by Benny Morris
23. Currie to Kimberley (draft dispatch), 17 May 1894, UKNA FO 195 / 1823; Cumberbatch to Currie, 26 February 1894, Turkey No. 6 (1896), 50–52; Ermeni Isyanları, Vol. 1, 73.
24. Currie to Kimberley (draft dispatch), 17 May 1894, UKNA FO 195 / 1823. An alternative explanation of the cause of the fight at Yozgat church appears in Cumberbatch to A. Nicolson, 16 December 1896, Turkey No. 6 (1896), 3–4: the Muslim assembly outside the church was triggered by an ambush of the kadi of Sungurlu, who was robbed and his “harem grossly insulted” by a band of brigands, identified as Armenians. See also Cumberbatch to Nicolson, 29 December 1893, Turkey No. 6 (1896), 6–7; and “Petition of Armenians of Yuzgat to the Sultan and others, 13 December 1893,” Turkey No. 6 (1896), 9–10.
See Cumberbatch to Currie, 26 February 1894, Turkey No. 6 (1896), 50–52, for a description of the events of 1–2 February in Yozgat.
25. Cumberbatch to Nicolson, 22 January 1894, Turkey No. 6 (1896), 25; and Cumberbatch to Currie, 27 February 1894, Turkey No. 6 (1896), 49–50.
26. Letter from Yozgat to Cumberbatch, 24 April 1894, Turkey No. 6 (1896), 77–79.
27. Cumberbatch to Currie, 13 April 1894, Turkey No. 6 (1896), 69–70.
28. Terrell to (?), 20 February 1894, USNA RG 84, Turkey (Constantinople), Vol. 19.
29. Jewett to Longworth, 3 and 10 February 1894, both enclosed in Longworth to Nicolson, 18 February 1894, UKNA FO 195 / 1854.
30. Currie to Lord Kimberley, 14–15 October 1894, UKNA 195 / 1825.
31. Unsigned report from a Bitlis missionary, 18 January 1895, Houghton ABC 16.10.1, Vol. 6.
32. Hammond Smith Shipley to Graves, 15 March 1895, UKNA FO 195 / 1891, Tavo’s
testimony.
33. Kurd petition, “Through Her Majesty, the Queen of England, to the Great Powers of Eu rope,”
27 June 1895, attached to Graves to Currie, 25 July 1895, UKNA FO 195 / 1892.
34. Statement by Hamms and his wife Altoon, of Geligüzan, and Ovig, of Talori, undated but probably from early 1895, Bodl. MS Lord Bryce Papers 208.
35. Unsigned report from Bitlis missionary, 18 January 1895, Houghton ABC 16.10.1, Vol. 6. For the detailed confession / testimony of Daghmatian (Damdaian) after his capture, see BOA, Y. PRK. BŞK, 35 / 29, 23 February 1894; Sevk ve Iskan, 18–48, doc. 7.
36. Statement by Hamms and his wife Altoon, of Geligüzan, and Ovig of Talori, undated but probably from early 1895, Bodl. MS Lord Bryce Papers 208.
37. Shipley to Currie, 1 March 1895, UKNA FO 195 / 1887.
38. Vice- Consul Thomas Boyajian (Diyarbekir) to Graves, 16 March 1894, Turkey No. 6 (1896), 73–74.
39. Statement by Hamms and his wife Altoon, of Geligüzan, and Ovig, of Talori, undated but probably from early 1895, Bodl. MS Lord Bryce Papers 208.
40. For a summary of French correspondence about these events, see Cambon to Develle, November 1894, MAE, “Documents Diplomatiques, Affaires Armeniennes, Projets de réformes dans
Notes to Pages 56–57
l’Empire Ottoman 1893–1897” (henceforward referred to as “Projets de réformes”), Bodl. MS Lord Bryce Papers 211–212, pp. 21 and 35–135. For Ottoman sources, see Rustem Pașa to Said Pașa, 5 February 1895, BOA, HR. SYS, 2814–1 / 12, 2814–1 / 13, 11; and Rustem Pașa to Said Pașa, 6–7
February 1895, BOA, HR. SYS, 2814–1 / 5–7. Unsigned report from a Bitlis missionary, 18 January 1895, Houghton ABC 16.10.1, Vol. 6.
41. Unsigned report from Bitlis missionary, 18 January 1895, Houghton ABC 16.10.1, Vol. 6. For the detailed confession / testimony of Daghmatian (Damdaian) after his capture, see BOA, Y. PRK. BŞK, 35 / 29, 23 February 1894, Sevk ve Iskan, 18–48, doc. 7.
42. Unsigned report from a Bitlis missionary, 18 January 1895, Houghton ABC 16.10.1, Vol. 6.
43. Unsigned report from a Bitlis missionary, 18 January 1895, Houghton ABC 16.10.1, Vol. 6. The missionary wrote that the Kurds had “written orders” from the “government” to attack the villages. The Kurds were promised spoils and relieved of liability.
44.
Süreyya to Serasker, 26 August 1894, Osmanlı Arşivi, Yildiz Tasnifi, Ermeni Meselesi, 153–157, quoted in Verheij, “Les Frères de terre et d’eau,” 243–244.
45.
Zeki
Paşa, commander of 4th army to the Serasker, 16 September 1894, in Verheij, “Les Frères de terre et d’eau,” 243.
46. Graves (Erzurum) to Currie (tele gram), and Graves to Currie (letter), both 13 December 1894, UKNA FO 195 / 1846.
47. Shipley to Graves, 15 March 1895, UKNA FO 195 / 1891. Shipley commented, “The above story . . . may or may not be true, but the fact that a similar statement has been made by other witnesses since examined shows that a belief that some such an order had been issued was certainly prevalent among the villa gers.”
48. Kurd petition, “Through Her Majesty the Queen of England to the Great Powers of Eu rope,” 27
June 1895, enclosed in Graves to Currie, 25 July 1895, UKNA FO 195 / 1892.
49.
Hallward
(Muş) to Currie, 9 October 1894, UKNA FO 195 / 1838.
50. Unsigned report from Bitlis missionary, 18 January 1894, Houghton ABC 16.10.1, Vol. 6.
51. Statements by Hamms and his wife, Altoon, of Geligüzan, and Ovig, of Talori, undated but probably from early 1895, Bodl. MS Lord Bryce Papers 208.
52. Graves to Currie, 2 March 1895, UKNA FO 195 / 1891, containing the statement to Graves by Khazar of Simal. Khazar said that the local Kurds, of Simal and Shenik, had moved out of the area a week before the massacre began.
53.
Hallward
(Muş) to Currie, 9 October 1894, UKNA FO 195 / 1838; and M. Meyrier, French vice-
consul in Diyarbekir, to Hanotaux, 5 October 1894, in “Projets de réformes,” 15–16, Bodl. MS Lord Bryce Papers 211–212. For Ottoman reports, see Constantinople to Ottoman Embassy, London, 23
May 1894, BOA, A. MKT. MHM, 750 / 11. The Ottomans described the incident as a quarrel between the Kurds and Armenians, in which the army had had to intervene to restore order. Graves to Currie, 2
March 1895, UKNA FO 195 / 1891, statement by the Turk Mevlood Aga, on the fighting at Shenik and Geligüzan. Mevlood said that the Kurds were routinely sent in to attack the villages while the troops provided covering fire from a distance. A similar observation is provided by Ali Gulaninen Oghlou, a Turkish muleteer accompanying the Ottoman 4th Battalion, 32nd Regiment, to Talori (Oghlou’s statement attached to Graves to Currie, 26 April 1895, UKNA FO 195 / 1891). He described soldiers setting fire to the Talori church while “preventing the inmates from escaping.”
54. Graves to Currie, 2 March 1895, UKNA FO 195 / 1891, statement to Graves by Khazar of Simal, who survived the massacre; and Graves to Currie, 8 March 1895, UKNA FO 195 / 1891, statement by Hebo of Shenik.
55. Graves to Currie, 2 March 1895, UKNA FO 195 / 1891, statement by Mevlood Agha, a noncommissioned officer serving with the 25th Regiment, from Muş, in the Shadak area during the massacre.
Notes to Pages 58–60
56. Statement by Hamms and his wife, Altoon, of Geligüzan, and Ovig, of Talori, undated but probably from early 1895, Bodl. MS Lord Bryce Papers 208.
57. Ibid. See also order from the Imperial palace to the army commander in chief about the pursuit and destruction of “Armenian rebels” on Mt. Anduk and in valleys around Geligüzan, BOA, Y. EE, 96 / 1, in Ermeni Isyanları, Vol. 1, 95.
58. Graves to Currie, 2 March 1895, UKNA FO 195 / 1891, statement by Khazar of Simal.
59. Graves to Currie, 24 April 1895, UKNA FO 195 / 1891.
60. Statement by Hamms and his wife, Altoon, from Geligüzan, and Ovig, from Talori, undated but prob ably from early 1895, Bodl. MS Lord Bryce Papers 208.
61. Graves to Currie, 2 March 1895, UKNA FO 195 / 1891, statement by Mevlood Agha; and Shipley to Currie, 20 February 1895, UKNA FO 195 / 1887. The survivor, who later testified before the Ottoman commission of inquiry, was a sixteen- year- old named Ovak. He was bayoneted but m
anaged to crawl out from under twenty bodies. The commission’s government- paid doctors said Ovak’s wounds were not caused by bayonets (see “Inclosure 10 in No. 1,” “Medical Report,” 19 February 1895, by Drs.
Bessim, Vassif, and Dimitri Saridi, in UKNA FO 195 / 1865).
62. Shipley to Currie, 16 February 1895, UKNA FO 195 / 1887; and Graves to Currie, 2 March 1895, UKNA FO 195 / 1891, statement by Mevlood Agha.
63. Shipley to Graves, 30 March 1895, UKNA FO 195 / 1891; and “Inclosure 14 in No. 1,” “Proces-verbal No. 26 of the Bitlis Commission of Inquiry— Sitting of February 23, 1895,” UKNA FO 195 / 1865.
64. Graves to Currie, 2 March 1895, statement by Mevlood Agha, UKNA FO 195 / 1891.
65. Graves to Currie, 8 March 1895, UKNA FO 195 / 1891, statement by Anna of Shenik.
66. For example, a woman from Talori named Shaman related how her three- year- old son was abducted by soldiers (Graves to Currie, 24 April 1895, UKNA FO 195 / 1891).
67. Graves to Currie, 24 April 1895, UKNA FO 195 / 1891.
68. Graves to Currie, 24 April 1895, UKNA FO 195 / 1891, “Extract from Private Letter [from American missionary], Mush, February 15 to 27th, 1895”; and Graves to Currie, 26 April 1895, UKNA FO
195 / 1891, “Statement of Ali Gulaninen Oghlou.”
69. Unsigned report by Bitlis missionary, 18 January 1895, Houghton ABC 16.10.1, Vol. 6.
70. Graves to Currie, 24 April 1895, UKNA FO 195 / 1891.
71. A long, typewritten untitled, unsigned report by an American missionary from Bitlis, 18 January 1895, Houghton ABC 16.10.1, Vol. 6, describes in gory detail the murder of a number of Sason- area priests, including Der Hohanes Mardovan.
72. For example, see Graves to Currie, 24 April 1895, UKNA FO 195 / 1891.
73. Unsigned report by Bitlis missionary, 18 January 1895, Houghton ABC 16.10.1, Vol. 6.
74. Ibid. See also report by French Embassy, Constantinople, to Ministry, 26 December 1894, MAE, Affaires jusqu’à 1896, no. 519.
75. Unsigned report by Bitlis missionary, 18 January 1894, Houghton ABC 16.10.1, Vol. 6. The missionary put “a safe estimate” of women and children taken by the Kurds and soldiers at “1,000.” On the other hand, a number of Kurdish tribal leaders and tribes apparently protected Armenians during 1894–
1896: in the Dersim, near Mount Arnos north of the Jazira; and in the Jazira itself, in Adiljevaz and Norduz, Bohtan; and in Khizan (Baibourtian, The Kurds, 154).
76. Hallward to Currie, 9 October 1894, UKNA FO 195 / 1838.
77. H. M. Allen, “Facts and Figures from the Province of Van,” undated but from spring 1895, Bodl.
MS Lord Bryce Papers 196; and Hallward to Graves, 19 March 1895, UKNA FO 195 / 1891.
78. Unsigned report by Bitlis missionary, 18 January 1895, Houghton ABC 16.10.1, Vol. 6; Graves to Currie, 27 December 1894, UKNA FO 195 / 1846; and Graves to Currie, 2 March 1895, UKNA FO
195 / 1891, statement by Mevlood Agha.
Notes to Pages 60–63
79. Unsigned, from Bitlis, 29 (?) September 1894, Houghton ABC 16.9.8, Vol. 6.
80. Graves to Currie, 27 December 1894, UKNA FO 195 / 1846. Graves provides a village by village count of the Armenian dead and houses destroyed. See also unsigned Bitlis missionary report, 18 January 1895, Houghton ABC 16.10.1, Vol. 6. If one adds to the number massacred in August– September those who later died of wounds, starvation, and exposure, one may easily reach the higher figure. Bergeron, the French consul at Erzurum, sums it up succinctly: “A l’heure actuelle le Sassoun ne serait plus qu’un monceau de ruines” [“At this point Sason is nothing more than a heap of ruins”] (Bergeron to Hanotaux, 24 November 1894, “Projets de réformes,” 18–19, Bodl. MS Lord Bryce Papers 211–212).
81. Unsigned report by Bitlis missionary, Houghton ABC 16.10.1, Vol. 6. In Muş 1,200 of the inhabitants were reported dead from the disease.
82. Currie to Kimberley, 14–15 October 1894, UKNA FO 195 / 1825.
83. Terrell to Secretary of State Richard Olney, 24 October 1895, FRUS 1895, Part 2, 1325–1327.
84. Terrell to Secretary of State, 22 November 1894, USNA RG 84, Turkey (Constantinople), Vol. 19.
85. Terrell to Secretary of State, 29 (?) November 1894, USNA RG 84, Turkey (Constantinople), Vol. 19. See also the series of articles by Reverand Cyrus Hamlin in the New York Times a year later. For example, “The Sassoun Massacres: Proof of the Assertion That Armenian Revolutionaries Caused It,” 23
August 1895.
86. Unsigned from Bitlis, 3 October 1894, Houghton ABC 16.9.8, Vol. 6; and Cambon to Develle, November 1894, “Projets de réformes,” 21, Bodl. MS Lord Bryce Papers 211–212.
87. Unsigned report by Bitlis missionary, 18 January 1895, Houghton ABC 16.10.1, Vol. 6.
88.
Hallward
(Muş) to Currie, 9 October 1894, UKNA FO 195 / 1838. Unsigned, from a missionary
in Constantinople, 31 October 1894, Houghton ABC 16.9.8, Vol. 6.
89. Unsigned from Bitlis, 3 October 1894, Houghton ABC 16.9.8, Vol. 6. The Sultan, Abdülhamid, sent a special letter of thanks to Armenians who refused to join the “rebels,” 30 September 1894, BOA, A.
MKT. MHM, 750 / 15.
90. Unsigned report by Bitlis missionary, 18 January 1895, Houghton ABC 16.10.1, Vol. 6.
91. Hampson (?) to Currie, October (?) 1895, UKNA FO 195 / 1887. See also Hallward to Graves, 31 January 1895, UKNA FO 195 / 1891.
92. Revoil to Minister of Foreign Affairs, 8 December 1894, MAE, Turquie 519; and unsigned translation of instructions for the inquiry committee, 26 December 1894, MAE, Turquie 519.
93. Hallward to Graves, 31 January 1895, UKNA FO 195 / 1891.
94. Occasionally, the “president” of the commission is referred to as “Shefik Bey” (Shipley to Graves, 27 April 1895, UKNA FO 195 / 1951). It is pos si ble that the original president was replaced at some point.
95. Graves to Currie, 1 February 1895, UKNA FO 195 / 1891.
96. Shipley to Graves, 8 February 1895, UKNA FO 195 / 1887. See also Graves to Currie, 7
March 1895, UKNA FO 195 / 1891.
97. Shipley to Currie, 2 March 1895, UKNA FO 195 / 1887.
98. For example, statement by muleteer Ali Gulaninen Oghlou attached to Graves to Currie, 26
April 1895, UKNA FO 195 / 1891.
99. Shipley to Graves, 12 May 1895, UKNA FO 195 / 1887.
100. Shipley to Graves, 17 April 1895, UKNA FO 195 / 1887; and Graves to Currie, 31 May 1895, UKNA FO 195 / 1892. The Ottoman letter referred to is in UKNA FO 195 / 1892.
101. Graves to Currie, 2 March 1895, UKNA FO 195 / 1891, statement to Graves by Khazar of Simal; and “The Truth about Armenia,” Daily Telegraph, 16 March 1895.
102. Graves to Currie, 30 April 1895, UKNA FO 195 / 1892.
103. “Through Her Majesty, the Queen of England, to the Great Powers of Eu rope,” 27 June 1895, enclosed in Graves to Currie, 25 July 1895, UKNA FO 195 / 1892.
Notes to Pages 63–68
104. “The Truth about Armenia,” Daily Telegraph, 27 February 1895.
105. “The Truth about Armenia,” Daily Telegraph, 11 March 1895. See also statement by Anna of Shenik in Graves to Currie, 8 March 1895, UKNA FO 195 / 1891; and Graves to Currie, 24 April 1895, UKNA FO 195 / 1891.
106. Shipley to Graves, 18 June 1895, UKNA FO 195 / 1867. For the Turkish report of 23 July 1895, see BOA, Y. EE, 66 / 12; and Ermeni Isyanları, Vol. 1, 97–128.
107. Graves to Currie, 12 August 1895, UKNA FO 195 / 1892.
108. Boyajian to Graves, 29 October 1895, UKNA FO 195 / 1846.
109. Hallward to Currie, 10 December 1894, UKNA FO 195 / 1846.
110. Currie to Kimberley, 14–15 October 1894, UKNA FO 195 / 1825; and Graves to Currie, 27 December 1894, UKNA FO 195 / 1846.
111. Hallward to Graves, 19 March 1895, UKNA FO 195 / 1891.
112. Graves to Currie, 8 August 1895, UKNA FO 195 / 1892. See also Summary of two (unsigned) French reports dated 10 and 14 June 1895 on continued trou bles
in Sason, UKNA FO 195 / 1906.
113. Graves to Currie, 1 July 1895 and 20 July 1895, UKNA FO 195 / 1892; and BOA, Y. A. HUS, 331 / 61, 1 July 1895. See also Graves to Currie, 21 July 1895, UKNA FO 195 / 1892; Hampson (Muş) to Currie, 28 July 1895, UKNA FO 1887; and Hampson (Muş) to Currie, 16 October 1895, UKNA FO
195 / 1887.
114. “Extract from a private letter dated June 24th 1895,” UKNA FO 195 / 1892.
115. “The Truth about Armenia,” Daily Telegraph, 16 March 1895.
116. Graves to Currie, 1 April 1895, Turkey No. 1 (1896), 20–21 and 24–26.
117. “Resume of a Report received from Keghi,” 4 February 1895, Turkey No. 1 (1896), 24.
118. Hampson to Graves, 25 August 1895, Turkey No. 2 (1896), 17–18; and Hampson to Cumberbatch, 9 October 1895, Turkey No. 2 (1896), 98–99.
