File No. 867.4016/296
The Chargé in Turkey (Philip) to the Secretary of State
[Received September 25.]
Sir: I have the honor to report as follows concerning recent additional deportations of certain Armenians in and around Aleppo.
For sometime past the Embassy has been receiving intimations from Consul Jackson that further measures of deportation at Aleppo were imminent and it has been quite evident that he anticipates the evacuation of the entire Armenian population of that city, numbering about 30,000. Having this in mind, I have made several verbal representations [Page 854] to the Turkish Government on various occasions and have ever intended to take any step which might seem efficacious to check this should I be warned in time. On the 8th instant an urgent telegram came from Mr. Jackson, stating that the forecast contained in his despatch No. 533 of February 8, 1916 (see my despatch No. 1104 of March 20 last1) was on the eve of realization. The next day I accordingly addressed a private and confidential note to Talaat Bey, Minister of the Interior, to remind him of his earlier definite assurances concerning the cessation of the Armenian deportations, and especially concerning those in and around Aleppo. I deemed this manner of bringing the latter to his attention more advisable than an attempt to interview him personally, as of late he has shown an increasing disinclination to discuss Armenian affairs with me.
Mr. Jackson seemed to be of the opinion that the deportation ordered at Aleppo might not have been based upon instructions from Constantinople, as he telegraphed on the 8th instant to ask “if orders were sent to rebegin deportation” from the central Government. It may be stated that at many places local deportations have been recently carried out at the instigation of the Local organizations of the Committee of Union and Progress, without apparently having the question referred to Constantinople, and this was evidently the fear of Mr. Jackson with respect of the threatened measure of deportation at Aleppo.
In order to leave no possible assistance untried, on August 11 I requested the German Ambassador to take whatever steps he might deem advisable towards preventing the reported general deportation of the Armenian population of Aleppo. The following day Count Wolff-Metternich replied that he would do his best in the matter.
On August 13 Mr. Jackson telegraphed that the parties mentioned had left on the 12th. Subsequently I learned that this referred to the specific case of the departure from Aleppo of some two hundred persons. In a letter dated August 16 and sent through a private channel, Mr. Jackson stated that “the Embassy ought to know that the A’s are being harassed to death. They have all been sent away from Deir-ez-Zor—12,000, I am informed—and up to the vicinity of Jebel Abdul Aziz, between Der and Ras-el-Ain. There is no possibility of their living more than a few weeks. This remnant consists of less than 20 per cent of the number originally sent to Deir-ez-Zor. There are about 8,000 in this neighborhood (Aleppo) and 200 were sent on the 12th, 150 last night, and the collection goes on daily wherever they can be dragged from their hiding places. It is a complete extermination. Some people living here for 6 to 8 years have been sent, and it looks as the this is only the beginning on our local people. Everybody is in terror.”
In a telegram dated August 18, replying to an inquiry from the Embassy, Mr. Jackson repeated that 200 were sent on the 12th, 150 on the 14th, and about same number on the 16th (about 500 in all), but none since then. However, on the 19th he telegraphed that the same action was being “taken indiscriminately by degrees in Brewster’s district,” i. e., in the region of Alexandretta, where Mr. Brewster is consular agent.
[Page 855]In reply to my note to Talaat Bey, I was orally requested to take up the matter with the Minister of Foreign Affairs. When questioned on this matter, Halil Bey told me that the measures carried out at Aleppo were only a partial deportation of Armenians who had already been deported to the Aleppo district, and that telegraphic instructions had been sent to the authorities at Aleppo to make exceptions in favor of the Protestant and Catholic Armenians. In other words I am given to understand that no general deportation from Aleppo is now contemplated by the Government and that the few hundreds recently sent away are people who have already been deported from elsewhere and who have been allowed to remain temporarily at Aleppo.
In order to reinforce my earlier request for the cooperation of the German Ambassador, on the 24th I again wrote to him to communicate this reply of Halil Bey, adding that I had been informed by our Consul at Aleppo that the transient Armenian population of that place numbered something in excess of 8,000. I also drew the attention of the Ambassador to the situation of the former Armenian Patriarch here, as it was apprehended that this dignitary was to be sent away under harsh and suspicious circumstances, and asked the Ambassador to use his influence with the authorities to prevent indignities and possibly worse being meted out to this man. I have since been assured that the former Patriarch will be allowed to proceed to Bagdad at his convenience.
I have the honor to enclose copies of the above-mentioned correspondence for the information of the Department.1
The foregoing will serve to show to the Department that the treatment of the Armenians in many interior places has continued to be as bad as ever. Reports of the situation in Mesopotamia and northern Syria are most discouraging, while from Konia comes word of further ill-treatment, although on a smaller scale than before. The need of funds for relief among the Armenians at Konia during the winter months is especially emphasized in recent letters from our missionaries at that place.
One feature of the situation that would appear somewhat encouraging was the recent visit of the Director of Public Security to various places in the interior. The Embassy is informed that the object of this trip was to impress upon the local organizations of the Committee of Union and Progress that they must restrain their zeal and refrain from carrying out deportations locally without instructions from Constantinople. The difficulties to meet at present consist largely in the activities of the local authorities, who can usually cover up their petty ill-treatment of the Armenians, and even larger transfers, by alleging that they are measures of local necessity, and are not, strictly speaking, deportations.
There is also the ever-existing attitude of opposition on the part of the Turkish Government to the administration of relief to Ottoman subjects by foreigners direct. This question appears to be reaching an acute stage in the extensive southern provinces now under the sway of Djemal Pasha, who evidently has the intention of checking, entirely all such relief.
[Page 856]From information received I can only conclude that the sufferings and the decimation of the unhappy Armenian people continue apace, even though the more active and violent processes of elimination are now in abeyance.
I have [etc.]