Chapter 4: The Policy of the Final Solution

Germany was the closest ally of the Ottoman Empire. Contacts which took place almost daily between German diplomats and Turkish partners led to a series of references on the real reasons why the Young Turks wanted to destroy the Armenians as a nation, and their motives. They were also aware of efforts undertaken by the Young Turk leaders to hush up the reality of a planned genocide: by means of counter-orders which were obviously only meant as a deception, as far as simply denying the genocide.

(I) The Collision Course

It is not clear from the German diplomatic sources when the decision concerning the Armenian genocide was made by the Turkish leaders. However, the German sources did show the change towards an ultra-nationalistic policy.

1) The Policy of the Young Turks

The break from the mutuality with Armenian politicians to their persecution and murder was outwardly characterised by the assignment of reforms for the Armenian provinces which had been worked out by the Great Powers, especially Russia and Germany, in the embassy discussions in Constantinople. These reforms were to give the Armenians certain autonomous rights and, thus, protection against despotic acts by the Turkish administration, as had been common in the past. Ambassador Hans Baron von Wangenheim describes the termination of the contract with Hoff and Westenenk, politicians who were intended to become general inspectors for the Armenian provinces

as a new link in that chain of government acts by which Turkey has lately self-confidently expressed its unlimited right of self-determination in all areas concerning its political system. [1915-02-02-DE-001]

Minister of the Interior Talaat Pascha justified the arrests on 24 and 25 April towards the first dragoman of the German Embassy as follows:

The government had now decided to put an end to the present situation whereby each religious community made their own special “politics” and could found and maintain special political associations for this purpose. In Turkey, only one “Ottoman policy” was to be pursued in future. [1915-04-30-DE-002]

Consul General Mordtmann, responsible for reporting on the Armenians, reports after a conversation with the Minister of the Interior that Talaat

commented without reservation on the intentions of the government to use the World War to decimate its internal enemies - the local Christians of all confessions - without being hindered in doing so by diplomatic intervention from other countries. [1915-06-06-DE-012]

In a further conversation with Mordtmann, Talaat said:

The Vilayet Aleppo, particularly towns such as Aintab, are to be made Turkish again. [1915-08-27-DE-012]

The German journalist, von Tyszka, especially noticed the manner in which the Young Turk rulers were pursuing their ultra-nationalistic goal. He writes:

What is of crucial importance, is the calm and matter of course with which these persecutions take place. This shows a self-conceit which ridicules any outside interference. It was not the Armenians who evoked my intense interest in the causes and the consequences of the Turkish government’s actions to appear as a representative of law and humanity¸ but rather the Turkish senators of the local Senate: men of great service and immaculate character who felt extreme repugnance at acts, which their government carried out with unshakeable calm and as a matter of course. … On the 20^thof this month Hassan Fehmy Bey explained to me that Minister Talaat Bey wanted to see all Armenians removed from the Ministry of the Interior. … The Armenians have to be cleared out as they have a revengeful character and, as they are courageous, they are at the same time elements of potential danger to the state. … Consequently, in Turkey it is a resolved policy to remove the Armenians from all state departments and to further develop the Ottoman empire on a solid Turkish foundation. [1915-10-01-DE-001]

The Turkish newspaper, “Teswiri Efkiar” ( No. 1886 dated 7 October 1916) reported on the swing by the Young Turks’ executive leaders from a co-existence with the minorities to their annihilation. The chargé d’affaires in Constantinople, Legation Councillor Radowitz, comments that this article reaches the conclusion

that the policy of a union and fusion of the various elements of the population which was originally adopted by the committee has “gone bankrupt”, and instead a “purge” of all the non-Mohammedan, i.e. Christian, elements in the empire should be contemplated. The article most likely gives a true impression of the convictions of the ultra-national circles. [1916-10-09-DE-001]

“Teswiri Efkiar” demands that Turkey must

take a new road towards a new goal. This necessity is based on the realisation that the familiar policy of unity among the elements of the population has gone bankrupt and that the era of purging has begun for our native country. [1916-10-09-DE-001]

The typical conclusion of the nationalistic newspaper, which can hardly be outdone in its cynicism:

It is understandable that the evacuation and deportation of the Armenians, ordered for those compelling reasons given in the party’s report, are not a pleasant event for this people. [1916-10-09-DE-001]

Vice-Consul Max Erwin von Scheubner-Richter, who not only witnessed deportations in Erzerum, but also knew exactly the opinion of the local residential prominent advocates and organisers of the genocide, summarises his impressions in an extensive report:

A large part of the Young Turkish Committee is of the opinion that the Ottoman Empire should only be built upon a purely Mohammedan, pan-Turkish foundation. Those inhabitants who are neither Mohammedan nor Turkish should be made to become so by force or, if that is not possible, annihilated. For these gentlemen, the present time seems to be the most suitable to put this plan into effect. The first item on their programme was the execution of the Armenians. [1916-12-04-DE-001]

Scheubner-Richter further on the motives of those Young Turks responsible for the genocide:

If we, the Turks, bleed to death in this battle for the existence of the Ottoman Empire, then there shall be no other nations in this empire either.” This remark by a Young Turkish politician characterises best the point of view held by the circles of the Young Turkish Committee. And the logical consequence of the weakening of pure Turkishness (the Anatolians), appearing more and more mainly because of a lack of organisation and foresight, is the violent annihilation of the other nations living in Turkey. [1916-12-04-DE-001]

Scheubner-Richter was convinced that the annihilation of the Armenians was not the only item on the programme of the Young Turk agitators. In his report he writes:

Revenge against the Arabs is also being considered, but the presently unfavourable military situation made it apparent that this was not yet the right moment. In the meantime, a suitable substitute was attempted by heavily recruiting Arabs and dispatching Arabian troops with the most inadequate equipment in climatically unfavourable areas (winter campaign 1914 Erserum, 1915 northern Persia). [1916-12-04-DE-001]

The reverse conclusion given in a report by the Ambassador in Extraordinary Mission, Richard von Kuehlmann, was that the nationalistic line taken by the Young Turks determined the policy towards the Armenians. After Talaat’s appointment as Grand Vizier, Kuehlmann writes:

a moderate tendency was gaining ground in influential circles, which, contrary to the inconsiderate nationalism of certain committee members, who did not even shy away from bloody acts of violence, demanded a sensible and tolerant internal policy for Turkey.... The Committee... at the beginning of its term of office, took up the cause of the union of all the different peoples living in Turkey in a spirit of free and voluntary collaboration within the state and was able at the beginning of its activities to unite almost all the dissenting elements - Arabs, Armenians and Greeks - if only for a short time. ... The wild, nationalist direction is of course not yet dead. The capable and reckless brains who are behind that direction, will not calm following their temporary defeat. ... But experience tells us that the watchword issued in Constantinople will be obeyed on the whole, and all the more so when the watchword is not the result of pressure on the central government from outside, but originates from a free decision of the Turkish rulers. [1917-02-16-DE-003]

In a memo he wrote for a conversation with the Grand Duchess of Baden at the End of September 1916, the Secretary of State of the German Foreign Office, Zimmermann, also had to concede the guilt of the Young Turks:

That the course of things, which could no longer be curbed, did not seem unwelcome to some of the Young Turkish rulers as a radical solution to the Armenian question, is unfortunately not improbable. [1917-05-09-DE-001]

2) The Role of the Turkish Military

Possibly, the deportation and extensive annihilation of the Armenians was decided upon by the Young Turks, but it was also supported by the Turkish military – if it was not actually, at least in part, the initiator, for example in the region of Erzerum. Although it also partly justified the deportations on the basis of military necessity, it went far beyond the necessary steps as far as open propagation of the annihilation of the Armenians. Because Erzerum was one of the most important, if not the most important regional centre of genocide, the German diplomatic reports on the role of the military go back at the beginning to the Administrator and Vice-Consul Max Erwin von Scheubner-Richter who, as he himself was an active officer, was able to give authentic reports on the intentions of his Turkish colleagues.

Already before 24 April, Scheubner-Richter reports from Erzerum:

Military authorities have ordered severe measures. [1915-03-03-DE-011]

After 24 April, he speaks of

military circles who see the time ripe to settle scores with the Armenians. [1915-05-15-DE-012]

One day later:

Measures on the deportation of the entire Armenian population in the local area … have been taken at the order of the Supreme Command of the Army and are being justified on the basis of military considerations. [1915-05-16-DE-011]

The Vice-Consul continues:

Army Supreme Command … insisted and insists … on immediate deportation. The Wali was of the opinion that … the actual responsibility must fall to the military authorities. [1915-06-22-DE-014]

Less than one month later he reports:

The Commander-in-Chief has recently given orders that all Armenians are to be deported from Erserum. In my opinion, this order has no military justification and can only be put down to racial hatred … [1915-06-26-DE-013]

Scheubner-Richter reports that the

Commander-in-Chief of the 3^rd Army, Mahmud Kiamel Pasha, who has relocated his headquarters here, is also interfering harshly in the government of the Vilayets. … [and] has ordered the immediate and most ruthless deportation of all Armenians. [1915-07-28-DE-015]

A week later, the German Vice-Consul writes that the Vali had assured him that the responsibility for the deportations was not

his responsibility, but that of the army's Supreme Command and that he was at their command. Despite the well-known insecurity of the routes, they ordered the expulsion of the Armenians without sufficiently ensuring their safety. The Vali then promised to do his best to prevent any recurrences. He did, in fact, try to ensure the safety of the expellees, insofar as this was possible considering the opposing intentions of the committee and other leading personalities. But neither his influence nor his energy were sufficient to meet the resistance he met with both from the army's Supreme Command as well as from the committee in his endeavours to achieve this. [1915-08-05-DE-002]

Lieutenant Colonel Stange, stationed in Erzerum, also confirmed that the military took the initiative in the deportations.

The Commander-in-Chief, Kiamil Pasha, had given orders for the evacuation of the Armenian villages to the north of Erserum. [1915-08-23-DE-013]

But the leaders of the Turkish army were also involved in the annihilation of the Armenians in other areas. Vice-Consul Holstein reports from Mossul:

Halil Bey arrived here yesterday with his staff. He himself is ill and must stay in bed for several days. A colonel from his staff just informed me that the Armenians in Mossul must also be massacred and it is his intention to do so. He will not be prevented from doing so, not even by me. [1915-11-04-DE-011]

And Consul Roessler reports that the army also seems to have ordered deportations in his administrative district of Aleppo. He writes that the Armenians from Aintab were deported

seemingly upon orders from the military. [1916-01-03-DE-011]

A letter from the Consulate Secretary, Werth, who wanted to obtain an exemption for Armenians employed by Germans, shows that even the highest military posts in Erzerum continued to rigorously deport the Armenians:

The Wali sent the Police President to me to say that at the order of the highest Commander-in-Chief of the Army, Kiamil Pascha, respectively the military authorities all the Armenian women and children who are under our protection must be deported. [1916-02-10-DE-001]

(II) The Motives for the Annihilation of the Armenians

1) Gains

The Armenians in Turkey were considered to be hard-working and rich. This stimulated the greed to enrich oneself at their expense. Although such gains are a little-known motive for the annihilation of the Armenians, they have been ascertained again and again by German observations.

An eye witness had reported to Roessler:

Said, an immigrant from Tripoli, groom for Mr. Linsmeyer for the past 4 years, employed at a monthly salary of 400 piasters, volunteered for war service in order, as he said, to also be able to "slaughter" some Armenians. As his pay, he was promised a house in A., an Armenian village near Urfa. Two Circassians ... in Tell Abiad also volunteered for the same reason. The village elder in Tschadakli, a Circassian village near Goeksun, explained to an acquaintance of mine: Ew jikmak itschün giderler (they are going out there to ruin families). [1915-07-27-DE-001]

Johann Mordtmann, the expert on Armenians at the German Embassy in Constantinople, clearly states in a memo as one of the

purposes of the Armenian deportations: … the confiscation of Armenian property. [1915-12-21-DE-011]

Time and again deportation trains were plundert, and there is evidence of this in many documents. Here are just two examples. An eye witness reported to Roessler:

The women who arrived in Ras ul Ain had to undress completely several times during their journey before the eyes of the accompanying gendarmes. Their clothes were searched for money, even their hair and … private parts were examined to see whether they had hidden money there. [1915-07-27-DE-001]

The population of those regions took part in these gains, through which the Armenian deportees had to pass. Especially those people profited, who exercised power over the Armenians. Here are another two examples. Lieutenant Colonel Stange reports that the

German volunteer Schlimme ... saw for himself in Trapezunt how police officers in front of the police station took pitiful bundles away from the passing deportees. [1915-08-23-DE-013]

At the intervention of the German Baghdad Railway official, Bastendorff, two Armenian employees were able to return to their job:

But prior to this, they had been plundered. I later learned from older policemen that the Kaimakam had taken his share of the loot. [1916-01-03-DE-002]

In those towns which the Armenians had left, the population helped itself. The wife of the head of the orphanage in Kharput, Mrs. Ehmann, writes:

After the deportation, a large number of the Armenian homes were simply torn down by the population: first the windows, doors, stairs, etc. were hauled away ; later, the walls were torn down and all the wood that was in them was ripped out to be used as firewood. Even today, this wood is brought from the villages and offered for sale. [1917-05-23-DE-001]

But especially those people profitted from the disappearance of the Armenians, who had ordered and carried out the deportations. This already held for the Armenians who had to leave their place of residence before the mass deportations began. The German missionary, Blank, reports on the deportees from Zeitun:

Amongst the arrivals there was not one who had rebelled against the government, but instead they were all from the better, wealthy people. ... they included people who had done everything to fulfil the wishes of the government and still they had to be deported, but why? Because they are wealthy! [1915-05-27-DE-001]

The greatest riches of the deported Armenians lay in their real estate and the goods the traders had to leave behind. The Young Turks who carried out such dispossessions as well as their accomplices had their eyes particularly on these objects. Consul Bergfeld reports from Trapezunt on the Armenians’ estates which – for the time being – were confiscated by the government:

The sale of any of their possessions was prohibited. Their shops and storerooms were to be sealed, all objects from their homes brought to certain places and placed under the supervision of the government. Money was to be brought to the post office for gradual forwarding at later intervals. [1915-07-09-DE-002]

Lieutenant Colonel Stange reports:

Things that had been left behind or even taken with them were confiscated by the escorting gendarmes and soldiers or stolen from the houses…. The authorities helped themselves at will to the possessions that had been left behind (houses, shops, goods, households) - in the Armenian church there were stocks to a value of about 150000 Ltq. [1915-08-23-DE-013]

Consul Bergfeld reports from Trapezunt:

The local committees of the Young Turks hope to gain extensive private profit from taking over the possessions of the deported Armenians and in view of the dependency of most administrative authorities from the Committee they will most certainly not have been wrong in their calculations. [1915-07-09-DE-002]

They were not mistaken. In his next report, Bergfeld writes:

With little exception, public officials and police divisions are enriching themselves during the vacation of the Armenian houses in the most shameless way. [1915-08-27-DE-013]

Bergfeld speaks of the

danger that the members of the Committee will take a fancy to such an effortless enrichment. [1915-08-27-DE-013]

No one in the ministries in Constantinople planned to return confiscated goods. Ambassador Wolff-Metternich made a request to the Ministry of the Interior for the return of a certain group of Armenians. His partners in discussion explained to him:

The return of the individuals in question to their homes was inadmissible, because they would no longer find their property there as the Liquidation Committee had meanwhile taken possession of it. [1915-12-27-DE-002]

Turkish politicians or the state not only enriched themselves on the estates of the Armenians, but they also fleeced the business partners of the deportees. Vice-Consul Hoffmann speaks of

heavy losses which the creditors of the deportees are suffering and for which no-one who is familiar with the circumstances is seriously expecting any compensation from that famous liquidation law of 13. Eylul 331. [1916-01-03-DE-001]

The director of the Deutsche Bank then mockingly comments on the liquidation law, the so-called “Loi provisoire”, according to which the estates of the deported Armenians are to be settled:

”It could have been expressed much more simply and clearly in two paragraphs, namely Paragraph 1) All of the Armenians’ goods have been confiscated. Paragraph 2) The government will collect the exiles’ claims and reimburse (or not reimburse) their debts. “ [1915-10-07-DE-002]

Consul Count Spee reports from Smyrna:

According to the new law pertaining to abandoned possessions, the goods still withheld by the Armenians will no doubt be used by the bad Turkish elements as an opportunity to take possession of these goods and of the considerable fortunes of the Armenians at the same time. [1916-11-13-DE-001]

Sometimes the avarice of the local Turks aided the Armenians. Thus, Vice-Consul Hoffmann suspects that the Armenians from Aleppo owed their greatly being spared up to this point

mainly to the resistance of those local circles who would suffer great losses of money if they disappeared. [1916-01-03-DE-001]

2) The Will of the Turkish Hardliners to Destroy

The elimination of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire could not have been achieved solely by means of goading peoples’ greed. Those responsible for the genocide went several steps further. They not only deported and killed those they suspected of resisting the authority of the state, of causing revolts and of treason, they also went as far as jointly and severally confining an entire people for the possible crimes of individuals.

Consul Roessler complained:

The innocent should not be punished for the guilty. Enough misfortune has happened. It is time to stop. [1915-05-26-DE-012]

One day later Roessler writes:

I am convinced that the greater majority of the deportees is suffering innocently. ... The government also seems to be insisting on the archaic opinion that a whole people must be punished in solidarity for the deeds of an individual or of a few. For its punishments extend to destruction of the Armenians in whole districts. All Armenians with possessions, education or influence are to be removed so that only a leaderless herd is left behind. [1915-05-27-DE-001]

Vice-Consul Kuckhoff from Samsun:

However, the countermeasures taken - apparently valid for all Anatolian Vilayets - are of a severity and so conflicting with all humanitarian feelings that they cannot simply be treated with indifference: they involve nothing less than the destruction or enforced Islamization of a whole people, whose relatives for the greatest part did not even participate in the revolutionary movement and are therefore innocent victims themselves. [1915-07-16-DE-003]

Consul Roessler writes that the Turkish government

has sacrificed a magnitude of innocent people together with the few guilty ones. [1915-07-27-DE-001]

Lieutenant Colonel Stange is outraged over “the authorities” for they seem

to be regarding the principle of taking revenge on the innocent for the deeds of the guilty, on whom one cannot, however, lay one’s hands, as being justified. For the Europeans this principle can only be explained by the fact that the Turks really do have concepts of decency and morality which in no way correspond to ours. [1915-08-23-DE-013]

As a matter of course, political or military leaders ordered the arrests of entire clans in which entire families of the supposed guilty or even entire social classes were to make amends. Ambassador Neurath cites a case in which he requested that Armenians working for the Germans and, thus, an ally be saved. The Turkish general (Fakhri Pasha) responsible

explained that he was only able to respond to military considerations and that, at most, he was prepared to make an exception for those Armenians working for the Germans who were not related to the families of insurgents and who had no relevant social position. [1915-11-20-DE-001]

With regard to the reactions of the most important Young Turks, Ambassador Wolff-Metternich says:

Enver Pasha and Halil Bey ... take refuge behind the plea of necessities of war, that revolutionaries needed to be punished, and carefully evade the accusation that hundreds of thousands of women, children and elderly people are being driven into misery and ultimately to their deaths. [1915-12-07-DE-001]

According to Wolff-Metternich, Minister of the Interior Talaat told him in a conversation:

It had been impossible to single out any individual culprit from this mass. [1915-12-18-DE-001]

Wolff-Metternich was surprised by Talaat and his colleagues:

In the course of the conversation a peculiar opinion was expressed by Talaat Bey, a viewpoint which I had already heard from his colleagues, saying that we in a similar situation would have acted in the same way to eradicate a revolutionary movement in Germany with force. I have continuously observed the total lack of understanding for the viewpoint that the innocent should not be hurt when pursuing the guilty and that only those found guilty of crimes should be punished. [1915-12-18-DE-001]

Even in a highly official answer by the Supreme Porte to petitions by the German embassy, the Turkish government speaks of “measures against the Armenian population” and not against those responsible for certain deeds:

les mesures de répression décrétés contre la population arménienne des provinces de l'Anatolie Orientale sont dictées par des raisons militaires et constituent un moyen de lé gitime défense. [“The measures of repression ordered against the Armenian population in the eastern Anatolian provinces are dictated by military reasons and constitute a means of legitimate defence.”] [1915-12-23-DE-001]

Ernst I. Christoffel, the head of Malatia, the home for the blind, on the Armenian people, usually called “nation” in the Ottoman Empire:

It was not the nation as such which was guilty, but only a small minority. The Turkish government knows this just as well as everyone else in this country. [1917-07-14-DE-001]

This Armenian “nation” was a part of the Ottoman Empire, and the oldest by far. In the 19^th century, the Turkish sultan, Abdul Hamid, had already directed his hatred of the Armenians towards the entire nation. According to Vice-Consul Scheubner-Richter, the Turkish government now

left large circles of its own people to the mercy of the anarchy of the masses aroused by racism and "the madness of retaliation". [1915-08-05-DE-002]

The hatred of the Armenians is a constantly recurring phrase in the German sources. Four passages in the documents can be used as examples.

An eye witness reported to Roessler:

A Turkish inspector said to me, ... "This time we have done our job on the Armenians in a way we have desired for a long time; out of every ten, we have not left nine alive." [1915-07-27-DE-001]

Lieutenant Colonel Stange reports that the deportation of the Armenians from Erzerum was

a prime example of the ruthless, inhumane and unlawful arbitrariness, the bestial brutality of all the Turks involved, vis-à-vis this category of people whom they hated deeply and regarded as being fair game and outlaws. There are a great number of reliable examples attesting to these facts. The government did nothing at all to help the exiles in any way and since the police knew the mind-set of their superiors, they therefore did everything in their power to augment the agony of the Armenians. [1915-08-23-DE-013]

The German engineer, Bastendorff, describes a scene at the railway station in Ras-ul-Ain:

A train full of soldiers arrived. About 10 of the men were weak and ill. An Armenian doctor, who was treating them himself, declared them to be too exhausted and that he recommended sending those who were ill to Aleppo for a week for convalescence. Then a Turkish doctor came up and grumbled that the patients were just being lazy and that the Armenian only wanted to ruin the Turkish state. The army commander took his whip to the Armenian doctor and then ordered him to be tied up and brought to Aleppo. [1916-01-03-DE-002]

In another passage Bastendorff writes:

In November the women were deported from Urfa. One woman who recognised me again, begged me to rescue her children. The supervisor pushed her back and shouted to her: “No-one is going to be rescued here; you’ve got to walk until you drop dead. And wherever you may happen to end, the dogs will eat you.” Soldiers from Hama, who were accompanying this group, demanded that the supervisor arrange for some bread as the women had already been on the move for two days. His answer was merely: “They can drop dead; they’ re not getting anything to eat.” [1916-01-03-DE-002]

Undersecretary of State Zimmermann also had to admit:

In addition there was of course the fanaticism of the Turks and their hatred. [1917-05-09-DE-001]

There are clear references in the German reports to a collective intention to kill on the part of the Turkish hardliners. One of the most critical observers of the genocide, Vice-Consul Scheubner-Richter, speaks in one of his reports of the

longed-for goal, to a "solution" of the Armenian question. [1915-08-10-DE-001]

In the files, he describes who is striving for this final solution and how, in his opinion, this goal can be achieved: according to Scheubner-Richter, the supporters of the local committee

openly admit that the final goal of their actions against the Armenians is their total annihilation in Turkey. After the war we will not have “any more Armenians in Turkey”, are the exact words of an eminent person. So long as this goal is not attainable through the various massacres, one hopes that the deprivation on the long journey to Mesopotamia and the unaccustomed climate there will finish the task. This solution to the Armenian question appears to be ideal for the hard-liners, to which almost all military and government civil servants belong. [1915-07-28-DE-015]

The goal of this group was

a violent extermination policy, a forcible destruction of a whole people, [1915-08-10-DE-001]

Ambassador Wangenheim, who usually tends to be more cautious, confirms his opinion:

the way in which the resettlement is being carried out, shows that the government is indeed pursuing its purpose of eradicating the Armenian race from the Turkish Empire. [1915-07-07-DE-001]

Consul Roessler from Aleppo:

The signs are increasing that the government, either intentionally or unintentionally, is permitting the implementation of its measures to be taken off its hands and turned into the slaughter of the Armenians. [1915-07-27-DE-001]

Vice-Consul Hoffmann reports from Aleppo on 300000 Armenians who are to be deported to the south:

According to statements made by the director of political affairs in the Vilayets ... these are to be left to themselves at their destination and " will all die"; in times of peace the government would have " perhaps" provided settlements … but now there is neither money nor officials to deal with the matter. In any case, everything and anything is missing for resettlement. [1915-10-18-DE-011]

Bastendorff, the German engineer at the Baghdad Railway, writes in a report to Roessler, which the German consul approved of and sent on to Berlin:

All steps taken in respect of the Armenians, as far as I could see and observe, led to the conclusion described to me by the Director of Emigrants, Schuekri Bey: “The final result must be the extermination of the Armenian race. [1916-01-03-DE-002]

Roessler reports from Aleppo, where the headquarters for the final solution for the Armenians was located:

Wali and Commissioner of Deportation are working relentlessly on the annihilation. [1916-02-10-DE-001]

Vice-Consul Hoffmann states more precisely:

Eyub Bey, the former commissioner for the deportations in Aleppo (and who still holds a responsible position there today) is well-known for the statement ...: You still do not understand what we want: we want to obliterate the Armenian name for good and all. [1916-01-03-DE-001]

(III) The Dimension of the Genocide

If the statements of the German diplomats and their informants on the individual aspects of the deportations already verify that the decimation resp. annihilation of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire was the main goal of the Young Turks, then the key quotations, including those of the German diplomats and observers, make it clear that, in their opinion, the deportations constituted genocide.

Scheubner-Richter from Erzerum:

This large-scale deportation is tantamount to massacres, as due to the lack of any type of transportation barely half will reach their intended destination alive. [1915-06-02-DE-012]

Consul Bergfeld from Trapezunt:

I am of the same opinion as all my colleagues, that the transport of women and children … borders on mass murder. [1915-06-29-DE-017]

Ambassador Wangenheim speaks of

mass executions here and in the country’s interior. [1915-07-07-DE-001]

Bergfeld reports that in his administrative district no deportations have yet taken place, but that the signs point to the fact

that elsewhere there are plans to totally destroy the Armenians. [1915-07-09-DE-002]

Vice-Consul Kuckhoff from Samsun writes:

The destination of those exiled from Samsun is said to be Urfa, according to a statement by the Mutessarif. For sure no Christian Armenian will reach this destination. According to news from the interior, there are already reports of the disappearance of the deported population of whole towns.[1915-07-16-DE-003]

Furthermore, he speaks of the

wiping out the Armenian element [1915-07-16-DE-003]

Consul Roessler writes that the Turkish government is

consciously aiming to achieve the downfall of the largest possible proportions of the Armenian people by using methods which are borrowed from antiquity [1915-07-27-DE-001]

And, on the same day:

Reliable news which reach us here on the extermination of the Armenians in the east are atrocious. [1915-07-27-DE-011]

Scheubner-Richter reports that

the expulsion of the Armenians from the border areas ... has turned into a campaign of revenge, destruction and robbery against the Armenians. [1915-08-05-DE-002]

Scheubner-Richter speaks of the attempt by the Turkish government

to culturally and economically annihilate and exterminate an entire race. [1915-08-05-DE-002]

The German Vice-Consul from Erzerum writes in another document:

I will disregard the fact that these measures by the government were carried out in such a way that they meant the absolute extermination of the Armenians. [1915-08-10-DE-001]

Scheubner-Richter speaks of a

mass deportation, in combination with the atrocities carried out on the part of Turkey. [1915-08-10-DE-001]

The Ambassador on Extraordinary Mission, Prince Hohenlohe-Langenburg, writes to various German consulates:

The atrocities against the Armenians have taken on such an extent during the last few weeks despite our repeated representations that it now becomes our duty to express our definite disapproval of these occurrences. [1915-08-11-DE-011]

In a report to the Imperial Chancellor, Bethmann-Hollweg, Ambassador Hohenlohe-Langenburg speaks of the

systematic slaughter of the Armenian people who had been deported from their homes [1915-08-12-DE-001]

as well as of the

extermination of the Armenians. [1915-08-12-DE-001]

The German embassy informs the Ottoman government in a memo that it regrets having to ascertain that incidents

instead of being prevented by the local authorities, regularly accompanied the expulsion of the Armenians in such a way that most of them perished before they reached their destination. This refers in particular to the provinces of Trébizonde, Diarbékir and Erzéroum where the occurrences came to light; in certain places such as Mardin, all Christians, irrespective of their race or confession, have suffered the same fate. [1915-08-12-DE-001]

Consul Roessler speaks of the

method of killing the deportees on their journey. [1915-08-12-DE-011]

and reaches the conclusion that

based on the information which is still reaching us, the Armenians in the east have now [been] practically completely annihilated. [1915-08-15-DE-012]

The Germans Seeger, Biegel and other signatories write:

The whole measure seems to be aimed at a complete extermination of the Armenians. [1915-08-21-DE-011]

Lieutenant Colonel Stange on the deportation of the Armenians from Erzerum, even though it was known that the deportation routes were unsafe, resp. that killer troops waited there for the Armenians:

They were indeed meant to die. [1915-08-23-DE-013]

In the same report, Stange says

that hundreds and thousands were downright murdered ... that the evictions were carried out under inhumane conditions [1915-08-23-DE-013]

Stange further suspects that the government was working according to

a long-fostered plan to achieve the thorough weakening, if not the destruction of the Armenian people [1915-08-23-DE-013]

Hohenlohe-Langenburg quotes Roessler:

Despite assurances by the Porte to the contrary, everything is being directed at the destruction of the Armenian people. [1915-09-25-DE-001]

Consul Roessler in a letter:

It is the government's endeavour to eliminate all the educated, wealthy and influential people and to leave nothing but the lowest level of society without a leader. This goal has already been reached in Marasch and Aintab, as in many other places. [1915-09-27-DE-014]

The Legation Councillor in the German Foreign Office who was responsible for Turkey, Frederic Hans von Rosenberg, speaks of the

annihilation of the Armenian element. [1915-10-01-DE-004]

Von Tyszka, the German journalist:

The bloody measures, which have been taking place in the Asiatic part of Turkey, with no end in sight, have never occurred to such an extent in Turkey. [1915-10-01-DE-001]

And:

So far the Armenians have been allowed to remain in the Vilayets of Smyrna and Adrianopel, likewise in part in Constantinople. In all the other provinces, the Armenians were exiled to Aleppo, Mosul, Zort and other places, destinations, which they did not arrive at. [1915-10-01-DE-001]

And:

Today, victims are concerned in numbers unknown to a Turkish history, which is not lacking in incidents of acts of violence. That is the shattering truth. [1915-10-01-DE-001]

Vice-Consul Hoffmann from Aleppo:

General conviction that all deportees will meet their death. [1915-10-18-DE-011]

Neukirch, the German Red Cross doctor from Ersindjan, reports:

The complete removal of all Armenians from this country has been carried out. [1915-11-06-DE-011]

The German Protestant Christians in a petition to the Imperial Chancellor:

These deportation measures have in reality taken on the character of a massacre of the greatest dimension. [1915-11-10-DE-011]

They were convinced that

According to credible sources of information extermination is imminent if the inhumane measures, which the Armenians are subjected to, are not immediately brought to an end. [1915-11-10-DE-011]

The Mission Board of the Central Committee for the General Meetings of Catholics in Germany speaks of

the imminent extermination of the entire Armenian race. [1915-11-10-DE-011]

Foreign Secretary of State Jagow requests that his ambassador lodge a protest with the Turkish government

concerning the cruel treatment of the Armenians, and to make it aware of the disastrous consequences which will arise for the Turkish Empire should such a policy of annihilation be continued. [1915-11-12-DE-011]

Ambassador Wolff-Metternich reports:

Colonel von Kress, Djemal’s Chief of Staff, tells me that the misery simply defies every description and transcends all accounts. [1915-12-07-DE-001]

Wolff-Metternich writes to Bethmann Hollweg that he pointed out to the Grand Vizier that

the ignominious expulsion of hundreds of thousands of the old, children and women will cast a long dark shadow over the Young Turkish history. [1915-12-09-DE-001]

The Ambassador speaks of

the expulsion of the Armenians mainly being terminated. [1915-12-27-DE-002]

Vice-Consul Hoffmann from Alexandrette:

there is not much difference between the deportation of the Armenians and their extermination. [1916-01-03-DE-001]

According to Hoffmann,

The deportations from the actual Armenian Vilayets were usually carried out in such a brutal manner that only the wretched remains of a mountain people who were known to be strong and healthy actually arrived at the collection camps. [1916-01-03-DE-001]

Hoffmann speaks further of

the great economic losses ... as a result of the annihilation of the Armenians. [1916-01-03-DE-001]

Lechnig, the clerk at the German Consulate, on the inhabitants of the camp in Tell Abiad who supposedly could not be further deported, because Bedouins besieged the routes:

the result meant the annihilation of the deportees, one way or another. [1916-01-03-DE-001]

Martin Niepage, the German secondary school teacher in Aleppo, speaks of

this outrageous practice of murdering. [1916-01-03-DE-001]

His colleague and school director, Eduard Graeter, on

the terrible methods applied in this country. [1916-01-03-DE-001]

Ambassador Wolff-Metternich feared,

that the real purpose of the Armenian deportations .. is the total extermination of the Armenian race. [1916-01-24-DE-001]

Consul Roessler speaks of

the continual and gradual extermination of a large proportion of the Armenian population. [1916-02-09-DE-001]

The Consul of Tabris, Wilhelm Litten, writes after a journey along the death routes of the Armenians:

“Transfer of population” is the name given by the official report to this most terrible of all ways of dying! [1916-02-09-DE-001]

Matthias Erzberger, the German member of the Reichstag and later Foreign Secretary of State, after a journey to Constantinople:

It could be assumed that deportation is a milder form of punishment than murder. In fact, there is little difference between the former and the latter. [1916-03-03-DE-001]

Consul Roessler:

Those people have continued dying since then. [1916-04-27-DE-001]

Consul Loytved Hardegg from Damascus reports on a discussion with the former Wali of Saloniki and Aleppo, Hussein Kasim Bey, who professed the fear that the Armenians

were to be systematically exterminated. ... This cruel policy of extermination was a disgrace to Turkey. [1916-05-30-DE-001]

Ambassador Wolff-Metternich:

The Turkish government has not been put off in the execution of its programme for settling the Armenian question by destroying the Armenian race. [1916-07-10-DE-001]

Ernst Jacob Christoffel, the German vicar:

There was not one Armenian sound to be heard anywhere. [1916-07-10-DE-001]

Ambassador Wolff-Metternich on the merging of both Catholicos of Sis and Aghtamar with the Patriarchs of Constantinople and Jerusalem:

The new law dated 1 August of this year draws its conclusions from the government’s measures by which the Ottoman Armenians, as a nation capable of surviving, are to be annihilated: the destruction of the political community now follows upon the mass evacuations including the massacring of the men, the forced conversion to Islam of those left behind and the children, and the confiscation of wealth. [1916-08-23-DE-001]

In a memo, Undersecretary of State Zimmermann speaks of

the last few pathetic Armenians consisting of women and children. [1916-09-25-DE-001]

Vice-Consul Scheubner-Richter summarises the deportations:

The fear I spoke of in my report from Erserum, namely that the evacuation of the Armenians would be tantamount to their annihilation resp. that this was the purpose behind it, has unfortunately turned out to be true. ... It would not be saying too much if I tell you that the Turkish Armenians, with the exception of several hundred thousand living in Constantinople and other larger cities, have been practically wiped out. [1916-12-04-DE-001]

The Ambassador on Extraordinary Mission in Constantinople, Kuehlmann, says:

I believe that in terms of an overall outcome , the extermination policy has damaged the Turkish state. The atrocities of the Armenian campaigns will weigh heavily on the Turkish name for a long time to come. [1917-02-16-DE-003]

Finally, one of the heads of German foreign policy, Arthur Zimmermann, had to admit in a report in which he was mainly concerned with playing down the consequences of the deportations and avoiding any allusion to genocide

that the execution of these deportation orders should lead to the destruction of a large proportion of the Armenian population. [1917-05-09-DE-001]

(IV) The Statistics on the Genocide

There are several statements on the number of deported and murdered Armenians, some of which only refer to certain sections. But they are useful for gaining an impression of the size which the observers on the spot perceived.

Consul Roessler reports:

Number of Armenians killed in the east is now estimated by the local Armenians to be at least 2 and probably several hundred thousand. [1915-08-12-DE-011]

Already in the middle of 1915, he believed that, according to his own figures:

the number of Armenians previously deported from western Asia Minor should amount to 40000. If they are now to be banned from large towns and the coastal strip of the Vilayet, this figure will increase to 150000. [1915-08-03-DE-011]

Consul Buege reports from Adana:

The number of Armenians ... murdered probably already exceeds the amount of victims in the Young Turkish Massacre of 1909. [1915-09-10-DE-011]

Von Tyszka, the German journalist, refuses to make a projection, because:

Whether the sacrifices endured by the Armenians exceed 500000 or fall short of it, is in principle of no importance. [1915-10-01-DE-001]

On the other hand, the German Protestant Christians include their estimation in a petition to the Imperial Chancellor:

Of those deported women, children and elderly less than half are thought to have arrived at their designated destination. … Through means of slaughter at certain places along the route, through starvation and thirst, it appears that the number of deportees has been reduced to about half the original number.[1915-11-10-DE-011]

Concerning the total number of victims, the Protestant Christians write:

It is not possible, naturally, to give exact details of the number of deportees or those slaughtered. According to the statistics of the Armenian Patriarchate the number of Armenians living in the Vilayets affected by the deportations amounted to 1200000. If one were also to assume that a part of the population were able to flee into the mountains and outlying districts and were, therefore, spared, one is still left with a sum of one million Armenian Christians affected by the deportations and slaughters, and without any differentiation between the confessions: Gregorians, Roman Catholics or Protestants. [1915-11-10-DE-011]

The Chairman of the German-Armenian Association, Johannes Lepsius, speaks

of the deportation of ¾ million Armenians to the Mesopotamian desert. [1916-04-17-DE-001]

The Reichstag parliamentarian, Matthias Erzberger, received a report from two “intermediary agents who were absolutely sure”:

We estimate the loss of human life among the Christians to be 1 ½ million. [1916-05-27-DE-001]

Based on the investigations of the Swiss nun, Rohner, the Chargé d’ Affaires of the Embassy in Constantinople, Radowitz, projects the total figure of the victims and confronts her with the figures which are making the rounds in the capital city:

if one .. estimates the total number of Turkish Armenians at 2.5 million and the number of deported at 2 million, and if the same relationship is assumed between the survivors and those killed as for Sister Rohner’s orphans, a figure of over 1.5 million killed and approximately 425000 survivors is reached. Previously, estimations of those killed have been between 800000 and 1 million and, considering the above, they do not seem to be exaggerated. [1916-10-04-DE-002]

The head of Malatia, the home for the blind, Ernst I. Christoffel, gives an estimation, albeit of necessity a very private one:

The losses to the Armenian people during the period since the deportation in the summer of 1915 until today have surpassed 2 million.. [1917-07-14-DE-001]

The Austrian-Hungarian representative in Tiflis, Georg Baron von and zu Franckenstein, had a discussion with the Minister of the Interior of the Armenian Republic, Aram Manukian, which was documented in the archives of the Foreign Office. Franckenstein:

As the Minister is well aware of the conditions in Turkish-Armenia due to his long-term stay there, I directed the conversation towards these. He said that before the war 2 million Armenians had lived in that particular area, in fact in all of Turkey, while now there were only ½ million residing in Constantinople, Aleppo, etc.; half a million had fled to Armenia, approximately half a million had been slaughtered (which he had partly witnessed himself), and approximately half a million were driven to Mesopotamia where almost all of them died. [1918-08-04-DE-001]

(V) Covering Up and Denying the Genocide

Even today, the Armenian genocide is denied by those affected, the Turkish government, but also by scientists. This is made easier for those who deny the genocide, at least it seems to be so, by orders and counter-orders given by the Ottoman leaders, who used this method as a general attempt to hush up the crimes they ordered to be carried out. The assessment of such orders is made difficult by the fact that, at least according to German sources, one of the most important members of the triumvirate did not completely support the official standpoint which was oriented towards the annihilation of the Armenians: the Minister of Naval Affairs and Supreme Commander of the 4^thArmy, stationed in the south, Djemal Pascha.

Roessler reports that already before the beginning of the deportations on a large scale, Djemal Pascha had given orders

that any Mohammedan who attacks an Armenian will be brought up before a court-martial. No one was to interfere in government matters. [1915-04-01-DE-011]

The French version of Djemal’s order was as follows:

Celui qui des muselmans pour n’importe quelle raison, attaque un arménien sera regardé comme un émeutier et sera remis sur-le-champ à la cour martiale. [1915-04-12-DE-001]

Later, Djemal continued to carry out this policy, even though it was toned down. Roessler reports from Aleppo:

Recently, Djemal Pasha has given stricter orders again which are meant to avoid the slaughtering of the Armenians, and he has made a proposal to the government that similar orders also be given for the 3^rd Army’s sector. His area of command ends in the east at Urfa. Diarbekir belongs to the 3^rd Army. [1915-07-08-DE-012]

Statements made and orders given by the Young Turk leaders are definitely of a different calibre and, considering the reports made by the German observers, they can only be regarded as cynical.

Mordtmann, the Armenian expert, notes after a discussion with Talaat:

The Minister had not been informed in detail on the deportation of the Armenians from Marash and will inquire into the matter. [1915-05-26-DE-012]

Consul Bergfeld reports from Trapezunt:

Although there were no signs of imminent excesses, I still mentioned to the local Vali in a friendly way the question of protection for the Christians in Trapezunt and surrounding areas. He gave me the most definite assurances that nothing would be undertaken against them as long as they behaved peaceably themselves and he showed me a telegram from the Minister of the Interior in which Tala'at Bey recommended the Armenians to be given special protection by the authorities. [1915-07-09-DE-002]

Roessler reports that there were at least two different orders which cancelled each other:

Djemal Pasha’s orders are in contrast to this, but the Committee is in favour of it. [1915-08-12-DE-011]

Ambassador Hohenlohe-Langenburg reports from Constantinople:

It is well known that Djemal Pasha has repeatedly given orders against such excesses, but that these orders are not always observed by other, irresponsible parties. [1915-08-14-DE-011]

It is, indeed, amazing just how long the German official posts attached great importance to these counter-orders. Ambassador Hohenlohe reports again that counter-orders have been given, seemingly as a concession, although his report carries a slightly sceptical undertone:

On the 2^nd of this month, Talaat Bey gave me the German translation of various telegraphic orders on the persecution of the Armenians which he sent to the provincial authorities concerned, copies of which are enclosed. With these, he wished to deliver proof that the central government is seriously attempting to end the riots, which have taken place against the Armenians in the heart of the country and to see to it that those who have been deported receive provisions during transport. [1915-09-04-DE-001]

Otto Robert Moritz Goeppert, the Legation Councillor and Council Spokesman at the Foreign Office in Berlin who was “on temporary assignment” to the embassy in Constantinople to deputise for Ambassador Kuehlmann while the latter was on holiday, also saw no trap and reports:

Today, Talaat Bey gave .. the enclosed orders. As soon as the wartime situation permits, he plans to travel to the province to supervise the conscientious compliance with the orders. [1915-09-04-DE-001]

Mordtmann, the embassy’s Armenian expert, reports:

Today, Aziz Bey, the representative of Djanbulad Bey, informed me of the following at the Ministry of the Interior: ... If nothing is mentioned in the telegram concerning the return of those Catholics and Protestants who have already been deported, then this is because only some of them will be allowed to return, to avoid their gathering together again in larger groups in different localities. [1915-09-04-DE-001]

The German Embassy in Constantinople telegraphs to various consulates:

The Porte has informed the consulate of the wording of the telegraphic instructions which were sent out (supposedly on 29 August) to various provincial governments, including that one, on the matter of the persecution of the Armenians. Basically, their message is: the mass evacuations are not for the purpose of exterminating the Armenians, but rather ensuring that certain elements which are enemies of the government are rendered harmless; the deported are to be protected and fed during transport; furthermore, those not yet deported as well as the soldiers' families, the Catholics and the Protestants, and craftsmen, insofar as they are indispensable, are no longer to be deported, as has previously been ordered; acts of violence against the deported will be legally punished and, in case of a repeated offence, the higher authorities will be called to account. [1915-09-04-DE-001]

Mordtmann added a further piece of information to the files which he placed in quotation marks, considering the fact that during the event cited completely defenceless Armenians faced heavily armed Turks; namely

that a "clash" had taken place during the deportation of the Armenians from Angora. [1915-09-04-DE-001]

This was the extent of the mistrust found in the German embassy in Constantinople at this point. It was only the German representatives on the spot who realised the true value of these counter-orders. Consul Buege from Adana answers:

The notification dated 29 August concerning the Armenians and given to the Imperial Embassy from the Porte is merely an audacious deception of the embassy, because, at the instigation of Inspector Ali Munif Bey, who was sent here, the Porte later completely revoked this order. The authorities, of course, are only carrying out the second instruction and continuing with the deportation. [1915-09-10-DE-011]

Only now did Ambassador Hohenlohe also recognise the two-sided nature of these orders, and he telegraphs to the Foreign Office that several events were

directly contrary to the instructions recently given by the Ministry of the Interior which allowed us to hope that the persecution of the Armenians and the excesses related to this would now cease. [1915-09-11-DE-011]

When Consul Roessler in Aleppo, for his part, demonstrated the ambiguity of the counter-orders, which were only given after the deportation of the Catholic and Protestant Armenians:

The Wali here understands the Porte’s instructions in the sense that only those Protestants and Catholics are no longer to be deported who have not yet been deported from their place of residence. [1915-09-12-DE-011]

the embassy in Constantinople answered rather abashedly:

The interpretation of the Porte’s instructions by the authorities there is correct. The embassy was only given a German translation of the telegrams in question, which was unclear in places. [1915-09-12-DE-011]

Ambassador Hohenlohe-Langenburg now also had to report to Berlin that he had been deceived:

Further reports by the Imperial Consuls in Adana and Aleppo confirm that the well-known telegraphic instructions by the Porte for the improvement of the fate of the deported Armenians have on the whole not fulfilled their purpose due to the various exceptions to the privileges granted, which the Porte itself made at the beginning and later, and also due to the despotism of the provincial authorities. [1915-09-25-DE-001]

The following telegram had previously been received from Consul Roessler:

The order given by the Porte to refrain from deporting those who were still in their homes is a complete illusion, as some of them can be termed as being suspicious and this is often used as an excuse. Contrary to the order, the families of soldiers are not being exempted. Also, the severely sick are being transported away mercilessly. [1915-09-25-DE-001]

Hohenlohe-Langenburg had to admit once again:

Talaat Bey, to whom I have pointed out these circumstances, has willingly offered his help; however, I can hardly believe that the orders of the Central Office will bring about any considerable improvement in the position of the deported Armenians. [1915-09-25-DE-001]

The ban on taking photographs is an example of just how much those Turks responsible for the genocide wished to destroy all traces of their deeds. Consul Roessler reports:

Thus, it is understandable why Djemal Pasha issued a strict ban on photographing the exiles. In his report, a copy of which I obediently enclose and which he gave me to be used in strict confidence, he ordered that, to avoid punishment, all of the Baghdad railway's engineers are to hand over the prints, plates and films which they have. Photographing Armenians is to be considered the same as taking photographs of theatres of war without permission. [1915-09-27-DE-014]

On 10 September 1915, the Turkish Military Commissioner sent the following letter to the Chief Engineer of Building Department III of the Baghdad Railway:

La quatrième Armée ayant informée que certains Ingé nieurs et Employés du Chemin de Fer de Bagdad prennent les photographies de vue de transports des Arméniens, Son Excellence, Djémal Pacha, Commandant en Chef de l'Armée, a donné ordre afin que ces Ingénieurs et Employés remettent, de suite et dans le dé lai de 48 heures, au Commissariat Militaire tous les clichés des photographies avec toutes les copies qu'ils ont pris. Tous ceux qui ne remettront pas ces photographies seront soumis aux punitions et jugés comme ayant pris des photographies sur le champ de guerre sans autorisation. [1915-09-27-DE-014]

Von Tyszka, the German journalist, demonstrated another variant on the deceptions:

The Bishops from Konja and Ismid had sent a telegram to Enver Pasha from Eregli, asking for assistance regarding the expulsions of their Parochians. Enver Pasha replied, we have dispatched the Director for Emigration so that he can accommodate the Armenian refugees in the vicinity of their previous domiciles. The Director arrived in Eregli and explained to the Bishops that all those not accommodated had to be taken to Aleppo. When the Director was shown the telegram from Enver, he answered that it had indeed been Enver Pasha´s intention, but it was simply not possible. [1915-10-01-DE-001]

In a discussion with Rosenberg, the clerk at the German Foreign Office, the Councillor at the Turkish Embassy in Berlin, Edhem Bey, presumed to claim that:

The removal of the Armenians into the interior was necessary for military reasons and in the interest of Turkey’s self-preservation. If attacks had been carried out during this, they were most certainly disapproved of by the central government. Unfortunately, because of the large spatial distances and the primitive conditions of the empire, the central government was not always in a position to prevent clumsiness and carelessness in the lower authorities. [1915-10-01-DE-004]

Rosenberg had commented on the discussion with Edhem without making any critical remarks. After the murder of Armenians in Djeziré, Ambassador Wangenheim was definitely more careful when he repeated Talaat’s answer; the latter had stated:

that he had to deny such questionable news; there were no massacres in Turkey. It could be inferred from this highly unsatisfactory answer that there were, in fact, riots in Djeziré and that the Porte believes that it can evade such unpleasant discussions by issuing a denial. [1915-10-15-DE-002]

However, Ambassador Wolff-Metternich states dryly:

Turkish denials that no more deportations are to be undertaken, are worthless. [1915-12-07-DE-001]

But it was just the German diplomats in Constantinople who gladly agreed with the declarations of the Young Turk leaders, because they saw in this some success for their attempts to attain relief for the Armenians. Even the critical Wolff-Metternich is no exception:

Today I discussed in great detail the situation of the Armenians with Talaat Bey. … He has taken extensive measures to feed the deported Armenian families. Crimes committed against Armenian property and person will be severely punished. Twenty people who had committed these crimes have recently been executed. [1915-12-18-DE-001]

Matthias Erzberger, the Centre politician, was also taken in by these promises. After discussions with Enver and Talaat, he notes:

1. with Enver Pascha, who confirms that no further measures will be taken against the Armenians. The expelled Armenians will be settled in towns. Freedom of religion is guaranteed. 2. with Talaat Bey (Minister of the Interior) … ; The Armenian churches will be re-opened. Settlement of the expelled Armenians in towns will be carried out in such a manner that they will be given at least the same amount of arable land as they owned previously. [1916-02-11-DE-001]

But that was indeed going too far for the German ambassador. Wolff-Metternich on Erzberger’s report:

As is known, I have repeatedly been given similar commitments by the Turkish ministers without being able to determine until now that such a commitment has been kept. [1916-02-11-DE-001]

Wolff-Metternich, some weeks later:

During my visit yesterday to the Supreme Porte, the Foreign Minister told me now, after consultation with Talaat, that the government, upon reports from the local Turkish authorities, recently ordered that some restless elements be removed. In their excessive eagerness, the local authorities had misinterpreted the order and taken measures to deport larger numbers of Armenians. It had now been ordered that absolutely no more Armenians in Konia, Angora, Aleppo, Aintab and Marash were to be deported. [1916-03-21-DE-001]

After reading Sister Beatrice Rohner’s statistics, Radowitz, the Legation Councillor, had to admit:

This statistic on hand finally confirms the fact, also reported from other sources, that against the express orders of the central government the families of those men were deported who had been conscripted into military service. [1916-10-04-DE-002]

The Legation Councillor Goeppert also had to admit that he had been deceived:

The Turkish Imperial Gazette ( Takvimi-Vakaji ) has published … a provisional law by which the evacuated persons are to be given places of residence and estates free of charge in the towns they have been allocated to from the category of the vacant Evkaf and Miri estates for the purpose of their accommodation and settlement and to give them the means of supporting themselves. … The law is obviously in contradiction to the reports we have here on the treatment which those Armenians who were sent to Mesopotamia have been subjected to recently. [1916-10-20-DE-001]

After the Armenians had practically been annihilated, Kuehlmann, the Ambassador on Extraordinary Mission in Constantinople, fell back once again into the old naivety:

As I have heard in confidence, we can most certainly reckon with a stop to the deportation of the Armenians ... . It is said that the Armenians (although, however, this will not be enforced for some time yet) will be allowed to return to their old dwelling places, as long as these are not considered to be war zones. [1917-02-16-DE-003]

A week later, Kuehlmann rose to repeat a comment made by the newly appointed Grand Vizier, Talaat Pascha, which can hardly be outdone for its cynicism:

Talaat Pasha confirmed to me in person that he plans to take a new line on all questions concerning the nationality policy. He had both the Catholic as well as the ecumenical Armenian patriarchs brought to him and informed them that the Armenian population could be sure that their constitutional rights would not be touched. What the previous government had been forced to put into action on the grounds of military necessity should, if possible, be rectified. Appropriate orders had been sent to all the provincial authorities. [1917-02-24-DE-001]

It was especially those German diplomats who were on the spot who spoke bluntly and did not allow themselves to be deceived. What outraged them the most were the unheard-of lies which the Turkish press served its readers, and which were repeated without comment or reservations by the German newspapers which were dependent on the government. Some of these newspaper articles are commented thus by Vice-Consul Holstein:

I read in various German newspapers official Turkish denials of the atrocities committed against the Christians and am surprised at the naivety of the Porte in believing they can obliterate facts about the crimes by Turkish officials simply by telling downright lies. [1915-08-14-DE-012]

Consul Roessler made a bitter verbal attack in order to give vent to his indignation after he had read an explanation from the official Turkish news agency, “Milli”, in the official German “Norddeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung”. Roessler:

The Turkish government has driven its Armenian subjects, the innocent ones, mark you, into the desert in thousands upon thousands, under the pretext of having to remove them from the war areas, exempting neither the sick nor pregnant women nor the families of conscripted men, has given them both food and water in insufficient quantities and irregularly, has done nothing against the epidemics which have broken out amongst them, has driven the women to such desperation that they set out their babies and newborns by the wayside, has sold their adolescent daughters, with the result that they have thrown themselves even with their small children into the river. It has left them to the mercy of their guards and therefore to dishonour; an escort which dragged away the girls and sold them. It has driven them into the hands of the Bedouins, who have plundered and kidnapped them. It has had the men illegally shot in lonely places and has the bodies of its victims fed to the dogs and birds of prey. It is supposed to have arranged for the murders of the representatives whom it had sent into exile. It has released prisoners from the prisons, put them in soldiers’ uniforms and sent them to the areas where the deportees would be passing through. It has called up Circassian volunteers and set them onto the Armenians. But what does it offer as semi-official explanations? "The Ottoman government ... is extending its benevolent protection to all honest Christians living peacefully in Turkey ..." I was not able to believe my own eyes when I saw this explanation and I can find no words to describe the depth of this untruth. [1915-07-27-DE-001]