Germany, Turkey, and Armenia. Anonymous
The German scholar’s Memorandum, for obvious reasons, is very silent as to the moral responsibility of the German Government for the deeds which rouse his indignation, but several of his countrymen are more outspoken. In this respect some of the documents included in this pamphlet are very instructive.
The German whose experiences are recorded in Document 9 reports that a Turkish official said to him: “This time Germany has given these unbelieving swine a lesson which they will not forget.” (See below, p. 66.) At Arab Pounar a Turkish major addressed him in the following language: “I and my brother took possession of a young girl at Ras-el-Ain, who had been left on the road. We are very angry with the Germans for doing such things.” When challenged on this point the Turks replied: “The chief of the General Staff is a German; von der Goltz is Commander-in-Chief, and ever so many German officers are in our Army. Our Koran does not permit such treatment as the Armenians have to suffer now.” (See p. 79.) In Nuss Tell a Mohammedan inspector made a similar remark, and when asked to explain himself he replied: “It is not only I who say this; everyone will tell you the same tale.” (See p. 79.)
Document No. 12, which voices the indignation of a German teacher in a German secondary school in Turkey, is also of peculiar interest. The following passages deserve special notice:—“We deem it our duty to call attention to the fact that our educational work will lose its moral foundation and the esteem of the natives, if the German Government is not in a position to prevent the brutality with which the wives and children of slaughtered Armenians are treated in this place.” (See p. 95.) “‘Ta alim el aleman’ (‘that is the teaching of the Germans’) says the simple Turk, when asked about the authors of these measures. The educated Moslems are convinced that, though the German people may disapprove of such horrors, the German Government is taking no steps to prevent them, out of consideration for its Turkish allies. Mohammedans of more refined feelings, Turks as well as Arabs, shake their heads disapprovingly; they do not even conceal their tears, when, in the passage of a convoy of deported Armenians through the town, they see Turkish soldiers inflicting blows with heavy sticks on women in advanced pregnancy or dying persons who cannot drag themselves any further. They cannot imagine that their Government has ordered these cruelties, and ascribe all excesses to the guilt of the Germans, who during the war are held to be the teachers of the Turks in all matters. Even the Mollahs declare in the Mosques that it was not the Sublime Porte but the German officers who had ordered the ill-treatment and annihilation of the Armenians. The things which in this place have been before everybody’s eyes during many months must indeed remain a blot on Germany’s shield of honour in the memory of Oriental nations.” (See pp. 96–97.) “Nothing would be more humiliating for us than the erection of a costly palace at Constantinople commemorating German-Turkish friendship, while we are unable to protect our fellow-Christians from barbarities unparalleled even in the blood-stained history of Turkey.” (See p. 106.)
The author of the document considers it “out of the question that the German Government, if it were seriously inclined to stem the tide of destruction even at this eleventh hour, could find it impossible to bring the Turkish Government to reason.” He proceeds as follows: “If the Turks are really so well disposed to us Germans as people say, then it is surely permissible to show them to what an extent they compromise us before the whole civilised world, if we, as their Allies, are to look on calmly, when hundreds of thousands of our fellow-Christians in Turkey are slaughtered, when their wives and daughters are violated, and their children brought up in the faith of Islam.” (See p. 105.)
He concludes his report with the following peroration:
“We may indignantly repudiate the lies circulated in enemy countries accusing the German Consuls of having organized the massacres. We shall not, however, destroy the belief of the Turkish people that Germany has ordered the Armenian massacres unless energetic action be at last taken by German diplomatists and German officers.”
More than a year has elapsed since the appeal was issued, but the rulers of Germany apparently are more inclined to act on Count Reventlow’s suggestion, according to which “the Armenians least of all deserve the pity and the compassionate emotions of the civilized world,” than to listen to an eye-witness whose conceptions as to the true mission of German culture differ so widely from the ideas which, to the disgrace and misfortune of his country, have of late characterised German political aims and German methods of warfare.
1 The particulars as to name and rank are given in the original documents, but must for obvious reasons be suppressed in this pamphlet. ↑
2 The italics are those of the author of the Memorandum. ↑
3 Here again the italics are those of the author of the Memorandum. ↑
A. THE INVASION OF PERSIA.
1. LETTERS FROM GERMAN MISSIONARIES IN N.W. PERSIA.
(a)
The Russians had hardly gone when the Mohammedans began to rob and to pillage. Window-frames, doors, staircases, woodwork, everything was taken away. Many Syrians had abandoned the whole of their household goods and the stores accumulated for the winter, and had fled. Everything fell into the enemy’s hands. Flight was the best expedient; for those who were left behind had a sad fate. Fifteen thousand Syrians found protection within the walls of the Mission Station, and were provided with bread by the missionaries. One lavasch (a thin water biscuit) was each person’s daily ration. Sickness broke out; the death rate mounted up to fifty a day. In the villages the Kurds killed nearly every man who came into their power. During six weeks a Turkish soldier guarded us. The fact that I was born in Germany was very helpful; nobody even touched us.1
Am I to report how the Turks had erected gallows on the main road outside the town gates and had hanged many innocent Syrians and shot others, who previously had been detained a long time in prison? I will be silent as to all these horrible things. Like many other Armenian soldiers, one was beaten to death here outside the gate and buried close to Miss Friedemann’s wall, but so carelessly that the dogs were able to disinter part of the corpse. One of the hands was quite uncovered. I took a few spades and we heaped a mound over him. Miss Friedemann’s garden, the property of the German Orient Mission, was destroyed by the Mohammedans and some of the houses were set on fire. We gladly welcomed the first Cossacks, who appeared again after five months. Now we feel once more that our life is safe and that it is unnecessary to keep the gates locked during the day-time.
(b)
The latest reports tell us that 4,000 Syrians and 100 Armenians who were here with the [American] missionaries [in Urmia] died of sickness alone. All the surrounding villages have been plundered and burnt down, more particularly Göktepe, Gülpashan, and Icharguscha. Two thousand Christians have been massacred in Urmia and the surrounding country; many churches have been destroyed and burnt; also many houses in the town.
(c)
Sautchbulak was razed to the ground by the Turks. Gallows were erected for the missionaries, but help came and prevented the worst. A lady missionary and a doctor have died.
(d)
In Haftevan and Salmas 850 corpses were found in the wells and cisterns alone, all headless. Why? The Commander-in-Chief of the