Mustafa Arif Deymer

Vorlage:Armenian Genocide Witnesses and testimony of the Armenian Genocide provide an important and valuable insight into the events during and after the Armenian Genocide. The Armenian Genocide was prepared and carried out by the Ottoman government in 1915 and the following years. As a result of the genocide, Armenians living in their ancestral homeland (at the time Ottoman Empire) were deported and systematically killed. The Republic of Turkey today denies the allegations of genocide, although the systematic massacres are recognized as genocide by most scholars.

Many diplomats from a number of European countries, including Germany, Austria, Italy and the United States who have witnessed the Armenian massacres provided testimonies that are considered highly valued by historians as reliable reports of the tragedy. The eyewitness accounts of non-Armenian diplomats, missionaries and others provide significant evidence about the events and particularly the systematic nature of the deportations and subsequent massacres. Vorlage:Quote box Other eyewitness accounts are from survivors of the Armenian Genocide themselves. Many of these accounts have been tape-recorded decades after the events. As asserted by Armenian historian Richard Hovanissian, "eyewitness accounts of decisive events may be as valuable as official dispatches and reports. It is in such version especially that the human element becomes manifest, affording insights not to be found in documents." Some survivor accounts have been turned into films such as Aurora Mardiganians' survivor story in the film Ravished Armenia.

In regards to the significance of eyewitness testimony, Genocide scholar Samuel Totten stated:

First-person accounts by victims and others are capable of breaking through the numbing mass of numbers in that they provide the thoughts, the passions and the voices of those who experienced and/or witnessed the terrible calamity now referred to as genocide. And while first-person accounts serve many purposes among the most significant is the fact that authentic accounts constitute valuable testimony as to what it means to be caught up in the maelstrom of hatred and savagery that is genocide.

The US Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire Henry Morgenthau, Sr. is recognized to be one of the main eyewitnesses of the genocide. He published his memoirs about the Armenian massacres in a 1918 book Ambassador Morgenthau's Story. The book gives detailed documentation of the events and describes his appeals to stop the massacres.Vorlage:Sfn

Notable witnesses and testimonies

The following is a list of notable contemporaneous reports, testimonies and eyewitness accounts of the Armenian Genocide as stated by diplomats, missionaries, military generals, and others from different nationalities:

Person	Occupation	Quotes, testimonies
Henry Morgenthau, Sr. Vorlage:Flagicon American	United States Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, 1913-1916 Henry Morgenthau is regarded as one of the most prominent American that denounced and condemned the Armenian Genocide. Throughout his career as an ambassador, Morgenthau had establish contacts with many Young Turk politicians and especially Talat Pasha, the "mastermind" of the Armenian Genocide. During the deportations and subsequent massacres of Armenians, Morgenthau repeatedly tried to intervene with Talat Pasha and pleaded on their behalf to save them. Early in 1915, when Morgenthau raised his concerns about the deportations of Armenians to Turkish authorities, the authorities expressed their "annoyance" over the concerns.Vorlage:Sfn Morgenthau, who coordinated much of the activity of the American consuls throughout the Empire, received from them reports nearly every day about the deportations and subsequent massacres that were taking place. Morgenthau estimated that a million Armenians were deported and referred to the deportations as a "death warrant to a whole race".Vorlage:Sfn When returning to the United States, Morgenthau helped support funds that helped the refugees and survivors of the Genocide. In 1918, Morgenthau wrote about his accounts in a book entitled, Ambassador Morgenthau's Story. The book dedicates a chapter to the plight of the Armenians called "Murder of a Nation" where he described the deportations and the atrocities as a "cold-blooded, calculating state policy."	Audio recording of Chapter 24, "The Murder of a Nation", from Ambassador Morgenthau's Story. "The real purpose of the deportation was robbery and destruction; it really represented a new method of massacre. When the Turkish authorities gave the orders for these deportations, they were merely giving the death warrant to a whole race; they understood this well, and, in their conversations with me, they made no particular attempt to conceal the fact." "I am confident that the whole history of the human race contains no such horrible episode as this. The great massacres and persecutions of the past seem almost insignificant when compared to the sufferings of the Armenian race in 1915." “They have drawn from the fields the male population and thereby destroyed their agricultural communities. They have annihilated or displaced at least two thirds of the Armenian population and thereby deprived themselves of a very intelligent and useful race.”Vorlage:Sfn "Deportation of and excesses against peaceful Armenians is increasing and from harrowing reports of eye witnesses it appears that a campaign of race extermination is in progress under a pretext of reprisal against rebellion."
Mustafa Kemal Ataturk Vorlage:Flagicon Turkish	First President of Turkey and Founder of the Republic of Turkey There is much debate as to whether Ataturk fully acknowledged the systematic nature of the massacres in 1915. Ataturk himself is chiefly held responsible for the massacres of 5,000 – 12,000 Armenians in Marash in 1922 spelling the end of the remaining Armenian population in the region. When referring to the massacres of Armenians, Ataturk consistently uses the term "shameful act" to describe the events. Ataturk, who often neglected to talk about the massacres, stated in a speech to parliament delivered on April 24, 1920 stating: "I don't wish to talk about the beginning stages of the World War, and what the Allied powers are talking about is certainly not the shameful act that belongs to that distant past." Ataturk has also employed words such as atrocity (mezalim), mistreatment (suimuamelat), disaster (fecayii), and rarely murders (cinayat/cinayet) to describe the events.	"These leftovers from the former Young Turk Party, who should have been made to account for the lives of millions of our Christian subject who were ruthlessly driven en masse from their homes and massacred, have been restive under Republican rule. They have hitherto lived on plunder, robbery and bribery, and become inimical to any idea or suggestion to enlist in useful labor and earn their living by the honest sweat of their brow." “The World War I massacres against the Armenians (Ermenilere karşi kitliam) [was] a shameful act (fazahat).” Ottoman naval officer and statesman Rauf Orbay mentioned in his memoirs during a discussion with James Harbord: “Kemal used the 800,000 figure to describe the number of Armenian victims. He, in fact, ‘disapproved of the Armenian massacres.’ (Ermeni kitlini o da takbih ediyordu).”
Faiz El-Ghusein Vorlage:Flagicon Arab	Sheikh and member of Ottoman parliament Faiz El-Ghusein was exiled to Diyarbakir under the suspicion of supporting the Arab Revolt. While in Diyarbakir, El-Ghusein witnessed the massacres of Armenians in and around the area. El-Ghusein wrote much of what he witnessed in his book Martyred Armenia which provides an eyewitness account of the massacres and exposes its systematic nature. The account was originally published in Arabic in 1916 under the title "Massacres in Armenia" but was changed to Martyred Armenia under its English translation. In the forward of the book, El-Ghusein states, "The war must needs come to an end after a while, and it will then be plain to readers of this book that all I have written is the truth, and that it contains only a small part of the atrocities committed by the Turks against the hapless Armenian people."	Audio recording of Section 3 of Martyred Armenia, by Fa'iz El-Ghusein. "As to their preparations, the flags, bombs and the like, even assuming there to be some truth in the statement, it does not justify the annihilation of the whole people, men and women, old men and children, in a way which revolts all humanity and more especially Islam and the whole body of Moslems, as those unacquainted with the true facts might impute these deeds to Mohammedan fanaticism." "Annihilation seemed to be the sole means of deliverance; they found their opportunity in a time of war, and they proceeded to this atrocious deed, which they carried out with every circumstance of brutality — a deed which is contrary to the law of Islam."
Reşit Akif Paşa Vorlage:Flagicon Turkish	Vali of Sivas, Council of State, and cabinet minister in the Ottoman government The speech of Reşit Akif Paşa made an important speech in the Ottoman parliament on November 21, 1918. The speech had outlined the process in which official statements made use of vague terminology when ordering deportation only to be clarified by special orders ordering "massacres" sent directly from the Committee of Union and Progress headquarters and often times the residence of Talat Pasha himself.	"During my few days of service in this government I've learned of a few secrets and have come across something interesting. The deportation order was issued through official channels by the minister of the interior and sent to the provinces. Following this order the [CUP] Central Committee circulated its own ominous order to all parties to allow the gangs to carry out their wretched task. Thus the gangs were in the field, ready for their atrocious slaughter." "The 'mission' in the circular was: to attack the convoys and massacre the population... I am ashamed as a Muslim, I am ashamed as an Ottoman statesman. What a stain on the reputation of the Ottoman Empire, these criminal people..."
Ahmet Riza Vorlage:Flagicon Turkish	Young Turk politician and President of the first Ottoman parliament Ahmet Riza had opposed the Temporary Law of Deportation because he claimed the bill was unconstitutional since it was never voted on and was never approved by the Ottoman parliament. Rize submitted a draft bill which called for the suspension of the deportations until after the war and proposed to provide security for the deportees. The bill, however, was never passed. Nevertheless, the arguments and issues exposed by Riza showed that no member of parliament was informed about the deportation bill. Riza expressed his objections to the Temporary Law on Abandoned Goods bill in a session in parliament on a November 30, 1915.	"It is unlawful to designate the Armenian assets as "abandoned goods" for the Armenians, the proprietors, did not abandon their properties voluntarily; they were forcibly, compulsorily removed from their domiciles and exiled. Now the government through its efforts is selling their goods…Nobody can sell my property if I am unwilling to sell it. Article 21 of the Constitution forbids it. If we are a constitutional regime functioning in accordance with constitutional law we can’t do this. This is atrocious. Grab my arm, eject me from my village, then sell my goods and properties, such a thing can never be permissible. Neither the conscience of the Ottomans nor the law can allow it." "Let's face it, we Turks savagely killed off the Armenians." In a statement in the Ottoman Parliament, Rize referred to the Special Organization as "murderers and criminals".
Giacomo Gorrini Vorlage:Flagicon Italian	Italian Consul of Trabzon, 1911-1915 During World War I he openly denounced the Armenian Genocide through press articles and interviews and didn't hesitate to describe the policies of massacre perpetrated against the Armenian. He said if everyone had seen what he had, the condemnation of those acts would have been universal especially on the side of the Christian powers. He was in touch with American Ambassador Morgenthau and the Vatican Cardinal Angelo Dolci, and this way he managed to save 50,000 Armenians from deportation and mass murder. In 1911-1915, he served as Italian Consul in Trabzon and was an eyewitness to the massacres in and around the area. In August 1915, with Italy's participation in the war effort and their subsequent declaration of war against the Ottoman Empire, Gorrini was forced to leave his office.	"The local authorities, and indeed the Moslem population in general, tried to resist, to mitigate it, to make omissions, to hush it up. But the orders of the Central Government were categorically confirmed, and all were compelled to resign themselves and obey. It was a real extermination and slaughter of the innocents, an unheard-of thing, a black page stained with the flagrant violation of the most sacred rights of humanity... There were about 14,000 Armenians at Trebizond — Gregorians, Catholics, and Protestants. They had never caused disorders or given occasion for collective measures of police. When I left Trebizond, not a hundred of them remained."
Walter M. Geddes Vorlage:Flagicon American	American businessman Walter Mackintosh Geddes provided a detailed account of the situation of the Armenian deportees in the Syrian Desert. While in Aleppo, he witnessed thousands die of exposure and starvation.Vorlage:Sfn Upon returning from Aleppo back to Smyrna, Geddes remarked "the sights that I saw on my return trip were worse than those on my trip going". Greatly saddened and affected by the scenes he witnessed, he ultimately committed suicide on November 7, 1915.Vorlage:Sfn	"Several Turks[,] whom I interviewed, told me that the motive of this exile was to exterminate the race".Vorlage:Sfn "The destination of all these Armenians is Aleppo. Here they are kept crowded in all available vacant houses, khans, Armenian churches, courtyards and open lots. Their condition in Aleppo is beyond description. I personally visited several of the places where they were kept and found them starving and dying by the hundreds every day."
Paul Wolff-Metternich Vorlage:Flagicon German	German Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, 1915-1916 Unlike most of his companions in the German consulate, Metternich sought out to openly condemn the Turkish and German governments for collaborating and conspiring against the Armenians.Vorlage:Sfn He was particularly bothered by the German media which he accused of encouraging the ongoing measures against Armenians. He was quoted as saying, "Their successes are due to our work, to our officers, to our canons and to our money. Without our help, the inflated frog is bound to collapse".Vorlage:Sfn Metternich was among the few German diplomats in the Ottoman Empire who openly held Talat Pasha responsible of the massacres and "the soul of the Armenian persecutions."Vorlage:Sfn	"In its attempt to carry out its purpose to resolve the Armenian question by the destruction of the Armenian race, the Turkish government has refused to be deterred neither by our representations, nor by those of the American Embassy, nor by the delegate of the Pope, nor by the threats of the Allied Powers, nor in deference to the public opinion of the West representing one-half of the world." "In the implementation of its scheme to settle the Armenian Question through annihilation of the Armenian race, the Turkish government did not allow itself to be distracted".Vorlage:Sfn
George Horton Vorlage:Flagicon American	American Consul of Izmir, 1911–1917 George Horton is particularly remembered for his book The Blight of Asia, which describes the systematic ethnic cleansing of the Christian population up until the Great Fire of Smyrna. Becoming American Consul of Izmir once again during the time of the Great Fire of Smyrna, Horton became an eyewitness to the destruction of the city and notes that the goal of the Ottoman government was to get rid of all Christian peoples in the Empire. Horton believed that Mustafa Kemal Ataturk continued the policies of the Young Turks.	"The murder of the Armenian race had been practically consummated during the years 1915-1916, and the prosperous and populous Greek colonies, with the exception of Smyrna itself, had been ferociously destroyed." "The Turks were now making a thorough and systematic job of killing Armenian men. The squads of soldiers were chiefly engaged in hunting down and killing Armenians." “I have also other statements from eye-witnesses, not natives of this country, of the highest standing in the religious and educational world, which leads me to believe that what is now taking place in Armenian Turkey, surpasses in deliberate and long protracted horror and in extent anything that has hitherto happened in the history of the world.”Vorlage:Sfn "From what all these people worthy of the highest credence tell me, from 800,000 to 1,000,000 human beings are now going through this process of slow and hideous torture, and the movement instead of waning is increasing in ferocity, so that before it is finally over, in the neighborhood of 2,000,000 people will be affected, a very large percentage of whom will certainly perish as they are driven along for weeks and months without food or shelter and without the means of procuring these."Vorlage:Sfn
Rafael de Nogales Méndez Vorlage:Flagicon Venezuelan	Venuezalan officer in the Ottoman army Nogales Méndez was hired by the Ottoman army as a mercenary while serving for the German army. During his service in the Ottoman army during World War I, Nogales Méndez witnessed the massacres of Christians in and around the eastern provinces of the Ottoman Empire. Nogales Méndez visited Diyarbakir during this time and spoke with Mehmed Reshid, the "Butcher of Diyarbakir". Reshid mentioned to Nogales Méndez that he received a telegram directly from Talat Pasha ordering him to "Burn-Destroy-Kill".	"At dawn I was awakened by the noise of shots and volleys. The Armenians had attacked the town. Immediately I mounted my horse and, followed by some armed men, went to see what was happening. Judge of my amazement to discover that the aggressors had not been the Armenians, after all, but the civil authorities themselves! Supported by the Kurds and the rabble of the vicinity, they were attacking and sacking the Armenian quarter, I succeeded at last, without serious accident, in approaching the Beledie reis of the town, who was directing the orgy; whereupon I ordered him to stop the massacre. He astounded me by replying that he was doing nothing more than carry out an unequivocal order emanating from the Governor-General of the province to exterminate all Armenian males of twelve years of age and over." "The civil authorities of the Sultan kill noiselessly and preferably by night, like vampires. Generally they choose as their victim's sepulchre deep lakes in which there are no indiscreet currents to bear the corpse to shore, or lonely mountain caves where dogs and jackals aid in erasing all traces of their crime. Among them I noticed some Kurds belonging to a group of several hundred which, on the following morning, was to help in killing off all the Armenians still in possession of some few positions and edifices around the town. Seeing that the enemy's fire was dwindling down, and unable to endure any longer the odor of scorched flesh from the Armenian corpses scattered among the smoking ruins of the church."
Halide Edip Vorlage:Flagicon Turkish	Turkish novelist, nationalist, and feminist political leader In 1916-1917, Halide Edip acted as Ottoman inspector for schools in Damascus, Beirut, and Mount Lebanon. According to a teacher who worked briefly under her, Halide Edip "was at the head of an orphanage of 1,000 children in the mountains who were mostly Armenian children. She said, 'Their names are changed (to Moslem names) but they are children; they don't know what religion means. Now, they must be fed and clothed and kept safe.' She didn't say what would be afterwards." Halide Edip's account of her inspectorship emphasizes her humanitarian efforts and her struggles to come to terms with the violence of the situation. The account of one acquaintance, however, accuses her of "calmly planning with [Cemal Pasha] forms of human tortures for Armenian mothers and young women" and taking on "the task of making Turks of their orphaned children." A U.S. High Commissioner refers to her as a "chauvinist" and someone who is "trying to rehabilitate Turkey." On the other hand, German historian Hilmar Kaiser says: "And even if you’re a Turkish nationalist, that doesn’t make you a killer. There were people who were famous Turkish nationalists like Halide Edip; she advocated assimilation of Armenians, but she very strongly opposed any kind of murder."	“We slaughtered the innocent Armenian population…We tried to extinguish the Armenians through methods that belong to the medieval times”. In a discussion with Djemal Pasha about Armenian children undergoing Turkification in Turkish orphanages: "Why do you allow Armenian children to be called by Moslem names? It looks like turning the Armenians into Moslems, and history some day will revenge it on the coming generation of Turks." "You are an idealist," [Cemal Pasha] answered gravely,"...Do you believe that by turning a few hundred Armenian boys and girls Moslem I think I benefit my race? You have seen the Armenian orphanages in Damascus run by Armenians. There is no room in those; there is no money to open another Armenian orphanage. This is a Moslem orphanage, and only Moslem orphans are allowed. When I hear of wandering and starving children, I sent them to Aintoura. I have to keep them alive. I do not care how. I cannot bear to see them die in the streets." "Afterward?" I asked. "Do you mean after the war?" he asked. "After the war they will go back to their people. I hope none is too small to realize his race." "I will never have anything to do with such an orphanage." He shook his head. "You will," he said; "if you see them in misery and suffering, you will go to them and not think for a moment about their names and religion..."
Abdülmecid II Vorlage:Flagicon Turkish	Last Caliph of Islam from the Ottoman Dynasty from 1922 to 1924 Abdülmecid II was the last Caliph of Islam from the Ottoman Dynasty and Heir-Apparent to the Ottoman Throne. He is often noted for his intervention and confrontation with Enver Pasha before the latter's support of initiating the deportations and subsequent massacres. In an interview with a Istanbul Special Correspondent of a newspaper based in London, Abdülmecid II describes the encounter.	"I refer to those awful massacres. They are the greatest stain that has ever disgraced our nation and race. They were entirely the work of Talat and Enver. I heard some days before they began that they were intended. I went to Istanbul and insisted on seeing Enver. I asked him if it was true that they intended to recommence the massacres which had been our shame and disgrace under Abdul Hamid. The only reply I could get from him was: 'It is decided. It is the program.'”
Jakob Künzler Vorlage:Flagicon Swiss	Surgeon and Orientalist Jakob Künzler was known as the "Father of Armenian Orphans." With an invitation from Protestant missionary Johannes Lepsius, he visited Urfa and was his assistant. With the start of World War I, Künzler was heavily preoccupied by providing medical assistance to the needy. During his time in the Ottoman Empire, Künzler with his wife Elisabeth helped the destitute and wounded Armenian orphans in the Syrian desert. He was especially involved with the Near East Foundation and is known to have saved thousands of Armenian lives. In his memoirs, In the Land of Blood and Tears, Künzler recounts the massacres he had witnessed in Ottoman Turkey and especially in Urfa.	"...two Turkish officials who appeared in Urfa. The rumor was that they hurried out in order to drive forward the extermination of the Armenian people with all their might, and they had the sanction of the highest state authority for doing so. They ordered on this basis, scarcely the moment they arrived in Urfa, the killing of all gathered prisoners. 'Why should we feed them any longer?' they said." "I resolved to serve that people as a true brother. Ever since, I have come to deeply believe that all barbaric schemes to destroy the Armenian people will always be destined to fail." "After after what I experienced, I had felt that I had been summoned from the Heavens, the Lord had shown me the path [and] led me to a people, who, despite all adversities and miseries, had resolved to remain faithful to their God and the Lord...Isn't this the same people who just a couple of years ago [1894-1896] had been subjected to horrible massacres? Their villages razed, plundered, and tens of thousands massacred? And yet, this very people, with resolute faith in God, continue to remain hopeful that better days are yet to come and that they will be more felicitous. God dispatched me to such a people so that I can attend to their wounds as their true brother."
Friedrich Freiherr Kress von Kressenstein Vorlage:Flagicon German	German General and head of Ottoman army operations in the Caucasus Kressenstein reported that the policy that was implemented by the Turkish government as a "military necessity" was in actuality a policy to "justify the murder of hundreds and thousands of human beings."	"The Turkish policy of causing starvation is an all too obvious proof for the Turkish resolve to destroy the Armenians."
James Harbord Vorlage:Flagicon American	Lieutenant General in the United States Army James Harbord was sent to the Caucasus to lead an American Military Mission to Armenia in order to provide detailed information about the country to the United States. Upon returning to the United States, Harbord wrote the Conditions in the Near East: Report of the American Military Mission to Armenia, which was a summary of the expedition that provided various details of the mission. The report includes maps, statistics, and a historical analyses of the country and its population. In addition to such details, Harbord collected evidence and information regarding the massacres of Armenians and was an eyewitness to them.	"The dead, from this wholesale attempt on the race, are variously estimated at from five hundred thousand to a million, the usual figure being about eight hundred thousand. Driven on foot under a hot sun, robbed of their clothing and such petty articles as they carried, prodded by bayonets if they lagged, starvation, typhus, and dysentery left thousands dead by the trail side." "Massacres and deportations were organized in the spring of 1915 under definite system, the soldiers going from town to town. The official reports of the Turkish Government show 1,100,000 as having been deported. Young men were first summoned to the government building in each village and then marched out and killed. The women, the old men, and children were, after a few days, deported to what Talat Pasha called "agricultural colonies," from the high, cool, breeze-swept plateau of Armenia to the malarial flats of the Euphrates and the burning sands of Syria and Arabia...Mutilation, violation, torture, and death have left their haunting memories in a hundred beautiful Armenian valleys, and the traveler in that region is seldom free from the evidence of this most colossal crime of all ages."
Mehmet Celal Bey Vorlage:Flagicon Turkish	Governor of Aleppo and Konya During his time as governor of Aleppo, Mehmet Celal Bey did not believe that the deportations were meant to "annihilate" the Armenians: "I admit, I did not believe that these orders, these actions revolved around the annihilation of the Armenians. I never imagined that any government could take upon itself to annihilate its own citizens in this manner, in effect destroying its human capital, which must be seen as the country's greatest treasure. I presumed that the actions being carried out were measures deriving from a desire to temporarily remove the Armenians from the theater of war and taken as the result of wartime exigencies." Celal Bey had later admitted that he was mistaken and that the goal was "to attempt to annihilate" the Armenians. When defying to orders of deportation, Celal Bey was removed from his post as governor of Aleppo and transferred to Konya. Celal Bey was known for saving thousands of lives during the Armenian Genocide and is often called Turkish Oscar Schindler.	Mehmet Celal Bey compared himself to “a person sitting by the side of a river, with absolute no means of saving anyone. Blood was flowing in the river and thousands of innocent children, irreproachable old people, helpless women, strong young men, were streaming down this river towards oblivion. Anyone I could save with my bare hands I saved, and the others, I think they streamed down the river never to return.”
Maria Jacobsen Vorlage:Flagicon Danish	Christian missionary Maria Jacobsen wrote the Diaries of a Danish Missionary: Harpoot, 1907–1919, which according to Armenian Genocide scholar Ara Sarafian, is a "documentation of the utmost significance" for research of the Armenian Genocide. Jacobsen will later be known for having saved thousands of Armenians during the aftermath of the Armenian Genocide through various relief efforts.	"It is quite obvious that the purpose of their departure is the extermination of the Armenian people." "Conditions now are completely different from what they were during the massacres of 20 years ago. What could be done then is impossible now. The Turks know very well about the war raging in Europe, and that the Christian nations are too busy to take care of Armenians, so they take advantage of the times to destroy their “enemies”."
Oscar S. Heizer Vorlage:Flagicon American	American Consul in Trabzon While serving as American Consul in Trabzon, Oscar S. Heizer witnessed the Armenian Genocide and often risked his own life to save the lives of Armenians.Vorlage:Sfn Being one of the first to report massacres, Heizer's initial reporting to the American consulate in Constantinople said that it was permissible "whenever the parents so desire" to leave children - girls up to the age of 15 and boys up to the age of ten - in the "orphanages by the Turks." Heizer also describes how some children were assimilated into Muslim Turks in a matter of weeks. Often writing about the systematic drowning of Armenians in the Black Sea, Heizer exposed the direct link and collaboration between the central Ottoman government and local members of the Committee of Union and Progress.	"This plan did not suit Nail Bey...Many of the children were loaded into boats and taken out to sea and thrown overboard. I myself saw where 16 bodies were washed ashore and buried by a Greek woman near the Italian monastery."Vorlage:Sfn "It is impossible to convey an idea of the consternation and despair the publication of this proclamation has produced upon the people. I have seen strong, proud, wealthy men weep like children while they told me that they had given their boys and girls to Persian and Turkish neighbors. Even a strong man, without the necessary outfit and food would likely to perish on such a trip....The People are helpless but are making preparations to start on the perilous journey."
Hans Freiherr von Wangenheim Vorlage:Flagicon German	German Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, 1912-1915 During the deportations and as World War I was going on, all of the diplomats representing Allied powers were expelled from the country. Due to the German-Turkish alliance, Germans along with Austrians remained. While major newspapers were talking about the massacres, von Wangenheim was at first reluctant to talk about the massacres, but he eventually conceded by saying that there "no longer was doubt that the Porte was trying to exterminate the Armenian race in the Turkish Empire." While von Wangenheim did not go further in his formal testimony against the massacres, his successors and others in the German diplomatic staff reacted more strongly.	"On the other hand, the German Government cannot disguise the dangers created by these rigorous measures and notably by the mass expatriations which include the guilty and the innocent indiscriminately, especially when these measures are accompanied by acts of violence, such as massacre and pillage." "The manner in which the matter of relocation is being handled demonstrate that the government is in fact pursuing the goal of annihilating the Armenian race in Turkey."Vorlage:Sfn
Mustafa Arif Vorlage:Flagicon Turkish	Interior Minister of the Ottoman Empire, 1917-1918 Mustafa Arif served as Interior Minister succeeding Talat Pasha after the latter had stepped down from office. In regards to the massacres, Arif was especially known for establishing a governmental commission that examined the events. On March 18, 1919, the commission concluded that 800,000 Armenian died during World War I. The figure became reputable after other Turkish historians such as Yusuf Hikmet Bayur used the figure in their research and writing.	"Surely a few Armenians aided and abetted our enemy, and a few Armenian Deputies committed crimes against the Turkish nation...it is incumbent upon a government to pursue the guilty ones. Unfortunately, our wartime leaders, imbued with a spirit of brigandage, carried out the law of deportation in a manner that could surpass the proclivities of the most bloodthirsty bandits. They decided to exterminate the Armenians, and they did exterminate them." "The atrocities committed against the Armenians reduced our country to a gigantic slaughterhouse."
Einar af Wirsén Vorlage:Flagicon Swedish	Swedish Military Attaché Einar af Wirsén wrote much about the Armenian Genocide in his memoirs Minnen från fred och krig ("Memories from Peace and War"). In his memoirs, Wirsén dedicated a chapter to the massacres entitled Mordet på en nation ("The Murder of a Nation"). He believed that the deportations were a way of concealing the massacres. The memoirs provide an important analysis of the deportations and massacres from a country who was not involved in World War I.	"Officially, these had the goal to move the entire Armenian population to the steppe regions of Northern Mesopotamia and Syria, but in reality they aimed to exterminate [utrota] the Armenians, whereby the pure Turkish element in Asia Minor would achieve a dominating position". "The annihilation of the Armenian nation in Asia Minor must revolt all human feelings ... The way the Armenian problem was solved was hair-raising. I can still see in front of me Talaat's cynical expression, when he emphasized that the Armenian question was solved".
Henry H. Riggs Vorlage:Flagicon American	Christian missionary and president of Euphrates College Henry H. Riggs was stationed in Kharpert during the Armenian Genocide. His book Days of Tragedy in Armenia: Personal Experiences in Harpoot, 1915-1917, considered to be one of the most detail accounts of the Armenian Genocide in the English language, provides an important eyewitness account of the events.Vorlage:Sfn Riggs himself concluded that the deportation of Armenians was part of an extermination program organized by the Ottoman government.Vorlage:SfnVorlage:Sfn	"The attack on the Armenian people, which soon developed into a systematic attempt to exterminate the race, was a cold-blooded, unprovoked, deliberate act, planned and carried out without popular approval, by the military masters of Turkey."Vorlage:Sfn "Very good evidence exists for the belief that both there and Ras-ul-Ain, also in the same desert, the people were massacred wholesale as soon as they left the villages where they had been quartered. At the beginning of the period under discussion, that is, at the beginning of 1916, there were in exile in that district something like 485,000 Armenians. Fifteen months later, after the last deportation had been completed, not more than 113,000 out of that throng could be located. Out of the 372,000 who had perished most had died from starvation and disease, but many thousands were also massacred at the last moment, when apparently the Turkish government had tired of the pretense of carrying out the theory of deportation."Vorlage:Sfn
Mustafa Yamulki Vorlage:Flagicon Turkish	Ottoman military officer and head judge of the Turkish Courts-Martial of 1919–1920 Also known as "Nemrud" Mustafa Pasha, Mustafa Yamulki was the head judge of the Turkish Courts-Martial of 1919-1920 since the day of its creation on February 1919. The Courts-Martial's was later known for condemning Talat, Enver, Cemal, and others to death for their role in the massacres against Armenians. "Nemrud" Mustafa Pasha had a reputation for being honest and was instrumental in exposing the crimes and corruption scandals of the Ottoman empire during World War I. Due to his open accusations against the massacres, "Nemrud" Mustafa Pasha was sentenced to three months imprisonment. The sentences he gave which condemned various Turkish officials for conducting massacre were overturned.	"Our fellow countrymen committed unheard of crimes, resorted to all conceivable methods of despotism, organised deportations and massacres, poured gas over babies and burned them, raped women and girls in front of their parents who were bound hand and foot, took girls in front of their parents and fathers, appropriated personal property and real estate, drove people to Mesopotamia and treated them inhumanly on the way...they put thousands of innocent people into boats that were sunk at sea...they put Armenians in the most unbearable conditions any other nation had ever known in its history."
Richard von Kühlmann Vorlage:Flagicon German	German Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, 1916-1917 Like his predecessor Hans Freiherr von Wangenheim, Kühlmann was initially reluctant to expose the massacres against the Armenian population.Vorlage:Sfn Kühlmann, who held sympathetic beliefs toward Turkish nationalism, repeatedly used the term "alleged" and excused the Turkish government for the massacres. Kühlmann, in defense of the Turkish government and the German-Turkish World War alliance, stated that the policies against the Armenians was a matter of "internal politics".Vorlage:Sfn However, Kühlmann eventually conceded in calling the massacres "a large scale destruction of Armenians."Vorlage:Sfn	"The destruction of the Armenians was undertaken on a massive scale. This policy of extermination will for a long time stain the name of Turkey."Vorlage:Sfn
Vehip Pasha Vorlage:Flagicon Turkish	General in the Ottoman Army and commander of the Ottoman Third Army during the Caucasus Campaign Vehip Pasha assumed the commandment of the Third Army in February 1916 from Mahmud Kâmil Pasha, after much of the deportations concluded.Vorlage:Sfn During his post, Vehip Pasha received an order to send 2,000 Armenians as labor battalions for the construction of the Baghdad-Berlin Railway. However, Vehip Pasha was "outraged" after receiving word that the Armenians he had sent were massacred.Vorlage:Sfn Vehip Pasha set up a court-martial for the man in charge of the transfer and massacre, Nuri Efendi.Vorlage:Sfn During the court-martial, Nuri Efendi blamed the governor of Sivas, Ahmet Muammer, for the massacres. Ahmet Muammer was eventually relieved by Talat Pasha who subsequently positioned him outside of Vehip Pasha's supervision.Vorlage:Sfn Though Vehip Pasha is largely known for his commandment during the Caucasus Campaign in 1918, he also condemned the massacres against Armenians that happened prior to his appointment as commander of the Third Army in 1916.	“The massacre and destruction of the Armenians and the plunder and pillage of their goods were the results of decision reached by Ittihad’s [the Young Turks] Central Committee…The atrocities were carried out under a program that was determined upon and involved a definite case of premeditation. It was [also] ascertained that these atrocities and crimes were encouraged by the district attorneys whose dereliction of judicial duties in face of their occurrence and especially their remaining indifferent renders them accessories to these crimes.”Vorlage:Sfn
Ahmet Refik Vorlage:Flagicon Turkish	Turkish historian, poet, and writer After World War I, Ahmet Refik wrote Two committees two massacres (İki Komite iki Kitâl), an account of the massacres during the War. Though Refik writes about massacres conducted on both sides, he concludes that the massacres against the Armenians was an attempt by the Turkish government to "destroy the Armenians".	“The criminal gangs who were released from the prisons, after a week's training at the War Ministry's training grounds, were sent off to the Caucasian front as the brigands of the Special Organization, perpetrating the worst crimes against the Armenians.” “In a situation such as this, a just government which is confident of its force would have punished those who rebelled against the government. But the Ittihadists, wanted to annihilate the Armenians and in this manner eliminate the Eastern Question.”
Johann von Bernstorff Vorlage:Flagicon German	German Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, 1917-1918 Just like the rest of the German diplomats who served in the Ottoman Empire during World War I, Johann von Bernstorff, who at the time was the German ambassador to the United States in 1915, attempted to conceal the massacres by saying that they were mere "allegations" and "inventions".Vorlage:Sfn However, when he assumed his position as ambassador to the Ottoman Empire in 1917, Bernstorff conceded in believing that the policy against the Armenians that of exterminating the race.Vorlage:Sfn Bernstorff provided a detailed account of the massacres in his memoirs entitled, Memoirs of Count Bernstorff. In his memoirs, Bernstorff describes his discussion with Talat Pasha after much of the massacres concluded and wrote that Talat Pasha said, “What on earth do you want? The question is settled, there are no more Armenians.”	“When I kept on pestering him about the Armenian question, he once said with a smile: ‘What on earth do you want? The question is settled, there are no more Armenians’” "In Armenia the Turks had been systematically trying to exterminate the Christian population."
Halil Kut Vorlage:Flagicon Turkish	Ottoman regional governor and military commander Halil Kut was the uncle of Enver Pasha, one of the "masterminds" of the Armenian Genocide. Kut himself had conducted "the massacre" of Armenian battalions as stated by the German Vice-consul of Erzurum and later testified by a soldier who had been under his command by saying, "Halil had the entire Armenian population (men, women and children) in the areas of Bitlis, Mus, and Beyazit also massacred without pity. My company received a similar order. Many of the victims were buried alive in especially prepared ditches."Vorlage:Sfn Others, such as German vice-consul of Erzurum Max Erwin von Scheubner-Richter, reported that "Halil Bey's campaign in northern Persia included the massacre of his Armenian and Syrian battalions and the expulsion of the Armenian, Syrian, and Persian population out of Persia..."	Halil Kut wrote in his memoirs having killed: “300,000 Armenians, it can be more or less. I didn't count.”Vorlage:Sfn In the summer of 1918, in front of many Armenians in Yerevan, Halil Kut declared: “I have endeavored to wipe out the Armenian nation to the last individual.”Vorlage:SfnVorlage:Sfn
Prince Ernst Hohenlohe-Langenburg Vorlage:Flagicon German	German Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, July 20 - October 2, 1915 Ernst Hohenlohe-Langenburg served on a temporary basis as ambassador but was equally distressed over the massacres, much like his counterpart Metternich.Vorlage:Sfn Hohenlohe-Langenburg encouraged the German government to disassociate themselves from the Ottoman government and its policies of "extermination" against the Armenians. He also encouraged the German diplomatic staff to voice their opposition against the massacres and condemn them.	"The systematic butchery of the uprooted and deported Armenians have assumed such a scope...it was not only tolerated but openly promoted by the government. It meant the extermination of the Armenians. Despite government assurances to the contrary, everything points to the goal of the destruction of the Armenian people."Vorlage:Sfn "Despite governmental assurances to the contrary, everything points to the goal of the destruction of the Armenian people".Vorlage:Sfn
Aage Meyer Benedictsen Vorlage:Flagicon Danish	Ethnographer, historian, and Christian missionary Aage Meyer Benedictsen, who visited the Ottoman Empire and witnessed the conditions of the Armenians, organized a relief effort from Denmark for the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire. Among his supporters was Karen Jeppe, who will eventually participate in relief efforts herself for the victims and particularly the orphans. Benedictsen was informed about the events and had made appeals to stop the massacres while openly accusing Ottoman officials for the events. Benedictsen in 1925 wrote Armenia: A Peoples Life and Struggle for Two Millenia (Armenien: Et Folks Liv og Kamp gennem to Aartusinder).	Regarding the massacres, Benedictsen wrote that it was a “shattering crime, probably the largest in the history of the world: The attempt, planned and executed in cold blood, to murder a whole people, the Armenian, during the World War.”
Jesse B. Jackson Vorlage:Flagicon American	American Consul in Aleppo, 1908-1923 According to Jackson the Armenian massacres were "carefully planned" and a “gigantic plundering scheme as well as a final blow to extinguish the race.”Vorlage:Sfn In September 1915 he estimated one million Armenian killed in a year.Vorlage:Sfn Jackson later became a leading figure in the relief effort of Armenian refugees and is known for having saved thousands of Armenians during the genocide.	He remarked that the outrages "upon a defenseless and inoffensive people that demand nothing more than to be given a chance to eke out at the best a miserable existence" and continue by saying, "it is without doubt a carefully planned scheme to thoroughly extinguish the Armenian race."Vorlage:Sfn One of the most terrible sights ever seen in Aleppo was the arrival early in August, 1915, of some 5,000 terribly emaciated, dirty, ragged and sick women and children, 3,000 in one day and 2,000 the following day. These people were the only survivors of the thrifty and well to do Armenian population of the province of Sivas, where the Armenian population had once been over 300,000.Vorlage:Sfn
Per Gustaf August Cosswa Anckarsvärd Vorlage:Flagicon Swedish	Swedish Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, 1915-1920 Anckarsvärd was an ambassador who traveled frequently throughout the Empire and established many contacts. During the massacres, Anckarsvärd highlighted the aim of the Young Turk government and its policies to "exterminate the Armenian nation". When reporting to the Swedish Foreign Ministry, Anckarsvärd used terms such as "the annihilation Armenian nation", "wipe out the Armenian nation," "extermination of the Armenians", and etc. to describe the events.	"The persecutions of the Armenians have reached hair-raising proportions and all points to the fact that the Young Turks want to seize the opportunity, since due to different reasons there are no effective external pressure to be feared, to once and for all put an end to the Armenian question. The means for this are quite simple and consist of the extermination (utrotandet) of the Armenian nation." "[The deportations] can not be any other issue than an annihilation war against the Greek nation in Turkey and as measures hereof they have been implementing forced conversions to Islam, in obvious aim to, that if after the end of the war there again would be a question of European intervention for the protection of the Christians, there will be as few of them left as possible." "It is obvious that the Turks are taking the opportunity to, now during the war, annihilate [utplåna] the Armenian nation so that when the peace comes no Armenian question longer exists".
Leslie A. Davis Vorlage:Flagicon American	American Consul in Harput, 1914 to 1917 When serving as American Consul in Harput, Leslie A. Davis was an eyewitness to the massacres. Davis summarized what he witnessed and reported it to the United States State Department. Leslie A. Davis referred to Harput as the "slaughterhouse province" during the Armenian Genocide which became book under the same title.	“Any doubt that may have been expressed in previous reports as to the Government’s intentions in sending away the Armenians have been removed and any hope that may have been expressed as to the possibility of some of them surviving have been destroyed. It has been no secret that the plan was to destroy the Armenian race as a race…”
Fridtjof Nansen Vorlage:Flagicon Norwegian	Norwegian explorer, scientist, statesman, author and Nobel winner Though Fridtjof Nansen is renowned in Norway for his explorations and scientific writings, he is also famous for supporting the plight of the Armenians during the Armenian Genocide. Nansen supported Armenian refugees in acquiring the Nansen passport, which allowed them to travel freely to various countries. Nansen wrote the book, Armenia and the Near East in 1923 which describes his sympathies to the plight of the Armenians in the wake of losing its independence to the Soviet Union. The book was translated in many languages including Norwegian, English, French, German, Russian and Armenian. After visiting Armenia, Nansen wrote two additional books called “Gjennern Armenia” (“Across Armenia”), published in 1927 and “Gjennern Kaukasus til Volga” (“Through Caucasus to Volga”).	“The massacres that started in 1915 have nothing to compare with the history of mankind. The massacres by Abdul Hamid are minor in comparison to what today's Turks have done.”
Eitan Belkind Vorlage:Flagicon Israeli	Founding member of NILI Eitan Belkind was one of the founding members of NILI, an organization that fought against the Ottoman Empire through the support of the British forces. Belkind joined the Ottoman army and transferred to the headquarters of Cemal Pasha in Syria.Vorlage:Sfn During his time in Syria, while secretly trying to garner support from the British, Belkind witnessed the massacres against Armenians and wrote of them in his memoirs So It Was published decades later.Vorlage:Sfn	"The Armenian camp was one kilometer away from our house. The screaming continued all night. We asked what was happening, they told us that children were being taken from their mothers to live in dormitories and continue their education. However in the morning when we set off and crossed the bridge across Euphrates, I was shocked to see the river red with blood and beheaded corpses of children floating on the water. The scene was horrible, as there was nothing we could do."Vorlage:Sfn "In my trips in the south of Syria and Iraq I saw with my own eyes the extermination of the Armenian nation, I watched the atrocious murders, and saw children’s heads cut off and watched the burning of innocent people whose only wrongdoing was to be Armenian."
Max Erwin von Scheubner-Richter Vorlage:Flagicon German	German Vice-consul in Erzurum Max Erwin von Scheubner-Richter is considered one of the most outspoken individuals against the deportations and subsequent massacres of Armenians. He was against the initial orders from German ambassador Vangenheim to limit the accusations of the anti-Armenian measures to friendly advice.Vorlage:Sfn Scheubner-Richter believed that the Armenians had no capabilities to start an uprising against the Ottoman government since all of the able bodied men were arrested and sent to labor battalions. Scheubner-Richter, who attempted to save the lives of as many Armenians as he could, believed that the deportations were based on "racial hatred” and that none can survive such a journey.Vorlage:Sfn He concluded that the deportations were a policy of "annihilation". When Scheubner-Richter returned to Germany, he assisted Johannes Lepsius in saving Armenians and stated that their condition was not "human" anymore. It is believed that Adolf Hitler was informed about the details of the Armenian Genocide through the details and eyewitness accounts provided Scheubner-Richter. Hitler is later quoted as saying, "Who still talks nowadays of the extermination of the Armenians?" before invading Poland on August 22, 1939.	"The partisans of Ittihad are unabashedly conceding that their ultimate aim [Endziel] is the total annihilation (ganzliche Ausrottung) of the Armenians of Turkey, adding, "After the war we no longer will have any Armenians in Turkey."Vorlage:Sfn "The Turkish government has used the situation offered by the war and the Armenian revolt in Van, Musch, Karahissar, and other towns forcefully to resettle the Anatolian Armenians in Mesopotamia. These government measures have unfolded in such a form that is identical to the extermination of the Armenians. Only by a forceful policy of extermination, a powerful destruction of the entire people, can the Turkish government achieve its desired goal, the ‘solution’ of the Armenian question." "The order of Kamil Pasha to deport all Armenians from Erzurum is not legitimate from a military point of view and in my opinion is founded on racial hatred."Vorlage:Sfn "I have conducted a series of conversations with competent and influential Turkish personages, and these are my impressions: A large segment of the Ittihadist party maintains the viewpoint that the Turkish empire should be based only on the principle of Islam and Pan-Turkism. Its non-Muslim and non-Turkish inhabitants should either be forcibly islamized, or otherwise they ought to be destroyed. These gentleman believe that the time is propitious for the realization of this plan. The first item on this agenda concerns the liquidation of the Armenians. Ittihad will dangle before the eyes of the allies the specter of an alleged revolution prepared by the Armenian Dashnak party. Moreover, local incidents of the social unrest and acts of Armenian self-defense will deliberately be provoked and inflated and will be used as pretexts to effect the deportations. Once en route, however, the convoys will be attacked and exterminated by Kurdish and Turkish brigands, and in part by gendarmes, who will be instigated for that purpose by Ittihad."Vorlage:Sfn
Johann von Pallavicini Vorlage:Flagicon Austrian	Austro-Hungarian Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, 1906-1918 During World War I, Johann von Pallavicini successfully worked for bringing the Ottoman Empire into the war on the side of the Central Powers. Due to his long tenure and being the dean of the diplomatic corps in Constantinople, he was considered to wield a large influence over events in the Ottoman Empire. However, his role with regard to the Armenian Question has been debated by historians over the years and criticism has been raised that he did not protest loudly enough. The reports that he sent to Vienna clearly show that he was aware of the nature of the Ottoman initiative and that it involved a "centrally planned and organised extermination". Already in June 1915, he wrote to Vienna that "the Armenian population is not only being subjected to the greatest misery but also to a total extermination (einer gänzlichen Ausrottung)". To his defence, however, records also show that he did protest but to no avail.	"The Armenian population which is being expelled from its homeland is not only being subjected to the greatest misery but also to a total extermination."Vorlage:Sfn "The manner in which the Armenian are being deported for resettlement purposes is tantamount to death a verdict for the affected people."Vorlage:Sfn "The time will come when Turkey will have to account for this policy of extermination."Vorlage:Sfn
Hafiz Mehmet Vorlage:Flagicon Turkish	Trabzon Deputy and Justice Minister in the Republic of Turkey A lawyer by profession, Hafiz Mehmet stated that he and other local politicians in Trabzon had known about the systematic massacres against the Armenians. Mehmet stated that the policy was conducted mainly through the Special Organization. Hafiz Mehmet repeatedly protested the decision of the local government and particularly Vali Cemal Azmis' decision of drowning Armenians in the Black Sea in Trabzon as part of the Armenian Genocide.Vorlage:Sfn Mehmet protested to Interior Minister Talat Pasha, but was unsuccessful in bringing the massacres to an end.	"God will punish us for what we did [Allah bize belasını verecektir]...the matter is too obvious to be denied. I personally witnessed this Armenian occurrence in the port city of Ordu [about 155 km west of Trabzon]. Under the pretext of sending off to Samsun, another port city on the Black Sea [about 255 km west of Trabzon], the district’s governor loaded the Armenians into barges and had them thrown overboard. I have heard that the governor-general applied this procedure [throughout the province]. Even though I reported this at the Interior Ministry immediately upon my return to Istanbul...I was unable to initiate any action against the latter; I tried for some three years to get such action instituted but in vain."Vorlage:Sfn
Joseph Pomiankowsi Vorlage:Flagicon Austrian	Divisional General and Vice Marshal, Austrian Military Attaché and Military Plenipotentiary to the Ottoman Empire Joseph Pomiankowsi had a keen insight into the functioning of the Ottoman government and was familiar with the decisions and activities of the Young Turk party. In his memoirs Pomiankowski wrote, "I had ample opportunity to get to know the land and the people of Turkey. During the war, however, I was from start to finish eyewitness of practically all the decisions and activities of the Turkish government." In 1909, Pomiankowski stated that the Young Turk government planned to "exterminate" non-Mulim conquered peoples.	"The Van uprising certainly was an act of desperation. The local Armenians realized that general massacres against the Armenians had already started and they would be the next target. In the course of the summer 1915 the Turkish government with inexorable consequence brought its bloody task of extermination of an entire nation to an end."Vorlage:Sfn "The barbaric order to deport and resettle in the northern desert regions of Arabia, i.e., Mesopotamia, where the Euphrates flows, the entire Armenian population of Asia Minor in reality entailed the extermination [Ausrottung] of Asia Minor's Armenian population.
Otto von Lossow Vorlage:Flagicon German	Major General, German Military Plenipotentiary in the Ottoman Empire Otto von Lossow became the German military attaché in Istanbul in the Ottoman Empire, where he assisted the Ottoman Army and the German military mission in planning the ongoing response to Allied landings in Gallipoli. He remained in the Ottoman Empire for the rest of the war, becoming in April 1916 the "German Military Plenipotentiary at the Imperial Embassy in Constantinople."	"The Turks have embarked upon the "total extermination of the Armenians in Transcaucasia...The aim of Turkish policy is, as I have reiterated, the taking of possession of Armenian districts and the extermination of the Armenians. Talaat's government wants to destroy all Armenians, not just in Turkey but also outside Turkey. On the basis of all the reports and news coming to me here in Tiflis there hardly can be any doubt that the Turks systematically are aiming at the extermination of the few hundred thousand Armenians whom they left alive until now."Vorlage:Sfn
Şerif Pasha Vorlage:Flagicon Turkish	Ottoman statesman and ambassador to Sweden Mehmed Şerif Pasha was the brother-in-law of Prime Minister Said Halim Pasha and was a prominent member of the Young Turk government. In a New York Times article dated October 10, 1915, Şerif Pasha condemned the massacres and declared that the Young Turk government had the intentions of "exterminating" the Armenians for a long time.	"To be sure, the state of mind of the Unionists was not revealed to the civilized world until they had openly taken sides with Germany; but for more than six years I have been at exposing them in the Mecheroutiette (his newspaper, published first in Constantinople and then in Paris) and indifferent journals and reviews, warning France and England of the plot against them and against certain nationalities within the Ottoman borders, notably the Armenians, that was being hatched." "Alas! at the thought that a people so gifted, which has served as the fructifying soil for the renovation of the Ottoman Empire, is on the point of disappearing from history-not enslaved, as were the Jews by the Assyrians, but annihilated-even the most hardened heart must bleed: and I desire, through the medium of your estimable journal, to express to this race which is being a assassinated my anger toward the butchers and my immense pity for the victim's."

Bibliography

• J. M. Winter: America and the Armenian Genocide of 1915. Cambridge University Press, 2003, ISBN 978-0-511-16382-1 (google.com). 
• Michael B. Oren: Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East: 1776 to the Present. Transaction Publishers, 2011, ISBN 0-393-34152-6 (google.com). 
• Israel Charney: The Widening Circle of Genocide. W. W. Norton & Company, 1994, ISBN 1-4128-3965-3 (google.com). 
• Henry H. Riggs: Days of Tragedy in Armenia: Personal Experiences in Harpoot, 1915-1917. Gomidas Institute, 1996, ISBN 1-884630-01-4 (google.com). 
• Guenter Lewy: The Armenian Massacres in Ottoman Turkey: A Disputed Genocide. University of Utah Press, 2005, ISBN 0-87480-849-9 (google.com). 
• Simon Payaslian: United States Policy Toward the Armenian Question and the Armenian Genocide. Palgrave Macmillan, 2005, ISBN 978-1-4039-7840-0 (google.com). 
• Yair Auron: The Banality of Indifference: Zionism and the Armenian Genocide. Transaction Publishers, 2000, ISBN 1-4128-4468-1 (google.com). 
• Ben Kiernan: Blood and Soil: Modern Genocide 1500-2000. Melbourne University Publishing, 2008, ISBN 0-522-85477-X (google.com). 
• Isabelle V. Hull: Absolute Destruction: Military Culture and the Practices of War in Imperial Germany. Cornell University Press, 2013, ISBN 0-8014-6708-X (google.com). 
• David P. Forsythe: Encyclopedia of Human Rights, Volume 1. Oxford University Press, 2009, ISBN 0-19-533402-7 (google.com). 

Further reading

• Miller, Donald E. and Lorna Touryan Miller. Survivors: An Oral History of the Armenian Genocide. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993.
• Svazlian, Verjine. The Armenian Genocide: Testimonies of the Eyewitness Survivors. Yerevan: “Gitutiun” Publishing House of the NAS RA, 2000. Complete text (Armenian)
• Svazlian, Verjine. The Armenian Genocide and Historical Memory. Translated by Tigran Tsulikian. Yerevan: Gitutiun Publishing House, 2004.
• Dadrian, Vahakn N. Documentation of the Armenian Genocide in Turkish Sources. Jerusalem: Institute on the Holocaust and Genocide, 1991.
• United States Official Documents on the Armenian Genocide, 1915–1917, compiled by Ara Safarian. Princeton, N.J.: Gomidas Institute, 2004.

External links

• Eye-witnesses published by the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute in Yerevan, Armenia
• Twenty Voices: Full length film featuring interviews with eyewitnesses and survivor stories. (YouTube video)
• Interview with an eyewitness to the Armenian Genocide - 104 year-old Armenian woman from the film Grandma's Tattoos presented by Al-Jazeera.
• Excerpts featuring survivor witnesses from the documentary film by Carlo Massa: “Destination: nowhere” (Vimeo video)