Ambassador Morgenthau’s Policy Recommendations

Abstract

Ambassador Henry Morgenthau estimated that between April and October 1915 more than a million Armenians were deported from their homeland to the Syrian desert, the primary destination for the refugees.¹ Aleppo served as the clearinghouse for the Armenian refugees from Anatolia on their way to the desert, while those closer to the Russian front escaped to Alexandropol (Gumri), Echmiadzin, and Erevan.² The more fortunate were spared from Deir el-Zor and either remained in Aleppo or were moved farther south.’ U.S. Consul Jesse Jackson at Aleppo estimated that by August, approximately 350,000 refugees had converged at Deir el-Zor,⁴ and more than 500,000 Armenians had been killed.⁵ A large number of the survivors were pressed farther south to Hama, Homs, Damascus, and as far away as Amman. Jackson estimated that provision for their “barest existence” would require about $150,000 a month, or a dollar a day per capita.