INQUIARY OFFICE OF THE K. AND R. HEADQUARTERS EXTRACT FROM REPORTS OF THE K. AND R. REPRESENTATIVES

NO. 1
K. AND R. REPRESENTATION
IN CONSTANTINOPLE
DATE 12/9
BRIEF SUMMARY

The situation of the Armenians in turkey is hopeless; it seems that the Turkish government has planned the extermination of the entire Armenian race.

When signing the armistice and after it Russia, France and England will prosecute the Turkish government for its horrible cruelties committed against the Armenians.

However, reproaches are cast upon Germany which agrees with the Turkish government in all operations; so the enemies state.

HHStA PA XII 209 Nr 79/P-A, Osterreich-Armenien 1872-1936, Ffaksimilesammlung Diplomatischer Aktenstucke, Herausgegeben und Eingeleitet von mag. Dr. Artem Ohandjanian, Band vi, 1914-1915, Wien, 1995, ss. 4736


NO. 79/P.-A
CONSTANTINOPLE
SEPTEMBER 30,1915

DEPORTATION OF THE ARMENIANS
TO THE INTERIOR OF THE ASIA MINOR

COUNT TRAUTTMANSDORFF TO BARON BURIAN

All the rumors coming from the Armenian sources and the interior of the Asia minor tell about unprecedented cruelties which are committed during the deportation of the Armenians. We agree that taking into account the sources, these rumors could be exaggerated, but unfortunately they are confirmed by the reports of the representatives of the banks and their branches, the German officers and many others.

The eyewitnesses tell about horrible events which take place during deportation of the villages inhabited by the Armenians. Similar reports we receive from our employees of the consulates in damask and Trabizond. Most men have been killed, women and children have been sold to the Turks for a song. Those, who started to the interior of the country, got to the destination less than the tenth in number, because many died from deprivation, diseases and emaciation. Today nobody can deny that the Turks have used the accusations in treachery as a pretext for the extermination of the Armenian race and have chiefly succeeded in doing this. With great satisfaction Talaat bey has recently told me that hardly any Armenians were left in Erzerum, for example. All the rumors testify that the measures implemented by the government against the Armenians have taken more lives that the massacres committed by Abdul Hamid...

HHStA PA XII 209 Nr 79/P-A, Osterreich-Armenien 1872-1936, Ffaksimilesammlung Diplomatischer Aktenstucke, Herausgegeben und Eingeleitet von mag. Dr. Artem Ohandjanian, Band vi, 1914-1915, Wien, 1995, ss. 4754-4755


NO. 79/P.-A
ENCLOSURE OF THE REPORT DATED DECEMBER 22, 1917,
ADDRESSED TO OTTAKAR CHERNIN, MINISTER OF FOREIGN
AFFAIRS OF AUSTRIA-HUNGARY, FROM PALAVICHINI,
AMBASSADOR OF AUSTRIA-HUNGARY TO TURKEY
ENCLOSURE № 2

SOME NOTES ON THE MASSACRES OF THE CHRISTIANS IN TURKEY

Vilayet of Diarbekir – veren shehir is a small town in the neighborhood of Urfa and had a population consisting of 1400 Armenian and 140 Assyrian families; the 400 families entirely were exiled at the beginning of the summer. All the men were slaughtered. Rich families with women and children were exterminated.

In Severek all the men were massacred, women and children, 300 families on the whole, were deported. Great number of the population from the Jakobian villages were murdered.

The inhabitants of the four Caldian villages in the neighborhood of Diarbekir together with their priest have been killed.

In Mardin: all the Armenian inhabitants of the town together with their archbishop and ten priests were exiled and then they were murdered on the way...

...Diocese of Sgert: there were 450 Armenian, 120 Caldian, 30 Jakobian families here. All of them were pillaged, slaughtered or deported...

...In Urfa: Urfa, formerly Yedesia, king Abgar’s capital, had a more cruel fate. The christians, the number of which was above 25000, were cruelty pillaged, massacred and tortured three times, the quarters of the town were bombarded and destroyed. Their bishop and priests together with the prominent citizens of the town, nearly 500 people in number, were put into prison before being killed, it is said, then they were exiled to Diarbekir but they were massacred on the way. Thousands of orphan slaves are now in Mohammedan families: great number of these unfortunates are starving in the streets of Urfa. The Mohammedans of Urfa together with the authorities personally took part in massacres, they looted the property of the Christians.

Most parts of Armenia, Kurdistan and Mesopotamia have become a theatre of barbarous and horrible sights. River basins, lakes, valleys and caves are filled with corpses. The streams of the Euphrates and the Tigris take down decaying corpses. In these places the travelers meet Armenians and Caldians wandering from town to town, from village to village, they were deported from their towns and villages, they sleep in the open being subjected the heat of the summer and the coldness of the winter.

All of them are condemned to a terrible death. In other parts of turkey the fate of Christians is indefinite. They are always subjected to the threat of being killed.

HHStA PA XII 209 Nr 79/P-A, Osterreich-Armenien 1872-1936, Ffaksimilesammlung Diplomatischer Aktenstucke, Herausgegeben und Eingeleitet von mag. Dr. Artem Ohandjanian, Band vi, 1914-1915, Wien, 1995, ss. 4754-4755