File No. 867.4016/291
The Chargé in Turkey (Philip) to the Secretary of State
[Received July 25, 10 p. m.]
1973. Your 2758, June 16, 4 p. m. The situation of the Armenian exiles in Mesopotamia seems quite deplorable from available information. These wretched destitute people apparently are being shifted about from one place to another in the desert by relentless officials, many dying of disease, starvation, and exhaustion. Furthermore, reliable information has been received here that about a month ago orders were sent from the Ministry of the Interior to collect and send away a large number of men, women, and children who had managed to escape or return from exile to the province of Aleppo or Adana where the men had obtained employment under the German directors of the Bagdad Railway.
[Page 853]Minister of Foreign Affairs admitted to me that this had been done to prevent the concentrating of Armenians. He added that these people were hiding and thought that employment with the Germans would save them from further molestation. These people are said to have numbered from nine to eleven thousand and some American and German missionaries report that they believe that the majority were massacred. The present governor of the Adana Province is a brother-in-law of the Minister of War. He was governor of Van at the time of the Armenian massacre and revolution there early in 1915 and is known for his anti-Armenian sentiments.
I have taken up Armenian question with the Minister of Foreign Affairs as instructed by your above telegram without apparently making much impression. I have also discussed the situation with the German Ambassador, who says he is doing what he can. His personal opinion appears to be that this Government could not be influenced by any forceful demand in the matter and that persuasion would be the only means of bringing about an amelioration of its policy. I will continue my efforts here as opportunity offers and am forwarding by telegraph other information and suggestions. Of course, the crux of the difficulty lies in the fact that the strongest elements of the Turkish Government backed by the Committee of Union and Progress are violently opposed to the open administration of relief by foreigners to subjects under their control and to existing conditions becoming apparent to foreigners, it being their evident intention to prevent the rehabilitation of this race.