream of Great Armenia. The Muslim population in Kars and Yerevan regions was either exterminated of forced to migrate to the lands of Turkey and Iran. Suragel, Kagizman, Karakurt, Sarikamis, Surmeli regions were burned and destroyed, tens of thousands of people ran for their lives. (V. A. Gurka Kryajin, Soviet Historian.)



30. Armenians have rebelled in Van, attacked the Muslim villages and the citadel. The Turkish forces stationed at the citadel lost 300 soldiers. As a result of street fights which lasted for days, the city is now under rebel hands. On May 17th, the city was invaded by Russians, Armenians have sided with the enemy and started slaughtering Muslims. 80.000 Armenians after Van fell to the enemy. This estimate which does not show ay reference is quite conservative even if it only reflects those killed in the city center. More than 10.000 Muslims were killed. (The Report of German Ambassador Wangenheim, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 25 May 1915.)



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