\nManuscript Division,
\nLibrary of Congress,
\nWashington, D.C. 29540
\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.gwpda.org\/wwi-www\/morgenthau\/images\/Morgen01tn.jpg\")
<\/p>\nFROM AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU’S PAPERS, REEL 22
\nManuscript Division,
\nLibrary of Congress,
\nWashington, D.C. 29540
\n<\/p>\n
HENRY I MORGENTHAU, By KAY MOURADIAN, EdD<\/p>\n For the last six hundred years their history is a record of It is only after second half of the 19th century, under pressure of As a result of this oppressive rule, the number of Armenians has Massacres: Thousands have been massacred periodically: Reasons of Persecution manifold: 1. Political 2. Economic 3. Social instead of following the wiser course of Economic: The Turks have been a warring race. They left the Commercial As the Turks could not overtake the Armenians, the Government would Social and Religious: Methods of Extermination: No provisions made for food or shelter for these unfortunate people, Relief Work: If interested in reading more from Kay Mouradian’s historical Kay Mouradian’s articles in this series are archived on Groong’s Formerly American Ambassador to Turkey<\/em><\/p>\n ILLUSTRATED<\/p>\n GARDEN CITY NEW YORK .<\/p>\n TO<\/span><\/p>\n WOODROW WILSON<\/span> .<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n PREFACE<\/span><\/p>\n By this time the American people have probably become convinced that the Germans deliberately planned the conquest of the world. Yet they hesitate to convict on circumstantial evidence and for this reason all eye witnesses to this, the greatest crime in modern history, should volunteer their testimony.<\/p>\n I have therefore laid aside any scruples I had as to the propriety of disclosing to my fellow countrymen the facts which I learned while representing them in Turkey. I acquired this knowledge as the servant of the American people, and it is their property as much as it is mine.<\/p>\n I greatly regret that I have been obliged to omit an account of the splendid activities of the American Missionary and Educational Institutions in Turkey, but to do justice to this subject would require a book by itself. I have had to omit the story of the Jews in Turkey for the same reasons.<\/p>\n My thanks are due to my friend, Mr. Burton J. Hendrick, for the invaluable assistance he has rendered in the preparation of the book.<\/p>\n HENRY MORGENTHAU.
\nAmerican Ambassador at Constantinople from 1913 to 1916<\/span>
\n![\"Ambassador](\"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/3\/34\/Ambassador_Morgenthau%27s_Story_By_Henry_Morgenthau.png\")
\nArmenian News Network \/ Groong
\nFebruary 1, 2010<\/p>\n
\npersecutions, a real martyrdom. No where else the abuse of brutal
\nforce has been so great as in Turkey. The conquered Christians have
\nnot had security of life, honor or property. Religious toleration has
\nbeen practiced under most humiliating conditions. Churches should be
\nsmall and not conspicuous; no bells should ring; a Moslem had a
\nperfect right to stop a Christian on the street and cut his head off
\nto see if his sword was sharp enough. A Christian should have an
\nextra handkerchief t take the dust off the shoes of a Moslem at a
\nsignal.<\/p>\n
\nthe European countries, whose influence was growing- that the
\ncondition of Christians in the capital was improved; those living in
\nthe interior were and are still in the same insecure state.<\/p>\n
\ngreatly decreased.<\/p>\n
\nIn 1896 (reign of Abdul Hamid) 300,000 perished by violent death,
\ndisease, hunger and exposure.
\nIn 1909 (Young Turk Regime) 20,000 were massacred at Adana.
\nThousands have been forced to become Moslems, and many have emigrated
\nto Europe and America.
\nBut the mass of the people have persisted to stay in their country and
\nmaintained, in spite of all persecutions, their national institutions,
\nracial traditions, language and religion.
\nEuropean Powers have principally taken interest in the Armenian
\nQuestion since the last Russo-Turkish War (1878), when they obligated
\nTurkey by Article 61 of the Treaty of Berlin to introduce reforms in
\nthe Administration of the Armenian provinces.
\nThe demands of the Armenians were most elementary: They wanted rights
\nof security of life, honor, and property and equality before the
\nlaw. They wanted the establishment of a regime of order and justice
\nunder European control, as experience had proved to them that the
\nTurks would and could do nothing by themselves in the matter of reforms.
\nThese simple rights have been denied them.
\nOn account of political considerations and rivalry, the Great Powers
\nhave never been able To agree to force the Turks to fulfill the
\nprovisions of Article 61 of the Berlin Treaty.<\/p>\n
\nand Religious Political: The Turks have been unable to assimilate the
\nArmenians. The latter are on a higher plane by their civilization and
\nculture. On account of the terrible sufferings they have endured, in
\nspite of their loyalty and services to the State, they, the Armenians,
\nhave naturally turned their eyes to the European Christian Powers for
\nhelp and deliverance. Turks have resented this bitterly and in order
\nto avoid foreign interference-<\/p>\n
\nreforming their administration and thereby solve the problem at its
\nroots- they have decided to annihilate the Armenian race and thus
\nterminate the Armenian Question.
\nThe Turks want Turkey for the Turks alone. Therefore by all imaginable
\nmeans they have tried to exterminate the Armenians.
\nA misconceived, narrow, nationalism-combined with a fanaticism of the
\nblindest and darkest kind- has been one of the chief causes of these
\nunprecedented persecutions.<\/p>\n
\nfield to the Christians and the Jews. They have had the army and the
\nadministration of the country in their control.
\nThere are some merchants, artisans and agriculturists among them, but
\nthe vast majority of the Turks are public officials, soldiers and
\nlaborers.
\nThe non-Moslems have become rich through commerce and industry, while
\nthe Turks, in spite of all the assistance they have received from the
\nGovernment have made no progress in that line.
\nTo show you how the Armenians control commerce and industry in
\nAsia Minor, I will mention the following statistical facts regarding
\nthe province of Sivas, where the Armenian population is not so large
\nas in some other vilayets.
\nOf 153 factories in vilayet of Sivas, 130 belonged to Armenians, 20 to Turks.
\nNumber of workmen amounted to 17,000, of these 14,000 were Armenians.
\nOf 316 merchants, 268 were Armenians, 36 Turks, and 12 Greeks.
\nOf 37 bankers, 32 were Armenians and 5 Turks.<\/p>\n
\nperiodically organize massacres and hamper them all the time in order
\nto check their progress.<\/p>\n
\nFanaticism. The masses of the Turkish people are in dense ignorance
\nand fanaticism. The number of Turkish schools very limited. Armenians
\nare unquestionably far more advanced in culture. They have their own
\nschools which they run at their own expense, while the Turkish
\ngovernment schools are subsidized by the Government.
\nThe Armenians (like all other non-Moslems in the country) pay taxes
\nfor public instruction but receive no support from the Government for
\ntheir schools.
\nThe Government does not favor the creation of new schools by the
\nChristians, on the contrary they raise all sorts of difficulties to
\nhamper and obstruct.
\nJust before the deportations there were:
\n785 Armenian schools in Turkey, with an attendance of 82,000 students,
\nwhile there are only 150 Turkish schools, with an attendance of 17,000.
\nThe Kurds do not have a single school.
\nThis ignorance of the Turks, coupled with religious prejudices, has
\nbeen another cause of disagreement between the Turks and the
\nArmenians, and has rendered the masses of the Turks a ready tool of
\npersecution in the hands of wicked leaders.
\nA Christian is never regarded by a Moslem as his equal. A Christian is
\nconsidered as a raya, a serf, a subject, never a citizen enjoying
\nequal rights. And when you consider that not only the ordinary people,
\nbut the rulers also think the same way, and that really there is not a
\nsingle governor thoroughly prepared for his position, you would
\nnaturally expect nothing else but these lamentable results.
\nRecent Developments: Present European War and its bearing on the
\nArmenian Question.
\nThe present party in power; its sympathy for the Germans growing out
\nof their enmity to Russia.
\nWhile they were at war with the European Powers, they wanted to avail
\nthemselves of the opportunity to exterminate the Armenians while
\nnobody could stop them. Political considerations prevented Germany and
\nAustria from interfering with the atrocities committed by their
\nTurkish ally.
\nThe Turks claim that they had to resort to these stringent means for
\ntheir safety as the Armenians were not loyal. But even supposing that
\nthe deportations were necessary, nothing can justify, as the Turks
\nadmit it themselves, the atrocious crimes which were committed.<\/p>\n
\n1. Requisitions, goods taken without payment, resulting in economic ruin.
\n2. Confiscations
\n3. Forced exorbitant contributions and taxes
\n4. Searches in Armenian houses for arms, but in reality for pillage.
\n5. Bastinado, torture beyond imagination, too obscene to be related.
\n6. Forced conversion to Mohammedanism.
\n7. Massacres, partial and wholesale, women, children and old men and
\nwomen not spared.
\n8. Deportations: Slow death, with all accompanying horrors on the
\nway. No means of Transportation, had to walk on foot most of the
\nway. En route attacks by bands of criminals especially liberated from
\nprisons for that purpose. Women, young ladies violated daily, at each
\nvillage on their way; many of them taken to harems; families
\nseparated; mothers threw themselves into river with their children to
\nsave themselves from shame.<\/p>\n
\nmany of whom are educated, and well-to-do people, who are not allowed
\nto draw their own money from their bank as the Government had
\nconfiscated it together with their property as `abandoned property’.
\nThey sold their furniture at ridiculously low prices when they were
\nordered to leave their homes and start on a trip with an unknown
\ndestination. They sold pianos at $5, cows at $3. Even these moneys
\nwere stolen from them on the way.
\nThere are bishops, doctors, lawyers, professors, journalists among
\nthem, dead, dying…Thousands have died of exhaustion, exposure,
\ndisease, want of food. Corpses of children were seen on roads by
\ntravelers.<\/p>\n
\nAmericans have been the first and most important helpers.
\nInterest of America purely humanitarian.
\nMissionaries have been foremost. Their sympathy towards Armenians very
\ndeep their whole work has been among them.
\nActivities of Embassy, consulates, and Missionaries in distribution of
\nfunds and food among sufferers.
\nMoney goes direct to its object; no expenses, New York philanthropist
\nis paying expenses himself.
\nPresent rupture of relations between America and Turkey has not
\naffected work of relief. We have three distinct channels for
\ntransmission of relief funds, and have devoted and reliable workers on
\nthe field there for their distribution.
\nHundreds of thousands of Armenians need immediate help. Latest
\ntelegrams received from Turkey and the Caucasus make strong appeals
\nfor continued help. No funds on hand, already overdrawn $40,000 to
\ngive the poor people a morsel of bread.<\/p>\n
\nresearch, connect through her website: www.aGiftInTheSunlight.com<\/p>\n
\nwebsite at: http:\/\/www.groong.org\/orig\/voices-from-the-past.html<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.gwpda.org\/wwi-www\/morgenthau\/images\/cover.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nFig. 1<\/span><\/strong>. HENRY I MORGENTHAU,
\nAmerican Ambassador at Constantinople from 1913 to 1916<\/span><\/p>\n
\nDOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY
\n1918<\/p>\n\n
\nTHE EXPONENT IN AMERICA OF THE ENLIGHTENED PUBLIC OPINION OF THE WORLD, WHICH HAS DECREED THAT THE RIGHTS OF SMALL NATIONS SHALL BE RESPECTED AND THAT SUCH CRIMES AS ARE DESCRIBED IN THIS BOOK SHALL NEVER AGAIN DARKEN THE PAGES OF HISTORY<\/p>\n
\nOctober, 1918.<\/p>\n
\n\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.gwpda.org\/wwi-www\/morgenthau\/images\/2.gif\")