File No. 867.4016/271

The Chargé in Turkey (Philip) to the Secretary of State

[Telegram]

1672. My 1576, February 15, 3 p. m.; your 1852, February 12, 2 p. m. Recent telegram from Consul at Aleppo conveyed information that 800 Armenians were deported from there on March 15. I interviewed Talaat Bey, Minister of War, who said that while he must decline to take up the Armenian question officially, yet he would be pleased to discuss it with me informally and in a friendly spirit. Calling attention to previous statement of Minister of Foreign Affairs, reported in my 1576, and to the regrettable information which has subsequently reached the Embassy of deportations from Aleppo, Adrianople, [Ada Bazar?], Rodosto, Aintab, [Caesarea?], [Talas?], including Catholics and Protestants, and also of forced conversion to [Islam], horrible mistreatment Armenian women at Harput, Aintab, etc., I communicated to him, as the most powerful member of the Government, informally verbally the Department’s above instruction, and earnestly requested that he use his influence to cause the Turkish Government to comply with the suggestions therein expressed. He stated that in his opinion much of the private information received by the Department may have been exaggerated and said that the main effect of foreign missionary work among Armenians had been to stimulate their antigovernmental tendencies. He added that in the carrying out of the Government’s original orders many innocent Armenians had suffered; that those orders were intended to apply to members of secret committees and their families only, but that many others had been deported whom it had proved impossible to protect, etc. He admitted also that though orders had been sent by him some time ago to cease all further deportations and persecutions, they seemed to have been imperfectly carried out or perhaps purposely misunderstood by some [Page 850] officials in the interior, though he implied ignorance of the Aleppo and other late deportations. Talaat promised to send fresh orders to Aleppo to stop all deportations there at once and to have brought back, if possible, those who were reported to have been lately sent away. He also said the Government would do what it could to prevent further molestations elsewhere. Concerning compulsory conversion the Minister said that he had given strict orders not only against this but also that all applications by Armenians to be made Mohammedans, of which there has been a great number, should be refused. He said in conclusion that the main object of the Government, which was to punish revolutionists, had been accomplished, and that it had now no desire to do harm to the survivors, inferring that they would be helped where possible. Finally he promised me that the Armenian population of Constantinople will not be deported.

I gathered from the above that the representations of the Department may have a beneficial influence on the situation which I will continue to watch carefully and report upon.

Some of the recent deportations reported to the Embassy seem to have involved families which police and other local authorities judge not to be native to the towns from which they have been sent. Although such families may have resided many years in the same place, yet it is conceivable that brutal under-officials choose to consider them as transient and so find an excuse for sending them away even though orders might have been issued from the Ministry of the Interior not to interfere with the remaining Armenians in various districts. Leaving aside probable lack of inclination, I believe the Turkish Government is not now in a position financially to accord really adequate assistance to the survivors of its terrible methods, and it appears that owing probably to anemia and political reasons its position in this matter is further weakened by its apparent inability or unwillingness to [investigate] and punish unlawful acts against Christians and others committed by its political adherents who fill the responsible offices. Therefore it is obvious that very extensive outside financial assistance is required immediately to enable survivors to exist.1

Philip
  1. Such assistance being sent; correspondence concerning it not printed. See Foreign Relations, 1915, Supplement, p. 988 n .