Abstract
We do not have a single, complete version of Naim Efendi’s collection. What we have is two different texts! One is the original Ottoman-Turkish text that we discovered in the Guerguerian Archive, and the second is the collection of passages published by Aram Andonian. The original Ottoman-Turkish text and passages published by Andonian are the same, but there are major differences, too, because Andonian did not publish several pages of the original Ottoman-Turkish material. In some cases, he considered some pages unimportant and simply omitted them. In other cases, our Ottoman-Turkish text does not include certain pages that Aram Andonian published in his book. We know why these pages are missing in the Ottoman-Turkish text: Andonian had sent them to Istanbul for a trial.
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Notes
- 1.
Translator’s note: Throughout this text, Naim Efendi uses the present tense (-iyor). We have changed it to the past tense to make it sound more like his recollections.
- 2.
Cedîde a neighborhood of Aleppo; Karlık an area of settlement close to Aleppo.
- 3.
We would like to make note of the loaded and ominous “bureaucratese” in these cables and its intentional euphemistic obfuscation (“certain known individuals,” “treatment,” “reliable officials”).
- 4.
The meaning here is that the gendarmes should ensure that the deportees were left without food or water en route. TA.
- 5.
The date on the document is 20 February 332; however, there is no such a date in Ottoman calendar. The dates between 16 and 28 February 1332 were taken out from Ottoman calendar to delete the 13 days of difference. The date should be here 1331!
- 6.
The book Naim Efendi refers to is the “White Book,” which was published by the Ottoman Government in late 1916 with the title Ermeni Komitelerinin Âmâl ve Harekât - ı İhtilâliyesi: İlan - ı Meşrutiyetden Evvel ve Sonra, (Istanbul: Matbaa-i Amire, 1332 [1916]).
- 7.
The date on the document is 26 February 332. There is no such a date in the Ottoman calendar. The dates between 16 and 28 February 1332 were taken out from Ottoman calendar to delete the 13 days of difference. The date should be here 1331.
- 8.
In all ciphered official messages concerning deportations and massacres, as well as related activities, generally the phrase, “known individuals.” is used for the Armenians.
- 9.
Ihsan Bey, the former kaymakam of Kilis and then Zahle, who at this point was the director of the Special Secretariat of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Constantinople, confirmed this point in the recollections of Naim Bey. Ihsan Bey made a declaration of similar meaning concerning these words of Abdülahad Nuri Bey, and his declaration has been reproduced in the indictment of the trial of the Ittihadists in the following fashion: “Ihsan Bey says that when he was kaymakam of Kilis, Abdülahad Nuri Bey, who was sent from Constantinople to Aleppo, attempted to persuade him that the goal of the Armenian deportation was annihilation—[saying] that I met with Talat Bey and personally received the order for annihilation, and the salvation of the country is in it” (Interrogation Documents, p. 15).
- 10.
Abdülahad Nuri Bey never took bribes. “I like bribes,” he customarily said, “but I am afraid to accept them. I am afraid that in place of the money which enters my pocket an Armenian, a single Armenian, will go free.”
- 11.
The government, which was very cautious during the days of the beginning of the Armenian deportation, formulated a credit in the name of the deportees in order to veil the true goal of the deportation. The sacrifice did not come from it anyway. As the property and wealth of the deported Armenians had been confiscated, this credit would be taken from the sum that was created from this. But this again was a formal thing, and they gave one [loaf] of bread once a day only in a few places for a very short period of time and then stopped. The Turkish officials supervising the deportation in any case largely usurped the allotted sums.
- 12.
At one of the stations found along the line of the Euphrates, the müdür of Abuharrar, Corporal Rahmeddin, who had become a terror for the deportees found there, and who, with the terrible cudgel from which he was inseparable, constantly killed men, was summoned to Aleppo, after numerous protests, for such a nominal trial. However, in accordance with this telegram, he was immediately again sent back to his post without even being examined. On his return, when he passed through Meskene in order to get off at Abuharrar, he shot at the deportees with his revolver, yelling “You protested, and what happened? Behold, I again go to take my office.” It is understood of course that after returning, the barbarities of this man, whom the deportees called “Bone breaker,” took on even greater dimensions.
- 13.
For the full report that Naim mentions please see Ottoman memoir page [13] [Taner Akçam].
- 14.
In particular, among them was found Arslan Bey’s brother, Hüseyin Bey, who after Arslan Bey’s death (in the beginning of 1917), succeeded him as the director of the town quarter of Ras-ul-Ayn. The two brothers also played a large role in the massacres of Der Zor. Hüseyin Bey already was continually going to Aleppo in order to sell the objects that he and his brother and their men incessantly stole from the deportees. Neither the sick, nor the elderly, nor the children were spared.
- 15.
It is worth on this occasion to recall that the order for the general deportation of the Armenians was given after Marshal Makensen broke through the Russian front, when henceforth the destruction of Russia and consequently also the final victory appeared assured to the Turkish government.
- 16.
In Aleppo alone, one or two hundred people amassed great wealth by taking bribes or serving as intermediaries for bribes in order to provide temporary residency permits for the Armenian deportees.
- 17.
It is worth recalling together with this telegram that during the massacres in the provinces, the clergy were the ones killed with the most terrible tortures—the prelates, vartabeds [celibate Armenian priests with advanced education], married priests, etc. Generally, they broke them into pieces, after tormenting them for days in prisons. They were even going to kill the Patriarch of Constantinople, when he was exiled to Baghdad, in the same fashion, but the fear of accountability of the Ane kaymakam saved him.
- 18.
Later, upon the appeal of the Catholicos of Cilicia, Cemal Pasha permitted this clergyman to go to Jerusalem. After this appeal of the Catholicos, several other clergymen also received the same permission.
- 19.
These were Catholic priests deported from Ankara. When the müdür of Meskene was fired without a replacement, they took advantage of the prevalent confusion and fled to Aleppo, bribing a gendarmerie commander and other officials.
- 20.
In Dipsi, entire families died from hunger. Later, they no longer brought caravans there, and the caravans would go directly to Abuharrar. Due to the stench of the corpses, it was not possible to stop there. Arab shepherds killed 36 Armenian women there because…they ate the hay of the animals.
- 21.
The late, lamented Dr. Shepherd would relate the following incident. After the Armenian massacres, a group of American young ladies came from Kharpert [Harput] to Aleppo in order to return to America. These young ladies were robbed on the way and experienced great difficulties. The Turkish government subjected them to the strictest searches so that they would not take any picture or writing with them. They even examined the braids of their hair. “What are you looking for,” asked one of the maidens. “What you seek is not on us, but in our minds, our eyes, in our hearts. You can only efface them by killing us.”
- 22.
It is true that Armenians gave information about the massacres to the American consul, Mr. Jackson. One of those Armenians was an English writing youth, Mr. Aram Giulian, while the photographs were taken by the secretary of the Aleppo Armenian prelacy, Mr. Madteos Yeretsian. Many people, including Armenian priests, were arrested in Aleppo on suspicion of giving information to the American consulate, and disappeared.
- 23.
We were only able to ascertain that of them, Arsen Shahbazian was from Cilicia. It is unknown to us who the other two are and where they were from.
- 24.
Sivas.
- 25.
We read in the indictment published by the current Turkish government against the Ittihad Committee: “According to the investigations conducted, those who did not want to participate in the aforementioned crimes are considered traitors to the homeland.”
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Akçam, T. (2018). Appendix A. In: Killing Orders. Palgrave Studies in the History of Genocide. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69787-1_6
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